Blog Party Day 20: Partying With J.E. MacLeod

Today we’re partying with J.E. MacLeod, author of WAITING TO SCORE, which was released this past spring.

About the book:
Zack Chase, new in town, gets a crash course in the dangerous, fast-paced lives of local teen athletes. A good-looking, book-loving hockey star, Zack’s also expected to be a womanizing, alcohol-abusing party animal, but it’s not who he is. As jealous, obnoxious team captain Mac hounds him, Zack falls for Goth-girl Jane and befriends her teammate brother, both with their own secrets. Tragedy strikes and affects them all in this true-to-life debut novel, giving readers an insight into the lives of high school students and athletes.

Thanks for stopping by and joining in the blog party! Let’s get things started with some music: What song always makes you want to dance whenever you hear it?

I LOVE TO DANCE I was a DJ at a bar when i was younger. Unfortunatley, I don’t get the chance to dance much anymore…..but I digresss…how about an oldie but a goodie- OH YEAH by Yello!!

Where did the idea for WAITING TO SCORE come from?

Waiting to Score really came to me as the opening scene in the book. I saw Zack, the main character. I saw him in the dressing room, the new guy again, starting over and dealing with the ghost of his father and trying to figure out who he was, what he wanted to be and how to score with the cute goth girl.

I used to want to play hockey when I was younger (thanks to a book I read about a girl playing hockey), but there just weren’t too many hockey teams in eastern North Carolina when I was younger! Are you a big hockey fan? Have you ever played on a hockey team?

I was a huge hockey fan for many years. Winnipeg Jets. Yeah. No one remembers them anymore. I actually grew up watching hockey. Two brothers who played and my dad coached. I spent WAY WAY too much time in hockey rinks when I was a kid. Apparently it rubbed off. In my day, well in my family anyhow, girls didn’t really play hockey, so I never tried it. I don’t think I would have been that good at it. I don’t have that sports gene in my favor.

I don’t have the sports gene either. If there actually had been any hockey teams around and I had tried to play, I would have been smashed to a pulp! 😉

Trying to stay away from spoilers, but what was your favorite scene to write in WAITING TO SCORE?

I wrote an emotionally difficult scene in Waiting to Score that explains why two female characters kind of turned out the way they did. Something that happened to them when they were in Grade 8 that kind of changed their whole outlook on life and each other. It was a tough scene to write, but I really loved getting it on paper in a cathartic sort of way.

Was it difficult or pretty easy to get inside the head of a teen boy for your main character? Were there any tricks or research you did to get into the teen boy mindset?

Getting inside the head of a teen boy was actually of fun. I always wondered what it would be like to be a boy when I was a teen girl, and Zack my main character is kind of cocky and self confident, so fun to get in his skin. I also wanted a sensitive guy though, and a thinker. My younger brother is like Zack so I kind of modelled Zack after him in a non yucky way.

I also had to ask a my husband for opinions on things. Would a guy say this? Would a guy do that? I tried not to think like a girl, and had Zack do things I didn’t approve of but were true to where he was at in his life.

Can you tell us one weird fact about you that makes you the life of the party?

Alcohol? Can I say that? Well. Let me clarify for your younger readers by saying that however much I THOUGHT it gave me liquid courage and made me the life of the party, it also made me do things that I totally regretted later. And I’d take back that phase of my life no problem! I’d have been better off just being myself, you know? I’m not really great at parties. I’m better one on one and being the life of the party isn’t something I bother aspiring to anymore. Parties need background people too, right. I let the people who love the spotlight have it and work the room in my own way.

Where can you be found during a party? Are you making the rounds talking to everyone, enjoying all the great food, or doing something else?

Food! Did someone say FOOD!!! I’ll be eating and chatting and appreciating the life of the party people in my own way. Nom nom.

I’d probably be right there with you by the food. Yum yum!

Can you tell us a bit about what you’re working on now?

I am working on a book that I love. It’s about two sisters whose lives are irrevocably changed when one of them gets cancer. That’s all I can really say, but I’m really loving these two girls right now.

Thanks for partying with us, J.E.!

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J.E. MacLeod’s published work has appeared in magazines such as Today’s Parent and Luxury Living Lifestyles. Her teen short story, “The Fat Girl,” won third place in The Mom Writer’s Literary Magazine contest. After college, J.E. worked as a copywriter in radio and television. After returning to school to further her career, J.E. worked in corporate sales and marketing until her son was born in 2000. Eventually J.E. returned to her first love, writing. She now spends her time reading and writing edgy, meaningful books for and about teens and is lucky enough to do so while still in her pajamas. In 2007, J.E. finished her first triathlon. Living beside the Rocky Mountains in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, J.E. swims, bikes, and runs slowly but surely for the finish line. Waiting to Score is J.E. MacLeod’s first young adult book.

Visit J.E. MacLeod online at www.jemacleod.com and look for Waiting to Score in stores now!