Hi, all of my very favorite people!
I'm sure you've read my review of Intangible, darlings, haven't you? No matter. You can go and read it now. I'll wait :)
And now that you've done that, you can read my interview with J. Meyers, the brilliant woman who wrote the book to begin with! It was so much fun and she wrote amazing responses. Enjoy, my dears!
- When did you know you wanted to write books for a living, and how?
About three years ago I fell in love with YA lit and knew I’d found my genre. I’d already co-authored a couple of parenting books, and had decided I wanted to write fiction instead, but I hadn’t stumbled upon the right idea nor the right genre for me until I found YA. I read a ton of YA books as the idea for Intangible steeped in my mind, to get a sense for what was different about YA, what made me love it so much, what made it so good. And then I crafted the story, feeling completely compelled to write it even though I had absolutely no time to do it. (I have four kids—one was a newborn at the time—and we home school. No time!)
- Where do you get your ideas for your characters?
The characters each are part me and part people I know or people I’ve seen on the street or in a store, at the library, or people I’ve imagined. They are not based on any one single person, but I’ve borrowed things from people I know. I live within each of them, in a sense, because I stepped into their shoes and looked at their world through their eyes to feel their reactions, see their movements, understand their feelings. But they are truly unique creations, in and of themselves.
- What inspired the worlds the Intangible takes place in, a modified version of ours and the Realm?
I wanted to set the story in our world in part because I really enjoy stories that are set in our world. (I also enjoy books set in other worlds, but it doesn’t always work.) Plus it’s easier because I can place it in a real location (Burlington, Vermont, is very real, as are many of the places they go there, including Muddy Waters, their favorite coffee shop). Okay, so really, I did it because it was the easy way out. ;-) And I honestly don’t know what made me add another world, the Realm. It just evolved into being as the story line evolved into being. It certainly wasn’t a part of my original plan.
- Is there really a legend about the seventh son of a seventh son?
Yes, there is! It’s funny. I’d already decided that Sera was a healer and Luke a seer when I thought that maybe Luke could be the seventh son of a seventh son because I knew there was something folklorishly special about it. (I am pretty sure I just made that word up. I do that sometimes.) And since my twins were special, maybe the 7/7 could explain their specialness. I started researching it only to find out that the 7/7 was believed to have special powers of healing and seeing the future! It was perfect. Kismet! And so Luke became the seventh son (and older twin to claim the birth order) and Sera got to share the powers with him since they were born together.
- What was it like to write in the fantasy world? Do you feel like there’s more freedom?
I think there is more freedom because I get to employ magic, change the rules of reality, characters get to disappear or be super strong or heal people, and that’s incredibly liberating and fun. There are a lot of what-if’s in fantasy, and you can make things happen because you want them to, even if it couldn’t happen in the real world, as long as it obeys the rules of the world you’ve created. Of course, there’s a lot to keep track of in fantasy as well. I have lists of what each paranormal can and can’t do so there’s consistency throughout.
- What’s up next for Luke and Sera? Any spoilers you can tell us?
Oh, I’m not sure I can give you any spoilers because I’m just working on it now and things can change, you know? But I will say that life is not dull for them in the next book. Not at all. ;-)
- Short stories are generally difficult to write because you have to get a lot of information across in a lot less space. Tell us what it was like writing Intuition, your short story companion to Intangible.
You know, I’m not a short story writer. (I’m not a short story teller, either, as my family will attest.) But I wanted to put out a bonus short story that would always be free and would introduce readers to Sera, Luke, and their gifts. “Intuition” doesn’t even hint at the full worlds of Intangible in part because it would have been impossible to do and keep it short, but it does give a feel for Sera and Luke’s bond which is at the heart of the novel. I spent a lot of time polishing it up and had beta readers give me feedback about it because I knew it had to be my best work. Each piece of writing I put out there has to be my best work. :-)
- What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Read, read, read, and read. Drench yourself in your genre. And write the book that you want to read.
- Will we learn more about Luke and Sera’s family?
I’m thinking we’ll have to!
- Are Marc and Jonas going to be prominent characters in future installments?
Jonas, absolutely. And Marc is going to come back. (He has to, you know, because he owes Sera an apology at the very least. Plus there’s a way for him to cause really big trouble, unknowingly, and it’s gotta happen.) He may not reappear until the end of book two, and then feature more prominently in book three, but I’m really excited to have him come back. I really loved Marc. I didn’t plan to write him that way. He was supposed to be a bad guy (and I know some readers certainly see him that way) but I just loved how funny he was, and he was tormented and tortured by his predicament. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens when he comes back.
- Intangible has such a gorgeous cover! I love the colors and the picture.
Thank you! I did the cover myself, and was lucky enough to be able to pull it off. I wanted to give it an otherworldly feel, which is the reason for the colors. And I cannot tell you how excited I was when I found and bought the font, too! Instant love.
- Why did you choose to tell the story from so many different points of view?
I told the story from so many points of view because the reader gets *more* of the story that way. You get to understand Marc’s motivations, his internal struggle, and maybe understand he’s not a bad guy, he’s just in an awful spot. You get to feel Luke’s panic and relief. You get to understand all of what Sera can do. You get a feel for why Fey has withheld information. You get a glimpse at Jonas’s complicated moral code. There is so much to the story that would be missed if it were only told from one point of view. I did worry that doing it this way would let the reader know too much, not be surprising enough, but I think the twists that do happen and surprise are perhaps more powerful because the reader is so much in the know, and perhaps it actually helped to build more intensity for what was going to happen. (At least, I hope that’s what happened.)
- One of the most unique things about Intangible are the powers gifted to the characters. Will we ever learn more about where these come from?
Yes. As soon as I decide why they are gifted. ;-) (A part of me wishes I were kidding.) I actually have two theories as to why the teens are gifted, I just haven’t decided which is the real reason. I really do need to figure that out soon…
- My 25 y.o. boyfriend read this book, and not only did he love it, but he actually admitted to loving it, which is pretty much the highest compliment he can give a book. What was your intended audience when you wrote Intangible?
Wow! That is SO cool, and thank you for telling me that. I’ve been really surprised that men have liked this book because they were not my intended audience at all and I really didn’t think it would appeal to them. My proofreader is a 50 year old man and he loved it. There was a retired army guy who read and reviewed it, and he loved it too. I’ve honestly been shocked by this. As to who my intended audience is, it’s women, from their early teens and on up. But at the same time, I will say that though my intended audience was women, I did in fact try to *not* write a girl-only book. My original idea only included Sera and I ended up giving her a twin brother because I wanted this book to appeal to my sons as well, when they get old enough to read it. (My oldest, who’s 9, read it already and loved it.)
- Completely unrelated, but just one more question: are you in any way, shape, or form, a dancer? Either way, what is your favorite type of dance?
Yes. Or at least I used to be. I was a singer/actor/dancer for a while there, trying to make it in NYC. And my favorite? My husband and I took a ballroom dance class when we were dating, and I *loved* it. I’d never danced like that before, so I have a place in my heart for ballroom dancing. But I’ve always loved jazz and tap—I learned tap when I was in college, and could never stand still after that. I was always moving my feet in rhythm. I still do that now sometimes and just love watching the old tap masters in movies or see shows that combine rhythm and dance, percussion and tap. I’m actually a total sucker for old song and dance movies like Singing in the Rain and White Christmas. And I occasionally do a pirouette or two in my kitchen just for fun. (Okay, it’s possible I do that on a weekly basis.) Oh, wow, do I love dance…Are you a dancer? Is that why you ask?
Indeed, I am a dancer! A ballroom dancer, to be exact, in fact! And a good one, too ;) And I love random questions, so, my lovely readers, be prepared, by prepared.
Lovelovelove,
Lovelovelove,
