Jennifer Echolls: At eight, I wanted to be a writer like my (unpublished) grandmother. At eighteen I was a music major. But I quickly switched my major to English because I wanted to be a novelist. By twenty-eight I was a graduate student in English and a college writing teacher, I was working on my seventh (unpublished) novel, and I’d had two literary agents.

JE: Brain, all day long. I don’t feel very smart–I’m downright stupid about some things, like how to get a novel published–but I’m analytical to a fault.

JE: The love scenes between Leah and Grayson seem to be going over pretty well.

JE: All romantic comedies–I just re-watched America’s Sweethearts twice.

JE: Elvis, because he was a remarkable talent in multiple genres, and he came from right next door in Mississippi.

 

Mindi, thanks for having me on your blog!

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About the book: High school senior Leah Jones loves nothing more than flying. While she’s in the air, it’s easy to forget life with her absentee mother at the low-rent end of a South Carolina beach town. When her flight instructor, Mr. Hall, hires her to

fly for his banner advertising business, she sees it as her ticket out of the trailer park. And when he dies suddenly, she’s afraid her flying career is gone forever.

But Mr. Hall’s teenage sons, golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson, are determined to keep the banner planes flying. Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business–until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers–and the consequences could be deadly.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jennifer Echols is the award-winning author of multiple romantic dramas and romantic comedies for teens. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.