Interview with CONTROL author, Lydia Kang

CONTROL by Lydia Kang came out last week! I think it is one of the best science fiction reads of the year. I hope you've been able to get your hands on a copy, and if you haven't, do it now!

I'm here today with Lydia to get a little insight into CONTROL, her writing style, and just her as a real, live person! Let's get this party started.

About CONTROL: When their overprotective father is killed in a terrible accident, Zel and her younger sister, Dylia, are lost in grief. But it's not until strangers appear, using bizarre sensory weapons, that the life they had is truly eviscerated. Zel ends up in a safe house for teens that aren't like any she's ever seen -- teens who, by law, shouldn't even exist. One of them -- an angry tattooed boy haunted by tragedy -- can help Zel reunite with her sister.

But only if she is willing to lose him.

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1. So CONTROL has quite a bit of science in it. Did you draw on your professional experience, or perform copious amounts of research?
A little bit of both! I'd get ideas out of my own noggin about things like, let's make this character photosynthesize. But then would come research about whether she needed to use her lungs for oxygen or if her skin could make enough on its own. Amazingly, the answers are out there!

2. When did you write CONTROL? What's one scene that you can still remember drafting for the first time?
I wrote CONTROL over a six month period between 2010-11. (Wow, I'm always amazed at how slow the publishing industry is!) Three months to draft and three months to revise. I really remember the ending well. It was so stressful to get those end scenes just right! (Yes, yes it is. But you did a great job with it!)

3. Is CONTROL your first novel?
It's my first published novel. I have two novels before that sitting in my computer. One was an urban fantasy; the other, historical. Both YA. (My third book was my first published too! Soul-sisters!)

4. Is CONTROL the beginning of a series? Tell us all about everything!
There will be a sequel to Control! The title is still up in the air, probably CODE (Intriguing. Goodreads is calling is CATALYST). The characters are going to have to leave Carus House and Zelia will be on the run and there will be revelations galore. :)

About Lydia: Lydia Kang is an author of young adult fiction, poetry, and narrative non-fiction. She graduated from Columbia University and New York University School of Medicine, completing her residency and chief residency at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. She is a practicing physician who has gained a reputation for helping fellow writers achieve medical accuracy in fiction. Her poetry and non-fiction have been published in JAMA, The Annals of Internal Medicine, Canadian Medical Association Journal, Journal of General Internal Medicine, and Great Weather for Media. She believes in science and knocking on wood, and currently lives in Omaha with her husband, three children, and a terrarium full of stick bugs.


5. When you're looking to decompress by reading, what book do you reach for?
My old standbys. I'm a serial rereader of old friends, like Bronte and Austen and Wilder. (I really need to read some of these books...)

6. If you could be a contestant on Survivor, what's the one item you'd take with you?
Oh geez. A really good hunting knife. Forget the toothbrush! (Seriously. And if you've ever seen Survivor -- which I have -- I've never seen such white teeth. I think they use sand or something...)

7. A guilty pleasure?
80's pop music. (Booyah!)

8. Bacon or chocolate?
Bacon! It's salt, all the way! (Yes! Bacon FTW!)

So there you go! I hope you'll pick up CONTROL and read it. I absolutely loved it, and I know if you like YA or science fiction or romance or thrillers, you will too!

AN INTERVIEW WITH LENORE APPELHANS, AUTHOR OF LEVEL TWO

Today I get to interview the long-time YA blogger and Leaguer Lenore Appelhans about her writing and publishing process for her debut YA novel, LEVEL TWO. You’ll enjoy her contemporary take on the afterlife where reliving your past memories is key to making sense of your life.  Add in a rebellion and a love triangle and what more could you want from the afterlife?

Readers always love to hear how writers come up with their concept, especially when it is a different kind of fantasy as yours is, so let’s start there. How did this story come to you and how did you build your world?  

I’ve always been fascinated with authors’ visions of the afterlife (DEFENDING YOUR LIFE is one of my favorite movies). I’d had this idea of an afterlife where memories are currency – some more valuable than others – but for so many years, I didn’t know how to implement it. 

My friend and I were in Pompeii and a question came to me in the shower: “What would a dystopian afterlife look like?” Afterwards, the basics of the story came pouring out of me.  My friend asked me tons of logistical questions - and in the answering, Level 2 was born.

As far as world building, I did a lot of research into the afterlife visions of different religions and mythology and I dug deep into my own imagination.

I love how well-traveled you are that you can begin a sentence with “My friend and I were in Pompeii.”

The memories that your main character Felicia plugs into are so wonderfully rich with detail that it’s hard to imagine that these memories are not real.  You, like her, have lived in many countries and traveled extensively. How much did you mine your own history to write those memories?

All the places Felicia’s been in the memories, I have been – with one big exception. The trip she takes with her father to the Turkish coast is based on a trip that my husband took. He talked about his adventure so vividly, I was captivated and knew it had to be in my book.  The roofless shack they stay in is real, but the prancing goats are pure fiction.

Darn. I wanted to see the prancing goats! With a story like this, there seem to be many different places you could have started. Did Level Two always begin this way?

The first scene I wrote (right after my Pompeii epiphany) was Felicia’s death scene, but I knew even then that I wouldn’t start the book with that. I let everything percolate in my head for about five months, and when I sat down to write again, the first five chapters came very easily. The opening few pages haven’t changed at all (save a few copyedits) since my first draft.

At later points in the story the characters say that the rules are changing. Did you always plan to change the rules or did that evolve in the writing process?

Part of the writing process for this novel was figuring out what the rules were. They definitely evolved during drafting and revising.

You’ve written and turned in the sequel, Level Three. Will that be the end of the series?

Interesting question! I originally intended Level 2 to be a standalone, but then I found that there was more to tell, hence Level 3.  Theoretically, the Levels could be endless – because no one ever knows what’s next.  I could see Felicia’s story extending into one more book, but we’ll just have to see!

What has been your biggest surprise in the publishing process?

I started aiming for publication with picture books back in 2004. So it’s been a surprise to be debuting in 2013 with a novel and a picture book.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell the League readers about Level Two or about yourself?

Level 2 is exactly the kind of book I love to read – full of twists with a dash of romance, action, mystery and literary allusions.  Level 3 gets even crazier – and I can’t wait to share it with the world.

Congratulations to Lenore on Level Two, available for pre-order now, coming out in just days -- Jan 15!

Website: www.lenoreappelhans.com

Blog: http://presentinglenore.blogspot.com

Twitter: @lenoreva

Read an excerpt of the first 50 pages of LEVEL 2 here

Preorder LEVEL 2 here

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View the Book Trailer

2012 Debut Dystopians

Most of us here at the League are Elevensies, that is we’re part of a community of YA/MG authors debuting this year. Next year’s group of debs has already started forming, and you’re going to love their name: the Apocalypsies. (You know, the whole 2012, world-coming-to-an-end thing.)

Anyway, I was browsing through their site, and I noticed that there are quite a few dystopian titles coming out next year. (Coincidence?) Here’s a few of them by our fellow debs:

The Other Life By Susan Winnacker
Marshall Cavendish, Spring 2012

From Goodreads:

Sherry and her family have lived sealed in a bunker in the garden since things went wrong up above. Her grandfather has been in the freezer for the last three months, her parents are at each other’s throats and two minutes ago they ran out of food.

Sherry and her father leave the safety of the bunker and find a devastated and empty LA, smashed to pieces by bombs and haunted by ‘Weepers’ - rabid humans infected with a weaponized rabies virus.

While searching for food in a supermarket, Sherry’s father disappears and Sherry is saved by Joshua, a boy-hunter. He takes her to Safe-haven, a tumble-down vineyard in the hills outside LA, where a handful of other survivors are picking up the pieces of their ‘other lives’. As she falls in love for the first time, Sherry must save her father, stay alive and keep Joshua safe when his desire for vengeance threatens them all.

Incarnate by Jodi Meadows
Katherine Tegan/Harper Collins Winter 2012

From Goodreads:

About the only girl who is new in a world where everyone is perpetually reincarnated, and her quest to discover why she was born, and what happened to the person she replaced.

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
Harper, Winter 2012

From the Publishers Marketplace announcement:

… about forbidden lovers from radically different societies - following a girl banished from her enclosed, technology-bound city out into the deadly natural world, where she encounters a savage boy who becomes her only chance to survive and return home…

Cybernetic by Laura Riken
Disney Hyperion, Summer 2012

From Goodreads:

Cybernetic is the first in a young adult dystopian series about a 16-year-old girl who lives in a walled city surrounded by bloodthirsty beasts, also threatened by rival armies of cybernetic soldiers who want to enslave humanity. Cybernetic is tentatively set for publication in the summer 2012 by Disney-Hyperion.

I hope I didn't miss anyone. Not every Apocalypsies' book description is online yet, so there may be even more dystopia on its way next year.



What dystopian titles (debut or repeat offender) are you looking forward to  next year? Or even late this year? (Ours go without saying, btw.)

A LATE ADDITION TO THE LIST!

Glitch by Heather Anastasiu
St. Martins, Summer 2012


From her website:

Seventeen-year-old Zoe Gray is a cybernetically-enhanced teenager living in an underground society when her internal hardware begins to malfunction. She slowly realizes that her body is changing, that she’s developing powerful telekinesis, and that she’s not alone. Even though getting caught could mean reprogramming, or worse, deactivation, Zoe begins to seek out other glitchers in society, including a dreamer named Adrian who can see the future, a boy named Max who can mimic other’s appearances, and a young girl named Molly with X-ray vision. They work together to plan their escape, but soon learn there is another powerful faction at work whose ambitions threaten all their carefully laid plans.

Thanks for pointing it out in the comments!

Introducing ACROSS THE UNIVERSE by Beth Revis

This week is the epic launch of ACROSS THE UNIVERSE by Beth Revis! I'm starting off the awesome, and throughout this week, there will be much more to come, with Beth herself wrapping it up for us on Friday.

First up: The trailer for ACROSS THE UNIVERSE says everything.



From Beth's website:

Summary: A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awake on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into a brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone—one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship—tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn’t do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed’s hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there’s only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

Hardcover, 400 pages
Published January 11th 2011 by Razorbill
ISBN 1595143971 (ISBN13: 9781595143976)

Audio Book also available:
Audio CD, 8 pages
ISBN 014242899X (ISBN13: 9780142428993)

Oh. My. Heck. Doesn't that sound amazing?

Well, it is. I've read it and it will blow your mind. Blow your mind, people! You can get signed copies (after tomorrow) and check out other awesomeness on Beth's book page.

My Twitter Review: With strong storytelling, brilliant writing, creepy characters, and a budding romance, ACROSS THE UNIVERSE has everything to satisfy readers. (Okay, so sue me. I have one extra character.)

Other Noteworthy Things:

• It's one of Amazon's Best Books of the Month for January, and has received many glowing reviews. Make sure you get your copy when it hits shelves tomorrow!
• Make sure you check out the official website for Across the Universe. I'm pretty sure there's going to be something amazing happening there tomorrow... And in case you haven't read the first chapter, you can read it there.
• As if you're already not excited enough, Beth is having an amazing contest in celebration of Across the Universe. Click here for full details.
• And make sure you click over and become a fan on the Across the Universe Facebook fanpage! That's where all the action is happening.

Congrats, Beth! Here's to a successful launch week!

So, who's had a chance to read Across the Universe? Let us know in the comments (no spoilers, please!). Who is going to die if tomorrow doesn't come like RIGHT THIS SECOND?? We wanna know that too.

Introducing XVI by Julia Karr

This week we’re celebrating the release of our own Julia Karr’s first book, XVI.  (And next week is dedicated to the release of Beth Revis’ ACROSS THE UNIVERSE.) So, I’m kicking it off with a little introduction to XVI.  During the rest of the week, we'll cover the book more in depth, talk to Julia, maybe do something fun, and then end with a wrap-up by Julia herself.  On to XIV! (btw, check out the pic below of XVI spotted out in the wild!)

XVI spotted face out in a Nashville bookstore.

The Jacket Blurb (via Amazon):

Nina Oberon's life is pretty normal: she hangs out with her best friend, Sandy, and their crew, goes to school, plays with her little sister, Dee. But Nina is 15. And like all girls she'll receive a Governing Council-ordered tattoo on her 16th birthday. XVI. Those three letters will be branded on her wrist, announcing to all the world - even the most predatory of men - that she is ready for sex. Considered easy prey by some, portrayed by the Media as sluts who ask for attacks, becoming a "sex-teen" is Nina's worst fear. That is, until right before her birthday, when Nina's mom is brutally attacked. With her dying breaths, she reveals to Nina a shocking truth about her past - one that destroys everything Nina thought she knew. Now, alone but for her sister, Nina must try to discover who she really is, all the while staying one step ahead of her mother's killer.

Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Speak; Original edition (January 6, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0142417718
ISBN-13: 978-0142417713

My Favorite Things:

• Strong, compelling female characters.  Nina is a jeans-and-t-shirt kind of gal who’s not taken in by the media hype.  Best friend, Sandy, on the other hand, buys the whole “sex-teen” thing wholeheartedly—because she sees it as a way out of poverty. 
• The setting. Future Chicago is almost like another character in the story.
• Heart-wrenching ending.  That’s all I’m gonna say!

Anyone else had a chance to read XVI yet? If so, what were some of your favorite things? Please no spoilers!