Restoring Harmony Blog Tour Stop - Q & A with Joelle Anthony

We are SUPER excited to be today's stop on the Restoring Harmony Blog tour! Becoming part of this tour is one of those fun moments that occur because we're bloggers.  You never know what a comment on a blog will lead to something cool like this! So thank you to Joelle for including us! And if you want to learn more about Joelle and her debut book Restoring Harmony, check out her web page HERE.  Also check out our review of Restoring Harmony (link to come)

And now, the Q & A!

What is it like being a Canadian author? Is the process different from what it would be like in the US? Has anything been different, harder…because you’re not in the States?
For me it’s not much different because my agent and my publisher are in the U.S. Now that I live in Canada, I do try to use the Canadian spellings, but not for writing. I have a little switch in my brain that tells me which one to use. Microsoft Word helps too because I keep the spell check on American English.

What’s been the coolest thing that’s happened to you so far since becoming a published author?
Getting published! Okay, seriously…a lot of people I haven’t talked to in twenty years or more are starting to email me and that’s very cool. I don’t have any kids, but so many of my high school friends have teenagers now and so they email to say they’re getting the book for their kids. I just love that.

Can you share with us 5 random (non spoilery) facts about Molly that we don’t learn in the book?

· Molly loves tiny houses and she and her brother James built her a 6x8 cabin in the woods to practice fiddle in.

· She’s really, really good at math and has been helping her dad run the business side of the farm since she was fourteen.

· Her best friend’s name is Carole.

· Her dad is teaching her to play mandolin.

· She hates beets and is really glad Doug didn’t plant any, even though she knows they’re exceptionally good for you.

Do you see yourself being like Molly or do you identify more with a different character? Besides living on an island, what other parts or your life and experiences have found their way into Restoring Harmony?
I wish I were like Molly, but we’re not that much alike. I hope that I could find her strength in me if I needed to. One way we are alike is that I am very calm in emergency situations. When my husband had a bike accident and was going into shock, I stayed completely calm and did what had to be done. I once chased a shoplifter too, which is NOT smart (especially as I found out later he’d actually robbed the store, not simply shoplifted), but it is something Molly would probably do too.

Other parts of my life in the book? 
Cooking. And perhaps I might have stolen a few of the funnier lines from my husband who is quite hilarious.

What kind of research did you do for the book?
Molly goes on a road-trip and I did the entire thing, including the float plane, right after a storm so it was extra bumpy and scary. I tried to do most of it the way she does it, but I did have to cheat and use the car and the ferries for part of it.

You have several songs listed along with the trailer, how do those fit into the story? Were they things that influenced your writing or do they play a role in the story?
All the tunes and songs listed on my website are ones from the book. They are all traditional music, except for Brianna’s Reel. I needed a fictional tune and so I made that one up. It’s now a real tune though because teen fiddler, Sarah Tradewell, wrote it! There’s a great story on my site about how I met Sarah and how she came to write the tune and also star in the book trailer. Sarah and my husband are the ones playing and singing on those tracks on my site.

How did you get into writing? Was it something you always wanted to do?
I’ve always written. I think I wanted to write books since about fifth grade, but then I got distracted by theatre. Even in theatre I used to write stuff though, and my forte really is sketch comedy, which I used to write by myself or with other writer/actors.

I love the book cover! The top has a very art deco feel and then you move into this moody sky. I know most authors don’t have any say into their covers, but can you share any info about it? Did the artist have a particular scene that inspired him/her?
I didn’t have anything to do with my cover, I just got very lucky. The artist is a man named Hugh Syme, but he’s kind of shy so he didn’t want to talk about it with me too much. I did exchange an email or two telling him how happy I was with it and he was pleased to hear it. The team at Putnam really did a good job with the design and artwork, if I do say so myself!

What is your favorite Movie Quote?
Well, it would have to be from the fantastic movie Bull Durham, but since the most hilarious ones are probably not clean enough for a blog interview, I’ll say that I really like this one from Ruthless People. I’m working from memory here, so it’s not going to be exact.

The mistress and her lover/partner are scheming to blackmail Danny Devito’s character and take a bunch of money off him. The lover is played by a bleached-blond Bill Pullman and he’s really dumb.

Mistress – As soon as we get the money, we’ll be on a plane out of here.

Lover – Yeah…to Haiti.

Mistress – Not Haiti, you idiot. Tahiti.

What is your current cell phone ring tone?
This is my favourite question ever. Why? Because I DON’T HAVE A CELL PHONE!!!! Getting rid of my cell phone when we moved here was one of the best things I ever did. I highly recommend it.