Friend and agent-mate
Wende Dikec recently tagged me in her addition to the Next Big Thing blog series, where she answered ten questions about her current work-in-progress. Now I've been charged with the same task, though task isn't quite the right word as I'm quite excited to talk a bit more about
Unnatural, the book that changed everything for me, and landed me my uber-fantastic agent, Marlene. I've also tagged a few more writer friends below to invite them to join the current project fun. So please visit their blogs in the following weeks to see what they're up to as well! If anyone else would like to join, please feel free to link to your blog in the comments. It's a share-a-palooza!
(I'm re-wording some of the sentence structure in these questions because it's driving me crazy, but the questions are the same ones making the rounds.)
What is the working title of your book?
The original working title was
Unnatural Disaster, but we nixed the "Disaster" and now it's just called
Unnatural. Who knows if it will change again, but I think
Unnatural really captures the essence of what's happening in the book.
Where did the idea for your book come from?
I'd been wanting to write a "monster in the house" style book for a while, ie: one wherein the bulk of the story takes place in an isolated setting where the characters are forced to face their circumstances without escape or intervention. For a lot of people that means murder mystery or literal monster story, but for me that means outdoorsy survival tale.
The magic element came one day when I was thinking about the Filch character in the
Harry Potter series. A lot of focus in the series was placed on muggle borns, (especially since our girl, Hermione, was one) and the ensuing persecution they had to suffer, but we didn't get nearly as much on the squibs--those born without powers in a magical world. Filch was the only squib we really got to see up close, and aside from providing the role of the crotchety old man with a well-hidden heart of gold, we never really got too deep into Filch. The question that I found myself asking was, what was it like for him growing up without powers? What would that look like? What would it be like to be a teenager without powers in a world where everyone else has them? And what if society wouldn't stand for it? The idea for
Unnatural started to form from there.
What genre does your book fall under?
Young Adult Paranormal/Fantasy with some dystopian themes.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
I never picture a movie actor playing my protagonist when I'm writing. Other characters, sure. But my protagonist is always just this amorphous person in my brain. Still, I'll give it a shot. Here are the main three (I may do a longer post one day where I dream-cast the others as well):
Let's start with Ren. Ren is attractive, but he's no pretty boy. It's hard to think of a young actor these days who isn't a pretty boy, but I think a lighter-haired
Steven R. McQueen could pull it off, or
Lachlan Buchanan, who I'm not that familiar with, but he definitely has the right look in his IMDB photo:
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| Ren probably wouldn't be wearing a suit... |
For Caden, I always pictured a
Taylor Kitsch type because he defines swoonworthy to me, but since Taylor is starting to look a little more mature (I say mature and not old because he's the same age as I am...), I would have to cast
Tyler Blackburn, who I've thought of as mini-Kitsch or Kitsch-lite since his adorable Riggins-esque face first appeared on
Pretty Little Liars--though it would have to be a rugged-looking Tyler, not the fresh-faced Tyler we often see in magazines:
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| Looking especially Kitsch-y |
And finally, Ember, who I'm going to have to figure out right here on the spot because, as I said above, I never really picture her as anyone but this voice in my head. The easy answer is that I'd want an unknown actress to play her, and that would probably also be the truth, but since we're getting visual, I picture her as having a look similar to
Melissa Benoist. The Glee-newcomer definitely has the deer-in-the-headlights meets girl-next-door look of Ember, but she also looks like she's capable of going somewhere darker, messier, which would also be required of the character. She's a women of many hats.
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| Not wearing any hats here |
What is a one-sentence synopsis of your book?
I don't do one sentence well :) But here goes:
Unnatural is the story of a girl facing a harsh fate, having grown up powerless in a world where everyone must be able to do magic.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Unnatural is represented by
The Stringer Literary Agency.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Much longer than it would have if I didn't have a baby in the middle of it. Writing time was about four months, but overall, drawn-out time was over a year. Being on mat leave has taught me that I can write much faster than that :)
What other books would you compare your story to within your genre?
In terms of the types of challenges the characters face, I'd compare it to something like
Delirium or
Divergent, where the protagonists find themselves singled out from the societal norm, only to discover that the societal norm has some
severe flaws. But it's not a great comparison because
Unnatural has magic (MAGIC!).
While querying, I had a few agents compare it to
The Hunger Games, which is certainly flattering, though I don't think they're actually that similar. It's an easy comparison because the bulk of the action takes place in a outdoors setting and like all novels with dystopian themes, there's societal oppression to deal with. But
here's how I replied to the comparison whenever I was asked about it:
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Both
novels can easily be categorized as “monster in the house” style narratives
with the bulk of the action taking place in an isolated setting, but while The Hunger Games explores themes of
extreme class systems, voyeuristic culture, reality television, the realities
of war, etc, Unnatural Disaster deals
with a group of teens who are working together to survive a trial by magic and
certainly aren’t in opposition the way the tributes of The Hunger Games are. It’s about a girl who should have powers, coming
into her own as she suffers the harsh standards her world is built upon. Where Katniss is a champion, Ember is a fledgling,
unwittingly forced to prove she deserves a place in the magical society she was
born into.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
As I mentioned above, there was definitely a moment where I was inspired by the question, "What if Filch was a teenage girl?", but when I started in on
Unnatural, I was querying my first book,
Chameleon, and I was looking for something exciting and fresh to distract me from the process. It's strange to say, but as the mix of requests and rejections came in, I started to feel urgently accountable for my potential to succeed as a published author. Moreso than I ever had before. It sunk in that "if this doesn't work out, I NEED a next book" and that made me feel very inspired and excited to get going on
Unnatural.
What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
One of my goals with
Unnatural was to avoid a drawn-out intro. It hits the ground running and takes you on a roller coaster ride. Even when it's quiet, it's kicking and screaming inside. There's plenty of action and romance (this is
not your typical torn love triangle) and enough twists to keep the roller coaster flying. It's a lot of fun, and yet, there are scenes that absolutely broke my heart to write. I'm immensely proud of it, and I hope I'll be in a position to share it with you all one day.
And now it's time for some tagging action! Check out these other awesome authors, who will soon be posting on what they've got on the go:
Sarah Schauerte at
SarahWillAlwaysWrite
Shari Maurer, author of
Change of Heart
I'll be back tomorrow with a one-off Tuesday post about my NaNo results and where they leave me heading into December!
