Tell us a little about your book. On the one hand, When the Silence Ends is the story of an ordinary girl, Dee, facing ordinary challenges. She holds down two jobs to pay the rent, makes sure her twin brother gets to his speech therapy class, and wonders how to pay for college. Dee, however, is an ordinary girl in a world transformed by the Genetic Revolution—a world that is struggling to deal with the social and political repercussions of human derivatives: the clones, in vitros, and mutants. What chance does “ordinary” have in a world of “extraordinary” people?
How did you come up with the title? Silence is a key theme in the novel. Dum, Dee’s twin brother, has not spoken ever since a shattering event destroyed their family when they were five. The novel is the story of Dum’s journey out of silence. A secondary theme is that of secrets. Danyael Sabre, the alpha empath who trains Dum, has secrets of his own, and as the story unfolds, the silence around an eighteen-year old secret comes to an end.
What inspired you to write this book? Young Adult novels abound with extraordinary protagonists. I’m sure that in your travels through books, you’ve met the child of destiny who’s fated to end a war and unite two worlds. You’ve probably also met the quiet kid who doesn’t quite fit in, who discovers his amazing super powers and uses them to save the world. Of course, there’s the protagonist who stumbles upon a mysterious world that coexists alongside her reality, populated by sparkly vampires and handsome werewolves.
I’ve found two major themes running through most YA novels: the first, as I noted above, the extraordinary teenage protagonist, and second, the adults are frequently the enemy, ranging from indifferent parents to murderous despots. Neither of those observations particularly aligns with my observations of life.
So, when I set out to write a YA spin off my award-winning Double Helix series, featuring Dee and her twin brother, Dum, I wanted my readers to appreciate adults in more roles than that of the enemy. Some of them are, of course, but like the real world, there’s a vast spectrum of them; some adults even become Dee’s friends and mentors. More importantly though, I wanted my readers to appreciate the power of “ordinary.”
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp? I’d like my readers to realize that “extraordinary” is within all our grasps, and it has nothing to do with destiny, superpowers, or being loved by a vampire. Dee is the embodiment of ordinary, but she still manages to change her world for the better. If she can do it, there’s no reason at all the rest of us can’t.
Do you have a favorite line or scene from your latest release? It’s hard to choose just one scene. I enjoy many of the scenes involving Jessica—the fifteen-year old alpha mutant, who, unlike Dee, isn’t ordinary, but is striving to find her own brand of normality, nonetheless. My favorite scene, however, is the very last scene at the concert when the silence ends. Several readers have reported tearing up at that scene.
Do you recall how your interest in writing originated? I started at the age of thirteen when my school essays were returned to me with a bunch of “A”s scrawled over the top. Teenagers are impressionable. Being much more impressionable than most, and believing that my teachers knew what they were doing, I figured I was destined to be a writer. It’s only taken me tens of thousands of hours of work since then to be halfway decent at writing (and I’m still learning each day), but one has to start somewhere.
Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work? Neil Gaiman is pure genius in his storytelling ability.
Where do you get the inspiration to write? I think I’m past the stage of needing inspiration; writing is more of a compulsion now. In general, I have a compulsive personality; people like me should never get exposed to alcohol, cigarettes, or recreational drugs—we’re easy prey. Years ago, computer gaming and writing used to go hand-in-hand for me. My characters from my computer games inspired my writing. Since then, however, my characters have taken on a life of their own and thus, I have been freed to happily obsess about them without needing the occasional computer gaming boost to sustain them.
Have you published anything else? My award-winning Double Helix series includes three books, Perfection Unleashed, Perfect Betrayal, and Perfect Weapon. When the Silence Ends is set in the world of the Double Helix, and readers will find that many of their favorite characters play much larger roles in the main series. My YA science fiction novel, Earth Sim, is a compelling and whimsical view of Earth’s history through the eyes of the two students assigned to manage our planet.
What’s next for you? / What is your next project? I’m currently working on the fourth novel in the Double Helix series. When I’m done with that, I’ll shift my focus to a paranormal romance called City of Eternal Night. My plan is to release three novels in 2013.
What genre are you most comfortable writing? Science fiction wins hands down. Case in point, my paranormal romance novel, City of Eternal Night, did (I swear) start out as a paranormal romance. About 35,000 words into the book, it’s pretty obvious that it’s morphing (entirely on its own) into science fiction…
What are some of the best tools available today for writers, especially those just starting out? You can get by with as little as a computer loaded with Microsoft Word. However, for those who want a little more out of their writing software, Scrivener is worth checking out. It offers writers a place to collect all their thoughts on plots, characters, etc, in addition to writing the novel or screenplay. It also consolidates your work and exports it out into a submission-ready format.
What contributes to making a writer successful? Perseverance and a commitment to excellence. Your product is your brand, and everything you put out needs to reflect a dedication to the art and science of writing. It has to be excellent. As an example, a beta reader (who is also an author) told me frankly that the ending of my first novel, Perfection Unleashed, sucked. After I sulked over it for half a day, I realized she was right and ripped out 40,000 words and rewrote the ending.
What do you like to do when you are not writing? What is your ultimate luxury? I love reading, and read widely across genres. The ultimate luxury would be to do nothing! However, I’ve realized that I don’t have the right personality type to do nothing. For example, sunbathing on a lounge chair in front of a swimming pool is agony for me (and for the people watching me.) I twitch, I sit up, switch positions, twitch some more. That said, I would love to spend several hours at a spa, getting pampered from head to toe. Maybe, sometime during those few hours, I’d learn to relax for a few minutes.
When you were little, what did you want to be when you "grew up"? A fireman! My parents even bought me a fireman helmet to wear.
If you could have any superpower what would you choose? The ability to transform matter. For example, if you were falling from a building, I could save your life by transforming asphalt into an air mattress. More practically, however, I could transform leftover pizza into sushi, or spin air into fabric to increase the size of my denim jeans. In theory, I’d never have to buy anything ever again, which I suppose makes irrelevant my ability to turn dirt into gold…
If you were stranded on a desert island what 3 things would you want with you? My computer, an unlimited source of electricity, and a wireless connection. What else does anyone else need?
If you could take over the world, would you? You know, prior to writing Earth-Sim, I might have said yes, completely under the delusion that I could do a good job managing the world. Now, a great deal wiser, my answer is an unequivocal “NO!” You couldn’t pay me enough to take over the world.
What is your favorite quote, by whom, and why? Oh, this is a hard one. Many quotes have inspired me, but my favorite, I think, is a quote from my husband that captures my husband’s ability to always make me laugh. “Carpe Diem…mañana” (Seize the day…tomorrow.)
When you wish to end your career, stop writing, and look back on your life, what thoughts would you like to have? I’d like to think that I’ve provided countless readers with hours of entertainment, and filled their daydreams and nightmares with heroes and heroines worth admiring and villains worthy of despair. If my stories inspire fan fiction, I would count that a major coup.
Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers? I just want to say thank you. Thank you for your support, your enthusiastic reviews, and your outraged e-mails over what I did to some of my characters. Thank you for loving them. Thank you for rereading my novels. Thank you for trusting me with your time. I do promise to honor that trust and keep delivering fantastic novels that keep you reading past your bedtime.
Author biography:
Jade Kerrion, an award-winning author, got her start in fan fiction. She developed a loyal reader base with her fan fiction series based on the MMORPG Guild Wars. She was accused of keeping her readers up at night, distracting them from work, housework, homework, and (far worse), from actually playing Guild Wars. And then she wondered why just screw up the time management skills of gamers? Why not aspire to screw everyone else up too? So here she is, writing books that aspire to keep you from doing anything else useful with your time. She lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with her wonderfully supportive husband and her two young sons, Saint and Angel, (no, those aren't their real names, but they are like saints and angels, except when they're not.)
What Amazon reviewers are saying: 5 stars! “Wow! When the Silence Ends is captivating! I laughed, I cried, but overall I could not put it down… Forget Harry Potter and Twilight. Every young adult should read this book!”
When you choose your friends, you also choose your enemies.
Seventeen-year old Dee wants nothing more than to help her twin brother, Dum, break free from the trauma in their childhood and speak again, but the only person who can help Dum is the alpha empath, Danyael Sabre, whom the U.S. government considers a terrorist and traitor.
The search for Danyael will lead Dee and Dum from the sheltered protection of the Mutant Affairs Council and into the violent, gang-controlled heart of Anacostia. Ensnared by Danyael’s complicated network of friends and enemies, Dee makes her stand in a political and social war that she is ill equipped to fight. What can one human, armed only with her wits and pepper spray, do against the super-powered mutants who dominate the Genetic Revolution?
America, nevertheless, is ripe for transformation. Exhausted by decades of belligerence between humans and their genetic derivatives—the clones, in vitros, and mutants—society is on the verge of falling apart or growing up. Dee, with her sassy attitude and smart mouth, is the unwitting pebble that starts the avalanche of change. In her quest to help her brother become normal, Dee will finally learn what it means to be extraordinary.
When the Silence Ends is the Young Adult spinoff in the award-winning Double Helix series and can be read as a standalone novel.
Buy at Amazon
Genre - Young Adult, Science Fiction (PG)
Website http://www.jadekerrion.com/
0 comments:
Post a Comment