Posts Tagged "Young Adult books"

Richelle Mead is the author of the ever popular Vampire Academy series. The much anticipated fourth book in the series, Blood Promise, is scheduled for release on August 25 for Americans and August 26 for Australians. As a bit of a teaser, Richelle was kind enough to take time out of her busy schedule to answer some questions about herself, and her beloved vampire series to get you ready for Blood Promise. Fear no, there are no spoilers in this interview, so sit back, grab a cuppa, and enjoy the show…

The age difference between Dimitri and Rose is quite big, why/how did you decide to make Rose’s love interest a much older man?

Well, it’s not that big a difference!  Questions like this are hard to answer because my response is usually “because it felt right.”   That’s just the way their story needed to be told.  When I started conceiving the characters and the world, it just came together that Rose and her instructor would fall for each other.  And of course, it adds the dangerous and forbidden element that we all love.

Lissa and Rose are an unlikely match, personality wise. If they weren’t bonded, do you think they’d be friends?

Absolutely!  They actually were friends years before the bond existed.  I think it’s a pretty common phenomenon (the friendship, not the bond!).  Sometimes we need to be around people who have different traits to complement our own, and I’ve had a lot of teens write me and say their friendships are just like Lissa and Rose’s.

The Vampire Academy world has three ‘types’ of vampires. Why/how did you decide to separate the good, evil and half breeds into three separate races?

This is actually a concept found in Romanian folklore.  I loved the idea of it, especially since it was so different from the usual images of vampires that are out there.  So, I used pieces of that myth as the basis for my world and then built my story around it.

All throughout the VA series, there have been references to Russian language and culture, especially in Blood Promise. Do you have any familial ties or previous interest/experience with all things Russian?

I actually have no connections whatsoever to Russian or Romanian culture—and struggle when people ask me to pronounce some of the VA terms!  I chose to have both cultures influence the VA world because those regions have such fantastic vampire stories in their folklore.  So, it seemed natural that Eastern Europe would be where a lot of my vampires came from.  Without having visited, I have to do a lot of research to make things work!  I read a lot and am lucky enough to know people who speak the languages.

Do you name your books, or does your publisher have some input, too?

They definitely have input.  In fact, I’d say the relationship in selecting titles is 50/50.  We can’t go forward until we have a title we all like, and Shadow Kiss is notorious for having taken months.  So, we end up constantly swapping suggestions back and forth, and every time, one hits that gets us all excited.

How easy/hard was your rise to publication success?

Publication is never easy for anyone.  There are so many variables that affect success: book quality, promotion, timing, and a lot of luck!  Any of these can have their own degree of difficulty.  Mine were mixed, which is typical of most authors.

Before the Vampire Academy books were released, you wrote adult fiction (and still do). What prompted your move into the YA genre?

I had some extra time (if only I did now!) and wanted to start a new project.  Since I was a teacher then, someone suggested YA, and I thought it sounded like a lot of fun.  I was also interested in it was because it was so different from my adult books, and writers always looking for new ways to experiment with their creativity!

What is your fave book?

I have a few faves, but let’s go with The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not writing?

I do a lot of mundane things like reading and watching TV.  I also occasionally try my hand at gardening (with varying results) and have been dabbling in genealogy recently.  Probably one of my very favourite things is socializing with friends, which gets tough to fit in with books always being due!

For you, what is the best and worst things about being a writer?

The best part is that I absolutely love it, which is so important because even the most wonderful jobs will have hard, stressful, hair-pulling days.  It’s hard to get through those days if you aren’t passionate about your work, and I definitely am.  I love my characters, their worlds, and their stories. The hardest part is that the job rests on me.  I don’t work for anyone.  I sell my books to my publishers, and then it’s up to me to make sure I finish them.  So, this job requires a lot of discipline and time management to go with the romance and glamour.  It’s up to me to make sure I’m putting in the time and giving the books the attention they deserve.  It can be very stressful sometimes!

Stay tuned for our review of Blood Promise coming your way on the day of release!

Nick and his brother, Alan, have spent their lives on the run from magic. Their father was murdered, and their mother was driven mad by magicians and the demons who give them power. The magicians are hunting the Ryves family for a charm that Nick’s mother stole — a charm that keeps her alive — and they want it badly enough to kill again.

Danger draws even closer when a brother and sister come to the Ryves family for help. The boy wears a demon’s mark, a sign of death that almost nothing can erase…and when Alan also gets marked by a demon, Nick is des-perate to save him. The only way to do that is to kill one of the magicians they have been hiding from for so long.

Ensnared in a deadly game of cat and mouse, Nick starts to suspect that his brother is telling him lie after lie about their past. As the magicians’ Circle closes in on their family, Nick uncovers the secret that could destroy them all.

This is The Demon’s Lexicon. Turn the page.

As if being on the run from demons isn’t bad enough. When Mae and Jaime walk into Nick and Alan’s life, Nick reckons that things couldn’t get any suckier. Jamie has been marked, and his sister (Mae) is desperate for Nick and Alan’s help removing it. But then Alan gets marked and Nick’s priority is solely and absolutely focussed on getting that devilish thing the hell off his brother. And so starts their journey – all FOUR of them.

Yep, that’s right – Mae and Jamie are along for the ride. Alan insists he’ll help them – probably because he’s jonesing for Mae, Nick reckons, but whatever. Any reason is a bad reason. Alan should be focussing on getting his own mark removed, not removing someone else’s.

Then the unthinkable happens. Nick – although he refuses to acknowledge it initially – totally starts falling for Mae. A kid like Nick could probably use the loving of a good girl like Mae. Might break his rock hard exterior somewhat. Teach him a thing or two on the treatment of human beings. Problem is, though, that Nick can’t possibly like the same girl as Alan. Brothers just don’t do that to each other, right? And what about Mae? Nick is pretty sure she likes Alan, but then, he kind of thinks she likes him to. Typical. Damn girls.

And freaking hell, girls only complicate things. Girls shouldn’t be his priority right now. Alan should be. Alan IS. Really. He’s got to get that freaking mark off of Alan if it’s the last thing he ever does. His life is meaningless without Alan. And while Alan is marked, his days are pretty much numbered.

Just when you think its all over, that they’re all going to die, the story takes an unimaginable turn…

This one is a little slow on the uptake kids, but I guarantee that once the action starts you’re not going to want to put it down. If you’re not into the dark and agro characters normally, you might have a few issues processing your feelings towards Nick at the beginning, but I assure you, you’ll fall in love with him soon enough. Reading The Demon’s Lexicon taught me that I need to take my time with the narrative a little more. I’m always in such a hurry to get to the action, the hot spots of the novel. This is one of those foundation laying kind of stories. Every word is important. When you turn the last page, you’ll realise just how important.

Like a good fantasy novel? Love The Demon’s Lexicon.

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The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan is our Book of the Month here at yaReads. Sarah added to her already huge stack of awesomeness this week and agreed to an interview with us for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.

So, since we’re running a contest that offers both the UK and the US covers as prizes, I have to ask: which one is your fave cover and why?

My favourite cover out of all my covers? Definitely my Japanese cover! Check it out: http://www.sarahreesbrennan.com/japancoversmall.jpg Is it not the greatest cover in the world? I’m having it made into posters to pass out when I am on tour with Scott Westerfeld in October. (Yes, you heard that right. Imagine that phone call as ‘You free to go on tour with Scott Westerfeld?’ *scream* *crash* *gurgling sound of someone trying to both faint and have hysterics* ‘… Yes, that sounds acceptable to me.’)

I like both my UK and US covers: I love how noir and dangerous the UK cover looks, and how the boy on the US cover is good-looking with just a hint of something dark in the eyes – and that underneath the US cover there’s a Secret Cover.

The Demon’s Lexicon world is kind of a mash of a whole bunch of urban fantasy genres. You’ve got everything magical in there. Was that a conscious decision or did it just kind of happen naturally?

I feel magic is like chocolate – adding it makes everything better. I’m never really able to believe that just one fantastical thing is true (witches are real but nothing else is, vampires are real but nothing else is) and I wanted to have a secret world that was believable, and magic that was used in a dozen different ways. Including using it for profit!

Nick is a very fierce character. Please explain.

Well, Nick has a lot to be upset about… Heh. I kept seeing characters who were watered-down versions of the mad, bad and dangerous to know type like Rochester and Heathcliff, and I really wanted to write a character who was mad, bad and dangerous to know – but from the inside, so nobody was distracted by the smouldering good looks (well… not very distracted) and so I could see how that character really ticked, make it clear that this kind of behaviour didn’t come from a good place and also (with some luck!) write a character who was still compelling despite all that.

I’m always interested in how authors choose names for their beloved characters. So, how did you choose yours?

Honestly I am always freaked out by characters with bizarre names in books. So many people with strange names like Faraday Moonfeather, so few explanations like ‘My parents were vampire elders/hippies/thought being beaten up on the playground would build moral fibre.’ So I knew I wanted really normal names for my characters, in order to fight the trend. So, Nick and Alan, normal names that I like. Plus it amuses me that Old Nick is one of the names for the devil, and it seemed a good fit for my slightly villainous hero.

Mae and Jamie, the other two main characters, were chosen to be not so strange and yet say something about their characters: Mae calls herself Mae after Mae West, truly one of the most awesome old movie stars ever (a couple of Mae West quotes: ‘Marriage is a fine institution… but I’m not ready for an institution yet’ and ‘Used to be Snow White, but I drifted’) and Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, which says a lot about Mae, and Jamie goes with a cute, non-threatening nickname rather than ‘James.’

Of course then I found out that ‘Jamie’ can also be a girl’s name in America. I’m so sorry, Jamie!

Did your plot, or your characters for The Demon’s Lexicon come first?

I knew the end of the book first, so you could say that plot came first, but the plot is really bound up with the characters: things only pan out the way they do because the people in the book are the people they are – a compulsive liar, a power addict, someone with an anger management problem and someone with a huge secret – so it’s very hard for me to disentangle the two.

How long did it take – from start to finish – to write The Demon’s Lexicon?

From having the idea to being totally finished, with revising it myself, revising it with my agent, revising it with my editor and copy edits done? Two years. (But I was writing other stuff by the time I was in copy edits… like the sequel!)

You were a Librarian before you were a writer. Do you miss it?

I was a library assistant, not even as fancy as a librarian. I will tell you one thing I miss about it – story hour at the library every Wednesday. I love reading aloud and running around, and we’d read Where the Wild Things Are and then scream ‘LET THE WILD RUMPUS BEGIN!’ and jog around the children’s space as we all screamed and threw up our hands.

… My bosses never need to know this about me.

You lived in New York for a short period. What did you love most about that? Why did you decide to move back to Ireland?

Well, I moved back to Ireland because I only had a year’s visa as an intern, and the Law asks Questions of a young lady who stays on when her visa is expired…

But I did live in New York, yes, and I loved it. Part of it was just how different life is over there. ‘And what do you call this?’ ‘Mac and cheese…’ ‘Ah, MAC and CHEESE. Mmm, exotic.’ ‘And this delicacy?’ ‘Meatloaf.’ ‘Today I sampled the dish known as the Meat Loaf, Mother. I have as yet suffered no ill effects!’

And partly it was that New York is one of those sprawling, wonderful cities full of discoveries to be made. like a street with quotes written on every paving stone, and biker gangs who end up adopting you (long stories) and friends who don’t abandon you even though you shame them in your paroxysms over bubble tea.

As a first time novelist, is being a writer lived up to everything you thought it would?

I don’t think I ever had a clear idea of what it would be like: I spent years and years having it be a dizzy dream – I wasn’t able to think past publishers saying yes before they did, and when they did I didn’t spend any time thinking: I spent my time either ecstatically dreaming of huge success, or coldly fearing terrible failure.

Even now, there have only been a few moments where I could quietly process what’s happened: when I’m sitting down writing a book that I know someone besides my Great-Aunt Jemima will read, or reading a lovely email from someone who enjoyed the book, or curled up with tea and copy-edits. And then I think ‘Wow, I am so lucky’ and try to think about something else fast lest the luck be broken.

What is your fave fantasy novel?

I absolutely cannot pick one. I love far too many. But possibly my favourite fantasy novelist in the world is Diana Wynne Jones, who makes fantasy both funny and believable all the time, and ties it into issues like fantasy, love, family and betrayal in a way that hits all my fantasy-loving buttons at once with a massive hammer.

Do you get into contemporary/realist fiction?

I get into every kind of fiction there is! I love historical, crime, classics, romance, and everything in between. An extremely brilliant contemporary novel I’ve read recently is Jaclyn Mitchard’s The Deep End of the Ocean, about a young boy stolen from his family, and how his loss affects both his mother and his rebellious older brother. (It’s obvious at this point that families in fiction are one of my favourite things!)

You did an MA in Creative Writing. Is this something that you would recommend to all aspiring writers?

It would depend on the course, and also what they wanted to write. My tutor Liz Jensen (The Ninth Life of Louis Drax) was awesome and taught me a lot, but there were also a few people who thought fantasy was a waste of time. On the whole, I’m really glad I did the course, but I think it’s something everyone has to think over very carefully and then decide for themselves.

Which do you prefer…

Coffee or tea?

Tea. You might think this means I don’t have a problem, but tea actually has more caffeine in it than coffee, and I am on a good thirteen cups a day. Tea is my heroin. baby.

Summer or winter?

Summer! I love the sunshine. Which is sad for me, as the Irish summer lasts approximately three days.

Carrot or icecream?

How can you even ask me that? What do you take me for? Ice-cream! I just had burnt sugar and butter ice-cream while I was in Massachusetts, and honestly I still dream about it.

London or New York?

Oh. That one is really, really tough. I will say New York, because America has being exotic going on for it, and there is always something fun and strange happening in New York (though there’s mostly something fun and strange happening in London.) Still, given the Victorian tea parlour that’s secretly a bar, the library that’s secretly a bar, the underground spyhole that’s secretly a bar, the beauty shop that’s secretly a bar (What… I’m IRISH) I’ll have to go with New York. But I love both!

In the beginning there was me and Mum and Dad and the twins. And talk about happy families, we were bountiful . But it came to pass. And then I started doing sins. And lo, that’s when all our problems began.

I know I’m stating the obvious here, but this is the new book by Morris Gleitzman. Although Morris isn’t technically Australian, he emigrated here when he was young, so I think its safe for us to claim him as our own now, and at the moment I’m feeling kind of proud to do so. For those of you that don’t know who Morris is, I feel the need to ask what kind of rock you’ve been living under for the last, oh, I don’t know, forever? (Especially if you’re Australian). I used to read him when I was young and I’m incredibly happy that I decided to read his new book, Grace. Although I’d argue it’s targeted at an audience that is slightly younger than we usually cater for, I reckon this is the kind of book that all readers will be able to get into.

Meet Grace: daughter, sister, inquisitive student, and completely devoted to God. So devoted to God it’s not even funny. After being inside her head for just a few pages, I realised that this story was going to be loaded with religious values/ideals/blah blah blah – and that is not something I really enjoy reading about. But thankfully, I persisted, and I learned a whole lot from Grace.

When Grace’s father is expelled from their cult/church (referred to by Grace herself as a “special” kind of Christianity) Grace thinks it’s her fault. I mean, she did get off the school bus to check and see if the people in the van they hit were okay, she did ask too many questions, and she did interrupt prayer at school. Maybe if she hadn’t done these things, he’d still be allowed to live with them. After setting out on a mission to find her dad and bring him home, Grace begins to realise that her father’s expulsion really wasn’t her fault. She starts to see that the men of her church, particularly her grandfather, might be manipulating the situation more than she first understood.

Will Grace be able to show her mother the truth, prove her father’s innocence and save her family? Sounds like a helluva burden for such a small kid to carry, but everyone knows that sometimes, adults can be total morons and only the genius of the child mind can save a the day.

If you’re into seriously fanatical religion, then I’d stay away from this book, especially if your breed of fanaticism dances in Christianity’s court. I think the only reason I was able to stomach all the religious fodder in this story was because it totally demonised it. Having said that, I think its safe to admit that I totally loved this book! Grace is an awesome character whose initiative, dedication, and inquisitive mind set her up as a noble heroine worthy of admiration by all. For someone who has spent her entire life in a brainwashed bubble of Christian poo, Grace accepts the truth about her circumstances with the maturity of someone much older than her years. If it were me, I’d be in all kinds of denial. But she was believable in every single way; I never once found myself thinking that her choices or her thoughts were unrealistic.

What really scared me about this story was just how impressionable the human mind can be. The community members that are part of Grace’s church are brainwashed beyond anything I can possibly comprehend. A scenario like that seems like total fiction to me, because I just can’t get my head around how someone (or a whole group of someone’s) can succumb to something like that without question. But the truth is, it’s not fiction. There are cults just like this one functioning in real life. I think a story like this is definitely appropriate for a pre-adolescent (or early adolescent) audience because it demonstrates that sometimes, just because everyone else is doing it, doesn’t necessarily make it a right, or a good thing. It’s good to ask questions, and knowledge is always, always power.

This is a very easy book to read and I knocked it over in two hours flat (including time allocated for a coffee and toilet break). Morris Gleitzman has totally outdone himself this time and this book (unexpectedly) knocked my freaking socks off! Two extremely enthusiastic yaReads thumbs up for Grace.

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Sarah Rees Brennan is the author of the popular novel, The Demon’s Lexicon, which also happens to be our Book of the Month right now. Sarah kindly agreed to review one of her fave YA books for your reading please. She chose The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong…

One of my Favourite Teen Books, and Thoughts About Sequels

So, I really loved The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong, (http://sarahtales.livejournal.com/136884.html a tale of Chloe, a girl who immediately assumes that she has mental problems and not super powers, and the people she meets at the institution: fire starters, telekinetics and one incredibly sullen werewolf.

Reading the second book in a series you love is always a little scary. You really don’t want it to let you down, and the second book in a trilogy is even scarier: you always have a sneaking suspicion that the writer might be saving the best stuff up for book three.

However, I have a rule for all good trilogies. Book 1: set up. Book 2: make out. Book 3: defeat evil!

Obviously this is not all that goes on in trilogies, but I really mean it. Book one introduces you to the world, and the characters, to the way the writer’s going to be handling the story and the way s/he runs with and wraps up a book. And then book two takes you further into the world, and since the overarching plot can’t be resolved, it gives you time to show us more of the characters, and how the storyline is developing and affecting them: how the characters change and grow, and how their relationships become more intense and complicated. (Which often leads to making out…)

The Awakening delivers exactly what I want in a second book, and did a lot of things I would find cool in any book.

Something I really love is the deconstruction of tropes: when the things we think we know will happen don’t happen, when it all goes differently. My favourite movie this summer was (unexpectedly, as I’ve never seen the TV show) Star Trek, and one of my very favourite things about it was how they handled the romance. You know how it goes. Arrogant Good-Looking Guy meets and tries to woo Discerning Lady. She turns him down, and then he proves to her that she can take him seriously, and she learns to respect his mad skillz, and after that… she gets with someone else, because she really meant it when she said he wasn’t her type.

You see what they did there.

In The Awakening, there’s a small blond girl who’s easily scared, and a big rough tough dark guy who’s easily angered, and occasionally the guy yells and the girl shrinks back, and… it’s not at all good times. Chloe thinks to herself that she has to stop succumbing to damselitis and takes action, and Derek realises what he’s doing and tries to take a step back and be more reasonable. And instead of being romantic traits about them, these things are seen as stuff they have to work on, and evidence that they’re both young and finding out who they really are.

CHLOE: Omigod now it’s in the paper that I was being INTIMIDATED by a HUGE DUDE yelling at me.
DEREK: OMIGOD WHO DID THAT TO YOU.
CHLOE: … Um.
DEREK: OMIGOD I WAS NOT INTIMIDATING YOU.
CHLOE: But kind of, you were. Because you are a HUGE DUDE. And you were YELLING.
DEREK: OMIGOD BUT I WOULD NEVER HUR… meeple meeble… DON’T YOU KNOW I WOULD NEV… sorry Chloe.
CHLOE: That’s okay.

‘But Sarah’ you might say at this juncture. ‘I believe you were talking about making out?’

Now, The Awakening has a love triangle in it. Love triangles can be tricky, as you can end up going ‘Lady, make up your mind, nobody’s getting any younger and this is not fair to these poor boys.’ The Awakening deals with it in a way I really enjoy – by having Chloe, Derek and Simon – Derek’s adopted brother, who is gorgeous and biracial (nice to see! Plus look, families, yay!) all just be young, and fairly unaware of what’s going on, especially considering the terrifying stuff happening around them. Derek is kind of hideous, which is a refreshing change for a sulky young hero, and thus has never had any luck with the ladies. Chloe is a late bloomer and not used to picking up any cues.

CHLOE: Simon’s so awesome. Any girl would be lucky to go out with him.
SIMON: *holds Chloe’s hand*
CHLOE: Shame he thinks of me as a sister, but there you go.
SIMON: As a SIXTEEN YEAR OLD DUDE, I would just like to say I would never dream of holding hands with MY SISTER.

CHLOE: Oh Derek, here we are hiding in the bathroom after facing down crazy werewolves! We are wet and distraught and clingy and you have no shirt on! I have this funny feeling…
DEREK: … Um…. me too maybe… um…
CHLOE: Probably indigestion.

It is pretty clear that I want Derek and Chloe to end up together. And evil to be defeated, naturally. I like the characters and the world a lot: I’m looking forward to the third book not only so I can find out what happens next, but just because I really enjoy being with these fictional people and seeing how things play out for them. I recommend both books a LOT.

I’ll also take this time to thank my pal Aprilynne Pike (Wings) who sent me a copy of The Awakening signed by Kelley for me… in tribute to Derek’s rockin’ bod…

Thanks to Sarah for taking the time to write this!