Author Spotlight: Who is Ginger Scott?

YM and I recently read a book called ‘How We Deal With Gravity’ and totally fell in love with the author Ginger Scott. We were given the opportunity to review her upcoming book ‘This is Falling’ and decided that she is someone we need to tell everyone about! It’s rare to read 2 back-to-back 5-star books by the same author. And I’m guessing when we read her other 3 books we’ll have a total of 5 5-star books from her. We absolutely cannot tell you enough that YOU NEED TO READ THESE BOOKS! They are 2 of our MUST READ books of the year. So in this post we aim to answer the question “Who is Ginger Scott?”

Ginger Scott

Ginger Scott is a writer and journalist from Peoria, Arizona. She is the author of four young and new adult romances, with her fifth title, This Is Falling, set to release in late August 2014.

Scott has been writing and editing for newspapers, magazines and blogs for more than 15 years. She has told the stories of Olympians, politicians, actors, scientists, cowboys, criminals and towns. For more on her and her work, visit her website at http://www.littlemisswrite.com.

When she’s not writing, the odds are high that she’s somewhere near a baseball diamond, either watching her son field pop flies like Bryce Harper or cheering on her favorite baseball team, the Arizona Diamondbacks. Scott is married to her college sweetheart whom she met at ASU (fork ’em, Devils).

Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/GingerScott

Website
http://www.littlemisswrite.com/

Facebook
www.facebook.com/GingerScottAuthor

Twitter
@TheGingerScott

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Author Q&A

Q: So the pranks in ‘This is Falling’…do those come from personal experience or was all that totally fabricated?

A: Hmmmm, a little bit of both. I did flip someone’s drawers once in college. It’s not easy to do, and you really have to count on the other person to not notice right away. But in college you can pretty much ALWAYS count on people to overlook details:-) Now, as for the BIG prank, which is too good to giveaway, let me just say that my husband is the prank master. There is no beating him–truly. And the REALLY big prank that happens in ‘This Is Falling’…he did that to someone.

Q: Let’s talk about the serious side of Falling for a minute, were you personally touched by a school shooting or was that just your fictional brilliance at work?

A: I am fortunate in that I have never been touched directly by a school shooting. My life before fiction was in journalism, though, and I have covered my fair share tragedies. I’ve covered threats, mass shootings, bomb scares–many at schools. And the one thing that always stayed with me is the thought of what happens to those who survived–those left behind–a year later, two years later, even ten years later? There are things that I’ve been through, small and minuscule in comparison, and those things have stuck with me and changed me. Imagine the change that comes from something as heartbreaking as a school shooting? That thought struck me early when I began mapping out FALLING, and it just felt right for this story. I wish, if only, school shootings were always just a work of fiction.

Q: Ok…switching gears to our other favorite – Who was your inspiration for Max in ‘How We Deal With Gravity’, and were any other characters in that book inspired by real folks or were they all in your head?

A: I have been a volunteer writer for an autism organization in Phoenix for years. I based the character Max on the many children of families affected by autism who I have interviewed over the years as well as family personally affected. Autism is a cause very near and dear to me, and it just felt like a story begging to blend love and hope. I think you need one to fight for the other, and the families I have met who are touched by autism are the biggest fighters I know–and they are the biggest champions of hope and love. ‘How We Deal With Gravity’ is very much a tribute to them.

Q: What made you switch from the spotlight stories/journalism style stories to novels?

A: Writing novels is what I have wanted to do my whole life. I let fear stand in my way for a really long time–fear of not being accepted or of writing something and having nobody care. Putting my first book out there is the scariest thing I’ve ever done, and I am so glad I did. It’s truly my life’s dream. Getting published was not always easy though. If you are an aspiring novelist, you might be interested in taking a look at this massive guide to getting your book published.

Q: YM and I are shocked and awed that you are not all over Facebook and the blogs…we’re not sure how you have been missed. How hard is it to market yourself and get a good fan base to follow and promote you?

A: First of all, thank you for saying that. That is really nice, so thank you. I spend almost as much time marketing as I do writing. I am on social media (probably more than I should be) constantly. Besides journalism, my background is in advertising and digital marketing, and I really am a one-woman team. I make video teasers, blog, Facebook, Tweet, write to bloggers, make graphics, implement SEO strategies (like those from https://victoriousseo.com/markets/seo-reseller/), etc. constantly. But I get tired (insomnia only carries you for a while), and my reach can only go so far. I have been lucky in that I’ve had others start to help tell my story for me–and I can’t thank bloggers like you enough. Really, the impact you have on an author’s dream is phenomenal, and I feel blessed to have anyone pay attention to me and my stories.

Let’s have some fun. These lists are popping up all over Facebook so we’re asking you too. List the top 10 books that stayed with you/made an impact on you:

Okay, my list is an eclectic blend, and this order is by no means an order, as I could reorder at any moment based on my mood, but these are the ones that really stick with me.

  1. Judy Blume FOREVER – this book is the reason I wanted to become a writer, and the reason I love YA.
  2. Friday Night Lights – I love a good piece of sports journalism. Texas High School football, y’all. This book is amazing, and the TV show it inspired will always be my favorite TV show ever.
  3. Prep – Curtis Sittenfeld. Love her.
  4. Beautiful Disaster – One of those genre changers that I could read again and again. And, hello…Travis Maddox? Uhm, yes please.
  5. The Thoughtless trilogy – I loved these. Gobbled them up.
  6. I feel like I should lump everything by Colleen Hoover into one category. If I have to pick a favorite, for me, it’s Maybe Someday.
  7. The Great Gatsby. I’ve read it dozens of times. I admire Fitzgerald’s bravery to tell such a lovely, bleak story.
  8. Bully by Penelope Douglas – I read this recently, and I loved it.
  9. Mystic River – Dennis Lehane. I never read mystery, or at least, rarely. It just isn’t my thing. But I read Lehane. I bought his book after seeing him speak because I had to read the characters he was talking about. My god can that man create a character.
  10. The Fault in Our Stars. Yeah, like the rest of the world I cried…and cried. I just didn’t want to be left out, and I’m glad I jumped on the bandwagon.

The Stories Behind The Story – THIS IS FALLING by Ginger Scott

THIS IS FALLING is about first loves, overcoming tragedy, finding courage, forging friendships and…baseball. Okay, so maybe it’s only a little about baseball. But it’s enough about baseball. I’ve been dying to write a story with a baseball thread, because as much as I love the purity of high school football (the backdrop for my debut WAITING ON THE SIDELINES), my veins bleed Rawlings leather and warning track dust. Baseball is just plain romantic. It can’t help itself. It’s one of the hardest games to play, impossible to master, and sexy as hell to watch. And I hope readers fall in love with Nate Preeter, my MR. BASEBALL, as much as I’m in love with the game.

There are a lot of little (and a few big) things that inspired me throughout this story, and I thought it might be fun to share some of those secrets-the story-behind-the-story if you will. So I give you Seven Fun Facts about THIS IS FALLING.

  1. The Preeter brothers were inspired by two brothers from Arizona State University-the Poole brothers. I won’t get too deep into their story, but Keith Poole was one hell of a wide receiver, and his brother Marc was paralyzed from the waist down. I worked at the college paper and knew their story well-often seeing Marc on the sidelines, his brother and best friend making a game-winning catch on the field. Their story is one that’s unbelievably inspiring, and it stuck with me for years. I didn’t know them well, having met Keith a handful of times and quoted him once or twice for an editorial. But they made an impression. The Preeter boys aren’t the Pooles. But they were on my mind.
  2. Nate Preeter isn’t any one person, but rather several sort of mashed together to make a hell-of-a sexy ballplayer. He’s part Sun Devil inspired with a touch of Buster Posey, and I made him from Louisiana because my cousin’s from there, and he won a college world series at LSU (and two MLB ones with the Cardinals and Giants – see if you can guess who he is ;-).
  3. Nate’s a catcher, because catchers are, quite honestly and to steal a line from my book, “the heart and the soul of the team.” Plus, Buster Posey is a catcher, and Buster Posey is the bomb. Have I mentioned I like Buster Posey?
  4. I had ASU’s Packard Stadium in my head when I described the fields at McConnell University.
  5. McConnell is loosely modeled after Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. It’s just smaller-more…elite. But the town is very much Stillwater.
  6. There’s a really great bar in THIS IS FALLING called Sally’s. If you know Stillwater, it’s a little bit of a shout-out to Eskimo Joe’s. I named it Sally’s after my bassett hound.
  7. And number seven…there is one prank-the prank above all pranks-that plays out in THIS IS FALLING. I married a man who actually did that to someone;-)

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Books (Purchase Links & Review Links)

This is Falling

http://www.amazon.com/This-Falling-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00MQB7J1Y/ref=sr_1_6?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1408503390&sr=1-6&keywords=ginger+scott

Christina’s 5-star review of ‘This is Falling’

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1025419135?book_show_action=false

YM’s 5-star review of ‘This is Falling’

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1023648879?book_show_action=false&page=1

How We Deal With Gravity

http://www.amazon.com/How-Deal-Gravity-Ginger-Scott-ebook/dp/B00LL017OQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404793237&sr=8-1&keywords=how+we+deal+with+gravity

Christina’s 5-star review of ‘How We Deal With Gravity’

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/984191837?book_show_action=false

YM’s 5-star review of ‘How We Deal With Gravity’

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/984079908?book_show_action=false&page=1

Waiting on the Sidelines (on our TBR)

http://www.amazon.com/Waiting-Sidelines-Ginger-Scott-ebook/dp/B00CD69PT6/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1409007123&sr=8-6&keywords=ginger+scott

Going Long (on our TBR)

http://www.amazon.com/Going-Long-Waiting-Sidelines-Book-ebook/dp/B00FG2QWSQ/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1409007123&sr=8-3&keywords=ginger+scott

Blindness (on our TBR)

http://www.amazon.com/Blindness-Ginger-Scott-ebook/dp/B00IM0OFYM/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1409007123&sr=8-5&keywords=ginger+scott

Giveaway
Enter for a chance to win an ecopy of This is Falling on release day (August 29, 2014).

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/321891fc4/

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