Compulsion (The
Heirs of Watson Island #1)
Heirs of Watson Island #1)
Release Date: 10/28/14
ISBN: 1481411225
Simon Pulse, Simon Teen
448 pages
Summary from Goodreads:
Three plantations. Two wishes. One ancient
curse.
All her life, Barrie Watson has been a virtual prisoner in the house where she
lives with her shut-in mother. When her mother dies, Barrie promises to put
some mileage on her stiletto heels. But she finds a new kind of prison at her
aunt’s South Carolina plantation instead--a prison guarded by an ancient spirit
who long ago cursed one of the three founding families of Watson Island and
gave the others magical gifts that became compulsions.
Stuck with the ghosts of a generations-old feud and hunted by forces she cannot
see, Barrie must find a way to break free of the family legacy. With the help
of sun-kissed Eight Beaufort, who knows what Barrie wants before she knows
herself, the last Watson heir starts to unravel her family's twisted secrets.
What she finds is dangerous: a love she never expected, a river that turns to
fire at midnight, a gorgeous cousin who isn’t what she seems, and very real
enemies who want both Eight and Barrie dead.
curse.
All her life, Barrie Watson has been a virtual prisoner in the house where she
lives with her shut-in mother. When her mother dies, Barrie promises to put
some mileage on her stiletto heels. But she finds a new kind of prison at her
aunt’s South Carolina plantation instead--a prison guarded by an ancient spirit
who long ago cursed one of the three founding families of Watson Island and
gave the others magical gifts that became compulsions.
Stuck with the ghosts of a generations-old feud and hunted by forces she cannot
see, Barrie must find a way to break free of the family legacy. With the help
of sun-kissed Eight Beaufort, who knows what Barrie wants before she knows
herself, the last Watson heir starts to unravel her family's twisted secrets.
What she finds is dangerous: a love she never expected, a river that turns to
fire at midnight, a gorgeous cousin who isn’t what she seems, and very real
enemies who want both Eight and Barrie dead.
Buy Links:
Compulsion is available anywhere
books are sold. Signed copies are available from One More Page Books. You can also
order with the special “I have a Compulsion for reading” bookplate from Eight Cousins.
~ INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ~
~ TEASER ~
Suits. I adore clever dialogue! And Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead.
books are sold. Signed copies are available from One More Page Books. You can also
order with the special “I have a Compulsion for reading” bookplate from Eight Cousins.
~ INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ~
COMPULSION
QUESTIONS
Q. What’s your favorite thing about
Compulsion?
A. I secretly love
Gothic novels. There was a point where Daphne du Maurier's REBECCA and Mary
Stewart's AIRS ABOVE THE GROUND were among my favorite novels. I've always
adored books with exotically dangerous settings, quirky characters, and
elements of mystery and suspense. Since I'm from Prague, one of the most
magical, broodingly beautiful cities in the world, the bar for magical
locations is set pretty hight. But the South. Ah, there I have all the elements
I love—a haunted past, regret, anger,
continuing conflict, and questions of morality galore. Southern plantations are
the closest thing to moldering abbeys and decaying castles that we have in the
United States. I'm grateful to Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl for reminding me
of how much I love all the elements they included in BEAUTIFUL CREATURES,
because their series got me thinking about the possibilities of Spanish moss
and crumbling Southern mansions. My favorite thing about Compulsion, hands
down, is the setting and how it shaped (and twisted) the characters and
families who live there.
Q: What do you want
readers to take away from COMPULSION?
A. That you can
pick your family, the people you love. And that you need to do more than just
survive your life. You have to go out and live your life.
Q. Is there a one
sentence pitch for COMPULSION?
Someone the School
Library Journal recently said it’s
a bit Gone with the Wind and a bit Romeo and Juliet with a dose of paranormal
all wrapped up in an engrossing mystery. I’ll take that! :) Really it’s a Southern Gothic romance about
teens from three South Carolina plantations whose ancestors bargained with an
ancient spirit and received two magical gifts and a curse that has passed down through
the generations so that the current generations are faced with dangerous
situations and family feuds, and have to unravel the mystery of the curse to
save themselves.
Q: Can you sum up
COMPULSION in one word?
A: Sure. The title:
Compulsion. I think my editor nailed it coming up with that.
Q: So COMPULSION
wasn't the original title?
A: The book has had
three titles, and I love them all. My working title was FIRE CARRIER, and when
you read the book, you'll get that. My brilliant acquiring editor, Annette
Pollert, who edited the book all the way up to copyedits, came up with
BEHOLDEN, which everyone loved, and that also suits the book perfectly. But the
bottom line is that COMPULSION fits several themes in the book and also conveys
a sense of energy that I hope I've achieved in the plot. It's by far my
favorite, and it carries through into the rest of the series.
Q: How did you come
up with the idea for COMPULSION?
A: I wrote a short
story for an anthology that ended up having some of the same characters in it,
and I knew I wasn't done with the place or the characters yet. But it wasn't
until I dreamed about a ball of fire drifting through the woods and setting a
river aflame that I had the anchoring visual for the book. The rest all came
from asking why and doing a lot of research and brainstorming, which did
include two separate research trips to the Charleston area.
Q: Why did you want
to tell this story?
A: Pirates, ghosts, witches, voodoo, treasure, forbidden
love, mystery, murder
. . . Who wouldn't want to tell this
story? Seriously, it's the loneliness of the characters, their quest to find
each other, and ultimately their ability to save each other or destroy each
other. The characters became as real for me as my own family, and I wanted to
share them to make them live for other people, too.
Q. What is the
weirdest piece of research you had to do when writing COMPULSION?
A. I researched a
LOT of off the wall things for this book: pirates, shipwrecks, ghosts, witches,
voodoo, hoodoo, Cherokee witchcraft, slavery, drug running, lost treasures of
the Civil War, Confederate privateering, the Red Sea Gold, indigo production,
drag queens/drag shows, secret rooms, furniture with hidden drawers, ball
lightning . . . The thing that fascinated me the most on a research level was
the various forms of magic that were present in the South with the confluence
of belief systems brought there by slaves from different regions and religions
intersecting with Native American belief systems. I spent a lot of time
Googling specific spells and curses and trying to work out how the
interpretation of them might have changed over three hundred years.
Q. Were there any
scenes that had to be cut that you wish would have stayed in?
A. I honestly can’t think of a single scene I cut out
fully. There were pieces of scenes that I took out, and the majority of those
were ghost scenes. There’s
a particular one that I can’t
share, but I fully intend to make it the foundation of a whole book someday. :
)
Q: COMPULSION is
part of a trilogy. Did you already have the series written when you submitted
the manuscript?
A: I never meant to
write a series, but I knew I wasn't done with Watson Island yet, so after I'd
written the second draft, I gave both Eight and Cassie little sisters. I
intended to let them help me explore the magical aspects of those families in
companion novels. When my agent and I were getting ready to submit COMPULSION
to publishers, I very quickly wrote synopses for the novels. Just quick
sketches. And then I immediately went to work writing the second book to keep
from going crazy while I was waiting to see if COMPULSION would sell. We
already had a phone call scheduled with a publisher for a Monday, and my agent
called me at five o'clock on Thursday night to tell me that Annette, my future
editor, wanted to talk to me the next day, and did I have time. Um, does
McDonalds sell hamburgers? Also, he said, Annette wanted to know if I would
consider making the other two books a series. Sure, I said. Of course. And then
I had until ten-thirty the next morning to come up with ideas: plot and
character arcs for the series, a plot that was progressive instead of episodic,
themes that would carry across the books. All that. So I called my critique
partners and begged for brainstorming help. We were all focusing on plot at
first, and then when I was just talking things trough, I finally realized what
the character progressions had to be. Instead of crying about the loss of what
I'd already written in Book Two, I got excited about the series idea instead,
and I also realized that I could use what I'd done for Book Two. Just in a
different way.
Q: How did the phone call go?
A: Awesome. I fell
in love with Annette. We talked forever, and it went by like it was five minutes.
Q. Did anything
change in the story as you were writing COMPULSION?
A. Besides me,
you mean? Um. There was a character who was meant to be a very minor character
who kind of took over the book. But also there were things that changed in
every draft: motivation, or past history, or character, or plot. I got to know
my characters better each time, and the more I knew them, the more something
changed.
Q: What was the
most surprising part of writing COMPULSION?
A: How it turned
out. People who read my blog, AdventuresInYAPublishing.com may know that I used
to think of myself as a plotter. I wrote outlines. Long outlines. Thirty or
forty thousand word outlines. And if someone asked me to write a synopsis of a
book, I had to first write the outline – at which point, I eventually realized
that I wasn't writing an outline at all; I was writing a first draft. I don't
know where I first heard the word, but someone somewhere mentioned doing
something they called a discovery draft. Coming across that term was one of the
biggest AHA! moments of my life. So yeah. It turns out I'm not a plotter, but
I'm also not completely a pantser. I'm a plantser. With COMPULSION, I knew
where I was going – I had that draft to use as a roadmap,
but things kept changing. I was constantly surprised.
Q: What do you
think will shock readers the most in COMPULSION?
A: There are a lot
of surprises—I hope. At least I hear from readers
that there are surprises. And several of them are meant to be shocking, but
they are shocking in different ways. I'd love to hear from readers (privately
or at least in a non-spoilery way ☺) what they think shocked them the
most.
Q: What do you want
readers to take away from COMPULSION?
A. That you can
pick your family, the people you love. And that you need to do more than just
survive your life. You have to go out and live your life.
Q: Who is your
favorite character in COMPULSION?
A: This is such a mean question—and yes, I know I ask this of other writers when we do interviews for YASeriesInsiders.com. But it is mean. Choosing between characters is like choosing between your children. I'm also going to make a distinction between who is my favorite character and who is my favorite character to write. I think Barrie is my favorite character, because I know things about her that no one else knows yet—things she doesn't even know herself. But it's a close call, because Eight is an amazing guy—I'm half in love with him as I write him. And then Mark, and Pru, and Lula, and Cassie. Oh, Cassie. Sigh.
A: This is such a mean question—and yes, I know I ask this of other writers when we do interviews for YASeriesInsiders.com. But it is mean. Choosing between characters is like choosing between your children. I'm also going to make a distinction between who is my favorite character and who is my favorite character to write. I think Barrie is my favorite character, because I know things about her that no one else knows yet—things she doesn't even know herself. But it's a close call, because Eight is an amazing guy—I'm half in love with him as I write him. And then Mark, and Pru, and Lula, and Cassie. Oh, Cassie. Sigh.
Q: Which character
in COMPULSION is the most fun to write?
That one is super
easy. Mark. He was meant to be a tiny part of the story—really, he was originally a ficelle, a character who is
really just there to deliver information. But his personality took over my
heart.
Q: If you could
hang out with one of the characters from COMPULSION, who would you pick?
A: Well, I'm
married. And I'm old. Er. Older. So I shouldn't say Eight, right? Okay,
yeah. Definitely not Eight. And if we take Eight out of the picture, then I'd
have to say Mark, because anyone would have a blast hanging out with Mark.
Q. How would you
describe Barrie?
A. Sheltered,
feisty, stubborn, compassionate, and courageous.
Imagine growing up
with a mother who never went outside and was scared and jealous every time that
you were able to leave. The main loving influence in Barrie’s life was her godfather Mark, the
ex-drag queen who stepped in to take care of her when she was a baby, and he
loved her so much that he stayed to take care of her ever since. But at the
beginning of the book, both of those people are yanked away, and Barrie
discovers she has a family she never knew about on the other side of the
country. She’s
been so sheltered she doesn’t
know how to read people, and she longs for connection so badly that she’s prone to making a lot of mistakes
about whom to trust. Especially with regard to using the family gift for
finding lost things, trusting the wrong people can be deadly.
Q. Where does the
name Eight come from? Is that anything like Four?
A. Nope. Not at
all. Family and tradition are big in the South, and that’s even more true on Watson Island
where the family histories go back three hundred years and the gift is passed
down to the oldest child. Eight is short for Charles Robert Beaufort, VIII. His
father is Seven, Charles Robert Beaufort, VII. And obviously, that tradition
goes back a few years. : ) Eight is tired of feeling more like a number than a
person, so when we first meet him, he can’t wait to get away from Watson Island.
That becomes a big problem once Barrie arrives, because it turns out she
literally won’t be able to ever leave the island.
Q: What is your
favorite thing about Eight?
A: Apart from the
fact that he’s
sexy, swoony, and sweet? It’s
that he’s
got a little edge of badass, but he’s
intensely kind and treats Barrie well—he may call her out once in a while
when she does something reckless, but he lets her make her own mistakes and
supports her through them. I’m
all about alpha males as long as the relationship is equal. Eight makes Barrie
stronger and helps her see herself through his eyes, helping her to realize
that she is more than she ever thought she could be.
Q: I've heard that
readers, especially men, are fascinated by Cassie. Why?
A: Well, Cassie's
kind of Scarlett O'Hara-ish, so I can see that. But I didn't realize just how
intrigued men would be by the bad girl edge she has to her. I'm curious to see
what people think after Book Two.
Q. What happens in
PERSUASION, the second book of the trilogy?
A. I can't share that yet, but it's kind of
epic. And heartbreaking. Really, really heartbreaking and also healing.
Q: Are any of the
characters personalities based on you or on people you know?
A: I'd love to have
known Eight when I was young enough to enjoy him, because yum. But also
Mark because he's so fierce and so Mark. I'd love to have a best friend
like Barrie and an aunt like Pru. In real life, I know people who might have a
trait or two that could be similar, that might have sparked a thought, but ultimately,
the characters became themselves as they spilled out onto the page. They are
nothing like me or anyone I know. Except maybe for Mrs. Price—who is based on a lovely woman I met while on a research
trip. She was so spunky and fun that I've never been able to forget her.
Q: Some of the
characters in COMPULSION are a bit extreme. Do you feel like that's realistic?
A: I think that
junior high and high school aren't very realistic. They can be horrible,
terrible places where people do things to each other than I can't even imagine
putting into a book. Schools are all about finding who you are, and that's what
books are about. I feel like sometimes writers need to make things a little
bigger in a book to give readers the chance to let themselves feel like what's
happening is removed from them, even while it is speaking directly to them. I
mean, are there going to be Hunger Games in the near future? Man, I hope not.
But that doesn't make Katniss' feelings resonate with me any less.
Q: Is there really
a Watson Island?
A: In some parallel
universe, Watson Island is somewhere near Edisto Island, South Carolina. The
plantations are loosely based on plantations I've visited, and I'll admit that
Boone Plantation figured heavily into the mix. It's beautiful. If you haven’t been there, go visit when you get a
chance.
Q. How would you
describe Watson Island?
Watson Island is
the sort of sleepy, close-knit, gossipy town that most people who have visited
the South will recognize, with a bit of a difference. The town is well aware of
the magic that surrounds the three founding families, and particularly the
plantation at Watson’s Landing. They keep the secret. In
that way, the book begins like magical realism, but the magic is part of the
mystery that Barrie Watson has to uncover when she arrives.
The truly magical
place is Watson’s Landing. There, the spirit of a
Cherokee witch sets the river surrounding the property on fire each night at
midnight in a ceremony he has performed for longer than anyone remembers in order
to keep the land protected and to keep the yunwi, the mischievous and
magical little people confined to the island. As Barrie comes to find out, she
is bound to this land, both physically and spiritually, and uncovering what
that means and why the island exists is part of what I am having a blast
exploring in the course of the trilogy.
The gifts (and the
curse) that belong to the Watsons, Beauforts, and Colesworths, all tie into
this magic, but not necessarily for the reasons the families think.
Q. Watson Island is
really a character in the book, did you do that intentionally?
A. Up to a point, yes. That’s part of Southern Gothic fiction, but
I think that it happened very organically because it all had a history and an
atmosphere that I saw very clearly. I did try to use that to highlight certain
themes and plot elements, but I would have been crazy not to do that.
Q: What was one of
your favorite scenes to write?
I have a lot of
favorite scenes, but I love the first beach scene with the turtle nests and
that first big jump in the romance between Eight and Barrie. That's followed
closely by the fountain scene. And the sandbar scene where Barrie first gets a
hint of her strength. And Mark. Any scene with Mark is my favorite. I have a
few that I wish I could have put in the book. I may write them someday, just
for fun.
Q: What was the
hardest scene to write?
There are several
scenes that made me cry—and I still teared up even when I was
reviewing copyedits, despite having been through something like a hundred and
forty seven drafts (okay, maybe not quite that many…). But yeah, there are a lot of emotional scenes that wrung
me out and left me feeling like a strand of overcooked spaghetti. Hands down
the hardest scene for me to write was the beginning, though, which is ironic
because I founded and still mentor the First Five Pages Workshop, where I
(along with some AMAZING authors) help aspiring writers nail the early part of
their manuscript.
My problem with the
beginning is that Barrie is literally broken at that point, but the reader
doesn't know that. Even Barrie doesn't know it fully. It was so hard trying to
find a way to show the reader a girl who would be interesting to read about, a
girl who would become strong, while at the same time hinting at her brokenness—at the way that she perceives herself before she's found
that she is worth loving. Barrie is like a lot of girls who don't recognize the
strength and beauty within themselves.
Q. There's a lot of
Southern Gothic fiction hitting the marketplace lately. What sets COMPULSION
apart?
A. At its essence,
the Southern Gothic fiction I really love is about haunted families and the
kind of tradition that passes down from one generation to another whether the
next generation wants it or not. It's about haunting settings, quirky
characters, and dangerous situations, but it's also about epic love. COMPULSION
is about all of that in equal measure, but it's also a coming of age story, a
story about finding your place, your family, yourself. There are definitely
weird, memorable characters. Someone I really respect once described it as
MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL meets ROMEO AND JULIET meets THE SIXTH
SENSE. I hope that's kind of different.
Q: What makes
Barrie a character that readers could look up to?
A: She's vulnerable
and clueless about herself the same way that so many girls are clueless, the
same way that society sends us signals about not being worthwhile unless we
conform to some kind of "ideal image." She's naïve and she falls into the trap of
wanting to look for the good in everyone. But she hasn't had a lot of life
experience, and her longing to belong makes her willing to put up with too much
for the sake of fitting in. At the same time, she's deeply compassionate and
she fights against injustice whenever she finds it. She's willing to go to the
mat for anyone who is being treated unfairly. She's heroic in that way. And
eventually she does find her strength. Or at least she starts to find it in
this book.
Q: What appealed to
you about creating a character who is compelled in the way Barrie is?
A: We're all, as
human beings, locked up in some way. Figuring out how to free ourselves is a
huge challenge, and I loved being able to explore that in a literal way that
was metaphysical at the same time.
Q: Who was the
hardest character to write?
A: Cassie. Hands
down. She's so complicated and influenced by . . . secret, spoilerish things.
But I know things that no one else, including Barrie, knows about her. Also we
are all seeing Cassie through the filter of Barrie's point of view, so that
makes her more elusive and hard to grasp. My original Book Two—the one I put aside when my publisher wanted a series
instead of two companion books—was from Cassie's point of view. That
was due to a request from beta readers (okay, male beta readers) who needed
more Cassie. My original plan had been to write the companion book from the
perspective of Cassie's sister Sydney, but hearing the reader responses, I
changed my mind and changed the end of Book One to make it possible to keep
Cassie around. Writing from her perspective, even for a little while, made me
see her completely differently. But she's still a difficult character to bring
to the page. I really want to do a novella from her POV at some point.
Q: Who or what was
the inspiration for the villain in COMPULSION?
A: There are
several "villains" and not all of them are obvious. But none of them
really had an inspiration. Except the guy with the skull tattooed on the back
of his head. That I know where it came from, but I can't say because . . . um .
. . I can't say.
Q: What is
something about Barrie that you didn't put in the book/series?
A: She sucked her
index and middle fingers until she was seven, but she was living with Lula, so
I think that's totally understandable.
Q: If you were
going to write a spin-off about one of your characters, who would it be and
why?
A: Cassie, because
I know why she is how she is—and because I know the relationship
that's coming to her in Book Two, and the guy is so super hot and wonderful
(seriously, possibly my favorite hero EVER) that I want to write the falling in
love process from her perspective just so I can feel it with her. ☺
Q: Which character
refused to stick to your script?
A: Mark. He was meant
to have a small part in the first couple of chapters, but he kept sticking his
size fourteen Louboutins into the book at every opportunity.
Q: What's the best
scene you've ever written?
A: A scene in the companion novel I meant to
write from Cassie's point of view. That became the foundation for Persuasion,
but seen from Barrie’s point of view it’s not the same. The original was heartbreaking. I'm hoping
to put it into a novella sometime soon.
Q: What scene made
you cry while you were writing?
The kitchen scene the first night Barrie is at Watson's Landing. Almost every conversation with Mark. The attic scene with Pru, and some other scenes I can't mention because of spoilers.
The kitchen scene the first night Barrie is at Watson's Landing. Almost every conversation with Mark. The attic scene with Pru, and some other scenes I can't mention because of spoilers.
Q: What is the core
thing in your book? The one thing you would never in a million years have given
up no matter how much money someone paid you?
A: Mark and the
Fire Carrier. And having Watson's Landing as a character.
Q: If you could
pull one thing from your series world to have in real life, what would it be?
A: Watson's
Landing. I'd move there in a heartbeat.
Q. There are a lot
of things woven together in COMPULSION: Barrie's compulsion and the situation
at Watson's Landing, the mystery of Lula's leaving, the romance with Eight, the
situation with Mark, and the situation with the Colesworths. Which came first
and which do you think is the most important?
Those are all part
of the story of Barrie finding herself and her place in the world, which also
ties into the romance between her and Eight. Watson’s Landing and the mystery of Lula's leaving both came from
a short story I did, they came before the rest of the characters. The Fire
Carrier came after that, and everything else derives from the origin story I
created for the Fire Carrier. Because they're all interconnected, I think
they're all important, but ultimately, for me, it's the romance between Barrie
and Eight, and the relationship between her and Watson's Landing that’s the heart of the story. For me, those things are
impossible to separate. I'm eager to hear what readers take away.
Q. Watson Island is
an important character in COMPULSION. Did you plan it that way?
A. There are certain conventions in Gothic
fiction, but to be honest, I tried very hard not to think about any of that
while I was writing or editing COMPULSION. I just wanted to convey the history
that shaped the families and made Barrie, Eight, Cassie, Pru, Seven, and Wyatt
who they are all in the book. Because the history creates the story instead of
just forming a framework for the story, I think it takes on a deeper meaning.
It's certainly fascinating—at least to me. I mean, pirate
treasure, ancient spirit witches, blood feuds, lonely, demented characters,
curses, forbidden romance . . . How could I resist?
At the same time, I
love having the opportunity to use elements of Watson's Landing, Colesworth
Place, Beaufort Hall, and Watson Island itself to underscore Barrie's moods and
trace the way she grows and changes. That’s going to be especially true in the subsequent books as
well, but the questions of morality that are often a part of Gothic literature
are definitely going to be an even bigger part of Books Two and Three. And yet
I'm having fun going places where Southern Gothics don't normally go. Give me a
rule, and I pretty much have to break it.
Q: COMPULSION
covers a lot of ground, from difficult family situations to the way love can be
both harmful and healing. Is that what you set out to write about?
A: When I started
writing this story, I knew it was going to be an exploration of love and
healing, of the meaning of home and family and obligation. I didn't know how
that was going to all come together, and there were times when I couldn't see
how I was going to pull the many threads into something coherent. But really,
it's just a love story that looks at many different sides of love. If it makes
readers feel something, then I've done my job. I hope they feel something.
Q: There's a moment
when the love between Eight and Barrie almost feels a little insta-lovish. But
it isn't. Did you worry about that when you were writing?
A: At the moment
when Barrie and Eight meet, the reader doesn’t fully understand their gifts, so it
was a risk leaving that open to the reader’s interpretation. I like to leave room
for the reader, though, so I never spell that out. Once readers understand the
gifts, they get it when they think it through. It isn’t insta-love at all! And Barrie is very determined not to
make the mistake of letting herself believe in love that comes too quickly. The
two of them do fall for each other, but they go through a lot together very
quickly. And trust me, their story is far from over in the first book.
As far as
insta-love in general goes? My husband told me he loved me in the middle of a
poker party two weeks after we met. We married less than a year after we met,
and we're still married. Love can happen very fast and still be real and
lasting. I'm not personally a fan of the kind of insta-love where a character
is in danger but the second she sees a hot guy, all she can do is think about
how hot he is. Or the kind where one or two super-hot guys fall in love with a
heroine who's not only ordinary looking but doesn't really do anything that makes her stand out.
Barrie takes action early on, even though she's scared and not used to handling
things on her own. She's naïve,
so sometimes her decisions aren't the smartest, but you know what? I was making
naïve decisions when I was a lot older
than Barrie. That's what I love the most about her. She does the best she can
at any given time. Her choices sometimes drove me crazy as I was writing, but I
had to let them be her choices, based on her background and her
character.
Q. Why did you
decide to write a Southern Gothic novel?
A. I love Gothics. There was a point where
Daphne du Maurier's REBECCA and Mary Stewart's AIRS ABOVE THE GROUND were among
my favorite novels. I've always adored books with exotically dangerous
settings, quirky characters, and elements of mystery and suspense. Since I'm
from Prague, one of the most magical, broodingly beautiful cities in the world,
the settings in the Los Angeles and even D.C. fell short. But the South. Ah,
there I have all the elements I love—a haunted past, regret, anger,
continuing conflict, and questions of morality galore. Southern plantations are
the closest thing to moldering abbeys and decaying castles that we have in the
United States. I'm grateful to Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl for reminding me
of how much I love all the elements they included in BEAUTIFUL CREATURES,
because their series got me thinking about the possibilities of Spanish moss
and crumbling Southern mansions.
Q: What’s the coolest part of COMPULSION's
journey to publication so far?
Talking to readers
about my characters as if they are real. Hearing the excitement in my agent's
voice and in my editor's voice when they talk about my characters. That's
fabulous, because to me Eight and Barrie and all the others are very real. But
also seeing the incredible amount of love and support that everyone at Simon
Pulse has given to this book. I'm awed and overwhelmed by that. Ask me what the
most humbling and the most inspiring part of COMPULSION's journey has been so
far, and my answer will be identical to this one. : )
There was also a
moment four days after I got the electronic version of the copyedited pages hot
off the press. I noticed a line from a book in my Twitter notifications. I
frequently tweet quotes I like from my Tumblr account, but while the quote
looked familiar, I didn’t
remember posting it. The bookstore that tweeted it used hashtag
#mynewfavoritequote, though, and I stared at it for like thirty seconds before
I realized it was from my book, which I hadn't even realized was out in the
world anywhere. That was a jaw-dropping and immeasurably cool moment I will
remember forever. (Thank you Sara Hines from Eight Cousins Bookstore!)
~ TEASER ~
He took the candle from her and used it to light the lantern. The
flame guttered, then steadied. Reflecting in the mirror at the back of the
lantern, it gave off a surprising amount of light. Eight blew out the candle,
turned off the flashlight, and tucked it into the waistband of his shorts. He
reassembled the tinderbox before sliding it into his pocket.
“Ready?” he asked.
With the light and triumph playing across
his features, he looked even more beautiful than usual. Things, and people,
were always more beautiful when you were afraid to lose them.
~ GUEST POST ~
Ten Favorites Things
1. Favorite YA
Novel (right now)
Still The Daughter
of Smoke and Bone series by Laini Taylor and Maggie Stiefvater’s THE SCORPIO RACES. But there are so
many amazing books that came out this fall and I’m
reading some that are coming out in 2015 that just floor me. SO much lovely
goodness.
2. Favorite Book of
All Time
Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
3. Favorite TV
Show/Movie (right now)
Suits. I adore clever dialogue! And Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead.
4. Favorite Song
(right now)
There’s an amazing mash up called “Truly
Brave,” which is a mix of Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” and Sara Bareilles' “Brave.” It was done for children’s cancer, but it’s what I’d love to play for Barrie, who starts
of scared of pretty much everything and has to go through things that would
make a Navy Seal feel fear. I think every young woman going out into the world
for the first time should adopt this song as an anthem. Women need to be brave
and make their voices heard.
5. Favorite Word
Magic. Or minion.
Magical minions.
6. Favorite Snack
Nutella.
7. Favorite Movie
The Shawshank
Redemption.
8. Favorite
Personal Hero
Malala Yousafzai
9. Favorite Animal
Dogs, because they
demonstrate the meaning of unconditional love. Cats because they are mysterious
and enigmatic but loving. Horses because they are magic and grace and heart.
10. Favorite Place
in the World
Prague, Czech
Republic because it’s the next best thing to a fairy tale
place.
Thinking way back
to the beginning, what’s
the most important thing you’ve
learned as a writer from then to now?
~ CHARACTER CARDS ~
About the Author
Martina Boone was born in Prague and spoke several
languages before learning English. She fell in love with words and never
stopped delighting in them.
languages before learning English. She fell in love with words and never
stopped delighting in them.
She’s the founder of AdventuresInYAPublishing.com,
a Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers site, and YASeriesInsiders.com,
a site devoted to encouraging literacy and all this YA Series.
a Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers site, and YASeriesInsiders.com,
a site devoted to encouraging literacy and all this YA Series.
From her home in Virginia, where she lives with her
husband, children, and Auggie the wonder dog, she enjoys writing contemporary
fantasy set in the kinds of magical places she’d love to visit. When she isn’t
writing, she’s addicted to travel, horses, skiing, chocolate flavored tea, and
anything with Nutella on it.
husband, children, and Auggie the wonder dog, she enjoys writing contemporary
fantasy set in the kinds of magical places she’d love to visit. When she isn’t
writing, she’s addicted to travel, horses, skiing, chocolate flavored tea, and
anything with Nutella on it.
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