YA Author Christine Marciniak

I’m Christine Marciniak and I’m delighted to be guest blogging here at Romancing the Genres and I want to thank the Genre-istas for giving me this opportunity.

 To keep me from rambling too much, I’ve been given some questions to answer. I think that was a very good idea.

Why did you decide to become a writer?

It may sound cliché, but I really don’t remember a time when I wasn’t in love with writing stories. There are some particularly embarrassing ones that my mom saved from when I was in early elementary school. I won’t be sharing those any time soon. By the time I was in high school I wrote all the time: while watching TV, while in school, while traveling in the car. But it wasn’t until my children were born and I was staying home with them, that I took the next step of submitting things for publication.

What motivates you to write?

What motivates me to write are all the stories and characters swirling around in my head and demanding to be heard.

What genre are most of your stories?

I write stories for young adults, which isn’t actually a genre, that’s an age group. Within that my stories tend to be contemporaries, dealing with the day to day problems teens might face. Though, I have toyed with some time travel and historical fiction, so maybe one day I’ll be able to say I have something in that genre as well.

Why did you chose that genre?

I suppose I chose the genre because that is what I like to read, so naturally it turned out to be what I liked to write as well.

What do you do in your spare time?

Spare time? I’m the mother of a twelve and fifteen year old. A lot of my spare time is spent driving them around to the various places they need to be. But when I’m not writing, I’m reading or crocheting. I love to crochet and belong to a group at my church that donates shawls and blankets to places like Ronald McDonald House and veteran’s homes.

If you have children/teens, tell how they impact your YA writing.

I wrote YA long before my children reached that age, but now that I have a daughter who is fifteen and in high school, it really helps to get a better sense of who teens are these days, as opposed to simply my memory of what I was like as a teenager. Now, my daughter is not the stereotypical teen. She loves archery and Shakespeare and show tunes. But that’s a great reminder, that there isn’t a ‘typical’ teen, and that the characters I write about should be as varied and unique as the kids I know in real life.

What books do you have coming out soon?

This June, my book REALITY ALI will be published by Zumaya Publications. It is the first book in a four book series, and I’m very excited about it. In the first book we meet Ali Caldwell. She has a mother who is famous and a father who is over protective. Ali wants to be famous like her mother, and manages to do so with a series of webcasts. Of course, fame isn’t quite what she dreamed it would be.

My first book, WHEN MIKE KISSED EMMA came out in 2009 from The Wild Rose Press, and is out of print, though copies may still be available on line. I’m sorry that book is out of print, but I’m busy looking forward to my new series. And hopefully there will be more to come after that.

Now it's your turn.

I've dreamed of writing books since I was a teen, and now I'm doing it. What dreams do you have? Have they come true? Is it what you thought it would be? Let me know in the comments! And if you have any questions for me I'll be happy to answer them in the comments.

Thank you for inviting me to be a part of Romancing the Genres, it’s been great!

Follow me on twitter: @ckmarciniak
Like my author facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/authorChristineMarciniak for updated information on REALITY ALI as the release date gets closer.