I
met Susan Ward via Goodreads. She recommended her book on my Group and I decided to give it a go. After reading it and enjoying it a lot, I have the
pleasure of welcoming her to my blog.
“The Girl on the Half Shell” is a fantastic book with a lot of layers. I thought it was an incredibly addictive
read. Enjoy my review…
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| Stunning cover too! |
“WOW... I am emotionally drained. This
book has it all. What an incredible story.
Chrissie
Parker is the daughter of famous rock star, Jack Parker. She is a very confused
and traumatised 18-year-old girl, who carries a burden from years earlier. She
believes that she had something to do with the death of her brother, Sam, and
has self-harmed numerous times to help deal with the guilt that she feels. This
is so sad and is portrayed brilliantly in the writing.
She
is about to audition at Julliard to become a cellist, like her mother, and
heads to New York with her crazy best friend. However, before she does she
meets Alan Manzone, a rock star on the brink of disaster, who has been helped
back to the road of recovery by Jack for the last few months. The attraction is
instant and fate decides to give them a helping hand by cancelling her flight
the next day. Alan comes to her rescue and gives her a lift on her private jet
to NYC.
Chrissie
is out of control and Alan is frankly too old for her (10 years older) but the
chemistry that develops between them is unstoppable. I was totally hooked and
loved how their story develops.
There
are a few scenes that annoyed me a bit. She has a lot of baths, he washes her a
lot, and the sex develops too fast and becomes too extreme considering her
limited experience. I would have thought that if Alan truly loved her he would
have realised she was really just out of being a school girl. These issues
could have been avoided if she’d been in her early twenties, but I understand
why it worked better to catch her when most vulnerable. Even so, at times I
honestly thought he had pushed the boundaries in the relationship too far.
Saying
this, Chrissie acts irrationally a lot. She is not a stereotypical girl. She
does not do what you’d expect. I love this about her. We can all act a bit
insane at times.
The
ending is fantastic. I will not give a spoiler, but it is not what you would
usually expect. Chrissie grows up and makes the right decision. Alan has helped
her on many levels and it’s wonderful to see so many issues potentially
resolved.
Overall,
I found the author on Goodreads and asked to review her book! I am SO glad she
let me do this and am so lucky to have come across this book. Definitely
recommended, but not for those who can’t stand references to ‘Sex, Drugs, and
Rock & Roll!’”
*~Rated:
5 stars~*
Now, let's start with my questions.
First off, I
have to ask this… How does this story relate to your ‘real’ life? What inspired
you to write it?
It is based in my hometown, in the
world I grew up in, in the era I grew up in, and Chrissie is a composite of
girls from my clique in high school and parts of her are me, but I won’t tell you
which parts.
(I promise I wasn’t going to ask…)
Jack is based on a real person I knew
all through my childhood. Chrissie’s house is modelled after a real house. The
neighbourhood, Hope Ranch, is my childhood stomping grounds. Everything in the
book is based on something real or really lived, either personally, or through
a friend.
(I loved Jack as a character, I can
understand why you made him so real now)
Your
female MC, Chrissie is a very confused character. She has no idea what she
wants from life. Was it hard to decide how old to make her? 18 is very young
and can be considered to be when young people are most vulnerable.
We have five children. I’ve been
raising girls for over 30 years. That’s definitely the way I was, growing up in
a very sheltered environment before the world of technology. You have to
remember this is before the internet age. For better or for worse, most of us,
what we knew of the world, was direct experience.
(I must have led a sheltered life then… or at
least, I know I kept away from many situations that could have gone bad!)
Us Santa Barbara girls were not
sheltered and naïve about the world. As for girls, they haven’t changed.
Eighteen is a very confused, volatile state for a girl, in my opinion having
raised so many.
(I have two sisters and no brothers and we
all kept away from trouble. But, I know friends who made mistakes along the way.
I also have two daughter myself. If any of my daughters got together with an
older man at 18 I’m pretty sure I would flip! Ha ha)
Your
male MC, Alan Manzone, has such a harsh take-it-or-leave-it attitude. Yet, his
honest approach made him more believable. As much as I wanted to slap him at
times, I also feel head over heels for him. Funnily enough, his commitment to
Chrissie was never in doubt.
Your
reference to drugs and its use is harrowing and realistic throughout. Alan is
one of the victims. Do you think drugs can be the ultimate escape for those
looking for meaning in their life?
Drugs are never an escape or assist in
finding the meaning of life. They are the trap that prevents both. However,
having known addicts, it’s usually in recovery when they make their greatest
personal growth.
(True, but I have seen many get into drugs
for escapism or due to peer pressure. I said no, but many of my friends didn’t.
In the end, it can destroy people, as I saw in the recent River Phoenix
documentary! So sad…)
Many
background characters add depth to this novel. Do you think Chrissie, like many
at times, purposefully surrounded herself with ‘needy’ people? She comes across
as very innocent, even though frustratingly stupid on occasion.
Most fragile people surrounded
themselves with needy people. Those who need rescued personally often grab on
to be people who need rescued. I’m old. This is a theme of human behaviour that
hasn’t changed in my lifetime. Beneath every person I’ve ever known trying to
rescue someone, is a personal crisis they need rescuing from.
The
reference to sex in this novel is very raw and animalistic at times, definitely
for over 18. How do you feel when you write these scenes? Are you ever
embarrassed to talk about it with friends and family? I know, personally, I got
a few looks from friends from some of my scenes!
My husband and children have not read
my books. They don’t want to run into a sex scene written by mom J However, I’m not at all embarrassed to discuss my view on sex scenes in
romance novels. Sex is the expression of who we are and our emotional state and
should be consistent with that state. I don’t believe in writing a sex scene
just to include a steamy bit. I have a novel that’s over 400 pages that is a
bestseller that does not contain a single sex scene even though it’s romance.
Not having sex was the physical expression of the state of those characters.
However, people in crisis, I’ve often
found, become sexually intense. That’s why the scenes in Half Shell are raw and
animalistic. Both Chrissie and Alan are dealing with intense, deeply buried
emotional conflict. Those issues struggling to come out are expressed in their
sexual interaction.
I think Alan expresses this pivotal
point in his life with, “The opposite of
death is not life, Chrissie. The opposite of death is you. You are my opposite
of death.”
It is the physical expression of our
being, our emotional condition, and I hope, that how I’ve written the scenes. I
don’t think anything less raw and animalistic would ring true.
With
the advent of Fifty Shades, a book I am still to read, do you think people like
to read about situations considered taboo before? Especially from the privacy
of their kindle?
I don’t write about things I consider
taboo. I try to write and speak to young women about the issues in their, in
all our lives, that we don’t talk about. Poor Chrissie, however, is getting a
handful of my contemporary women’s issues. She’s struggling a lot, for all of
us.
Additionally, I wanted to write a
character who self-burns in a way readers could understand her, maybe help
someone who has issues. This issue has personally touched my life through
someone I love. I’ve received so many emails from people with substance and
self-harming issues, whether it be anorexia, burning, cutting that humble me,
their kind praise and appreciation for writing this book.
You
book is currently on a FREE promotion. How did you go about advertising it? Are
you loyal to Amazon’s KDP program? Many authors, including myself, would love
to know how you got into the top 100 in the US & UK! The Holy Grail…
The most important thing to me is
readers reading my work. Some people chase NYT bestsellers list, US Today. Me I
chase something I call shelf space. That’s the number of people who have read
my books. Now, being virtually unknown last year, Amazon KDP offered me the
best way to distribute my work to readers. Chrissie has been slowly growing in
fan base for the past twelve months. This book is alive based on word of mouth.
The readers who love it really love.
So, it was a combination of timing and
word of mouth.
(AWESOME!)
I help back from ever offering her free
until my one year anniversary. I wanted her book birthday to be perfect. I
didn’t know any major promotion, Bookbub or Ereader News, I let my reader base
know she was going free. I would say word of mouth and regular tweeting is how
she got into the top 100.
Which
is the character you have created to date and why?
Chrissie is my favourite. She is the
narrative in my head, though you would never know it if you met me. Her
uncertainty. The way watches the world. Her mess, all internally contained in
your least likely women. She’s my favourite because I think she’s like most
women.
Have you ever watched that Movie, What
Women Want, (I have indeed – love it!) with Mel Gibson and he’s out walking
and he hears all the women’s thoughts around him. I loved that because it’s
true. We think, we worry, we doubt, we are hardest on ourselves.
The life in our head is often different
than the life we live. Just like Helen Hunt’s in What Women Want. It’s so true.
Do
you get a kick out of reader feedback? How do you deal with reviews that are
critical?
It may surprise you but I thank ever
reviewer, positive or critical, and if possible establish a discussion with the
critical readers. I will never be able to please every reader with a work, we
have five kids I’ve never been able to please all of them on a single day, but
I love to listen, hear, get feedback and sometimes learn from the people who
did not like my work. It’s the only way to grow in your craft. The productive
review can often be the review that is critical of you. It also helps define
who is and isn’t my reader market. I’ve learned a lot about the demographic of
who my books appeal to and don’t appeal based on critical reviews. And what I
learned surprised me.
Do
you think social media is important? If so, how do you prioritise your time?
Very important. When I first released I
wasn’t on twitter, Instagram, and had only 20 Facebook Friends, my kids & a
few intimates. I didn’t know anything about social media. It took me 6 months
and the help of a girlfriend who is a blogger for me to get up to speed, but
it’s really improved my market exposure. Throughout the day, I periodically
touch base. Pretty regularly actually. I try to leave my desk and relax my mind
about every two hours. I go sit outside and stare at the ocean. That’s when I
touch base with my social media.
What
is the most important thing you have learnt, as an author, since you published
your first book?
That I didn’t know a darn thing when I
started. It’s hard work to sell a book, and it takes a village to do it. I have
a tightknit of supporter and author friends, and we work together for each
other. It’s made a definite difference in the level of success I have.
(I hear you on this… the road is long!)
Do
you think books are timeless, or do you think some fads disappear?
Great books last forever because what
they say to people is timeless. Enjoyable books can have longevity. The trite,
trendy fad driven creation dies quietly. (This is true in all things. Fashion.
Music. Cinema) However, no author knows which kind of book they’ve written
until the readers tell them and they face the test of time.
What is the best book you have read and why did you enjoy it?
The best book I've ever read is Through a Glass Darkly. I thought it was an amazing accomplishment. The blend of history, drama and characterization. I just ached for Barbara on every page and got a definite feel for the time she lived in. It kept me flipping pages for 700 pages, and while I didn't want it to end the way it ended, I still love the book.
I thought it was an absolutely amazing read.
What
is the best book you have written, and why did you enjoy writing it?
Without a doubt The Girl on the Half
Shell. I enjoyed it because if readers what to see what I’m saying to women in
that book, there is something to find. So many women have told me that this
book has helped them. I get a lot of “how did you know” messages. However, if
you just want an intense and raw story, you can have that as well. It’s a book
where you can take away something different depending on what you want to take
away after reading it.
Where
we can find out about you and buy your books?
And follow me on Twitter @susaninlaguna
Thank
you again for letting us find out more about you and for your honest responses!
I went to see the film Annie with my youngest daughter last week and loved it! We went back again a few days ago at her request.
