Interview With Mary E. Lambert!

Today I'm happy to present an interview with Mary E. Lambert! Ms. Lambert is the author of the MG book, Family Game Night And Other Catastrophes, which releases February 28th! :)

Here's the interview!

The bold font are the questions I asked, the regular font are her answers, and the bold italic font are my comments about her answers.

Would you please describe your book, Family Game Night and Other Catastrophes, in seven words?

Here are my seven words…in the form of a haiku:

Balog family

Has catastrophic problems,

Also hopefulness

I like the haiku!

Because of the title of your book, I have to ask this question! What's your favorite game?

I love board games! I grew up playing Monopoly, Scrabble, Taboo, Life, Balderdash, and Clue (to name a few) with my family. Right now, I’d probably choose Settlers of Catan as my favorite game, though Scattergories and Ticket to Ride both come to mind, too. 

Random question! Do you listen to music while you write?

Sometimes. If I do listen to music, I tend to choose instrumental pieces—I really enjoy classical guitar and piano. I also find myself listening to Vitamin String Quartet quite a bit.

What's one piece of advice you would give to aspiring authors?

Finish a draft. When I first began writing seriously, I had a bad habit of starting manuscripts and ditching them when the story inevitably became complicated. But I cannot tell you how much I learned about my writing process (and plot development and characterization etc…) from actually completing a first draft of a novel. 

Good advice!

What are some MG and YA books you're looking forward to in 2017? And if you've already read some '17 books, which books have you loved?

There are so many great debuts coming out in 2017! I’ve had the pleasure of reading Stef Soto, Taco Queen by Jennifer Torres and Cilla Lee-Jenkins Future Author Extraordinaire by Susan Tan—both of which are lovely middle grade books. Braced by Alyson Gerber is another wonderful MG novel coming out in 2017. I also have to give a shout out to my fellow AZ debut authors all of whom have YA novels being published this year—I am really looking forward to Sad Perfect by Stephanie Elliot, Fat Girl on a Plane by Kelly deVos, and Seeking Mansfield by Kate Watson. There are many more 2017 books that I am excited about, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll stop there.

These all look great!

Thank you so much to Ms. Lambert for participating in this event! :)

Author bio: Mary E. Lambert lives in Arizona where she teaches middle school English. She has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Family Game Night and Other Catastrophes is her debut novel. Mary spends a vast deal of time grading essays, deleting words from whatever story she is in the process of writing, and reading about all the places in the world she plans to visit someday. Mary is extremely proud of the last game night she had with her family when she beat all of her siblings at Settlers of Catan. You can learn more about her new novel at maryelambert.com or follow her on Twitter at @MaryUncontrary.

Here are a few links:

Her Twitter