First off, thank you so much for
agreeing to do this interview with me. I know that you must be very busy.
Thanks for thinking of me!
Let’s start off with the basics, what tattoo
describes your book best? (pictures are okay).
If you can tear your eyes away from
his abs (I know! It's difficult!) he's got a Marine Corps EGA--eagle, globe,
and anchor--tattooed on his chest. That's what it's all about.
Now I know that you have a tattoo or
two, if you could get a tattoo of a quote from your book what would it be? What
about a tattoo that just describes you in general?
I've actually thought about getting
a tattoo of a quote from SLN and I've had an impossible time trying to narrow
down a quote. But for a tattoo in general, I've decided my next will be a pair
of Elvis Costello glasses with the words "everyday I write the book"
behind them. The words that pass through the lenses will be magnified. If that
makes sense. It does to me. Anyway, yeah. That.
Your book is from a Travis’ point of
view all the way through the book, was it hard to write the whole book that way
or was it easier? Will we ever get to see anything from Harper’s point of view?
Once I got into Travis' headspace,
it was not difficult to write him at all. Or maybe he got into my headspace,
because it felt like I was carrying him around in my brain all the time. Either
way, he had things to say and demanded I write them down. As for Harper, I do
have a short piece from her POV that I will likely share after SLN comes
out--probably in a secret content portion of my website. I'll let you know when
that happens.
I’m sure you know what my favorite
scene is, what’s your favorite scene? Or quote?
My favorite scene is, was, and
probably always will be the scene in which Charlie talks about how he became a
Marine and the ways his mother tried to discourage it. It's no secret that
Charlie is dead when the book begins, so I tried really hard to give dimension
to the person he was, and I think that scene kind of captures that. And it's
funny. My favorite quote (but I doubt I'd get a tattoo of it) is from that
scene:
"My mom––the only parent on the
planet to try and talk her kid into doing drugs to keep him out
of the Marines."
What about a song or an album that you
listened to while you were writing or revising?
I am a playlist maker. Generally
when I'm writing, I'll start selecting songs that reflect what's happening in
the book, or the mood, or the way I'm feeling when I write, and compile them
into a writing playlist. By the time I'm finished, certain songs will have
risen to the top as most representative of the book and those end up on the
final playlist.
You can see the playlist here.
You write contemporary novels but it
seems that the big money is really in paranormal. What do you think about that?
Have you ever thought about writing a paranormal novel?
Paranormal offers readers an escape,
letting them put themselves in the shoes of an ordinary main character who
discovers she (or he) is more powerful and beautiful and, in my cases, desired
by more than one boy. I can totally see the appeal of spending an afternoon in
that kind of world! But I feel as if readers are doing themselves a disservice
when they limit their literary diets to just one genre. There are some
brilliant contemporary writers out there like Steve Brezenoff, A.S. King, and
Blythe Woolston who are doing some really innovative things and I think their
voices deserve to be heard. As for me, I'd probably write a paranormal novel if
I had one in me, but I don't. I might have a sci-fi novel in me, though. We'll
see...
What about your next novel, can
you tell us anything about it? Or even give us a little teaser?
My current project is called ALL
THAT WAS LOST. And while I'm not prepared to give away too much about the
premise, I can tell you that the main character is a seventeen-year-old girl
named Callie and it is set in a Florida town called Tarpon Springs, where there
is a significant Greek population. Greek culture plays a role in the book, as
does sponge diving, which is a trade still practiced in Tarpon Springs. That's
a little vague, I know, so let me distract you with this little excerpt:
She looks worse than the last time I
saw her. The dark roots of her hair are bleeding into the platinum and the
fairy lights deepen the bruise-colored half-circles beneath her eyes. Her
signature red lips are too present on her washed-out face. I wrap my arms
around her, but she feels different to me. Slight and insubstantial, an autumn
leaf that could whirl away in the breeze. And she doesn’t hug me back.
Your book is about marines, why
marines?
I was a newspaper reporter back in
2003, when the first Marines were coming home from their first deployments to
Iraq, and I was assigned to interview a young Marine home for the holiday. When
I met him, it struck me how young he was, and that he'd seen and done things
his high school classmates would never experience. That moment kind of filed
itself away in my brain and surfaced when I started thinking about Travis.
You also had your main character fight
in the Afghan war, are you afraid that this might turn people off of reading
your book if they don’t approve of the war?
I worked very hard to keep politics
out of the book and focus on one Marine's true-to-life experience dealing with
war and its aftermath, so I hope readers will come away with a greater
understanding of that, rather than feeling as if they've been propagandized.
There are also some scenes that might
cause a stir because of content, are you worried about that at all?
I think there will be people who are
bothered by the language or the mature content, but I told Travis's story the
way it demanded to be told. He's a nineteen year old Marine. That's the warning
label right there that SOMETHING LIKE NORMAL might be best suited for older
teens.
You work as a bookseller; does that
allow you a special behind the scenes look at any part of being an author? Did
that make it easier or harder to get your book published?
Being a bookseller really didn't
play much of a role in my getting published. I had to write, query, revise,
just like everyone else. I am fortunate that because I work for B&N, my
book will be in many of the stores, so there's that...and ARCs. I'm pretty much
auto-approved everywhere.
Being an author can be a fulltime job,
but you have to take a break every once and a while, what do you do in your
down time?
I don't have a lot of down time, but
when I need an escape, I'll go down to our boat in the Florida Keys and just
chill for a few days. And I'll be getting my diving certification this summer.
You’re part of a group of 2012 YA
debuts called The Apocalypsies, what
books would you recommend we look out for in the coming year (no, you can’t
pick your own)?
There are so many great Apocalypsies
titles, but I think one I'm really excited to read is MY LIFE NEXT DOOR by
Huntley Fitzpatrick.
And last but not least, and arguably
the most important question of all, Team Edward or Team Jacob?
Not gonna lie, I am not a fan at
all. But if forced at gunpoint, I'd have to say Team Jacob. Edward just creeps
me out.
Now, I don't have any swag to give away, but beccause I love this book so much I'm going to give a copy to one of you guys! All you have to do is fill out the Rafflecoper below. The giveaway will be international, and will end on June 30th.
When I finished Anna Dressed in Blood
I was really pleased that I already had a copy of the sequel, and inside it
even had a cute little drawing! I started reading it during finals week, and
once finals were over I was just so relieved to be out of school I didn't pick
it back up until today. I was planning to finish it tomorrow, but I started
reading it again and I just couldn't put it down, so I ended up finishing it.
This is one of those books that's already in high demand and it's not even on
the shelf yet, and the reason is because Anna was so good.
Girl of Nightmares really gives the
reader everything they could want in a sequel, and it's not one of those
sequels that falls short either. Yes, there are fewer deaths of people, but the gore is still
there, and ghosts do not disappear. All of the main characters from the first
book make appearances, and Cas is still as witty as ever. When it comes to a
boy's point of view it's nice to see them as actual boys, and although Cas is
hurting the things that trip him up are actually there, he doesn't make them up
because he is so broken due to his loss. He stands up for what he thinks is
right and is not afraid to go his own path, which is a lot like most of the
guys that I know, they're really stubborn when they want something. You should
all be happy to know that the ending is solid as well. It didn't actually end
how I expected it to, but I think that the way Kendare ended it really fit with
the whole story and the characters perfectly. There were a few things that were
not set in stone with the ending, but I really don't think that a third book
will happen (although I wouldn’t mind seeing what happens in the future with
Cas and the gang). Kendare has really come up with a great little ghost story,
and I will pick up her other books as they come out as well. If you read Anna I would suggest you pick up
this book when it comes out, and if you're looking for something a little
different and haven't picked up Anna I suggest
you do so soon.
