Sunday, May 30, 2010

Bonnie Hearn Hill, author of TAURUS EYES, drops by for a chat and book giveaway! Post a comment below to enter for a chance to win. 

It is my distinct pleasure to host my friend and teacher, author Bonnie Hearn Hill, on the second leg of her three-part blog tour. Bonnie is the author of the young adult STAR CROSSED trilogy.

Bonnie worked as a newspaper editor for 22 years, a job that, along with her natural nosiness, increased her interest in contemporary culture. Prior to her new STAR CROSSED series from Running Press/Perseus Books, she wrote six thrillers for MIRA Books, as well as numerous short stories, nonfiction books and articles.

An interest in astrology along with her close friendship with Cosmo Magazine Astrologer Hazel Dixon-Cooper inspired the Star Crossed series: Aries Rising, Taurus Eyes, and Gemini Night.

A national conference speaker, Bonnie founded The Tuesdays, a bonded and successful writing workshop in Fresno, California, and she also teaches an occasional online class. On Fridays she meets with her private critique group (humorous astrology author Hazel Dixon-Cooper, prescriptive nonfiction writer Dennis C. Lewis, mystery novelist Sheree Petree, and musician/thriller novelist Christopher Allen Poe). What happens in those groups ranges from spontaneous applause to “getting filleted,” as Bonnie’s students and colleagues call it.

Here is a short synopsis of TAURUS EYES.

Logan McRae is spending her summer at the camp of her dreams, thanks to her discovery of that amazing book, Fearless Astrology. Away from home and her friends, she now finds herself faced with a new set of challenges, a new enemy, and maybe even a new guy.

From the moment Jeremy Novack grabs her hand on the ghost-tour bus, Logan feels an immediate connection. She's sure Jeremy feels it too. But in order to secure a coveted writing spot in a national teen anthology, Logan must impress her instructor Henry Jaffa, the renowned journalist who is editing the book. She feels confident that she will shine with her brilliant astrological piece about Sun signs, but then Jaffa switches everyone's topics!

Now Logan has to compete with Jeremy, who seems obsessed by their shared topic about the ghost of an obscure dead singer. Logan has only the stars to guide her as she tries to win the respect of her idol, write a stellar essay, and capture the heart of her newfound crush.

And now Bonnie answers questions on developing characters, dispenses some advice for beginning writers, shares pictures of her cat, and hints about the next series she's working on.


I know your stories are character-driven. So are mine. The way I develop my characters is to live with them for awhile, let them tell me who they are, what they think, how they'd act to certain events and situations, before I commit anything to paper. By then, the story flows fairly well, even if it does usually have lots of twists and turns I wasn't expecting. How do you develop your characters?

Much the same way you do, Lisanne. I listen. I think about what they would do in situations they can control--how they dress, what kind of car they drive (and the condition of the car). When you know how someone acts in situations s/he can control, you have idea of the character will react when the situation is out of control. I also believe in the character letter. That is, just letting the character rave on so that you can hear her voice and learn about her life. When I write the character letter, I begin, "Dear Bonnie, My name is ____, and I was born___." After several pages of backstory, I write: "My problem now is..." Doing this keeps me from turning my first three chapters into backstory and helping cut to the chase. Once you have a strong character who is proactive and sympathetic, you can write the story.

What a great idea. I'm going to apply that to my current manuscript and see what develops!  Much of your work to this point has involved adult characters. Was it difficult developing believable teenagers?

Not at all. I love my characters. A slave after the Civil War was the protagonist in one of my short stories. I've written male POV characters. Like you, I believe it all starts with the character. I don't have to know
how some universal teen thinks. I just need to know the character I know and believe in, and I need to put her in the middle of two problems, one external and one internal. When I unzip my own skin and zip up hers, I don't just know that person. I am that person.

Now that you've written three novels that use astrology as a backdrop, do you find yourself analyzing friends and acquaintances according to astrological traits, and trying to figure out their sign based on these
characteristics?

Guilty! Even worse (or better), humorous astrology writer Hazel Dixon-Cooper is my closest friend and a member of my critique group. She's talked to me about astrology for years, but I had no idea of much of it stuck. Some signs are easier to guess. For me, it's Leo (one of my favorites), Aries, Taurus (are you blushing, L?) and Sagittarius. I just realized that three of these are Fire signs. Maybe they are more obvious because they are so out there. Although Gemini/Taurus isn't supposed to be a good match, that's never been  the case for me. My husband is a Taurus, as is my agent. And check out that wide (bull) chest on my cat Parker.

What's up next for you, after the Star-Crossed series? Have you lready started your next book?

I can't not write. GEMINI NIGHT will publish in the fall, but I have started an entirely different YA paranormal. I'm well into Act II and having a great time with it. Of course, I'm also hoping to write more Star Crossed books. I've outlined three of them.

And finally, what advice do you have for beginning writers?

Read. Find a mentor you can trust. Write something every day and try to get out of your comfort zone. Don’t play it safe. Even if you fall, you’ll fall forward. Don’t worry about making it perfect. Just get it down before you or someone else can convince you that you can’t. A surgeon friend of mine says, “I can fix anything but dead.” Well, I can fix anything except a blank page. And so can you.

Thanks, Bonnie. That's something you taught me well - just get it down. You can fix it on rewrite.
Good luck on the rest of your tour, and I look forward to reading TAURUS EYES and the upcoming GEMINI NIGHT.

BE SURE TO POST A COMMENT BELOW FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A COPY OF TAURUS EYES. ASK A QUESTION, TELL US YOUR ASTROLOGICAL SIGN, OR SIMPLY COMMENT. WE'D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!