During our Chimera Critiques road trip to Little Shop of Stories (Decatur GA) in February, we were lucky enough to meet Terra McVoy, the author of “Pure.” (Click HERE to read our review of her book).
Terra manages the bookstore Lisa McMann appeared at, and was kind enough to agree to a last minute interview. Thanks Terra!
Click HERE to see the interview on video.
Click here for the interview audio.
Click ‘read more’ to see a transcript from the interview.
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Callie Forester and Zellie Blake took a road trip all the way from Brunswick, GA to Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, GA to meet and interview Lisa McMann, best-selling author of the Wake Trilogy. It was our first Chimera Critiques road-trip and a ton of fun!
I tried to cover questions Lisa hadn’t been asked before. I also tried to gear the interview particularly towards our site, so you’ll find some good tips on writing and building a platform. You can view the full interview with the links below, as well as hear Lisa read the first Chapter of Cryer’s Cross and The Unwanteds.
Enjoy!!
Chimera Critiques and kids with Lisa. She is great!
Not familiar with this author? Click here for a blog on her books/writing style.
Click HERE to view Part I our interview with Lisa
Click HERE to view Part II of interview
Click HERE to view final section of interview
Or you can download an audio version direct from our site or from itunes.
Click HERE to watch Lisa read (also available as audio) the first chapter of Cryer’s Cross, a YA paranormal scheduled for release in Spring 2011 and a chapter from The Unwanted’s, a MG dystopian fantasy coming out in Fall 2011. Since she read from the manuscript, keep in mind that it may be different from the final copy that will appear on shelves. Both books sound phenomenal!! Be sure to check them out!
Click below for transcribed highlights from the interview.
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I must admit a dirty little secret. I haven’t read J.C.’s book, 7th Son: Descent. I bought it, but I was determined to interview him before reading it.
It’s the book that wasn’t supposed to happen. Every agent he submitted to rejected his query. He took 60 rejections in 2005 before deciding on podcasting as an alternate way to reach an audience. Wikipedia now attributes him 40,000 dedicated listeners worldwide and over 2,000,000 downloads. This publicity gained him a work-for-hire project (Personal Effects: Dark Art).
Us writers often hear we shouldn’t share our work publicly, that giving it away for free devalues it. J.C. turned this on its head by building an audience, a platform that helped him land an agent and get 7th Son: Descent , the first in the trilogy, on shelves. It’s the power of that delicious free sample that leaves you drooling for more.
The podcast is a novel in 2.0 form; it’s an experience. J.C.’s speech adds texture to the story from rhythmic inflections to character voices (gotta love Kilroy). His updates and overflowing gratitude made me feel like I was part of a community, fighting the good fight for a fellow creator’s struggle to make it.
So I know the story–start to finish–from the podcast and I had heard that J.C.’s agent and editor both gave him suggestions on how to improve the novel. As a writer striving to telepathically channel the wants of the publishing industry, I pined to hear what these suggestions were so that when I read the book itself, I could learn from how he executed the improvements.
I apologize in advance for my congestion, I had a cold at the time but when J.C. Hutchins says he’s busy in the future but would tomorrow work for an interview?…the answer is not ‘I need a day to recover,’ it’s ‘hell yeah!’
You can access the interview audio here or if you click the ‘read more’ below, you can read the text version (transcribed–not quite perfectly but I did my best).
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Interviews | Callie April 2, 2010 | 
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