James Dashner Blog Tour and Giveaway!

by

Kill Order dashner

James Dashner joins SciFiChick.com today on his latest stop along his blog tour. I gave him some topic ideas, but instead of just talking about one, he gave short answers to all of them. So we have a bit of a Q&A instead!

What’s your vision of the future – Roddenberry-esque or apocalyptic?

I hope, sincerely hope, that it’s Roddenberry’s way of things. I like to think that at some point, before we reach a place where humans are about to destroy one another, we’ll finally learn our lessons and spiral the other direction. Clean up the Earth, stop the wars, venture into space, explore the universe. I certainly don’t think we’ll ever get rid of all our problems, never come close to a Utopia, but I also think it’s really stupid to just keep killing each other. I do, however, think that if we want to avoid an eventual apocalyptic scenario, we’ll have to figure out how to leave this planet eventually. Star Trek, here we come!

On writing for YA/children rather than adults

I often get asked how different my books would be if I wrote them for adults instead of teenagers. I honestly think they’d hardly be different at all. I never, ever think about the age of my audience as I write. I just want it to be a cool story with cool characters. To scare and surprise and thrill. To pull out some emotions. I guess I naturally fit in with the young adult audience because that’s when I truly fell in love with reading, the closest it’s ever been to true “magic.” When I write, I go back to that.

Worldbuilding for a scifi series

This is a really tough one for me. I try so hard to be patient, and make outlines, and develop my characters beforehand, and build my world, and all of that, before starting a draft. But it’s all in my head, and I get so excited that I can’t take it anymore and jump in. Writing a first draft is by far my favorite part of being an author. I have so much fun. And a lot of the worldbuilding comes organically as I move through the story. And a lot of it is also instinctual, whatever seems to make sense and jives with my vision. I rely on my brain to fill in a lot of the blanks that perhaps I should have thought out and written down at some earlier point. I don’t know. I do my best. Thankfully, I have a spectacular editor at Random House who helps me where I fail.

_______________________________________________________________

Courtesy of Random House, I have a paperback copy of The Kill Order and a hardback copy of The Eye of Minds by James Dashner for one (1) lucky winner!

Contest is open to US residents only. No PO Boxes, please. To enter, just fill out the form below. Contest ends January 31. I’ll draw a name on February 1, and notify winner via email.

ENTER DAILY TO INCREASE YOUR CHANCE OF WINNING!

Good luck!

Read more

SciFi Book Review: Star Trek: The Fall: Peaceable Kingdoms

by

Star Trek: The Fall: Peaceable Kingdoms by Dayton Ward Synopsis: Following the resolution of the fertility crisis that nearly caused their extinction, the Andorian people now stand ready to rejoin the United Federation of Planets. The return of one of its founding member worlds is viewed by many as the first hopeful step beyond the … Read more

BITTEN Q&A with Laura Vandervoort and Kelley Armstrong!

by

image002
image003

The series premiere of Bitten airs Monday, January 13th at 10pm on Syfy. Bitten stars Laura Vandervoort. And the series is based on the bestselling author Kelley Armstrong‘s novels.

How you begin your involvement with Bitten? Kelley, what was your inspiration for the book series? And Laura, how did you first get involved in the TV series?

Kelley Armstrong: Okay. For the books, Bitten actually came out of an X-Files episode. I was in a writing group. And as part of a writing group you’re expected to actually write new stuff. I was trying to come up with an idea, sat down and watched X-Files. It was way back in their first season. Their one and only werewolf episode. It was your typical big guy who changes into some beast like thing and goes around slaughtering people under the full moon. And I said that’s not how I would do werewolves. And for a writer, that then sparks how would I do them? And I wrote a short story with this character named Elena and I loved that world so much that I wrote a book.

Laura Vandervoort: I had no idea it was the X-Files. That’s really cool for me to know as well.

Kelley Armstrong: Which goes to show you how long ago I started writing Bitten. It was the first season of the show. It is old stuff.

Laura Vandervoort: I actually – yes, I love the X-Files. Like I was watching that as well. So that’s cool to know.

Laura Vandervoort: I actually received an offer for the role. Which was amazing, first of all. And ended up speaking to J.B. on the phone just to get an idea of the premise of the show and how it would look and how the wolves would be done.

And so we spoke for about an hour. And I heard how passionate he was about the project – he’s our executive producer. And it just sounded like something I’d really been looking to do—such a layered thing—and the character who is both flawed and strong.

And so I read the books. I read Women of the Otherworld and Bitten and did a bit of research. And as soon as I realized the amazing quality of what was there I jumped on. And we did some auditions and chemistry reads with the guys and we just sort of hit the ground running—no pun intended.

And I mean it was the most challenging six months I’ve had thanks to Kelley and the writers. Every day was a challenge for me. And there were days where I didn’t know if I’d be able to handle the emotional side of it or the physical side of it or just being in every scene. And I did. And I’m so grateful for the experience.

Since one of you created Elena and one of you plays Elena, kind of tell us a little bit about her and does your interpretation of her kind of differ from each of your versions of her?

Read more