Currently reading: LIVVIE OWEN LIVED HERE by Sarah Dooley

Today I’m interviewing my Class of 2k10 mate and fellow Tenner, Mara Purnhagen. Mara is actually a “double Tenner” as she had two books come out this year. I’ve read Tagged, which I loved, but haven’t yet gotten the chance to read Past Midnight.

About the books:

TAGGED:

Can Kate Morgan stand up for herself—without being labeled a snitch?

Kate is just as confused as her best friend, Lan, when she arrives at Cleary High to find the building’s been “tagged” with a life-size graffiti mural. Could the culprit be one of their friends or classmates? And is the kind-of-amazing creation really vandalism, or a work of art? She’s tempted to stay out of it—mostly because, as the police chief’s daughter, she’s worried about being labeled a snitch. But when the same mysterious graffiti starts appearing throughout the state, putting more pressure on the authorities to catch the vandal, her investigative instincts kick in.

Now Eli, Kate’s favorite coworker at the local coffee shop, is MIA. With Lan preoccupied with her own boy troubles, Kate needs to figure out some things on her own. Like why she can’t stop thinking about Eli. And what she will do when all the clues about the graffiti point to someone she’s close to…

PAST MIDNIGHT:

Let me set the record straight. My name is Charlotte Silver and I’m not one of those paranormal-obsessed freaks you see on TV…no, those would be my parents, who have their own ghost-hunting reality show. And while I’m usually roped into the behind-the-scenes work, it turns out that I haven’t gone unnoticed. Something happened on my parents’ research trip in Charleston—and now I’m being stalked by some truly frightening other beings. Trying to fit into a new school and keeping my parents’ creepy occupation a secret from my friends—and potential boyfriends—is hard enough without having angry spirits whispering in my ear. All I ever wanted was to be normal, but with ghosts of my past and present colliding, now I just want to make it out of high school alive….

About Mara:

Mara Purnhagen cannot live without a tall caramel latte, her iPod, or a stack of books on her night stand. She has lived in Aurora, Illinois; Kalamazoo, Michigan; Dayton, Ohio and Duncan, South Carolina. She presently lives outside Cleveland, Ohio with her family and two cats.

On to the interview…

1. As writers, it’s always fun to sneak things from our personal lives into our books. Is there anything you snuck in that you’re willing to confess?

I mention a band in Tagged called “Nothing Serious.”  It’s the name of a band my husband played in when he was younger. I didn’t tell him I was using the name, and when he read the final book, he was happily surprised.

2. Every time I picked up Tagged to read it, you put me in the mood for coffee. Are you a big coffee drinker? And have you ever had a Banana Latte?

I love coffee! The scent, the taste—I could drink it all day (but I cut myself off