Blog Tour Interview - The Perfect Tear by Connie Lansberg

The Perfect Tear
Author: Connie Lansberg
Publisher: Rockit Press
Pages: 320
Genre: YA Fantasy

Book Description:
The Perfect Tear begins with the Singers of the world who, during their initiation by a multi-dimensional being, are given a magical three-pronged hair comb to use as tuning forks to help keep the world in harmony.  They are a special breed of women, able to connect their voices to the vibration of the earth in order to create this needed balance and equilibrium for all.   
   
The story follows the main character Eleanor, from age six to sixteen.  She is a good natured and dutiful young girl, with a profound ability to interact with both animals and nature.  Like her mother, she is a powerful Singer but has not yet been initiated because she has not reached the age of maturity. After the unexpected death of her mother, a grey mist descends upon the earth and the world fails to thrive, forcing this innocent child into a course of action that she had never asked for, nor had ever envisioned.

Set against a backdrop of abandonment, loss and betrayal, Eleanor is determined to find her way through strange and dangerous landscapes in her desperate search for the Perfect Tear, a dark and powerful crystal that contains the Third Vibration, which she must find and release in order to heal the land – and save her world.  Just like the notes of a song must connect to create a perfect melody, Eleanor has to discover the proper associations needed to create this special harmony.

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Author Interview

1. Tell us a bit about your writing background. How did you get started writing for teens?
I’m going to be very honest here. I wrote the story I needed to write with absolutely no thought to age group. There is a quote from Madeleine L’Engle, “if it’s too difficult for adults, tell them it’s a children’s book.” I laughed when I read that. However, I am a champion for girls. I had a troubled time as teenager and I feel if there’s anything I can do to make it better for someone else, I’ll do it.

2. Who/What were your earliest influences?
Tolkien of course, Isaac Asimov, Anne McCaffrey, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Madeleine L'Engle, the list goes on. I devoured fantasy and science fiction although I never dreamed I would write one myself.

3. Did you face any early challenges to finding success in writing?
Well, I never went to school for it, never studied how to write a book, I’d been writing film scripts and in fact, I wrote the script to The Perfect Tear first, and was encouraged by my managers to write the book. So it was a process of finding a good editor to lead me through the differences in the two genres. It took me at least six months to really understand what was needed. It also took a really long time to get the script right. Things kept changing and making a fantasy make sense at every level is really hard. There were times when I was getting nowhere, but the story wouldn’t leave me alone.

4. What are your favorite books as a reader today? What qualities in them appeal to you?
I love Ken Follett’s epic style and juggling all the stories. White Teeth by Zadie Smith is an astounding piece of fiction. I love books that have great characters. I love people and I want to know all about them. If a character is interesting, they can be put in all sorts of situations. It’s how people react and feel that keeps me reading.

5. What do you do outside your writing life?
I have a full on second career as a singer songwriter in the jazz/pop vein–jazz standards and my own songs. Because The Perfect Tear actually grew out of ten songs I wrote, there’s going to be an enhanced e-book with the songs embedded. I’m just about to start recording now. Other than that, shoes.

6. What encouragement helped you along the way?
I finally found a manager who believed we could get a movie deal and knew it was a good story. She had my back the whole way and really believed I could write the book. It was so much fun getting fill it out into a whole book–so much freedom to say whatever I liked and not have to fit everything into 110 minutes.

7. What advice do you have for beginning writers?
Get a brutal editor. I use Blake Snyder’s beat sheet to help me plot although, things happen and sometimes your story writes it’s self and leads you down a path you never expected. I find that the most fun. And then proof, proof, proof.

8. What's up next for your fans?
I’m writing the second movie and book as we speak. It takes place nine months on.

9. What has been your biggest compliment?
One of the publishers I turned down is still writing to me and helping anyway she can. That is so flattering and lovely.

10. Is there anything you'd like to say to your fans and readers?
Yes. The first thing anybody tells you about this business is to say what makes you unique and different, but I couldn’t and the very idea of it never sat well with me and after much deliberation, I finally realized why. Because, I’m not unique or different–I’m exactly like you and I love that. We each have a unique filter through which we interpret the world, and with this filter in place, I write stories and songs and you might find them surprising or intriguing or confronting, you may relate or you may not. They may make you laugh and sometimes, even cry. You may or may not understand what I’m trying to say and you may not understand me, however, rest assured, once we get past the filters, at our core, we are wonderfully and beautifully, exactly the same.

About the Author
Connie Lansberg is a singer/songwriter and now author based in Melbourne Australia. She’s had her original songs placed in some of Australia’s best loved TV shows that play around the world and The Connie Lansberg Quartet is a fixture in the Melbourne jazz scene. Her most recent original musical project, Alone with Bees, performs her songs written especially for The Perfect Tear. This is Connie’s first novel and the movie is coming soon.

She also received several grants from the Victoria Council of the Arts for the development of mobile phone games that she created.

Connie joined the Melbourne Writers Group in 2010 to work on ideas and scripts and during this time the idea for The Perfect Tear began to develop and take shape. She continued her education by taking scriptwriting classes at the Australian Film and Television School in Melbourne and later, worked extensively with Marcy Kennedy on the book. She has two more stories to complete The Perfect Tear Trilogy and is hoping to have the second book finished by 2016.

"The first thing anybody tells you about this business is to say what makes you unique and different, but I couldn't and the very idea of it never sat well with me and after much deliberation, I finally realized why.

Because, I'm not unique or different – I'm exactly like you and I love that.

We each have a unique filter through which we interpret the world, and with this filter in place, I write stories and songs and you might find them surprising or intriguing or confronting, you may relate or you may not. They may make you laugh and sometimes, even cry.

You may or may not understand what I'm trying to say and you may not understand me, however, rest assured, once we get past the filters, at our core, we are wonderfully and beautifully, exactly the same."

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