Today I’m back with a stop on the book tour for Edie in Between hosted by TBR and Beyond Tours. I had the honor of interviewing Laura Sibson and I’m excited to share her answers. There’s also a giveaway during this tour, so keep on reading to find out more!
Edie in Between by Laura Sibson
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publishing Date: August 24, 2021
Content Warnings: Parental death.
A modern-day Practical Magic about love, loss, and embracing the mystical.
It’s been one year since Edie’s mother died. But her ghost has never left.
According to her GG, it’s tradition that the dead of the Mitchell family linger with the living. It’s just as much a part of a Mitchell’s life as brewing cordials or talking to plants. But Edie, whose pain over losing her mother is still fresh, has no interest in her family’s legacy as local “witches.”
When her mother’s teenage journal tumbles into her life, her family’s mystical inheritance becomes once and for all too hard to ignore. It takes Edie on a scavenger hunt to find objects that once belonged to her mother, each one imbued with a different memory. Every time she touches one of these talismans, it whisks her to another entry inside the journal—where she watches her teenage mom mourn, love, and hope just as Edie herself is now doing. Maybe, just maybe, Edie hopes, if she finds every one of these objects, she can finally make peace with her loss and put the past to rest for good. But this journey to stake her independence from her family may actually show Edie who she truly is…and the beautiful gifts that come with being just a little different.
Tinged with a sweet romance with Rhia, who works at the local occult shop, Edie in Between delivers all the cozy magic a budding young witch finding her way in the world needs.
Book Links
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Amazon
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Book Depository
Indigo
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Author Interview
What inspired you to start writing? Is it something you’ve always loved to do?
As a kid I always had my nose in a book and I wanted to write a novel ever since I wrote my first short story as a teen, but for a very long time I couldn’t find my way in. I was trying to write literary novels for adults, and it just wasn’t clicking. After reading Twilight, I tried writing from a teen’s point of view and writing cracked wide open for me. Eventually, I attended VCFA for an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults because I wanted to improve my craft. My debut novel The Art of Breaking Things came out in 2019 and now I can’t seem to stop writing!
What book do you think everyone needs to read? Why?
After watching Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s powerful TED talk “Danger of the Single Story,” I couldn’t name one book for all people. Instead, I’ll flip your question and urge people to read widely. Read outside your lane. Read authors who you’ve never heard of and who do not look like you. Read across age groups and genres. Inhale all that our literary world has to offer.
Besides writing, what are other hobbies and interests do you have?
Does eating Swedish Fish while watching Netflix count as a hobby? No? Okay, well, like Edie, I am a runner and I love to disappear into the trails behind my house. I also bike and kayak. During the school year, I volunteer as a creative writing enrichment leader at a middle school in North Philadelphia. And I’m always reading.
Describe Edie in Between in five words or less.
Grief. Friendships. Romance. Magic. Witches.
What do you hope readers take away from reading Edie in Between?
I hope that readers see in Edie the value of claiming your own power and accepting your full self. Also, there is no one way to grieve a loss, nor is there a set timeline. On a lighter note, I hope readers feel the delicious joys of summer in this magical story.
Was Edie in Between completely mapped out? Or did Edie take you on a ride?
Oh, man, Edie took me on a ride all right. I started with a skinny first draft. My editor came back months later with notes – one of which was to lean hard into the magic. I ended up scrapping half the manuscript and writing a much longer second draft. In the third draft I rewrote many of Maura’s journal entries and reworked the timeline. I struggled quite a bit with the plot as I tried to stay true to the emotional throughline of Edie dealing with the loss of her mother while also balancing the onslaught of the malevolent spirit. I’m so happy with how it all turned out. I love this cast of characters in a river town trying to reverse a curse and I hope readers will love them as well.
Tour Schedule
Besides my interview today there will be also be reviews and other posts during this tour. Click here for the full schedule to see the posts done by other amazing bloggers and bookstagrammers.
Giveaway (US Only)
One winner will receive a finished copy of Edie in Between and some swag. This giveaway runs from August 23rd to August 30th. Click here to enter.
About the Author
After a career in undergraduate counseling, Laura Sibson pursued an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. When she’s not writing in a local coffee shop, you can find her running the neighborhood streets or hiking with her dog. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and their two sons. Laura is available for school visits, book clubs, workshops and conferences. She can speak on the process of writing and publishing to audiences from middle school into adulthood. With her background in one-on-one counseling, giving presentations and facilitating both panels and writing groups, Laura brings both warmth and professionalism to all of her endeavors.
Author Links
Website
Twitter
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Goodreads
Facebook
So that was my stop on the tour for Edie in Between. I love reading more about authors and definitely plan on reading this book really soon, so keep an eye out for that soon!
