Introducing Susanne Winnacker a.k.a. myself

I’m not good at writing bios (yeah, I know. That coming from an author. The SHAME). Maybe it’s because I hate writing about myself.

Anyway.

Here comes the most rambling bio ever with more info about me than you probably ever wanted to know.

I live in Germany (just like Lenore!), more precisely the Ruhrgebiet (and you all know where that is, don’t you?? Don’t you?!).

I love parenthesis (oh well). My husband and I are slaves to three bunnies: She-devil, Volderabbit and b*tch (not their actual names but they could be...). They like to spend their days destroying everything that crosses their path. Their latest victim: my edit letter. But I’ve got to hand it to Volderabbit, he took care to gnaw off only my notes, not the actual letter. Lucky for him that I have a good memory.

Our fourth housemate is a Komondor, a Hungarian livestock guardian dog. His hair is short right now, so he looks more like a curly sheep than a huge mop.

I love Chai Latte and coffee, especially Espresso. My husband and I travel a lot. I love to cook and unfortunately to eat. I can’t resist a chocolate soufflé, tiramisu, panna cotta or creme brulée. Yum.

We rarely watch TV but lots of movies and dvds.

My favorite movies: Alien, Avatar, Men in Black, Teminator, Die Hard, Indiana Jones, Kill Bill, Bad Boys, Inglourious Basterds, Lethal Weapon, Sherlock Holmes, X-men, Ice Age, Madagascar, Miss Incongeniality, The Devil wears Prada...

My favorite series: Californication, Six Feet Under, The X-Files, Lost, King of Queens, Home Improvement, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

German is my first language but I write in English anyway.

Before becoming a full-time writer, I studied law. And it so wasn’t my thing.

Oh, and I have a book coming out this year: The Other Life, a YA dystopian thriller. You can watch the trailer!

I think that’s enough info about me.

An Introductory Q&A with Lenore Appelhans

As a longtime follower of the League blog, I’m thrilled to have been asked to join this inspiring, talented group.  I’m an American living in Germany with my illustrator husband Daniel Jennewein and three fancy Sacred Birman cats.  In addition to writing books, I work as a freelance advertising copywriter, I love to travel and I blog at Presenting Lenore.

For my League introduction post, I thought I’d go to twitter and put out a general call for questions.  Here’s what I got.

From  @bermudaonion  How long have you been writing fiction?

From @ReadersInk At what age did you start writing stories, or telling them?

I dabbled in creative writing throughout my schooling, penning several short stories for assignments, literary magazines and writing contests (In 8th grade, I even made it to the state semi-finals of Ohio’s Power of the Pen competition).  My friends and I used to write terrible plays and act them out for the neighborhood. I wrote 2/3 of a novel in high school (I allude to it in LEVEL 2).  LEVEL 2 is my first completed manuscript, and I started writing it in November 2010.

From @novaren What was your journey to becoming an author?

Daniel and I used to joke about moving to a secluded cabin in the woods where he’d illustrate and I’d write novels.  The writing novels part always seemed like a pipe dream though.  I’d heard how hard it was to break into publishing.  Once I started blogging about books and meeting real life authors, I slowly started to think about writing LEVEL 2.  It wasn’t until I had my “Pompeii epiphany” (where I finally figured out how to execute my idea), that I really committed.  

I chatted with BEFORE I FALL Author Lauren Oliver about LEVEL 2 and the fact that she took me seriously, gave me advice and told me to go for it was a real confidence booster.  By the time SCBWI New York conference rolled around at the end of January 2011, I had five chapters written and soon after caught the eye of an agent.  It’s been a whirlwind since then.

From @TiffanySchmidt  Do you have any writing rituals?

Not really.  I usually write between 2-11 pm because I’m useless in the morning.  I start with a loose synopsis as a guideline, but not much is set in stone. I’m a pretty slow drafter because I prefer to write in scene order and I can’t bring myself to move on until I have something right.  I really need to work on that!

From @BethFishReads How long have you lived in Europe? What took you there? Do you plan to stay there?

I moved to Germany in March 2000 for an internship, planning to stay only six months.  I ended up meeting Daniel and not moving back. As far as staying here, only time will tell!

From @BrokeandBookish  What is your favorite place you've ever travelled? 

This is as impossible to answer as saying what my favorite book is! I've been to over 55 countries now, and every trip has been enriching in some way. That said, there are a few destinations I'd love to return to asap: Iceland (for the breathtaking nature), the Galapagos Islands (for the fascinating wildlife) and the Greek Islands (for the food). 

That's all for now - but I guess you'll be hearing a lot more from me on Tuesdays in the months to come!

Hi, My Name Is Mike

I’m told this week is for introductions, and my day to post is Monday, so here goes:

Hi, my name is Mike. I’ve been a writer for 32 years. Wow, that sounds like I’m at an AA meeting, doesn’t it? I suppose it’s appropriate—writing is a tricky addiction.  It gets into your veins and even when you don’t want to do it, when every word makes you shake and sweat and want to rocket out of your chair to scrub the bathroom floor—which doesn’t need it—you keep going because you need that high of the perfect sentence, the beautiful paragraph, the well-crafted chapter close. Or maybe that’s just me.

Here’s the weird thing about writing an introduction for myself: it’s unnatural. If I wanted to write about myself, I would have written a memoir, not a novel. I’d rather hide behind the cloak of fiction, to embed pieces of myself in my characters—in Alex, Darla, and even Target—but not to take responsibility for denuding myself to an audience of thousands.

I even resisted writing the flap copy for the back of my debut novel, ASHFALL. When I finally forced myself to task, I evaded responsibility by writing the silliest bio I could. My publicist insisted that we needed a more serious biography, so I tried again. That still didn’t satisfy her, so I wrote this staid version. Luckily, I was able to convince my publisher to use the silly bio on the book.

So that’s me. My name is Mike. I don’t like writing about myself. And I wrote a novel called ASHFALL. It’s out now. Buy a copy so I can keep writing, would ya? Because I need another fix.

p.s. If you want to know more, ask in the comments. Or let me know what you’d like me to write about on this blog. I’d appreciate the help. Because I have no clue how I’m going to come up with 35 more posts this year.

WINNER!

Let's start the new year with a 
WINNER!


At the end of last year, we held a giveaway--one signed book of each of our works!
And the winner of all five books is...

and that person is....

AMY H!

Congrats, Amy!

Meanwhile, we're working hard behind the scenes to make sure we start the new year right. We've got five new bloggers, two book launches, some giveaways, and more...and that's just January! Stick around for all the fun. Thanks for reading!

Celebrate our First Year and Win Five Signed Books!

THANK YOU ALL!

We here at the League want to thank YOU for sticking with us this first year as we blogged about books, dystopias, sci fi, and more. In order to thank you, want to give you a signed copy of each of our books. One subscriber to the blog will receive all the books!

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Possession by Elana Johnson

Memento Nora by Angie Smibert

The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch

XVI by Julia Karr

Contest is open internationally, and winners will be announced January 2, 2012.

You do need to be a subscriber to win.

Questions? Leave them in the comments below!

Bio: New League Member Gennifer Albin

Oh my heck, you guys! There are SO MANY new awesome bloggers joining us on The League for 2012! I think we might cause the Awesomocalypse just from these announcements.

And today is no different. Welcome YA dystopian author Gennifer Albin to The League!

Name: Gennifer Albin

Title: Crewel (Farrar Straus Giroux, October 2012)

Short Plot: In a world where women, designated as Spinsters, weave time, matter, and the very fabric of existence, a 16-year-old girl must maneuver secrets and lethal intrigue to uncover her destiny.

Favorite dystopian/sci-fi works: I'm a sucker for the classics. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, The Giver by Lois Lowry, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick. But I love The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, Matched by Ally Condie, and Cinder by Marissa Meyer, too. As far as movies? If it's based on a Philip K. Dick story or directed by J.J. Abrams, I know it's for me.

Why I write dystopian? It's the story I had to tell.

Whimper of Bang? I'm positive we're going to have a few bangs in there. Guns, nuclear weapons, asteroids, alien invasions, but at the end, there's only the whimper of it all fading to nothing.

More about Gennifer: Gennifer Albin has a degree in 18th century literature, which means she's read a lot of very old, very long books, but we won't talk about that. Nowadays she spends her times building fantastic worlds comprised of the people she'd like to go on adventures with, while wrangling two little ones. She writes for her husband who loves to read and doesn't mind paying her in delicious, home-baked bread and Indian food.

I am so freaking excited to have Genn on-board, and I cannot wait to read CREWEL. Find her online:

• Website
• Blog
• Twitter: @GenniferAlbin
• CREWEL on Goodreads

New Member: Susanne Winnacker

Name: Susanne Winnacker

YA dystopian title: THE OTHER LIFE (May 1st 2012 in the US, February 1st 2012 in the UK)

Short Plot:

3 years, 1 month, 1 week and 6 days since I’d seen daylight. One-fifth of my life. 98,409,602 seconds since the heavy, steel door had fallen shut and sealed us off from the world 

Sherry has lived with her family in a sealed bunker since things went wrong up above. But when they run out of food, Sherry and her dad must venture outside. There they find a world of devastation, desolation...and the Weepers: savage, mutant killers.

When Sherry's dad is snatched, she joins forces with gorgeous but troubled Joshua - an Avenger, determined to destroy the Weepers.

But can Sherry keep her family and Joshua safe, when his desire for vengeance threatens them all?

Favorite dystopian/sci fi works: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Divergent by Veronica Roth, Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve, The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

Why Write Dystopian?

Because, as crazy as it might sound, dystopian tales give us hope. In The Other Life, Sherry is faced with abandoned, Weeper-infested streets when she leaves the bunker her family spent the last three years in. She must overcome her fear, fight for her life, take care of her family but she grows with the challenge. Dystopia gives us hope because no matter how dark or twisted or inhumane the future is, our protagonists don’t give up. They get out of their adventures stronger. If Katniss can survive The Hunger Games, what are we capable of? Can we maybe get past the little obstacles daily life poses to each of us?

No matter how dark, dystopian fiction gives me hope in the strength that’s buried inside of each of us.

Whimper or a Bang? Bang.

Online @

Website: www.susannewinnacker.com

Twitter:   @SusanneWrites

Goodreads: Susanne Winnacker 

Blog: http://susannewritesfiction.blogspot.com/

Facebook:  Susanne Winnacker

Email: books@susannewinnacker.com