new posts in all blogs
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: YA author interviews, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 26 - 50 of 301
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: YA author interviews in the JacketFlap blog reader. What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label. Tags can both help you find posts on JacketFlap.com as well as provide an easy way for you to "remember" and classify posts for later recall. Try adding a tag yourself by clicking "Add a tag" below a post's header. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a 'More Posts from this Blog' link in any individual post.
WANDERING STAR is the second book in the Zodiac series, and we're excited to have Romina Russell here to tell us more about it.
Romina, what do you hope readers will take away from WANDERING STAR?If ZODIAC dealt mostly with universe-building, WANDERING STAR is all about character. My biggest hope for readers who pick up this book is that they’re reminded that even people who think differently than they do deserve to be heard. And above all, I hope they enjoy themselves!
How long or hard was your road to publication? How many books did you write before this one, and how many never got published?My road to publication felt endless, but in technical terms, it took ten years. ZODIAC was my first published novel, and even before I started writing it, I'd already completed five full-length manuscripts, including one that I re-wrote entirely at least four times—and I’m actually working on a fifth iteration of that very story now! Apparently, I don’t give up on characters easily…not even when they’re driving me CRAZY.
Read more »
We're thrilled to have Alexander Gordon Smith here to tell us about his latest novel THE DEVIL'S ENGINE: HELLRAISERS.
Alexander, what was your inspiration for writing THE DEVIL'S ENGINE: HELLRAISERS?There were a number of things that inspired this series, but I think the most important one was not being able to breathe. I've been asthmatic since I was a kid, and although I don't have it so bad now I vividly remember the horror of having an attack. It feels like drowning out of water. When I was a kid I think I would have done anything to find a cure for my asthma, especially as it meant sitting out on so many of the things I loved. Looking back now, I think it was sitting on the sidelines that made me turn to writing – when you can't do the things you love for real, you start to do them in your imagination. So I'm grateful to it, in a weird way!
So yeah, the asthma led to the creation of the main character, Marlow Green, who is also severely asthmatic. Like me (as a teenager, not now!), he's also a bit of a hellraiser – I was always getting into trouble at school. And like me, Marlow would do anything to get rid of his asthma. I wondered what would happen if there was a machine that could grant him his wish. That was the heart of the story right there. I've always loved the legend of Faust, the idea that you can sell your soul to the devil for anything you like. This is my modern take on that classic story, complete with all the other things I love in stories: demons, monsters, gunfights, explosions, chases, twists and turns, monsters, terrifying bad guys, kick-ass characters, oh, and monsters. I wasn't sure if I mentioned the monsters.
Read more »
VIRTUALLY IN LOVE is the latest novel by Catherine Hapka, and we're delighted to have her stop by to chat.
Catherine, what do you hope readers will take away from VIRTUALLY IN LOVE?Not to get too caught up in how things (including True Romance) are SUPPOSED to be. Be open! Take chances! Be different! And most of all – nerds have more fun!
What's your writing ritual like? Do you listen to music? Work at home or at a coffee shop or the library, etc?My work routine is pretty boring – no coffee shops or other populated spots for me. I do all my writing in an office in my 18th century PA farmhouse. It’s a little drafty, but has a great (and peaceful) view! I’ll occasionally play music to inspire me if it fits the theme of a story, but I’m easily distracted so usually I stick to silence. (Like I said – boring! But it gets the job done!)
Read more »
We're excited to have Eric Lindstrom stop by to tell us more about his debut novel NOT IF I SEE YOU FIRST.
Eric, what was your inspiration for writing NOT IF I SEE YOU FIRST?I always start a new project by thinking about a core conflict: what the protagonist wants or needs to do, and why it's particularly hard for them specifically.
Not If I See You First started with me focusing on how difficult and even scary it is to put yourself out there to make new friends, start a romance, or even just get closer to friends you already have. I wanted to explore themes of trust, vulnerability, and fear of rejection in relationships. Then I thought about why these issues would be especially hard for my protagonist. It occurred to me how reaching out relies heavily on gauging reactions to your overtures, to decide how it’s going, and to either press on, change your approach, or retreat. Most of us do this by evaluating facial expressions, eye contact, and body language. It occurred to me how hard it would be to reach out to people if you couldn’t see any of those things, and Parker Grant was born. She ended up taking me to an unexpected place – for an exploration of trepidation, she turned out remarkably fearless! – but that’s where the story began, with the seed idea of a girl who needed to take multiple leaps of faith without being able to even see where she was jumping.
Read more »
We're thrilled to have Ingrid Sundberg join us to share more about her debut novel ALL WE LEFT BEHIND.
Ingrid, what was your inspiration for writing ALL WE LEFT BEHIND?I fell in love with this character - Marion - who experiences the world in such a sensual and vivid way. She doesn’t know how to articulate what she wants, and at the same time she feels her desires and fears so intensely. She haunted me, and I couldn’t stop writing about her. She had a secret to tell.
How long did you work on ALL WE LEFT BEHIND?Ten years / two and a half years. The character of Marion has been with me for a long time. She was at the center of a screenplay I wrote in college and then rewrote as a novel. Eventually I threw both of those stories away, and started fresh. Marion has haunted me for years. She had a story to tell, but it took me a long time to gain the writing chops to do her story justice. She feels the world sensually, and the things that scare her are not easy to articulate. It’s been a long journey in learning how to give her silence words.
Read more »
We're delighted to have A.L. Davroe here to chat about her latest novel NEXIS.
A.L., what was your inspiration for writing NEXIS?Oh, there is a fun story behind this. Believe it or not, the initial idea for
Nexis came about when my agent, Louise Fury, was still part of the L. Perkins Agency. She and Lori Perkins and I were eating dinner at a convention and they were talking about wanting a Steampunk Cinderella story. I also write Steampunk, so the idea was intriguing to me. On the spot, I came up with a Cinderella who loses her whole leg instead of just a shoe and ends up with some crazy Steampunk gadget for a leg instead. I didn’t want to do another Steampunk story though, so I decided I’d try and do a futuristic Cinderella instead. I’ve always been a huge fan of anime and, if you’re also a fan like me, you’ll probably be able to pick out some of my influences. Anyway, I wrote this sort-of futuristic Cinderella story. The initial set up in the original version was very Cinderella, but then, I sort of flew off the track with the whole virtual game idea and the ending. The work and the character became so much bigger and better than its initial starting point. After numerous edits and
Cinder coming out in print (yes, I wrote
Nexis that long ago), I decided to nix the Cinderella aspect all-together and really make
Nexis its own story. I really love what this story has become and the journey that the characters and I have taken.
Read more »
We're thrilled to have Kate McGovern with us to share more about her debut novel RULES FOR 50/50 CHANCES.
Kate, what was your inspiration for writing RULES FOR 50/50 CHANCES?I came across a news article in 2007 about a young woman who was wrestling with the same decision as Rose--should she get tested for Huntington's or not. Her family didn't want her to take the test. Ultimately she did get tested, and learned that she had the mutation. I was really moved by the way she articulated how that knowledge affected her life choices, her aspirations for her future. It stuck with me, and almost six years later I started writing RULES.
How long did you work on RULES FOR 50/50 CHANCES?I started writing the draft in 2012, but I only wrote the very first page, and then I put it down for a year. When I picked it back up, I wrote the first draft in about 6 months. I revised for a few months after that, and then signed with my agent. We sold the book about 14 months after I started writing it in earnest. But like I said, I'd been percolating on the subject matter for almost six years before I even wrote down a word.
Read more »
We are honored to have Christopher Pike join us to share more about his latest novel STRANGE GIRL.
Christopher, what was your inspiration for writing STRANGE GIRL?If you read the dedication of Strange Girl, it says:
“For Abir, who told me to write this book.” Abir is my girlfriend. We’ve been together 15 years, and she is without a doubt the love of my life. Naturally, by this time, I never write a book without talking to Abir about it. Well last March, 2014, we were talking late one night about what I should write next and Abir said I should write a love story. And I said, “A love story about what?” That was when Abir gave me perhaps the best advice when she said -- “That’s the key. You don’t want to know what it’s about. Find out as you write it. Just have a boy meet a mysterious girl at the beginning of the school year and go from there.”
At first I dismissed the idea. I’m rather proud of how cleverly I plot my stories and Abir was basically telling me to drop all my cleverness and just
feel my way along. Just put myself in the shoes of the main character, Fred, and write what he felt.
And that was what I did. That’s how Aja, the heroine of Strange Girl, was created, totally out of thin air.
Read more »
We're excited to have Nancy Ohlin join us to share more about her latest novel CONSENT.
Nancy, what was your inspiration for writing CONSENT? CONSENT began as a cautionary tale about teacher-student relationships, prompted by a bad experience I'd had in high school. But as I wrote, the novel evolved into something more. Over my very strong objections, Bea and Dane insisted on falling in love, and their story got a lot more complicated. “Complicated” was what I needed, though. It was in that moral gray area where I was able to stretch my wings as a writer and really explore the controversial subject of sexual consent.
What scene was really hard for you to write and why? It was really hard for me to write that first sex scene. Part of me was very judgy about the whole thing, and I had to rein that in and just allow the two of them to be together. But once I let go of the judgment, the scene flowed.
Read more »
We're thrilled to have Charlotte Huang here to tell us more about her debut FOR THE RECORD.
Charlotte, how long did you work on FOR THE RECORD?Well this is misleading, but the time between starting to write it and going on submission to editors was probably about seven months. But because my husband and many of our friends work in various aspects of the music industry, I had been gathering information for years. Even if it wasn’t intentional with the thought of writing a book one day, it was easily accessible when I needed it.
What scene was really hard for you to write and why, and is that the one of which you are most proud? Or is there another scene you particularly love?Hmm, without giving anything away, I have to say that the big, confrontational scenes are always hard for me. It’s hard to force myself to feel those feelings when I don’t have to and I’m also always afraid that they’ll seem overwrought. The scene I’m most proud of is near the end and is, in fact, one of the confrontational scenes!
Read more »
We're delighted to have Suzanne Nelson here to tell us more about her latest novel SERENDIPITY'S FOOTSTEPS.
Suzanne, what was your inspiration for writing SERENDIPITY'S FOOTSTEPS?
This novel was born of many stories. The characters of Dalya, Pinny, and Ray lived in a corner of my mind for years before they were put to paper. In one of the earliest stages of brainstorming, I tried to make Pinny and Ray sisters by birth, but that story line didn't work. I wanted to write about the choice Dalya faces, of denying or embracing her faith and heartbreaking past, but didn't originally see how she connected to Ray and Pinny. It was the three characters' connection to the pale pink shoes that finally made the idea and writing "click." I have my sister to thank for that. For years, each time I passed lost shoes in the street or dangling from telephone wires, I wondered why they'd been left. There was one red slingback that sat on a boulder in front of a house in my home town for months. Whenever I drove passed it, I found it haunting my thoughts. Then my sister--an avid shoe-lover and my best friend--suggested that I write a story for all of those lost shoes. My sister was the real inspiration for the novel and the reason why Serendipity's Footsteps was finally born.
Read more »
We're thrilled to have Jenna Helland join us to share more about her latest novel THE AUGUST 5.
Jenna, what was your inspiration for writing THE AUGUST 5?
I’ve always been fascinated by Thomas Paine and the era of political pamphlets. I imagined living in a time when I couldn’t get information from the Internet and instead I had to rely on the written word. In societies where newspapers are so powerful and necessary, journalists can become political targets, and that’s what I wanted to explore. I started by writing newspaper articles by Gavin Baine, and those developed into the novel.
What's your writing ritual like? Do you listen to music? Work at home or at a coffee shop or the library, etc?
I love to begin writing in the early morning before the sun rises. My perfect writing session is when I have my window open, my fan on, and my cat in my lap. For a lot of years, I didn’t have a study so I had to write in the garage. Now I have my own room with a window, which is a lot nicer.
Read more »
DARKNESS HIDDEN is book two of the Name of the Blade series, and we're excited to have Zoë Marriott with us to chat about writing.
Zoë, what's your writing ritual like? Do you listen to music? Work at home or at a coffee shop or the library, etc?My writing ritual has changed drastically over the years. I used to work thirty hours a week while also being a full-time carer for my father. My ritual was just to scribble into a notebook, as fast as I could, any where and any time that I had a spare minute - on the bus to work, in the breakroom in the office, in the hospital waiting room, etc. - and then type it up and revise it in the evenings or on Sundays.
A few years ago I was made redundant, but thanks to a generous writing grant from the Royal Literary Fund, I didn't have to look for another job right away. Then very sadly my father passed away. So in the past couple of years I've actually become a full time writer for the first time, and this has meant I've needed to try to develop good writing habits and a proper routine. At first I worked twelve hour days because I could, and often seven days a week. But I had a bit of a health wake-up call last year and it made me reassess things.
Read more »
We're delighted to have E. Katherine Kottaras here to share more about her debut novel HOW TO BE BRAVE.
What was your inspiration for writing HOW TO BE BRAVE?Though the story is not autobiographical, much of it is “true” in the sense that it was written after a difficult period of my life. I lost my father when I was seventeen and my mother when I was thirty. After my mother passed away when my daughter was ten months old, I found myself sandwiched between the death of my best friend and the presence of this new life. It was a dark and confusing time – I wanted to drown in my grief but also knew I had to keep myself afloat for the sake of my new baby. That’s when I turned to writing. On my darkest days, my husband would tell me to take time for myself – to go for walks, yoga, etc. – but more often than not, I would find myself at the library, writing. The act of writing was a way for me to work through my own grief and to also find new purpose my life.
Read more »
HOLLOWGIRL is the final book in the Twinmaker series, and we're delighted to have Sean Williams with us to share more about it.
Sean, how long did you work on HOLLOWGIRL?It took me a little over a year to write
Hollowgirl, but really I’d been thinking about it ever since I sold the series, way back when. The beginning of every story determines the end, and I’ve always known pretty much how the final moments between Clair and Q would unfold, but there were so many details to get exactly right, and as the book started to take shape I quickly realised just how incredibly difficult it was going to be. This was easily the hardest book I’ve ever written, and the most rewarding. Seeing it all unfold was almost magical. I’m really pleased with how it turned out.
Read more »
THE REVOLUTION OF IVY is the sequel to THE BOOK OF IVY, and we're excited to have Amy Engel join us to chat about writing.
Amy, how long did you work on THE REVOLUTION OF IVY?All told, it took me about three months (maybe a little less) to write REVOLUTION. And it was a pretty clean first draft so there wasn’t copious editing I had to do before I turned it in to my editor. I always knew the story would pick up immediately after the end of the first book and I knew how the series would end. But I figured out the rest as I went along, which is how I write all my books.
Read more »
We're thrilled to have Barnabas Miller here to tell us more about his latest novel THE GIRL WITH THE WRONG NAME.
Barnabas, what was your inspiration for writing THE GIRL WITH THE WRONG NAME?I think there are always multiple sources of inspiration when a story first takes shape, whether it’s something you read, or certain people in your life who’ve made an indelible impression, or a kind of story you’ve always wanted to tell. In this case, I will say that, while all of the above played a role, there was a member of my family whose real life experience became the seed for the story. I will leave it exactly that vague for fear of revealing too much!
Read more »
We're especially overjoyed to have Martina Boone here today. As the founder and manager of Adventures in YA Publishing, she's a regular face around these parts, but it's extra special to have her on the other side of the interview desk to chat about PERSUASION, the second book in her Heirs of Watson Island series.
Martina, what was your inspiration for writing PERSUASION?Since it’s the second book in the series, the biggest inspiration was a deadline and a contract, but I already had the story and characters arcs in mind. I knew what needed to happen in the story, and how that was going to advance the overall plot of the trilogy. I also knew that I needed to explore Cassie’s individual story and reveal the reason she is how she is. But where the story took off for me is when I discovered Obadiah. He really wrote himself, and because I never knew in Persuasion whether he was a good guy or a bad one, hero or villain, he kept me eager to write. Another thing that really fueled the story for me was the kidnapping of the school girls in Nigeria by Boko Haram. This really helped inform the research into women’s rights, into slavery—both past and present—and the rape culture. I call the books in this series popcorn with vitamins. You can enjoy them as a gothic romance, but there is also a layer of history and issues that are important to me that resulted in the eight page learning guide that goes with the book. (You can find that on my website.)
Read more »
We're delighted to have Alexander Yates join us to share more about his latest novel THE WINTER PLACE.
Alexander, what scene was really hard for you to write and why, and is that the one of which you are most proud? Or is there another scene you particularly love?At the opening of
The Winter Place, my two young characters are orphaned (not a spoiler—it happens early), and I found that the chapters immediately following that traumatic event were very difficult to write. Part of me was tempted to skip ahead by a month or two, to a point when some of the shock might have worn off for them. But it was important to me as a writer (and to the plot) that I stick with the characters in that moment. Grief is such an intense and personal experience, and I thought that if I didn’t get to know who my characters were at the depths of their grief, then I’d never understand them at all.
And it wasn’t just the grief—capturing their shock, too, was a real challenge. Sometimes people can become dissociated in the moments immediately following a tragedy. I wanted to capture that feeling of dislocation, without making these kids look like sociopaths who didn’t care that their father had just died.
Read more »
THE DEATH AND LIFE OF ZEBULON FINCH, VOLUME ONE: AT THE EDGE OF EMPIRE is not only a mouthful, it's also the latest novel from Daniel Kraus, who we're excited to have with us.
Daniel, what scene was really hard for you to write and why, and is that the one of which you are most proud? Or is there another scene you particularly love?Well, there's a scene near the end of Volume One that everyone is going to assume was the most painful to write, but they'll be wrong. The difficult scenes to write are not necessarily the "difficult" scenes, they're the ones that I've been thinking about for the past twenty years. When you think about a scene that long and suddenly one morning there you are, about to write it, it can be nerve-wracking. How do you know you're really up to it? Will it be all you've hoped? It's a lot of self-created pressure.
How long or hard was your road to publication? How many books did you write before this one, and how many never got published?I'm one of the lucky ones. My first book sold relatively quickly and I haven't had any periods where I was without a publisher (yet). That said, I have written one novel that I've
chosen not to publish. My readers like the darkness of my content, but with the unpublished book, I wonder if I went too far. I need some time to think about it -- another decade, maybe. But my guess is that it won't come out until after I'm dead, and then everyone can wonder "What was wrong with that guy?"
What advice would you most like to pass along to other writers?I don't hold a lot of stock in "believe in yourself!" advice -- it feels empty. The piece of advice I've settled on is concrete and specific. Look at the last sentence of one of your chapters. You probably put it there because it has a zinger, or a punch, or something to compel the turning of the page. But imagine if you got rid of it. To me, I'm constantly surprised by how much stronger and less gimmicky closing paragraphs become after I've removed that sentence.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Volume One: At the Edge of Empireby Daniel KrausHardcoverSimon & Schuster Books for Young ReadersReleased 10/27/2015May 7, 1896. Dusk. A swaggering seventeen-year-old gangster named Zebulon Finch is gunned down on the shores of Lake Michigan. But after mere minutes in the void, he is mysteriously resurrected. His second life will be nothing like his first.
Zebulon's new existence begins as a sideshow attraction in a traveling medicine show. From there, he will be poked and prodded by a scientist obsessed with mastering the secrets of death. He will fight in the trenches of World War I. He will run from his nightmares—and from poverty—in Depression-era New York City. And he will become the companion of the most beautiful woman in Hollywood.
Love, hate, hope, and horror—Zebulon finds them. But will he ever find redemption?
Ambitious and heartbreaking, The Death & Life of Zebulon Finch, Volume 1: At the Edge of Empire is the epic saga of what it means to be human in a world so often lacking in humanity.
Purchase The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Volume One: At the Edge of Empire at AmazonPurchase The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Volume One: At the Edge of Empire at IndieBoundView The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Volume One: At the Edge of Empire on Goodreads ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Daniel Kraus is a Chicago-based writer, editor, and filmmaker. His debut novel, THE MONSTER VARIATIONS, was selected to New York Public Library's "100 Best Stuff for Teens." Fangoria called his Bram Stoker-finalist, Odyssey Award-winning second novel, ROTTERS, "a new horror classic." SCOWLER was a Library Guild selection and also the winner of the Odyssey Award.
Upcoming novels include TROLLHUNTERS (2015), co-written with Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, and THE DEATH & LIFE OF ZEBULON FINCH, VOLUMES 1 & 2 (2015, 2016).
Have you had a chance to read THE DEATH AND LIFE OF ZEBULON FINCH, VOLUME ONE: AT THE EDGE OF EMPIRE yet? Do you ever write stuff so dark you're not sure you want people to read it? Have you tried removing the last sentence from each chapter to see if it's stronger?
Happy reading,
Jocelyn, Shelly, Martina, Erin, Lisa, Susan, Sam, Lindsey, Sandra, Kristin, and Anisaa
We're thrilled to have J.C. Carleson here to share more about her latest novel PLACEBO JUNKIES.
J.C., how long did you work on PLACEBO JUNKIES?I spent a year writing it, but much of the last few months was tinkering on a fairly small scale to make sure that there was internal consistency and logic – there was much swapping around of chapters and elements, which was a first for me. I knew all along where I wanted to start and how I wanted Audie’s story to end, but it took me an excruciatingly long (and angst-ridden) time to figure out how I was going to connect the dots.
Read more »
FROSTED KISSES is the next novel in the Cupcake Queen series, and we're pleased to have Heather Hepler join us to share more about it.
Heather, what scene was really hard for you to write and why, and is that the one of which you are most proud?The scene that was the hardest for me to write was a total surprise for me. I usually anticipate very emotional scenes or epic confrontations to be tricky. I want them to have emotional weight, of course, but I don’t want them to be exhausting to read or seem too staged. But this time the most difficult scene to write was The Pudding Plunge scene and not for the usual reasons. Okay, so Tally and Penny dream up this unique fund raiser for the ARK animal shelter. Using a polar plunge as an inspiration, they decide that instead of jumping in icy water, they should have people jump into a pool filled with chocolate pudding. Weird, but not terribly tricky. And then I started writing it and I realized I wanted Penny to jump in the pudding. And my claustrophobia started twitching. By the time she’s fully submerged in pudding and feeling it smooshing up her nose and into her ears and filling her mouth, I realize I’m holding my breath. Just writing
about writing it is making me twitchy. Someone who recently read
Frosted told me she had a similar reaction when she read it, so I guess it worked out well in the end. (I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to look at chocolate pudding the same way.)
Read more »
We're honored to have Jennifer Donnelly swing by to tell us more about her latest novel THESE SHALLOW GRAVES.
Jennifer, what was your inspiration for writing THESE SHALLOW GRAVES?This story started with a dead guy.
A man with weird markings on his face showed up in my head. He had long dark hair and was wearing clothes from another time.
Who are you? I asked him. What do you want?
But he wouldn’t answer. He just lay in his coffin with his hands folded over his chest, decay beginning to creep. He wouldn’t leave, either. And since he wasn’t going to explain himself, I needed someone who would.
That’s when other people started showing up: a teenaged reporter named Eddie, a thief lord called the Tailor; Oscar, a coroner’s assistant. And a girl. Her name was Josephine Montfort.
Jo immediately intrigued me. I could tell she was wealthy and educated from the way she dressed and spoke. And yet, something wasn’t quite right. I sensed that her porcelain coolness was only a veneer, and that underneath it, a fierce intelligence burned. In her gray eyes, I glimpsed a restless longing.
As my characters do, Jo made me work to get to know her. As she labored to uncover the dead man’s story, I labored to uncover hers.
I learned that she’d been born into an old and distinguished New York family, and that she led a life of privilege. Jo was fortunate in many ways, but she didn’t have the one thing she wanted the most: freedom.
So few young women of the 1890s did. Poor girls were expected to work, as early as possible. Wealthy ones were expected to marry, as well as possible. As I researched
These Shallow Graves, I met many of these young women.
I met Edith Jones, brilliant and misunderstood, and watched her marry the wrong man and live the wrong life—until she found the right life, and became Edith Wharton.
I met eighteen-year-old Lizzie Schauer who was arrested, imprisoned, and subjected to medical examinations to determine whether or not she was of good character – all for the “crime” of being an unaccompanied female walking alone in the city at night.
I met Consuelo Vanderbilt, a teenage heiress, forced to marry the Duke of Marlborough, a man she didn’t love, to satisfy her domineering mother’s social ambitions.
I met scores of teenage girls for whom education was only a dream—and the factory floor or scullery or sweatshop, a reality.
Edith eventually broke free. Consuelo, too. I doubt poor Lizzie, or the scullery girls, ever did.
I so badly wanted Jo to. And thanks to the dead man, she finally did. He gave Jo her life, and by the end of the book, he gave me my peace. He stopped haunting me and went on his way.
Jo’s on her way now, too. And I can’t wait to see where life takes her.
Read more »
UNSPOKEN is the final novel in the Shadow Falls: After Dark series, and we're delighted to have C.C. Hunter stop by to share more about it.
C.C. , what was your inspiration for writing UNSPOKEN?Unspoken is the third book in the Shadow Falls: After Dark series. It’s a spin off series of Shadow Falls. So I guess you might ask what inspired my After Dark series. And that answer is simple. Della Tsang, the protagonist refused to be forgotten. While writing the last book in the Shadow Falls series, I was totally compelled to write about Della. She was the character in Shadow Falls who didn’t open up a lot. So I just knew I had to dig in and find out what made that girl tick. I didn’t tell my editor or agent, I simply just sat down and started writing the novella,
Saved at Sunrise, in which Della is the star. When I was done, I sent it to my editor and after she read it, she asked if I would write a spinoff series about Della. Her spunk, her sass, and yet her vulnerability was electrifying, and I felt that she deserved her own series.
Read more »
We're thrilled to have Marcy Beller Paul join us to share more about her debut novel UNDERNEATH EVERYTHING.
Marcy, what was your inspiration for writing UNDERNEATH EVERYTHING?Well, the first draft of UNDERNEATH EVERYTHING was a traditional love triangle between two boys and a girl. Then, during revision, I got to a scene between the main character and a female friend of hers. That scene immediately stood out to me as more intense and interesting than anything else.
I think maybe I was trying to tell that story in the first draft, but I was afraid to face it, so I buried it in the subplot. I’d had my own toxic friendship in middle school and high school, and I’d gotten through it, but I’d never forced myself to examine it. If I was really going to write this story, I knew I’d have to go back there, mentally. I also knew it was going to take a lot of work. I was going to have to cut off the second half of the novel, rewrite it, then heavily revise the first half.
I didn’t have an agent or editor then, so even though I thought I’d found the heart of the story, I still had doubts. Then I hung out with a good friend from high school. When I mentioned the new direction for the book, she immediately told me three stories about a girl in our class. I had assumed we were talking about the same person, but it turns out we weren’t. That’s when I was sure of the idea. That’s when I realized we all have our Jolene. We all have our reasons for being friends with that person. I wanted to figure out what they were.
Read more »
View Next 25 Posts
