Author Interview: The Night the Elephants Cried by Nancy Murray + Book Giveaway

Welcome to Author Nancy Murray
Bio:

Nancy Murray is a freelance writer, an award-winning children’s book author, an ebook author and an online journalist. A native Floridian, she grew up on the First Coast in Jacksonville, in the city and at the beaches. A student of both private and public schools, she attended the University of Florida and the University of North Florida.

Nancy wrote a print and online journal of political and cultural issues. Upon retiring from St. Vincent’s hospital as a Registered Nurse, she turned her attention to writing fiction. Her hobbies include gardening, tennis and acting. She is a member of the Florida Writer’s Association.
Today’s world is touched by complex issues against which young people struggle. The ability to reach them through books, not always with answers, but with credible explanations, can be great service. Her desire is to entertain as well as inform.

Website: http://www.nancymurrayauthor.com/

Interview:

What is one book everyone should read?

To Kill a Mockinbird

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

Could there be anything better than Coffee ice cream?

What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?

Mile high Blueberry French Toast with a huge glob of melted butter sliding down its sides, the plate next to a pot of steaming, fresh Gourmet coffee with real cream served in a charming B & B beside a rushing river.    

Please tell us in one sentence why we should read your book?

If you want to accompany three distinctly different teens into a rainforest, discover secrets only elephants know, and experience the terror of an incoming tsunami, all in a foreign country, read The Night the Elephants Cried – A Story of the Tsunami.

Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.

Besides winning the International award for Y/A fiction, one of my most rewarding experiences was talking to an aunt who bought my Elephants book for her nieces and nephews.  The young people had just returned from the tsunami-ravaged Japan where their father had died.  Since the characters in my story, Elsbeth and Jerry have lost their mother and question why, I feel the book will “speak” especially to them.  What a great feeling to write something that will help others.

If you could jump in to a book, and live in that world.. which would it be?

Lord of the Rings, the first book.  I'd like to be in Rivendell, the home of the elves.

What was your favorite book when you were a child/teen?

Uncle Remus as a child, Anne of Green Gables/Gone With the Wind as a teen.  

What's one piece of advice you would give aspiring authors?

Become one with your dream and never, never let go, however be willing to follow it through paths unknown.

If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?

Southern France.  I once worked at Lourdes; there’s a little town outside of Lourdes called Bartres.  I would live there. Or mavbe, I’ve live in Southern Spain, in Toledo, but then I’d miss the ocean.  Hmm … the Appalachian mountains would be lovely in the Fall, I’d want snow in winter.  Oh shucks, I could live a million places!

What is your favorite Quote?

We are put on earth for a little while to learn to bear the beams of light.  William Blake

Can you see yourself in any of your characters?

Yes, the roudy ones!

What's the craziest writing idea you've had?

Okay, you want crazy?  When I was a kid I wanted to write a mystery about a man who was murdered without the murderer leaving any clues whatsoever. How did the killer do it?  Wearing gloves, he drugged the man, stood him on a cake of ice and hung him from a rafter in an empty room.  The man died when the ice melted, and it washed away any trace of the killer’s footprints. Okay, so I’m not cut out to write murder mysteries. 

How do you react to a bad review?

First, I’m sure the guy/gal didn’t read MY book.  My second thought:  a got a lousy reviewer.  After a few grimaces and maybe tears, I reread the review and say, well, hmm… maybe there’s something here I need to think about.  I stash it in a drawer; the next day I tackle the review with an eye to learning something instructive. Then, I move on, determined to become a better writer.

If someone wrote a book about your life, what would the title be?

Love is a Many Splendored Thing

What is your guilty pleasure?

Cadberry’s Chocolate.  Is there anything else?

In your wildest dreams, which author would you love to co-author a book with?

J. R. Tolkien or Michael O'Brien.

The Night the Elephants Cried

A Story of the Tsunami is a historical novel about a boy’s adventure in Thailand during an international catastrophe. British Jerry Edmunds is apprenticed to the mahouts, the elephant trekkers working the beaches. Despite his older sister’s torments, life is sweet, particularly with his American girlfriend, Gail. Despite the recent loss of his mother, he is happy once more, that is, until a night arrives filled with horror. The elephants, his elephant, are crying, rioting and trumpeting. But why? Not long after, he is forced to make a decision in a life-threatening crisis. What would you do, if faced with a herd of elephants and an on-coming tsunami?

Giveaway Details:
3 winners will each receive a copy of The Night the Elephants Cried
Open to US only
Ends 11/30/11

Winners:
Rhonda Laney
Patty Gehlen
Cynthia