Interview and Giveaway with Author Tilia Jacobs

I actually read two books by this author. Wrong Place, Wrong Time and Second Helpings at the Serve You Right Cafe. Both were very good books my review can be found by clicking on the titles of the books above. I was very happy to have the author contact me to do an interview. I love getting to know an author by interviews even if they are silly questions at times. So below I introduce you to Tilia Klebenov Jacobs and at the bottom make sure you enter into the giveaway for the ebook 






Tilia Klebenov Jacobs
Tilia Klebenov Jacobs holds a BA from Oberlin College, where she double-majored in Religion and English with a concentration in Creative Writing. Following an interregnum as an outdoor educator with the Fairfax County Park Authority in Virginia, she earned a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School and a Secondary School Teaching Certification from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Despite lacking the ability to breathe fire except in the strictly metaphorical sense, Tilia has taught middle school, high school, and college. She has also won numerous awards for her fiction and nonfiction writing. She is a judge in the Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition, and she teaches writing to prison inmates. Tilia lives near Boston with her husband, two children, and two standard poodles












1. Are you working on anything new?

Yes, and it’s a real break from my last two books, both of which are crime novels. I have two kids, and I promised them I would write something they were allowed to read. The current opus, as yet untitled, is a children’s fantasy story about a set of twins rescuing their parents from an evil count. ‘Nuff said!

2. What made you start writing?

Learning to read, I suppose. I was your classic, nose-in-a-book kid, the kind who plunged so deeply into whatever book I was reading that I saw and heard the story as I read. At such times I didn’t always hear or see what was happening in real life, which I’m sure was alternately annoying and funny for my parents when they wanted me to do things like come to dinner, sleep, etc. From about first grade on I was writing stories in little books, certain that they would be published. I’m not sure what I was doing before then. Just loafing, I suppose.

3. Tell us one thing that we could not find on the Internet about you.

I’m not allergic to poison ivy. I could roll around naked in the stuff and not get a rash.

Please note that I do not plan to test this theory.

4. What is your favorite book that you could read over and over?

Knight’s Castle by Edward Eager. It’s a children’s story about two sets of cousins who are thrown together one summer, and end up getting sucked into a magical adventure with the characters of Ivanhoe. It’s witty and exciting and marvelously inventive. I first read it when I was eight, and it still enchants me—pun fully intended.

5. What is your favorite T.V. show or what show are you looking forward to seeing?

I don't generally have favorites; more like a rotating Top Ten list. Currently I love Castle for its banter and the partnership between Castle and Beckett. I love Dancing with the Stars for its elegance and the thrill of watching people strive to improve and break out of their comfort zones. I am in awe of Phineas and Ferb for its intricate plotting and unfailing cleverness, and I love The Daily Show for Jon Stewart’s incisive wit and unswaying moral core.

6. What is your earliest childhood memories?

Believe it or not, I remember lying in my crib and batting at the toys that were strung across it. Part of what convinces me this is a genuine memory is the fact that no one would string toys on a crib these days, because it would be a strangulation hazard for the baby.

7. Looking back what advice would you give yourself if you were younger?

I went through high school and college with an undiagnosed learning disability that made reading very difficult. Since I double-majored in Religion and English with a concentration in Creative Writing, I leave it to you to imagine what my academic life was like. I was lucky to find an excellent vision therapist who helped me a lot before I went to graduate school, and I’m very grateful; but if I could get my fourteen-year-old self tested and diagnosed, even my current self would thank me for it.

8. Do you have an author that you would fan girl over?

JK Rowling. I’m sure I would babble like a complete idiot if I ever met her. I admire her on every level. She has written some of the finest fantasy novels ever, and the richness of their universe is unsurpassed. She went on to create adult fiction that is very good and completely different from the Harry Potter books—if you didn’t know they were written by the same person, you’d never guess.

I admire her fortitude in writing the first Harry Potter book when she was a single welfare mother. It took seven years to get it published, but she never gave up. And I admire her as a person, because she has been enormously generous with her well-earned fortune, supporting children’s charities and other good works. Finally, the fact that she is the master of the well-worded smack-down whenever anyone disrespects her online only makes me love her all the more.

9. Have you thought about writing outside of the genre you are currently writing in?

I’ve never thought about staying in my current genre. I don’t only read crime novels, so why write only crime novels? Sitting on my desk right now are Romeo and Juliet, The Borrowers, and an early PG Wodehouse novel. I also love fantasy (Narnia, Middle Earth, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away). Finally, really good nonfiction has a thrill all its own, and I’m pleased to say I’ve published some of my own.

10. Fun question: Do you have to have matching socks?

Sort of! If they’re not matched, they have to be deliberately mismatched and thus complimentary. I used to get socks in “pairs of three” from Little Mismatched. They’re great fun.





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Comments

  1. What a nice interview. Nice to meet a new author. And thank you for the opportunity to win a book!

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