Read below for the complete interview, author bio, and buy links!
1.) Who is your favorite author and why?
Laini
Taylor, because she combines beautiful prose with wonderful characters,
incredibly imaginative worlds and stories, and the dark, beautiful elements of
fairytales that I love.
2.) If you could co-write with another author
who would it be and why?
I’d
love to co-write something with Guy Gavriel Kay, as he was the reason I first
became a writer, and a lover of the fantasy genre. Melina Marchetta would be
amazing to write with too, as she has such a great ability to create and weave
character complexities.
3.) The world is under attack and you are forced
to run for your life. You only have room to take one book with you, what book
do you take?
No! Don’t make me choose! I have so many favourites, and
having no new books is my ultimate nightmare. Maybe, if I really have to, I
would pick ‘Daughter of Smoke and Bone’ by Laini Taylor, or ‘The Princess
Bride’ by William Goldman… or ‘Tigana’ by Guy Gavriel Kay. But don’t make me
choose.
4.) Who are your favorite literary characters?
(Yours or someone else's)
Karou and Akiva from ‘Daughter of Smoke and
Bone’ are two of my favourites. What a tragic love story theirs is. I love the
cleverness of Jacob Marlow from ‘The Last Werewolf’. I love Darrow’s courage in
‘Red Rising’. And if I’m choosing one of my own, at the moment I love
Josephine, as I’m right in the thick of writing the sequel to Fury, so she is
filling every inch of my head.
I wrote my first novel sitting on the couch in front of the tv, surrounded by noise and family and pets and distractions, which seems utterly bizarre to me now, as I have to be alone at my desk with particular music playing. And night time helps, too.
6.) When did you fall in love...with
writing?
I’ve always been in love with stories, and I
suppose I wrote a lot as a kid—just little bits and pieces here and there—but
it never really occurred to me that I could take it seriously until I was
fourteen and decided to write a book. From that point on the process of it
filled me with a thrilling passion, and I haven’t been able to stop since. It
hasn’t once occurred to me that I’d be able to spend my life doing anything
else.
7.) What
is the one story you wish you’d written? Why?
Well I guess it would have to be the same answer as my
favourite book and author, ‘Daughter of Smoke and Bone’ by Laini Taylor,
because it’s such a powerful love story, full of the fantastical, and it was
such an unexpected joy to read.
8.) What is your favorite thing to do outside of
writing?
At
the moment, if I’m not writing I’m either reading, watching movies, or spending
time with friends and family. I love having lazy wine and cheese evenings or
cooking a nice meal.
9.) Please
tell us a bit about your latest release.
Fury
is the first in a trilogy set in a dystopian future where anger has been cured
by the government. Josephine, the protagonist, is the last remaining uncured
soul, and she’s plagued by demons from her past as she tries to find a way to
survive the cold world with her only friend Luke for help.
10.)
What inspired you to write Fury, and how did you come up with such an
intriguing concept?
I had
the character of Josi in my head long before I figured out the rest of the
story. I knew I wanted to tell the tale of a woman who believed she was
transforming under the moon, who was burdened by the fear of having committed
atrocities, and I didn’t know initially if it was going to be a real
transformation or a figment of having endured such a traumatic childhood. The
world came when I realized that I wanted to counteract Josi’s fury, and what
better way to do that than with a society that has lost the ability to
empathize with anger? The world gradually took shape after that, as I realized
I wanted to look at why we sometimes seem so frightened of extreme emotions,
and like science-fiction should, it looks at what might happen if we continue
to be frightened.
11.)
What advice would you give to other aspiring authors?
The
only advice I can really give is to be determined, be resilient, be passionate
and be brave.
12.) What’s next for you? (More Fury, pretty please)
Yes,
more Fury is on its way soon! I’m in the process of writing its sequel, which
I’m having a lot of fun with. I’m also releasing the second book in my fantasy
series, The Chronicles of Kaya, in July/August this year, which I’m excited
about. I have some screenwriting projects on the go as well, just to spice
things up a bit.
Charlotte grew up with her nose in a book and her head in the
clouds. At fourteen, her English teacher told her that the short story she'd
submitted was wildly romantic, so she decided to write a novel. Thus began her
foray into epic fantasy and dystopian sci-fi, with sweeping romances, heroic
adventures, and as much juicy drama as she could possibly squeeze in.
Her first novel, Arrival, was published at age seventeen, and was followed by Descent, which launched The Strangers of Paragor series, an adventure fantasy for teenagers.
She then wrote her first adult fantasy novel, Avery, the prologue of which came to her in a very vivid dream. Her second adult novel, Fury, is the first in a romantic science-fiction series called The Cure, set in a dystopian future.
Charlotte currently lives in Sydney, having just finished a Masters in Screenwriting from the Australian Film, Television & Radio School. With her television pilot script, she won the Australian Writer's Guild Award for Best Unproduced Screenplay of 2013. She will, however, always be a novelist at heart, still unable to get her nose out of the books.
Buy Fury here: Amazon
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