Cry of the Sea is a YA novel about a young senior in high school who has aspirations to go off to college in pursuit of what appeals to her and her goals in life. Since as far back as she can remember, she's always helped her environmental activist parents with any disaster or clean-up that came along. An important life-changing lesson strikes Juniper when an oil spill hits a nearby beach. It is there where she makes the shocking discovery of mermaids, a cyclone of unforeseen mystery and angst circulates, thus life as she knows it can never be the same. In an interview with the author about writing this novel she was asked how she came up with the title. Her reply was, “I’m not very good with titles, but Cry of the Sea popped into my head from the beginning and I liked it. I’ve stuck with it since the very first outline.” Developing a plot is not always easy for authors, but Ms. Driver explains, “The original main plot of the novel – Juniper finding the mermaids during the oil spill and the efforts to protect them – has been the same from the very beginning. However, my first draft was very short and weak. When I revised it, I added in more of the budding relationship with her and Carter and the subplot involving the high school students and vice principal. I also added in scenes involving the reporter Juarez Pena in the rewrite.” Therefore,at this point, if any part could be changed what would those changes be? We learned the author is totally satisfied with her story the way it is, “I’ve rewritten the thing until I almost couldn’t stand it anymore. I’m pretty satisfied with the way it turned out.” And her fans are quite satisfied with it as well. In the life of an author, several rewrites are mandatory before it's acceptable to publishers, the author themselves, and many times in order to meet public expectations. Exactly how much research is involved in writing Cry of the Sea and how did she go about it? D.G. Driver relates, “A fair bit. I don’t live in Washington State, but I knew that the story had to take place there. So, I did a lot of research with maps about the area. I researched details about oil spills and how to care for animals caught in oil spills. I had to research some things concerning Juniper’s American Indian heritage. These are some examples. There are lots of little things that come up when working on a book like this.” Getting stuck on details or what happens next is something Ms. Driver has experienced. She indicates, “There’s a long, involved story about how many times I rewrote Cry of the Sea before it was ready to be published. I did my school presentations about this topic. The short version is that I realized my book would never be picked up by a publisher unless I did a major rewrite. One of the first things I did was switch it from third to first person. This meant that Juniper had to be in every scene of the book. Several scenes with Dr. Schneider, the Marine Biologist, had to be removed. I had to figure out how to tell what he had been doing in his scenes even though Juniper wasn’t in those scenes. That was definitely tricky, but I created new scenes with her and Carter poking around his computer and files.” Is it possible to have a favorite part of a book when you're the author? We ask D. G. Driver and she said, “My favorite scene is the one where Juniper and Carter are cleaning the oil off the mermaid in the tank at the Marine Animal Rescue Center,” which is a fascinating scene full of detail and excitement developing between all characters in the tank. Fans want to know if a sequel is planned and Ms. Driver surprisingly revealed, “I am actually almost done writing it. I’m hoping (fingers crossed) to have it finished and turned in to my publisher by early May with a tentative publication early in 2016.” She further noted, “When I wrote Cry of the Sea, I didn’t intend for it to have a sequel or be part of a series. However, my publisher and lots of readers have asked for more of Juniper. It took me some time to figure out what story I wanted to tell next, and I was still adjusting my outline over the weekend. I’m having a much harder time with the sequel. Lots of stops and starts. But I think I’ve finally got a handle on it.” What details about the sequel can she divulge? “I can tell you that the story centers around Juniper discovering another mythological creature tied to another environmental issue. However, it isn’t about mermaids. When coming up with a title for the sequel, I asked my readers on Facebook to make suggestions. Right now it’s being called Whisper of the Woods.” Perhaps the biggest question asked of any author after releasing a riveting book is whether or not there will be a sequel, but D. G. Driver fans also want to know why she chose to make the mermaids more realistic rather than the typical mermaid seen in most mermaid stories. Ms. Driver said, “I needed the mermaids to be real, the way they might be if they existed in the ocean right at this moment. I have always seen this story as more like an X-Files type of science fiction than a Little Mermaid type of fantasy. Most readers of Cry of the Sea say what? “Most readers love Carter, which makes me happy. I love him too. I get conflicted opinions from readers about the way the book ends. Some think it’s right on the money, and others are frustrated by it. I can’t say more without spoiling it. Many of my reviews have pointed out that they didn’t have much interest in oil spills or environmental issues regarding the oceans before reading this, but that this book brought those issues to light for them.” One of the hardest parts about publishing a novel is becoming wide known. We ask D. G. Driver if she experiences the same. Her response was, “I'm published by a small press (Fire and Ice Young Adult Books, an imprint of Melange Books), and I’ve had to do most of the marketing myself. It’s really hard to get people to discover it, and I think people would really enjoy it if they took a break from the big bestsellers for a minute and gave this one a chance. I do hope readers come to like Juniper, because I plan to write a couple more books about her." Throughout the story in Cry of the Sea, there is one mermaid, who survives from the oil spill, therefore, we asked whether she has a name. Ms. Driver indicated, “No. In Cry of the Sea the mermaids are meant to be more like other sea creatures (dolphins, whales, fish, etc.). This isn’t the kind of story with talking mermaids, although Juniper has a connection with one and can kind of sense what the mermaid is feeling and thinking. I didn’t create an under-the-sea mermaid fantasy world. Instead, I imagine that like other sea creatures, the mermaids don’t have communities or names. I do see them as being connected, though, and perhaps traveling in pairs or groups. Juniper never gives the mermaid a name in the story either." Switching gears to her life, thoughts, and background, we were curious whether Ms. Driver had a specific way in naming her characters. She said, “I have been a teacher most of my life. I’ve taught dance, drama, music, and Special Education. A lot of times I use names of former students. Carter’s name came from a boy my daughter used to go to school with in 1st grade. Character Carter was originally named Daniel before she insisted I change it.” With writing so many dozens of novels, there must be a favorite theme authors have or fall back on in their writing. D. G. Driver passionately stated, “My two favorite genres are historical fiction and fantasy. When I write fantasy novels they tend to be contemporary fiction with a fantastic element, rather than full-blown fantasy novels. That’s how I see both Cry of the Sea and Passing Notes. I like writing stories about real kids struggling with problems that might be a little out of their realm of normal and figuring out how to handle them.” On a more comical side of things we were curious whether Ms. Driver had any writing habits, such as needing a favorite pen or standing on her head before beginning. We learned she did not. “I write when I can. I’m a mom with a full-time job. If no one needs me, I go into my office and jot down some words. Catch as catch can. No time for quirks.” In the minds of young, aspiring writers the question of what one can do to be a better writer is always circulating. Ms. Driver tells us to, “Read a lot of books. Study the books you read for style and content. Learn how to spell and work on your grammar. Most of all, take your time. Don’t rush to self-publish as soon as you finish your story. Make sure your book is the best it can possibly be before sending it out in the world. Great writers don’t publish first drafts.” Always a writer dreams of becoming a writer at a young age is more commonly stated by persons cornering the market in their field of study or course of expertise. For D. G. Driver, her childhood and direction in life is far from being an author. She tells her desires in growing up were to become, “An actress/dancer/singer. I have been a performer since age three. I did shows all through school and majored in Theatre Arts at my college. After college I worked as a professional actress for many years doing touring theater, interactive mystery dinner theater, and sang in a couple bands. I still do community theatre musicals for fun. I wrote as a hobby, never with the serious thought of publishing anything. In 1994 my worlds collided when a friend asked me to write a play for his children’s theater company. The following year I sold my first story, and I’ve been writing ever since.” Just what is D. G. Driver working on at present? “I’m working on both promotion and writing. It takes a lot of effort to promote Cry of the Sea and my novella Passing Notes (which was just released in January of this year). I have Instagram, Pinterest, FB, Twitter, and Tumblr accounts that I keep up daily along with my wattpad account, website, and blog. However, I have worked hard at finishing up the sequel to Cry of the Sea. I also have a story coming out in a book called The Tomato Anthology later this year and a Middle Grade novel titled No One Needed to Know being published by Schoolwide, Inc. later this year. As soon as Whisper of the Trees is off to the publisher and awaiting edits, I’ll get back to revising a Middle Grade fantasy novel I finished during NaNoWriMo back in 2013.” D. G. Driver used to write under the previous name of Donna Getzinger. Under that name she had 13 books published. She proudly states, “Four of my non-fiction books are still in print as well as a collection of sketch comedy. As D. G. Driver I have published two books, Cry of the Sea and my YA romance novella Passing Notes. Of my fiction, Cry of the Sea is my favorite of my works. The book that I’m most proud of is my non-fiction book The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, published by Morgan Reynolds Publishers. It is an intense book about a very tragic event in U.S. history that took a couple years to research and write. It earned a starred review from School Library Journal.” You can get a copy of D. G. Driver's latest book titled, Cry of the Sea located on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Cry-Sea-D-G-Driver/dp/1612357865/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8. To learn more about this author and all other books available at Amazon, visit her author's page located at http://www.amazon.com/D.-G.-Driver/e/B00J70QN64/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1427567103&sr=8-1. You may go directly through the publisher's website, which has more links located at www.fireandiceya.com/authors/dgdriver/crysea.html. And you may visit Ms. Driver's own website at www.dgdriver.com or follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/donnagdriver.