24 July 2015

Author Q&A Session with Giveaway #52: With Elaine Dimopoulos



Hello,
Good day and I hope y'all are having a awesome Friday. Today I bring you another author interview with a debut YA writer who created a fantastic dystopian tale about fashion, yes, that's right, Elaine Dimopoulos is here to talk about her debut book, Material Girls, also about fashion, and life beyond books and all.

A terrific writer as well as a teacher, Elaine has penned a beautiful and compelling YA story. Keep reading, since there's a surprise at the bottom of the interview post.. stay tuned guys!

Read the review of Material Girls





Me: Hello and welcome to my blog, Elaine. Congratulations on your debut book. How are you feeling about your first venture into the literary world?

Elaine:
Thanks! I feel great. On the one hand, it’s bizarre to me that people other than my family and close friends are reading something I’ve written. On the other hand, I worked hard to get published, and it took a while, so I’m relishing the experience.


Me: What was your source of inspiration for this book, Material Girls?

Elaine:
In my twenties, I read fashion magazines and watched trends change at an alarmingly fast rate. I began asking questions about how clothes are manufactured and what happens to them after we discard them. I watched child celebrities take public face plants and wondered about their experiences in the limelight. I considered our culture’s perpetual obsession with youth. All these elements made it into MATERIAL GIRLS.


Me: Well, let me ask you one quick question and I really can't stop myself from asking you this one! Did anyone ever mention you about the striking similarities in your looks with that of the actress, Maggie Gyllenhaal?

Elaine:
Ha! Yes, I’ve heard that. I’ll take it; she’s very striking. My nose is more Greek, though!


Me: Okay back to literary questions, how did you research for your plot?

Elaine:
I used the library and the internet to learn about clothing production, clothing waste, the history of fashion, design techniques, and child labor movements. I also ripped out zany looks from fashion magazines and tacked them up around my office. Oh, and I went to the Grammys to check out the contemporary pop music scene. That was fun!


Me: Since it is your first time as an author, how are you handling the reviews both bad and good, about your book? And what did you expect your readers to get away with after reading Material Girls?

Elaine:
I read reviews from professional critique journals -- most of which, happily, have been positive -- but unless reviewers tag me on social media, I don’t read reviews from blogs or sites like Goodreads. Getting obsessed with public opinion does no good: the positive reviews over-inflate your ego, and the bad ones send you into a self-destructive spiral.

I would love for readers of MATERIAL GIRLS to think a little harder about where their clothing comes from and where it’s ends up after it’s discarded. I’d also like them to consider that celebrity is alluring, but it comes at a cost.


Me: Tell us one trait of Marla and Ivy that intrigues you the most.


Elaine:
I find Ivy’s complicated relationship with fame intriguing. I also like that Marla begins as a people-pleasing perfectionist and changes dramatically over the course of the novel.


Me: Was it always your one true dream to be an author?

Elaine:
No. I thought I’d end up as something much more stable. A scientist, perhaps. I have always loved writing, but I find it challenging, too. I thought novel writers were the types of people who could barf out thirty pages in one sitting. That’s not me. I’m slow, and I love the details. I still think it’s a miracle when I finish projects.


Me: What other passions do you have apart from writing?

Elaine:
Singing, public speaking, reading, traveling, teaching


Me: What's next up on your writing sleeves? Please tell us briefly about it.

Elaine:
I am playing around with a companion novel to MATERIAL GIRLS. It will most likely feature boys in the gaming industry. Stay tuned!


Me: Wow sounds amazing! Thanks a lot Elaine for joining me today on this interview session. I wish you luck for all your future endeavors.

Elaine:
Thanks a million for hosting me on your blog! I really appreciate it.
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Elaine's Bio:


Elaine studied writing at Simmons College’s Center for the Study of Children’s Literature. She was admitted to its M.F.A. program on the basis of a single short story. That story would become the first chapter of her novel Material Girls.
Before dedicating herself to writing for young people, Elaine earned a degree in literature from Yale and an M.A. in education leadership from the Klingenstein Center at Columbia. She currently teaches children’s literature and writing courses at Boston University and Grub Street. She served as the Associates of the Boston Public Library’s Children’s Writer-in-Residence while she wrote Material Girls and was also named a St. Botolph Club Emerging Artist. She blogs about children’s books for the parenting site Mommybites.com, and her writing has appeared in Of Looms and Lilies, a modern dance composition by choreographer Jody Weber. Elaine lives outside Boston with her family.



Connect with Elaine on: Website | Facebook | Twitter 



Now for the Giveaway fun:



The author is giving away one hardcover copy of her debut YA novel, Material Girls. This giveaway is open only to US and the giveaway ends on 14th August. 2015. So hurry!


a Rafflecopter giveaway




4 comments:

  1. At first site of this book I thought it was another teenager material world book. But as I began to read the interview I knew this book would be different. A genre in it's own. SO thoughtful and full
    beauty and reason. I would be be honored to win this book! Thanks Elaine!

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  2. Sounds like a pretty cool book. A different take on YA dystopian society. Looking forward to checking it out.

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  3. This is a great book though!! I loved reading it sooo much:-)

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  4. Definitely sounds like a book that hasn't been done much before. The cover made me figure it was just another cheesy chick-lit book, but I was definitely wrong.

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