Ainsley Bishop Blog Tour: Seven Random Questions with T.M. Franklin
Today is the final day of T.M. Franklin's Blog Tour for her latest novel, How to Get Ainsley Bishop to Fall in Love with You. I am thrilled to share her answers to my Seven Random Questions!
Here we go!
1. As Ainsley Bishop begins, we get our first glance into Oliver’s List Notebook. What’s the first list he ever made? How old was he? What was on it?
Oh, excellent question. Nobody’s asked me that yet!
Oliver wrote his first list to Santa Claus when he was four years old. He had to ask his mom how to spell a few things (like “abacus” and “chemistry”) and it was a little messy, but it was readable and decorated with crayon sketches to ensure that Santa knew exactly what he was talking about.
On Christmas morning, when Oliver unwrapped every single item on that list, he knew he was onto something. The key to getting what he wanted was making a list! He found an old half-filled notebook in his father’s desk drawer and there was no turning back.
2. Our boy Viney earned his nickname through a dare. What is the boldest dare or challenge you’ve ever accepted? How did it work out?
I don’t know that I’ve actually ever been officially dared to do something, but I have taken a few challenges. One that comes to mind is when I was a Junior in high school. I’d had a crush on a boy a year older than me for years. It was truly pathetic. I’m not even kidding. He was extremely nice, though, and never made me felt like the loser I was. LoL! I got up the guts to ask him to a Sadie Hawkins dance. He actually did go with me, although it never led anywhere. He was just too nice to turn me down.
More recently, at Comic Con a few years ago, a bunch of us saw Joshua Jackson (from Fringe, or more apropos to me, Dawson’s Creek) sitting outside a restaurant. Everybody was taking sneaky pictures, but I actually walked up to him and talked to him briefly. He was really nice. :-)
3. Though this plot centers on high school students, the adults—Hank, The Holmeses, Aunt Dora—add subtle, complementary depth to an already satisfying story. How did you achieve that balance and prevent the grownups from taking over?
It was important to me to show that Oliver didn’t become the strong, confident person he is, in a vacuum. It made sense to me that that strength had to come from somewhere and, with the exception of Viney, it came from the adults in his life – his parents and his friend and mentor, Hank. In the same vein, Aunt Dora provided that kind of unwavering support to Ainsley. I think it’s easy in a story about teenagers to kind of cut out the adults, but the fact is, adults play an important role in a teen’s life, whether it be positive or negative. In addition, teens can impact an adult’s life in a positive way as well, as in the case of Oliver and his parents.
4. Thanks to Hank and Oliver, Ainsley turns her (terrible) dramatic play into a hilarious musical. If someone made a musical of your past year, what would it be called? What is the opening number? And which actress would play you?
It would probably be called Like a Chicken with Her Head Cut Off. I’ve seriously felt that way lately, with so much going on! The opening number would be Two Books in a Year (What Was I Thinking?) And Kristin Chenoweth would star. No, she looks nothing like me, but I love her, she’s incredibly talented… and she tweeted me once.
5. You and I met through a mutual love of Twilight and its fanfiction. Who is your favorite canon character and why?
Carlisle. I think he’s a character with a tremendous amount of depth. He was alone for so long, then decided to kind of piece together this family of people who needed him. He fights against his nature to be a good person and to make the world a better place. I love that.
6. Overhearing Ainsley tell Ian “He’s just my tutor” haunts Oliver toward the end of the story. Tell us about something you once overheard or accidentally learned/saw but wished you could forget.
Oh, just about every link I’ve ever clicked on Twitter! Actually, on a more serious note, I remember my first day at a new school when I was in third grade and I overheard a girl call me the N-word. It was the first time that had ever happened, and it obviously stuck with me. Well, that was a downer…
7. When Ainsley spotted her name in the List Notebook, my heart nearly stopped. I was so nervous about her reaction! Were there any alternate plans for that scene/occurrence?
Spoiler alert! LoL! Actually, no. That was always the scene I envisioned for the climax of the story. There were many other places in the book where plans changed, but that wasn’t one of them.
BONUS QUESTION!
Ainsley Bishop is your first novel without any supernaturally-gifted characters. If you could have one writing-related superpower, which would it be?
Auto-Editing, where all my “justs,” “thats,” “onlys,” and adverbs automatically changed themselves! That would be amazing!
So when he decides it's time to declare his feelings for Ainsley Bishop, the girl of his dreams, it's only natural for him to make a list-a point-by-point strategy to win her heart. He knows it will take a grand gesture for her to see all he has to offer, and her approaching birthday provides the ideal opportunity for Oliver to put his plan into action.
Finding the perfect gift is a challenge Oliver meets with his usual dogged determination. He'll need to watch her carefully for clues to pinpoint exactly what he should give her. And along the way, he might just learn that what Ainsley really needs is not quite what he expected.
Ainsley is available now!
T.M. Franklin started out her career writing non-fiction in a television newsroom. Graduating with a B.A. in Communications specializing in broadcast journalism and production, she worked for nine years as a major market television news producer, and garnered two regional Emmy Awards, before she resigned to be a full-time mom and part-time freelance writer. Her first published novel, MORE, was born during National Novel Writing month, a challenge to write a novel in thirty days. MORE was well-received, being selected as a finalist in the 2013 Kindle Book Review Best Indie Book Awards, as well as winning the Suspense/Thriller division of the Blogger Book Fair Reader’s Choice Awards.
In addition to MORE and its sequel, The Guardians, Franklin penned the Amazon best-selling short stories A Piece of Cake andWindow, which also won a Blogger Book Fair Reader’s Choice Award for Short Story/Fantasy. Her new YA romance, How to Get Ainsley Bishop to Fall in Love with You, is Franklin’s first love story without a paranormal or fantasy element, although she believes love is the best kind of magic. TWELVE, the final installment in the MORE Trilogy will be released in the fall of 2014.
Oliver wrote his first list to Santa Claus when he was four years old. He had to ask his mom how to spell a few things (like “abacus” and “chemistry”) and it was a little messy, but it was readable and decorated with crayon sketches to ensure that Santa knew exactly what he was talking about.
On Christmas morning, when Oliver unwrapped every single item on that list, he knew he was onto something. The key to getting what he wanted was making a list! He found an old half-filled notebook in his father’s desk drawer and there was no turning back.
2. Our boy Viney earned his nickname through a dare. What is the boldest dare or challenge you’ve ever accepted? How did it work out?
I don’t know that I’ve actually ever been officially dared to do something, but I have taken a few challenges. One that comes to mind is when I was a Junior in high school. I’d had a crush on a boy a year older than me for years. It was truly pathetic. I’m not even kidding. He was extremely nice, though, and never made me felt like the loser I was. LoL! I got up the guts to ask him to a Sadie Hawkins dance. He actually did go with me, although it never led anywhere. He was just too nice to turn me down.
More recently, at Comic Con a few years ago, a bunch of us saw Joshua Jackson (from Fringe, or more apropos to me, Dawson’s Creek) sitting outside a restaurant. Everybody was taking sneaky pictures, but I actually walked up to him and talked to him briefly. He was really nice. :-)
3. Though this plot centers on high school students, the adults—Hank, The Holmeses, Aunt Dora—add subtle, complementary depth to an already satisfying story. How did you achieve that balance and prevent the grownups from taking over?
It was important to me to show that Oliver didn’t become the strong, confident person he is, in a vacuum. It made sense to me that that strength had to come from somewhere and, with the exception of Viney, it came from the adults in his life – his parents and his friend and mentor, Hank. In the same vein, Aunt Dora provided that kind of unwavering support to Ainsley. I think it’s easy in a story about teenagers to kind of cut out the adults, but the fact is, adults play an important role in a teen’s life, whether it be positive or negative. In addition, teens can impact an adult’s life in a positive way as well, as in the case of Oliver and his parents.
4. Thanks to Hank and Oliver, Ainsley turns her (terrible) dramatic play into a hilarious musical. If someone made a musical of your past year, what would it be called? What is the opening number? And which actress would play you?
It would probably be called Like a Chicken with Her Head Cut Off. I’ve seriously felt that way lately, with so much going on! The opening number would be Two Books in a Year (What Was I Thinking?) And Kristin Chenoweth would star. No, she looks nothing like me, but I love her, she’s incredibly talented… and she tweeted me once.
5. You and I met through a mutual love of Twilight and its fanfiction. Who is your favorite canon character and why?
Carlisle. I think he’s a character with a tremendous amount of depth. He was alone for so long, then decided to kind of piece together this family of people who needed him. He fights against his nature to be a good person and to make the world a better place. I love that.
6. Overhearing Ainsley tell Ian “He’s just my tutor” haunts Oliver toward the end of the story. Tell us about something you once overheard or accidentally learned/saw but wished you could forget.
Oh, just about every link I’ve ever clicked on Twitter! Actually, on a more serious note, I remember my first day at a new school when I was in third grade and I overheard a girl call me the N-word. It was the first time that had ever happened, and it obviously stuck with me. Well, that was a downer…
7. When Ainsley spotted her name in the List Notebook, my heart nearly stopped. I was so nervous about her reaction! Were there any alternate plans for that scene/occurrence?
Spoiler alert! LoL! Actually, no. That was always the scene I envisioned for the climax of the story. There were many other places in the book where plans changed, but that wasn’t one of them.
BONUS QUESTION!
Ainsley Bishop is your first novel without any supernaturally-gifted characters. If you could have one writing-related superpower, which would it be?
Auto-Editing, where all my “justs,” “thats,” “onlys,” and adverbs automatically changed themselves! That would be amazing!
Seventeen-year-old Oliver Wendell Holmes (Yes, his parents are just that peculiar, but his brother's name is Sherlock, so it could have been worse) knows that he's different. He's quirky, awkward, and he's okay with that. Oliver also likes making lists-meticulous procedures for achieving his goals, step-by-step. Whether it's "How to Get an A in Chemistry" or "How to Get Accepted to MIT," he has a process, and it's worked for him so far. He doesn't even care that the popular kids mock him. Oliver's got his eye on the prize.
So when he decides it's time to declare his feelings for Ainsley Bishop, the girl of his dreams, it's only natural for him to make a list-a point-by-point strategy to win her heart. He knows it will take a grand gesture for her to see all he has to offer, and her approaching birthday provides the ideal opportunity for Oliver to put his plan into action.
Finding the perfect gift is a challenge Oliver meets with his usual dogged determination. He'll need to watch her carefully for clues to pinpoint exactly what he should give her. And along the way, he might just learn that what Ainsley really needs is not quite what he expected.
Ainsley is available now!
Amazon |Barnes & Noble |iTunes |Kobo | TWCS
T.M. Franklin started out her career writing non-fiction in a television newsroom. Graduating with a B.A. in Communications specializing in broadcast journalism and production, she worked for nine years as a major market television news producer, and garnered two regional Emmy Awards, before she resigned to be a full-time mom and part-time freelance writer. Her first published novel, MORE, was born during National Novel Writing month, a challenge to write a novel in thirty days. MORE was well-received, being selected as a finalist in the 2013 Kindle Book Review Best Indie Book Awards, as well as winning the Suspense/Thriller division of the Blogger Book Fair Reader’s Choice Awards.In addition to MORE and its sequel, The Guardians, Franklin penned the Amazon best-selling short stories A Piece of Cake andWindow, which also won a Blogger Book Fair Reader’s Choice Award for Short Story/Fantasy. Her new YA romance, How to Get Ainsley Bishop to Fall in Love with You, is Franklin’s first love story without a paranormal or fantasy element, although she believes love is the best kind of magic. TWELVE, the final installment in the MORE Trilogy will be released in the fall of 2014.
Connect with T.M. Franklin
Thank you so much for being part of the blog tour! :-) I so appreciate all of your support, D!
ReplyDelete