Mary Strand has joined us here at GLIAS in the past with her
wonderful women’s fiction novel COOPER’S
FOLLY, and I couldn’t be more
excited to have her back so she can introduce us to her
brand new YA novel - PRIDE, PREJUDICE, AND PUSH-UP BRAS (The Bennet Sisters Book # 1) from Triple Berry Press. I am so excited about this series and cannot
WAIT for all the books to be out! Mary is a fellow
Minnesotan, an RWA chapter mate,
and, most of all, a great friend and writer well known for her wit and humor on
Facebook and for getting into jealous tussles with me about our favorite Minnesota
Twins player Brian Dozier. But that’s for another time; for now, I hope you’ll
give a huge Get Lost in a Story welcome to my bud, Mary Strand!
A LITTLE ABOUT MARY
Mary Strand practiced law in a large Minneapolis law firm
for 16 years until the day she set aside her pointy-toed shoes (or most of
them) and escaped the land of mergers and acquisitions to write novels. She
lives on a lake in Minneapolis with her husband, two cute kidlets, and a
stuffed monkey named Philip. When not writing, Mary lives for sports, travel,
guitar, dancing (badly), Cosmos, Hugh Jackman, and ill-advised adventures that
offer a high probability of injury to herself and others. She writes YA, romantic comedy, and women’s
fiction novels. Pride, Prejudice, and Push-Up Bras is the first in her four-book YA
series, The Bennet Sisters.
A LITTLE ABOUT PRIDE,
PREJUDICE, AND PUSH-UP BRAS
College freshman Liz
Bennet refuses to let her name—or
Jane Austen, for that matter—define
her. Even though she’s one of five teenage sisters named after the Bennet
sisters in “The Book,” as Liz not-so-fondly calls it, she can’t afford to let her
life parallel The Book in any way. Period. Liz has big plans for her future,
and they don't exactly mesh with the life laid out for a fictional young woman
200 years ago.
When two gorgeous
guys, Charlie Bingham and Alex Darcy, arrive in Liz’s Minnesota town, her whole
world is turned upside down. Her sister Jane starts acting like a lunatic with
Charlie. Alex is tempting but also a jerk.
Seeing too many uncanny connections to The Book, Liz is afraid she
can’t win. Is this fate’s little joke on her modern Bennet family?
What’s a girl to do? Fight? Or ... surrender?
PURCHASE LINKS FOR PRIDE,
PREJUDICE, AND PUSH-UP BRAS
Amazon e-book (trade paperback is also available)
MARY ANSWERS MY CRAZY QUESTIONS
LIZ: What was your
favorite book as a child?
MARY: Can I declare a
tie? I first really fell in love with
LIZ: How did you
come up with the idea for this book?
MARY: Out of a writers’
voice class taught by Barbara Samuel!
One of the writing exercises we had to do was to type the first 2-3
paragraphs of a favorite book, then retype them in our own voice. I chose PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. When the class read my new opening for
P&P, they basically laughed and said, “Yep, that’s exactly how you talk!”
LIZ: What do you
enjoy doing when you’re not writing?
MARY: Sports and music,
music and sports. At the moment, though,
I’d have to say that it’s music. I’ve
just joined a rock band (for the first time in my life, if we don’t count my
fifth-grade band, the Bell-Bottom Blues), and I’m playing guitar (badly), and it’s
an utter blast. Our first gig is in
November.
LIZ: If you could have dinner with
any three book characters, who would you choose and why?
MARY: Elizabeth Bennet from
Pride and Prejudice; Lord Rothgar from Jo Beverley’s Malloren series; and
Ranger from Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series. But, um, could each of those dinners be
separate? We’re talking Rothgar and
Ranger. J
LIZ: If your house
was on fire and you only had time to save three objects, what would you save?
MARY: I actually had this
dream scenario LAST NIGHT and discovered that, ultimately, the only thing that
mattered was saving my life. So I’ll say
the kidlets ... and my convertible. :-D
LIZ: Write us a
haiku about your book or one of your characters!
MARY: Warning: haiku is not
among my strengths!
Liz lives for rock songs
Until Darcy rocks her world;
She’s “All Shook Up” now.
LIZ: I love this (especially because at
first I thought it was about me)—and that you’re one of my few guest/friends to
take on this challenge. You can claim it as a strength if you want to as far as
I’m concerned!
LIZ: Time for a mini
blitz!
a)Favorite color?
Song? Movie?
b) Summer or winter?
c) Morning or night?
d) Rain or shine?
e) Sweet or salty?
MARY:
a) yellow - Rodney Crowell’s
“Please Remember Me” - DON’T MAKE ME PICK ONE MOVIE!
b) summer (but actually fall)
c) morning
d) SHINE!
e) sweet
LIZ: Name three things on your
desk right now.
MARY: A large bottle of
Airborne; a magical stone; and my next manuscript.
LIZ: Where is your
favorite place to write?
MARY: Sebastian Joe’s! It’s a local coffee and ice cream shop here
in Minneapolis (two locations; I go to the one closest to my house), where I
write with the enthusiastic assistance of triple-berry scones and Diet Coke.
LIZ: What’s on your
bucket list for this year?
MARY: We already hiked to
Machu Picchu this year, six months ago.
For the coming year ... my hope is to hike the entire 500 miles of the
Camino de Santiago in the early summer of 2017.
LIZ HAS GOTTA ASK: What’s
the most personal thing you’ve ever put in one of your books?
MARY: It’s a book that’s
written but not yet published, about a girl who has to face her biggest fear
and survive it. A few years ago, two
different creepy guys, a month apart, each tried to abduct my daughter. She did Every Single Thing I’ve ever taught
her to do in such a situation and even amazed the investigating police
afterward. So I started writing that
book about a girl my daughter’s age (then 12), but then advanced her after the
first chapter to age 17. The 17-year-old
heroine suddenly (and without warning!) turned into me, and the book also dealt
with a guy who was my big love (although he wasn’t 17 in real life). It was like ripping out my heart every day I
wrote it. I gave her a happy ending,
though. J
MARY’S QUESTION FOR HER READERS?
PRDE, PREJUDICE, AND
PUSH-UP BRAS is the first book in the four-book Bennet Sisters series,
about five modern-day sisters named after the five Bennet Sisters in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. Liz Bennet’s three younger sisters often
drive her crazy. What’s one thing that
drives you absolutely CRAZY about your sister(s) or brother(s)? Or, if you don’t have sibs, one thing that
drives you crazy about someone else!
I have an e-book copy
of PRIDE, PREJUDICE, AND PUSH-UP BRAS for
one commenter today!
WHAT’S NEXT?:
My next release is BEING
MARY BENNET BLOWS, the second book in my Bennet Sisters YA series. It’s coming in November, I hope!
CONTACT MARY:
Website: www.marystrand.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/marystrandauthor
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Mary_Strand
Goodreads: https//www.goodreads.com/author/show/7328368.Mary_Strand
Instagram http://instagram.com/Mary_Strand
I have five sisters and one brother. I swear that all of my sisters have alpha personalities. It's crazy when we all get together. My brother is the sane one.
ReplyDeletemarypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com
Mary, you say "alpha personalities" like it's a bad thing! lol. I grew up with five brothers and two sisters. Crazy doesn't begin to describe it. :-)
ReplyDeleteSo glad you're here today, Mary! I have three brothers and no sisters and I'm the oldest. I adore my brothers but I can't say we don't drive each other crazy with our distinct but loud personalities. I'm an extroverted writer and have the most opinions. One of my brothers is a professional magician and literally owns whatever room he walks into whether we want him to or not. One brother is a sports and movie nut and has the loudest voice of any of us. One brother lives away and stays out of the fray by being the most "establishment" after he was the wildest of us as a child--but he's also the funniest. We get each other but anyone who comes in and joins the crew takes a good long time to get used to us. Sometimes I wish we were all a little more ready to be let out in public :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting me, Liz! Yes, the toughest thing is for people who dare to come in and join the crew. I've always pitied them! I once described our family at the dinner table (in an essay for advanced comp class in college) as a group in which it wasn't inappropriate to wear hunting vests, what with all the shots flying around the room.
ReplyDeletepeople who cut in line
ReplyDeletebn100candg at hotmail dot com
bn100, people who cut in line ARE obnoxious. Agree!
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Liz and Mary! I love the concept of your Bennet series. I won't pick on my sister but on someone else for my comment. One thing that gets on my nerves is when people change the subject in conversations so often I can't figure out what we're talking about. Could be an endearing trait in certain characters but obnoxious in others.... :-) lynnlovegreen(at)gmail(dot)com
ReplyDeleteLynn, yes! My mom could make your head spin with all her changes of subject. But when I'm with a really close friend, sometimes we both go off on wild tangents the entire time ... and sometime we both keep up with the constant changes of topics. It's a miracle!
ReplyDelete:-) Will follow you on Goodreads, too, Mary.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lynn! I'm planning to get more active on Goodreads ... just as soon as I finish the revisions sitting on my desk!
Delete