shari goldhagen | blackplume

I’m super thrilled to have author Shari Goldhagen here on the blog today as part of Celebrating Debutantes 2016 event. Shari will be sharing to us her casting pick for her debut YA contemporary novel 100 Days of Cake.

To know more about Shari and 100 Days of Cake, check the author’s bio and book’s description that follows after the guest post, as well as links where to find Shari and where to buy copies of the book.

Also, don’t forget to check the giveaway at the bottom of this post. Enjoy reading!

Here’s Shari with her casting pick for 100 Days of Cake

When I’m writing, I really try to invent a character from the ground up, so I don’t usually have a picture of any actual person in mind. Still it’s always fun, when the book is done, to fantasize about who might play the characters in the movie.

Molly: Hailee Steinfeld

Molly will be eighteen in a few months, and in some ways she’s grown up and worldly and jaded, but in other ways not so much. She’s got a really flat sense of humor, but she’s also vulnerable. I could Hailee Steinfeld showing those contradictions well.

Veronica: Chloe Grace Moretz

In the book, Molly’s sister has dark hair and is taller than Chloe, but the If I Stay star’s energy seems right. V is a pretty girl, and to a lot of people that’s her identity, but she’s got a bit of an edge and is smarter than people, even her family, give her credit. All that said, she’s still only 15 and not quite ready for the responsibility her mom dumps on her.

Alex: Tye Sheridan

Tye seems to be everywhere, but weirdly I think I’ve only seen him in Mud. Still I can totally see him rocking out—all be it self-consciously—in Alex’s band.

Mrs. Bryne: Jennifer Lopez

This definitely wasn’t anything close to the mental picture I had when I was writing her, but now I kind of see Jennifer Lopez as Molly’s mom. Sure she’s ridiculously put together and beautiful and a little cheesy, but she also has this kind of goofy sweetness to her—like I could see J.Lo coming up with the idea that making a cake every day might cheer someone up. And of course she’d be doing the baking in five-inch heels.

Dr. B: Matthew Rhys

Molly’s psychologist is someone she initially dismissed as some dude in his 30s. But as she comes to rely on him more and more, she realizes that, oh yeah, he’s actually pretty darn hot. I love Matthew Rhys on The Americans; he does a really great job of making you understand his emotions and motivations even as he’s doing morally complex things. So I’d love to see him as Molly’s therapist.

Elle: Camren Bicondova

With all her causes and righteous rage, Molly’s best friend can be a lot to handle, but she can also be sweet and really, cripplingly insecure when it comes to social interactions. Cameren has some of that toughness, as well as that toughness that’s really just a defense mechanism.

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Thank you so much Shari for sharing to us your casting pick for 100 Days of Cake.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shari Goldhagen is the author of the adult novels IN SOME OTHER WORLD, MAYBE (St. Martin’s Press, 2015) and FAMILY AND OTHER ACCIDENTS (Doubleday, 2006), and the YA novel 100 DAYS OF CAKE (Atheneum, 2016). A fellow at both Yaddo and MacDowell, Shari writes about pop culture, travel and relationships for publications including Salon, Cosmopolitan, Us Weekly, Life & Style Weekly, and DaySpa. She lives in NYC with her husband and daughter.

Find Shari

Website | Goodreads | Twitter

ABOUT THE BOOKBook Details:
Title: 100 Days of Cake
Author: Shari Goldhagen
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: May 17, 2016
Pages: 352
Format: Hardcover, eBooks

Get well soon isn’t going to cut it in this quirky and poignant debut novel about a girl, her depression, an aggressive amount of baked goods, and the struggle to simply stay afloat in an unpredictable, bittersweet life.

Every other senior at Cove High School might be mapping out every facet of their future, but Molly Bryne just wants to spend the rest of the summer (maybe the rest of her life) watching Golden Girls reruns and hanging out with her cute coworker at FishTopia. Some days, they are the only things that get her out of bed. You see, for the past year, Molly’s been struggling with depression, above and beyond industry-standard teen angst. Crushing on her therapist isn’t helping, and neither is her mom, who is convinced that baking the perfect cake will cure her—as if icing alone can magically make her rejoin the swim team or care about the SATs.

Ummm, no, not going to happen.

But when Molly finds out FishTopia is turning into a lame country diner, her already crummy life starts to fall even more out of her control, and soon she has to figure out what— if anything—is worth fighting for. 100 Days of Cake is a quirky and poignant story of a girl, her depression, an aggressive amount of baked goods, and the struggle to simply stay afloat in an unpredictable, bittersweet world.

Book Links: Amazon | Book Depository | B&N | Goodreads | Publisher

Giveaway:

What’s up for Grab?

copy of 100 Days of Cake

The Rules:

Open to US/Canada residents only
There will be one (1) winner only
Winner will be chosen by rafflecopter
Winner will be contacted thru email & should response within 48 hours
Ends September 02, 2016
Prizes will be sent by the publisher

To enter fill out the rafflecopter form

Good Luck!!!

Treat yourself to a complete #CelebratingDebutantes2016 experience. Click the image below for the full list of schedule and links to each second wave feature post!

So excited to have author Shari Goldhagen today on the blog for a quick interview about her newly released novel, 100 Days of Cake. Shari is nice enough to answer few questions for me about her writing experiences, inspirations and more. I hope you all enjoy the interview.

To know more about 100 Days of Cake and Shari Goldhagen, check the author’s bio and book’s description that follows after the interview, as well as links where to find Shari and where to order copies of 100 Days of Cake.

Interview with Shari Goldhagen

Suppose you met someone in the elevator and had only 30 seconds to describe your novel, 100 Days of Cake. What would you say?

Ahhh. . .the dreaded elevator pitch!
I’d say it’s about a girl who’s going through uh, stuff. Some of it’s typical teen territory—the freaking SATs, a friend who might be more than a friend, trying to get along a kid sister who is growing up and changing herself. And some of the stuff isn’t quite so typical—dealing with depression/anxiety, crushing on her shrink, a mom who’s convinced her kid is just one cake away from being cured. And Golden Girls re-runs, lots of Golden Girls.

Not every author grew up considering themselves as a writer. When and how did you discover your inner muse? Did you know what sort of stories you wanted to tell or did you just sort of feel your way?

I’m definitely that writer who always knew she wanted to be a writer. Even before I could write, I would dictate these stories to my mom about Batgirl and Batman–Super friends was my favorite show, and I was kind of an early adopter of fan fic.
That said, I’m not the kind of writer who writes because she loves words (I mean we’re really good friends and all, but love, eh); I’ve always just kind of made up stories and characters in my head and writing them down was a way for me to hold onto them longer. And then later on it was like, “oh, I can take creative writing classes instead of Calculus? Yes, please!”

How did the inspiration for 100 Days of Cake come?

It was a lot of different things really.
For a long time, I wanted to write a story about depression that wasn’t depressing (fingers crossed I succeeded). When I met my editor, Jessica, we started talking the ideas came out pretty quickly.
Also I was intrigued by the generational play of culture. I sometimes teach teen creative writing class, and one of the things I found amaze-a-crazy was that so many of my students loved the music and TV shows I grew up with. One dude asked me if I’d heard of Pearl Jam—and I was like, “for serious? Eddie Vedder was a god of my generation.” No one specifically had a thing for Golden Girls, but a couple girls were watching all ten seasons of Friends and another was into Family Ties. I definitely like the idea of Molly and Alex being into these things from their parents’ generation, even if they didn’t realize that it was a way to connect with their parents on some level.

What was one of the most surprising things you’ve learned in creating Molly Byrne?

I think I learned to trust myself to create a character not a disease. When I started writing 100 DOC, I admit I was kind of intimidated about how I showed Molly’s depression. My other novels have been aimed at adults, but this was the first time I was writing specifically for a teen audience, and I was pretty freaked out about telling younger people the “wrong” things about mental illness. In some of the early versions, the story was really weighted down by the specifics of various conditions.
But then I took a deep breath and said, screw it. I’m not a doctor and this isn’t a guidebook; it’s much more important to write a character who is fully developed than one who is a perfect case study for the DSM. It was really liberating . . .but I wouldn’t be shocked if there was a little hate mail.

If readers could take away one thing from having read 100 Days of Cake what would you hope it would be?
That just because you may not always understand the people in your life, it doesn’t mean that love isn’t real. And working on those relationship is almost always worth it, even if it’s hard.
Oh yeah, and that Golden Girls is a really good show.

Are you working on any project right now? What we should expect from you in the near future?

I really ended up enjoying writing YA, so I have a few ideas I’m kicking around on that front. One is something I’ve wanted to write since I was a kid, and I think maybe now that I’m really, really, really not a kid, I might finally be able to pull it off.
And then there is this adult novel I was working on between my first two books. I got about 200 pages in before I got completely stumped on a plot point and had to put it down. There were parts of it I absolutely loved, and I swear I will finish it one day . . .even if I’m 103.

And one last quick question, what’s your favorite cake?
Ironically I’m much more of a savory snack addict—like I’d be the one to try 100 Days of French Fries. That said I’m going to go with carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and a bit of a spice kick. It’s cool because you can somehow try to tell yourself that you’re eating a vegetable.

Thank you so much Shari!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shari Goldhagen is the author of the adult novels IN SOME OTHER WORLD, MAYBE (St. Martin’s Press, 2015) and FAMILY AND OTHER ACCIDENTS (Doubleday, 2006), and the YA novel 100 DAYS OF CAKE (Atheneum, 2016). A fellow at both Yaddo and MacDowell, Shari writes about pop culture, travel and relationships for publications including Salon, Cosmopolitan, Us Weekly, Life & Style Weekly, and DaySpa. She lives in NYC with her husband and daughter.

Find Shari

Website | Goodreads | Twitter

ABOUT THE BOOK

Book Details:
Title: 100 Days of Cake
Author: Shari Goldhagen
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: May 17, 2016
Pages: 352
Format: Hardcover, eBooks

Ummm, no, not going to happen.

Book Links: Amazon | Book Depository | B&N | Goodreads | Publisher