YA In The Alleyway~THE LINGERING GRACE by Jessica Arnold & Giveaway!

YA in the Alleyway is my revised meme to give young adult literature the spotlight it deserves. It also gives YA authors the opportunity to share their signature with the world! Feel free to join me any Wednesday. 
I'm really excited to share this featured author with you! We're celebrating her next release in her young adult series The Looking Glass. Meet book II: THE LINGERING GRACE. Ah...there's just something about this title that I absolutely love. And check out this book description: 

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The Lingering Grace (The Looking Glass #2)

by Jessica Arnold
Publication Date:  March 15, 2016 Publisher:  Month9Books
All magic comes with a price.  The new school year brings with it a welcome return to normalcy after Alice’s narrow escape from a cursed hotel while on summer vacation. But when a young girl drowns in a freak accident that seems eerily similar to her own near-death experience, Alice suspects there might be something going on that not even the police can uncover. 
The girl’s older sister, Eva attends Alice’s school, and Alice immediately befriends her. But things change when when Alice learns that Eva is determined to use magic to bring her sister back. She must decide whether to help Eva work the highly dangerous magic or stop her at all costs. After all, no one knows better than Alice the true price of magic.

The Looking Glass~Book I Find the diary, break the curse, step through The Looking Glass!
Fifteen-year-old Alice Montgomery wakes up in the lobby of the B&B where she has been vacationing with her family to a startling discovery: no one can see or hear her. The cheap desk lights have been replaced with gas lamps and the linoleum floor with hardwood and rich Oriental carpeting. Someone has replaced the artwork with eerie paintings of Elizabeth Blackwell, the insane actress and rumored witch who killed herself at the hotel in the 1880s. Alice watches from behind the looking glass where she is haunted by Elizabeth Blackwell. Trapped in the 19th-century version of the hotel, Alice must figure out a way to break Elizabeth’s curse—with the help of Elizabeth's old diary and Tony, the son of a ghost hunter who is investigating the haunted B&B—before she becomes the inn's next victim.

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Please give a warm Alleyway welcome to young adult author, Jessica Arnold. She lives in New York City and works as a digital production manager at a fancy-pants NYC publishing house. If she has a spare moment, she's always up for a round of Bananagrams. She likes puppies. She doesn't believe in long bios.  'K, <3 her already! Hi Jessica, we're so happy to have you here. Let's give your readers a starting point about you. What or who inspired you to first try writing? Being a writer has not been a lifelong dream for me. When I was in middle and high school, I struggled with essays so much that I thought I was terrible at writing and simply wasn't cut out for it. It wasn't until I started experimenting with creative writing in college that I realized I loved it. It's been a lesson for me that I can't give up on something just because it's hard. I'll admit, though, that I still hate writing papers.
Honesty IS the best policy to live by. Well, since you've obviously taken to writing novels like a charm what do you see as the most important exercise to lead a writer to success? As far as I can tell, the best way to be a successful writer is to focus on writing something amazing. Thousands of Twitter followers will never compensate for an underdeveloped manuscript. My vote is for honing the craft, being persistent, and letting the rest of the details shake out as they may.
The publishing world is changing so quickly today. Any thoughts? I work in digital publishing—making ebooks is my day job.
Very, very cool! Sorry I interrupted. Please continue.
Because of that I'm often hyper-aware of the changes happening in the publishing world. There's been a lot of hand-wringing recently about ebooks vs. print books, and even the big publishers (or should I say ESPECIALLY the big publishers) have been wrangling with how to transition into a more digital world. Here's what I can say for certain: 1) Print books are NOT going away. The most recent sales data shows that print sales are actually getting stronger and ebook sales are leveling off. So don't worry—readers still want those paper books! 2) Publishing as an industry is actually very stable. There's always a feeling that people simply aren't interested in books anymore. After all, with the Netflixes and the Hulus of the Internet offering entertainment so readily and cheaply, who has time for reading? But don't worry—there are still as many readers as ever looking for a great new read. The opportunity to publish is still there, even though the industry is competitive and harsh. Publishers have been through a rough time lately, but they remain optimistic. And writers, whether they're self-published, conventionally published, or not published at all, shouldn't worry about the industry disappearing anytime soon.
Can I hear a big YAY! for the longevity of print books? WOOT! Let have a fun graffiti wall question. If you had to outline your current WIP or next story using only images, what images would you choose?  A stone tower, a wolf, a witch, and a firebird.

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Interesting...Now you've got me wondering. It's been a pleasure learning more about you and your work. Looking forward to more books from you in the future.
If you'd like to learn more about Jessica, feel free to visit her at these social media sites:  Website | Twitter | Facebook |  Goodreads a Rafflecopter giveaway

Have you ever been to a place that others have claimed is haunted?