Featured Author & Giveaway: Zoe Lynn

Zoe Lynne strives to give LGBT youth stories they love with heroes they can relate to. Zoe Lynne began in October of 2012, with the sole focus being to create books with LGBT youth in mind. It is her hope to deliver characters who are both real and fantastic, characters you love and love to hate, but more so, characters you can relate.

Connect with Zoe Lynn on Twitter @ZoeLynneBooks or visit her website: www.zoelynnebooks.com.

Q&A with Author Zoe Lynne:

1. If you could swap places with one of your fictional characters for 24 hours, who would you choose to be? Why? And what would you do that day?
   
   It would probably be Thorne from Love in the Spotlight. He’s just an awesome guy, but he’s doing the one thing I’ve always wanted to do, but have been too afraid to do—stand up in front of a crowd and sing my heart out. Yeah, I’ll do karaoke, but it’s not like being in a real band, singing my own songs. I would LOVE to be able to do that.


2. What inspired you to begin writing Young Adult?
   
   It was the 2012 GRL in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and I was listening to various publishers talk about how there was a need to get more YA books out there, and it made me think about what I looked for in books when I was a teenager. I wanted characters I could relate to or feel something for. Ideas sort of came rushing then, and I immediately got on the phone with Bia Tanos (my co-author on That Witch!) and started pitching ideas to her. Zoe Lynne was born, though changed in its present state.


3. What do you do to relax when you are not writing?
   
   I don’t get much downtime, honestly. If I do, I try to hang out with my husband, maybe go out to see his band play or watch movies with him. We might go out and find something fun to do. Usually though, we’re both working on… something.


4. What is the one thing you need when you sit down to write besides your computer?
   
   Music is a must! Coffee would come second.


5. What would you like young readers to take away from your novels?
   
   A sense of hope and triumph, I guess. I want them to know that (as cliché as it sounds) things do get better. Being a teenager is hard business. It doesn’t matter if you’re straight, gay, white or black or whatever. The hardest years of your life are going to be your teens. Things and feelings and the world doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Nothing’s fair. Everyone’s against you. But it doesn’t stay like that. You’ll grow up and things get really fun. So just keep pushing through it, knowing that it really will get better.

Now Available from Zoe Lynne:

Love in the Spotlight There's nothing in the world Steven won't do for his best friend Becca, including ditching his schoolwork -- something he would never do -- just to escort her to some club so she can chase down her dream boy who happens to be the drummer in some kind of band. He didn't expect to set eyes on the most godly creation under the stars, and sure didn't expect that gorgeous hunk of man to have the voice of an angel.

While Becca and Mr. Dreamboat drummer boy get to know each other better in the diner parking lot after the big show, Steven and Thorne discover a mutual love for pancakes and hot maple syrup -- not that flavored crap -- that opens doors to a relationship Steven never expected to find when he agreed to go out with Becca that night. But will Thorne ever be able to stand-up to his homophobic bandmates and come out so he can finally find love?

That Witch! Cassidy Ryan and Brynn Michaels attend the same high school, but they live in different worlds. Cassidy’s a popular cheerleader, and Brynn’s the social leper. One is all sunshine and rainbows, while the other could’ve been carved from an Edgar Allan Poe book.

Both girls have their problems, though. Cassidy is coming into her birthright—a long line of ancient magic Cassidy isn’t ready to have. Brynn is coming into her sexuality—something that will definitely cause problems with her very conservative family.

When a teacher assigns Cassidy and Brynn to work together on a project, the girls find themselves in a heap of trouble, because what they feel for each other can’t be denied. If they have any hope of changing ignorant and frightened minds, they’ll have to listen to their own hearts first.

Finding Ashlynn (Being True, Book One) Every Friday night, Jenna and her best friend, Stella, attend their local LGBTQ youth group meeting. It’s a great place for support and friendship, but Jenna wants to fall in love. In walks Ashlynn, a purple-haired girl who wants to know how bad coming out of the closet can be.

Living in two different worlds, Jenna and Ash have vastly different ideas about the difference between sex and love, the definition of virginity, and how to face a world out in the open where they can admit their true feelings… whatever they may be.

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Zoe Lynne Giveaway!

Zoe Lynne has generously donated a free copy of Love in the Spotlight or That Witch! for one lucky winner. To enter the drawing, please leave a comment below along with your email address. The winner will be chosen on June 23rd.