Win a $10 Amazon/BN GC - The Writer's View: Eileen Carr

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The Writer's View

These photos are of my favorite coffee shop in the town where I live. It’s called Common Grounds and is actually in the shopping area on which I loosely modeled the shopping area in Veiled Intentions. I stress loosely. The people who work the counter are way more intelligent and on top of things than I made the ones in the book sound. I also have no clue as to whether or not they have any kind of security system with video.

I write at Common Grounds a lot. It’s got everything I need. Good coffee, comfy chairs, and wi-fi. In addition to what I need, it also has things I want. It has a lovely little courtyard area with a fountain. Yes. It’s December and the door is open and the fountain is on. That’s one of the perqs of living in northern California. At any rate, the fountain makes some lovely background noise and is great to stare at while I’m trying to think of what comes next in my book or how exactly to say what it is I’m trying to say at any given moment.

It looks pretty empty in these photos because I took them the week after the fall quarter at UC Davis ended. Last week, the place was packed to the rafters with girls wearing yoga pants and panicked expressions and boys with bags under their eyes wearing jeans that probably needed to be washed. They’re all gone now which means I can have a spot on the couch in the corner with easy access to a power strip.

Truly writer nirvana.

When a Muslim high school student is accused of a crime she didn’t commit, her school counselor gets involved to clear her record in this ripped-from-the-headlines novel.

When Lily Simon finds cops in the lobby of the high school where she’s a guidance counselor, she’s not surprised: cops and adolescents go together like sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. But when the cops take Jamila, a Muslim student, into custody for a crime she didn’t commit, Lily’s high school becomes a powder keg.

Police think Jamila is responsible for a hit and run, and since she’s not talking, they have no choice but to keep her as the main suspect. And since the victim—a young soldier recently returned from Afghanistan—is lying unconscious in the hospital, the whole town is taking sides on whether or not Jamila’s arrest is religious persecution. Determined to find the truth, Lily teams up with a reporter to uncover what really happened the night of the hit and run.

Enjoy an excerpt:

Lily read Daniel Richardson’s article with a horrible sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach. She brought up Facebook on her computer and started searching.

She found the “Jamila Is a Terrorist” Facebook page by following a fairly long line of comments among other students. Despite being incredibly computer savvy, it surprised Lily to see how few kids had much regard to their privacy online. Even the ones who had made their profiles private didn’t seem to realize that if they commented on a page that wasn’t private, someone could have limited access to their information.

She felt physically ill when she found the page. Scrolling through it made her feel even worse.

“Cast your vote! Which one of these Darby High students is the most likely to bomb the place to the ground?”

Lily’s stomach dropped when she saw the poll. At this moment, Lily wasn’t sure what horrified her the most. Was it the fact that someone had created a poll like that on Facebook? Or that so many of the kids at school had already voted on who they thought was most likely to commit an act of terrorism against the school. Two hundred and seventy-nine votes had already been cast.

Four of the five choices were Muslim students. Jamila, of course. Then Hakim Massoud, Abdul El-Sayed, and Fareed Bahri. The fifth choice was SpongeBob SquarePants.

SpongeBob was trailing by quite a few votes.

About the Author:

Eileen Carr was born in Dayton, Ohio. She moved when she was four and only remembers that she was born across the street from Baskin-Robbins. Eileen remembers anything that has to do with ice cream. Or chocolate. Or champagne.

Eileen’s alter ego, Eileen Rendahl, is the award-winning author of four Chick Lit novels and the Messenger series.

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