Guest Post with Stewart Lewis

Photo Content from Stewart Lewis

Stewart Lewis is a young adult author and singer-songwriter who is based out of Washington, DC and Nantucket, MA. His novels have been translated into five languages and his songs have been used in TV and film worldwide.

        

TEN RANDOM FACTS ABOUT STEALING CANDY BY STEWART LEWIS

1) The character of Levon was initially thirty years old. My agent felt that was too edgy for YA, so I made Levon the teenaged son of the original kidnapper. The strange thing was, I didn’t have to change much! There were changes to his dialogue, but the essence of the character remained.

2) The book was initially a romance, but my agent urged me to add a thriller aspect. He said, “put someone in a trunk, that sort of thing.” I wasn’t used to writing this genre, but I ended up enjoying it. It brings tension to the scenes and makes the story move faster.

3) The boarding school that Candy attends is based on Northfield Mt. Herman School, where my sister teaches, and where I have appeared as an author and performed as a musician.

4) I wrote most of the book in bed, with my French bulldog Oliver by my side.

5) One of my editor’s first comments after acquiring the book was, “We are already casting the movie!” Boy, do I hope we have to do that one day.

6) The aspects of the music industry and Candy’s rockstar dad come from my own experience as a touring singer-songwriter. I’ve had some “rockstar” moments myself.

7) When I first thought of making the story based on a kidnapping, I thought, what name would go well with “Stealing”. Candy fit perfect. It was an “aha” moment.

8) I wasn’t thrilled with the original cover, although my publisher convinced me it was the right direction. But then Barnes and Noble suggested a different cover, and I absolutely LOVE the new one! The old one wasn’t terrible, but the current one is way more how I pictured Candy.

9) It took me two years (on and off) to write STEALING CANDY – even though readers sometimes tell me they read it in two days! Being an author is a labor of love.

10) My second adult book had a teenage character in it, and my former agent told me I “really nailed” the teen character, and that I should write YA. Best advice I ever got.

Candy hates boarding school. As a junior, graduation is still eons away, and making films is the only way to survive the boredom. Until she is kidnapped.

Candy panics. Along Came a Spider, Ransom, Taken, Cellular… Candy knows how these movies end. The only reason anyone would abduct her is to get a payout from her rock star father. Except Candy and her father are estranged. There’s no way he’s going to pay.

But with every hour that passes, Candy’s fear slowly recedes. Being on the road is freeing, not to mention great material for a new documentary. And the more time she spends with her handsome captor Levon, the more she learns the whole scheme is not just about ransom. It’s about revenge. What began as a kidnapping is spiraling into a crazy road trip adventure as Candy and Levon find a lot of wrong ways to do the right thing.

Praise for STEALING CANDY

"Like the best pop songs, Stewart Lewis's novel, Stealing Candy, hits all the right notes. It's funny, suspenseful, touching, sexy ... it's also a road trip, a love story, and an affecting portrait of two desperate characters. I ate it up." —Louis Bayard, New York Times Notable Author of Lucky Strikes

"Stealing Candy is that rare sort of read that keeps you not just guessing, but gasping with every turn of the page." —Kieran Scott, author of Pretty Fierce

"A page-turning, stay-up-late story. Readers are going to love Candy and her wonderful mix of resourcefulness and jaded innocence. " —Cammie McGovern, author of Say What You Will

You can purchase Stealing Candy at the following Retailers:

        

And now, The Giveaways.

Thank you STEWART LEWIS for making this giveaway possible.

1 Winner will receive a Copy of Stealing Candy by Stewart Lewis.

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