Omnivoracious

YA Wednesday: Marie Lu Talks to Rick Yancy About "The 5th Wave"

Rick Yancey's new book, The 5th Wave, sucked me in and pulled me under from the first page to the last with it's terrifying and thrilling story of an alien invasion like you've never seen.  We made it our Best Teen Books of May Spotlight pick, and past Teen Best of the Month author, Marie Lu (Legend trilogy)  is also a big fan.  In this Omni exclusive, Lu chats with Yancey about The 5th Wave, movies, and, of course, aliens.

Marie Lu: Everybody loves aliens--myself included! But in your opinion, how has Hollywood gotten the “alien invasion” idea wrong?

Rick Yancey: I understand that movies are made by humans to be watched by humans, and depicting anything less than total victory over the bug-eyed swarm would be a bit much to ask for. The simple and, to my mind, undeniable truth is that life forms thousands, if not millions, of years more advanced than us probably wouldn’t view humans as anything special, or at least nowhere near as special as we view ourselves. I think we would be more like pesky insects to them, which raises the question (from their angle): Can we coexist, like humans do with cockroaches, or should we simply drive the disgusting infestation from existence? So I don’t believe that, if they find us, it’ll play out anything like the stereotypical alien drama.

They won’t come to teach us anything (Contact) or save us from ourselves (Close Encounters, The Day the Earth Stood Still) or pluck leaves and go home (E.T.). And they’ll be smart enough and careful enough not to damage too much of their new home (Independence Day) and they will remember to take their flu shot (War of the Worlds).

ML: The 5^th Wave has been optioned for film, which is hugely exciting! Anything you can tell us about it?

RY: Under the terms of my contract, not much! I can tell you producers Graham King (Argo) and Tobey Maguire are on board, which is totally cool.

ML: Alright, the alien invasion is nigh and you're in survival mode. What would be in your survival kit?

RY: Toiletry kit (seriously, you’d want to keep yourself groomed. It grounds you. Also you better have a way to keep your teeth clean. You don’t want a bad tooth – check out Castaway if you doubt me). Basic first aid stuff, including penicillin and antibiotic ointment. A means of making fire. Solar-powered flashlight. A good hunting knife. A handheld mirror (to check yourself out and also to check around corners). A compass. Water bottle. And (speaking only for myself) enough medication to ensure an overdose in case the absolute worst comes upon me. If my end was inevitable, I’d make sure it was on my terms, not the alien bastards’.

ML: The five waves you outline in the book scare the bejeezus out of me. Which one frightens you the most?

RY: By far the 3^rd Wave: the super-virus developed by the Others from Ebola Zaire. I won’t go into all the details here – there’s plenty in the book – but if you’ve ever read The Hot Zone, you know what I’m talking about. A slow, agonizing, horrifying way to die. Your organs liquefy. Your brain turns to mashed potatoes. The other waves are terrible, but they’re quick.

ML: Can you give us a sneak peek at what we’re going to see happen in Book 2?

RY: Did things seem a little desperate in Book 1? They get worse. We still haven’t seen the depths to which the Others will sink in order to rid the Earth of the human infestation. And we haven’t yet seen the heights to which the human spirit can reach. Certain characters introduced in Book 1 will come to the fore--and others will face the ultimate test. The Others will give their answer to Cassie’s defiance. 

Sunny Days and Summer Books

With warm weather finally setting in and the end of school just over the horizon it's finally time to start thinking about all the books we want to read this summer.  Will this be the year I finally read Dante's Inferno?  Maybe it will be Dan Brown's new book, Inferno, or maybe both...  My summer reading plan (because, yes, I have one..) is to mix it up with books that I meant to read, but didn't, and the best of the new releases, so I'm going to hit our Summer Reading store for ideas. If you need some ideas, too, below is a sampling of our Editors' Picks for readers of all ages during (at least in Seattle) the best months of the year.  What books do you want to read this summer?

Best new books (for adults) to read this summer: 

Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen: Hiaasen is back at his wickedly funny best in a new tale about greed, corruption, and comeuppance in Florida--and the Bahamas--thanks to a cast of characters that includes a Bahamian voodoo witch, a kinky coroner, and a very bad monkey.

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini: The bestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations.  Can lightning strike a third time? For Hosseini, it does.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman: His first novel for adults since Anansi Boys, an imaginative and poignant fairy tale about childhood, memories, mystery and magic.

Editors' Picks for Kids and Teens to read this summer: new books you won't want to miss and some favorites from years gone by.

Books for Kids: 

Paperboy by Vince Vawter (ages 9-12): In this coming-of-age novel, an 11-year-old boy living in the segregated South throws the meanest fastball in town, but talking is a whole different ball game. One summer can change a life, and for this young man a paper route brings a run-in with the neighborhood junkman, a bully and thief, that puts his life in danger.

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate (ages 8 and up): Winner of the 2013 Newbery Medal, Ivan is a gorilla who lives a predictable life making art for the visitors to the Exit 8 Big Top Mall from behind glass walls, but everything changes when a new baby elephant arrives and he sees his world through her eyes. 

Pete the Cat: The Wheels on the Bus by James Dean (ages 4-8): Pete the Cat has quickly become a beloved new picture book character and this time he brings his groovy, laid-back style to a classic. As always, singing is required.

Books for Teens:

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey (teen): The Passage meets Ender's Game in an epic new series where aliens arrive on Earth and it's nothing like you've ever seen before.  Don't let the young adult category fool you--this one is nearly impossible to put down whether you're 14 or 45.

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen (teen): Luke is the perfect boyfriend: handsome, kind, fun. He and Emaline have been together all through high school in Colby, the beach town where they both grew up. But now, in the summer before college, Emaline wonders if perfect is good enough.

Divergent by Veronica Roth (teen): Summer is the perfect time to start a new series and if you haven't read Divergent yet, put this one to the top of the list.  The first book of a dystopian trilogy filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance, it all comes to an end this fall with the third book, Allegiant.

YA Wednesday: Team Levithan & Cremer

In the last few years we've seen great examples of two popular authors coming together in one novel and giving fans the best of their combined talents--Will Grayson, Will Grayson and The Future of Us are among my favorites, what are yours?  David Levithan (Every Day and the aforementioned Will Grayson, Will Grayson) and Andrea Cremer (Nightshade series) seemed like an unlikely pairing to me, that is, until I actually read Invisibility (one of our Best Teen Books of May) and watched the video below. 

Now it all makes sense.  Invisibility is the story of what happens when a boy who has been invisible to everyone (including himself) is seen for the first time by a girl who's tough exterior hides a multitude of secrets.  Don't be fooled by the familiar he-said, she-said style, this one is anything but cliché and the twists are surprising and exciting all the way to the end.  Here is an exclusive video of Cremer and Levithan goofing off (check out Cremer's great boots!), teasing each other, and talking about Invisibility:

 

YA Wednesday: "Rapture Practice"

What if you didn't see a movie until you were fifteen?  Or were forbidden to listen to popular music when you were a teenager?  Sounds a little like Footloose, but, in fact, that was Aaron Hartzler's life.  And we get to read about it in his fantastic book, Rapture Practice.  

Hartlzer grew up truly excited for the Rapture, playing the piano in church, and following the plan his parents, particularly his father, laid out for his life. The snake in Aaron's Garden of Eden came in the form of bible camp--as unlikely as that seems--and the apple was The Hunt for Red October. 

Hartzler's coming-of-age memoir is funny, laugh-out-loud funny at times, and his slide into "sin" is fraught with a combination of thrill and guilt because his love for his parents and desire to please them is 100% genuine.  We picked Rapture Practice as our YA Best Books of the Month spotlight for April and after reading it I wanted to hear more about that first movie experience, so we asked Aaron Hartzler to write a little something for us.  The picture of the ticket stub you see below?  That is THE ticket.  Read on...

Unless Jesus comes back in the next two minutes, I am going to break one of Mom and Dad’s biggest rules. My cheeks are hot. I feel out of breath. A drop of sweat trickles down my back, but the girl behind the glass doesn’t even look up at me. She has no idea what is happening in my head, what a big deal this is for me. She couldn’t be less interested.

I slide a five‑dollar bill under the window. She hands back a small yellow ticket between neon nails so long they curve.

“Enjoy the show.”

I take a deep breath.

I take a look over my shoulder.

I take the ticket.

[From Rapture Practice by Aaron Hartzler]

I didn’t see a movie in a movie theater until I was 15 years old. My mom and dad felt that most movies were not pleasing to God, so I wasn’t allowed to go. And yet, when I stood on that curb at the theater with all of my friends from camp that summer, all of those warnings were no match for the thrill of taking my seat in a darkened room, and watching the opening credits. My heart was racing, and my hand was sweaty as I clung to that little yellow ticket stub.

I saved the tickets for every movie I saw that summer. They looked like little carnival ride tickets back then—the kind you win playing ski ball and trade for prizes. This was before they printed the name and date of the film on the ticket, so I wrote it on each one. Eventually, I lost the rest, but I still carry that first little yellow ticket around in my wallet. It’s a symbol of the day I started to make my own decisions—for better or for worse; the day I knew my life was going to be different than the one that had been imagined for me by others. That little yellow scrap felt like more than just a ticket to a movie; it felt like a ticket to freedom.

Looking back, I’m certain that it was.

--Aaron Hartzler

YA Wednesday: Assassination Training at the Convent

Escaping a vicious arranged marriage, learning your dad is Saint Mortain (the God of Death), training as an assassin at a mysterious convent, AND falling in love--what could be better than Grave Mercy, the first book in Robin LaFevers trilogy?  How about an exclusive lost chapter, a prequel of sorts, to book two.

Sequels are tough: if I love a first book I look forward to the second with equal parts anticipation and trepidation. Maybe it will be even better than the first...but what if it totally sucks?  In this case, Dark Triumph, the sequel to Grave Mercy, is the former not the latter, and made our Best YA Books of April list.  Book two tells Sybella's (another of Saint Mortain's assassins who we meet in book one) story and trades the political for the personal.  Revenge, murder, passion, history--it's all here.  And now we are left waiting another year(!) for the last book...boo.

LaFevers is a kind soul and took pity on us (or didn't want to hear us asking--okay, whining--for the next book over the next 365 days) so she agreed to throw us a bone and write a special 'lost chapter' from Dark Triumph to share with our Omni readers.  Here is a brief introduction from the author and a little taste of the chapter--the rest is after the jump.  You can also check out the whole chapter in PDF form here .

From Robin LaFevers:

There has always been a lot of mystery surrounding the character Sybella ever since she first showed up on the pages of Grave Mercy. She was so guarded and secretive that it even took me a while to get to know her.

In order to understand Sybella well enough to tell her story, I had to go back to the beginning and see her arrive at the convent where she trained to be an assassin. I had to see what sort of pain and baggage she brought with her, even though I knew there would be no place for it in the finished book.

This ‘lost chapter’ from Dark Triumph is Sybella’s introduction to the convent, a much more rough and tumultuous beginning than Ismae experienced in Grave Mercy...

Dark Triumph – Deleted Scene

When the cart stops moving, I open my eyes and see the boat; suddenly, I know exactly what is happening. The hedge priest has tricked Old Nonne and is not taking me to safety as he promised. Instead, he has delivered me to one of the night rowers, one of the desolate, bound sailors who must carry away the forsaken souls whom God and the church have deemed unworthy.

“No!” I scream, certain there has been a mistake. It is my father who has committed evil, not I. My mind is sluggish and thick, like a heavy fog, and those memories disappear beneath the weight of it. But I am certain I do not want to get in that boat and be ferried across the Passage de L’Enfer to where I will have to reside in hell.

I throw off the heavy weight of the blankets that hold me down, and sit up. The world tilts alarmingly and my stomach heaves, trying to cast out whatever potion they have been pouring down my throat. Even so, I lurch to my feet, but before I can climb out of the cart the hedge priest and the sailor are there. With callused hands they hold me still and try to soothe me with their deep, clumsy voices. “It’s no use,” the old sailor grumbles at last. “We’ll have to tie her up or she’ll tip us all over.”

The hedge priest gives a curt nod, and as if by sorcery the sailor produces rough hempen ropes, which he uses to bind my wrists and feet. I thrash and call for help. “Hush her, before she calls every busybody around.”

Mumbling an apology, the hedge priest places a scrap of filthy cloth in my mouth and binds it around the lower half of my face. I panic, not able to draw a full breath. The entire world tilts dizzily as the sailor takes my feet and the hedge priest my shoulders and I am lifted into the boat. They place me on the damp wooden hull, where the smell of salt and old fish fills my senses. I fear I will gag, and if so I will surely suffocate. I concentrate all my will on trying to calm myself and think.

I feel a gliding motion as the boat slips out from between jagged rocks and into the dark blue water. We move soundlessly through the waves, as if Death Himself has silenced our movements so none will know of our passage.

My heart thuds against the wooden hull under my breast and I twist and flex my hands until my wrists are raw, but the cords hold tight. After a while, my heart calms somewhat, matching itself to the steady sounds of the slap of the water and the creak of the oars. 

A while later—I have no idea if it is moments or hours—there is a crunch followed by a jarring sensation as the boat runs up against a rocky shore. A voice calls out—a woman’s voice, for of course, as the priests have warned us all, hell is filled with women. “What have you brought us, Father Guillame?”

The Mysteries Behind Gwenda Bond's Blackwood

As reported recently, Gwenda Bond's first novel, Blackwood, has been acquired by MTV in a production deal with Lion's Gate and Kelsey Grammer's Grammnet Prods. And why not? The novel has a fascinating premise, based on the mystery surrounding the Roanoke Colony.

Around 1590, 114 colonists disappeared, the only clue, the word "Croatoan" carved into a post. In the present-day of the novel, the Roanoke mystery is just something to lure in tourists ... until 114 people disappear and two 17-year-olds find themselves caught up discovering what happened. Miranda's a misfit and Philip an "exiled teen criminal who hears the voices of the dead." Together, they have to deal with FBI agents and alchemists while trying to uncover the secrets of the Lost Colony.

The plot of Blackwood has a satisfying number of twists and turns, and advance praise has come from the likes of NYT bestselling author Karen Joy Fowler. With Bond fresh off of the exciting MTV news, Omnivoracious decided to get the inside scoop on the Roanoke situation from this rising star of YA fiction.

In addition to clarifying that the Roanoke in question is "Roanoke Island, North Carolina, not Roanoke, Virginia," Bond told us that "a major player in my novel," the show The Lost Colony at Waterside Theater on the island, is a real thing. "It's the longest-running symphonic outdoor drama in the country and just celebrated its seventh anniversary season. The original play was written by Pulitzer-Prize-winner Paul Green and debuted in 1937, though changes have been made over the years, of course. Several million people have seen it since then."

As for the mystery of the lost colony, Bond dredged up all kinds of information while writing the novel. She found out that "noted alchemist John Dee, involved in so many things during the period, was involved in the colonization effort, too." Along with other experts in various subjects, Dee assisted Raleigh "with the planning for the voyages that ultimately led to the ill-fated Lost Colony. There's even been a theory floated that Dee headed an earlier excursion, and the Newport Tower in Rhode Island was the result. But that seems far-fetched…"

Bond admitted that historians "don't really know that much" about the more than 100 men, women, and children from England who signed on to the 1587 voyage to establish a permanent settlement in the New World. "While we know all about Sir Walter Raleigh, the main idea man behind the early colonization effort, and Governor John White, an artist by training who became the leader of the colony, for the most part what we know about the colonists are their names and general ages. But there is little solid evidence about why they signed on to such a venture… leaving plenty of room for speculation."

What fate did the colonists meet? As you might imagine, theories range "from the likely (that some colonists were absorbed into the region's Native American tribes) to the unlikely (alien abduction, cannibalism)." As recently as earlier this year "researchers announced some intriguing findings uncovered in one of John White's maps that may yield a new hypothesis.

"The theory in Blackwood, however, hasn't been put forth before that I've been able to find," Bond said. "But add together an enduring mysterious mass disappearance, the lack of information about who the colonists were, and John Dee, and what do you get? Some strange alchemy and -- I hope -- a good story."

YA Wednesday: "Unremembered" and Jason Bourne

When I picked up Jessica Brody's Unremembered I thought I'd just read a couple pages to get started and then get on to something else.  Five chapters later I had to tear myself away and couldn't wait to get back to it. By the time I reached the end it had become one of our picks for the Best YA Books of March.

The story starts off with a bang, a teenage girl discovered among the wreckage of a plane crash, she's the only survivor and has no idea who she is and neither does anyone else.  Violet, as she is dubbed for the color of her eyes, struggles to find some memory of her past and when a young man appears with shocking information about who she really is, including her real name, Seraphina, she doesn't know what to believe. 

When I read Unremembered it had a very Bourne Identity feel to it, so it was fun to learn about Brody's influences and intentions writing the book.   In the conversation below, Brody chatted with her editor, Janine O`Malley about those influences, sci-fi heroines, and a growing trend in YA--biopunk.  You can read the rest after the jump.

Janine O'Malley: Sera is a great representation of a sci-fi heroine—she’s beautiful, intelligent, resourceful, and she can kick major butt. How did you create her character?

Jessica Brody: In my mind, Seraphina has always been a cross between Sydney Bristow and Jason Bourne: two of my favorite “kick-butt” characters. I wanted her to be strong, smart, beautiful, but also very vulnerable. Her memory loss often makes her feel helpless and alone.

I always enjoyed seeing the two very different sides of Sydney Bristow’s life in Alias. How she could come home from saving the world and destroying the bad guy and still cry in the bathtub. That duality, to me, is what makes for the most interesting characters.

I’ve also always loved the whole “I don’t remember I’m a superhero” aspect of The Bourne Identity movie and wanted to capture that with Seraphina as well. She doesn’t remember who she is, and so she gets to discover her extraordinary abilities right along with the reader. This was where I got to live vicariously through my character. How many of us have ever fantasized about accidentally stumbling upon some mad skill we didn’t know we had? Every time I try out a new sport, I’m convinced that I’m going to turn out to be some hidden prodigy that the U.S. Olympic team has been waiting to find for centuries. But alas, it has yet to happen.

JO: Sometimes sci-fi characters can be so far from human they’re difficult to relate to. How did you keep that from happening in this book?

JB: This was definitely a challenge for me. Especially when I’m so used to writing the “normal” everyday teen characters that are in my contemporary comedies. I knew that Seraphina was going to be hard to relate to…unless of course you’re an amnesiac supermodel who can run like the wind, calculate like a computer, and speak every language on earth. Then you know exactly how Seraphina is feeling!

I knew I needed a grounding character to secure the book in reality for the reader. That’s why I created Cody, Sera’s socially awkward thirteen-year-old foster brother. Sera is so out of touch with the modern world, it’s sometimes comical. But Cody is the quintessential teen boy who teaches her about everyday things like cell phones, computers, the Internet, sarcasm, and credit cards.

Cody was also like a safety net for me. A little link back to my comfort zone of writing in the contemporary space. Since this is my first dark, mysterious novel, it was nice to have a comic relief like Cody in the picture. Whenever Sera’s story line got too tense or harrowing, Cody could always be counted on to lighten up the mood a bit with a joke.

JO: Unremembered is a great example of what seems to be a growing trend in YA of genetically altered characters. Why do you think this has become a popular topic?

YA Wednesday: Amazon Asks Lauren Oliver

Lauren Oliver become a YA favorite with Before I Fall, her novel of a teenage mean girl who is killed in a car crash but then wakes up to re-live her last day again and again over the course of a week.  A book embraced by so many can be a tough act to follow, but Oliver gave us Delirium and we loved her all the more.  Fans of the trilogy have been waiting in bittersweet anticipation for the last book and yesterday Requiem was finally released.  Oliver does a fantastic job of keeping the action and romance going to the very end (we thought it was best of the month good), and I think readers are going to come away happy with the end but a little sad that the trilogy is over.

If you haven't started the Delirium books but you like Ally Condie's Matched series, The Hunger Games trilogy, or Lois Lowry's The Giver, I think you'll feel instantly connected to this story of a rigorously controlled society where love is a sickness to be cured at age 18, but not everyone thinks that's truly living. 

I met Oliver a couple of years ago when she wrote her first middle grade novel, Liesel & Po, and found her funny, interesting, and full of ideas. We wanted to see what she's up to these days so we sent her some "Amazon Asks":

Describe Requiem---or the Delirium trilogy--in one sentence?
LO: The Delirium trilogy is about a world in which love is viewed as a contagious disease; scientists have figured out how to cure it.

What's on your nightstand/bedside table/Kindle?
LO: The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick; The Family Fang, by Kevin Wilson, Why Does the World Exist? by Jim Holt.

Top 3-5 favorite books of all time?
LO: Love in The Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; The Virgin Suicides, by Jeffrey Eugenides; Matilda, by Roald Dahl; The American, by Henry James; To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee.

Book that changed your life?
LO: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer. After I read it, I became convinced that I wanted to be a novelist. I was twenty at the time, and I began seriously working on my first novel. It was never published (thankfully), but it set me on the course of my present career.

What are you obsessed with now?
LO: I just had my kitchen redone, and I now have a beautiful breakfast-bar area where I can do my writing and be within arms-reach of the coffee pot. It is amazing. I'm totally, totally obsessed. I never want to leave my house now, or even my chair.

What are you stressed about now?
LO: Right now, at this very second, I'm stressed about two things: whether there will be an epic blizzard in New York that will prevent me from going to see my sister in St. Louis, and why my agent seemed unconvinced by the pitch I gave him for my newest book idea. Actually, I'm pretty stressed about my newest book idea.

What's your most prized/treasured possession?
LO: It's so sad, but probably my phone. I'm pretty obsessed with my phone. I have a strange, troubled, intimate relationship with it. And it's the only possession I have that I feel I couldn't live without.
 
What do you collect?
LO: Art! I love hunting around for prints. I also have a large collection of children's book illustrations. Some people might say I also collect shoes.

Best piece of fan mail you ever got?
LO: I'm not sure that this qualifies as the "best," but it is certainly the oddest: a girl wrote me to ask what my feelings were about biting people. That was it, her whole query. I responded that I feel good about biting people if they are attacking you.

What's next for you?
LO: Next year, I'm releasing a new standalone YA title called Panic. It's realistic and gritty and very different from Delirium. And I also have my very first adult title coming out next year. It's a novel called Rooms, and it's told at least in part from the perspective of ghosts who inhabit the walls of a very old house.

YA Wednesday: "Out of the Easy" Best YA of February

Ruta Sepetys' first book had the unusual coincidence of a title that includes the words "Shades of Gray"  though her YA novel, Between Shades of Gray, is about as far from the 50 Shades variety as you can get.  A powerful story of a teenage Lithuanian girl torn from her family and sent to a labor camp during the Russian invasion of 1939, Sepetys received wide praise and some strange book tour events for Between Shades of Gray and I was really excited when I found out she had a new novel coming this month. 

Out of the Easy is very different from her debut and confirmed that I want to read whatever Ruta Sepetys writes.  This time the setting is the French Quarter of New Orleans in 1950, and Josie is the teenage daughter of a prostitute who does her more harm than good.  Determined to avoid following in her mother's footsteps Josie forges her own path with street smarts, a passion for books, and the help of a remarkable family of her own choosing.  Mobsters and madams, book store owners and debutantes--I loved them all, and this New Orleans story full of danger and promise held me hostage until the bittersweet end.  After we chose Out of the Easy as our top pick for the Best YA books of February, I sent Ruta Sepetys some questions about the book, author crushes, and more--here are her answers:

Q: Out of the Easy is set in New Orleans—what are some of your favorite things to do, see, and eat, in Big Easy?

RS: Favorite things to do: People watch in the French Quarter, visit the Williams Research Center, browse stores for books and antiques.

Favorite things to see: The interior courtyards of the buildings in the French Quarter. They seem full of secrets!

Favorite things to eat: Breakfast at Croisant d'Or Patisserie, Oysters at Bourbon House, Eggplant caviar at Bayona, Pasta at The Italian Barrell

Q: Josie and Patrick play a game of guessing a customer’s reading tastes when they walk in the bookstore– what do you think a YA reader would look like these days?

RS: I think these days Josie and Patrick would be wagering on dystopian vs. paranormal!

Q: During your research, what’s the craziest story you heard from a French Quarter resident about the 1950s?

RS: A man owed money to a New Orleans mobster for a gambling debt. The mobster supposedly cut off the man's finger and sent it to his family in a coffee can with a note that said, "Pay up."  Yikes!

Q: Are you working on your next book idea?  Any places/time periods that are asking for their story?

RS: Yes, I'm currently working on my third novel. It takes place in East Prussia at the end of WWII.

Q: I already know your childhood author crush was Roald Dahl, do you have an author crush now?

RS: I don't currently have an author crush but I have a character crush. I swoon over John Thornton from Elizabeth Gaskell's novel "North & South." Watch the BBC series version and you'll see what I mean. You'll forget all about Mr. Darcy.

Q: What’s the last book you stayed up all night to finish?

RS: "West With the Night" by Beryl Markham. I've read it several times and can never seem to pull myself from it. The language and sense of place are just gorgeous.

YA Wednesday: You Asked, They Answered--"Beautiful Creatures" Amazon Q&A

Tomorrow Beautiful Creatures opens in theaters with an all-star cast, so this Valentine's Day you'll find me stuffing my face with chocolates in a dark movie theater (and how many of you will be joining me?).   The Castor Chronicles (there are four books in the series) is one of my top recommendations for people asking about the next big YA series--it hooks you from the very beginning and has all the ingredients of a blockbuster. Beautiful Creatures is a little bit Anne Rice's The Witching Hour, a dash of  Stephenie Meyer's Twilight, and a whole lot of delicious Southern gothic.  A small town with a dark history, a family curse, magic, and star-crossed romance--not to mention all the twists I can't even hint at without a spoiler alert.  If you're new to the series I'll offer you this word of warning: Beautiful Creatures may cause you to stay up all night reading, followed by an obsessive need to start the next book, Beautiful Darkness.

It's hard to believe but the first book was written on a dare from seven teenagers close to the authors who wanted something different, a strong and magical female protagonist--who doesn't narrate the story--a specific setting (and in my opinion there is nothing like the South for visceral atmosphere), and no vampires or werewolves.  This is just one of the anecdotes Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl shared when they answered questions from our Facebook fans in the exclusive Q&A below.  You can read the rest after the jump.  And let me know what you think about the movie!

Q: What inspired you to write Beautiful Creatures?
[Kami Garcia]: We wrote Beautiful Creatures on a dare from my students and Margi’s daughters and my sister. Seven teenagers who wanted to find a book that was a little bit different than what they were reading. They wanted a female protagonist who was very strong and magical. And they wanted to hear a story that was from a boy’s point of view instead of a girl’s. And they said, no vampires, no werewolves, and we had to find a really specific setting for the book so that it didn’t feel generic. We did not write it to be published, we wrote it for them. We wrote it a few chapters at a time until at the end of the 12 weeks, we had the entire book.

Q: How did you come up with the names in your books?
[Margaret Stohl]: Kami’s family is from a small town in North Carolina. My family is from a small town in the West. They both happen to have genealogists for their families. We are from a very small town community background where there is a lot of storytelling and a lot of familiarity about your own family so the stories get handed down generationally. Thus, as Kami always says, we plundered our family trees and we stole many names from Kami’s family, from my family, also French Creole names which are a part of the region, and we stuck to sort of specific names for each that would appear within each family. But the most famous name comes from Kami’s relative Anna Gatlin Harmon. And we stole her name for Gatlin, our town.

Q: Are any of the characters based off of real people?
[KG]: The only other characters that are based off of real people are all of the real people; the Castors are all completely made-up by Margi and me. The real characters in the book, the funny characters, the postman is based off of Margi’s grandfather, the great aunts are based off of my great aunts. We kind of used real characters to populate the town from our own families which is funny because some of those characters and their antics seem even more outrageous, like opening up everyone’s mail and reading it before you deliver it, but that is actually what Margi’s grandfather actually did. But don’t tell the postal service.

Q: How did you come up with all of the twists in the story?
[MS]: We plotted out everything in a conversation before we started and then we kind of went with it. I think one of the things that happened is that we had an overall outline for the story but we would surprise each other when we handed chapters back and forth to each other, because that is how we worked since we are two people. So, it is kind of like that game where you all take turns adding on to a story and it changes with every person. So sometimes, we would just pull stuff out of the blue that wasn’t in our outline and we would be like dun-dun-dun! And then the other person would have to deal with it. But I think we kept surprising each other and I think that kept surprising the reader quite often in the process.
[KG]: We like books with twists. So I think it’s natural for us to write things with twists.