Alethea Allarey

Watch Out, Hollywood! Blog Tour

We're featuring the second book in the Confessions of a So-Called Middle Child--Watch Out, Hollywood! Read on for a quick interview with the author and a chance to win a copy of the books.

About the Book

Hilarious tween heroine Charlie C. Cooper—reformed bully, misguided fashionista, and so-called middle child—is back! This sequel to Confessions of a So-called Middle Child will delight fans of Louise Rennison, Mean Girls, and Harriet the Spy.

Charlie's adventures offer a fresh look at middle school, bullying, and mean girls. In Book Two, Charlie navigates sudden celebrity and auditions for a television series, but a little white lie may endanger the one friendship Charlie can truly count on—and her connection to swoon-worthy crush Bobby! Poignant and seriously funny, Charlie's account of her dilemma is one all tweens will relate to.

Charlie knows what it feels like to be stuck in the middle, but it's finally her time to shine. After saving her friend Marta in the old Houdini tunnels of Los Angeles, Charlie's become a local hero, gained sudden celebrity, and *MIGHT* just become a TV star! But will Charlie let her newfound fame go to her head? Watch out, Hollywood!

Q&A with Maria T. Lennon

RNSL: What's the most important thing you try to emphasize when you write a story like Charlie's? Is it humor and fun, a life lesson, or a balance of several aspects?

MTL: When you write a book I think you need to have skin in the game—to quote Jonathan Franzen. It has to mean something. So, when I started writing about Charlie I wanted to write a story about a young girl trying to figure out who she was and how she fits in. Kids all try to see how they fit in, and they’ll try on a variety of different identities to see which one fits. Am I an athlete? Am I a brain? Am I—wait I’m none of these things. Then what? Am I bad? Am I the troublemaker? That’s the girl who interests me. The girl who just can’t find the thing that fits. So, it begins with a girl, there has to be a point and, of course, humor. Humor is everything in life.

RNSL: Where do you get your sense of humor?

MTL: My father. He was so funny—like hold-your-stomach funny. He had one of the driest, funniest senses of humor I’ve ever come across and thankfully I think we’ve inherited it by osmosis. No matter what we went through as kids—and we went through a lot—he had us laughing. And we still laugh all the time.

RNSL: Have you always been a writer? Tell us how you got started on the path that led you to your current career.

MTL: Yes. Always. First it was notes slipped under my mother’s door to apologize when I did something bad, and then when I went to school in England all I did was write essay after essay. I had great teachers and they supported my efforts.

RNSL: Is there a book or screenplay out there that you love so much, you wish you had been the one to write it? (I'll tell you mine: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger--the book, NOT the so-called movie!)

MTL: Million Dollar Baby and Brokeback Mountain are, in my humble opinion, perfection.

RNSL: If you could live anywhere else in the world except Los Angeles, where would it be and why?

MTL: In my mind there is always an act three. Act one: Get your life together, figure out who you are and what you want to be. Act two: Build a family and a life. And then Act three—do whatever the heck you like. Now, I’m still in act two but when act three comes along I’d like to have a house in the south of Italy. My husband is from Italy and we lived there for a long time before moving back to LA and having children. Life by the sea there is a good life.

About the Author

Maria T. Lennon is a graduate of the London School of Economics, a novelist, a screenwriter, and the author of Confessions of a So-called Middle Child, the first book featuring the irrepressible Charlie C. Cooper. When not driving one of her four children to school or volunteering at school libraries, she can be found sitting in a parked car, a café, or a library, writing novels, travel articles, or just passed out. To learn more, and to download a free curiculum guide, visit her website: http://confessionsofasocalledmiddlechild.com/.

Blog Tour Schedule

Follow all of the stops on Maria Lennon’s blog tour!

Wed, Aug 13 - The Hiding Spot
Mon, Aug 18 - Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers
Tues, Aug 19 - The Book Monsters
Wed, Aug 20 - The Children's Book Review
Thurs, Aug 21 - Kid Lit Frenzy
Fri, Aug 22 - Booking Mama
Mon, Aug 25 - Read Now, Sleep Later
Tues, Aug 26 - Once upon a Story
Wed, Aug 27 - The Late Bloomer's Book Blog
Thurs, Aug 28 - The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia
Fri, Aug 29 - Beauty and the Bookshelf

Giveaway

One lucky winner will receive both books featuring Charlie C. Cooper--Confessions of a So-Called Middle Child, new in paperback, and Watch Out, Hollywood! More Confessions of a So-Called Middle Child, in hardcover! (U.S. addresses only.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway
  • Love
  • Save
    Add a blog to Bloglovin’
    Enter the full blog address (e.g. https://www.fashionsquad.com)
    We're working on your request. This will take just a minute...