Laura Whitcomb Interview + Light Series giveaway!

I'm so pleased to welcome one of my favorite authors to blog today! Laura Whitcomb's writing is so gorgeous you can practically feel your soul lifting out of your body.  We reviewed her latest book Under the Light last week, which is the thoughtfully rendered sequel to A Certain Slant of Light.

Today, Laura chats with us about how this sequel evolved, as well as the unusual way the story came to her. We're also giving away two sets of both books in the series, so that readers who haven't discovered these books yet will have a chance to read them!

Please help us welcome Laura to The Midnight Garden.

~ Wendy

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Q & A with Laura Whitcomb

How would you describe your Light series to someone who's never read it? 

In book one, ghosts fall in love and borrow the abandoned bodies of two teenagers so they can be together. In book two, the boy and girl, returned to their lives, unravel the mystery of what happened while they were out-of-body and fall in love in the process.

It's been 8 years since A Certain Slant of Light was published. I don't think most readers expected that there would be a sequel, since Helen's story at least was pretty definitively wrapped up. And yet, there was Jenny. Did you always intend to write a follow-up book? I have to confess, the one qualm I had about the first book was that Helen's choices left Jenny in such an untenable situation.

I never thought I’d write a sequel to ACSOL. Like all good ghost stories, it resolves a haunting. But then I gradually started to wonder what it would be like to be Jenny and to come back to my body after being away for weeks, not knowing anything I’d said or done. and to have the first thing that happens to me when I come back be that a boy I hardly know breaks down my door and shows me a photo of us together, in bed, looking happy. I also wondered where Jenny’s and Billy’s spirits went when they escaped their lives for a while. Eventually I had to write about them.

What took so long with Under the Light? We've been dying for it since it was first announced a few years ago!
 
Well, I wrote one version of the book, then I adopted a premature baby boy and had my hands full for a while, then, when he started sleeping longer than two hours at a stretch, I wrote a different version of the book, a much better one.

I won't lie--the wait was agonizing, but it was worth the torment! What kind of research did you do for this series? Are there real places and anecdotes that you borrowed from your own life? 

I didn’t need to do much research. A little on WWI for James’s flashback in ACSOL. I did loosely base the character of Mr. Brown on my best buddy during my teaching credential program – we were learning to be English teachers together. In ACSOL the character of Helen’s first host, The Saint, was a combination of Emily Dickinson and my grandmother who (among other things) wrote lovely poetry. 

Also, in the first book I stole a conversation I had with some missionary friends in 1982 (in which I was trying to understand a much more conservative viewpoint than my own) and morphed it into the scene where Helen loses her temper at the women’s group meeting. In Under the Light I borrowed an incident from my girlhood—the boy I had a crush on from second grade through eighth grade came to my aid once when we were thirteen – I was waiting for the bus with my cardboard model of a house. Another boy said it looked stupid and my guy said, “No, it doesn’t!” Be still my heart! I changed it up a bit and let Billy defend Jenny in a remembered moment from their junior high years.

I loved The Saint--it's lovely to hear the inspiration behind that character. How did such an unusual ghost story come about? Do you have your own Helen as a Muse to your Mr. Brown? 

I don’t know if I have a Muse--sometimes things do come into my head as if from somewhere else. But I remember exactly how I came to start writing ACSOL. I was doing housework while listening to an audio book of an Anne Rice novel in which a vampire who lived in a previous century was commenting on the modern world in an antiquated voice. I thought, “I like that. I’d like to do that. But you don’t have to be a vampire to be displaced in time. You could be a ghost.” I started writing the opening scene of my book not knowing whether it would be a novel or a short story. I had no plan at first. But a voice in me, whenever I was tempted to doubt myself, kept saying, “Just write this story. Don’t worry about anything else.” Maybe that was my Muse!

Wow, that's quite a way for a book to begin! I can see the connective thread, with Helen's voice being so present and strong, even though she starts out the story with no physical form.

Your writing is so beautiful--it's subtle and strong, witty and serious, gentle and fierce, deep and light, with lovely shading in between all that. I'm curious if you have a background in literature or education? There is a measured quality to your words that is unusual, particularly in young adult fiction.

Thank you for those kind words about my writing style. I do have an English degree and was a language arts teacher for a bit, but my writing voice was probably formed, for the most part, before I became an English major. I’m sure I was influenced by the books I read, and the ones read to me, when I was young. My mother read me British children’s novels like Peter Pan, the Chronicles of Narnia, George MacDonald stories of goblins and princesses, and E. Nesbit’s books about sand fairies and flying carpets. My grandmother read me The Secret Garden, A Child’s Garden of Verses, and fairytales from around the world. And so I graduated to authors like Mary Stewart, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Daphne du Maurier. Later the Bronte sisters and Austen. Oh, yes, I almost forgot that it was probably not a coincidence that after seeing my first live Shakespeare play ("As You Like It") and falling in love with Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet, I started my first attempt at a novel during the summer between ninth and tenth grades. I would be thrilled if I thought my writing was in any way a reflection of the works of these beloved writers.

It's very heartening that a publisher was bold enough to take a chance on this story. There are many mature themes, and it's definitely not the typical ghost story, in terms of plot or mood. Was ACSOL always intended as a young adult novel? Did you worry about whether teens would connect with it? Of course, there are now a lot of adult readers of YA fiction, too.

I didn’t know whether ACSOL was an adult book or not. At first I assumed it would be like Janet Fitch’s White Oleander, an adult novel with a young adult protagonist. And my agent wasn’t sure whether it was YA or not either. She sent it to editors of both adult and young adult lit and it sold to YA. I asked her, when I heard of Houghton Mifflin’s offer, “Is it okay that it has sex and some language in it?” And she assured me that yes, YA fiction was different “now” than when she and I were in high school. And the sex and the four letters word were not the things my editor had me change. I would not give the first book to a 12-year-old. Or at least not most 12-year-olds. I’d say 14 and up would be safer.

Definitely depends on the YA reader, I think. What are some of your favorite young adult books? 

I’m embarrassed to say that I have had very little time to read since my son was born so I’m dreadfully behind on current YA fiction, but some of my favorites overall are:

To Kill a Mockingbird*
Catcher in the Rye*
A Separate Peace*
The Crystal Cave*
The Princess Bride*
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy*
A Wrinkle in Time
Shadow Spinner

and more recently read . . .

The Harry Potter series
The Alphabet of Dreams
The Dark Materials trilogy
A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
The Giver
One for Sorrow
Skellig

(*didn’t used to be considered YA but have been re-classified in some circles)

I love the way the romantic relationships are written in your books, too. There's a certain courtly, perhaps old-fashioned manner, coupled with very passionate, joyous feelings. Did you deliberately set out to write a love story that was so different from others on the market?

Again I am embarrassed to say that I was completely out of touch with what was/is in the YA market. I hadn’t been reading much YA fiction since the early 80s when I discovered the Wrinkle in Time books and the Austin series by Madeleine L’Engle. I just let the love story between Helen and James develop the way I thought it would if a young woman who died in the 1870s or so and a young man who’d died in WWI, and who were gifted with young bodies, were thrown together. I guess it was a bit unusual. I am lucky that my agent and ACSOL’s editor clicked with the story and that its fans have been so enthusiastic.
 
Well, there's something to be said for writing in your own world and not paying attention to market trends, I think. There's a reflective quality of your books that's very appealing, and they seem timeless and somehow untouched by the modern world, even though the passions and intellect in them are very strong. What do you find romantic yourself?

If the attraction is just physical, I’m not interested. It’s when people fall in love because of what they observe in the other person—the way that person treats other people, the way he or she thinks, believes, stands up for what is right—that kind of glimpse into a character’s soul is what interests me. And when the lovers see the flaws and wounds in each other and they love all the deeper for it, that’s what excites me.

Ahhh. And you've just described exactly what's so appealing about the romance in your own books--and what's most appealing about romance in real life, too. Is there any further news on the ACSOL film? I know the rights were sold to one of the producers of The Departed awhile back. I'd be interested in seeing what they do with such an unusual story.

Kristin Hahn optioned ACSOL and wrote her own script for it, then sold her screenplay, In the Flesh, to Summit Entertainment (of the Twilight movies) and they picked up my option. That’s all I know at the moment. I would love them to make a great film out of my story.

Are you working on any future projects that you're able to share with us?

I am now writing the first book in a trilogy, a love story with fairy lore content. I hope it turns out as good as it is in my head.

Oh, that sounds lovely! We're looking forward to hearing more about that when you're ready. Thanks so much for joining us here today, Laura. Do come back and visit anytime!

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Win A Certain Slant of Light + Under the Light!

Thanks to our friends at Hachette, we're giving away TWO sets of the Light series to our readers.  Please, please be sure you've read reviews of the novels--we want to make sure they go to appreciative readers.

If you think that's you (heh!), please leave a thoughtful comment below telling us what interests you about this series, and fill out the Rafflecopter form. (Note: the unfeeling Rafflecopter gods randomly pick the winners, but we do check comments to see what was written and have final say.) You may also earn additional entries for tweeting about the contest, etc. as usual. 

Open to US residents aged 18 and up, or 13 and up with parental permission.; complete rules are on entry form. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 


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About the Author
 

Laura Whitcomb grew up in Pasadena, California in a mildly haunted house. She received her English degree at California State University at Northridge in 1993. She has taught Language Arts in California and Hawaii. She has won three Kay Snow Awards and was once runner up in the Bulwer-Lytton writing contest for the best first sentence of the worst Science Fiction novel never written. In her spare time she sings madrigals with the Sherwood Renaissance Singers and is the props mistress for the Portland Christmas Revels. She lives in Wilsonville, Oregon, with her son Robinson.

Visit her on her website, blog, GoodReads, and Twitter. Both A Certain Slant of Light and Under the Light are available in stores now; our reviews are linked are linked at the top of the post.

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Wild Awake: review

Title: Wild Awake
Author:
Hilary T. Smith
Rating:
3.5 out of 5 stars
Release Date:
May 28, 2013
Publisher:
Katherine Tegen Books
Age Group: Mature YA
Source: ARC provided by the publisher

Wild Awake by Hilary T. Smith does what should be impossible: be at once completely batshit crazy and unbelievable, while also painting a pretty accurate portrait of the modern teenager.

Kiri Byrd's parents left her by herself for six weeks while they went on a cruise around the world, but she has a plan: she will water the plants, and check the mail. She will practice piano religiously and be perfect at her Showcase performance. She and her best friend Lucas will practice every day and win Battle of the Bands and then he will realize he's in love with her.

Of course, things don't exactly go to plan, since that would be a pretty boring book. Kiri gets a call from a random stranger, saying he has her sister's things and if she doesn't come pick them up, he'll throw them away. Her sister. The only one who ever truly understood her. Her sister who's been dead for five years. Kiri knows it's a bad idea, but she can't stop obsessing about what things the strange guy might have.

What she finds sends her spiraling into a reckless kind of mania that is as destructive as it is freeing. While she begins to uncover the secrets her family has kept from her, and grieve for her sister anew, she  discovers herself in the process.

Her seriously insane, but ultimately really cool self.

Wild Awake was an absolutely hypnotizing read. From an objective point of view, few things about it are at all realistic, and Kiri is kind of an idiot who makes spectacularly poor decisions, but somehow it all made for a fascinating read.

I found Hilary T. Smith's treatment of mental illness, and her depiction of the descent into mania very realistic, but I do wish she'd glorified it a bit less, or given more weight to the talk of treatment in the book's conclusion. As is, it paints Kiri's behavior as a summer lark, or a period of self discovery rather than serious issues that need to be dealt with.

But all in all, Wild Awake's descent into madness was a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

This review also appears on GoodReads. An advance copy was provided by the publisher.

Thousand Words: review

Title: Thousand Words
Author: Jennifer Brown
Rating:
3.5 out of 5 stars
Release Date:
May 21, 2013
Publisher: Little Brown
Age Group: YA
Source: ARC provided by the publisher

Living in the digital age is fantastic--we use smartphones and computers to get information and stay in touch, and to share in a way that wasn't possible not too long ago. But the speed and efficiency at which news travels can be a huge drawback when you've made a mistake--or when someone decides to use your information against you.

Thousand Words by Jennifer Brown is somewhat of a modern cautionary tale. Ashleigh is caught up in a sexting scandal when, in a moment of weakness, she sends a naked photo of herself to her boyfriend Kaleb. When the two of them go through an ugly break-up, her ex decides to circulate the photo to his friends. She's mortified, especially since her father is the school superintendent and she feels guilty on top of feeling embarrassed.

The blurb made me a little wary, because it sounds as though the book could be After School Special-ish or too neat in the way things wrap up, especially in mentioning a boy who (of course!) didn't look at the circulated photo. But it's good to find that this story was told in a non-preachy, non-sensationalist way: Ashleigh's relationship with her friends and parents is well-portrayed, the parents' concern for the bigger picture was realistic, the developing friendship with Mack is slow to unfold and solid (and thank heaven, there's no forced romance), and I really liked that there weren't any neat and tidy ends, particularly in Ashleigh's interactions with Kaleb. And I loved Mack's twist on the "A picture tells a thousand words" phrase.

What I didn't realize going into this story was that teenagers who send naked photos of themselves can actually be charged with distributing child pornography. Ashleigh is already humiliated by her ex-boyfriend's actions, but now she also has community service to fulfill. While I'm all for educating kids who find themselves in this position, I agree with this blog post; such charges seem like further punishment for something these kids will already have to live with for the rest of their lives.

There are a few things that I think could have made the story stronger: the shifting timelines were sometimes confusing to me, and I wish the book had spent more time talking about the emotional effect this would have on someone at the center of the storm. Victims of this behavior don't just experience embarrassment, they can suffer devastating long term damage from a momentary lapse in judgment.  But the author's note at the end provides interesting background to her drive in writing the story, and I especially appreciate her comments that "One bad decision does not an identity make" and "how we handle the fallout is what matters most." I couldn't agree with those statements more.

"That's the thing," I said. "He didn't apologize. Not really. He said he was sorry for how things turned out, and he talked about how bad it's been for him, but he never really said anything specific, you know?" And I realized that was probably what bothered me about my meeting with Kaleb the most. You could have plugged that apology into pretty much any situation and it would have worked. It was as good as saying nothing at all." 

The takeaway from this book is this: our actions have consequences, and so do our words. As our world becomes increasingly more plugged in, Thousand Words comes along at just the right moment in our culture. I cannot imagine a more timely and relevant topic of discussion for YA readers.

This review also appears on GoodReads. An advance copy was provided by the publisher. 

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Further Reading:

Here are a few articles that readers might find illuminating. While Thousand Words doesn't focus on circumstances as extreme as some of those featured below, the first article provides sobering insights into how highlight how easy--and common--it is for kids and teens to engage in questionable behavior. The second shows the destructive, lasting effects on kids who have been victimized. The third features a woman who went through a similar sexting scandal to the one described in this book.

Through His Webcam, A Boy Joins a Sordid Online World 

The Price of a Stolen Childhood: How Much Can Restitution Help Victims of Child Pornography?

A Victim Speaks: Standing Up to a Revenge Porn Tormentor

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What Are Your Thoughts?

Have any of you experienced or witnessed a scandal like the one described in this book? Are you interested in reading this? We'd love to hear your thoughts.

Spirit: Tour Kick-off with Secrets of the Elemental Series + Giveaway!

Let's be honest here. I'm a big fan of the the Merrick boys--so the idea of a story about Hunter, the guy who who is always fighting with them, didn't initially catch my attention, particularly after Gabriel's awesome story in Spark. But man, did this third installment in the Elemental series knock my socks off!

There is lots of action (of ALL kinds, hee hee) and lots of unexpected emotion. Spirit by Brigid Kemmerer is fantastic PNR/UF, written with the kind of intensity, energy, thought, and originality that's so often lacking in in those genres. I'm in total shock over how ballsy this book is in terms of unconventional plot and character development, particular in Hunter's story arc with the mysterious Kate, a girl who has her own agenda--but still can't stop herself from getting her heart involved. You'll find yourself a fan of Hunter's as soon as you start to get to know him better, and I really hope we get to see more of his story down the road.

We're so pleased to be kicking off the official blog tour we're hosting for this book today with a special guest post from the author. Brigid's sharing fun facts about the series that she's never revealed before! Lean in closer, friends, because this is pretty juicy stuff. And you may never look at those titles the same way again.

~ Wendy

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Five Secrets of The Elemental Series 

by Brigid Kemmerer

1) Character Names

Hunter’s name wasn’t always Hunter. Originally, his name was Garrett. That wasn’t a problem until I started writing Spark, book two in the series, and (mild spoiler) he became friends with Gabriel Merrick. I would write these scenes with Gabriel and Garrett and the names were just too visually similar, so I knew I had to make a change. I went through a lot of names before settling on Hunter, but now I couldn’t think of him any other way. Other possibilities included Salem, Sam, and Cal.

Hunter’s not the only one to go through a name change, either. Kate Sullivan was originally Emma Blue, but I already had a Becca and a Calla. Silver was originally Winter, and there were several names in between.

Honestly, it’s a miracle I haven’t changed my kids’ names yet.

2) Character Relationships

In Spirit, Kate is a Guide-in-Training, sent with Silver to destroy the Merricks. She and Silver have a very … violent relationship. It wasn’t always that way. In an early draft, Kate and Silver had a very romantic relationship. In fact, in the first chapter, they were in bed together. She was going to be quite promiscuous and too much for Hunter to handle. But as I kept writing, she kept fighting me. She didn’t want to be in bed with Silver. I struggled with her character for a good long while before I realized what the problem was. When I went back and put her and Silver into more of an antagonistic relationship, everything clicked into place.

3) Ambulance Stories

There’s a scene where Hannah (Michael Merrick’s girlfriend) is talking to Hunter on the back porch. Hannah is a firefighter/EMT, and she’s telling Hunter ambulance stories. All the events she shares with Hunter are true rescue stories that I heard from my local fire chief when I was interviewing him for Spark.

4) Dirty Titles

Originally, the title of the first book in the series (Chris and Becca’s book) was Elemental. (Which ended up being the title of Michael’s novella, to make it more confusing.) Book two, about Gabriel’s relationship with fire, was going to be called Incendiary. After a lot of discussion, we decided those titles didn’t quite capture the essence of the series, and we wanted something to tie them all together. My friends, being my friends, kept coming up with dirty titles, which made me laugh, but didn’t really help. (Moist, anyone?) But then my editor, who also edits erotica titles, said, “If these books were erotica, it would be so much easier. The first three books could be Wet, Hot, and Hard.” (We also had numerous giggles every time we referred to “Hunter’s stones.”)

5) Foreshadowing Nick

Now that Breathless is out (and based on the summary, it’s not spoiling anything to say that he’s struggling with an attraction to a boy), I’ve been getting a lot of feedback about his character. Some people have said, “I knew it, I saw it coming.” Some people have said, “Wow, that came out of nowhere!” So the question always is, “Did I plan to make Nick gay?”

Yes. And no.

When I first wrote Storm, I had an inkling about it. It was definitely in the back of my head, and it was always Nick. I wasn’t thinking, “I should make one of these guys gay.” It was always him. I just didn’t know if I could pull it off. But then a friend (who is gay) asked me if I’d consider making Nick a gay character. Even though it was in the back of my head, I was initially resistant to the idea. I was scared, honestly. I wasn’t worried about backlash or anything like that. I didn’t want to do it wrong, you know what I mean? But I had a third novella under contract, and I knew I wanted to write it from Nick’s point of view. I sat down to write, and I put a guy in front of him, wanting to see what would happen. Well, Adam happened, and he’s one of my favorite characters to introduce to the series.

My editor had no idea I was taking Nick’s character in that direction. Turned out, she loved it. (And I got the chance to write two more books for the series. Nick’s book, which I just finished, will be out January 2014. The working title is Secret.)

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About the Author

Brigid Kemmerer started writing in high school, and her first real “novel” was about four vampire brothers causing a ruckus in the suburbs. Those four brothers are the same boys living in the pages of The Elemental Series, so Brigid likes to say she’s had four teenage boys taking up space in her head for the last seventeen years!

Spirit, the latest book in the series, will be released in stores and online on May 28, 2013. Connect with Brigid on her website, Twitter, Facebook, and GoodReads.

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Stupendous Giveaways!

Thanks to Brigid, Kensington Teen, and Allen and Unwin, we have amazing prizes to give away as part of this blog tour:

-- 10 copies of Spirit for each official tour stop
-- 2 grand prizes consisting of all three books in the Elementals series
-- a special contest where you can vote for Brigid to write a short story about your favorite Elementals guy!

To win the books, all you have to do is leave a thoughtful comment below telling us what you like best about this series, and to fill out the Rafflecopter form. To vote for your favorite guy, just vote with the widget below, and Brigid will post the winning guy's story on her site!

The best part is, this contest is international, so fans all over the world will have a chance to win. Open to readers aged 18 and older, or 13 and older with parental permission. See complete rules on the entry form. Good luck!

A Conversation with Leigh Bardugo + Siege and Storm Giveaway!

Our readers know all three of us are big fans of the Grisha trilogy here at The Midnight Garden. If you read K's Siege and Storm review yesterday, you know you're in for a thrill of a ride when the book is released next month!    

We had the opportunity to sit down with author Leigh Bardugo recently to chat about her novels. Since the books are influenced by Russian culture, we thought it'd be fun to meet up for drinks at a vodka bar here in Los Angeles! 

Here's a recounting and paraphrased transcript of the highly giggly conversation below. 

 ~ Wendy and Tonya    

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A Conversation with Leigh Bardugo

Wendy: Peeps, I just want you to know that when Leigh breezed through the doorway, I nearly didn't recognize her because she did NOT show up in a fur hat with a jeweled walking stick.    

Leigh: It's funny, because logically, I know you don't look like a cartoon, but I was still surprised that you don't actually look like Wendy Darling.  

Wendy: I should have worn a blue dress and curls! Social media avatars can be so deceptive. I did wear my stag ring for you, though.

In between bites of duck pizza, crudites, and Moscow Mules, the three of us talked about Siege and Storm, as well as how Leigh's life has changed since she became an author.    

Wendy: Where were you when you first got the news that you'd hit the New York Times bestseller list for Shadow and Bone?    

Leigh: I was in Houston for a signing. I'd just gone to get my hair done and it was enormous. My editor called and asked if I was sitting down and I thought, "This is either going to be really good or really bad." It turned out to be really good and I pretty much broke down crying. So there I was with my giant hair, sitting on a bench at an outdoor mall, in 100 degree heat, freaking out all of the shoppers. My agent called and we cried. Then I rang up my mom and we cried some more.    

Wendy: Aww. I always say it's like being an Academy Award nominee--the words "New York Times Bestselling Author" will follow you around for life.  

Leigh: I remember flopping down on my bed in the hotel room and feeling completely serene, thinking, "This is all I need." And then I just had to laugh at myself. Even in that moment I knew it wouldn't last. All the doubt and anxiety would creep back in soon enough, so I did my best to enjoy it while I could.  

Tonya: It's unusual for a debut to hit the list. Was your experience writing book two different from book one?  

Leigh: I actually wrote S&S before S&B was released, which was a blessing since I didn't have any outside opinions to sway me. It was certainly a more intense experience since it was the first time I'd written a book on deadline.    

Wendy: Do you miss your old day job at all? In my former life, I worked with a lot of make-up artists and it's not always a fun job--you're always the first to arrive and the last to leave.  

 Leigh: Not a bit. laughs The hours are long, and you're always on someone else's schedule. I still love product and I still make my friends up for Halloween. It's almost as if, now that makeup isn't my job, I can enjoy it again. Oh, and I have occasionally wielded my brushes on my Fierce Reads tourmates. Sometimes I can't resist.  

 Wendy: Lucky ladies!

During our chat, we enjoyed martinis and appetizers during happy hour. The clientele was interesting to say the least, and at one point a very drunk man pulled up a chair and started chatting us up. (Wendy had no qualms about lying through her teeth and introducing herself as "Eloisa." 

We were pretty relieved when a hostess stopped by to invite us into the famed VodBox, which is a freezing cold room full of vodka where we all put on big faux fur coats and hats. Each of us tasted three different kinds of vodka before making our way back to the lounge and getting back to business.   

Tonya: You have a very passionate and vocal following on Twitter and Tumblr. What's your experience been like with your readers?    

Leigh: Just amazing. I don't understand where all of these talented, awesome people came from, but I'm so grateful for them. Some of the fanart and the graphics and the edits—so insane! And the coolest thing is when I find out that we have fandoms in common and we can all geek out together.  

We talked about a lot of books and pop culture at this point. Tonya and Leigh bonded over Game of Thrones and Kresley Cole, while Wendy offered up a recommendation for a paranormal romance with hot dragon sex. (Okay, so there was a lot vodka.)    

Wendy: Let's talk about Alina for a minute. I confess I put off reading the first book for awhile because I saw so many raves for the book, but I also had a few friends who thought she wasn't strong enough. But then I read it and I thought, "What are you talking about?" Not every girl has to start out full of self-confidence or knowing exactly what to do all the time. I love Alina's character's story arc, particularly the direction it takes in Siege and Storm. 

Leigh: Why thank you! I think it's fair to say that Alina has very little agency at the start of the Shadow and Bone. She's an orphan and a refugee and a member of the peasant class. She's never had the experience of power and she really wrestles with it. But I wanted to create a heroine who had to struggle to be strong, who had to grow into her power, and yeah, who made bad choices sometimes.   

Tonya: Just like real girls. The male characters get a lot of attention (deservedly so), but the female characters you write are also amazing.    

Wendy: Oh, Genya! I found her so intriguing in S&B but she just broke my heart in S&S.

Leigh: Her character arc is probably my favorite to write. She plays a bigger role in the third book...you'll have to wait and see.    

Wendy: Ugh, TEASE. I have threatened to wrestle that manuscript away from you, and I haven't given up on that idea.    

Tonya: I'm getting in your car when you drive over there.

*awkward silence*

Wendy: Um. Your world-building is so rich and evocative--as you know, I love how much thought went into all those details.    

Leigh: They're really fun to write. But sometimes I really just want to write a book where my character can go have a peanut butter sandwich.    

Tonya: Haha! That's hilarious, but I know what you mean.    

Wendy: And you're a singer too, right? I saw that you and your band used to play around LA a lot.    

Leigh: We aren't as active as we used to be since we're all doing different projects, but some of us got together to record a song I wrote for S&S called "Winter Prayer."    

Wendy: It's just lovely! I hope it makes it into the film's soundtrack. Omg, what if it's covered by Florence Welch for the credits? *flails*  

Leigh: I. Would. Die.    

Wendy: The movie is going to be awesome, especially with all the attention to detail you put into the books. You have a good team behind it with HeyDay Films since they produced Harry Potter--I mean, I'm not always crazy about the idea of book to film adaptations, but I think all the signs point at a fantastic one for yours.  

Tonya: Are you going to be touring for this book?  

Leigh: Yes! You can find a list of the cities I'll be visiting on my website. If you're in the LA area, you should definitely come out to the pre-launch party. Free champagne, Wendy, ahemhem. And I'll be announcing a few more appearances soon.    

Wendy: I don't know if I can find a Tsarpunk get-up in time, hah. Although I actually do have a fabulous furry hat and embroidered coat.

What can you tell us about Ruin And Rising, which will be out in 2014? Is there a FOURTH attractive man in it? I hope not, because I'm going to appear to be so fickle if I keep switching teams.  

Leigh: Actually... there is a new guy on the scene. I certainly find him attractive, but it's possible you'll just think he's crazy. Beyond that, it's almost impossible for me to talk about Ruin and Rising without giving away spoilers.    

Wendy: Well, damn. There goes my reputation. Thanks so much for meeting up with us, Leigh! It's been a pleasure.    

Tonya: We'll have to meet up again for Ruin and Rising!

Wendy: Only if I get those WendHond scenes.

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About the Author Leigh Bardugo is the New York Times bestselling author of the Grisha Trilogy, beginning with Shadow and Bone. Connect with her on her website, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and GoodReads.

Siege and Storm, the latest volume in her bestselling Grisha Trilogy, will be available online and in stores on June 4, 2013.    

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Our thanks to the gracious Leigh Bardugo for meeting up with us for this interview, as well as to Henry Holt for providing the ARC for this giveaway.   

We're a site focused on book reviews for adults, but here's our disclaimer nonetheless: all of us are over 21 and do not encourage the reckless consumption of alcohol. Especially if you're discussing Sturmhond, because you'll want to remember all those delicious details.