Interview with Kaleb Nation by B. Marie

B.Marie: “In your bio on KalebNation.com, it is mentioned that you began writing as a child. What types of stories did your young mind come up with? How did you share these stories with others or did you keep them to yourself?”

Kaleb: My first story (the one I was forced to write by my mother, because back then I hated writing) was about a certain person named King Kaleb who rode in a submarine under the North Pole and met with aliens. After I finished it and realized just how much I enjoyed writing (after all, in my stories I could be King all I wanted) I wrote mostly science fiction before moving to fantasy for a while, then finally years later starting on Bran Hambric. I shared them with my siblings by printing them up in little booklets.

B.Marie: “Do you share any similarities with your character Bran Hambric or do you consider yourself to be a complete opposite?”

Kaleb: I actually think Bran has a lot in common with me, but only in indirectly similar ways. For example he likes to draw, I like to write. We also talk similarly. I’m not sure how it happens, but I think almost every character an author writes will always have a piece of them in it.

B.Marie: “I know writers have little things they do, eat, or listen to while writing to help them focus or draw in inspiration. What are some crazy things you do or have around while going through the writing process?”

Kaleb: When I write, I’m always listening to a movie soundtrack, usually something by Thomas Newman or Harry Gregson-Williams. And when I’m having a particularly hard time concentrating I chew on Eclipse mints, because they’re crunchy. Then I found out you’re not supposed to have more than three or four of those a day or you get stomachaches. But at least it’s better than the energy drinks I was addicted to while I wrote the second Bran Hambric book!

B.Marie:: “How is Chilla doing?”

Kaleb: She’s doing very well. She’s getting much fatter. Right now she is sleeping beside her food bowl. This could be a big reason she is getting fatter.

B.Marie: “Are there any moments in Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse that didn’t make it into the book that you wish did?”

Kaleb: There was one scene in the first Bran Hambric book (The Farfield Curse) when Bran goes to see Larak the Baker. It had been in the book since the beginning, and had to be taken out. Luckily I got it into the second book in a shorter form. Also, much of the first chapter was cut out, with Trolan, Ben and Mr. Brewer talking about the Wilomases. That was one of my favorites, but it had to go.

B.Marie: “I have to say you have been busy this year in 2010. Do you have a favorite moment so far from this year?”

Kaleb: Vidcon 2010 in Los Angeles was easily one of the best times of my life. I can’t even explain it. A conference entirely made up of Youtubers like me? I think I met all my idols in a single day.

B.Marie: “The next book in the Bran Hambric series, The Specter Key is scheduled to come out this Fall. Can you give us 3 words from the book? Or 3 words to describe the book and what to expect?”

Kaleb: Hello, Bran’s father.

I suppose that works? Three words that could speak for the book in a way. The plot thickens in this one. You get to see more of what’s been going on in the background through The Farfield Curse. Plus, how to disarm a gnome trap.

B.Marie: “There is a section on the BranHambric.com website called, “Alvondir” where the readers can learn how to read and write magical words or phrases just like in the book. There is a process and a formula to be followed; how long did this take you to figure out? I saw in one of your videos “On Finishing a Book [PART 1]”, the original chart (or what I assume to be the original chart) in a note book. Was it a trial and error sort of thing or did it just naturally come to you? I admit to have been playing around with this; it sure is a lot of fun.”

Kaleb: I was sitting outside with a pen and notebook and randomly came up with the system. It wasn’t hard for me, because I had been using a similar code for some time (what teenager doesn’t write things they don’t want their parents/friends reading?). I wanted something that looked like gibberish, but if you knew the code, it would be extremely easy to read in a line what the magic words meant. Now I can read lines and lines of Alvondir without skipping, because it’s easy to rearrange in your head.

B.Marie:: “You once created a “In 2009, I Will” video where you talked about all the things you would do. If you were to create a “In 2011, I Will” video, what would be some of the things you hope to accomplish?”

Kaleb: In 2011, I want to be on the bestseller list, at least for a week. That’s one of the things on my list of dreams.

B.Marie: “Last question (or challenge, really), please decipher the following using the Alvondir system. “Werito Meoro Binra Hicambri!”

Kaleb: Write more Bran Hambric!

5 “Fun Facts” about Kaleb Nation!

1) Until last year on my book tour, I had never eaten Indian food. Now Chicken Tikka Masala is one of my favorite dishes.

2) I buy Eclipse mints by the half-dozen so I don’t run out.

3) Authors get free copies of their books when they go to print. I have so many, they’re in piles against the wall.

4) The homepage on my computer is Yahoo.com.

5) I do not like Klondike bars.

(I have a video with a list of strange facts about me going up in a few weeks, after I hit 50,000 subscribers. I got some of these from that list, which is why they’re so random )

Check out Kaleb’s Youtube Channel by clicking here!

You can get more information about the Bran Hambric novels by clicking here!

Be sure to keep an eye out for Bran Hambric: The Specter Key coming soon on 10/10/10!

Follow Kaleb on Twitter! @KalebNation

I just wanted to Thank Kaleb again for his time, it was really fun interviewing him! <3

-B. Marie-

Photo credit is Vania Stoyanova

Interview with Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl with B. Marie

B.Marie: “How did the two of you come to be friends and then partners in crime for The Caster Chronicles?”

Kami: I was Margie’s oldest daughter’s third grade teacher. We both love books, and found ourselves talking books all the time, which led to lots of hanging out & drinking Diet Coke.

B.Marie: “Okay Margaret, on your website bio it mentioned you “designed and wrote for lots of video games”. I love video games and love you even more after finding out that you had named one of your beloved beagles after my favorite video game of all time, “Zelda”. Do you yourself currently play any video games? Is there a game right now that you can’t get enough of or is there one that has caught your eye?”

Margie: Right now, it’s more of a family thing. I never get sick of Rock Band, though I stink at the drums. We just got Starcraft 2, which hopefully will take over from Angry Birds. 17 and 15 have been busy with Assassin’s Creed. 9 is all about Little Big Planet.

B.Marie: “Kami, your turn. Again, after stealing a peak at your bio on the website in the last sentence on the page you said “you love disaster movies”, let me just say we are kindred spirits (to quote Anne of Green Gables) for I too love disaster movies, especially when the world is coming to an end (strange, I know). What is a favorite disaster movie of yours? Is there one out there that you never tire of watching?”

Kami: My favorite is The Day After Tomorrow & I literally cannot turn it off if it comes on.  I’ve seen in it at least 20 times.

B.Marie: “Kami and Margaret, in your Author Video (which can be found here), it was mentioned that the two of you spent an “excessive” amount of time in the graveyards. I remember when I was younger my cousins and I had a strange experience in one. Have either of you had a similar experience? Something that was eerie happen while IN a graveyard?”

Kami: My family is from the South, so ghosts and graveyards aren’t that creepy or exotic.  Personally, I love graveyards because they represent love and memories – the act of remembering the people we love and marking a place for them in this world after they’re gone.

Margie: I haven’t had a creepy experience in a graveyard, but visiting Faulkner’s home in Oxford, Mississippi was equally bizarre. We got the feeling that house was not too happy to be visited. My sister-in-law even has the blur of light on the film to show for it.

B.Marie: “This one is for both of you. In Beautiful Creatures, your character Lena wears a “charm” necklace with all kinds of little trinkets on it. If you were to wear a similar necklace, what sort of trinkets would we find hanging on it?”

Kami: I have several charm necklaces, but I won’t cheat.  I would definitely have some kind of medal for good luck, but it wouldn’t be a rabbit’s foot—dyed animal parts are not good luck.  An old silver ring I wore in high school.  A piece of my great-gramma’s handkerchief.  The best fortune cookie fortune I ever got, in a little glass bottle.  Bluestone to ward off evil spirits.

Margie: A charm of the Arc du Triomphe, the place where I was when I found out our book became a bestseller in the US. Something from Heidenheim, Germany, where I was when I found out the book was becoming a movie. Something from each of the places I’ve lived and loved: Amherst, Palo Alto, New Haven, Park City, Sun Valley, Santa Monica, Otranto – Italy, New York, Norwich – England.

B.Marie: “You have a playlist for both Ethan and Link on your website (which you can listen to here). I have to say I downloaded some of those songs to my iPod and am jamming to them now. What would be some tunes we would hear on YOUR personal playlist?”

Kami: OUTSHINED — Soundgarden, RUNNING TO STAND STILL — U2, PICTURES OF YOU– The Cure, ICKY THUMP – The White Stripes, THE BOY WITH THE THORN IN HIS SIDE – The Smiths, SYMPTOM OF THE UNIVERSE – Black Sabbath, WISH YOU WERE HERE – Pink Floyd, BACK IN BLACK – AC/DC, SIMPLE MAN – Lynyrd Skynard, SWEET CHILD O’ MINE – GUNS N ROSES, SOULSHINE– The Allman Brothers, LANDSLIDE – Stevie Nicks, MAGIC MAN – HEART, FADE TO BLACK – Metallica

Margie: The soundtrack to Spring Awakening, which I write to. Every song that has ever been on Glee. Kate Nash. Ingrid Michaelson. Regina Spektor. Vampire Weekend. Death Cab for Cutie.

B.Marie: “Beautiful Creatures has been nominated on the Teen Reads Awards for Best New Writer. Congratulations! What was your initial reaction to hearing about this!? Don’t know about you lovely ladies but there was a lot of jumping up and down on my part when I found out, and I am just a fan!”

Kami: We’re surprised every time something like that happens – and incredibly grateful. We never wrote BEAUTIFUL CREATURES with the intent of publishing it. We wrote it on a dare from Margie’s oldest daughter & my students. We wrote it for them. When it came out, I was just hoping my parents and friends would buy it.

Margie: I was so flattered, especially for the category of Best New Writer. I hope our improbable story inspires other people to just sit down and write, if they have something to say.

B.Marie: “Bringing us back to your author video one final time. I believe it was Kami who mentioned that graveyards are a way to see that someone was loved and is remembered. How would the two of you like to be remembered in the future by not only your loved ones but by the readers (who love you also)?”

Kami: I would like to be remembered as a person with a fierce love of reading, who was determined to help people find the book that would help them fall in love with reading. Beyond that – a good mother, a loyal friend, an advocate for the underdog or Outcaster, a dedicated Black Sabbath & Diet Coke fan, straight shooter, and hopefully a decent writer.

Margie: I would just be happy to be remembered. I’ve saved three small colored glass bottles that sat in my grandmother’s window. I have three daughters, and if each one of them can just bottle up a few memories of me, I’d be content with that.

B.Marie: “Beautiful Darkness comes out October 12^th of this year. Is there anything you can tell the readers about BD and what to expect? (Can’t wait to get my copy come October!)”

Kami: It’s darker. The stakes are higher. And whatever you think is going to happen… probably won’t. Be prepared for some twists and turns.

Margie: My daughters prefer BD to BC. I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for our first book, but I’m curious to find out what our readers think.

B.Marie: “Last question, are there any books either one of you have recently picked up and simply could not put down?”

Kami: Melissa Marr’s RADIANT SHADOWS, Holly Black’s WHITE CAT, SUNSHINE by Robin McKinley, and MATCHED by Ally Condie.

Margie: All of the above, and Cassie Clare’s CLOCKWORK ANGEL, Sarah Rees Brennan’s THE DEMON’S COVENANT, and Carrie Ryan’s DEAD- TOSSED WAVES.  And the terrifying, forthcoming sequel to BAD GIRLS DON’T DIE by Katie Alender – FROM BAD TO CURSED.

5 “Fun Facts” about Kami & Margie!

Kami:

I don’t like birds or flan.

I would never walk over a grave or plot, in a cemetery.

Most people know I love Black Sabbath, but I also love Neil Diamond.

I know how to get out of the trunk of a car.

My favorite shows of all time were: Magnum PI, Fame, The A-Team & Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Margie:

I think Veronica Mars is better than Nancy Drew.

Joss Whedon may not be god, but he is the creator of most of the universes I care about.

I’m a hard core Gleek.

I listen to Spring Awakening compulsively when I work.

My kids are fencers and I travel all around the world with them to tournaments.

You can find out more about Kami & Margie and their books BEAUTIFUL CREATURES and BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS (in stores October 12^th) at:

www.beautifulcreaturesthebook.com

The Official US Fansite:

www.castergirls.com

Thank you again ladies for your time! <3

The transcript features Sara speaking about her involvement in the show’s casting process, how she gained success as an author, and what it is like for her to watch her novels come to life on the television screen.

A big THANK YOU to Meg from New Media Strategies for sharing this with us!

Check out the latest on Pretty Little Liars at the ABC Family site!

Enjoy everyone!

ABC Family’s Q&A Session with Sara Shepard

Moderator:                    I was wondering how much influence did you have in the casting process?

S. Shepard:                  I did not have input into the casting process.  That was all done on the other side of the country, so I didn’t know who they were going to cast, but when they did cast the girls I was very excited to see who they chose to be Ali, who they chose to be Aria, and Spencer and all of the rest.  They don’t necessarily look like the girls that I described in the books but I think that’s okay because they really embody each of the characters and they do a great job playing.

Spencer is a great Spencer; Emily is a great Emily; they might not look precisely like the dolls on the cover but they’re great representations of the girls.

Moderator:                    How does it feel as an author to have your book come to life on screen?

S. Shepard:                  It’s pretty crazy.  I’ve seen the pilot, that’s the only – I know they’re shooting more episodes but the pilot is the only one that I’ve seen and it is really, really close to the first book; so many little details like Aria’s pet pig Petunia makes an appearance which is in the book which is based on something in my life. Aria comes back from Iceland.

All of the scenes are what I wrote so it was really – I just kind of kept giggling the whole time that I saw it because it was surreal, but really amazing.  I almost couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing that this thing that I thought of is now on TV.  It’s pretty great.

Moderator:                    I wanted to know how Pretty Little Liars ended up on ABC Family.  When you read the book series it isn’t necessarily the network you would think of right away.

S. Shepard:                  Well, I may want to turn this over to Catherine for your thoughts too, but from what I’ve seen on ABC Family I do think it’s a good fit there.  There is a lot of scandal that happens in Rosewood, which is where Pretty Little Liars is set, but I also think our readers are the ideal ABC Family audience and that’s the channel that they’re watching.

Also, even though Pretty Little Liars is a pretty scandalous series I try to keep a lot of really graphic – some series I think go really, really far and I try rein it in a little and keep things – keep sort of lessons learned and kind of a point to everything and try to make the girls as real as possible.

I am very happy with it being on ABC Family with all of the other great shows that are on there right now.  I think it fits in great.

Moderator:                    I just wanted to know if right now you have any sort of end game for the books.  There are sort of a lot of ends so far but what – will there always be an A, et cetera.

S. Shepard:                  Well –

Moderator:                    I know you can’t tell me all of that but –

S. Shepard:                  No, no.  The final book Wanted comes out the same day that the show is premiering and it is the conclusion to the series so A will be revealed and a lot of the mysteries will be solved.  It is left – it’s left a little creepy and open-ended, but there is an end to the series.  I wanted, and I am very happy that my publishers agreed, that we sort of wanted to go out kind of on a high note and not just drag things out and make everything make sense.  Yes, the thrilling conclusion which is coming out June 8th and it will be really fun that readers who have hung on from the very beginning will be able to read the very last book and then go right into watching it on TV.  I’m very excited for that.

Moderator:                    From a writer’s standpoint, what’s more dangerous: a pretty girl with secrets or an average-looking girl who knows your secrets?

S. Shepard:                  Hm…I always think it’s the girl that knows the secret, personally.  Well, it depends on what she does with it.  In Pretty Little Liars there is a somewhat average looking girl who knows some secrets who – I don’t want to give too much away, but she definitely uses them in ways that aren’t great.  I would say knowing someone else’s secret is always a little scarier, at least in Pretty Little Liars world.

Moderator:                    Okay, fair enough.  Can you describe some types of unique conflicts that set the show apart from other teen-oriented series?

S. Shepard:                  Well, obviously the premise of the show is that four girls, they’re just best friends.  Their fifth best friend disappears in 7th grade and she was the ring leader and at least in the book series, and I’m hoping that it goes this way in the TV series.  She was not a very nice girl.  She really manipulated her friends and had sort of this power over them.  As the girls get older now they sort of, at least in the books, they begin to realize she really wasn’t that great of a person and they begin to sort of think about friendships and what that could mean.

The other sort of interesting conflict is that there is this stalker now called A.  A, they think at first is their old friend whose name is Alison, but it may not be Alison.  They have to figure out who could be doing this to them.  They’ve made some enemies in their past.  They have a lot of secrets that they don’t want anyone to know about.  It’s a lot about who is watching them and are they going to pay for what they did and that kind of stuff which I love writing about so I’m very excited to see it on TV.

Moderator:                    Are you involved in the screenplay writing or do you oversee that process?

S. Shepard:                  No, I am not involved in the screenplay writing.  Some of the people that I’ve worked with developing Pretty Little Liars, they are very involved so I feel comfortable that it’s not going to go in this like kind of crazy direction that I wouldn’t be happy with because some of these editors and producers I’ve known for a long time.

I did get to read the screenplay pretty early on and I was pretty happy with it.  I think it had been through a lot of revisions by then but it was pretty true to the pilot so for me it was like, well, this is just like the book, so of course I’m happy with it.  I am not a screenwriter so I did not have a part in that but I think Marlene King, who is the main screenwriter, I think she’s done a great job.

Moderator:                    So do you know if the TV series is going to try to stay true the books or are they going to be throwing in some unexpected elements?

S. Shepard:                  Well, [ABC Family publicist] Catherine [Graves] and I were talking about this just before we all got on the call.  As far as I know they’re sticking, at least for the first few episodes, right, Catherine?

C. Graves                     Yes, right now we’re in – filming episode three.  It’s pretty true to the books.  There are like a few minor tweaks here and there.

S. Shepard:                  I was going to say – I would okay if – I think it would be pretty exciting if some things were different – if they took some twists and turns from the books because some things that work in a book don’t really work for TV and it would be kind of fun to see the girls get into different sorts of troubles than they do in the books.  We’ll see.  I’m not going to be truly upset if something else happens to one of these girls, they get in some kind of different scandal than what’s in the books.

Moderator:                    Hi.  I know that a lot of authors think about what if their books became a movie, but in the aspect of having a series how do you think this will work better for TV since it is like you have a lot of books in the series instead of having just movies?

S. Shepard:                  I think it will work really well for a series because there is just so much material.  I think – every author wants their book to be a movie and they think about it and I’m guilty of that, too.

There is so much going on in the mystery and the back story of all this, it’s so deep that I think it’s perfect for TV because there is a chance to develop all of that.  You really wouldn’t have that opportunity in a 90 minute movie unless they did sequel after sequel which would be pretty ridiculous.  I think it’s great for TV.

Moderator:                    Great.  My other question is a lot of TV shows, they eventually they come out with different merch, like they have t-shirts and stuff, so just from like a fad point of view, what would you like to see for Pretty Little Liars?  Would you want to see like shirts, you could buy or a bobble-head, just crazy stuff like that?

S. Shepard:                  What I would love to see, and actually what some readers have asked me, are the dolls from the cover, which I don’t know if they’d actually make the dolls of the stars, which would be interesting, too.  There is so much in the book about Alison, the best friend who has gone missing, kind of treats her friends like just dolls that she just controls their every move.  As a fad I think sort of having Pretty Little Liars dolls would be pretty awesome.

Moderator:                    Do you hope that your stories have a story of moral lesson for both the characters and readers?

S. Shepard:                  I’d like to and I think I’ve tried for that.  I think the first Pretty Little Liars book, the girls are pretty naughty.  Aria gets involved with a teacher and Hanna shoplifts and they seem to just really be in bad places and I’d like to think that by the end of the series they’re better people and they’ve kind of learned to connect with whether Spencer lets go of her issues with her sister because they’re always competing or Emily learns to accept herself, or sort of all of these things.

That’s what’s been really great about doing an eight book series is that I’ve been able to develop these girls and make them grow up  a little bit and all that.  I hope that readers get that out of the books because there is a lot else to get out of them, the suspense and all of the soapy trouble they get in and stuff like that.  I really do think that they have changed and I want that to get through as well.

Moderator:                    You have mentioned Aria’s Pigtunia doll was sort of from your own life.  I wanted to know if there are other little details from your own life that are in the book that might get into the series.

S. Shepard:                  Well, a really big detail is that it is set – the book series is set in a town called Rosewood which I made up, but it’s a sort of a conglomeration of various little towns around where I lived in Pennsylvania on something called the Main Line.  It’s just sort of a main train line outside of Philadelphia.  It’s a sort of wealthy, kind of stuck up in a way, but it’s also really beautiful.  It has farms, it has lots of lush countrysides and it’s very historic and all these things so every detail about the setting is probably straight from – is definitely straight from something that I experienced while in high school.

I think that’s played over to the series a little bit, obviously it’s not set – it’s not being filmed in Philadelphia or outside Philadelphia, but I think they are trying to keep this sort of small suburban pretty little town where everything seems perfect, but you know it’s not perfect.

Other than that I think there are tons of things and I think I’ll probably notice them more as they come into the series.  Like I said Aria just got back from Iceland, which I have traveled to Iceland before, too, so I knew a lot about Iceland and the details from that were definitely in the first series.

Randomly the teacher that she falls for is named Ezra Fitz, and when I was writing book one I was like, oh this isn’t going to be much of anything.  Ezra Fitz is actually somebody that I know.  He’s somebody that I went to elementary school with and we got back in touch and he said, “You based a character on my name!”  There really is an Ezra Fitz in my life.  Just little things like that, I think they’re all over the place so that’s what made it so crazy to see it on screen.  It’s almost like your journal or something suddenly on television.These little details about your life suddenly like, oh there they are.  It’s very strange, so – but great.

Moderator:                    Yes, definitely.  Do you have any plans to write an episode in the future?

S. Shepard:                  I don’t.  I’m not a screenwriter.  I would love to give my thoughts.  I hope to get out to L.A. while they’re still filming, but I am sticking right now to writing books and leaving the screenwriting to people who know how to do that.  I’m working on a new book series right now, too, so I’m a little bit busy.

Moderator:                    How do you view the relationship between beauty and the weight of hidden secret then?

S. Shepard:                  Well, I mean I guess for all the girls that I have written about, for instance, Hanna, who is one of the characters, she seems – she has made herself over from seventh grade and now she is really, really beautiful and everything that she wants to do is – she wants to be very, very perfect in all things.  She wants to look and act and dress as perfect as she can because she is sort of haunted by this old version of herself, which was sort of dorky and chubby and ugly and the bad teeth and all these things.

She has a couple of ugly secrets but, I guess in her mind to reveal them or to sort of wear them more on her sleeve, it sort of makes her less perfect-seeming and less in control.  I think that kind of goes for – I think that’s sort of the theme in the books because these girls all have secrets about themselves that if anybody knew about them it would just – it would shatter either who they are or their relationships with other people or that kind of thing.

The interesting thing is that Alison, who is sort of the girl everybody wants to be, ends up having some pretty juicy secrets of her own that she also never tells anybody, even her friends don’t know about this.  A lot of this is talked about in book eight, which is Wanted.

Again, I think it’s for that exact same reason that Hanna kept these secrets.  As a perfect girl, as a girl without anything to hide, or a girl without anything sort of visible to other people she was totally in control and she had no weakness.  If she would have revealed some of these terrible things to her friends, maybe they wouldn’t have followed her so carefully and jumped at every instruction she gave them.  They would have found that she was a little bit more human and normal like everybody else.  That is my long-winded answer.

Moderator:                    Which pretty little liar are you most like do you think?

S. Shepard:                  I am most like Aria.  I mean I think I’m like all of them.  When I wrote them, there is a little bit of me in all of them.  As far as what I was like in high school, I didn’t have an affair with a teacher, but Aria is kind of artsy.  She’s not really interested in being popular and she just wants to be herself.  I think at least the last couple of years I high school I was a lot like that.

I identified with her with how all she really wants is just to get out of this little town and the people are all the same.  They’re just so perfect and she – that drives a lot of her story and that’s kind of why she falls for someone older and interesting and not like a lacrosse player.

I was very much like that so she is very close to my heart, but all of them really are.  I have—I share things with all of them and I think that’s what helped me write about them because I could easily identify with where they were coming from.

Moderator:                    I’m sure you’re asked this all the time, but I want to know what was the inspiration for the Pretty Little Liars book series, particularly like the mystery elements and those kinds of things?

S. Shepard:                  I am asked that a lot.  It’s always kind of a hard question to answer because in some ways I’m not – it didn’t come together in like a day.  I knew that I wanted to write a mystery series and I had some great editors that I was working with and we sort of kicked around ideas and we sort of thought up well, what happens – text messaging – this is five years ago and text messaging was sort of becoming bigger and bigger and what happens if some girls start getting weird texts?  Then for the piece of like, oh maybe it was the lost friend.  Then I started to develop what this friend could be like and the secrets that she would have on them.

It all kind of came together pretty slowly.  I did think about the characters a lot right away and their secrets and things like that.  As far as what the series has become I mean, I don’t think I knew from the start that it would be such a mystery with such a back story and so much tragedy.  I love what it’s become because I love writing about mysteries; I love reading them.

I also love the part in Pretty Little Liars about sort of the perfect town that’s turned inside out by this kind of stuff.  There is a lot in the books about how the media just hounds the girls and how everybody is talking about them and I loved writing about that and that’s just right up my alley.

It was sort of a long process of thinking it out, but I’m happy with the series as a whole.

Moderator:                    I’d also like to know, writing and book publishing, the whole realm of it, it’s all very competitive field.  What do you think is the secret to your success?

S. Shepard:                  The secret to my success was, well, I was getting an M.F.A. in fiction and my sister was working with Alloy Entertainment, who helped put Pretty Little Liars together and did a lot of publicity for it and sort of managed the series.  I knew that I wanted to start writing.  I didn’t know how I could get into the business so my sister said, “Well, you know you could talk to some of the people that I know at Alloy.”  There was sort of no way to get in touch with them so I decided to crash their Christmas party.

I crashed their Christmas party with my sister and I got to talk to them that way and that was sort of my fist connection with Alloy, which was great.  Crash Christmas parties.  Honestly, I worked really hard.  I did a lot of work for Alloy Entertainment before Pretty Little Liars came along, as well as my regular job, as well as going to school.  I think I sort of fought to get projects and I hounded people.  I really tried to work as hard as I could on, for instance, Pretty Little Liars getting it ready to get published, or to sell, I guess to get to a publisher.

I think it was a little bit of being in the right place at the right time, being in New York always helps for those who want to get published, but I think it was a lot of hard work, too.

Moderator:                    Yes, so I know you haven’t been to the set yet but I’m sure you will.  When you go to the set are you going to try to get written in for like a cameo role and be in that series so everyone can see the author?

S. Shepard:                  I would love to.  There has been a little bit of talk about that, not – I don’t have any idea what the part would be but I hope it wouldn’t be a speaking part, because, maybe I could say one line or something.  I would love that.  I mean that’s a chance of a lifetime.

Moderator:                    Great, well that’s all the time we have today and thanks again for participating.  Again, please remember that Pretty Little Liars debuts on ABC Family, June 8th at 8/7 central.

Thanks again to Meg from New Media Strategies for sharing this!

Interview de Maggie Stiefvater, auteur de Frisson (Shiver)
Uploaded by lecture-cademy. – Watch original web videos.

Tor.com posted an Interview with Carrie Ryan, discussing Zombie Fiction, and here it is for you guys. Enjoy.

Interview: Carrie Ryan on Zombie Fiction

John Ottinger III

Born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina, Carrie Ryan is a graduate of Williams College and Duke University School of Law. A former litigator, she now writes full time and is the author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth and The Dead-Tossed Waves. Carrie lives with her writer/lawyer fiancé, two fat cats and one large puppy in Charlotte, North Carolina. They are not at all prepared for the zombie apocalypse.  Visit her online at www.carrieryan.com.

John Ottinger: How would you define zombie fiction?
Carrie Ryan: I think for me anything that has zombies in it falls under that category (and I’m inclusive on that note—so even something like 28 Days Later where they’re not technically zombies, I still call it a zombie movie).

JO: What is it that makes zombie fiction appealing to readers (and to younger readers in particular)?
CR: That’s a great question I feel like a lot of people are asking right now. Part of it’s that talking about zombies is an easy way to talk about fears without hitting too close to home. It’s much scarier to talk about something real like an H1N1 pandemic or nuclear war than it is to talk about something like zombies, but you can still address the same issues. At the same time, there’s not a terribly long tradition or set canon for zombies yet, so you can make them whatever you want.

JO: Has zombie fiction seen its apex? Or is there more that can be done with the archetype?
CR: I don’t think zombie fiction’s reached its apex, I see people really expanding the genre in a lot of ways. At the same time, I do think that zombies are somewhat cyclical—they’re an easy way to look at social fears and we happen to be living in a time with a lot of social angst (fear of economic collapse, swine flue, weapons of mass destruction, the environment—our future in general).

JO: Why would you say zombies are scarier en masse than as individuals?
CR: Well, first I think that zombies can be scary as individuals, but it’s a different kind of fear. With an individual you’re dealing one on one with the epitome of death and sometimes the monster might be someone you know and loved and you have to face that. En masse they’re terrifying because there is no “end” to them as a group—it’s almost impossible to comprehend. I love talking to students about this because their first instinct when we talk about something like a zombie apocalypse is to grab guns and so I ask them what the population of their city is and then ask them if they have that many bullets. It’s just so hard to think about an entire city becoming infected and what that means: where you chose to hide out is where you’ll often be trapped for a long long time.

JO: Most current zombie fiction seems to posit a scientific basis for the creation of zombies, rather than the mystical origins of the original tales. Why do you think there has been a shift from the fantastic to the scientific?
CR: I think having a scientific explanation makes it feel more real, as if it could somehow happen. I never get into the explanation in my book because (a) I feel like that’s part of the sub-genre, everyone sort of jokes about how so few books and movies actually ever explain exactly how it happens and (b) it’s not important to the people in my world anymore. It’s been many many generations and well over a century since the zombie apocalypse—they’re past caring about how it happened because it’s just a part of their every day life. Now they just live with it—it’s part of their reality.

JO: A lot of zombie fiction is closely tied in with a doomsday or apocalyptic scenario. Why are the two so closely linked?
CR: Even though zombies are technically undead, they often represent ultimate death and that’s so closely tied to the apocalypse—it’s not just your death, but the death of the world as you know it. At the same time, on a more practical level, you have an easily-transmitted disease that’s 100% fatal… that’s going to really throw a wrench in things, and when you start thinking about the effects of that you realize just how fragile our infrastructure is and how easy it is to shatter it.

JO: How is it that zombies can also be as humorous as they are scary?
CR: I don’t use humor in my book, but there are definitely others who use it quite well. Sometimes you can get an easy laugh with zombies—the naked zombie or a clown—snapshots of people’s individual lives that can be funny. But I also think a lot of humor in zombie movies comes from the juxtaposition with the horror, how out of place it can seem. Often I think the humor is a way to counterbalance the tension inherent in a zombie story.

JO: In The Forest of Hands and Teeth you are writing primarily to a teenage audience. What aspects of teenage life are you exploring?
CR: I was trying to find something universal in the teen experience that everyone can relate to regardless of age (in fact, my book is sold by an adult publisher overseas). Really, my main character, Mary’s struggle is to figure out who she is, whether she can trust her dreams, and what she’s willing to do and sacrifice for those dreams—how far she’s willing to go. At the same time, she grows up in a world surrounded by death and she has to figure out what separates herself from the undead—they’re nothing but existence and if she has no hope or dreams, then what is she? I think this is something we can all relate to—how we define our lives beyond mere existence and what we’re willing to fight for.

JO: You story bears some similarity in construction to M. Night Shyamalan’s movie The Village. How does your work differ from his?
CR: It’s funny, I’ve heard this comparison before but I never even thought about it when I was writing the book and in fact remember very little about the movie. I think the idea of a world cut off from everyone else and wondering if there’s a world outside is somewhat universal (and is often the result of a zombie apocalypse because it becomes almost impossible to move around in a zombie-infested world). In The Forest of Hands and Teeth the monsters are real and are visible at all times and the Return is real—there’s no lying about the fact that the rest of the world is overrun by zombies.

JO: Your protagonist is a young woman, as opposed to most zombie fiction, which is predominantly male. How does having a female protagonist make your work differ from that of those with male protagonists?
CR: Great question—it’s interesting because I haven’t thought about that before. My first introduction to zombies was through movies and there are a lot of female protagonists in zombie movies. I think with my book it’s not all just about the zombie apocalypse which is what a lot of zombie fiction focuses on. I purposefully set mine several generations after the Return because I wanted to see what it took to survive. Because of that, Mary’s focus isn’t really on the zombies and how to defeat them (at this point, they’ve accepted that this is the reality of their world) but more on her life lived in a world with the constant threat of them.

JO: Lots of reviewers have called The Forest of Hands and Teeth a “zombie love story”. How do you feel about this characterization, and what are its positives and negatives in describing your work?
CR: The only problem with that characterization is that with the current trend of YA romances involving vampires, fallen angels, etc., calling The Forest of Hands and Teeth a zombie love story can make it sound like my main character falls in love with a zombie (that the love interest is a zombie) which very definitely isn’t the case. Otherwise, it’s true that one of the plots in the book is a romance, but I also think there’s a lot more going on as Mary deals with questions of religion, of being raised in a society that restricts information in the guise of protecting them, and how to deal with her family and friends as things around her shift and she has to define her own reality.

JO: Can you tell us about any forthcoming work you may have?
CR: My next book, The Dead-Tossed Waves, is a companion to The Forest of Hands and Teeth and came out March 9, 2010. I call it a companion because even though I address issues raised in the first book and have some overlap in characters, the story is told through another point-of-view character and takes place well after the end of the first book. Right now I’m working on a third book set in the same world.

JO: Thank you for your time.

CR: Thanks so much!

[Source-Tor.com]

-Brandi

An Interview with Maggie Stiefvater

Q1 - Would you want to become your character “Grace” and live her story in “Shiver”?

From - winkyblinky1 on YouTube.

Holy cow, no. I torment the living daylights out of all of my characters — they’re all going to need therapy by the end of the trilogy.

Q2 – Name a place in the world that you have not visited yet and is next on your list, and why?
From – Livia on LifeAfterTwilight.Net

I really want to visit the highlands of Scotland — I’ve only been as far north as Stirling. And I’d like to visit Nova Scotia. And Australia. And . . . I seem to have this cold island thing going on, I just noticed. With the exception of Australia, most of my places I’d like to visit are great places for a pasty girl like myself to blend in.

Q3 - Who would be your dream cast for Grace, Sam, Olivia, etc. If Shiver were to become a movie?
From – MrsJasperHale08 on YouTube.

I actually did a blog post on this. This isn’t really a dream cast, since I don’t know how some of them act (with the exception of the character I picked for Ulrik). It’s really more of “this is how I think the characters might look, if I was picking famous people.”

Q4 - What is your favorite book ever and why?
From - Krazygonekenna32 on YouTube.

Er. I’m afraid my answer for favorite book changes all the time, so I could answer this, but I’d be lying. But I have all of my favorites up on Goodreads (I only put my five star absolute favs up there).

Q5 – What has been the craziest or funniest thing you have ever done to find inspirationfor a story?

From – Brandi (Me) on LifeAfterTwilight.Net

Well, I went to the UK this year and hunted down cliffs for story research (photos here!) That was pretty entertaining, I don’t know about crazy or funny. My google search history is full of things that will make the FBI raise their eyebrows, like “could a bloodbank get infected” and things like that. Most often inspiration comes by accident rather than when you hunt it down with a pointy stick.

Q6 - If you had to pick any three of the characters from the Shiver series that you were forced to spend the rest of her life with, (unknown reason) who would it be and why?
From - chi2235 on YouTube.

Wow. The rest of my life with? That’s . . . a long time. It also gets rid of a lot of the most interesting characters, like Cole from LINGER, because I’d strangle them after day three-hundred or so. Also keep in mind that I’m happily married, so I don’t really need to install cute guys anywhere in my house. So with that in mind, I’d pick Beck, Ulrik, and Paul. They would be inoffensive next door neighbors, they entertain themselves, and plus they’re wolves for half the year, so I wouldn’t have to worry about them most of the time anyway.

Q7 – This is a challenge rather than a question. I challenge you to come up with a crazy story idea in less than two minutes by answering the following: Who? What? When? Where? Why?
From – Brandi (Me) on LifeAfterTwilight.Net

During the hottest summer Confluence, Maryland’s ever scene, a boy’s life is changed forever by a runaway girl who claims demons are after her.  Does that answer everything? I think it does . . .

Q8 - Did you already know the ending to Shiver when you wrote it, or did it come to you as you wrote?
From - SuperBookie100 on YouTube.

I definitely knew it before I started. I used to start novels all the time, get stuck, and not finish them, so I made the rule that I wasn’t allowed to start writing until I knew what the last scene was.

Q9 – If you could put any of the other characters you have previously wrote into Shiver, who would it be & why?
From - maxstrife on YouTube.

Into Shiver? hm. James, from Ballad, is really fun to write. I’d put him in everything.

Q10 – Since becoming an author, what is something interesting or silly you have done?

From – Brandi (Me) on LifeAfterTwilight.Net

Well, when I sold SHIVER, I bought myself my dream car, a ’73 Camaro, as my business vehicle — I drive it to all my instate book signings and events. It has, um, a lot of horse power, however, so it took me a while to get used to driving the clutch. The very first time I drove it, I was leaving a Wal-mart parking lot and quite by accident spun my tires in front of a posse of old ladies. I just had time to see a rear-view mirror full of faces shocked by my ballsiness, and then my Camaro ripped out of the lot.

I’ve learned a bit about first gear and 350 horsepower since then. Old ladies can once again cross the Walmart parking lot without fear of vehicular hotdogging.

Links – Maggie Stiefvater

LAMENT (Flux ’08), BALLAD (Flux ’09), SHIVER (Scholastic ’09), LINGER (Scholastic ’10)

My novels: http://www.maggiestiefvater.com

my writing blog: http://m-stiefvater.livejournal.com

weekly short stories: http://www.merryfates.com

my art blog: http://greywarenart.blogspot.com

Be sure to check out Linger, Coming July 20, 2010

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