Interview with Holly Schindler!

Please welcome author Holly Schindler to the blog! Holly is the author of A Blue So Dark and the soon to be released Playing Hurt. I am also super excited to claim Holly as my local author which totally rocks!

In honor of Holly's new book, she's doing a virtual blog tour. This week is the "local leg" featuring local bloggers and we're asking Holly all sorts of fun questions about Missouri! And there's an awesome contest to go with it! You can get points by visiting the tour stops, commenting, tweeting, posting on your blog and Facebook-all that fun stuff. Just fill out this awesome entry form and you're entered! And of course you can find the full schedule and all the details on Holly's blog!

OK-let's get to the fun stuff-the questions!!

1) What’s the best thing about Missouri?

I’m a lifelong, sixth generation Missouri resident. So when you ask me what I love about Missouri, I feel as though you’ve asked me what I like most about my favorite room in my childhood home. Missouri’s just mine, in the same way my family is mine. The sweet, the rugged, the frigid, the sweltering, all of it—it’s mine.

2) What myths of SWMO (Southwest Missouri) would you like to prove wrong?

The thing is, you never do know who you’re talking to. That old guy in a pair of overalls at the convenience store in some no-stoplight town in the middle of nowhere has probably had more life experiences, been more places, done more, seen more, understands far more than any of us could ever expect…probably lived far more life than any of us ever will.

In some respects, I kind of think Missouri gets seen as that old guy in a pair of overalls. But if anybody’d stop to really get to know Missouri, they’d find out there’s a lot going on underneath those Carhartts.

3) In A Blue So Dark, Aura lives in Springfield. In Playing Hurt, the characters are in Minnesota. Was it hard to change locations for the setting?

Not so much. The older I get, the more I enjoy my time outside. When I think of my most frequented haunts right now, many of them are outdoors: riverbanks and lakesides. When I’ve been cooped up writing too long, I don’t usually want to go to an indoor public area—restaurant, movies, etc. I usually want to get outside. In my passages about Minnesota, I was able to express my love of fresh air and wildflowers, quiet lakes and sunshine.

4). What’s the best thing about being a writer? And what’s the worst (or hardest)?

The best is seeing my lifelong dream coming to fruition. I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was little. But it’s been a long, rough, winding road…

Basically, after getting my master’s from MSU, I devoted myself full-time to my writing. Took seven and a half years to get to the first acceptance at Flux books. Sticking with a dream even when the dream is beating you up is beyond rough—so I’d have to say the waiting and the rejection and the incredible amount of time it took to just get started was the hardest part. But getting my writing career off the ground is an incredible feeling.

5) Seriously, what is the deal with Cashew Chicken? (Cashew Chicken is this fake Chinese food creation that people rave about. I've yet to try it-it looks scary!!)

Ahhh, Cashew Chicken. Sprinfield’s own faux Chinese Food. I grew up on the stuff—and have a special love for it. I even requested it for my last birthday dinner! There’s just something so homey about it. It’s the ultimate comfort food for me…the food of my youth that I still love.

Playing Hurt is out March 8th and I encourage everyone to check it out!

About the Book: Star basketball player Chelsea “Nitro” Keyes had the promise of a full ride to college—and everyone’s admiration in her hometown. But everything changed senior year, when she took a horrible fall during a game. Now a metal plate holds her together and she feels like a stranger in her own family.

As a graduation present, Chelsea’s dad springs for a three-week summer “boot camp” program at a northern Minnesota lake resort. There, she’s immediately drawn to her trainer, Clint, a nineteen-year-old ex-hockey player who’s haunted by his own traumatic past. As they grow close, Chelsea is torn between her feelings for Clint and her loyalty to her devoted boyfriend back home. Will an unexpected romance just end up causing Chelsea and Clint more pain—or finally heal their heartbreak?


Holly made an awesome virtual tour to show off the setting for Playing Hurt and A Blue So Dark-check it out!