Guest Post: Catherine Fisher!

Today I'm delighted to welcome Catherine Fisher, author of Incarceron and Sapphique!

Twists and turns.

I don't know if this goes for everyone, but as a reader I enjoy being made to work. I like books where things are going on that I can't quite grasp, and I have to stop and muse a bit sometimes. I like it when the writer plays tricks on me. One brilliant example is a book I really admire, Christopher Priest's novel The Prestige. About a third into it I gradually began to sense that I was being hoaxed, or manipulated by the author. Read it, and you'll see what I mean. If you manage to work out what's happening, you, as reader, feel good about yourself and about the book too. And if you don't even notice, and the author completely floors you with some revelation later on, there's a strange pleasure in that too, I think.

With Incarceron and Sapphique I wanted to set up parameters and then blow them up. I wanted to place a few small explosive charges that would stun the reader as they travel through the book. If you've read them, you might guess which things I mean. Sometimes even I can't see these coming, which is good, as it means I can't give them away by leaving clues. What Attia announces about Claudia is one of those. I was as surprised as I hope the reader is.

It's probably quite perverse to enjoy leading the reader down one path and then whisking the very ground from under his/her feet, but it's fun.

The danger is that there's a fine line between being pleasantly puzzled or surprised and being totally lost and therefore bewildered. I know I tread that line sometimes, maybe at the end of Sapphique. I just hope readers still with me by then will be prepared for anything. I really

think that books should be an adventure, and challenge the reader and make them engage. That things which seem true may not be. That the boy tied across the transit lines may actually be part of the ambush. That the writer, who seems so nice, and to be telling a straightforward story, may be spinning you a whole sticky web of lies. Just like Finn.

Q&A with Ally Condie

I love it when author friends stop by and indulge the weirdness of my brain! Here's my Q&A with Ally Condie, author of Matched.

The opening scene of your book describes the matching event, and Cassia has chosen a green dress to wear (which is also on the cover). Green is my favorite color and I love that dress – the story intimates that her choice of color says something about her, but what made you decide her dress should be green?

*I wanted Cassia’s dress to be green for a couple of reasons. One of the reasons is very superficial—I wanted it to match her eyes! More importantly, I also liked the symbolism of the color green and its traditional connections with growth, spring, etc. And finally, I liked that it had a connection with the green tablet, which is important to the story.

It’s fascinating that culture has been limited to the 100 lists – did you actually create a list of each 100 books, songs, etc. If so, what was that like?

*I didn’t create the lists in their entirety. I do know a few items on each list. The list the Society created would be very different from my own personal list, so it would be a little daunting to create theirs. They wouldn’t include anything subversive, they would limit the diversity of the list, etc.

In the Society, it’s dangerous to be exceptional. Do you think our world ever tries to limit originality?

*Yes, I do. I think we have a lot of cultural ideas about what beauty and success should look like and we like people to fit those molds. However, we do also live in this time of unparalleled freedom of expression, so that is pretty amazing.

This is totally random, but does the Society allow people to have pets?

*No, they don’t! And you’re the first person to notice that! I thought it was this sort of creepy thing that there are no animals on the streets or in the yards, etc. It’s just another way the Society exercises control. The people in the Farmlands have farm animals, but there are no actual pets.

If Cassia were to step into our world for a day, what do you think she would be the most surprised by?

*I think she would be most surprised by the way we can listen to and write and read whatever we want, and she would also be surprised by how much we take that for granted.

I’m dying for more of the story – what are you working on now and what can I bribe you with to get it early (chocolate?)?

*I’m working on the sequel right now. I’ve been working on the sequel for a year! I wish I could write more quickly. But I’m like you in that the story can take over my mind (when I’m not with the kids). I was leaving to go write earlier today and I backed into my husband’s car with my car. He was thrilled. I really need to finish this book. ;)

But you could possibly bribe me with a copy of Wolfsbane. ;)

Ha! Thanks, Ally :)

Thanks for letting me stop by, Andrea! And huge congrats on the success of Nightshade!

Thanks to Ally for being here and thanks also to Penguin, which is giving away two copies of Matched to blog readers. Just leave a comment below and you will be entered in the giveaway!!!

Welcome, Ally Condie!!

Did you get Matched yet?

If you aren't motivated enough, here's a guest post from the amazing Ally herself!! Stop by Friday to see her answers to my questions (and for a chance to win a shiny new copy of Matched!)

Andrea, thank you for letting me visit your blog! And hello, Andrea’s readers! It’s very fun to be posting here.

There were many, many things I loved about Nightshade, but one of the things I adored was the setting. I loved the way the physical world informed what happened to Calla and her pack. I loved that she was such a part of her environment and that territory was so important.

I am a sucker for a good setting. For atmosphere. Particularly for an atmosphere that can both scare me and make me feel at home. This was what I was aiming for in Matched. A place that felt real but also had undercurrents of something wrong, something strange.

I think part of the reason I’m so intrigued by setting is that I’ve had the good fortune to live in places that have influenced me deeply. I spent the first eighteen years of my life in the red rock country of Southern Utah, a place that to me is still the most beautiful on earth. I spent a semester abroad in London, which is, to my mind, the most perfect big city in the world (with, perhaps, the exception of Seattle, my husband’s hometown). And later I lived in Ithaca, New York, which is lush and green and full of rolly hills. Now I live in northern Utah, which has mountains that take your breath away. I know I’ve only lived in a handful of places when compared with other people—but I’ve loved every place I’ve lived.

And I think, in a way, that’s what we’re looking for in stories. To make a place where people want to live, even if it’s just for the time that they’re reading the book. Even if the place is eerie or strange or different, it’s where we want to be for a little while, watching, learning. Of course, without characters to care about (like Calla! And Shay!) a setting is still just a setting.

So, I hope the characters in Matched are ones that draw you into their somewhat creepy world—and I hope you are able to root for them the way we all root for Calla and Shay! (We are all rooting for Calla and Shay, right? I know, I know. Ren is pretty hot.) ;)

Thanks, Andrea!

Here I Am!

I'm getting ready to head to Michigan for GLIBA - hooray! I love meeting booksellers :)

This week I was delighted to spend time on the blog of Brenna Yovanoff (yay, her awesome debut The Replacement is a New York Times bestseller!).

As I'll be traveling and not posting you can stop by and see my guest blog and interview if you should miss me. I miss you too!

Detour

Looking for me?
I'm not here today - but you can find me on Kiersten White's blog :)