Get to know Edward…

Edward Bloor is the author of seven young adult novels including the million-selling Tangerine. He was born and raised in Trenton, New Jersey; attended college in New York City, and currently resides in Winter Garden, Florida. Here is a list of his novels and some of their achievements: 

Tangerine (1997) American Library Association Top Ten Best Books  for Young Adults; Edgar Allan Poe Award nomination for Best Young Adult Novel.

Crusader (1999) New York Public Library Best Books for the Teen Age.

Story Time (2002) Edgar Allan Poe Award nomination for Best Young Adult Novel; New York Public Library Best Books for the Teen Age.

London Calling (2006) Virginia Readers’ Choice Award nominee.

Taken (2008) Sunshine State Readers Award Selection; Grand Canyon Readers Award Selection.

Memory Lane (2010) e-book exclusive, available on Kindle and Nook.

A Plague Year (2011) Random House paperback available November 2012. 

More information is available at his site.

Let the conversation begin!

Can you share a nugget of writing wisdom?

Yes: Understand what your audience wants. That sounds simplistic, and bromidic, but I believe it is the one factor holding a lot of good writers back. They do not know or perhaps do not care what their potential readers want; that is, what would get a person to pick up a book and walk it to the cash register or, more currently, to click a button to buy it.

What book are you reading right now?

I am sorry to say I am backed up with books from fellow authors that I have promised to read. And I will read them. I will.

Coffee or Tea?

Coffee; lots of it.

Why do you write?

To bring order to chaos; to leave something behind.

When are you the most productive?

6 am to noon.

If you could only wear one color for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Blue; 16 years of Catholic school.

As a teenager, what was your favorite musical group?

The Beatles.

Is there a story behind your name? What is it?

My grandfather, my father, and I were all named Edward, but we were all called something else. Curiously, my grandfather and father were both called Barney, perhaps due to a shortage of nicknames during the Great Depression. I was called Billy, which I came to despise. That’s why I take care with people’s names, and only call them what they want to be called. I take care with characters’ names, too, for the same reason.

Where do you see yourself in ten years?

Broadway. I am working on a play tiled Centennial, which is about The Great War. I started out wanting to be a playwright, and I hope to end up there.

Worst possible name for a child?

There’s a discussion in my new e-novel Memory Lane about people who are mismatched with their names. Don’t name your child anything that could possibly wind up in that discussion.

Best part of writing? Worst part?

The best part is completing the book. The worst is facing—for lack of a better word—a book’s flop in the marketplace. That’s bad for everybody involved with it.

If you could only write one more book, what would it be about?

Just in case it is my last book, here’s what the current one is about: It’s a novel, titled Summer of Smoke, about the race riots that erupted in the US in 1968 following the assassination of Martin Luther King. I was surprised to learn how many kids today have no idea that the US was embroiled in a bloody race war that summer.