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Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Be Inspired Bloghop Meme

Thank you to JeffO for getting me into the Be Inspired Bloghop Meme. I couldn't decide whether I wanted to answer these questions according to Evergreen: A Fallen Star, or Katherine, so I've decided to do both. Hope nobody minds, and if one doesn't interest you, ignore it and concentrate on the other! :)

1. What is the name of your book?
Evergreen: A Fallen Star
Katherine

2. Where did the idea for your book come from?
Evergreen - I always loved Asian cultures as a child, especially Chinese and Japanese, and I am slightly obsessed with anime. When I was originally writing fanfictions for Avatar: The Last Airbender, I ended up thinking of a completely new character who I made the childhood friend of one of my favourite characters from the series. In my head, I turned him into a character of my own and made them siblings, and then my brain continued working from there.

Katherine - I thought of how different some people live their lives compared to me within their family and saw that some people had it pretty rough at home. I wondered, what would that be like? What would I do if I was put into this situation, or that situation? I took parts of my own life and created some things I haven't experienced in reality, and put them into a character, and put her into a not-so-perfect life.

3. In what genre would you classify your book?
Evergreen - Fantasy, with a lot of adventure and family orientated business about it. For teens to young adults.

Katherine - In all honesty, I'm not completely sure what to classify this as. The story revolves around the issues of family and friendships and there is a touch of romance to it. Again, aimed at teens to young adults.

4. If you had to pick actors to play your characters in a movie rendition, who would you choose?
Evergreen - See, if this became a movie, I'd want it to be animated. I wouldn't have a CLUE who to cast for Chihiro in live-action OR for a voice actor... Zutto, I'd definitely had Dante Basco for a voice actor, but no clue who to choose for live-action. And Sakura... do you think I could shrink Hayley Williams to the size of a 13 yr old?

Katherine - No idea. They'd definitely all be Australian actors though, seeing as the book will actually be set in Australia.

5. Give us a one-sentence synopsis of your book.
Evergreen - The children of the Imperial Family embark on a life-changing mission to save the life-source of their world; the Evergreen trees, which keep the Middle Kingdom safe.

Katherine - An angry teenage girl learns the importance of friendship despite knowing she will always have to say goodbye as her family constantly relocates to start over.

6. Is your book already published?
I wish, goldfish!!!

7. How long did it take you to write your book?
Evergreen - First draft completed within 7 or 8 months of starting. Three years down the track and I'm still editing.

Katherine - Incomplete, so I can't tell you. I wrote nearly four chapters in two weeks when I first started though.

8. What other books within your genre would you compare it to? Or, readers of which books would enjoy yours?
I never say "people who read this book will like mine" because I don't believe it will necessarily be true. But I would compare Evergreen to... well, I'd compare parts of it to The Chronicles of Narnia and certain themes to similar themes in Harry Potter (though I can only dream of being the next J.K Rowling...).

As for Katherine, I think I'd compare it to The Story of Tom Brennan by J.C Burke. I haven't developed the ideas enough to tell you any more than that for certain.

9. Which authors inspired you to write this book?
Evergreen - To be honest, I couldn't tell you to be exact. Cornelia Funke enthralled me and I fell in love with the idea of writing fantasy, although I wouldn't compare my book to any of hers that I've read.

Katherine - I can tell you honestly that I was inspired to actually go ahead and start writing it after I read Love-Shy by Lili Wilkinson a few months ago. I hadn't had a chance to read inside the relatively normal life of a relatively normal Australian teenage girl before receiving a copy of this book. And as I said above, J.C Burke's story was a big boost for me too.

10. Tell us anything that might pique our interest in your book. 
Evergreen - There are some interesting twists along the way to saving the world, but I don't think I can explain this without giving too much away. There are witches, wolves and some interesting 'people' and a whole new world for the Imperial Children to explore, somewhere out there.

Katherine - Some of my characters have a thing for making raspberry and white chocolate muffins. Because I felt like making raspberry and white chocolate muffins when I started writing. So there.

Now I have to tag five people to participate in the Be Inspired Bloghop Meme:
Giora
Fiona
Mark Koopmans
Peggy Shumway
Rick

19 comments:

  1. Thanks for playing along, Bonnee-the books sound great, and very different from each other. Raspberry and white chocolate muffins, eh? Sounds...interesting.

    Have you stopped working on "Katherine" while you're back on "Evergreen", or have you been able to keep at it?

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    1. I haven't touched 'Katherine' since I wrote the first four chapters, but to be honest, with my final year workload reaching the climax and exams only a couple of months away... I'm neglecting 'Evergreen' too! It's chaos for me right now :p But I'll finish fixing 'Evergreen', and continue writing 'Katherine' as soon as I get myself sorted out...

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  2. white chocolate...yummmmmmmm.. :)

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  3. Och Lass, ye dinna kin have to include me in your Bloghop, but aye, I do appreciate it :)

    Yes, I know it's weird having an ex-Dubliner living in Hawaii speaking with a Scotch accent, but there you go.

    PS... thanks for sharing so much about your books/WIPs... you go with your bad self... I'm well impressed :)

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    1. I think I'd do terribly living in Scotland if it were invaded by the Irish. Wouldn't have a clue what anyone is saying!!! :) Glad you're impressed with what I've shared though. Thanks for stopping by Mark!

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  4. "i wish, goldfish" haha, never heard that one before. and your book sounds way cool, anything with a mix of animae and narnia has to be awesome!

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    1. Goldfish are awesome :) I sure hope my combination of anime and Narnia works out as awesomely as it sounds!!!

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  5. Thanks, Bonnee. for the invite. Your books sound interesting.

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  6. Hey sweetie!
    I've nominated it for the Liebster Blog Awards!

    http://hushbirdyhush.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/the-liebster-blog-award.html

    xo Jess

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  7. I think that KATHERINE will be a good book for you, because it's realistic and set in Australia. Her experience relocating often is similar to Army Brats in the US, children of military parents. You have 4 chapters and need to get to 50K words. Take advantage of you being an Aussie and make the book very Aussie with many references to life in Australia, which young readers in North America and Europe will enjoy. Everytime Katherine relocates, especially if it is to the big cities like Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth you can add pages descrbing the cities and introduce Australia to young readers. You can add pages with storylines that can happen only in Australia. The lives of American and Aussie girls are similar ..school, first love, parents, friends ect ...ut I think that American young readers, for example, will like to read also about things that only Aussie Katherine can experience ..like watching a Kangaroo jumping around her house. Good luck with Katerine.

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    1. So enthusiastic... lol, well I see that you read the next blog entry to and know by now that 50K is not my word goal if I want to enter that novella competition.

      The book is only set in a couple of towns that she moves to, but I'll see what I can do as far as Australian references go for the worldly audience. I'm sure to end up writing another book set in Australia which will take a character to more places, including the cities :)

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