Interview with Christa Allan

Christa Allan‘s debut novel Walking on Broken Glass is for sale today! Keep reading for an interview with Christa.

Back-cover copy : Leah Thorton’s life, like her Southern Living home, has great curb appeal. But a paralyzing encounter with a can of frozen apple juice in the supermarket shatters the façade, forcing her to
admit that all is not as it appears. When her best friend gets in Leah’s face about her refusal to deal with her life, Leah is forced to make a decision. Can this brand-conscious socialite walk away from the country club into 28 days of rehab? Can she leave what she has now to gain back what she needs? Joy, sadness, pain and a new strength converge, testing her marriage, her friendships and her faith.

Link for the trailer for Walking on Broken Glass by Christa Allan.

“My First Sale” article from the Afictionado magazine.

Publisher’s Weekly states : When a narrator opens her tale by declaring, I lost my sanity buying frozen apple juice, the reader knows she’s in for a witty ride. The narrator is Leah Thornton, a 27-year-old Southerner, English teacher, and middle-stage alcoholic. She’s got her reasons: her only child died of SIDS and her sexual relationship with her husband, Carl, is so troubled their marriage is devolving into a standoff between hostility and frigidity. Leah is steered into rehab by her BFF Molly, which kicks off transformation through growing honesty, self-awareness, and large doses of wry humor. Allan draws many strong, quirky minor characters: Leah’s rehab roomie, Theresa, one of a rehab unit’s worth of addicts of all manner of substances; Leah’s wry obstetrician, Dr. Nolan. A few supporting characters—Carl’s wealthy parents—feel more caricatured than characterized, and the largely unsympathetic portrait of Carl makes the reader wonder why the marriage is worth saving at all. A few major developments toward the book’s end cry out for greater resolution. But Leah is fascinating, complicated, and above all funny. This nonformulaic look at the spiritual redemption of a life is a bright start; debut novelist Allan is one to watch. (Feb.)

Christa, thank you for stopping by to chat with us today! I am so excited about the debut of Walking on Broken Glass. Perhaps a Breakout Novel, time will tell 🙂

Tell us what your plans are for promoting your novel?

A  Times Square ad would have been delightful or perhaps Oprah flashing it for about twenty seconds…But truth be told:

I started promoting it as soon as I had the contract by talking about it on my Social Networks-Facebook and Twitter-and any opportunity I had. With a little over a year between the actual contract and the release, I had an ongoing update of its status. Looking back, there might have been more I could have done in that area, but I know it’s all part of chugging up the learning curve.

As soon as I had the cover art, I had my website redesigned. I’m still in the process of building it out for the novel. In fact, I’m probably far behind where I should be, but I’ve been knocked in the head by the overwhelming tasks of teaching high school full-time, writing, marketing, and having a home that doesn’t require a GPS to navigate through the clutter.

Other promotions in no particular order:

-booksignings, mostly local or in areas where I’ve lived before or have family. I sent out about 100 postcards for the one scheduled February 6.

-blog tours

-blog interviews  [like this one!]

-sent out press releases with a jpg of the book cover and a headshot to newspapers, radio stations, and television stations

-offered my services as a guest speaker

-I’ve had bookmarks designed and leave them wherever I can

-asked for people willing to be influencers who will read the book, post reviews, and reach out to others and tell them about it

What is the process you go through in writing a novel? Meaning do you write an outline and then go from there. Or write the whole thing quickly and then go back and fix it up. Tell us your secrets!

Oh, Heidi, this really is true confessions time. . .Outline? Oh, how I wish. I’ve read about writers who do such a thing! My system is to have an idea of where I want to go. . .then I dive in. About five chapters later, I’m thinking that perhaps the idea was poopy and I should give up writing forever and who do I think I am sitting down in front of a key board pounding out words and when people discover I’m a fake, my agent will drop me down a well…And that’s when I remember, “Aha! I have a synopsis!”  So, I start dissecting it, and I lean on writer friends for their ideas of where they think it’s headed!  With WOBG, I learned to keep a notebook nearby so I wouldn’t forget on page 178 details like the dog’s name or a character’s hair color. Then, somewhere around the middle, I pull out a yellow legal pad, and write a chapter number at the top of each page. I go through what I’ve written and pull out scenes. I then make a list of all the “loose ends” that need to be tied up, and then write more chapter numbers and sketch out how they’ll carry through to the end. I don’t edit too much as I go because I’m too afraid it will paralyze me or I’ll start second guessing myself.

I think I just work better making order out of chaos…It’s definitely not a system one can duplicate or would want to— so, for now, Donald Maass has nothing to fear in the way of a how-to book coming from me!

I know your students were excited when you landed an agent. How are they leading up to the “drop day” of Walking on Broken Glass?

My students are amazing when it comes to support and enthusiasm. They’ve been with me from landing an agent to the book being sold and it’s coming out party. One of the first questions they asked me when the book sold is, “Is it in the bookstore yet?” They’re a bit fuzzy when it comes to the publication process [but then, aren’t we all?!], so when I explained that it would be a year before it hit the shelves, they were dumbfounded.  Overall, it’s been an exciting learning opportunity for all of us. When they whine about revising, I show them my edits. When they grumble, “How long does this essay have to be?” I write 88,620 on the board, and I tell them when they’ve written that many words they have permission to complain.

But, for me, the greatest gift of this happening is to be able to tell them not to give up on their dreams. I teach in a public school, so sometimes I have to tiptoe around the “GOD thing,” but this is one place I don’t because I’m sharing MY story. And I tell them that if God can make dreams come true for a high school teacher in her 50s who lives in a small town in Louisiana who led an ordinary life, He can make them come true for anyone.

Christa, thank you for stopping by to chat with us today. I always enjoy talking with you! Everyone, go out and purchase Walking on Broken Glass, today!