I'm very excited today to bring you a guest post from author Carol M. Tanzman. She is the author of dancergirl (you can read my review here) and today she is going to be telling you all a little bit about herself. So, get to know Carol and also be sure to follow the tour for a chance to enter to win an iPod nano!
In Her Own Words Bio
I’m a lover of all things performance-oriented: theatre, dance, music. It started, as so many things do, in NYC. I was five and my mom let me take tap lessons. Oh, yeah. Shuffle Ball-Change, the Time step—I was making noise and loving it! But then, shades of Footloose, we moved to a suburb that had no dance lessons––until the day Miss Maria moved into the neighborhood. She turned her basement into a studio and I rode my bike to class.
A few years later Miss Maria got divorced and sold her house, which ended my so-called dance career¬¬. To replace it, I turned to books. I read voraciously: with a flashlight at night, behind a cabinet in the den (when I supposed to be doing my chores), in class (hiding the book inside my desk).
It wasn’t until high school that I added two new loves: theatre and a boy I met at a cast party. He was the trombone player in the musical’s orchestra; I was on stage crew. He asked me out––and then dared me to audition for The Crucible. I did—and got a small part. Bitten by the acting bug, I double-majored in college —English and Theatre. Heaven! I could read books during the day and act in plays at night. Junior year, the Theatre Department announced that their upcoming production The Wizard of Oz was going on tour to the Soviet Union during spring break. Everyone on campus, it seemed, auditioned––but it was the echoes of Miss Maria’s lessons that came to my rescue. Cast as a dancing poppy who “dances” Dorothy to sleep before she gets to Oz, my college dream came true—performing in Moscow!
Upon graduation, I became a professional theatre director. I ran a children’s theatre company in upstate New York before moving to NYC to direct new plays (both children’s and adult) in Off-Broadway and regional theatres. One day, during a script conference with a playwright, I realized I should stop trying to rewrite her work--and write my own.
That started me on my writing journey. Along the way, I got married (to a keyboard playing musician), had two children, and moved to Los Angeles. My first YA novel, The Shadow Place was published several years later. It was chosen as an American Library Association Quick Pick book and was on the National Council of English Teachers’ ALAN Best Books list.
My newest novel is the YA thriller, dancergirl. It was both fun—and tricky––to write. You don’t have to be a dancer to understand what my main character, Ali, goes through. I hope it’ll be exciting to read. At night, under the covers, with a flashlight…
I’m a lover of all things performance-oriented: theatre, dance, music. It started, as so many things do, in NYC. I was five and my mom let me take tap lessons. Oh, yeah. Shuffle Ball-Change, the Time step—I was making noise and loving it! But then, shades of Footloose, we moved to a suburb that had no dance lessons––until the day Miss Maria moved into the neighborhood. She turned her basement into a studio and I rode my bike to class.
A few years later Miss Maria got divorced and sold her house, which ended my so-called dance career¬¬. To replace it, I turned to books. I read voraciously: with a flashlight at night, behind a cabinet in the den (when I supposed to be doing my chores), in class (hiding the book inside my desk).
It wasn’t until high school that I added two new loves: theatre and a boy I met at a cast party. He was the trombone player in the musical’s orchestra; I was on stage crew. He asked me out––and then dared me to audition for The Crucible. I did—and got a small part. Bitten by the acting bug, I double-majored in college —English and Theatre. Heaven! I could read books during the day and act in plays at night. Junior year, the Theatre Department announced that their upcoming production The Wizard of Oz was going on tour to the Soviet Union during spring break. Everyone on campus, it seemed, auditioned––but it was the echoes of Miss Maria’s lessons that came to my rescue. Cast as a dancing poppy who “dances” Dorothy to sleep before she gets to Oz, my college dream came true—performing in Moscow!
That started me on my writing journey. Along the way, I got married (to a keyboard playing musician), had two children, and moved to Los Angeles. My first YA novel, The Shadow Place was published several years later. It was chosen as an American Library Association Quick Pick book and was on the National Council of English Teachers’ ALAN Best Books list.
My newest novel is the YA thriller, dancergirl. It was both fun—and tricky––to write. You don’t have to be a dancer to understand what my main character, Ali, goes through. I hope it’ll be exciting to read. At night, under the covers, with a flashlight…
Thank you so much Carol for your post! It's great to hear about your background in theater which is incredibly interesting to hear about.
And here's your chance to win a copy of dancergirl and the grand prize, an iPod Nano! All you have to do is:
And here's your chance to win a copy of dancergirl and the grand prize, an iPod Nano! All you have to do is:
1.) The first give-away is copy of dancergirl. Enter by leaving a comment on this Tour Stop (and then confirm that you left a comment via Rafflecopter)
2.)The second give-away is an iPod nano, skinned in the dancergirl artwork!
Simply enter via the Rafflecoper widget and get extra entries for tweeting (once per TourStop), following Carol on twitter,"Like" her on facebook, leaving your mailing address (for faster shipment of the prize) and for leaving a comment at each Tour Stops (one extra entry for each TourStop)
See full contest rules here.
You can learn more about Carol and dancergirl during the rest of the tour! Be sure to follow the tour stops:
Monday, November 14th - The Unread Reader
Wednesday, November 16st - YA Librarian Tales
Friday, November 18rd - ChicaReader
Monday, November 21st - Musings of a Reader Happy
Wednesday, November 23th - Alice Marvels
Friday, November 25th - A Cupcake and A Latte
Monday, November 28th - Fire and Ice Reviews
Wednesday, November 30th - Books with Bite
Friday, December 2nd - Well Read Wife
Wednesday, November 16st - YA Librarian Tales
Friday, November 18rd - ChicaReader
Monday, November 21st - Musings of a Reader Happy
Wednesday, November 23th - Alice Marvels
Friday, November 25th - A Cupcake and A Latte
Monday, November 28th - Fire and Ice Reviews
Wednesday, November 30th - Books with Bite
Friday, December 2nd - Well Read Wife
About dancergirl- goodreads, amazon, Barnes & Nobles, Indie Bound
About Carol M. Tanzman - website, twitter, facebook, goodreads, tumblr
Carol M. Tanzman's performing arts career is eclectic. She was a dancing poppy in a production of the Wizard of Oz that toured to the Soviet Union, an abstract chicken in a New England mime company, and the assistant director for a play in Germany where her major responsibility was making sure the sheep entered and exited on cue. She's directed regional and Off-Broadway productions of new plays, was the artistic director of a children’s theatre company in upstate NY and has been honored (twice!) by the Bravo Awards for her work with the Los Angeles Unified School District. Her first YA novel, The Shadow Place, was on YALSA's Quick Pick List of Recommended Books, the National Council of Teachers of English ALAN List of Best Books, and the CA Collection for Middle & Senior High Schools.
