Guest post + giveaway : Underdog by Lori Culwell, author.

We're so pleased to have author of the young adult novel The Dirt, Lori Culwell over today. Lori is stopping by today to tell us about her inspiration for the lead character's personality. Lori and her publisher have most kindly offered to giveaway an e-book copy of The Dirt. The book is also available in paperback but not in this giveaway, why you might ask. There is a very logic reason for that; to make the prize available to all of our readers, not only the ones living in the US :) Without further ado here is Lori's post:

I must admit, I am a sucker for the underdog, and most of my protagonists fall under this category. By “underdog,” of course, I mean anyone who feels less-than, or awkward, or somehow “other” from their circumstances, like they just don’t fit in. Writing teachers sometimes use the term “stranger in a strange land” to describe a scenario where the hero of the story, for instance, time-travels to a place where the rules aren’t the same and where he or she finds him or herself quite out of place.

I feel like the underdog is that stranger, only the “strange land” circumstance is just their regular life. This brings me to the lead character in my latest novel—Lucy, from “The Dirt.” Having myself grown up in a fancy-pants town near Palm Springs, California, and not being particularly fancy myself, I did feel that sense of “other” ness in middle school and high school, like when my 16 year old friends started coming to school in BMWs (my first car was a Volkswagon Rabbit, in case you’re wondering). I also was a late bloomer, so to speak, so as a teenager I always kind of felt like everyone was more sophisticated and better looking than me.

In “The Dirt,” I put the awkward lead character inside a wealthy, mysterious family, mostly because I thought it would be funny to see something like that from the underdog’s perspective. Lucky (our hero) is the younger sister of Sloane Whitley—beautiful, perfect, and the evil mean-girl leader of a super-secret mean girl society known as PG. Since we’ve all known a Sloane at some point in our lives (probably high school), I put that character in to contrast Lucy, who is so self-conscious it’s almost painful at time. Everything Sloane is and does is mysterious to Lucy, from the effortless way she always looks good, even when she is sick or tired, the way she wields power over everyone in town—even the fact that Sloane is so totally comfortable with being ruthless and ice-cold, even to her own family members. Lucy and Sloane are polar opposites, and them being sisters and in such close proximity just raises the stakes of the story.

I can’t go too far into the plot of this book without uncovering some pretty major plot points, but I definitely do feel like you go on the roller coaster ride with Lucy of what it’s like to be a normal, awkward person in the middle of a rich, glamorous family (and town). I like to think that even rich and glamorous people feel this way sometimes, though I have my doubts.

As anyone who read my first novel, “Hollywood Car Wash,” can attest, I really like to explore situations from the inside, sometimes to the point of absurdity. In “Hollywood Car Wash,” that world was the Hollywood machine. In “The Dirt,” it’s Mean Girls and high society in Palm Desert, California. I like to look at situations like that from an “other’s” perspective, for comical effect. My readers seem to like it (or at least that’s what they tell me).

Thank you so much for sharing this with us, Lori. It was very interesting to read why you love an underdog protagonist and why you have chosen that kind of lead character for The Dirt.

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