Prank Wars by LDS author Stephanie Fowers

Prank Wars is a new novel by veteran LDS (Mormon) author Stephanie Fowers.


ENTER BELOW TO WIN A COPY!

Book Blurb: All war. No love. Madeleine’s been hurt too many times in the dating scene to let Byron beat her in some huge prank war. They’ve had their deserters, their POWS, their casualties, but no one can risk losing the battle of the sexes.
Except now something strange is happening at the college...and it’s not just the students. Buried deep beneath the pranks is real danger, and the only other person who suspects is Byron. Should Mad join sides with him or does that mean forfeiting her heart to the enemy? 

 My Take:

Stephanie Fowers hits another home run. I confess, I am not surprised. I thoroughly enjoyed Fowers first two books, Meet your Match and Rules of Engagement.

In Prank Wars, the heroine, Madeleine, is strong and hilarious, as is Byron, her male counter-part. I liked that a real man was not intimated by a strong woman. The way these two played off each other made for great amusement, and I found myself missing Bryan when he wasn't in a scene.

And the pranks! FUN! I picked up a lot of great ideas;} Thank you!

This novel was infused with playful LDS/Mormon inside jokes; I loved this! It reminded me of the humor in the movie "The RM." Bed of MRE's anyone? Fowers had me laughing out loud more than once.

What I didn't expect was the ending. As a matter of fact, I was surprises...in a good way! Kudos to Fowers for that! I kept wait for...Sorry, I HATE spoilers! Guess you'll have to read it for yourself.

But what I loved most about Prank Wars was the fact that me and my daughters could enjoy this novel together. It wasn't full of inappropriate material, and yet it was entertaining enough for adults to enjoy!

I highly recommend this novel! If you take delight in laughter and love, you'll enjoy Prank Wars! Thanks Ms. Fowers! 

I give this book 5 stars!

 My exclusive interview with Stephanie!!

Okay Stephanie, spill your guts...figuratively only please!

When did you decide you wanted to become a writer?

I always loved to talk and tell stories, but I was a spacey, daydreamer kind of kid, so it took me a while to learn how to write. I just thought the alphabet was busy work, and so I decided that I wouldn’t bother learning it. I didn’t really get the correlation between the alphabet and reading at first. My kindergarten teacher threatened to flunk me (which everyone in the class knew, but me because—like I said—I was kind of spacey). So, my mom got a call from a concerned neighbor whose son burst into tears when he got home because of my sad plight. My neighbor asked my mom if I really was going to flunk. It was news to her, and news to me. I promptly dismissed the gravity of it because I had no idea what ‘flunk’ really meant anyway, but my mom did. She promptly called the school and they set up all sorts of appointments to prove that I was really a messed up kid, namely because when I drew people, I didn’t draw their feet and I made up words like am’nt, so obviously there was something wrong with me. They threw me in a special reading class, and my mom sat me down and asked me if I wanted to learn how to read and write. I told her yes, of course, what a silly question. She then told me that in order to do that I had to learn the alphabet. So I learned the alphabet in two weeks; it also helped that she made the alphabet into pictures for me—like ‘D’ looked like a daddy with a big tummy (I later taught all of my younger sisters to read this way…and a few kids in some special-Ed programs).  Learning the alphabet was the first obstacle to becoming a writer, but really as soon as I learned to read, I was reading all the time. Probably too much. I hid my books under my textbooks and in my desks until my teachers called me on it (then I had to content myself with staring out the window and daydreaming—which they called me on too). I shot from the bottom reading group to the top in a matter of months, and then my mom got calls from my teachers to put me forward a grade, which my mom still wouldn’t let me do—that would mean she would lose me sooner to college, plus to be honest, I was pretty bad at math (still am). Too make a long story, short, I became the miracle kid, which meant that my teachers really encouraged me to succeed. They entered me into young author’s contests without my knowledge, and then I would win and go to the conferences. I also had a writing rivalry thing going with a kid named Nomi and a girl named Jackie in second grade; it was our goal to get our teachers to fall off their chairs with laughter at our stories…and it usually worked (sometimes on accident when I mispronounced something, but if it made for a better joke, rewrites were soon follow). I would then go home and read my stories out loud to my family. My mom was never sure if it was the actual story that was funny or the dramatic way I read it aloud. I didn’t care as long as I got a laugh.

Have you based any of your characters on someone you know, or real events in your own life?

Yes…BECAUSE the people around me are wonderful and so much fun, and my life is so funny (at least to me). Laugh so you don’t cry, right? Besides, I feel it is impossible to write a character that doesn’t start to remind you of someone you know the more you write them—so even if I don’t mean to base a character on someone I know in the beginning, sometimes, it just kind of happens. I think that’s a good sign that my character is becoming more realistic. I always name my characters after siblings, and nieces and nephews and friends (by popular demand). Also, being a single girl who writes books about single girls, it would be impossible not to use my real life experiences. I want to share about real life issues that happen in the dating world, and offer my piece of advice on how to enjoy life now and not to become embittered by whatever stage of life you are in. My latest book, “Prank Wars” has TONS of real life pranks that either happened to me, or one of my friends shared them with me. On a side note: I love pranks, but only if they are not crude or destructive, and the person you’re pranking knows you love them, AND you’re just trying to get them to laugh. 

 

Do you have plans for a new book?  

A MILLION!

With a Kiss: a Faery Tale book with faeries and wolves and evil witches and queens. It sounds lame, but I PROMISE it isn’t, haha. It’s about how faery tales are actually a book of prophecies that are becoming real. It’s written in basically the same chick lit fashion of my other published books with lots of romance and humor. I wrote it about six years ago for my nieces, and now I’m going to fix it up and publish it (and write a sequel because they read it aloud to the kids during recess and now they’re all mad because they want more; but I wasn’t going to write a sequel if I couldn’t publish it—but now because of modern conveniences of ebook and such, I can get it out there, so I will).

As for Romantic Comedy, I have: The Mouth of Babes, and Chronicles of a Cynic. These are the same style of my other romantic comedy books, they’re LDS genre, but this time they deal with mid-singles (which is ME now!).

I’m also working on a five book series that reminds me of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It isn’t written in the chick lit style at all; in fact, it’s third person, but it stems from my love of BBC Bonnet movies.

And I’m working on H.A.W.K.E. Prophecies; it’s a genetically enhanced science fiction, a bit darker than the others, and reminds me of Hunger Games a bit. It was a book I wrote in high school and I’m fixing it up to be more modern.

And I have a TON more of other books that I’ve written and need to fix up. One is a Vampire book that completely makes fun of vampires being romantic.

 Who designed the cover of your book? My younger sister Jacqueline (Fowers) designed the cover (she’s brilliant by the way). My friend Kristi Linton took the photos (we always do photoshoots together), and my friends Alex Nitz and Hilary Hornberger were my legs (Alex—we always force to be in our movies, and Hilary is the composer for the musical The Raven’ that we’re working on). And of course, I stood behind the scenes, and posed my little models and gave them random  props. It’s funny that the prop we ended up using was the cheapest prop—toilet paper (that was inspired by my friend Larissa Villers, who got toilet papered once on her way home from school—PS: she loved it).

What is the best advice that you have ever been given when it comes to writing?

Don’t give up! And don’t stop loving it! Forget the idea that it will ever make you money, and do it because you want to share with others your stories. Run your stories past lots of people and get lots of advice, smooth it out to be the best that it can be, but remember that you are the one in charge of it in the end and it still needs to fit your creative vision. It’s also work, and like any other job—you’ll get tired of it, frustrated, whatever—but if you treat it like a job and know there will be downsides then that will help you to be able to emotionally divorce yourself from it and be able to pick it up again later. Don’t be discouraged if someone doesn’t like your style of writing. Remember your favorite movie and how someone out there gave it a bad review (maybe a lot of bad reviews). And that’s okay. It’s all about reaching those who appreciate what you have to say or just likes your style. I love Bonnet movies. My brother hates them (I was going to say my dad, but that would be lying, he loves Bonnet movies too). My brother loves war movies where everybody dies in the end. I like some of my brother’s movies, but not ALL; I even think some of them are really dumb, but he doesn’t. That teaches me that you can NOT please everyone, and you shouldn’t even try.

Where and when do you prefer to do your writing? I do my writing all over my apartment. I’ve made a schedule around my ‘day job’ and I try to be dedicated. I force my friends to be my ‘writing whips.’ In other words, I tell them to break my fingers if I don’t give them a chapter by a certain date. I, in turn, will break their fingers if they don’t give me their chapters by a certain date. It’s kind of a give/ give situation. I treat it like an exercise program or like I’m going to school and I’ll break down the process of writing a novel and assign myself homework to get it done. 

What is your favorite part of writing? What is your least favorite part?

Well, I absolutely HATE the first draft, I LOVE going through the first draft and rewriting. I love editing (until I’ve gone through the book more than fifty times and I don’t want to see it ever again). But my favorite part is dreaming up the concept. I love casting my characters with my favorite actors. I love giving them color code tests, and seeing how they’d interact with each other, and what sort of insane adventures they’d get into with each other. It’s like playing house or dolls really.

How long does it take you to write a novel? It depends on how much time I have and how dedicated I am to it. If I am SUPER SUPER dedicated; the first draft will take a month to three months. The next drafts and editing will take about six to eight months after that (depending on what sort of feedback I get from my friends about the book)—it could be a shorter amount of time if I’m SUPER dedicated and have no life.

Do you need silence to write or do you prefer noise? I’m a TERRIBLE multi-tasker. If there’s a party happening around me, NO WAY! A movie? Nope. And if my sister tries to talk to me, I can’t hear her and I can’t write either—my brain just all turns off. That’s when I have to push my laptop away and ask, “What?” I can’t serve two masters—unless I really hate one of them. She, on the other hand? She’ll text, instant message, watch a movie on Netflix, AND do her film homework without missing a beat, so she doesn’t quite understand my brain (and vice versa). 

Music or no music while writing…If yes, what kind?

Pandora all the way. I just choose a station on the internet radio that fits the mood that I’m trying to write, and I can listen to music the whole time. I like the Epic soundtracks channel for action adventure sequences, I like Florence and the Machine channel for romantic sequences, and I like Paramore and Lily Allen for quirky, debating dialogue moments.

Fowers Trivia:

What (or who) is your:

·       All-time favorite movie? I HAVE so many!!! Pride and Prejudice (six hour version)

·       All-time favorite book. It seems funny because of the books that I write, but James Herriot: All Creatures Great and Small (I adopted two Labrador/ pit bull mixes in high school, and almost became a rancher/ Veterinarian because I read that—never mind that I’m terrible at math).

·       Favorite song? Paramore, Brick by Boring Brick

·       Favorite/Hottest male actor? Imran Kahn (I hate luv Storys)

·       Favorite writer?  I have so many, I’ll pick one: Georgette Heyer

Tell us something about yourself NO ONE knows…don't worry, I won't tell anyone;}

Haha, that’s hard because I share everything…unless I forget. So, what have I forgotten lately? Or haven’t had a chance to share? Well, I almost ran into a lady at temple square this morning with my bike (that I wasn’t riding because I got a flat tire), but I was running. And then I missed trax and was fifteen minutes late for work. 

Things people might not know if they haven’t met me: My coworkers keep me from getting scurvy because I forget to buy fruit and so they bring me Clementines and bananas and hot chocolate (don’t know why hot chocolate).  I have a hard time getting scared during scary movies unless I have something weighing on my mind, I threatened to kill (and then chased after) a guy who tried to attack me a year-and-a-half ago, I love making movies (one of my favorites was a bloody Macbeth that my brother directed and I wrote; I played Lady Macbeth), and I’m addicted to Bollywood and BBC movies—which is why I can never get rid of Netflix. 

      

 Prank Wars is available on  Paperback OR Ebook 

It's also available on Nook and other formats, so if you look on her website, the links are also there.

TO WIN AN ECOPY you must do 3 things.

ONE: Become a follower of my blog(above)

TWO: Like Stephanie's Amazon page: Prank Wars

THREE: Comment Below: leave me your email address so we can send you the book! This contest twill end at midnight, NY time on February 22th, 2012