Rosemary Clement-Moore

GET LOST WITH
RITA AWARD WINNING

ROSEMARY CLEMENT-MOORE

TEXAS GOTHIC
Delacorte Press
ISBN: 0385736932

Amy Goodnight's family is far from normal. She comes from a line of witches, but tries her best to stay far outside the family business. Her summer gig? Ranch-sitting for her aunt with her wacky but beautiful sister. Only the Goodnight Ranch is even less normal than it normally is. Bodies are being discovered, a ghost is on the prowl, and everywhere she turns, the hot neighbor cowboy is in her face.

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Rosemary Clement-Moore is the author of award-winning supernatural mystery novels for young (and not so young) adults, including the Maggie Quinn: Girl versus Evil series, The Splendor Falls, and Texas Gothic. A recovering thespian, she really prefers writing books in her pajamas and taking a break in the afternoon to play Rock Band. She is addicted to coffee and Twitter, loves dogs, history, Jane Austen, archeology, Gilbert and Sullivan, BBC America, Star Wars, books with kissing and movies with lots of explosions.

A YOUTHFUL Q&A
ANGI: How often to you get lost in a story?
ROSEMARY: As often as possible. I love a book that draws me in so that when I look up I’m a little surprised to find myself sitting in my living room.

ANGI: What’s the first book you remember reading?
ROSEMARY: There was a book called Harry the Dirty Dog. He started off as a white dog with brown spots, then went wandering away from home and ended up a brown dog with white spots. It had a happy ending, though. He found his way home AND got clean again.

ANGI: What’s your favorite “love” word?
ROSEMARY: Twitterpated! Which, by the way, I’ve loved (and used) since LONG before Twitter existed. It’s just such a fun sweet word for a delicious, sweet feeling. And it sounds like what it means, which is the best kind.

ANGI: What’s your favorite fairy tale?
ROSEMARY: I was going to say Beauty and the Beast, but then I remembered that in the original, Beauty was a bit a doormat (as many of them were). On one hand, she loved her siblings despite their selfishness. On the other, she let them take shameless advantage of her and it almost killed the Beast who, in contrast, let her leave and trusted her to come back on her word. However, the story is about the transformative power of love, and what’s not to love about that?

ANGI: What’s your favorite cartoon character?
ROSEMARY: Kim Possible!

ANGI: Is there a playlist you’d recommend for reading your latest release?
ROSEMARY: I haven’t made an official playlist (yet) for Texas Gothic, but I listened to a lot of country music while I was writing it. I suggest the classics, like Willie Nelson and David Allen Coe, and Texas Country like Cross Canadian Ragweed, Reckless Kelly, and Jerry Jeff Walker. And Lyle Lovett and Asleep at the Wheel (one is more blues country and the other is Western Swing) because they are awesome, and fit the feel of the book.

ANGI: Where do you read and how often?
ROSEMARY: Lately I get most of my reading done on the treadmill! I can always tell when it’s a really good book because I go longer than I mean to and am really sore the next morning. I try to read a book a week in my genre and try and make time for fun reading as well.

ANGI: Fairy Tale or Action Adventure?
ROSEMARY: Can’t we have both? Mulan is one of my favorite Disney “princesses” and she manages it. So does Rapunzel in Tangled. I love a happy ending, and I do love a good princess tale. But I’m not a fan of sleeping until the prince shows up.

ANGI: What was the first story you remember writing?
ROSEMARY: It was a story about a girl who wakes up in the middle of the night to find a flying saucer landing on her front lawn. She runs downstairs, grabbing an umbrella from the stand by the door, just in time to see a dinosaur-looking creature coming out of the spaceship. She beats it back with the umbrella and it takes off, flying back to Mars with its tail between its legs. The End.

ANGI: What’s your favorite movie of all time?
ROSEMARY: Hard one. Either Gladiator, Aliens, or Operation Petticoat, or Monty Python and the Holy Grail... Boy does this question depend on my mood. It’s a pretty eclectic list.

ANGI: Who’s your favorite villain?
ROSEMARY: Magneto from the X-men. (Especially now.)

ANGI: Be honest, when reading...do you put yourself in the heroine’s role?
ROSEMARY: Um, doesn’t everybody? To me, this is the point. Hero or heroine--though for me, it’s usually heroine, because I like girl books best--they are our ‘role playing character’ for the adventure that is the book. (See below for more on this.)

ANGI: Is writing or story-telling easier for you?
ROSEMARY: When I write, it’s like I’m roleplaying the story in my head. I won’t say it’s ‘easy,’ but it’s definitely more fun. It’s like I’m the Game Master in a virtual reality session of Dungeons & Dragons. But I get to play all the characters, too. The trick is to find the words to convey the adventure to the reader, so that SHE then lives the story through the character, too. Her experiences will color how she perceives what I write, but I still have to evoke that virtual reality for her in all five senses. Six, really, since the emotional sense is maybe the most important of all.

ANGI: What’s something you’d like to tell your fans?
ROSEMARY: I can’t wait for you to read Texas Gothic, and I think you’ll really like it if you’ve liked ANY of my other books. It combines the adventure and wise-cracking of the Girl vs. Evil books with the atmosphere and romantic sensibility of The Splendor Falls. It’s paranormal but gently so. I think even non-paranormal fans would enjoy it. And lots of romantic bits! Something for everyone!

ANGI’S GOTTA ASK: Being a Texas Gal myself, I’m very curious about the title of your latest book, Texas Gothic. What’s “goth” in Texas? Fill us in and tell us about your favorite scene.
ROSEMARY’S GOTTA ANSWER: The title (and the book) is a spin on the “Southern Gothic” genre. Gothic novels are spooky, often romantic, big on atmosphere and mystery, and the past affecting the present. All those things are in Texas Gothic, with a good dose of humor and adventure. A reviewer said it “owes more to Scooby-Doo than Flannery O’Connor.” I don’t think she meant it as a compliment, but I totally took it as one! It’s not as silly as the cartoon, but there is that sense of rollicking escapade. And meddling kids, of course, in the form of my 18 year old heroine and her cohorts.

My favorite scene? Well, there’s the opening, where Amy is chasing cows out of her yard in her underwear, a very creepy scene were her psychic cousin conducts a sort of séance to find out what the ghost who is haunting the McCulloch ranch wants. But my favorite is probably the scene between Amy and Ben in his pickup truck, late at night when they’re supposed to be on ghost watching duty... but aren’t.

WILL YOU HAVE A DRAWING FROM THOSE LEAVING COMMENTS?
Yes! Comment to win a signed copy of Texas Gothic!

Note: Offer void where prohibited. Prizes will be mailed to North America addresses only. If an electronic Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) is available, the author may utilize that option for International participants. Odds of winning vary due to the number of entrants.

ROSEMARY WANTS TO KNOW: Has a book ever made you sleep with the light on?

YOU CAN FIND ROSEMARY AT her Website ; Contact her: rosemary@readrosemary.com; see her on Facebook: facebook.com/rosemaryclementmoore; or follow on Twitter @rclementmoore .