ProMo: Just a Few Inches by Tara St. Pierre

Hello lovelies! I’m back with another ProMo (Promotional Monday’s) post 🙂

I often receive emails from authors asking me to review their books, and although their book does sound incredibly interesting I’m just too busy to read them at that moment. I always feel horrible when this happens because I love finding new books and authors and sharing my opinions with all of you. Fortunately, ProMo is a place where I get to share with you some of these books which I don’t have time to read but would still like to give a little spotlight on my blog incase you think it sounds good and would like to pick it up.

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Title: Just a Few Inches

Author: Tara St. Pierre

Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance

Published: June 1, 2015

Publisher: Tara St. Pierre

Pages: 306

Find This Book On: Goodreads, Amazon UK or Amazon USA

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Synopsis from Goodreads

All Carrie Roberts wants is to be a little bit smaller.

To fit into the perfect dress for the Valentine’s Day Dance. To look beautiful for her boyfriend, the school’s star basketball player. To keep his jealous ex-girlfriend, a rival cheerleader, away from him. And to be noticed by her classmates.

Exercising and dieting don’t work, but an advertisement for weight loss pills promises a quicker solution to her problem. As time runs out, she takes more than the recommended dose until she’s just a few inches slimmer. Heads turn when she arrives at the dance, and the wonderful night with her boyfriend is beyond what she dreamed it would be.

Days later, Carrie discovers that her body is changing in ways that should be impossible. While her doctor searches for a cure, she desperately turns to her friends and family for support. Everyone is noticing her now whether she likes it or not, and even the media is intrigued by her incredible story. Getting everything she once wanted has created new problems—problems that are growing more terrifying every day.

Because Carrie Roberts is shrinking.

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About The Author (from Goodreads)

Tara St. Pierre has been writing for over two decades, but her muse only sporadically provides inspiration. Her laptop is filled with incomplete manuscripts and other plot outlines, and she feels blessed when one finally pushes its way through to completion–no matter how long it takes!

She enjoys classic science fiction movies and television shows. When driving, she sings along with the radio loudly and off key. She prefers tea over coffee, spring over autumn, vanilla ice cream over chocolate, and caramel over hot fudge. Though she lives by herself, one of her two cats enjoys cuddling with her.

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Author Interview

Q1. Let’s get to know you better, what’s a random fact about yourself?

A. Wow, I’ll give you a few random facts:

• One of my two cats likes to sleep on top of me.
• I’ve won a karaoke contest.
• I spent a week in Scotland, staying mainly in Edinburgh, and loved it.
• I can recite the alphabet backwards.

Q2. What made you want to become a writer?

A. As early as I can remember, I’ve had an active imagination. Somewhere along the way, I started writing things down. Around ninth grade, friends of mine started reading the short (very short) stories I had written and enjoyed them. I haven’t really stopped writing since, and I’ve learned how to write longer stories.

Q3. For all of us non-writers, where do you find your inspiration from?

A. Inspiration comes from all sorts of crazy places. I’ve often read books and seen shows and movies that have gone in different directions than I would have expected. They made me wonder “What if…” something else had happened.

I got the inspiration for my debut YA novel Just a Few Inches from a magazine cover at a drugstore check-out counter. There was a headline about a new diet fad that would shrink inches from your weight, and I wondered what if a teenage girl, somewhat self-conscious about her weight, took diet pills and started shrinking. Not just inches from her waist but from her height too.

Q4. What’s the thing you most love and hate about writing?

A. I love creating characters and putting them in all sorts of made-up situations. And there are no rules to the problems I can throw at them, other than being consistent within the world I created. I’m only limited by my own imagination.

However, I hate it when I block out a certain amount of time in my day to write but spend it staring at a blank screen. Then, when I only have say fifteen minutes left, words start flowing but I have to stop because I have to be somewhere else. Inspiration and creativity don’t always strike when I want them to.  

Q5. Who is your all-time favourite author and why?

A. I can only pick one?! I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve ever read by Stephen King. J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is outstanding. One of my all-time favorite stories is Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Q6. How many books, novellas, short stories etc have you written? Tell us a little bit about them and where we can find them.

A. I’ve written several short stories from high school onward, and a few novellas from college. You can’t find any of those yet because I thought they’d never see the light of day. Then I learned about self-publishing options, and I’m becoming more eager to share. It helps that people seem to enjoy my debut novel, Just a Few Inches, which you can find at the provided links.

Q7. What are you currently working on? What’s it about? 

A. I’m taking one of my novellas from college and expanding upon the story, along with shifting the narration from third person to first person. I don’t want to give too much away, so let’s just say that it’s about a teenage girl coping with her parents’ divorce, and she finds solace in her favorite book: Alice in Wonderland. I’m really excited about the project, particularly revisiting a dear character I created over twenty years ago. 

Q8. And finally, what is your favourite genre to write about and why?

A. YA contemporary. I think that because teens are already struggling with their identities and their goals, they’ve got a taste of some independence so they can make big decisions, but they’re still young and are allowed and expected to make mistakes. Though adults make mistakes, they have too many external pressures to hide their mistakes. I’d rather write characters that are growing and continue to grow and learn lessons about life and themselves. And since we were all in that stage of our lives at one point, any reader, young or old, should be able to relate.

However, I really enjoy adding an extra twist—something speculative or fantastical—to make it a little more interesting or fun to a reader.

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Get in touch with Tara at…

• Email – authortsp@gmail.com
• Facebook – /AuthorTaraStPierre
• Twitter – @AuthorTaraStP

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Get Involved…

If you are an author and would like to be considered for ProMo, visit the segment’s official page for more details!

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Thanks for reading, everyone! Let me know if you’re going to read this book, or if you already have. Have a lovely week 🙂