Guest Post and Book Giveaway with Shana Mahaffey, Author of Sounds Like Crazy

I had the pleasure of getting to know Shana Mahaffey last spring via multiple emails. Not only did I love the fact that she is a cat lover and Lost fanatic like I am, I admired her devotion to readers of her book, as she is always willing to speak with book clubs via phone, video conference and Skype. After reading her fascinating book on Dissociative Identity Disorder (Formerly Multiple Personality Disorder), I was compelled to spent hours learning even more about the condition, due to my own missing childhood memories. I’ve never been diagnosed with DID, but then again, I’ve never mentioned my childhood memory loss to a single doctor. Shana has agreed to do a guest Q&A post, in addition to having me host a giveaway for her novel, Sounds Like Crazy. She’ll also be stopping by later today and responding to reader questions and comments.

Shana Mahaffey

Please tell us a bit about Sounds Like Crazy.

Sounds Like Crazy is as a darkly comic and ultimately healing story about Holly Miller, an Emmy Award winning cartoon voiceover performer who has actual voices in her head, multiple personalities who make her career a huge success, and shield her from a terrible secret in her past.

If you could meet, in person, any of your characters, who would it be and why?

I would want to meet the Silent One, because he is so peaceful. Hanging out with him for an afternoon, doing yoga, and watching the world, would be a wonderful respite from the busy day-to-day fun.

If you could fictionalize yourself and put yourself in any situation, how would it play out? Could you give us a scene/scenario of such an occurrence?

This is a tough question because when I am writing, I immerse myself in my book, living and breathing all the characters. Right now, I move through my days thinking, “How would Cassidy,” the main character of the novel I’m currently working on, “react to this? What would she think? Do? How would it influence her future?” I do the same with the other key characters, and to a lesser degree, minor characters. One small example would be as I ride my bike up the Panhandle to Golden Gate Park. It’s a bright day, temperature in the mid sixties, a slight breeze blowing. I ride along at a leisurely pace so as to hear the rustling sound of the leaves on the Blue Gum Eucalyptus trees. Cassidy would stop her bike so she could lie under one of the trees, close her eyes and match her breathing with the sound of the leaves. Ingo, another character in my new novel, would not be riding a bike and would never notice the trees. He’d be at the local pub drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette.

Do you have any particular habits that you do while writing? Places you write the best, foods, drinks, etc that help set your “writing mood?”

Early morning and late at night, I love to write sitting in my bed with my laptop on a pillow. All other times, my favorite place to write is the Sanchez Grotto—a shared space of authors that is full of creativity and support. To get into my head down fingers on the keyboard mood, I drink strong coffee (sometimes a lot of it). If I’m really struggling to get words on the page, I will drape my grandfather’s sweater over my shoulders. I keep it in my office for these occasions.

What are you reading right now?

When I am writing, I tend to read plot-driven mysteries and thrillers. Anything else tends to creep into my own work. Right now, I am traipsing through Paris with Aimee Leduc of the Aimee LeDuc Investigations series—Murder in [fill in the arrondissemont] by Cara Black.

Who are some of your favorite authors and/or books?

Robertson Davies is, hands down, my favorite author. And, to make my esteem for him more special, he died on my birthday, which I took to be a particularly good omen for my career as an author. My favorite Robertson Davies book is What’s Bred in the Bone. Other favorites include Roger Zelazny and The Chronicles of Amber, and a lifelong favorite is The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

If you could meet any author, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

I would want to meet Robertson Davies. First, because he is my favorite author—I’d like to tell him how much I admire his writing. Second, to ask him for any tips and tricks he’d like to share. And finally, third, to have a cup of coffee and shoot the breeze with him—two authors having an afternoon chat. I’d really feel like I made it after that.

What are some of your favorite ways to relax?

I love to take long city walks. I do this often in San Francisco, but love to explore any city in this manner. Other ways are curling up in bed, flanked by my two cats, a good book in hand, a coffee or glass of wine with friends, and to be totally California cliché, yoga J.

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

There are many places I’d love to live—New York City, Paris, Lake Tahoe, the South of France—to name a few. However, in all of these places I would not have the community of friends and family I have in San Francisco. Even though I feel the call of other places near and far, I wouldn’t trade the life I have in San Francisco for anything. It doesn’t mean I won’t visit, though.

Share with us a few of your dreams. Also whether they have been fulfilled or are still a work in progress.

Besides winning the Booker Prize, National Book Award, and maybe the Pulitzer for my novels, I dream that my novels all become Oscar-winning movies. The next big dream I have is to win the lottery. Once I’ve cleared that hurdle, I’d figure out how much money I need to live comfortably for another 100 years and set it aside. Then I’d take the remainder and give half to all my favorite charities like Marine Mammal center, World Wildlife Fund, Defenders of Wildlife, NRDC, and various Food Bank and education charities. For the other half, I’d invite all my friends and family to come over with all their bills and I’d write checks until the debts were paid or the money was gone. All works in progress!

What are some of your guilty pleasures?

In the afternoons, I go to the café near my writing office and order a cupcake to go with my coffee. This is no ordinary cupcake; rather, it has a giant pile of butter cream frosting (are you sensing a pattern here?). I excuse the frosting as motivation for writing. Another guilty pleasure is walking at night, either in San Francisco or anywhere else I am visiting, and looking in people’s windows. I love to see the interiors of different homes, the decorating style, paint color and so forth. Sometimes I look and judge. Other times, I imagine what my life would be like if this was my home, my decorations, my paint color, etc.

If you could leave the world with one piece of advice, what would it be?

I think American writer, painter, sculptor and publisher Brian Andreas says it better than I can:‎ “Anyone can slay a dragon …but try waking up every morning and loving the world all over again. That’s what takes a real hero.”

About the Author

Shana Mahaffey lives in San Francisco, California, in part of an Edwardian compound that she shares with an informal cooperative of family, friends, and five cats. She’s a survivor of catechism and cat scratch fever, and is a member of the Sanchez Grotto Annex, a writers’ co-op. Her novel, Sounds Like Crazy was named a notable book for Fall 2009 by the San Francisco Chronicle; and her work has appeared in publications such as Sunset Magazine, SoMa Literary Review, Spectrum Literary Journal, Reflections Literary Journal, and assorted literary blogs. In addition to writing fiction, Shana has contributed articles, white papers, and product reviews to various technology publications. She welcomes all visitors to her website and is happy to meet with book groups in-person or in cyberspace (phone/webcam/the works). Her cat blogs for her at ShanaMahaffey.com.

Read my original review of Sounds Like Crazy.

Visit Amazon.com to purchase Sounds Like Crazy right now.

SOUNDS LIKE CRAZY GIVEAWAY – 2 LUCKY WINNERS WILL WIN A COPY

RULES:

**Open to U.S. and Canadian residents only.

**No P.O. boxes, please.

**Must include your email in your comment, unless you signed in to leave a comment with your “real” email.

**All comments must be separate to count as separate entries. For example, if you follow me on Facebook and Twitter, leave 2 comments, one with your Facebook name, and one with your Twitter name. Or, if you posted about the giveaway on your blog, leave 5 comments, all with the link to your giveaway.

**Please read the additional rules here.

HOW TO ENTER:

**Mandatory Entry: Go to Shana’s website, ShanaMahaffey.com, and tell me what fun or interesting thing you learned there.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Like Shana Mahaffey on Facebook.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Facebook. Make sure to leave your Facebook name in your comment.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Facebook and share a link on your wall with the following comment I entered The Girl from the Ghetto’s Sounds Like Crazy by Shana Mahaffey book giveaway here http://bit.ly/lxjR84. Make sure to leave a comment below with a link to your Facebook profile message, or at least with your Facebook name.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Follow @SMahaff on Twitter.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Twitter. Make sure to leave your @Twitter name in your comment.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Twitter and tweet the following RT @NerdGirlBlogger Enter the #bookexpo #bookbloggercon giveaway for Sounds Like Crazy by @SMahaff http://bit.ly/lxjR84. You can tweet 4x a day (Once every 6 hours) for even more chances to win. Make sure to leave a link to your tweet in a comment below.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Subscribe to my blog via email or Feedburner.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Enter one of my other current giveaways and tell me which one.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Goodreads.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow Shana Mahaffey on Goodreads.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Add Sounds Like Crazy to your to-read shelf on Goodreads.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Comment here and tell me why you need to win this giveaway! Do you love learning about mental health conditions or Multiple Personality Disorder? Do you enjoy reading in general, or, do you just love winning free stuff?

+5 MORE ENTRIES: Write about this giveaway on your own blog. Make sure to post a link to http://thegirlfromtheghetto.wordpress.com, and leave me 5 copies of your link via comment here.

Contest ends Tuesday, May 30, 2011 at midnight. Good luck to you all!