Q&A with Julie Kagawa!

Meet Julie Kagawa (my all-time favorite author)-

Julie Kagawa, the New York Times bestselling author of the Iron Fey and Blood of Eden series was born in Sacramento, California. But nothing exciting really happened to her there. So, at the age of nine she and her family moved to Hawaii, which she soon discovered was inhabited by large carnivorous insects, colonies of house geckos, and frequent hurricanes. She spent much of her time in the ocean, when she wasn’t getting chased out of it by reef sharks, jellyfish, and the odd eel.

When not swimming for her life, Julie immersed herself in books, often to the chagrin of her schoolteachers, who would find she hid novels behind her Math textbooks during class. Her love of reading led her to pen some very dark and gruesome stories, complete with colored illustrations, to shock her hapless teachers. The gory tales faded with time, but the passion for writing remained, long after she graduated and was supposed to get a real job.

To pay the rent, Julie worked in different bookstores over the years, but discovered the managers frowned upon her reading the books she was supposed to be shelving. So she turned to her other passion: training animals. She worked as a professional dogtrainer for several years, dodging Chihuahua bites and overly enthusiastic Labradors, until her first book sold and she stopped training to write full time.

Julie now lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where the frequency of shark attacks are at an all time low. She lives with her husband, two obnoxious cats, one Australian Shepherd who is too smart for his own good, and the latest addition, a hyper-active Papillon.

Today, Julie and I will be discussing (more squealing on my part) about her new series,  Blood of Eden.

Here's some extra info on Julie Kagawa's AWESOME new series:

 

Title: The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1)

Author: Julie Kagawa

Pub. Date: April 24, 2012

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Check it out on: Amazon

Blurb:

To survive in a ruined world, she must embrace the darkness…
Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a walled-in city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten. Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them—the vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself dies and becomes one of the monsters.
Forced to flee her city, Allie must pass for human as she joins a ragged group of pilgrims seeking a legend—a place that might have a cure for the disease that killed off most of civilization and created the rabids, the bloodthirsty creatures who threaten human and vampire alike. And soon Allie will have to decide what and who is worth dying for… again.
Enter Julie Kagawa's dark and twisted world as an unforgettable journey begins.

Title: The Eternity Cure (Blood of Eden #2)

Author: Julie Kagawa

Pub. Date: May 3, 2013

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Check it out on: Amazon

Blurb:

In Allison Sekemoto's world, there is one rule left: Blood calls to blood 
She has done the unthinkable: died so that she might continue to live. Cast out of Eden and separated from the boy she dared to love, Allie will follow the call of blood to save her creator, Kanin, from the psychotic vampire Sarren. But when the trail leads to Allie's birthplace in New Covington, what Allie finds there will change the world forever-and possibly end human and vampire existence. 
There's a new plague on the rise, a strain of the Red Lung virus that wiped out most of humanity generations ago-and this strain is deadly to humans and vampires alike. The only hope for a cure lies in the secrets Kanin carries, if Allie can get to him in time. 
Allison thought that immortality was forever. But now, with eternity itself hanging in the balance, the lines between human and monster will blur even further, and Allie must face another choice she could never have imagined having to make.

 

So let's talk~

Have you ever read any of the Blood of Eden books? Did you love them? Hate them? Wanted to throw them against the wall and cry because you have to wait until 2014 for the next book and you just can't because the ending in The Eternity Cure was TORTURE?!

 

From the Fey to the Vamp by Julie Kagawa

Meet Julie Kagawa (my all-time favorite author!)

Julie Kagawa, the New York Times bestselling author of the Iron Fey and Blood of Eden series was born in Sacramento, California. But nothing exciting really happened to her there. So, at the age of nine she and her family moved to Hawaii, which she soon discovered was inhabited by large carnivorous insects, colonies of house geckos, and frequent hurricanes. She spent much of her time in the ocean, when she wasn’t getting chased out of it by reef sharks, jellyfish, and the odd eel.

When not swimming for her life, Julie immersed herself in books, often to the chagrin of her schoolteachers, who would find she hid novels behind her Math textbooks during class. Her love of reading led her to pen some very dark and gruesome stories, complete with colored illustrations, to shock her hapless teachers. The gory tales faded with time, but the passion for writing remained, long after she graduated and was supposed to get a real job.

To pay the rent, Julie worked in different bookstores over the years, but discovered the managers frowned upon her reading the books she was supposed to be shelving. So she turned to her other passion: training animals. She worked as a professional dogtrainer for several years, dodging Chihuahua bites and overly enthusiastic Labradors, until her first book sold and she stopped training to write full time.

Julie now lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where the frequency of shark attacks are at an all time low. She lives with her husband, two obnoxious cats, one Australian Shepherd who is too smart for his own good, and the latest addition, a hyper-active Papillon.

People often ask me if it was difficult to switch from writing about faeries to writing about vampires. While it wasn't exactly hard, it was very different. In the world of the Iron Fey, the setting and characters were almost surreal. I wanted the Nevernever to be a place where you weren't sure if you were dreaming or not; it was a haunting, dangerous place, and its inhabitants were just as beautiful and deadly. 

And then, we have vampires.

Even more then faeries, the vampire myth has changed tremendously in these modern times.  Where vampires used to be terrible, night-walking monsters, creatures you would never want to meet in a dark alley, they are now tortured souls who hate what they are and drink animal blood so they don't have to prey on humans.  They can walk in the sunlight, eat normal food, and blend perfectly into human society.  They are sexy and romantic and beautiful, and would do anything to protect the human female they inevitably fall in love with.  

There is nothing wrong with this type of vampire.  It just wasn't the creature I wanted to write about.

I wanted my vamps to be monsters.  The vampires of old, much like the faeries of old, were feared and respected, creatures that people took seriously.  A creature that would rip your throat out before it ever kissed you.  They may remember their human life, they might even feel human emotion at times, but these vampires are predators, and the Hunger for human blood overpowers everything else.  Their world is dark, filled with blood and violence, and that was my inspiration when I created the post-apocalyptic setting of The Immortal Rules.  A bleak and desolate world, and a perfect fit for the vampires who ruled as monsters.

Dun. Dun. Duuuuuun.

A world of vampires.... yes, I am 110% positive that I would not survive for more than five seconds.
In the fey world, I have Puck. That's all I need.

Why I Write Dystopian by Katie French

A few days ago, as I was watching the critically acclaimed show, The Walking Dead, I had a thought. Just as Andrea was about to stab a screwdriver into a zombie's eye socket, I wondered what exactly was wrong with me. Just an hour before I was listening to Justin Cronin's The Twelve, an equally brutal look at possible human annihilation by vampires. Prior to that I was on the treadmill reading Fuse, Julianna Baggot's new book about survivors of an atomic blast that left them fused to the objects, animals or people they were touching when it detonated. Looking back on my day, I realized there might be something really psychologically wrong with me. Why would I spend copious amounts of time amerced in human destruction? Why would I be draw to stories that start with the basis that everything we love and value has been destroyed? Conclusion: I need a good therapist. 

Yet, I am not alone. I know that if you have picked up The Breeders and liked it, you might be a little sick in the head like me. The third season finale of The Walking Dead pulled in a whopping 12.8 million viewers. Hunger Games books were on the New York Times Best Seller list for over 100 consecutive weeks. That's a lot of us crazies walking around out there. So, humanity is fascinated with its own demise. But why? Folks, I have a theory.

In general many of us read for entertainment and escape, but those of us who read dystopian also read for a third purpose, to prepare. Do we all think we'll die soon by a North Korean missile and build bomb shelters in our basements? No. But, many of us might wonder, late at night, how we would act if society suddenly came to a halt. Would we be those that took up arms, marched to the aid of others and rallied those left to a new America? Or would we be zombie food? We read to ponder the multitude of ways it could go down. We read to quantify those qualities it takes to overcome. And when and if that bomb drops, we'll be the first to roll out our super secret Zombie survival plan. (Mine includes a visit to my local Outdoor World.)

There's one more reason I believe people read dystopian. There's something so magical about basic human survival. When all this commercial garbage is stripped bare, the human soul and its capacity to overcome is astounding. We know that about our race, that we never go down without a fight. There's a scene in episode two of season two of The Walking Dead where Hershel, the veterinarian turned surgeon, is speaking to Rick. Rick is distraught, wondering what's the point? Why go on in such a broken world? Hershel turns to him and says (I'm paraphrasing here, so don't get mad at me Walking Deadfans). "This is just a bump in the road. It's just nature's way of resetting itself. That's the beauty of humanity, we always overcome." Well said Hershel. 

So, my lovely dystopian readers, if you need some recommendations here are some of my recent favorites. Happy reading. 

Fuse and Pure by Julianna Baggot

Wool by Hugh Howey

A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Scourge by A.G. Henley

Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
The World of Shell and Bone by Adriana Ryan

  

Author Bio

Katie French imagined herself an author when her poem caught the eye of her second grade teacher. In middle school she spent her free time locked in her room, writing her first young adult novel. Though her social life suffered, her love for literature thrived. She studied English at Eastern Michigan University, where she veered from writing and earned an education degree. She spent nine years teaching high school English. Currently she is a school counselor, doing a job that is both one of the hardest things she's ever done and the most rewarding. In her free time she writes, reads great books and takes care of her two beautiful and crazy children. She is a contributor and co-creator of Underground Book Reviews, a website dedicated to erasing the boundaries between traditional and non-traditional publishing. She lives in Michigan with her husband and two children. You can find her at www.katiefrenchbooks.com, at www.undergroundbookreviews.com or on Facebook.

More info on The Breeders-

More info on The Breeders-

Title: The Breeders
Author: Katie French
Pub. Date: Aug. 1, 2012
Publisher: Self-Published
Check it out on:  Amazon

Goodreads Summary:
Sixteen-year-old Riley Meemick is one of the world's last free girls. When Riley was born, her mother escaped the Breeders, the group of doctors using cruel experiments to bolster the dwindling human race. Her parents do everything possible to keep her from their clutches-- moving from one desolate farm after another to escape the Breeders' long reach. The Breeders control everything- the local war lords, the remaining factories, the fuel. They have unchecked power in this lawless society. And they're hunting Riley.

When the local Sheriff abducts the adult members of her family and hands her mother over to the Breeders, Riley and her eight-year-old brother, Ethan, hiding in a shelter, are left to starve. Then Clay arrives, the handsome gunslinger who seems determined to help to make up for past sins. The problem is Clay thinks Riley is a bender-- a genderless mutation, neither male nor female. As Riley's affection for Clay grows she wonders can she trust Clay with her secret and risk her freedom?

The three embark on a journey across the scarred remains of New Mexico-- escaping the Riders who use human sacrifice to appease their Good Mother, various men scrambling for luck, and a deranged lone survivor of a plague. When Riley is shot and forced into the Breeder's hospital, she learns the horrible fate of her mother—a fate she'll share unless she can find a way out.

This totally makes sense! See, I'm NOT turning into a lunatic, I'm just unconsciously preparing for the end of the world. After reading so many dystopia/post-apocalyptic books, I was starting to question my sanity there. Reading this was actually very relieving. :)
So, do you read a lot of dystopian/post-apocalyptic books? What do you think of Katie French's theory? Relieved? Maybe not?