INTERVIEW WITH LENA GOLDFINCH

Today at the Inkpot it’s my pleasure to interview fellow inkie, Lena Goldfinch, author of the novella Language of Souls.  I adored Language of Souls. It is a novella jam packed with romance, mystery, adventure and suspense.  And how gorgeous is that cover??? 

 

 

 

Hi Lena, thanks so much for taking the time to answer all of my questions!  As you know, I loved The Language of Souls! It is such a unique story.  How did you come up with the premise?

Thank you! I'm not entirely sure where ideas come from. It's a very mysterious process. (Not unlike cooking, at least for me. ;)) I know at some point I started thinking about the idea of two people who had no common language. Would it be possible, under those circumstances, to fall in love? So much of how we form bonds with others is through conversation (language), but with language stripped away, could someone still win your heart?

Later, I had this concept that came to me about the soul, which is also mysterious and fascinates me. What if it was a physical, visible thing, something we carried around with us always? What if we needed to consciously protect and watch over it? And what if it could be taken from us or we could choose to give it away? So, that was essentially the sci fi/fantasy element that drove me to create the votif. Otherwise, the only "magical element" in the story is Solena's gift of healing.

And over and above all that—which are just the mechanics of the plot—was Solena and Rundan, two characters who stole my heart and kept drawing me back to their story. They wouldn't let me go until I'd completed it. And even after that, the story went through many layers of revisions.

One of my favorite things about the book was the vivid and richly painted world that you created. What are your world building techniques?

 At first, it's primarily intuitive, where a mish-mash of influences and images in my life spill over into each other and combine to make something new. The setting almost chooses itself, but then as the storyline develops, I start to questions things and do research. I'm heavily influenced by ancient Italy & Turkey, for example. I'm also absolutely passionate about culture and languages (with a title like The Language of Souls, perhaps that's obvious!). Art, religion, music, education, society, intriguing landscapes...all of these things collect as I'm researching. The differences between people sparks my imagination, and, maybe even more so, what we still have in common beyond those layers of differences.

Are their parts of you in any of the characters?

I wish! They're such amazing characters to me. I'd especially like to be more like Solena. She's so brave and so loyal, and she's extraordinarily kind too. She's driven by a genuine desire to save her beloved grandfather. And in her quest to save him, she gives too little thought to the risks to herself, which gets her into trouble. I wish I was more like that. I'm afraid I much less of a risk-taker!

The Language of Souls has something for every reader – romance, suspense and plenty of action.  Was it difficult to accomplish so much in a novella?

It's funny; I had rather naively set out to write a short story (along the lines of "I think I'll write a short story! Gee, won't that be fun?"). Then, come to find out, it's really hard to write short. I like writing novels and the long form suits me best as a writer, so writing shorter is a challenge for me. The earliest draft ended up sounding more like the first chapter of an epic series, and I simply didn't know how to fix it. So I set it aside and occasionally came back to it when I had some fresh vision. I really had to work hard to tighten the structure and to narrow my scope, but it still ended up being over 25,000 words! (Way too long for a short story, but perfectly okay for a novella.) I think because I'd set out to write a short story, it forced me to very economical and examine every word and sentence to make sure it contributed. The short answer though, is: yes, it was very difficult, and I actually failed at what I set out to do, which was write a short story :) , but I'm perfectly content with that. I really love this story.

What inspires you as an author?

People. People just intrigue me. I'll see someone in a store or I'll read a news article, and I'm just amazed at how many different types of people there are in this world. It provides me with endless inspiration. I'm also inspired by acts of faith or when I see someone who has a lot of personal drive, a mission, some personal passion....

And reading. I think being an avid reader from a very young age taught me a great respect for books and a deep love for stories.

What are you working on now?

I have a couple of young adult fantasy novels in the works. And also a "ghostly little short story," which is already threatening to become a novella.

Thanks so much, Erin!

Thank you Lena! I can’t wait to read what you come up with next!

 

The Savage Fortress by Sarwat Chadda

Cindy: Sarwat, thank you so much for visiting us here at The Enchanted Inkpot! I am so excited to discuss your latest novel, The Savage Fortress, just released by Arthur A. Levine Books. I remember so well the first time we met at ALAN 2010, and you speaking so enthusiastically about bringing more diversity into the stories we write and publish. It's wonderful to see you having actively done that and succeed in releasing so many fantastic novels (Sarwat's great young adult novels include The Devil's Kiss and Dark Goddess) that do include diverse characters and interesting lore from all across the world.

I think what really drew me immediately to The Savage Fortress was the Indian mythos you used in the story. Could you tell the inkies what inspired you the most, or drew your interest, when you initially had the idea to write this novel?

Sarwat: I lived in the Far East for a couple of years and spent a while travelling around the place. While I love fantasy it’s often based on familiar North European clichés of knights, castles, goblins elves and dragons. Ironically it makes it less fantastical. But there are amazing places out east. For real. Cities like Lhasa, Kathmandu, Varanasi and Jaisalmer are straight out of myth with temples, palaces, holy men and gods and goddesses on every street corner. It amazed me these cultures weren’t being explored more.

Cindy: Having read all your novels, I know that you were never one to hold back when it came to the gruesome details of demon hunting and fighting evil. You write some quite horrifying scenes in The Savage Fortress. Did you feel you had to approach your storytelling differently since you were writing middle grade versus young adult?

Sarwat: Nope. Not at all. If anything the shock should be greater within Mid-grade as my YA series the characters lived violent lives, so to a degree, the violence was part of their day to day lives.

What I focus on, and want the reader to feel, is the consequences of the bad things that happen, often the death of someone significant. I don’t believe in doing stuff like that off stage. It’s a cop out. There’s a line between voyeuristic blood and gore for entertainment and that’s what I try and avoid. But with all things there’s some personal taste and experience involved. I don’t write ‘nice’ stories and some amount of reader discomfort is intentional, especially regarding morality. Who decides who or what is good or evil?

Cindy: As much as I loved your world building and monsters, I think what I loved most about this novel was the relationship between Ash, our hero, and his younger sister, Lucky. Family is important in Ash's world, and in this story. And the sibling relationship tied the threads of the story together so wonderfully. Was this something you set out to do?

Sarwat: Again it was to avoid the trope of the orphan hero. Most of us belong to and are a part of a family, so why is this often ignored within children’s fiction? I wanted it to be central to the plot and I do have sisters and love that dynamic. Ash’s test is the one we all consider when we have family. Who would you die for? Where is the line between familial loyalty and love?

Cindy: We've both discussed our passion for bringing more diversity into young adult and middle grade books. Now that you are a seasoned author with three published novels and two more to come--how do you feel is the state of inclusiveness now? What books or projects are you hoping to work on in the future?

Sarwat: I think children, especially younger ones, are the most open to diversity. They want to explore the world. This is reflected in younger fiction where nobody bats an eyelid if the protagonist is a teddy bear.

With characters from ethnic backgrounds they face a peculiar challenge, especially as the reading age increases. They can’t just be, their ethnicity has to be about something, it has to mean something. If he’s Muslim, the common trope is terrorism. If it’s a female protagonist there’s often an arranged or forced marriage theme. Black teen boy? Then it’s his struggle against gang culture and drugs. Characters need to be morally ‘worthy’.

Aaargh!

Day One my editor (Cheryl Klein at Arthur A Levine) and I agreed Ash would be utterly unworthy. He’s just a 13 year old boy. He’s got no hang ups about the injustices of race, the British Empire or anything like that. He just is what he is. And what he is is totally and utterly BADASS.

Cindy: And last but not least, what is your favorite pastry or dessert?

Sarwat: Oh I love cheesecake but had the BEST EVAH pecan pie when I was in Texas. I still dream about it.

Cindy Pon is the author of Silver Phoenix (Greenwillow, 2009), which was named one of the Top Ten Fantasy and Science Fiction Books for Youth by the American Library Association’s Booklist, and one of 2009′s best Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror by VOYA. The sequel to Silver Phoenix, titled Fury of the Phoenix, was released in April 2011. Her first published short story is featured in Diverse Energies, a multicultural YA dystopian anthology from Tu Books (October 2012). Cindy is also a Chinese brush painting student of over a decade. Visit her website at www.cindypon.com.

Featuring GRETCHEN MCNEIL and TEN!

Today I am so happy to feature our very own Gretchen McNeil and her brand new book, TEN! TEN just released yesterday. Woot! Woot!

For those of you who have not yet read the book, head to your favorite bookstore pronto and buy it! You don't want to miss it. And trust me, it will keep you up all night :)

Gretchen joins us today to talk about herself, her books, and all the good things in life!

 Hi, Gretchen!

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PJH: You’ve just run into an old classmate from high school and you tell them your latest book just came out. They ask what it’s about. What do you say?

GMcN: Ten teens trapped on an island with a serial killer. It's an homage to Agatha Christie's masterpiece And Then There Were None, in a throwback style to the Christopher Pike novels I loved as a teen.


PJH: I'd love to hear about the writing process for TEN? Did you plan a bunch ahead of time? Are you a quick first drafter? Do you spend gobs of time revising? How does the writing mind of Gretchen McNeil work?

GMcN: I write quickly, which came in handy for this book. I had to write the first draft of TEN in ten weeks, due to deadlines for my publisher. So there was literally no room for error. I had a tight outline, which did vary somewhat from the final product, but at least gave me a strong guide to follow. In the end, I wrote the first draft in eight weeks, had some trusted friends read it and give me feedback, spent a week revising and sent it off.

TEN by Gretchen McNeil (Balzer & Bray, September 18, 2012)

PJH: Tell us about the research! Did you seriously research a bunch of killing methods online? Did the FBI come after you? What's the craziest thing you discovered in your research stage?

GMcN: Oh, I'm sure my Google searches have landed me on some sort of government watch list. The trickiest part of TEN is coming up with unique ways to kill people. I realize that makes me sound like Dexter, but it's true! Can't just have the same old, same old.

The craziest thing I discovered is that you can actually electrocute someone using a generator, some jumper cables and a doorknob. That's all I'm saying.


PJH: You are doing an amazing job of marketing this book! It's everywhere. When it comes to marketing, what do you think makes the biggest difference in whether a book is successful?

GMcN: The biggest difference is getting your book in front of people and I've found that word of mouth can really accomplish that. One person who reads and loves your book tells ten others. If only five of them read it and love it, but each tells ten more people, etc. etc. Well, you get the picture.

POSSESS by Gretchen McNeil (Balzer & Bray, 2011)

PJH: What is next? WIPs? Future publications? Please tell all!

GMcN: Next up is my Fall 2013 release 3:59, a parallel universe doppelganger story about two girls who are the same girl but different, who discover that their parallel worlds connect every twelve hours at exactly 3:59. After that, I just announced my next two books, GET EVEN and GET DIRTY, books 1 and 2 in the Don't Get Mad series, for 2014 and 2015. I pitched them as Revenge meets The Breakfast Club, about four girls who form a secret revenge society for bullied classmates which goes well until one of their targets turns up dead.

PJH: Thanks so much, Gretchen!

****

About TEN:

And their doom comes swiftly.

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives – three days on Henry Island at an exclusive house party. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their own reasons for wanting to be there, both of which involve Kamiak High’s most eligible bachelor, T.J. Fletcher. But what starts out as a fun-filled weekend turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly, people are dying and the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?
 

*****

Praise for TEN:

"TEN is a real page turner! Gretchen McNeil knows how to plot a thriller: Her setup is flawless and the suspense kept me on the edge of my seat." – Christopher Pike, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the THIRST series and REMEMBER ME

"Gretchen McNeil's TEN is my new number one! I jumped at every creaking floorboard in my house and on the page. This is sure to be a teen thriller classic!" – Nancy Holder, Bram Stoker Award winning author of THE SCREAMING SEASON

"You want to read this book. McNeil incorporates all the thrills and chills of a horror movie into this fast-paced, gripping tale. With its quippy dialogue, it’s like reading Scream. This reviewer got the willies while reading Ten on a sunny afternoon." – Top Pick in Romantic Times, September 2012

"A scary gorefest of murder and mayhem, not for the faint of heart [...] a breathless read." – Kirkus

"Agatha Christie meets Gossip Girl [...] in McNeil’s (Possess) throwback to old-school thrillers [...] has all the hallmarks of a traditional slasher flick, including imprudent sex, gory slayings, and dramatic revelations." – Publisher's Weekly

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Bio:
Gretchen McNeil is an opera singer, writer and clown. Her YA horror POSSESS debuted with Balzer + Bray for HarperCollins in 2011. Her follow up TEN – YA horror/suspense about ten teens trapped on a remote island with a serial killer – will be released September 18, 2012, and her third novel 3:59, sci fi doppelganger horror is scheduled for Fall 2013. Gretchen's new YA contemporary series Don't Get Mad (Revenge meets The Breakfast Club) begins Fall 2014 with GET EVEN, followed by the sequel GET DIRTY in 2015, also with Bazler + Bray.

Gretchen is a former coloratura soprano, the voice of Mary on G4's Code Monkeys and she sings with the LA-based circus troupe Cirque Berzerk. Gretchen blogs with The Enchanted Inkpot and is a founding member of the vlog group the YARebels where she can be seen as "Monday."

*****

P. J. Hoover is the author of the upcoming dystopia/mythology YA book, SOLSTICE (Tor Teen, June 2013), the upcoming Egyptian mythology MG book, TUT (Tor Children's, Winter 2014), and the middle-grade SFF series, THE FORGOTTEN WORLDS BOOKS (CBAY, 2008-2010). You can read more about her and her books on P. J.'s website or blog.

Interview with Tiffany Trent, author of The Unnaturalists

I’m thrilled to welcome Tiffany Trent to the Inkpot today to talk about her fabulous new YA steampunk fantasy, The Unnaturalists.

The author of the Hallowmere series, Tiffany already has many fans, but The Unnaturalists is sure to win her even more. Here’s the quick summary:

Vespa Nyx wants nothing more than to spend the rest of her life cataloging Unnatural creatures in her father’s museum, but as she gets older, the requirement to become a lady and find a husband is looming large. Syrus Reed’s Tinker family has always served and revered the Unnaturals from afar, but when his family is captured to be refinery slaves, he finds that his fate may be bound up with Vespa’s—and with the Unnaturals.

As the danger grows, Vespa and Syrus find themselves in a tightening web of deception and intrigue. At stake may be the fate of New London—and the world.

Welcome to the Inkpot, Tiffany!  What draws you to writing YA fantasy?  Can you tell us about your journey from the Hallowmere series to The Unnaturalists? 

It took writing an entire adult epic fantasy (unpublished) to realize that the books I’d always loved, the books I kept returning to, were considered young adult (juvenile) in my day.  The realization was a relief.  I wrote Hallowmere with that knowledge. And I wrote The Unnaturalists with an even deeper knowledge of what I loved and what I valued. For instance, I cannot seem to shake my love of complex and thorough world-building. While it may not matter to many, I’m nearly always thrown out of a story with shoddy world-building.  Which leads us to…

·         The Unnaturalists is set in a wonderfully imagined world where science is harnessing the power of myth.  The Litany of Evolution, the Night Emporium, a jam-eating sylphid, the “kobold on display at Miss Marmalade’s Seminary for Young Ladies of Quality” – there’s so much to relish here!  Can you tell us more about your process of world-building?  How much do you work out up front, and how much comes through the writing itself?  Are there any rules or principles you try to adhere to?

When I began writing The Unnaturalists, I knew it needed to be like nothing I’d ever written before. I spend a lot of time on my world-building; it’s really one of the most important and fun things about writing fantasy to me. I strive for rich, complex worlds that linger with the reader long after the book is closed. The world is always just as much a character to me as any person.   

Much of the world-building is discovered in the first draft. After that, I build the rules and decide how I’ll continue to shape things. Sometimes I’ll write little side stories or vignettes about various aspects of the world to help solidify those things in my mind. My biggest principle comes from Rod Serling: “Fantasy is the impossible made probable.” It’s my job to make you believe, even if only for a moment, that a city such as New London could exist. I do everything I can—from jam-eating sylphids to the Night Emporium—to help readers believe.

Your heroine, Vespa Nyx, has a delicious name and an unusual goal:  She wants to be the first female Pedant, so that she can catalog and study the Unnaturals just as men do.  Did anything in your own background influence that side of the story?  

 

A love of learning is one of the areas Vespa and I share. And I do have a deep and sublime love for museums; they’re beautiful, poignant, and terrifying all at once.  I also feel that women can be more than wives, if they so choose, and I like the Vespa embraces that in a time and place where such thinking really is dangerous and different.

How would you define the term “steampunk”?  In what ways would you like to see the genre develop?

Steampunk for me is very much about a past that never was and a future that might have been. I see it developing already into a rich, varied subgenre that stretches the boundaries set for it by writers like Jules Verne or H.G. Wells. While I’ve seen some writers say that it really has no future because it focuses so strongly on the past, I think the continued and growing interest in it suggests otherwise.

I really enjoyed reading about Syrus’s people, the Tinkers, and their relationship with the natural (and unnatural) world – and I was fascinated to learn that your time in the Sichuan highlands of China had a lot to do with that strand of the story.  Could you tell us more about your experiences there and how they influenced you?  

I went to live in Sichuan with my husband in the summer of 2005 in Tangjiahe Giant Panda Reserve. While there, we visited Wanglang Reserve at the edge of the Tibetan plateau, which is the ancestral home of the Baima people (aka the Duobo). They have many beautiful customs, among them patchwork dresses and clan belts woven on foot looms by the women. All the matrons wear a flat-topped hat with a chicken feather to commemorate the white rooster who woke them at dawn and saved them from an ambush by the Han Chinese centuries ago.  They give songs as welcome gifts; I still remember the song they sang for me about the green mountains of home when they learned that I came from beautiful mountains, too. 

I met with a shaman who was the last person able to read their sacred language and perform their rituals—that made me unutterably sad, that such a rich tradition will probably be forgotten by the current generation.  The land there was also wild and beautiful—steaming streams winding through fields of electric flowers on the glacial plateau, the whisper of pandas passing through bamboo cloud forests, mineral pools so brilliant blue and green you’d think they were made of gems rather than water.  I could well imagine the door to another world in a place like that. The Tinkers were definitely a result of that all too brief visit.  

You won the 2008 SCBWI Work-in-Progress Travel Grant and used it to travel to England.  How did that trip help shape the book?

I was actually researching a different book about Darwin then, though I’d already written The Unnaturalists the previous year, had gotten a new agent, and had received my first round of rejections by the trip.  I decided that maybe the trip could serve as double-duty for both books, since they seemed closely aligned in many ways.  Very glad I was right!  I spent lots of time in the British Museum of Natural History and also visited Down House, where Darwin and his wife Emma settled after their marriage.  It also helped to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum, because while I knew I wanted many Victorian elements, I certainly also wanted Baroque. Walking into a fully-appointed Baroque-era room was such perfect inspiration!

It sounds like that Travel Grant went to just the right person.  Congratulations!  Now for a more general question: What do you love best – writing the first draft or revising?  Any tips on either one?

Honestly, I waffle between these two a great deal. I love it when I’m really in the story and the words just fly out during first drafting.  That used to be my favorite part and I really used to hate revising. On the other hand, there is nothing worse than trying to craft the perfect opening for months and feeling like nothing is coming.  These days, I think I enjoy revising more, because I like having the raw lump of clay of the first or second (or third or fourth) draft and seeing it take shape.

The Unnaturalists works beautifully as a stand-alone novel, but it’s thrilling to hear there’s going to be a sequel!  What can you tell us about it?

The second book (which is still untitled) has Syrus and Vespa as its main characters, but focuses on Syrus. That isn’t to say Vespa’s journey here won’t be important, but Syrus is in the foreground. And we’ll learn a bit more about Bayne’s family, too. And Olivia’s. J  So many secrets I can’t tell!! 

That sounds exciting!  Thanks so much for stopping by, Tiffany.  

You can read more about The Unnaturalists on Tiffany’s website:  http://www.tiffanytrent.com/

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Amy Butler Greenfield was a grad student in history when she gave into temptation and became a novelist. She loves music, romantic adventure, strange science, alternate history, and twisty plots, which explains how she came to write her first YA novel, Chantress, due out from Simon & Schuster in 2013. You can visit her at www.amybutlergreenfield.com.