Hey guys! It’s my turn to answer the Voight-Kampff Questionnaire as part of our tour for What Tomorrow May Bring!
The VOIGHT-KAMPFF* Interview *(JFYI, this is a Blade Runner reference – don’t worry, I didn’t know either!) Leon: Do you make up these questions Mr. Holden, or do they write them down for you? Mr. Holden: They’re just questions Leon. Subject: Kowalski, Leon
— ABOUT THE BOOK–
WHERE DID YOUR TOMORROW SPRING FROM? IN OTHER WORDS, HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE CRAZY WORLD?
Believe it or not, Stitch started off as a paranormal romance in a contemporary world. Girl goes to college. Girl meets ghost. Girl falls in love. Girl and ghost live happily ever after. Except, I had no idea how to achieve that last part. Was she supposed to go back in time to be with him? Die? Would they live together in some third plane of existence? Everything I thought of seemed ridiculous, until one day a REALLY crazy idea occurred to me about how maybe this boy was not really a ghost at all, and in fact, maybe everything that the main character *thought* she was experiencing was only just scratching the surface of a much darker (and more dystopian!) truth. I kept wishing that someone would write that book so I could read it, and soon resolved that it would have to be me. And Stitch was born!
WHO SHOULD *NOT* READ YOUR BOOK?
Anyone who’s looking for a straight-up paranormal romance (as the book initially appears to be) – they’ll just be like, “Whhhaaatttt is going on here, this is too crazy…” But if you like big sci-fi twists and dystopian drama, Stitch is for you.
WHAT SORT OF BODY COUNT ARE WE TALKING HERE?
In the billions. Seriously.
WHO WOULD PLAY YOUR MAIN CHARACTER IN A MOVIE?
Alessa would be played by Emmy Rossum – see more character dream castings here!
YOUR MAIN CHARACTER VS BATMAN, WHO WOULD WIN?
Ooooh… sorry Less, but I think this one is going to Batman. (He just has a lot more experience than you!)
IF YOUR BOOK WERE RATED LIKE A ROMANCE NOVEL, THE HEAT LEVEL WOULD BE:
1) NONE 2) SWEET 3) MILD 4) HOT 5) WILD RIDE 6) BLOOD THIRSTY
3.5 (about the level of a PG-13 movie). Nothing graphic, but there’s definitely some heat!
— ABOUT THE AUTHOR —
HOW DID YOU GET YOUR START AS AN AUTHOR?
I kind of came to writing fiction in a round-about sort of way. I was a voracious writer as a kid and spent a lot of time in high school honing my skills, but I was a bit ambitious (read: greedy) as a young adult and decided to study business and engineering in college, earning a joint degree from Wharton and Penn Engineering. I got a job in software out of school, working at Microsoft in Seattle as a program manager on a developer platform and later Xbox. Though it was a great job (and, indeed, much more lucrative than writing!), I still felt like something was missing from my life. When I realized that people kept telling me how well-written my technical specifications and emails were, a light bulb finally went on and I understood that I needed to write. So I packed my bags, dragged my then-boyfriend (now husband) back to NYC with me (we’re from the NY suburbs originally) and started a new career as a freelance business writer. A year later, I’d just finished ghost-writing a book for a client when I realized that there’s no reason I couldn’t do the same for myself – that’s when I started working on Stitch! So though it probably *should* have been obvious from the beginning, it took me some time to come to terms with the fact that writing was what I was meant to do, but once I finally got here, I’ve never looked back. :-)
DO YOU HAVE ANOTHER JOB BESIDES AUTHOR?
Yes, I am also a freelance business writer for my company Medley Media Associates. I work with small businesses to produce basically whatever they need – website copy, marketing materials, blog/social media posts, etc.
WHAT IS THE FIRST SCIENCE FICTION BOOK YOU REMEMBER READING?
A Wrinkle in Time. I think I was around 8 at the time, and it totally blew my mind.
DO YOU BUY A BOOK BY THE COVER?
Who doesn’t?
LAPTOP OR DESKTOP FOR WRITING?
Laptop, always. I don’t know why they even make desktops anymore – who needs ’em?
DO YOU EVER WRITE IN YOUR PJ’S?
When DON’T I write in my PJs?? Haha. (Hello people, this is why you become a writer in the first place!)
And remember to sign up for the AMAZING prize-loaded scavenger hunt coming July 18th! More details here.
Comments