Monday, September 5, 2016

Guest Blogger: Jessica Knauss (An Interview with Beth from Awash in Talent)


I'm thrilled to host Jessica Knauss on my blog today.  Jessica is a fellow author and blogger and is here to share an interview with one of her characters, Beth. Welcome, Jessica and Beth!
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Available on Amazon


Multiple Talents in a Talentless World: Beth from Awash in Talent Interviewed by Her Author 

Beth spends most of her childhood languishing in an isolation room because adults don’t know what to do about her apparent severe allergies. When she follows her big sister, Emily, to an archaeological dig in Ethiopia only to be ignored, it’s the last straw. She has an operation and her Talents are released into the world. She turns out to be one of only 100 people in the world who can heal with her touch, and she can also move objects with her mind.

She is the most extraordinary person in Awash in Talent, but because he story is narrated by others, this exclusive interview is the only place you’ll get the real story straight from her.

Jessica Knauss: Hi, Beth. How are you today?

Beth: I am so nervous and excited! No one’s ever asked to talk to me about me before. The closest I’ve come is the psychological interviews about Emily. She’s crazy, you know.

JK: Your sister might say the same thing about you.

Beth: Well, I think more people agree with me than with her. I may have attacked Carlos with my 
telekinesis, but it was a complete accident. Emily’s attempted kidnapping of Carlos was premeditated, as the cops would say.

JK: That is the conclusion everyone’s come to. What do you really think is going on with Emily?

Beth: It’s a disorder. She can’t help being manipulative and relentless. I still love her, she’s my sister, and sometimes I still look up to her. Then our parents remind me to keep everything in perspective and not fall for Emily’s tactics. And here we are talking about her again!

JK: I’m sorry. You are the interesting one, after all. You’re one of just 100 people in the world who can heal wounds and illness with your touch, and additionally you have the most valued of the more common Talents, telekinesis. How does your exceptional status make you feel?

Beth: A lot of the time I feel like a regular kid.

JK: But not when you’re healing hopeless cases at the hospital.

Beth: Honestly, that’s become second nature, too. People still applaud when I cure cancer or give a burn victim new skin, but then I go home to my apartment and I wonder where to find friends

JK: They’re all at school, aren’t they, the kids your age?

Beth: I’m not an age snob. I’ll be friends with anyone.

JK: I understand how hard it is. As normal as you may feel, your job and your apartment in Boston set you apart from other 16-year-olds.

Beth: (wipes away tears.)

JK: Oh, no, don’t cry! Lets talk about something else. Do you have a crush on anyone?

Beth: I’m not sure. I look at the way Emily feels about Carlos and can’t even approach that with the radiologist’s son, even though he’s really nice to me.

JK: What has been your favorite place you’ve lived?

Beth: Boston is too lonely. I love Providence the most. It’s got so much more going on than in my hometown, but you can still get around on foot or the trolley bus. I made so many friends at my telekinesis school, and I even know a few firestarters in Providence. I loved going to that giant mall in the middle of town with Emily, and eating New York System wieners with Del’s frozen lemonade. You can’t get any of that in Boston. Providence has so many unique things, and more than one movie theatre, unlike my hometown. It’s perfect. 

JK: What about the weather? 

Beth: It’s awesome. My hometown was always the same temperature, but in Providence you have seasons, spectacular fall foliage, and in the winter it can be 60 degrees one day and then the next morning you wake up under six feet of snow. 
 

JK: You have a distinct advantage in a dramatic snow storm. Has the city ever enlisted the help of telekinetics for snow removal?

Beth: I never did it, but I think that’s the job of some of my friends’ parents. I’m needed elsewhere.

JK: Not to mention you’re still a teenager.

Beth: I can handle anything they need me to do.

JK: I know you can, and you will. But what do you really want?

Beth: (hesitates, whispers) I never want to see a sick person again. (Gaining volume) I’d like to construct buildings based on M. C. Escher paintings. A few of them might require a fourth dimension, but a lot of them I could make work with telekinesis.

JK: That sounds like a blast! Thank you so much for talking with me.

Beth: Of course. You are the author, after all.
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Jessica Knauss’s Awash in Talent was released by Kindle Press on June 7 to praise from readers who love something different. 
 
This is the first stop in a week-long Awash in Talent blog tour. Don’t miss the crazy character interviews and writing advice at the blogs of Carrie S. Miller, Andi Adams, J.L. Gribble, and Jennifer Loring
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Author Bio:
 
Born and raised in Northern California, Jessica Knauss has wandered all over the United States, Spain, and England. She has worked as a librarian and a Spanish teacher and earned a PhD in Medieval Spanish Literature before entering the publishing world as an editor. Her acclaimed novella, Tree/House, and short story collection, Unpredictable Worlds, are currently available. Her epic of medieval Spain, Seven Noble Knights, will be published by Bagwyn Books in December 2016. 
 
Find her on social media and updates on the sequels to Awash in Talent and Seven Noble Knights and her other writing at her website: jessicaknauss.com. Feel free to sign up for her mailing list for castles, stories, and magic. 
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Author Links: 
AMAZON: http://www.amazon.com/Jessica-Knauss/e/B004TBHHYI/

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