Reading is Better With Cupcakes: Super Middle Grade Mondays Blitz: Author Spotlight – Krystalyn Drown with Giveaway #SuperMGMondays

Welcome to this week’s Super Middle Grade Mondays Book Blitz presented by Tantrum Books/Month9books!

Today, we get up close and personal with

Krystalyn Drown

author of Tracy Tam: Santa Command from Tantrum Books.

Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

Krystalyn spent thirteen years working at Walt Disney World in a variety of roles: entertainer, talent coordinator, and character captain. Her degree in theatre as well as many, many hours spent in a dance studio, helped with her job there. Her various other day jobs have included working in zoology at Sea World, as an elementary teacher, and currently as a support technician for a website. In the evenings, she does mad writing challenges with her sister, who is also an author. Krystalyn lives near Orlando, Florida with her husband, son, a were cat, and a Yorkie with a Napoleon complex.

Describe yourself in three words.

Quiet. Determined. Quirky.

Describe your book in three words.

Scientific. Magical. Santa-riffic

Tell us about your day job.

I’m a substitute teacher. I used to be an elementary teacher, but I love how subbing gives me more time to spend with my family and to write.

Which writers inspire you?

Judy Blume because she understood what it was like to be a preteen, Richard Peck because of Bel Air Bambi and the Mall Rats as well as all of his historical novels, JK Rowling because Harry Potter.

What is your writing process like?

I know the beginning, a few main points in the middle, and the end. Then I sit down and write. I send one of my critique partners (Dianne K. Salerni) my chapters one by one for feedback. Once I have a rough draft, then I write an outline and revise from there.

What are you reading right now?

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Again.

Do you have an author crush?

Maggie Stiefvater. The way she writes her characters leaves me in awe.

Quick questions:

Physical books or eBooks? Physical books

Coke or Pepsi? Pepsi

Twitter or Facebook? Facebook

Song you can’t get out of your head right now? Bad Blood by Taylor Swift

Sweet or salty? Sweet

Coffee or tea? Coffee

Write on computer or notebook paper? Computer

Tracy doesn’t believe that Santa can deliver all of those presents in one night with out a little help from science. A flying sleigh can only be powered by jet engines, and Santa’s magical abilities can only be the result of altered DNA. In order to test her theories, she sneaks onto Santa’s sleigh and ends up at Santa Command, the place where a team of humans monitors Santa’s big night. When Tracy attempts to hack into their computers, she accidentally introduces a virus to their system. As a result, three states get knocked out of sync with the rest of the world. Before the night is over, Tracy has to fix time and help Santa finish his deliveries. And she has to do it all with Santa’s magic, which she doesn’t believe exists.