Author Visit: An Interview with Anastasia Hopcus

Today Anastasia Hopcus has been kind enough to stop by and answer some of her readers questions. 

A BIG WELCOME Anastasia!!

What is your favorite part about being a published author?
I like many things about it, but one of the most fun things is meeting book bloggers and readers.  I got to know many online, and then I was able to hang out and talk with some of them at the BEA.  After both my autographings here in Austin, I had coffee with several bloggers, and we talked for hours.  It was awesome. 


How do you come up with your character's names?
I really enjoy that process.  I go through lists of names online and try to find the ones that best fit my characters.  I can spend hours doing that.  I have a fondness for unusual names, but I also like to make sure the names are accurate for the time and place and type of person.  For instance, given that Phe was from LA and her mother had been a sort of New Age person, I felt that an unusual name would not be out of line for her, but Adriana, coming from her background, would have a more traditional, elegant name.  I tried to make sure that the names on the tombstones were appropriate for when and where they lived.  And, of course, Phe's name has special meaning in terms of the book.


Are your characters based on people you know?
That's something that readers are frequently curious about.  Little details about the various characters---things like what interests they have or a certain eye color, for instance---are taken from people I know.  But none of my characters are really based on anyone.  One of my favorite things is making up people and giving them a backstory. 


Have you, or do you like to, visit the places you write about?
Oh, yes.  I loved going to Massachusetts, which I had never visited before.  It's beautiful; I absolutely fell in love with the Berkshires.  I went all over the state, taking pictures.  Phe's memories from LA didn't require a visit, as I had lived there for two or three years.  I put Phe's home in Los Feliz, an area where I lived when I was in LA. 


Is Shadow Hills part of a series? If so, what can you tell us about it?
I hope Shadow Hills will become a series.  I'd love to explore the town and its residents more.  I want  to see Phe's and Zach's relationship progress and weather some problems.  I'd like to delve a little more into the past and reveal exactly why Phe was drawn to Devenish Prep and the town of Shadow Hills.  I definitely have a few more secrets up my sleeve. :) 

Have you read Shadow Hills yet?

His love captivated her... his secrets might kill her. 

Since her sister’s mysterious death, Persephone “Phe” Archer has been plagued by a series of disturbing dreams. Determined to find out what happened to her sister, Phe enrolls at Devenish Prep in Shadow Hills, Massachusetts—the subject of her sister’s final diary entry. 

After stepping on campus, Phe immediately realizes that there’s something different about this place—an unexplained epidemic that decimated the town in the 1700s, an ancient and creepy cemetery, and gorgeous boy Zach—and somehow she’s connected to it all. 

But the more questions she asks and the deeper she digs, the more entangled Phe becomes in the haunting past of Shadow Hills. Finding what links her to this town…might cost her her life. 

THANK YOU ANASTASIA!

For more tour stops, vist Anatasia's webiste

Author Visit: Blog Tour with Brenda Pandos

This wonderful Blog Tour is being hosted by the equally wonderful Eleni of La Femme Readers. 

Brenda Pandos has graciously agreed to answer some of my questions about her writing process. 

*****

Where do you usually do your writing?
In my brain and at the computer are my usual places. During the busy times of my day, I focus on a scene and imagine my characters. The dialog usually flows from there. I get my best inspiration when driving or taking a shower. Later, I’ll write it out. When I’m actually writing, I’m sitting on my couch with my laptop on my lap or at the kitchen table. (Don’t tell the IRS, they think I always do it in my office).

Do you have a set space in her home, or do you write wherever you can?
I write wherever I can. Sometimes, I jot down dialog on a notepad if I’m somewhere I can’t take my computer, but it comes with me everywhere. You never know when you’ll get a moment to write a scene or two.

Computer or paper?
Both, but mostly computer. I don’t know how people did it before with only a typewriter. I’m a little OCD and rewrite stuff over and over.

Noisy or quiet?
I prefer quiet, but don’t always get it. If a kid TV show is on, I can usually tune it out and write. Editing is different. I need to be distraction-free because I get on a roll and I don’t want the creativity to stop. I try to get a lot done when my youngest naps.

Are there specific things you always need with you in order to write?
Mostly, my laptop and a thesaurus are a must. Well, and Google too. I’m always referencing something. I’m a very visual person, so seeing ‘things’ help me with descriptions. Slacker radio is ideal if I need music. I love trance because it’s usually wordless and perfect for getting into the mood of a scene when editing. Too many words in a song can distract me and I stop writing and start singing along. Lol.

Thank you so much Brenda!

I'll be reviewing The Emerald Talisman soon, so stay tuned. 

(from Goodreads)

To be normal, sixteen-year-old Julia Parker would shed her empathic gift in a second. Life has been difficult since her mother's mysterious disappearance ten years earlier - an event she witnessed, but can't remember. Julia's situation becomes more complicated after a near death experience from a blood thirsty stalker. As high school students go missing it is clear there is a connection to her own experience--past and present. Someone has to stop the madness and a chance encounter with a creepy psychic foretells that only Julia is the key to stopping the madness, but it may require the life of the one she loves.

Some other goodies:

The Emerald Talisman website

The Emerald Talisman on Facebook

Brenda's Blog

Brenda on Twitter

Interview with Saundra Mitchell author of Shadowed Summer

Red House Books presents to you, my very first, AUTHOR INTERVIEW!

**and the crowd goes wild!***

um...ok....read the interview first and then you can go wild because today we have for you the very talented and extremely wonderful...

Saundra Mitchell!
Saundra's first novel, Shadowed Summer, debuted in February 2009 and her upcoming book Vespertine has a *tentative* release date of Spring 2011. You can read my review of Shadowed Summer here.

You can also visit Saundra's Website for more info on her, and her books and tons of awesomeness because Saundra is awesome :)

Ok, here we go!

What would you like to tell us about yourself? Feel free to include any embarrassing nicknames, favorite flavors of ice cream and whether or not you sleep with a nightlight on.

It's funny you should ask about the nightlight. I'm scared of the dark- not like, totally freakaloid dysfunctional about it. But if I go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I jump back into bed so nothing can grab my ankles, and if I have to investigate a noise in the house, I pick up the nearest heavy object to take with me. Despite this- I have to turn everything off in my room to sleep. One little light on will keep me up all night. I guess my brain has a love/hate relationship with the night.

I'm impatient so I'm cutting right to the chase - PLEASE tell us more about Elijah! Ghosts can be so illusive don't you think?

Eli was especially hard to pin down for me. Unlike most ghosts, he wasn't particularly chatty. And since all the people who knew him were keeping their mouths shut for various reasons, it was tricky trying to get to know him. But, I do know he liked Lynard Skynard and Metallica, that he tanned in the sun and never burned- much to Miss Nan's chagrin- and that he had dinner with the Rhames and the Lanouxs almost as much as he had it at home. There's an extremely good chance that the night somebody broke into the Red Stripe and re-arranged everything by size, that Eli, Eddie and Jack had something to do with that. He was a pretty regular guy when he was alive, and pretty quiet in his death. I think he would have rested in peace forever if a certain somebody hadn't tried casting a spell to raise him up again.

Do you have a favorite ghost?

I have so many favorite ghosts. I love the entire cast of ghosts in Megan Crewe's GIVE UP THE GHOST. They all have different scents, and cling to different eras, I love that. And I love the ghost in PEMBA'S SONG by Marilyn Nelson and Tonya C. Hegamin. Phyllis is one of those tricksy ghosts who slips into Pemba's skin- not possession exactly, but it's a really amazing melding of two points in time, and two souls in motion.

Rumor has it (and by that I mean, you told me yourself so fess up - hehe :)
Rumor has it that you have another YA book in the works! Woo hoo! Tell us everything you can about Vespertine!!!

Okay, here's the official blurb: Amelia van den Broek is The Vespertine, a middle-class girl of the Gilded Age with an extraordinary power. Sent to summer in steamy Baltimore, Maryland, Amelia and her new friends are gripped when mediums and spiritualist stir forbidden desires and long-hidden secrets with their seances and trances.

Suddenly gifted with premonitions at sunset, and moved by her curious attraction to a young man who seems to come and go as if made of mist, Amelia gives herself over to the power she finds in giving prophecies. But when Amelia speaks of tragedy that comes to pass, those around her begin to wonder if she's not the seer of dark portents- but the cause of them.

Blurb over! The Vespertine is a historical paranormal romance set in Baltimore, Maryland 1889, and I can't wait to share it with everyone! I think it has about everything- new and uncertain friendships, ballroom dancing, secret romances, a mysterious bad boy, otherworldly powers- I love this book so much! I wrote it in a fevered six weeks- that's how eager these characters were to get out of my head and onto the page.

Where do you do most of your writing? Are you a one book at a time kind of girl or do you like to have multiple projects in the works at once?

I do 100% of my writing in my bedroom, which is where my computer and books are. I've tried writing in other places, but it just doesn't work for me. I felt weirdly exposed setting up shop in the library and the coffee shop- like I had left the house in my underwear or something! And I work on one thing at a time. If something comes in that needs my attention- like a revision letter on a finished novel, or new screenplays from the filmmaking company I work with- I stop everything and work on that until it's all done. I like to have all my thoughts and energy directed in one place as much as possible.

And since I know us fellow book lovers don't have nearly enough books on our wishlists, and TBR piles - how about your share some of your favorites with us?

Oooh, I recently loved Julie Kagawa's THE IRON KING, which was delicious. And I've been lucky enough to read Carrie Ryan's THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES before it comes out- I loved her FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH, and I think this one is even better. I'm really looking forward to SEA by Heidi R. Kling, DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS by C.J. Omololu, HOURGLASS by Myra McEntire, 9 RULES TO BREAK WHEN ROMANCING A RAKE by Sarah MacLean, THE DEMON'S COVENANT by Sarah Rees Brennan and WAYFARER by R.J. Anderson. Ooh, and SHADOW HILLS by Anastasia Hopcus. And... I really must stop, or I will list 9000 books at least!

Thank you so much Saundra for sharing your thoughts with us!
Be sure to check back readers, for a chance to win a copy of Shadowed Summer plus some awesome signed bookmarks.

Happy Reading!