Tag Archives | Elisa Ludwig

How can four high school students pull off a major heist? Find out!

If you’ve known me for any length of time as a writer and/or reader or have stopped by the blog at all in the past few years, then you might know that I love heist movies and books! Love them.

My post on the story structure of a heist movie in 15 sentences is my most viewed post and shows up on the first page if you google: How to write a heist novel.

I recently read Coin Heist by Elisa Ludwig and loved it! And I’ve read and watched a lot. I considered this one excellent.

I was psyched when Elisa said she’d guest post on the background behind writing Coin Heist! Oh, and watch the video (link at the bottom). It’s pretty cool.

***

Check out Elisa Ludwig’s book page for purchase links and more information!

Pulling a heist is no joke, and while the process of writing about one is somewhat easier, there are still plenty of challenges for the author at the helm.

I had some preparation for the climactic scene in COIN HEIST as I’d already written the three books in the PRETTY CROOKED series (Katherine Tegen), all of which involve thievery, break-ins, scams, carjacking, computer sleuthing and code breaking.

Even so, getting four teens into the Philadelphia Mint required research—a lot of research. First, I read as much as I could about the Mint, its history and heists at all of the U.S. mints over the years.

Then, because I live locally, I cased the joint on foot, walking in as a tourist. (FYI: It’s a very cool place to visit, but it often gets slept on in the middle of Philly’s historic Old City district.) I wore my baby in an Ergo carrier, which, I hoped, would help me evade suspicion. Meanwhile, I took copious notes on my iPhone.

The tour allows you to watch the coins as they’re being made on the production floor, so after a couple of visits, I got a sense of how to physically stage the night of the heist.

However, I still needed some more information about how the computer hacking portion of the heist would take place. That’s when I called on Michael Viscuso, a computer security expert. (Conveniently, one of my day job freelance gigs happens to be writing for a company called Net Diligence, which offers cyber risk management services.)

Michael walked me through multiple scenarios for how it could go down, and together we decided on the best one for the purposes of the book—something teens could feasibly pull off. I knew I wanted a combination of hacking and real-life stealing, because frankly, reading about someone sitting at a computer, no matter how many risks they’re taking, is kind of dull.

Oh, and the part about the prom at Franklin Institute? I didn’t need to research it. I lived it. My own senior prom took place there, but we didn’t have a cool band like Jason’s headlining. We had a band called the Flaming Caucasians—which was about as terrible as it sounds.

For more information about the making of the book, and a tour of the sites involved, check out this video from Adaptive Studios. 

***

Thanks Elisa!!!

Comments { 3 }

The story behind Run Like Hell – a teen’s worst nightmare come true.

Welcome to Day 5 celebrating A Spy Like Me!

Today we have with us Elena Andrews author of Run Like Hell – a young adult thriller!

RUN LIKE HELL is a young adult thriller involving seventeen-year-old Morgan Butler.  Her parents are out of town, she’s headed to the party of the year to meet up with her boyfriend and things couldn’t be better…until she gets stranded on a dark, desolate road.   With no money, no gas and a dead cell phone, Morgan makes a decision with dangerous consequences.

Several things inspired me to write this book.  First, I loved the movie TAKEN starring Liam Neeson.  If you haven’t seen this film, I’d highly recommend it.  In the movie his naïve, teenage daughter and her friend travel to Europe with horrible results.  I was drawn to the guileless spirit of the girls wanting to travel and enjoy Europe, un-chaperoned.

Secondly, I shared an interesting conversation with someone one day regarding her concerns for her teenage daughter while she was travelling overseas.  She trusted her daughter to make wise decisions, but worried nonetheless. Despite how parents prepare their child to make the right decisions, other influences come into play that are more powerful than a parent’s voice.

Lastly, I thought of my own experiences during my teenage years and early twenties.  I primarily grew up in Miami and during my senior year of high school I went to Miami Beach every weekend with my friends.  We loved dancing till dawn at the coolest alternative clubs.  Sometimes when I think back to those days and the crazy, sometimes dangerous, decisions I made I say to myself, “what was I thinking?” but back then I didn’t have any worries or concerns.

My character Morgan simply wants to go to an amazing party on a Saturday night and hang out with her friends and boyfriend.  My teenage goals were the same – to have a good time.  RUN LIKE HELL allowed me to fictionalize a “what if” scenario that could be terrifyingly realistic — the best type of thriller.

The real terror in life hides behind the face of the person next to you.

Purchase at Amazon or if you belong to Prime – read for free!

Elana’s blog ~ Website ~ Twitter

***

Okay, friends. I read the first couple chapters and was on the edge of seat! Clean writing and will get your heart pounding within paragraphs! And Elena is offering the ebook of Run Like Hell to one lucky winner!

To enter please leave a comment and tweet with @laurapauling

Comment to win Gemma Halliday’s Hollywood Scandals.
Comment to win Anne R. Allen’s The Gatsby Game.
Comment to win Elisa Ludwig’s Pretty Crooked.

Thanks everyone! And thanks Elena for sharing your story with us.

 

Comments { 7 }

What does a barefoot bandit have to do with Pretty Crooked by Elisa Ludwig?

Welcome to the blog series celebrating my YA release, A Spy Like Me.

Today we have with us Elisa Ludwig, Young Adult author of Pretty Crooked – a contemporary Robin Hood story. And yes, she’s giving away a hard cover! Woo hoo!

Top secret intel on Elise:

Elisa Ludwig studied writing at Vassar College and Temple University. She has been pick-pocketed twice, and once caught someone mid-pocket. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and her cat Beau. PRETTY CROOKED is her first novel. You can visit her online at www.elisaludwig.com.

Book trailer ~ Facebook ~ Twitter

The Story Behind the Story for Pretty Crooked

So you would like to know how my debut novel, Pretty Crooked, came to be? Let me take you back—way back—to the summer of 2010. It was excruciatingly hot, and there was the Deepwater oil spill going on, as well as the European debt crisis, but I will still remember it as an awesome summer because it was the summer I got my first book deal. (Lest you find this very selfish, I will add that good things were happening that summer, too: the H1N1 pandemic was declared over, and the first 24-hour flight by a solar-powered plane was successfully completed.) What’s more, the Barefoot Bandit was on the loose and I can’t help but feel some affection for the fella, as I will explain below.

What happened was this: For several months, I’d had a novel on submission that was not getting any hits. I was feeling a little hopeless. The manuscript had made the rounds to just about every house and my next WIP was dead on arrival. In the meantime, I was still getting these thankfully very kind but still heartbreaking rejections that told me I had a good voice, my prose was smooth and the characters were believable, but that the book was too quiet to sell. The very last editor to read it, Claudia Gabel at HarperCollins, responded to my agent that she really enjoyed my writing and would like to work on a project together.

We began throwing around ideas. The Barefoot Bandit was making the news at the time but was still at large. With clever getaways and stick-it-to-the-man attitude Harris Colton-Moore, or his female equivalent, seemed like the perfect hero(ine) for a YA novel. Throw in a hefty dose of the man in green tights and a little dash of Veronica Mars for good measure, and the concept about a teenage outlaw who steals from the rich mean girls to find justice for the scholarship kids at her school was born.

Right away, I fell in love with Willa Fox and enjoyed every minute of working on this book, which is anything but quiet. It was also a wonderful experience working with Claudia and the rest of the team at Katherine Tegen, so it has been a win all around. I STILL can’t believe I have a book, a real book, out there in the world. Like, a month later, it hasn’t really sunk in yet. Best of all, both Willa’s story and my own adventure in publishing continues. I recently finished book two and am now on the third installment. A writer friend once said to me, things don’t always happen in the way you expect them to, and I am really glad in this case that she was right.

Purchase Links: Amazon ~ Barnes and Noble

****

Wow, I just love the stories behind the stories. Thanks, Elisa! And thanks for offering one winner a copy of Pretty Crooked!

To enter, please leave a comment and tweet with @laurapauling. If you tweet more than once or blog about this series then add another comment with the link. Winners will be announced on Saturday so you’ll have all week to enter and promote.

You can still enter Monday and Tuesday’s book giveaway below!

Day 1: Gemma Halliday’s Hollywood Scandals
Day 2: Anne R. Allen’s The Gatsby Game

Thanks everyone!

Hang onto your seats because tomorrow we’ll hear from an extremely popular blogger about her life in France!

Comments { 12 }

Want a sneak peek into the next three weeks of Spies, Murder and Mystery?

So the posts are rolling in and I’m loving what I’m reading and can’t wait to share it with all of you in the next three weeks.

 

What? Haven’t you heard?

To celebrate A Spy Like Me I’m holding a 3 week Spies, Murder and Mystery Marathon.

Read more about it here.

But here are some sneak peeks!

Six common challenges when writing a traditional mystery and some ideas for getting around them, by the fabulous Elizabeth Spann Craig, author of Quilt or Innocence.

Don’t miss it!

What does the Deepwater oil spill, the European debt crisis and the barefoot bandit have to do with Elisa Ludwig’s YA debut, Pretty Crooked?

You’ll have to wait to find out!

When does a 13-year-old author find the time to write? And what do his teachers and friends think?

Spencer Brokaw of The Impenetrable Spy tells all.

Teddy bear cams, rearview sunglasses, listening ears, video pens – all needed spy equipment.

Find out how Gina Robinson uses them in her fiction, The Spy Who Left Me.

Hollywood scandal inspires Anne R. Allen to write The Gatsby Game.

Curious about which scandal? Return next week!

Becca Puglisi, co-author of The Emotion Thesaurus talks about cake, er, I mean sub-plotting and editing.

Don’t miss out!

That’s just a taste of what’s coming. More great authors. Terrific info! Lots of stories behind the stories. And, of course, book giveaways!

See you next week!

Comments { 16 }