Currently reading: STRINGZ by Michael Wenberg (WestSide Book!)

We’re about a week away from the deadline for the NY area writing contest. If you are in Grades 7-12 and live in the Nanuet, NY area or nearby enough to come here for the prize: a one-on-one critique with a published author, please go here for more details.

I’m very excited to welcome this week’s writer. Amy Brecount White has put together a beautiful book, Forget-Her-Nots that I truly loved and that opened up the whole world of the language of flowers to me.

About the book:

Something—some power—is blooming inside Laurel. She can use flowers to do things. Like bringing back lost memories. Or helping her friends ace tests. Or making people fall in love.

Laurel suspects her newfound ability has something to do with an ancient family secret, one that her mother meant to share with Laurel when the time was right. But then time ran out.

Clues and signs and secret messages seem to be all around Laurel at Avondale School, where her mother had also boarded as a student.

Can Laurel piece everything together quickly enough to control her power, which is growing more potent every day?

Or will she set the stage for the most lovestruck, infamous prom in the history of the school?

About Amy:

Amy Brecount White has taught English literature and writing to middle school and high school students. She has written numerous articles and essays for publications such as the Washington Post, but Forget-Her-Nots is her first novel.

She can often be found in her garden and gives flowers to her friends and family whenever she can, though none have had magical effects—yet.

And on to the interview…

1. In Forget-Her-Nots, you use the “language of flowers.” Is this something you knew about before your wrote the book or something you came upon as you did your research?

I used to freelance for magazines and newspapers a lot, so I was always on the lookout for story ideas. I found out about the language of flowers and even made some tussie-mussies (symbolic Victorian bouquets) for good friends before I got the idea for the novel.

2. What’s the nicest thing someone has said about the book?

I had several girls tell me it was “one of the best books” they’ve ever read. That made my month!!

3. Have you gotten any letters or reader reactions that surprised you?

I think it’s fascinating how different reactions to the same novel can be.  In the same week one blogger described how FHN moved her to cry, while another blogger described the book as “light and fluffy.” What you take away from a book depends so much on what you bring to it.

4. Where did you grow up?

My dad was in the Public Health Service, so we moved a lot, but I mostly grew up in Dayton, Ohio.

5. When you were 15, what did you want to be when you grew up?