We were so excited to be invited to participate in the blog tour for Dream On, Amber, the awesome new middle-grade book from author Emma Shevah. We’ve got a great giveaway to share with you, but first, let’s see what Emma had to say when we sat down to talk with her about Dream On, Amber:
***INTERVIEW***
It’s a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me!
It was, but it was also hard. I cried as much as I laughed but I wanted it to be ultimately uplifting so I put lots of comedy in there, and oodles of love. Love rocks. The voice of Amber came to me easily and just flowed out onto the page faster than I could type, which was a joy. That is not my current experience, which is frustrating. I’m having a hard time with the book I’m writing at the moment. I’d like Amber to be my narrator again and I asked her to help me out but she told me to get lost.
My dad held me when I was a baby and left soon afterwards, never to be seen again. I went to find him when I was eighteen but I found out he’d died when I was six, so I never got to meet or know him. When I was young there weren’t any books for kids like me whose fathers had upped and disappeared: there were books about children who were orphans, and about children whose fathers were away fighting in wars but none about children who had to deal with the aftermath when their fathers left for no apparent reason. So I wanted to write one. But I wanted to replace the dad-shaped hole with something positive, so I came up with the idea of Dream Dad.
I didn’t do much research for Amber really. I had to find out about samurai and their swords, and googled things like ‘death from cat pee’ and ‘germ phobia’. I hope no one ever scrutinizes my internet searches because they’d be worried about me.
Amber Miyamoto is half Japanese and half Italian and loves art. She’s the smallest child in ever school year in every school she’s been in and she’s afraid of everything and everyone. She’d like to be a fearless warrior but she isn’t, and she’s growing up without a father. But she has a hilarious and embarrassing Nonna, mother and sister, and she’s fiesty. Amber’s cool. You should check her out.
I would introduce Bella to Lola from Charlie and Lola. I think they’d get on.
Nomadic, adventurous, curious and rebellious.
I’m a Russian spy. (That’s a joke, CIA)
OK, I’m not a spy. I’m the great great granddaughter of a King.
OK, I’m not the great great granddaughter of a ki—
Actually I am.
Not really, but I have an enormous, lavish wooden desk that has cabinets with glass doors on all four corners, like something belonging to the CEO of a multinational corporation, and I usually write there. Someone gave it to me: I’d never have bought something so mighty and authoritative but I do like it. I fold my legs under me while I’m writing and then when I try to stand up to get the door or make tea, they buckle and go numb so I can’t walk and hop around going ‘ahh ahh’. Not something I’m proud of.
It’s not really a genre but award-winning and shortlisted fiction: I like the decent stuff.
Theo Decker in The Goldfinch: he’s totally swoon-worthy. I’m a bit in love with him (OK, more than a bit). And I love Joe in The Sky is Everywhere and Noah in I’ll Give You The Sun because they’re passionate and bursting with life.
My next book is coming out in the US in July 2016: it’s about a girl who was adopted from an orphanage in Cambodia when she was a baby and wants to be a famous actor. It’s called Dara Palmer’s Major Drama. And I’m writing another book as we speak.
Yes. It goes like this:
‘Emma, would you kindly accept this cheque for ten million pounds?’
And I say, ‘ Well, alright then. That would be lovely, thank you.’
I’m not sure why no one ever asks me that. I’m still waiting I guess.
Pleasure! Hope you like it!
***About Emma Shevah***
Emma Shevah is half-Irish and half-Thai born and raised in London. She has lived in Australia, Japan, India (her first child was born in the Himalayas) and Jerusalem before moving back to the UK. Emma has busked as a fire-juggler, been a restaurant manager, a copy writer, an English teacher, and is now a blogger and author.
***About Dream On, Amber***
Dream On, Amber by Emma Shevah Published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky on October 6, 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Middle Grade
Pages: 272
Goodreads Buy the Book
My name is Amber Alessandra Leola Kimiko Miyamoto.
I have no idea why my parents gave me all those hideous names but they must have wanted to ruin my life, and you know what? They did an amazing job.As a half-Japanese, half-Italian girl with a ridiculous name, Amber’s not feeling molto bene (very good) about making friends at her new school.
But the hardest thing about being Amber is that a part of her is missing. Her dad. He left when she was little and he isn't coming back. Not for her first day of middle school and not for her little sister’s birthday. So Amber will have to dream up a way for the Miyamoto sisters to make it on their own…
***GIVEAWAY***
What do you think, Pretties? Doesn’t this book look awesome?
