A Dream Within A Dream: Super Middle Grade Mondays + Giveaway: Author Vanessa Barger

Welcome to this week’s Super Middle Grade Mondays presented by Tantrum Books/Month9books!

Today, we get up close and personal with

Vanessa Barger

author of Super Freak from Tantrum Books.

Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

Vanessa Barger was born in West Virginia, and through several moves ended up spending the majority of her life in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She is a graduate of George Mason University and Old Dominion University, and has degrees in Graphic Design, a minor in Medieval and Renaissance Literature, and a Masters in Technology Education. She has had articles published in Altered Arts Magazine, has had some artwork displayed in galleries in Ohio and online, and currently teaches engineering, practical physics, drafting and other technological things to high school students in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. She is a member of the SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators), the Virginia Writer’s Club, and the Hampton Roads Writers. When not writing or teaching, she’s a bookaholic, movie fanatic, and loves to travel. She is married to a fabulous man, and has one cat, who believes Vanessa lives only to open cat food cans, and can often be found baking when she should be editing.

Describe yourself in three words.
Weird Writing Nerd

Describe your book in three words.
Geeky Puzzle Solver

Tell us about your day job.
In my day job, I’m a high school Technology Education teacher. Which means I do nothing with writing, except run a writer’s club once a month or so. I teach 9-12 graders practical physics (which sounds like an oxymoron, but isn’t really), engineering, robotics, work skills, 3D modeling, architecture, drafting, and computer stuff. Depending on the year and what classes I have, anyway. I also run a gardening club and we play in the dirt sometimes.

Which writers inspire you?
There are so many! Shakespeare and Austen are always at the top of my list. Tolkien is up there too. In the YA/MG world, I love the way that Lisa Ann Sandell’s words just flow, and I love Rick Riordan’s imagination. And…well, let’s just stop there. I love so many!

What is your writing process like?
My writing process is in flux. I am making “office” hours for myself after work, but in a general sense, I keep a writing journal with me all the time. I write notes to myself about things I’m working on or thinking about. When I have enough of an idea that I feel like I can start writing, I try to make sure and sit down and write out the main points. It’s a really basic outline that I go back and add to until its fully fleshed out. But I’m not married to it. If I write and end up somewhere else, I just adapt the outline to work. When I finish a draft, I go through and the first things I do for edits is a search through the document for words I know I use too many (that, just, etc) and then I sit down and try to read it through, looking for mistakes. Once I’ve got it as good as I think it can be, I send it to critters and see what they say. Then I start again!

What are you reading right now?
Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff

Do you have an author crush?
Neil Gaiman.

Quick questions:
Physical books or eBooks?
Physical Books, though I love my ereader too.

Coke or Pepsi?
Coke! Really, root beer, cause I don’t drink caffeine anymore.

Twitter or Facebook?
Both for different things? I like the immediate gratification of Twitter, but I like FB too!

Song you can’t get out of your head right now?
Well, I was doing fine until you asked that. Now Steampunk Revolution by Abney Park is back in my brain. Grrrr.

Sweet or salty?
Sweet.

Coffee or tea?
TEA.

Write on computer or notebook paper?
Blank. Even though I can’t write in a straight line.

Thirteen-year-old Caroline is a freak. Her parents have uprooted her to a town full of Supernaturals. You’d think she’d be thrilled. But, with someone without a magical bone in her body, this daughter of tree sprites feels like even more of an outcast than she has ever before.

To make matters worse, her new home is cursed. But when Caroline takes to investigating the mysterious and strange happenings of Harridan House, her BFF goes missing. Seems someone doesn’t want Caroline sticking her non-magical nose where it most certainly does not belong. Determined to prove herself, Caroline uncovers a plot to destroy her new hometown.

Undeterred, Caroline can’t give up. But what’s a human without magical powers to do? Caroline better figure it out fast, before she loses everything she has ever loved and the whispers she’s heard all her life prove true: Caroline is a useless superfreak.