Hi everyone- I’m helping out with the Half Lives blog tour! Half Lives was one of the best books I’ve read this year, and carries a theme of misinterpreting major issues. Here’s a Guest Post by Sara Grant, on…

Communicating with the Future

In November 2009, my editor at Little, Brown sent me a link to an article on Slate.com’s Culture Gabfest. The article was titled “Atomic Priesthoods, Thorn Landscapes, and Munchian Pictograms: How to communicate the dangers of nuclear waste to future civilizations.” It discussed how a US Department of Energy panel planned to label the site of an underground nuclear waste repository. She thought this might be the spark for a teen novel.

She was right.

Although the article might sound dull and scientific, it raises an interesting conundrum. Some types of nuclear waste are deadly for more than 10,000 years. That seems like science fiction, but it’s scarily true. The article noted: “China, the planet’s oldest continuous civilization, stretches back, at most, 5,000 years. And the world’s oldest inscribed clay tablets—the earliest examples of written communication—date only from 3,000 or 3,500 B.C. It’s impossible to say what apocalyptic event might separate 21st-century Americans from our 210th-century successors. Successors, mind you, who could live in a vastly more sophisticated society than we do or a vastly more primitive one.”

I was fascinated by how you might communicate with future generations, which most likely will not speak the same language or understand our symbols. How do you create a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign from materials that would last and in a way that people would understand thousands of years in the future?

If you mark the site that stores the waste, would it only make others curious? Think this place was special? Wonder if it held treasures? I thought of all the Egyptian ‘Do Not Disturb’ signs – the threats of curses – that hadn’t stopped anyone from entering sacred tombs and looting their treasures. Modern-day museums are filled with Egyptian relics that were never supposed to have been uncovered. Locked doors and ‘keep out’ signs sometimes tempt rather than repel. How can you convince future civilisations that these nuclear waste storage sites are deadly, not special?

These were the questions inspired Half Lives. But don’t be misled by its scientific beginnings. Half Lives is two tangled tales of love, faith and survival — one set right after an apocalyptic event and the other hundreds of years in the future.

About Sara Grant

Sara is an author of fiction for teens and younger readers and freelance editor of series fiction. She has worked on twelve different series and edited nearly 100 books. Dark Parties, her first young adult novel, won the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for Europe. Her new novel for teens – titled Half Lives – is an apocalyptic thriller. She also writes – Magic Trix – a fun, magical series for younger readers.

Sara was born and raised in a small town in the Midwestern United States. She graduated from Indiana University with degrees in journalism and psychology, and later she earned a master’s degree in creative and life writing at Goldsmiths College, University of London. She lives in London.  www.sara-grant.com    @authorsaragrant

Tomorrow’s Half Lives blog tour post will be over at Fluttering Butterflies blog! Be sure to check out the next stops, and the previous ones, too.

Just over a month ago, the awesome Jack At The Book Stop gave me the opportunity to interview via email one of the coolest dystopian authors ever: DAN WELLS! I was so excited, and my interview was featured on Jack’s blog this week as part of DYSTOPIA MONTH, which has taken place over June, covering some really great topics and subjects about the increasingly popular Dystopia genre. In case you missed it, here’s the interview! Be sure to go over to The Book Stop, too, to read all of the other amazing posts by bloggers, authors, and there were giveaways too.

An interview with Dan Wells

Partials: Dan Well’s science fiction piece of sheer brilliance.

Dan Wells: The world and story of Partials came from a number of different places, and spent years spinning around in my head before finally smashing together into a single book.

1) First of all, I’d always wanted to write a dystopian novel, and this seemed like a great time to do it. We live in an age where the government’s reach and power are growing constantly–on both sides, this is not a partisan comment–and where individual rights and privacy are evaporating at a terrifying rate.

2) I’ve also always want to write a post-apocalyptic novel, which is mostly because I grew up in the 80s, with the Cold War constantly hanging over our heads, and I learned about the end of the world pretty much the same time (and from the same sources) that I learned about fairy tales. I grew up reading about the world ending in imaginable kind of way, and I love the desperate struggle to survive in the ruins of civilization. I chose a plague, specifically, because I’m kind of a science geek and it gave me a lot of toys (ie, fun ideas) to play with.

3) The third inspiration is Battlestar Galactica. I loved that show very dearly, and it’s easy to see that the Partials are my own version of the “artificial people” concept presented by the Cylons. BSG did some great things with that idea, but they didn’t do it the way I would have, so I decided why not? I’ll do it my way and see what happens. Interweaving the Partials with RM and the many secrets buried in the biology was incredibly fun.

4) Lastly, but maybe most importantly, this book was inspired by Hermione Granger. As fun as the Harry Potter books are, it bothered me that Hermione always solved the problems and Harry always got the credit. Why can’t the smart one and the chosen one be the same person? Why can’t the girl be the hero? Kira Walker is my own personal Hermione, every bit as smart and fiery and capable, and taking her proper place in center stage.

Sequel to Partials: Fragments!

The main theme that ties all three books together is the idea that the world is ending, and everyone has their own ideas about how to save it; with the stakes this high, though, the solutions are often extreme, and the lengths one person is willing to go to might be completely villainous to somebody else. As I explored all the different ways this could play out, one of the obvious ones was dystopia: if the people in power have one plan, and the people with no power don’t agree with it, you end up with an intense dystopian struggle even though both sides are working toward the same basic goal. The second and third books in the series get away from the dystopia (in part) to explore other ideas, but that first book was proudly dystopian and incredibly fun to write.

Do you read dystopian fiction too?

I do, and I love it, though my favorites tend to be older books like 1984, FAHRENHEIT 451, and James Clavell’s A CHILDREN’S STORY. I’ve read some of the newer stuff, in particular the UGLIES series, and thought “Hey neat, they’re doing dystopias again! I want to play, too!”

Were you planning on Partials being a stand-alone novel at first, or was it always intended as the start of a series?

It was always intended as a trilogy, right from the beginning. Remember how I said one of the my inspirations was Battlestar Galactica? Every episode in the opening credits they’d explain how mysterious and insidious the Cylons were, and then they’d end with: “…and they have a plan.” Except it didn’t take long to realize that they didn’t really have a plan, and the resolution to the story arc is infamous for being weird and anticlimactic. I didn’t want to do that, so I worked very hard to build my entire story beforehand: I knew exactly who the bad guys were, and what they were doing, and why, and how the entire series was going to end, before I ever sat down to write a single page.

Author, Dan Wells

It’s a mix of both. I planned out the underlying structure of the Partials series in detail, like I said, but a lot of the stuff on top–the flesh that hangs on the skeleton–was made up on the spot. It’s like taking a road trip: I know where I’m going, and some key points to hit along the way, but how I get there is completely up to my whims of the day. Sometimes I’ll get excited and take a detour, or fill in some random bit of background info, which will inspire whole massive chunks of the story down the line. This combination of planning and spontaneity is what keeps writing fun and fresh, and I can’t imagine doing it any other way.

Did you always want to become an author?

I told my parents in second grade that I was going to be an author, and spent my whole life telling stories and writing poems and books and comics and everything else I could think of. It took a very long time and a lot of very hard work to be successful as a writer, but it’s my favorite thing in the world. If nobody bought my books and I never sold another manuscript, I’d still be writing every day because that’s what I love.

Finally, have you got any advice for aspiring young writers?

Allow yourself to write a bad book. Novel writing is the only art form I know of where people expect their very first effort to be brilliant and perfect, and that’s simply not the case. Your first book is not supposed to sell, any more than a potter’s first lumpy, misshapen pot is going to end up in a museum. Write because you love it, and treat each book as an opportunity to learn more and refine your skills, and eventually you’ll write something amazing. I wrote five books before my sixth one finally sold, and those five books were terrible. Don’t beat yourself up over that kind of stuff, it’s just part of the learning process.

Thanks so much to Dan Wells for answering my questions, and to Jack for being the messenger of the questions and for featuring the interview on his blog for Dystopia Month!

Read in June:

This month, I haven’t read as many books as I have in the previous months *sad face*. But, I’m super happy, because at the beginning of June I managed to get past the one hundred book mark of my Goodreads reading challenge! In total, I’ve read sixteen books, plus two Marvel graphic novels, making eighteen reads. I’ve read some really awesome things in the past few weeks. So, here are all of the covers of the books I’ve read this month! Click on them to go to my reviews of them. thoughthere are a couple that won’t work, because I haven’t yet reviewed them. I’m so behind on reviewing! 😦

To-Read In June:

Unfortunately, I didn’t get round to reading a bunch of books that I was meant to read in June. Waah! Anyway, here are titles I have and will DEFINITELY be reading in July:

• Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare (I have been meaning to read this for nearly three months now. and I need my nephilim fix.)
• Witchfall by Victoria Lamb (sequel to Witchstruck, which was incredibly awesome.)
• Doll Bones by Holly Black
• The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence
• Itch and Itch Rocks by Simon Mayo

What have you read this month? What are you planning to read over July, and the rest of the Summer? Happy reading!

My post for this week’s EMIG post (hosted by Queen of Contemporary) is an account of an event I went to yesterday! Sherlockians, please don’t hate me.

Sherlock Holmes Book Discussion- Ashburton Library

Yesterday, I went to one of my local libraries along with my brother to go join in with a discussion on everything Sherlock Holmes related- and it was so fun! It was run by MyVoice, a club of 11-19 year olds who bring really awesome, mostly bookish events to libraries. Along with about ten others and the awesome Liz The Librarian, I sat down surrounded by a huge amount of

Sherlock Holmes books. Seriously, the table was covered in them, from the original novels, to biographies on Conan Doyle, to the new remakes, and, the DVD’s (Robert Downey Jr’s ones. Obviously.).

We went around the table, going over our favourite things about Sherlock Holmes. I said that I loved how he could just take one look at a person and know everything about them, even what they’d had for breakfast that morning, just from incredibly clever deductions and body language.

Hard to see, but this says ‘SHERLOCK HOLMES: Wanted for murder’! 😀

Then, we talked about what our favourite books in the Sherlock Holmes series were. I really loved The Hound of the Baskervilles! As well as that, we gave recommendations to each other, and a lot of us Sherlock TV Series fangirls just had to gossip about that.

With a big thanks to the publishing companies, we got some brilliant free goodies! Firstly, Liz had gotten some copies of the third installment of Andrew Lane’s Young Sherlock Holmes series: Devil Cloud. And, thanks to Orion we got The House Of Silk bus passes and there were four jackets logoed with the same book to win in the prize draw. I was ecstatic, because I won one of the jackets! I’ve included pictures of the front and back on this post. It’s a little big for me, but it is so incredibly awesome. 

So, I had a really awesome day! A big thanks to MyVoice for putting it on, Liz for organizing it, and the publishers for sending the lovely freebies.

In the words of Lucy, don’t forget to wear your Geekery like a badge!

Two really brilliant looking books came through my letterbox this week, of the same series: Witchstruck and Witchfall by Victoria Lamb. They’re such beautiful looking books (the covers, though you can’t make them out on these pictures, have cool shiny runes on them!!), set in the Tudor times and focusing around a paranormal romance involving witchcraft. I’ve almost finished the first book, Witchstruck, and it’s pretty brilliant so far. Reviews soon, and thanks very much to the awesome Harriet at Random House!

What books have you bought or received this week? Drop a comment! Happy reading (:

Hello, and welcome to my new type of post, all for bookish news and my general bookish ramblings! 😀 This will be posted on Fridays from now on, though this first one is today. Just because.

NEWS (which is kind of late):

There are going to be four new novellas by Veronica Roth, about Four (I’m pretty sure Veronica did that on purpose).

Four novellas! And, they’re about the coolest character in the trilogy. I’m so excited! The first short story is being released on the twenty fourth of September and, according to the HarperTeen website, it’s going to be called The Transfer: A Divergent Story. Also, the second story is being released in late December, and it’s called The Initiative: A Divergent Story. 

That’s pretty cool: We’ll have the first novella in September to tide us over until Allegiant, which come’s out in October, then the second Four installment in December! The end of this year is going to be heaven for members of the Divergent Fandom like me.

They’re all about Four, as I’ve rambled about already, but, what could they be about? I’m guessing that they’re going to be snippets of Fours past from before we meet him, mostly. Could The Transfer be the scene where Tobias decides to move to Dauntless, with a detailed background on his father, which was why he transferred? That’s my guess. What do you think?

As for The Initiative, I have no single idea on what that could be about. Training? I’m not too sure. All I know is that I really can’t wait for these two titles, and the other two released in 2014!

What do you think about the four novellas? Will you be picking them up, if you’ve read and loved Divergent and Insurgent?

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In other news- There’s been a cover and name reveal for the third book in Dan Wells’ PARTIALS series! I’m not entirely sure when this was released, but I spotted it on Goodreads today and I did a little happy dance in my desk chair.

I present to you… RUINS! It sounds a bit too different to the past two book’s titles, though I still really love it, because that’s basically what the world is; in ruins. It’s quite funny really, because on the previous covers the titles were long words, but RUINS looks kind of lost on this cover, with the letters all spaced out. It’s still awesome, though.

I really love the cover, too. It’s a big change from the previous ones, which were extremely similar, and it’s only Kira on the front now. It’s so cool- really sci-fi. ‘Earth’s last hour/ her last stand’: ARGH! I need to know what’s going to happen. But it’s not published until next March *marks calender, recedes into hibernation until that date*

What bookish news have you got to share? Feel free to leave a comment!