Monday, October 31, 2016

Interview and Giveaway with David Lamb






Do you have a specific writing style?

Laura Weisberger meets Mark Twain meets Terry McMillan meets Paul Beatty. Chick-lit meets satire meets pop culture. Touching, hilarious, romantic stories with up to the minute cultural and political insights.

How did you come up with the title for your latest book?

Because the lead male character is music's biggest superstar and in his outer life he appears to be On Top Of The World, but inside he is suffering turmoil because of all the dirt he's done to get where he is. Also as a re-imagining of Scrooge, my character is Scrooje. I wanted to make a distinction between an old Victorian money grubber and a young, handsome superstar who has the world at his fingers.

Do you title the book first or wait until after it’s complete?

I title the book first, but I definitely remain open to changing it as I write the story. What I tried to do in my titles is come up with a short memorable sentence that is familiar to readers, captures the story and creates and emotion.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

To believe that they are worthy of love. To know that love is worth it. That the decisions we make determine the course of our lives.  That laughter is one of the best medicines

Is the book, characters, or any scenes based on a true life experience, someone you know, or events in your own life?

Some things are based on real life, like events that are currently taking place in the presidential campaign that were just begging to be satire! In the story, the character has a hit song, Money Like Trump that inadvertently gets him mixed up in the campaign. Some are based on my own life, like being accepted to an elite college but feeling out of place around the much more numerous rich kids.

What book are you reading now?

Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld, The Sellout by Paul Beatty and Moriarity by Anthony Horowitz.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

This was the first book I wrote in first person, and I am so happy that I took on that challenge because when I did the characters’ personalities, struggles and humor burst through even more.

Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?

Mark Twain. His ability to be funny, political, historical and touching all at once. Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage does a really nice job of capturing these elements like Twain, but with love story in it as well. Though my writing has more romance than either of them, much more like Curtis Sittenfeld’s reimagining of Pride or Prejudice but with more pop culture. 



On Top Of The World
Until The Bell Chimes             
David Lamb

Genre: Romantic Comedy/
Contemporary Romance/
African-American Romance/
Humor and Satire/ Re-tellings 

Publisher: Woolly Mammoth Books 

Date of Publication: October 20, 2016 

ISBN: 978-0986445309 
ASIN:  B01IUFLP8W 

Number of pages: 252 
Word Count: 48,000 

Description:

WINNER 2016 BEST FICTION-Pacific Book Awards.

FROM award-winning playwright DAVID LAMB comes a modern spin on Dickens that perfectly combines laughs and love. 

Scrooge, or rather Scrooje, is music's biggest superstar, with one hundred million albums sold and twenty-five million Twitter followers. Belle is a take no prisoners legal shark whose beauty causes traffic accidents as she stylishly zips through the sidewalks of Manhattan. They never imagined being music's most powerful couple, but that's what happened when Belle fell head over heels and gave the Coke-bottle glasses wearing, biggest nerd on campus the ultimate makeover, turning him into a fashion impresario whose style sets trends from Milan to NY Fashion Week.

Then it happens. Belle realizes too late she's created a chart-topping monster as Scrooje's ego explodes.  Now, it's been three years since they’ve spoken. But tonight at Hollywood s biggest red carpet event they'll be given a second chance. 

With twenty-five million viewers tuned in will Scrooje finally jeopardize his image and declare his love for Belle?  Will Belle even give him a chance? 

The Romantic Times says On Top of the World is "hilarious, highly entertaining, incredibly fun," and Foreword raves that it’s a "Fast and Fun read that shows love and friendship have the power to heal." While music star Talib Kweli says that it’s a “Dynamic novel about the price of fame packed with so many laughs and so much heart I couldn't put it down." 

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About the Author:

David Lamb is a native New Yorker, born and raised, bitten with the writing bug since he was in elementary school and had handwriting nobody could decipher. Like Charles Dickens, David grew up a poor boy in the big city who found that the pen really is mightier than the sword. In middle school Lamb's hero was David Lampel whose velvet voice could be heard reporting the news over David's grandmother's radio. Whenever he heard him on the radio, David would substitute Lamb for Lampel and pretend he was delivering the news. Sure that he was destined to be a famous reporter David was happy to go to a high school with a journalism program.

Like most kids, by the time he finished high school he had a whole new career in mind. After high school he went to Hunter College and majored in Economics because he wanted to be cool like that college kid who came to speak at his last year of high school. He was an Economics major, he was dressed sharp and above-all the girls thought he was the man! So like any unreasonable high school boy fueled by overactive hormones David figured if he majored in Economics they'd think he was cool.

After finishing college David went on to law school at NYU, but all the time writing was still his heart. While working as a lawyer by day, at night he transformed into a writer and eventually wrote and produced the award-winning hit off-Broadway romantic comedy Platanos Y Collard Greens.

Being a writer and having the chance make people laugh out loud while challenging them to think about the world around them, and inspire each of us to believe in the power of love and our own ability to overcome life's challenges is a great gift that David truly enjoys and thanks you for allowing him to share with you in On Top Of The World: Until The Bell Chimes





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