I’m beyond excited to be part of the blog tour for I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson. I just posted my review this past Monday but I have to reiterate: this is my favorite book of 2014! I can’t rave about this book enough. Jandy Nelson is one of my favorite authors and I’m honored to have her here on the blog today!

Interview!

Jude and Noah are twins.  You aren’t a twin, are you?  If not, how did you capture that unique relationship between twins, that special bond?

Well, I’m happy you feel I captured it! No, I’m not a twin. I do have twins in my life and did research on twins for the book. But still, I really don’t feel like I can speak at all for twins in general, only for Noah and Jude with their particular personalities, who come from a particular family and a particular place and time and have their own particular roller-coaster relationship and fierce bond. I think in many ways, it was they who taught me what it must be like being a twin. I guess I just tried to listen to them.

What are some authors that inspired your writing? 

My two favorite authors of all time are Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Virginia Woolf and their novels inspire me in all ways, not just to do with writing. In the YA and MG world I’m very inspired by the work of Francesca Lia Block, Markus Zusak, An Na, Laurie Halse Anderson, Stephen Chbosky, Rainbow Rowell, Sharon Creech, Patrick Ness, Carol Lynch Williams, Gayle Forman, Margo Rabb, Nina LaCour, Gabrielle Zevin, John Green, David Levithan, among many many others. As for picture book writers, I’m gaga over William Steig. And then, there are the amazing poets like Neruda, Berryman, Wright, Carson.

What is your writing process like?

Well, for this book, the writing process was pretty crazy. I’m not sure how it happened but I ended up spending most of the 3 ½ years writing this book in a pitch black room with the curtains drawn, ear plugs in, and sound machine blasting! The only light in the room was the computer screen which became like a portal into the story. For some reason, this allowed me an intimacy with the characters I’d never felt before and enabled me to live inside the story completely. It was fantastic, totally nuts, but fantastic. Besides for that, I work best when I get to start first thing when I wake up without checking email or talking too much. I usually work from that point in AM until I can’t anymore, guzzling endless amounts of green tea all day long!

About the author:

Jandy Nelson, like her characters in I’ll Give You the Sun, comes from a superstitious lot. She was tutored from a young age in the art of the four-leaf clover hunt; she knocks wood, throws salt, and carries charms in her pockets. Her debut novel, The Sky Is Everywhere, was on multiple Best Books of the Year lists, was a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults pick, earned numerous starred reviews, has been translated widely, and continues to enjoy great international success. Currently a full-time writer, Jandy lives and writes in San Francisco, California—not far from the settings ofThe Sky Is Everywhere and I’ll Give You the Sun. Visit her online at www.jandynelson.com or find her on twitter at @jandynelson.

I’ll Give You the Sun is on shelves now! Signed / personalized copies are available from Books Inc.

About I’ll Give You The Sun:

A brilliant, luminous story of first love, family, loss, and betrayal for fans of John Green, David Levithan, and Rainbow Rowell

Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else—an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah’s story to tell. The later years are Jude’s. What the twins don’t realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.

This radiant novel from the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Sky Is Everywhere will leave you breathless and teary and laughing—often all at once.

 

Be sure to check out the rest of the blog tour, featuring guest posts, interviews, giveaways, and more!

Sept. 1 – Cuddlebuggery

Sept. 2 – Novel Sounds

Sept. 3 – Perpetual Page Turner

Sept. 4 – Forever Young Adult

Sept. 8 – The Young Folks

Sept. 9 – The Book Hookup

Sept. 10 – Grown Up Fangirl

Sept. 11 – Bewitched Bookworms

Sept. 15 – Candace’s Book Blog

Sept. 16 – Novel Novice

Sept. 17 – Alice Marvels

Sept. 18 – Icey Books

Sept. 22 – The Midnight Garden

Sept. 23 – The Starry-Eyed Revue

Sept. 24 – Tales of a Ravenous Reader

Sept. 25 – Katie’s Book Blog

Sept. 29 –GReads!

Sept. 30 –Anna Reads

Giveaway!

PenguinTeen is giving away 5 copies of the new paperback edition of The Sky Is Everywhere!

Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life – and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Bailey’s boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie’s own. Joe is the new boy in town, a transplant from Paris whose nearly magical grin is matched only by his musical talent. For Lennie, they’re the sun and the moon; one boy takes her out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But just like their celestial counterparts, they can’t collide without the whole wide world exploding.

This remarkable debut is perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, and Francesca Lia Block. Just as much a celebration of love as it is a portrait of loss, Lennie’s struggle to sort her own melody out of the noise around her is always honest, often hilarious, and ultimately unforgettable.

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