Sunday, October 18, 2015

Scott Pixello's funny-serious YA stories


Cate: Please welcome Scott Pixello to my special Halloween celebration. Scott, please tell us a little bit about yourself.
Scott: I’m a writer of (mostly) YA novels, 12 published to date. I’m British but I live in Germany and I write an unusual blend of funny and serious - designed to make you think and smile. Maybe even both.

Cate: Awesome. What do you love most about Halloween?
Scott: It only happens once a year.

Cate: Have you ever had an unusual experience you couldn’t explain?
Scott: Getting published - that’s a bit inexplicable.

Cate: I'm sure your publisher and readers feel otherwise! What frightens you the most?
Scott: The possibility that Chris de Burgh might make another record. That’s a perpetual nightmare. All my books have a character who hates Chris de Burgh, even those set in Roman-occupied Britain, which was a bit of a challenge.

Cate: lol Ever gone on a ghost tour? Or ghost hunting on your own?
Scott: Nope. I’ve seen Scooby Doo. I was one of those meddling kids.

Cate: Weren't we all, at some point? Any favorite Halloween recipes you’d care to share?
Scott: Take one portion of screaming kids, add copious amounts of chocolate, stir in nervous elderly neighbours and leave to simmer until the Police arrive.

Cate: Now that is scary, lol. Tell us about your latest release, and where readers can find it online.
Author: What Love Can Do is a rom-com about an exchange visit between England and Germany. It’s set in Berlin and Brighton.

Cate: Cool cover. Care to share a blurb?
Scott: This is midway between a summary and a blurb - a blurbary, if you will.
17-year-old Graham Stanley doesn’t believe in love at first sight. At school, he’s had to read Romeo and Juliet and even watch the Di Caprio film. Then Graham meets Katya, a German foreign exchange student and his life is turned upside-down.
What does he do? Should he copy Leo? Should he get a fish tank? These and other, less pressing questions are explored in a rom-com that straddles Europe like…well, like a Colossus.
Over the course of a year, split between Brighton and Berlin and set against the backdrop of a referendum on EU membership, Graham too must decide where his future lies and more importantly, with whom.
Graham and Katya are about to find out…what love can do.
This is a romance like Graham’s rubber duck- it’s clean but not squeaky.

Cate: What inspired you to write about the theme?
Scott: There are a lot of knee-jerk reactions floating around about immigration and I wanted to explore that dramatically and encourage people to think about it a bit more deeply. There’s also a lot of comic potential in putting characters in culturally-unfamiliar situations. 

Cate: Interesting! Anything else you’d like to share?
Scott: I’m currently eating some chips (fries to you guys) but I don’t share, unless distribution rights have been clearly negotiated beforehand.

What Love Can Do is available NOW right here:

Further links for all things Pixello:


Cate: Thanks for joining the party, Scott! Happy Halloween