Interview with Emmy Laybourne, author of Monument 14 and Giveaway!

Hey guys! Today I'm very pleased to welcome Emmy Laybourne, author of Monument 14 for an interview and then a giveaway for the audiobook of Monument 14! So read on!

Your mother hollers that you’re going to miss the bus. She can see it coming down the street. You don’t stop and hug her and tell her you love her. You don’t thank her for being a good, kind, patient mother. Of course not—you launch yourself down the stairs and make a run for the corner.
Only, if it’s the last time you’ll ever see your mother, you sort of start to wish you’d stopped and did those things. Maybe even missed the bus.
But the bus was barreling down our street, so I ran.
Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong.

In Emmy Laybourne’s action-packed debut novel, six high school kids (some popular, some not), two eighth graders (one a tech genius), and six little kids trapped together in a chain superstore build a refuge for themselves inside. While outside, a series of escalating disasters, beginning with a monster hailstorm and ending with a chemical weapons spill, seems to be tearing the world—as they know it—apart.

What part of Monument 14 was most enjoyable for you to write?

I really loved writing Max's little stories. Everything else took a lot of concentration and even courage, sometimes, but Max's stories just poured right out of me.

Do you find it hard to write from a male point of view?

Let me put it this way - I find it easy to write from Dean's point of view. He is someone I know really well, and when he starts to tell the story of what's happening in the Greenway in Monument, CO, all I have to do is get out of the way!

What are you most surprised about the life of a published author?

Everything about the success of Monument 14 has come as a surprise to me - a delightful surprise. I wrote a book, and I tried to make it the best book I could possibly write - and it turns out people like it. It turns out that teenage boys even like it! I guess that has been the greatest gift - getting emails from guys who love the book. Sometimes I get emails from the mothers of guys, saying that their sons have never engaged with books, and that their kids are up all night reading and re-reading M14. That makes me feel like a million bucks!

What projects are you working on now?

I've finished the sequel to Monument 14, which is called Sky On Fire. I've been asked by Macmillan to write a third M14, so that's up next. I will start work on it next week, actually...

Describe Monument 14 in three words. GO!

Fast. Scary. Family.

About Emmy

Emmy Laybourne's first novel, Monument 14, will be published by Feiwel and Friends, a division of Macmillan, in June 2012. The sequel, Monument 14: Sky On Fire, is expected to be released in the summer of 2013.
Emmy began her writing career as a playwright. The first play she wrote and performed was called, The Miss Alphabet City Beauty Pageant and Spelling Bee. The New York Post said it, “restores faith in our country’s comedic future.” The Daily News called it, “hilariously clever.”
Her next play, Smorgas-Bourne, landed Emmy a starring role in the Paramount feature film, Superstar, opposite WIll Ferrel and Molly Shannon.
As an actress, Emmy went on to have featured roles in the films “Nancy Drew,” “The In-Laws,” and “Lucky Numbers.” She was a season regular on the NBC sitcom “DAG,” and performed original comedy on Comedy Central, MTV, and VH1. She has improvised with the Upright Citizens Brigade, Chicago City Limits and the Heartless Floozies.

Emmy has performed original comedy material throughout LA and New York, including the song she sang with her brother, Sam, “We Can’t Make Love Because We’re Related.”
In addition to writing YA novels, Emmy is currently a Lyricist in the prestigious BMI Musical Theater Writer’s Advanced Workshop, writing a musical called "The Midnight Princess" with composer Paul Libman. 

Giveaway 

 

Emmy has generously donated one audiobook copy of Monument 14 for giveaway here on The Non Reluctant Reader. Enter after the page break. Good luck!

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