Welcome, Booklovers!
Author DG Driver is visiting the Coffee Chat this week, and we're featuring her YA urban fantasy, Echo of the Cliffs.
Good morning, DG. How do you take your coffee?
DG: I use a packet of Splenda and some hazelnut creamer. I pretty much always drink it from a coffee tumbler on my way to work. On the weekends I drink it while I watch the morning news or CBS Sunday Morning. I sip at it slowly and distractedly, so it is often cold before I’m done.
Ally: Hmm. Cold coffee isn't the best, so maybe we'll put a magic spell on it to keep it warm during our chat. While I discuss this with my magic pot, please introduce yourself to readers.
Author DG Driver is visiting the Coffee Chat this week, and we're featuring her YA urban fantasy, Echo of the Cliffs.
Good morning, DG. How do you take your coffee?
DG: I use a packet of Splenda and some hazelnut creamer. I pretty much always drink it from a coffee tumbler on my way to work. On the weekends I drink it while I watch the morning news or CBS Sunday Morning. I sip at it slowly and distractedly, so it is often cold before I’m done.
Ally: Hmm. Cold coffee isn't the best, so maybe we'll put a magic spell on it to keep it warm during our chat. While I discuss this with my magic pot, please introduce yourself to readers.
BIO:
D. G. Driver is a multi-award-winning author of middle grade and young adult books. She loves to write about diverse characters dealing with social or environmental issues. In addition to writing, she is a teacher at an early intervention childhood development center in Nashville. She is also an actress and singer and can often be found performing in a local musical theater production with one or more members of her talented family.
Something unique/unusual that isn't in your regular bio: " I like to crochet. I taught myself when I was younger because I had a hard time being still and quieting my thoughts. I made hats and sweaters and wore them when I used to be a folk singer at coffee houses in California. It was my “look”. Then I got Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. So, now I only do it occasionally because I can get super obsessed with it and hurt my wrists. Then I can’t type my stories, so it’s a lose-lose situation. I’d been slowly making a mermaid tail blanket for over a year, and I finally gave up on it when my stepdaughters bought me one already made. Sometimes I think about finishing it just because I don’t like to leave things unfinished."
Contact the Author:
www.dgdriver.com
https://www.facebook.com/donnagdriver
https://www.twitter.com/DGDriverAuthor
www.instagram.com/d_g_driver#
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7867013.D_G_Driver
http://www.amazon.com/D.-G.-Driver/e/B00J70QN64
D. G. Driver is a multi-award-winning author of middle grade and young adult books. She loves to write about diverse characters dealing with social or environmental issues. In addition to writing, she is a teacher at an early intervention childhood development center in Nashville. She is also an actress and singer and can often be found performing in a local musical theater production with one or more members of her talented family.
Something unique/unusual that isn't in your regular bio: " I like to crochet. I taught myself when I was younger because I had a hard time being still and quieting my thoughts. I made hats and sweaters and wore them when I used to be a folk singer at coffee houses in California. It was my “look”. Then I got Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. So, now I only do it occasionally because I can get super obsessed with it and hurt my wrists. Then I can’t type my stories, so it’s a lose-lose situation. I’d been slowly making a mermaid tail blanket for over a year, and I finally gave up on it when my stepdaughters bought me one already made. Sometimes I think about finishing it just because I don’t like to leave things unfinished."
Contact the Author:
www.dgdriver.com
https://www.facebook.com/donnagdriver
https://www.twitter.com/DGDriverAuthor
www.instagram.com/d_g_driver#
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7867013.D_G_Driver
http://www.amazon.com/D.-G.-Driver/e/B00J70QN64
INTERVIEW:
Ally: What were your steps to publication, including what worked and what didn't?
DG: I first got published back in 1994 – a short story in a literary magazine. My career is one of small bumps of success, rather than those big leaps some authors get. I’ve had stories in magazines and anthologies. Articles in websites and periodicals. I’ve had a couple original plays produced. I’ve published nonfiction books with a scholastic press for libraries, and I had a whole run of middle grade books published and then go out of print when the publisher went out of business. Most of my current books have won awards. It has definitely been a writing career where I get just enough jolts to let me know I’m not foolish to pursue this dream. Every time I want to quit, something new happens as if to say, “Hang in there.” The Juniper Sawfather Novels are published by Fire and Ice Young Adult Books. I found a listing for them in a periodical that I get that lists a few publishers or agents per issue. They accepted Cry of the Sea back in 2013, and I’ve now published several projects with them. I will continue to work with them, but I am still working toward getting an agent.
Ally: Talk about your main character and what makes her so interesting.
DG: Juniper Sawfeather has just turned eighteen at the start of book three of this series. She is a headstrong, stubborn young woman who has been taught by her environmental activist parents to care about the environment and stand up for what is right. She’s very smart, top of her class, but her exploits have gotten her in trouble with the school’s vice principal, and she has been forced to drop out of school for the last semester. June encounters mythical creatures and magic, and many people think she’s a fake and a liar. She has a small group that stands behind her: her parents, her boyfriend Carter, her friend Haley, and a rogue reporter named Juarez. Two of these people go missing in book three. I won’t say which two, but she is desperate to find them. If she can locate the final piece of the American Indian legend she now knows to be true, and the missing mermaids she rescued in book one, Cry of the Sea, she’s certain she will succeed.
Ally: How do you choose and name your characters?
DG: I’m a teacher, and a lot of the time I take names from former students – a first name from one and a last name from another. Sometimes I take names from people I went to school with as well. Juniper Sawfeather, however, came to my mind the moment I came up with the concept of Cry of the Sea. I knew that I wanted her to be American Indian, and I knew that I wanted her parents to be environmental activists. I thought they would give her a name that came from nature. A woman who is a noted reviewer of books featuring American Indian characters balked at the name Sawfeather as being inauthentic, so I did a bit more research into names common from the tribal nations in the Washington State area. In book two, Whisper of the Woods, Juniper’s father tells a story about the name Sawfeather, how and why he chose it to be his name instead of the one he was born with. It’s a touching moment between him and June early in the book that reveals a lot about his young life.
Ally: How much research do you do?
DG: I have done quite a lot of research for the Juniper Sawfeather Novels. Each of the three books focuses on a different environmental issue: oil spill, logging of Old Growth trees, and industrial run-off pollution. I had to learn about the causes, laws, and damage done by these emergencies.
In addition to that, each book has American Indian mythology woven into the plot. There is just one myth in book one that I massaged to fit the plot, but the mythology becomes central to the plotline in book two. I specifically researched mythology from the Northwest Pacific region and was amazed each time I found a legend that fit my storyline perfectly. This is fiction, so I adapted the myths somewhat to fit, but not too much. For instance, the real myth of the ‘Three Warriors and the Sun’ (which is the myth that ties the series together) actually has five warriors.
Those were the big things I researched before writing began. I researched lots of little things as I wrote, like what the ferry times are to cross the San Juan Strait, what the ferries look like inside, where would the best beach for this story take place and what does it look like, how long would it take to drive from Olympia to the shore? Where are the American Indian reservations in Washington? How big are they? What are there politics? Lots and lots of stuff like that.
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
DG: I have a sweet romance novella out called Passing Notes. It’s about a teen boy who is clumsy at being romantic until a ghost starts giving him notes teaching him how to write the perfect love letter. It’s a very “aww” story and makes people cry at the end. Critics love it, but the world doesn’t seem to know it exists. So… I’ve decided to revise the story with a new ending and then write what happens next. I’m adding two more “parts” to this story to make it a full-length book. It will have more paranormal activity, some historical fiction, some contemporary teen romance, and most of all lots of love letters. I am calling it All the Love You Write. If I get my act together, the book should come out sometime next year. In the meantime, check out Passing Notes. It’s only 99 cents at all ebook vendors. And follow me at Facebook or Twitter where I will put updates on its progress.
Ally: I have a few short answer questions so readers can get to know DG, the person.
Ally: It was a delight to meet you, DG. Before you go, please show us your latest book...
Ally: What were your steps to publication, including what worked and what didn't?
DG: I first got published back in 1994 – a short story in a literary magazine. My career is one of small bumps of success, rather than those big leaps some authors get. I’ve had stories in magazines and anthologies. Articles in websites and periodicals. I’ve had a couple original plays produced. I’ve published nonfiction books with a scholastic press for libraries, and I had a whole run of middle grade books published and then go out of print when the publisher went out of business. Most of my current books have won awards. It has definitely been a writing career where I get just enough jolts to let me know I’m not foolish to pursue this dream. Every time I want to quit, something new happens as if to say, “Hang in there.” The Juniper Sawfather Novels are published by Fire and Ice Young Adult Books. I found a listing for them in a periodical that I get that lists a few publishers or agents per issue. They accepted Cry of the Sea back in 2013, and I’ve now published several projects with them. I will continue to work with them, but I am still working toward getting an agent.
Ally: Talk about your main character and what makes her so interesting.
DG: Juniper Sawfeather has just turned eighteen at the start of book three of this series. She is a headstrong, stubborn young woman who has been taught by her environmental activist parents to care about the environment and stand up for what is right. She’s very smart, top of her class, but her exploits have gotten her in trouble with the school’s vice principal, and she has been forced to drop out of school for the last semester. June encounters mythical creatures and magic, and many people think she’s a fake and a liar. She has a small group that stands behind her: her parents, her boyfriend Carter, her friend Haley, and a rogue reporter named Juarez. Two of these people go missing in book three. I won’t say which two, but she is desperate to find them. If she can locate the final piece of the American Indian legend she now knows to be true, and the missing mermaids she rescued in book one, Cry of the Sea, she’s certain she will succeed.
Ally: How do you choose and name your characters?
DG: I’m a teacher, and a lot of the time I take names from former students – a first name from one and a last name from another. Sometimes I take names from people I went to school with as well. Juniper Sawfeather, however, came to my mind the moment I came up with the concept of Cry of the Sea. I knew that I wanted her to be American Indian, and I knew that I wanted her parents to be environmental activists. I thought they would give her a name that came from nature. A woman who is a noted reviewer of books featuring American Indian characters balked at the name Sawfeather as being inauthentic, so I did a bit more research into names common from the tribal nations in the Washington State area. In book two, Whisper of the Woods, Juniper’s father tells a story about the name Sawfeather, how and why he chose it to be his name instead of the one he was born with. It’s a touching moment between him and June early in the book that reveals a lot about his young life.
Ally: How much research do you do?
DG: I have done quite a lot of research for the Juniper Sawfeather Novels. Each of the three books focuses on a different environmental issue: oil spill, logging of Old Growth trees, and industrial run-off pollution. I had to learn about the causes, laws, and damage done by these emergencies.
In addition to that, each book has American Indian mythology woven into the plot. There is just one myth in book one that I massaged to fit the plot, but the mythology becomes central to the plotline in book two. I specifically researched mythology from the Northwest Pacific region and was amazed each time I found a legend that fit my storyline perfectly. This is fiction, so I adapted the myths somewhat to fit, but not too much. For instance, the real myth of the ‘Three Warriors and the Sun’ (which is the myth that ties the series together) actually has five warriors.
Those were the big things I researched before writing began. I researched lots of little things as I wrote, like what the ferry times are to cross the San Juan Strait, what the ferries look like inside, where would the best beach for this story take place and what does it look like, how long would it take to drive from Olympia to the shore? Where are the American Indian reservations in Washington? How big are they? What are there politics? Lots and lots of stuff like that.
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
DG: I have a sweet romance novella out called Passing Notes. It’s about a teen boy who is clumsy at being romantic until a ghost starts giving him notes teaching him how to write the perfect love letter. It’s a very “aww” story and makes people cry at the end. Critics love it, but the world doesn’t seem to know it exists. So… I’ve decided to revise the story with a new ending and then write what happens next. I’m adding two more “parts” to this story to make it a full-length book. It will have more paranormal activity, some historical fiction, some contemporary teen romance, and most of all lots of love letters. I am calling it All the Love You Write. If I get my act together, the book should come out sometime next year. In the meantime, check out Passing Notes. It’s only 99 cents at all ebook vendors. And follow me at Facebook or Twitter where I will put updates on its progress.
Ally: I have a few short answer questions so readers can get to know DG, the person.
- a. book you're currently reading – Before I Left by Daisy White
- b. hiking or sunbathing – Hiking. Used to do it more when I lived in California.
- c. What comes to your first - character or plot? Plot. I always come up with what happens before I decide who it’s happening to.
- d. Your pets - type and names – We have a cat named Angel, a bunch of fish that don’t have names, and a King snake that depending on which member of the household you ask is named Loki, Houdini or Gus (we never agreed).
- e. a fantasy being/person you'd like to be – I guess, in keeping with my series, I’d like to be a mermaid, but definitely NOT like the ones in my book. I want to be a pretty one that lives in Hawaii.
Ally: It was a delight to meet you, DG. Before you go, please show us your latest book...
Echo of the Cliffs, A Juniper Sawfeather Novel, Book 3
Three warriors asked the sun to grant them wishes of immortality to protect their people forever. One was turned into a merman, another was turned into a tree, and final warrior was turned into a stone.
Juniper Sawfeather has learned there is truth to this American Indian legend. She knows how it connects the mermaids she saved from an oil spill to the ancient spirit that trapped her in the branches of an Old Growth tree. Now she wants to find out if the final part of this legend is true: that some kind of magical stone exists. A lone mermaid finds her and shares a vision of a cliff along the ocean shore. This must be the place, and June knows she needs to find it.
Tragedy happens when June and her boyfriend, Carter, join her parents on a mission to the San Juan Strait to collect evidence of construction run-off pollution, and they are attacked by a killer whale. June is convinced that the killer whale was led by mermaids, and she is desperate to find out why they attacked and where they are hiding. Once again, Juniper is on a heroic mission, the most frightening adventure yet. A thrilling ending to this award-winning trilogy!
Learn more about the whole series at www.dgdriver.com
Buy Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Echo-Cliffs-Juniper-Sawfeather-Novel-ebook/dp/B072C4CFMP
Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/echo-of-the-cliffs-d-g-driver/1126467771?ean=2940154387467
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/726371
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/echo-of-the-cliffs/id1241170527?mt=11
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/echo-of-the-cliffs-a-juniper-sawfeather-novel-3
Lulu (for print): http://www.lulu.com/shop/d-g-driver/echo-of-the-cliffs/paperback/product-23195472.html
Book trailers for Cry of the Sea (book #1) and Whisper of the Woods (book #2).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSXZrIF3VqA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXdYYYbHi2M
Three warriors asked the sun to grant them wishes of immortality to protect their people forever. One was turned into a merman, another was turned into a tree, and final warrior was turned into a stone.
Juniper Sawfeather has learned there is truth to this American Indian legend. She knows how it connects the mermaids she saved from an oil spill to the ancient spirit that trapped her in the branches of an Old Growth tree. Now she wants to find out if the final part of this legend is true: that some kind of magical stone exists. A lone mermaid finds her and shares a vision of a cliff along the ocean shore. This must be the place, and June knows she needs to find it.
Tragedy happens when June and her boyfriend, Carter, join her parents on a mission to the San Juan Strait to collect evidence of construction run-off pollution, and they are attacked by a killer whale. June is convinced that the killer whale was led by mermaids, and she is desperate to find out why they attacked and where they are hiding. Once again, Juniper is on a heroic mission, the most frightening adventure yet. A thrilling ending to this award-winning trilogy!
Learn more about the whole series at www.dgdriver.com
Buy Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Echo-Cliffs-Juniper-Sawfeather-Novel-ebook/dp/B072C4CFMP
Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/echo-of-the-cliffs-d-g-driver/1126467771?ean=2940154387467
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/726371
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/echo-of-the-cliffs/id1241170527?mt=11
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/echo-of-the-cliffs-a-juniper-sawfeather-novel-3
Lulu (for print): http://www.lulu.com/shop/d-g-driver/echo-of-the-cliffs/paperback/product-23195472.html
Book trailers for Cry of the Sea (book #1) and Whisper of the Woods (book #2).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSXZrIF3VqA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXdYYYbHi2M
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