Today I am hosting Jessica Verday as part of the blog tour for her new book, Of Monsters and Madness. Jessica Verday is a new-to-me author and I extremely excited to read Of Monsters and Madness which is a retelling of Edgar Allen Poe and his character Annabel Lee. I've asked Jessica about her thoughts on writing and to share a little bit about herself. Read what she has to say and then enter for a chance to win a copy of Of Monsters and Madness.
Q&A - OF MONSTERS AND MADNESS
Have
you always been a writer? Did you keep a journal or write stories when you were
younger?
I’ve never been a journaler, and many of the stories I wrote
when I was younger
would have beginnings but no endings. I always liked the
idea of a story having
a thousand different endings, so I never wanted to tie it
down to just one.
Making it a goal to finally write an ending was one of the
first steps I took when
I began to write for publication.
How
long do you think about a story or characters until you finally decide what you
want
to write about it/them?
Great question! For me, this usually
depends on the story. If the story idea is
ready it can all come together
pretty quickly. But sometimes the idea and/or
characters needs more time to
percolate. For example: The idea for the book
I’m working on now for after OF
MONSTERS AND MADNESS came together over
the course of a weekend and was ready
to be written right away. But the idea
for the book I wrote before OF
MONSTERS AND MADNESS came to me in 2008 -
when I was still writing THE HOLLOW
Trilogy. It took five years until it was
ready to be written. The trickiest
part of it all is that I can’t always predict
which book will be a weekend idea
book and which book will take years to
develop!
What
is your favorite writing environment? Is it also your most productive?
My favorite writing environment is late at night when everything is quiet and
it seems like the whole world is asleep. Bonus points if there’s a storm or a
full moon or the wind is whipping through the trees. (The entire autumn season?
Pretty much my writing heaven!) I can’t write with music on or the TV on as I
start to subconsciously write whatever my ear is hearing. So I always write in
silence. Since it can’t always be fall, nighttime is without a doubt my most
productive time. I can spend hours during the day forcing myself to write two
paragraphs, but when night falls and the hour grows late, it’s like an
automatic writing switch is flipped in my brain. Then I can write pages faster
than I can keep up with them.
What
is the best piece of writing advice you've received?
Read broadly and
read widely. Sometimes this piece of advice can be hard to
follow, especially when you’re under several different deadlines and you don’t
always have time to
spend hours with someone else’s words. But it’s so important to find your way
back to reading when you do get the chance. I
definitely notice when it’s been
too long since I’ve picked up someone else’s
book. (I don’t like to read YA
when I’m writing YA so I tend to stick to horror
and medical thrillers when I’m
writing my own stuff because it’s so different
from my YA voice.)
What
one piece of advice you would give to aspiring writers?
For every ten
good reviews you get, that one bad one will be what you remember the most. It
works that way for everyone. The key is to try to accept that this WILL happen
from the beginning and to try work through it the best way you can. Just be
good to yourself when it does happen. Give yourself time to get upset about it.
Then find a way to forget about it and move on. I strongly recommend ice cream!
Tell
me five random things about yourself.
1) I am obsessed with antique
furniture. I have a basement full of old couches and chairs and desks, and I still
don’t have enough. Just the thought of faded upholstery on an antique chair
makes my heart skip a beat.
2) I visit Johnny Cash’s grave every year on
Christmas day and on his death day to pay my respects.
3) The first ghost I
ever saw was a girl whose body was found at the bottom of a well in the house
right next to the one I grew up in.
4) In middle school I discovered THE
BABYSITTER’S CLUB books and loved the character of Jessi so much that I changed
the spelling of my name to match hers.
5) I can’t sleep when things that get
hot are plugged in while they’re not being used. (Toaster, blow dryer, phone
charger, laptop, etc...) I’m afraid of spontaneous combustion!
OF MONSTERS AND MADNESS
by Jessica Verday
Publication Date: September 9, 2014
Published by EgmontUSA
288 Pages
A romantic, historical
retelling of classic Gothic horror featuring Edgar Allan Poe and his
character Annabel Lee, from a New York Times best-selling author.
Summoned
to her father's home in 1820's Philadelphia, a girl finds herself in
the midst of a rash of gruesome murders in which he might be implicated.
She is torn romantically between her father's assistants-one kind and
proper, one mysterious and brooding-who share a dark secret and may have
more to do with the violent events than they're letting on.
About the Author
Jessica Verday is the
New York Times best-selling author of The Hollow trilogy. She wrote the first draft of
The Hollow by hand, using thirteen spiral-bound notebooks and fifteen black pens. The first draft of
The Haunted took fifteen spiral-bound notebooks and twenty black pens.
The Hidden took too many notebooks and too many pens to count. She
lives in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, with her husband. You can visit her
online at
www.jessicaverday.com.
Giveaway Details
Prize: One copy of OF MONSTERS AND MADNESS by Jessica Verday
(provided by EgmontUSA)
Must be 13 years or Older to enter
U.S./Canada addresses only
To enter, fill out Rafflecopter below
Giveaway ends September 15, 2014
If I cannot verify your entries, those entries will not count.
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Tomorrow's Tour Stop
September 5, 2014
About Megan Erickson
