RUNNING WIDE OPEN

Seems I've been seeing Lisa Nowak everywhere lately--at a book signing in Vancouver, we were both peddling our wares at the WW Author's Fair in Portland, and just around town. She has just released the sequel to her book, Running Wide Open, called Getting Sideways. The following is an interview I did with her about her first book in December, but she also goes into a little detail about the new book.

Blurb from Lisa's website:

Cody Everett has a temper as hot as the flashpoint of racing fuel, and it’s landed him at his uncle’s trailer, a last-chance home before military school. But how can he take the guy seriously when he calls himself Race, eats Twinkies for breakfast, and pals around with rednecks who drive in circles every Saturday night?

 What Cody doesn’t expect is for the arrangement to work. Or for Race to become the friend and mentor he’s been looking for all his life. But just as Cody begins to settle in and get a handle on his supercharged temper, a crisis sends his life spinning out of control. Everything he’s come to care about is threatened, and he has to choose between falling back on his old, familiar anger or stepping up to prove his loyalty to the only person he’s ever dared to trust.

INTERVIEW:

Me:  Thank you for joining me today. I know you're busy getting your latest book ready for publication, but we'll get to the new one a little later.

 Lisa:  Thanks for inviting me to participate on your blog.

 Me:  Running Wide Open really caught my attention because the cover has a bright yellow racing car on it. Can you tell us the basic set up of the book?

 Lisa:  Running Wide Open is a coming of age story about 15-year-old Cody Everett, who gets in trouble for vandalism and is shipped off to live with his uncle, a laid-back guy who calls himself Race, eats frozen Twinkies for breakfast, and races a stock car. Cody's sure the arrangement won't work out, but he finds himself drawn into the racing community, and Race becomes the mentor he's been looking for all his life.

 Me:  Now, a lot of our male readers might think to themselves, "What in the world would a female author know about racing?" But, tell us a little of your history with cars.

 Lisa:  I was an amateur stock car racer for 13 years. I built and drove cars in Eugene, Oregon, Hickory, North Carolina, and Portland, Oregon. In fact, the car on the cover is one I raced at Hickory.

 Me:  What got you interested in racing in the first place?

 Lisa:  Good question. I guess it goes back to my sense of independence. When I got my first car--a '72 Gremlin--I was shocked by the cost of parts and labor the first time I took it in for a little work. I decided I was going to learn how to repair it myself. Working on cars led to an interest in making them go fast, and that led to stock car racing. Which I guess was a good thing, since the alternative was to be a menace on the streets.

 Me:  Which your main character, Cody, seems to be.

 Lisa:  Well, he's a menace, but not behind the wheel. When he moves in with Race, he doesn't even have his permit--something his uncle remedies in a hurry.

 Me:  Did you have someone like Cody's Uncle Race in your life growing up?

 Lisa:  Not at all. That's why I wanted to write about him. As a kid, I looked to books to find that sort of relationship. I hope that kids in difficult situations will likewise get a few hours of comfort and escape by reading my books.

 Me:  That's a great goal.

 Lisa:  I think every kid deserves to have someone like Race in his or her life.

 Me:  Coming back to Cody and his troubles, he's not only in trouble a lot, but he has a very rocky relationship with his parents, especially his mother. Why did you find it important to give Cody such a unstable past.

 Lisa:  I think a lot of kids are in situations like that. They're not abused severely enough that anyone would take them away from their parents, yet the neglect and emotional trauma they go through damages them. They're left in a position where they don't think they have a right to complain because, after all, nobody's beating them. But they don't have a "real" family, either. I want kids in those circumstances to know that someone understands. And, regarding the plot of the book, putting Cody into a situation like that made his ultimate trust in Race into something meaningful. This book is really about their friendship. About how a broken kid can learn to care about others and believe in himself.

 Me:  Is helping young adults in that transition from kid to adult part of what inspired you to write a YA novel?

    Lisa:  I've never thought of it in those exact terms. I've been writing YA since I was 13, so it's a genre that always seemed natural to me. I think the reason I like it so much is because that coming-of-age time in a person's life is so interesting. It's fascinating to see people discovering who they are and learning how to fit into the world. I would never want to write anything that came across as didactic, but I do hope my books will give kids some food for thought that will help them navigate that time in their lives.

 Me:  So then I take it that your new book, Getting Sideways, is also a YA?

 Lisa:  Yes. It's the second book in the Full Throttle series. At this point, I don't see myself writing anything other than YA. It's the natural voice that's inside me. If I were to write an adult book, I'd feel like I was pretending. I guess I feel like I'm really still a teen inside, and whenever I'm interacting with other people, I'm hoping they won't figure it out. But I hear a lot of YA authors feel that way.

 Me:  Can you give a quick rundown of what Getting Sideways is all about?

 Lisa:  Cody's been deeply affected by an event the previous summer that's changed things between him and his uncle. When he gets the opportunity to build a race car of his own, he thinks it'll be the perfect way to get things back to normal. But he doesn't have his dad's permission, and Race doesn't know that. Cody has to keep Race from finding out long enough to convince his dad to let him build the car. And, or course, messing things up with Race is the last thing he wants to do. Oh, and then there's the fact that he's not sure he has the guts to get out on the track and try to live up to his uncle's reputation. But he can't come clean about that, either.

 Me:  Sounds very intriguing. That comes out in early December?

 Lisa:  December 26th.

 Me:  Can't wait. Lisa, Thank you so much for taking time out to talk.

 Lisa:  It was my pleasure.

Visit Lisa on her blog at http://lisanowak.wordpress.com/