Well, copy edits and my son getting ready to leave for the Army kicked my blogging habits right in the butt. A couple weeks ago, Strange Chemistry sister and fellow Gotham Group girl
Gwenda Bond tagged me with The Next Big Thing meme. Then sweet
Ingrid Jonach asked if she could tag me, too. I'm a sucker for my pub sisters...
According to Gwenda, it's up to the taggee whether they want to talk about their current
book, their next one, or what they're working on now. Seeing as my next Strange Chemistry book is being kept underwraps right now, and with intereting developments thanks to my gotham Group rep, I'm not sure where my writing will be past that, so I'll yap about BROKEN.
What is the working
title of your book?
BROKEN. Here's something hardly anyone knows, though... The very first working title was NEVER MINE. Looking back, I can't see it as anything but BROKEN.
Where did the idea come from for the book?
I
felt it first. A deep, bittersweet, pretty ache like a real living thing in me without a name. I needed to name it, give it dimensions enough to claw it out and put it in text. After a long phone call with my beta Lexie, we figured out the types of characters and the kind of story to tell (or
re-tell) to squeeze out the most heartache. If there was a defining moment, it was that phone call and Lexie saying she would cry. I LIVE for making readers see and feel something.
What genre does your book fall under?
Paranormal romance? Sci-fi? Horror? It's definitely a blend.
Which actors would
you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
This is a hard one! I would like to see more 'unknown' actors who don't have past roles pigeon-holing them into certain charter-types, who can carry off Emma and Alex. She's sad and still funny, broken but strong. And Alex...that poor boy. He's tortured and romantic and gallant and as broken as Emma. But unknown actors like that are hard to find pictures of aren't they? *sigh* A quick search of the Interwebs and I found Chloe Grace Moretz, and her picture looks like a great Emma.
Maybe Hunter Parrish for Alex? Something about Hunter says he could play a complicated, tortured hero like Alex...
What is the
one-sentence synopsis of your book?
This is from Gooreads, and the very one pitched to my editot Amanda in the first place:
Imagine a modern
spin on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein where a young couple’s undying love
and the grief of a father pushed beyond sanity could spell the
destruction of them all.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your
manuscript?
Around five months. The majority of the writing happened in the last four.
What other books would you compare this story to within your
genre?
Ack. :-( I totally suck rocks at this. I mean, really I do. It has some horror elements like Anna Dressed in Blood, maybe? I know BROKEN's being compared to Twilight by reviewers. (Which was NEVER my intention, and at times kinda chaps my bum)
Who or What inspired you to write this book?
Lexie. It's up there in the first Q/A.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
Real West Michigan locations. Cover-to-cover spooky atmosphere. Young love and young hearts twisted until they break. A deer. A creepy raccoon... At a moment like this I would like to quote New York Times bestselling author
Amy Plum, who said:
Death, kissing, and a smoking hot mystery boy. What more could you ask for?
Next up: a YALITCHT pal,
Justina Ireland whose Greek mythology based book Vengeance Bound will be out next year. My Oasis sister,
Jessie Harrell, whose Cupid and Psyche riff DESTINED is available now, and
Nikki Katz, another Oasis sister, and also Jessie's co-author on a YA project I'm dying to read.
