Today, dear readers, please enjoy an interview with Tara Entwistle-Clark.
What inspired you to
write A Butterfly in Winter?
Like Allison, I moved in high school and many of my
experiences were similar to hers. I wanted to write this book because I had a
lot of thoughts about the way young girls are taught to be in relationships.
There are so many mixed messages and I wanted to show the result of the
conflicting information that girls get.
How did you come up with the title? It's a great one!
I feel like high school can be nearly impossible to survive,
just as winter can be for a butterfly. A butterfly is fragile and winter is
harsh. The same can be said for a young girl’s psyche and for the pressures of
fitting in as a teen.
Very true. What books have most
influenced your life most?
My favorite author is Courtney Summers. She has managed to
do in her books what I could only dream of doing in my own. I have never read a
better picture of the reality of high school.
If you had to choose,
which writer would you consider a mentor?
Courtney Summers, for the reason I stated.
Can you share a
little of your current work with us?
I’m currently working on another realistic YA title called How Quick Bright Things. Here is an
excerpt (warning: strong language):
“What
are you writing, Joey?” It’s Liz. She sits next to me in study on Tuesdays and
Thursdays. Today is Tuesday. Liz is okay. I close my notebook, hoping she
didn’t read any of what I wrote. Liz is, honestly, a nerd. She’s a little
chubby, with mousy brown hair and a slight lisp. She gets straight A’s, which
means she is very popular - during class. Everyone wants to be in Liz’s group
when we have to work on projects, because she needs the “A” and will get one,
regardless of how much work anyone else does. She sits alone at lunch, though.
Liz is also in English with me.
“My
journal.”
“It’s
not due until next Friday,” she says, surprised.
“Yeah,
I know. I was bored. I have a game next week.” Doing schoolwork before it is
absolutely imperative is only acceptable when it is done so one can play
sports.
“Which
poem are you writing about? I really liked ‘Dulce et Decorum Est.’ I think I’ll
write about that, because I like the whole theme behind it.”
“Yeah,
that one was okay.”
Liz
nods and goes back to her work. I am shocked that she does not want to continue
a conversation with me and my biting wit. I don’t feel like finishing my
journal entry now. I go to sit in the back, where Eric is. Eric and I are not
actually friends. We have known each other since we were kids, since we grew up
on the same street, and we are social, but we don’t exactly hang out. Still, it
is his party on Friday, and I am bored. Besides, Eric will not make me feel
guilty for something I can’t even verbalize.
“Hey,”
he says when I sit down next to him.
“Hey.”
He pushes a paper football at me and moves his chair. I turn so that I am
facing him, desk between us, and he pushes the paper football in my
direction. It lands on my lap. Field
goal time. I flick it and it drills him the forehead. Three points for me!
Eric
puts the football back on the desk, gets the touchdown, and goes for the extra
point. He flicks it, hard. It whooshes past me, over my shoulder, and hits
Julie Ferron in the eye. Julie Ferron. Junior. Gorgeous. Brilliant. She
recently painted the mural in the front of the school. The mural is up for some
big high school art award. Julie is perfect by all standards of measure.
However, she is not a paper football fan. She touches her eye with her finger,
then leans over and picks up the dreaded paper monstrosity. Turning it over
between her long fingers, she examines it as if it holds the answers to world
peace. Then she stands, closes her textbook, and walks to the front of the
room, depositing the football in the trash. As she walks back, she looks at
Eric and me and mouths “fuck you.”
Allison Stafford is fourteen. As if that is not
enough to deal with in itself, her parents suddenly move her from her small
town in Vermont to suburban Michigan
Available at:
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/323454
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-butterfly-in-winter-tara-l-entwistle-clark/1007323833?ean=2940044587830
Tara
Entwistle-Clark is a former high school English teacher who lives and breathes
books. Whether reading, writing, editing, or blogging about them, she seems to
always have books on her mind. She is currently working as a freelance editor,
blogger, and cover designer while writing an untitled fantasy novel as well as
another contemporary realistic teen novel called How Quick Bright Things. She lives in Connecticut
Visit Tara
online at:
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