Guest Post

Emmy Laybourne Guest Post Q&A

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savage drift Emmy Laybourne

I’m so delighted to be here on SciFiChick.com for the first day of my Blog Tour for SAVAGE DRIFT!

SAVAGE DRIFT is the last book in the MONUMENT 14 trilogy. I thought it would be fun to look back at the wonderful blog interviews I’ve done since beginning the trilogy in 2010 and give you:
My Favorite 6 QUESTIONS I’ve Ever Been Asked by a Blogger!

1. If the characters from MONUMENT 14 were to celebrate a holiday, how would they do it? – Olivia, YA Lit Mag

Well, it’s funny – they’re in a big store with lots of different supplies, so if they were going to celebrate a holiday, they would have most of the materials on hand to really do it up!

I think that Niko would assign people to be on different committees – Josie would head up decorations, Dean and Batiste would dream up a special meal, Jake would take over figuring out some special games to celebrate the day, and maybe Sahalia would sing and play guitar!

I can also imagine Josie organizing the little kids to perform some sort of a pageant. Of course, Chloe would be the star, Mac would probably forget his lines and improvise but then Ulysses would steal the show by break-dancing!

2. Why did you choose to make the main character of MONUMENT 14 a boy? Was it hard to make his voice authentic (you know… since you’re not a boy)? – Enna, Squeaky Books

You know, it’s weird, but I never for a second considered making the narrator of MONUMENT 14 a girl! I think this is because I started thinking about who would be in the story and Dean just stepped forward in my mind, to be the narrator. If I had made the narrator a girl, a lot would have been different – perhaps the story would have developed as a love triangle between the narrator, Jake and Niko! As it is, Dean is sort of torn between Niko’s serious, boy scout mentality and Jake’s playboy attitude. But of course, it’s not a love triangle between them! More of a buddy triangle! (Note to self: Write movie called Buddy Triangle!)

3. If you could have one super power what would it be? – Amy, Readingteen

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Dan Wells Guest Post

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Author Dan Wells joins SciFiChick.com today to talk about dystopias and his latest release RUINS! What Is Dystopia? by Dan Wells Dystopian fiction comes in a lot of different flavors. It’s the reigning queen of YA right now, with books like THE HUNGER GAMES and DIVERGENT topping the charts, but what does dystopia really mean? … Read more

David Edison Guest Post and Giveaway!

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Author David Edison joins us today to talk about his debut The Waking Engine and his story of how he got published.
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Hello SciFiChick readers, and thank you for hosting my very first guest post ever. You may have read me at GayGamer.net in the past, or at Tor.com and TorForgeBlog.com, but never have I been hosted! The Chick herself suggested I share the story of my path to publishing, since the tale of my tale is an unusual one–here’s hoping that it’s also an interesting yarn.

THE WAKING ENGINE began, like many books and stories, with an upfront admission of failure. I wrote three chapters, shoved them in a drawer because I could not bear to look at them, and went right back to working as a video game journalist—a job a million girls might kill for, but not this one. Selling someone else’s hard work only served to remind me that my hard work was sleeping its life away in a drawer, and as I tired of rehashing press releases with an increasingly cynical eye, I began to wonder about the book that might have been.

Sometime in 2008, I found myself sitting in front of a fabulously intimidating literary agent, hoping against hope that she would share with me some kind of magic recipe that would turn me into a novelist. And so she did: she told me to finish the damn book. If book publishing has any magical advice at all, it’s that gem—three chapters can be horrible or wonderful, but they’re not a finished manuscript. Turns out, a finished manuscript is the secret ingredient. Whodathunk?

I scampered off, aware that I’d just been given an opportunity for which many writers would kill. Maybe I was Anne Hathaway in Devil Wears Prada, after all? The opportunity was mine to squander, and suddenly I spent my mornings juggling too many coffees (all mine) and throwing coats (mine) onto desks (also mine) where a wide-eyed, terrified young(ish) writer spent his time working feverishly but, largely, without a clue. I lost weight and soon fit into clothes that I could not enjoy because: pressure. My friends complained, and missed me, and wondered if I wasn’t becoming a little bit obsessed. They missed the smart, fat kid in the cerulean sweater.

A year passed, and I finished the manuscript. Timidly, I brought it back to my agency. After a few months of waiting, I received the feedback: cut a hundred pages and change the ending.

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