My introduction to mermaids was Ariel, in Disney's The Little Mermaid. I idolized her, to the point where I tried to dye my hair red in high school (don't die your own hair at home). She could sing. She was beautiful. And unlike the other Disney chicks, she was proactive in getting her man!
Later in life, I started discovering the other side of mermaids. The side that lured you to the bottom of the sea. When they're not seen as pretty cartoons that sing off mediterranean rocks, mermaids are part animal. Mermaids were a warning tail to sailors. They represented the dark and cruel mystery of the open sea.
If you had a chance of hanging out with Daryl Hannah from Splash or the girls from Pirates of the Carribean, which would you chose? I have a hard time deciding. I don't think people are purely bad or good. And since mermaids are half human, I'd like to think that they always have a choice in their actions. They are after all, carnivores, not to mention a higher life form.
In The Vicious Deep, you will meet my merpeeps. No two are the same, or have the same intentions.
Currently in the midst of relaxing after the terrible semester of Spring '11, I'm planning my adventures for the summer (before friends start their summer classes and I start applying for a different job/volunteer work)! Hoping for some new ideas, I asked Carrie Jones what she's planning on doing over the summer.
So, I would really like to lie and pretend that my summer plans are going to be major and I'm going to save manatees from boaters and guest star on GLEE or DOCTOR WHO or something like that, but the truth is that this summer I will probably do what I do most of the year which is:
1. Write every day
2. Worry every day that I am not writing enough
3. Obsess every day that what I am writing is not good enough
4. Collapse in a heap on bed
5. Walk the dogs
Writing and obsessing about writing is a major part of my existence. However, I do live in a super cool place - Bar Harbor, Maine. During most of the year, Bar Harbor is pretty quiet, but starting in May the tourists come, and the summer residents come, and the hikers come, and the cruise ships come. Bar Harbor used to be where all the old money people in the U.S. would summer. They'd build these massive mansions and call them 'cottages.' They'd have dozens of servants. It was all a bit DOWNTON ABBEY only if DOWNTON ABBEY was:
1. Colder
2. In the United States
3. Had people with last names like Rockefeller and Morgan and Pierpont in it
4. Eventually had all the houses burn down in a massive fire that wiped out a good third of the island that the houses were on.
So anyways, this summer I plan to explore the ruins of the houses. There are a ton of trails in Acadia National Park, which I live right near. In the park are a lot of the ruins, which are pretty cool. And I plan to avoid the tourists who always want to know where the ocean is (when they are looking at it), and if you can see Europe from here (you can't), and why the lobster boats spin around in circles in a synchronized manner (the tides). I will also kayak a lot and hike a lot and obsess a lot and try to live the biggest life that I can.
And I will look for ghosts. And dragons in the mountains. And hopefully find Bigfoot.
I am weird like that.
I hope you all have a brilliant summer with limited obsessing and maximum adventure!
Thank you Carrie! Good luck on your quest to fine Bigfoot! And I hope you have a great summer for those who have summer now.
Carrie Jones is a New York Times bestselling author and her latest book, ENDURE, just came out on the 8th! You can visit Carrie on twitter , website , and livejournal.
1. Your name fits perfectly with the meaning of The Probability of Miracles, but let's pretend it doesn't. Create an alias for yourself or what are some other titles did you consider for POM?
I try to stay away from aliases because I had a bad experience once. One night in college we decided to use aliases and I was supposed to be “Phoebe,” until some guy asked me to spell it, and then my cover was blown. So remember… Words of wisdom you can only get here at Books By Their Cover… If you decide to use an alias, choose one that’s easy to spell!
As for other titles, the one I remember batting around was One Hundred Words for Blue. It was a pretty phrase from the book and it summed up how Cam was feeling in the beginning. But I think there are a lot of similar titles to that one out there.
2. There's a lot of craziness in POM. How do you manage incorporating humor and random animal scenes without losing the underlining tragedy?
My family has always used humor, often self-deprecating humor, (and random animal scenes) to help them wade through difficult times, so the balance between humor and tragedy is sort of a natural state of being for me. My life has always been tragically funny. Or comically tragic. (go ahead... ask around :) So that's the balance I can naturally strike. If I had a "world view," I guess it would be tragicomic. Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, humor and sadness are often two sides of the same proverbial coin. They are just different ways to express and release deep feelings about something. The animal scenes you speak of acted as comic relief. You can’t have a story that is continual non-stop tragedy. And life is not like that either. When a family is experiencing terrible times, there are moments of lightness in it all. There have to be or we wouldn’t survive.
3. When I first saw the cover for POM, I thought "wow is it pink". What was your immediate reaction? Did it seem that POM was finally on its way to becoming a real physical book found in stores?
Yes seeing the cover was a big moment. Before they even started designing the cover my main question was, “Does it have to have a girl on it?’” I was hoping it could be just text design or something abstract. And I probably would have added, “Does it have to be pink?” if I knew they were even considering pink. I’m not really a pink person. In fact, the grocery store manager across the street calls my daughter “Violetta” because I often dressed her in purple as a baby to avoid being inundated in the Pink. But. When I saw that cover. I LOVED it. The pink is appropriate. (and it stands out) The girl is Beautiful. The feather is cool . And the FONT is PERFECT. Don’t you think?
Yan: Yes! The cover is growing on me as I look at more. Plus, after finishing POM, I can't imagine anything different.
4. What is your favorite part about Disney World?
When we went with my daughter who was then four, we made it on the first day to Opening Ceremonies, and I had Goosebumps! And it was just 8:30 in the morning. Unlike Cam, I definitely feel the magic of the Magic Kingdom. I have a lot of favorite parts. I love the idea of “Character Dining”. How cool is it for kids to sit down to dinner with Cinderella or Winnie the Pooh? That’s cool for them. (They should have that for adults. I want to go to a huge restaurant and eat chicken nuggets while Asthon Kutcher and Mark Wahlberg and Matt Damon walk around visiting all the tables and stop by to take pictures with you and kiss you on the cheek.)
5. What's your favorite animal?
Tigers. I just wish they didn’t have the tendency to eat people and I’d have one for a pet. They’re just beautiful. We just went to a little girls’ birthday party where she asked for donations to save the tigers in lieu of presents. So Thank You, Hailey, for saving the Tigers!!!
6. When you first told Cam's story, did you already envisioned her to be snarky or was she the one to tell you? Did you find it difficult at times to write her story?
She was always snarky. She had to be in a place where she could protect herself emotionally and the snarkiness was her armor. And she had to start off in a low place spiritually in order for her to grow. As for the second part… writing is Always hard no matter what story you’re trying to tell. Once I had created all the characters though the story unfolded. Slowly. Sometimes tortuously. As if I were watching a movie in my head.
7. What are some books you're looking forward to in the upcoming months or year?
Right now I’m reading The Marriage Plot. Then on to: The Art of Fielding, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (before the movie comes out), Swamplandia, The Tigers Wife, IQ84,and more. I tend to shy away from reading a ton of YA, because I don’t want to be derivative. I want to stay fresh. Does that make sense? Plus, I’m a little old for it. Honestly. I’m pretty old.
Yan: You can never to be too old for YA! But I understand the worry about staying fresh.
8. I have to know if you have anything else you're working on. I read POM back in July, but it's one of those books that lingered in my head these past 8 months.
Among other things, I’m working on a Thelma and Louise story for teens about the power of friendship and the mysteries of the universe. For now, it’s called The Museum of Intangible Things.
Hi readers! You're in for a special trick. Meagan Jameson from Flying Blind aka the first book in the Dragon Diaries series has been awesome enough to give us the low-down on what's it like being best friends with a teenage dragon girl.
Hi. I'm Meagan and I'm best friends with Zoë Sorensson.
I've know Zoë forever – we met in kindergarten – but things got weird this year between us. I couldn't figure it out. It was like Zoë suddenly had secrets from me. She insisted otherwise, but I just knew it. When you've known someone your whole life, you know when something's wrong.
Zoë is totally different from me. Zoë can draw, which I think is awesome, and she's always reading stories with dragons in them. (I guess that should have been my big clue.) She's funny and she's smart and she likes making lists. She's good at solving puzzles and riddles, and I think that's because she thinks kind of sideways. Me, I think in logical order. I ace math every year. It's easy for me but not for Zoë (She aces art, which I don't even take). And I take piano lessons. In a way, music is math too.
We both completely suck at sports and gym. That's our common ground. And we're not very popular, unless somebody wants something from us – help with math from me or a dragon drawing from Zoë.
What I really like about Zoë is that she says what she thinks, pretty much all the time. So when she wouldn't tell me what she was thinking, I knew it had to be bad. I had to figure it out, because she is my best friend, and if I was going to help anybody, I was going to help Zoë.
When I found out that her parents were fighting and maybe splitting up, I thought that might be it.
When Jessica moved to our school, Jessica and I really got along. We could talk about math homework in a way that Zoë and I can't. I thought maybe Zoë was jealous of Jessica.
When I found out that Zoë knew all these incredibly hot guys whose fathers were friends with her father, I thought maybe one of them was messing her up.
When I met Jared, and saw him play in his band, I knew those other hot guys had no chance. Zoë was and is crazy for Jared, but he's kind of avoiding her. I thought that might be it.
But it was when she didn't want to talk about the dragon that turned up at our school, the dragon that saved me from Suzanne's bullying, the dragon who had to be one of those Pyr dragon shape shifter guys – and he'd helped ME! – I knew I'd found the problem. Zoë is crazy for dragons. Why wouldn't she be interested in one that was at our school? It made no sense.
Until I figured it out. Zoë said I had my Einstein look, the one that means the mysteries of the universe have no chance of remaining mysteries for long. I also figured out why Jared calls her "dragon girl". I should have known when the dragon stood up for me against a bully – the Pyr defend the treasures of the earth, which includes humans. Plus Zoë is my friend – if anyone stood up for me, it would be her.
By now you've probably guessed, too – yup, my best friend is a dragon shape shifter. She wasn't allowed to tell me, because dragon shape shifters have this code called the Covenant which means they keep their powers secret, but when she saved me the second time – actually it was the third time – I saw the truth with my own eyes. And all those hot guys she knows? They're all dragon shifters too!
You have to know that it was a huge relief to learn the truth. There was nothing really wrong between us, just this secret she had to keep and she didn't have a choice. I wouldn't want to be in trouble with a whole council of dragons either. Plus now that I know her secret, it's easy to understand a lot of other things about her, and to help her out, too.
The amazing thing is that we discovered that I have a special power, too. Zoë figured it out. I can't tell you about it – you have to read WINGING IT to find out – but we're even better BFF now.
Trust me on that. Tune in to BLAZING THE TRAIL to find out how we make it all count.
Before becoming a full-time writer, Marie Lu was the art director at a video game company. She also owns the children’s brand Fuzz Academy. She was first inspired to write Legend while watching Les Miserables one afternoon, and wondered how the relationship between a famous criminal vs. a prodigious detective might translate into a more modern story. She graduated from the University of Southern California in 2006 and lives in Los Angeles, California.
A Day in the Life
My writing days can be all over the place, honestly. Some days, I have little to do (i.e. waiting for feedback on drafts/edits, no phone calls, plain old procrastinating, etc)...other days, I'm lucky enough to attend conferences and conventions and meet readers and all sorts of other exciting things. But one of my average days is detailed below, for anyone who's curious:
6:30 AM - Wake up, then head off with Boyfriend to the gym to battle the treadmill and/or precor machines. Sometimes I'll even attempt crunches.
7:30 AM - Time to walk and feed the dogs. (We have three. Two are Pembroke Welsh Corgis, and the third is our "accident"--a brown and tan chihuahua mix who absolutely rules the house.)
8:15 AM - Writing time! Okay--I am absolutely, and will forever be, a morning person. My childhood friends still remember how I'd wake them up during slumber parties with my annoying typing at 6 in the morning. (Yes, I wrote in the mornings after sleepovers. What? That's not normal behavior?) I do my best writing before noon. Often I'm forced to write later than that, but it's all downhill--and anything I attempt to write after 8 PM is almost guaranteed to be completely worthless. (I also answer some emails and tweets during this time, although for emails I usually only answer the emergency ones.)
1:00 PM - Break for lunch. This is when I try to get out of the house; I'll usually eat at a local cafe so I can get some exposure to outside life and not become a half-insane hermit. This is very, very important for full-time writers. One cannot stay in one's house all day. One will lose one's mind.
2:00 PM - I might still do sporadic writing, although anything written during this time is kind of second-rate. Instead, I'll usually do a combo of answering non-emergency emails, tweets, Facebook messages, deviantArt stuff, post the occasional blog entry, update and maintain my web presences, and other tasks that are part of a writer's job but do not really involve novel-writing. Believe it or not, this stuff takes up quite a few hours out of each day. (Not that I'm complaining--I enjoy it all very much.)
Sometimes I'll sketch things too, things that are often related directly to Legend. This is a creative exercise that comes in particularly handy when I'm experiencing writer's block. I've noticed that immersing myself in other creative activities will get my imagination flowing again for my writing. Lately, I've also started using my afternoon time to make notes about a new, non-Legend story idea. I have a feeling that, come 2012, I'll start using my afternoons to do some first-draft writing of this story. And that's all I can say for now. :)
Finally, late afternoon is when I indulge in some of my favorite Facebook, iPhone, and console games. (As of this writing, I'm playing Mario Kart 7 (3DS), Sonic Generations (PS3), Serf Wars (Facebook), and Ravenskye City (Facebook).)
5:30 PM - Dog walking/feeding time again.
6:30 PM - Dinner out with the Boyfriend. (This is as good a time as any to mention that I CANNOT COOK TO SAVE MY LIFE. I destroyed a pot once when I tried to boil eggs. I even ruined rice--IN A RICE COOKER. WHICH IS AUTOMATED. Don't ask. So, in short, we eat out quite a lot. :) Occasionally I will cook the one thing I *can* make, which is vegetarian dumplings.) [Yan: I've actually undercooked rice and burned rice in the automated rice cooker before so I totally understand.]
8:00 PM - The day's pretty much over for me here. I spend time with the Boyfriend, watch some shows, read, and play with the dogs.
Sprinkled in random intervals across the above schedule are additional things like: work-related phone calls and interviews, online writing-related chats, Skype school talks, outlining plot points to prepare for the next day's round of writing, post office runs (which have somehow become more and more frequent these days), and other odds and ends.
Of course, when I'm on deadline, the above schedule pretty much gets thrown out the window and I'll write on and off for the entire day. :) Now that you know what Marie does in a day, how would you like to spend your day reading Legend!? Well lucky for you, I have this awesome prize pack, which will go to 1 lucky winner! Not sure what's Legend about quite yet? Then...
Sounds awesome right? Well get to entering yourself for a copy then!
P.S. I'm using rafflecopter so you might have to view this exact post to see the form. Also only the "easy peasy entry" is mandatory. Everything else is optional and are for extra points.
EDIT to add: I've deleted many entries from this contest because they were invalid. I do check entries so don't assume you'll get away with it. It only makes me weary of you.
1. Do you try to incorporate what you learned in your kung-fu classes into your novels?
Lol, actually, I take Kali as well as Kung Fu, which is a Filipino martial art using sticks, swords, and knives. And yes, it has been tremendously helpful in staging fight scenes. Totally worth the "badges of courage" I bring home every so often.
2. Your new series is a post-apocalyptic vampire series. That sounds really different from the Iron Fey series! Did you find it harder to write about vampires than feys?
It was very different. I think the hardest thing to deal with was the fact that the vampire story takes place in the real (though post-apocalyptic) world, and I have to have things make sense. I can't just explain things with: "they got there through faery magic," lol.
3. Had you already started Blood of Eden series before the Iron Fey series, or did the idea come from nowhere and wouldn't disappear?
I'd been toying with a post-apocalyptic world as I was finishing up The Iron Knight, but the idea to add vampires didn't come until my agent and I were discussing ideas for my next series. She mentioned that HarlequinTEEN was on the lookout for vampire books, and the idea to mesh the two together just sort of clicked.
4. What are some of your favorite martial arts movies? Classics, animated, or modernized.
Too many to list, lol! But here are a few: Yojimbo, The Seven Samurai (anything by Kurosawa, actually), Ip Man, The Forbidden Kingdom, Zatto Ichi, Lone Wolf and Cub, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (hush), Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero, and the list goes on. (Don't even get me started with anime, we'd be here all night.)
Alright, you're probably curious so here's a little excerpt from The Iron Knight:
“I see,” said the witch, though her face and voice remained expressionless.
“Well, I admire your tenacity, young prince. Grimalkin is not easy to find in the best of times. You must have come very far to seek him out.” She peered closely at me, narrowing her eyes. “And this is not the first place you have searched. I can see it on your face. Why, I wonder? Why does he come so far? What is it that he desires so badly, to risk the ire of the Bone Witch? What is it you want, Ash of the Winter Court?”
Stop by In My Hammock next for the continuation of the blog tour!
"Andy Marino was born and raised in upstate New York. He spent his childhood orchestrating Lego pirate battles, drawing detailed maps of imaginary video games, and cheating death in Choose Your Own Adventure books. Profoundly influenced by the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and the movie Bloodsport, he started writing his first novel at the age of eleven. Tragically, THE RUNES OF ILLIARM was never completed."
Unison Spark in his first book. It was just recently released!
social stratification at one point, but
how much of it has changed
"With new technology becoming available every year and changing living conditions, do you foresee a growing gap between lower, middle, and upper classes in society? Or do you believe that the price of technology will continue to decrease until the population majority can afford it such as PCs. Or, in the worse-case scenario, will the lower class will be wiped out because they were unable to adapt?"
I love this question because I’m used to thinking about the ever-widening gap between rich and poor in terms of good old buying power and basic household economics—being able to get the things you need to live without going broke. But the breakneck speed of technological advancements has really shaken things up.
information at your fingertips
...if you have the technology
Your question made me think about what it really means to be information-rich. Right now, a homeless person can walk into a public library in most places and explore the internet for free. It’s theoretically possible for a human being who has no possessions, no source of income, no credit, and no home to have a thriving Facebook account, a lively Twitter feed, an active blog, and an email address. The Facebook login page proudly proclaims: It’s free and always will be.
The democratization of the internet (the idea that everyone can contribute) is really cool and important, but what really counts—and what rich and middle-class Americans almost never have to worry about—is access. If you are a rich American in 2011, with the latest gadgets and digital efficiencies at your fingertips, you are automatically information-rich. Everything floating around in cyberspace is yours for the taking, the viewing, the listening. If you are a middle-class American in 2011 your mileage may vary, but chances are you’d have to make a conscious decision to disconnect if you want to make yourself less information-rich. You probably never even think about access problems, except for those times when you forget to charge your battery.
the ripple effects of libraries closing;
not just an inaccessibility of the internet
But consider what it’s like to have to scrounge for access. Libraries and schools close, internet cafes and copy centers charge by the minute. Public wi-fi is everywhere, but it’s useless without a laptop or mobile device.
UNISON SPARK is set in Eastern Seaboard City, the connected sprawl of several present-day cities divided into upper and lower sections by a vast canopy. Residents of the subcanopy slums where Mistletoe (one of the main characters) lives are literally denied access to the signal that allows people to go online and experience Unison, the fabulous and all-encompassing social network. Pirate signals and hand-me-down technology have allowed some people to adapt, but the technology gap is just as wide as the economic gap. Subcanopy residents are information-poor.
the blue-haired Mistletoe
The city in the book might seem like an extreme reflection of our society, but think about what things are like in 2011. The wealth of online information doesn’t mean much if you can’t keep your power on. And hot new gadgets always seem to become more affordable, but that doesn’t matter if you’re going to bed hungry.
Thank you so much Andy! I wasn't expecting such a well-thought out guest post, but it's given me tons to think about.
Now for the fun(er) part, the giveaway! Again, it's rafflecopter so you need to be viewing this specific post to be able to view the form.
Be on the lookout for my review on Unison Spark, which hopefully will be up before the end of today!
The producers of The Vampire Diaries find Eve by Anna Carey so compelling that they’re in the process of producing it as a TV show pilot! To celebrate I have an exclusive interview with the author and the chance for you lovely readers to win a copy!
1. Where is the furthest place you have ever traveled? Was it scary?
I went to China for a month when I was eighteen. Even the Chinese food is different there (no sesame chicken, who knew?). It was a little scary to be somewhere so foreign and not speak the language, but that trip was one of the best I've been on.
Yan: Authentic Chinese food is definitely much different from the take-out restaurants. The dishes I typically eat consist of vegetables, fishes, and soup. I've never had sesame chicken until I stopped by a Chinese take-out and it's so good.
2. If news of a deadly virus starts to spread, what would you do/say to your followers on twitter?
I recently saw Contagion, so I feel I'm adequately prepared (you can believe everything you see in the movies, right?). I'd tweet: NOW IS THE TIME FOR GOOD HYGIENE. HAND SANITIZER AND SOAP ARE UR FRIENDS. AND, FOR THE LOVE: DO NOT TAKE OFF UR FACE MASK. #APOCALYPSE
Yan: I've heard great things about the movie, but never watched it in fear of being extremely paranoid and germaphobic afterwards.
3. Are cockroaches still alive in Eve's world? They can survive almost anything.
There are definitely cockroaches in the New America. Millions of them. Maybe I'll give some a cameo in the third book...
4. I've read something where Eve has been compared to The Handmaid's Tale? Have you read The Handmaid's Tale? If so, did it influence you when you wrote Eve? If not, do you plan to read it?
There's actually a quote from The Handmaid's Tale in the beginning of the book as a I-bow-down-before-you-Margaret-Atwood nod. I hadn't read it originally, but I sought it out after I finished my first draft. I loved it, and understand why someone would link the two books conceptually, but they're very different reads.
Yan: I haven't read The Handmaid's Tale so I'm curious! A friend read the book in high school (while I was reading The red Badge of Courage) and enjoyed it.
5. In general, do you think secrets are good or bad?
This is a tricky riddle! There are good secrets (surprise parties) and very bad secrets (dead bodies under the floorboards). But, in general, I lean towards the "secrets are bad" side. I like to keep everything out in the open, and own everything I've done--even the more cringe-worthy stuff. I'm known for my embarrassing stories.
Yan: Love embarrassing stories (just not ones about me of course).
Thanks to AlloyEntertainment I have 1 SIGNED copy of Eve for one of you lovely readers! Eve is currently out right now!
(Testing about Rafflecopter *crossing fingers*) Spoke too soon. I'm having some issues with rafflecopter so if you can't see, look at this specific post only. If that doesn't work, leave your name and email address and I will automatically enter for you. I will also email you to let you know.
Get your copy of Lucky Girl at: Amazon | Amazon UK & Books On Board. Jessica Devlin isn't looking for love. Heartbroken after being dumped by her unfaithful ex-fiancé, she's determined to have a fabulous time during her vacation in England where she ll be maid-of-honor at her cousin s wedding. After working overtime as beauty editor of Orlando's O Tart magazine, avoiding dating, and putting on ten pounds, Jess is ready to toss her past like an empty lipstick tube and party like a single gal.
But when she steps into the church on her cousin s wedding day, she sees the one man who could sabotage her plan James-Bond-gorgeous Nick Mondinello. She s never forgotten the London marketing exec who held her in his arms after her beloved grandfather s funeral two years ago. Ambitious, and lusted after by women everywhere, Nick is completely wrong for guarded, Plain Jane Jess.
Could Spy Man Nick ever fall for her? Nope. Not unless Jess is one lucky girl.
Lip color! Lip gloss, lipstick, tinted lip balm... We love them all, because they can transform us from a Plain Jane to a Sultry Siren in less than ten seconds. I had a lot of fun inventing names for the lipsticks Jess wears in Lucky Girl, including Butt Naked Beige, Good Girl Pink, and Vixen.
2. What is the reasoning behind writing under another name when penning Lucky Girl?
I decided to write Lucky Girl using the pseudonym Cate Lord because the book is very different in style and tone to my medieval historical romances. Readers buying a Cate Lord novel are going to get a light-hearted, funny, sexy romantic comedy, whereas a Catherine Kean book is dramatic, emotional, and enriched with historical detail.
3. Do you incorporate your old job as an antique and fine art appraiser into your novels?
Not in my books that are available to purchase now. However, one of my works-in-progress is a contemporary paranormal about an antiques dealer.
4. Your time abroad in England sounds like a fabulous year! What was your favorite thing about London and have you ever been back?
Yes, my year abroad was incredible. Lots of good memories. My favorite thing was all of the cultural sites to be discovered just by walking the London streets: museums, galleries, important historical buildings. Since my husband is British, I’ve been back to London several times on vacations, and have loved each visit.
5. Was your time in England the inspiration for Lucky Girl since you met your husband there?
Yes! While Lucky Girl is entirely a work of fiction, I very loosely based Jess’s story on my time in England when I was single, recovering from a breakup, and eager to enjoy my year overseas. One of the highlights of that year was meeting a tall, dark-haired, charming Brit at a Christmas party. He later became my husband. We recently celebrated our nineteenth anniversary and have a teenage daughter, and our love is still going strong. I consider myself to be a lucky girl.
6. Do you ever look back at your old manuscripts and rework them?
Sometimes. It depends on the story. Usually, I pull out the elements of the book that I think are the strongest and then start afresh, because it’s easier in the end.
7. Do you write your novels with a pen and paper or do you type them on computers?
I do both. I love writing longhand on paper. The words seem to flow more easily, for some reason—maybe because this is how I wrote as a teenager and there’s a sense of freedom to crafting a story this way? I carry a lined notebook in my purse at all times, and if I’m waiting for my daughter at an appointment or find I have a few minutes to spare, I will take out my mechanical pencil and write. Later, I type what I’ve written into my manuscript file on my computer.
When I work at home, I set my netbook up on my dining room table and work on that. My kitty usually snoozes in his bed beside me. I try to write 2-3 solid pages per day, if my muse cooperates.
8. Do you feel that you were born in the wrong time period? If so, what time period would you have wished to be born? And what old fads do you want to bring back?
Great question! I’d love to have been born into aristocracy in the Victorian era. That was a time of tremendous change and invention, and I love Victorian antiques. Old fads I’d want to bring back? Daily afternoon tea with scones, clotted cream, jam, cakes, biscuits, and other delicious treats. Yum!
Ready? Entangled Publishing has offered to give away one e-book of Lucky Girl! It's open internationally to really anyone who has an email address! We're going to keep this short and simple guys so comment below with your email address.
Extra entries: connect with Cate through one of those links above. Give me a link or your name so I can identify you.
Veronica Wolff’s ISLE OF NIGHT is the first book in a new Young Adult series that is a perfect blend of Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy novels and Suzanne Collin’s The Hunger Games. Told from the point of view of a smart and edgy teenage girl, Wolff weaves a story will have both teens and adults hooked from the very first page.
A huge difference! I do a lot of research for my historicals and have even traveled to Scotland a couple times to tour the castles and the landscape I’ve written about. But now, with this particular YA series, instead of poring over seventeenth-century maps and learning the ins and outs of things like sheep farming, I get to Make It All Up instead. It’s a blast.
Moreover, with my romances, readers know they’re guaranteed a happily ever after. There’s nothing so neat with my YA series. Although I have a long-term vision for The Watchers, and the plot of each book is resolved, Annelise’s story doesn’t end on the last page.
2. What made you decide to branch into YA novels?
Honestly, I can’t read enough of them. It’s blown my mind just how many gifted authors, amazing stories, and vividly drawn, complicated characters there are in the genre. As for the writing, I’m enjoying every minute. Speaking as someone with one foot in romance (which I still completely adore), it’s exhilarating that, in YA, there are no rules. I want The Watchers to be a series in the true sense of the word, with a serial feel, like episodes in an action-packed television show. The approach has been freeing.
Another thing I love about writing YA is immersing myself in that first person voice, steeping myself in Annelise’s roiling emotions, delving into things like friendships, crushes, betrayals, and the total unease of adolescence. Hey, who knows, maybe I still have some stuff to work out from my own teen years.
3. Is there any plans for a character from your other novels to have a small cameo in this new series?
Wow, I hadn’t even considered that! My knee-jerk reaction was an instant nah, but now that you’ve put it in my head, it sure seems like something that’d be fun to write. When it comes to writing, I say never say never.
[Edited to Add: sorry Veronica, but when you said "never say never" I just had to put a picture of Justin Bieber!]
4. In Isle of Night, are the vampires the good guys or the bad guys? Or perhaps a mixture of both?
Aw, I can’t go telling you things like that! What I will say is, in my world, vampires were once people, and like people, some are good and some are evil. Similarly, things and people aren’t always as they seem.
Otherwise, good or bad, so much has yet to be revealed about my world and those in it—book one just scratches the surface.
5. Can you describe Isle of Night in a couple of keywords?
Fast. Fraught. Violent. Longing.
6. What are some of your favorite things about Scotland? Will the setting play a major part in Isle of Night?
My favorite places in the world are the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The isles take my breath away—some have lovely sandy beaches, others are bleak and craggy, with gray skies and winds so violent, you need to link arms to stay upright. There, you’ll find land so isolated, there are few people and nothing like power lines overhead to mar the scenery. It’s a place where anything could happen. Where you’d believe anything. You could be in the past, or among fairies, or druids. Or vampires.
Ancient standing stones, a looming castle, and the total, eerie isolation of life on a rock in the middle of the North Sea—these things all play a part in Isle of Night.
7. Can you tell us a little bit about the sequel to Isle of Night?
Annelise’s training intensifies as she prepares for her first mission, and her relationships intensify, too. Friends can be lost, the hazing is cruel, and one of the vampires is just too frighteningly seductive for her own good.
And, I don’t want to give it away, but the book is called Vampire’s Kiss…so, you know, there might just be a kiss in there somewhere.
If you had a chance of hanging out with Daryl Hannah from Splash or the girls from Pirates of the Carribean, which would you chose? I have a hard time deciding. I don't think people are purely bad or good. And since mermaids are half human, I'd like to think that they always have a choice in their actions. They are after all, carnivores, not to mention a higher life form.
In The Vicious Deep, you will meet my merpeeps. No two are the same, or have the same intentions.
