MBA&M PROUDLY PRESENTS….
SARA DANVERS..
MBA&M: Please give our readers some insight into the mind of Sara Danvers.
Singer-songwriter Fiona Apple released a song recently that resonated with me. In the song “Valentine,” she states:
I’m a tulip in a cup
I stand no chance of growing up
That sounds about right. I may be 30, but my daily environment is all teens all the time. I teach them, most of my long conversations are with them, and I constantly read fiction aimed at their age group. How can I be expected to think and act like an adult?
MBA&M: What was your inspiration behind writing “The Seven Devils“?
It seemed natural to write a YA fiction novel. I read almost exclusively YA fiction, and I read a lot of it since I am a school librarian. I had actually dreamed about Neil for years and decided to finally try to flesh him out a little so to speak. Whenever I dreamt of Neil, the most striking thing about him was always his eyes which seemed to see right into you. When we were children my friends and I used to ask each other what super power you would choose if you could have just one. A lot of them wanted to fly (which I find silly), but I always wanted the ability to read minds. When you take that and really think through it, though, you begin to wonder if you would ever be able to hold down a relationship if you knew every whim that passed through your friend/boyfriend/husband’s minds. The Seven Devils goes into much more than that, but it was the basis of my story idea.
MBA&M: What was the allure for you in writing YA romance novels?
Some of my friends and coworkers make fun of me for reading YA romance, but to me it just has so much more than adult romance. Adult romance seems very quick to me. There’s a glance, a touch, a flirtation, and then BOOM—they’re in bed together. YA romance novels build and build and build until you’re so invested in the story and the characters that you nearly die of happiness when they finally kiss. I wanted my characters to be part of that magic.
MBA&M: Who is your favorite character in “The Seven Devils”? What draws you to them?
Neil, obviously! He’s incredibly smart, sexy, and very dark and mysterious. You can read most of what he says two ways. Even I as the author didn’t always know whether I believed him or not. You can read the whole book as a fun romance novel and then go back and read it entirely differently where it is full of careful lies and manipulations. Which is the truth? You will all learn more when I finally finish the sequel!
MBA&M: What influenced you while you were writing?
Oh, everything! It took me four years to write this first book for many reasons, but one of which is that I would read a particularly great book and just give up on my own writing (once for a entire year!) because I would get depressed and feel as though I could never measure up. Then something would happen and I would get inspired and writewritewrite in every spare minute I had. Some inspiration would come from my husband… some sweet thing he would say or do. Sometimes I would dream about my characters and something would just come to me. Writing a novel wasn’t a fluid, linear process for me at all, and after four years of writing I found that my ending was better written than my beginning, so I took another year to edit and rewrite sections. It took a long time, but I’m proud of the result! (And I certainly have an even higher level of respect for professional authors now that I’ve tried it myself!)
MBA&M: Three words you would use to describe “The Seven Devils”?
Dark, Sexy, and Thrilling.
MBA&M: Last but not least, tell our readers where to connect with you and where they can purchase “The Seven Devils”?
This may sound silly, but I haven’t told anyone that I published a book, so you can’t really follow me on Twitter or Facebook or anything like that. If you read the book, you know that Ellen’s family is very troubled, and I was a little worried that my own family would draw parallels to themselves, so I published under a pseudonym and have only told 5 people in my personal life that I wrote this at all! You can purchase the book on Amazon.com in the Kindle store.
Thanks for having me and for reading The Seven Devils!
Thank you for visiting with us today! What an intriguing and interesting interview!
Much luck with your endeavor!
****
THE SEVEN DEVILS
SARA DANVERS
- Print Length: 327 pages
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B009KT2RI0
Book Description(from Amazon)
Some mature content.
This a full-length novel of almost 80,000 words.
AVAILABLE AT:
Amazon
****
We hope you have enjoyed your time with our guest today and will spread the word on her title!
Thanks for visiting with us today!
AprilR
Aha! At last, an answer to whether or not there's a sequel in the works. A great interview, thank you.
Great to have at least some small insights into the book and author, though the interview short and missing out on a clear opportunity to ask more key questions – I'm glad I stumbled upon it.
Though, five+ years to write the first, please do not say we'll have to wait 5 years for the second (and final? is this going to turn into a trilogy?)!
The first was released in 2011… and I read that the sequel is apparently supposed to be out in 2013 sometime.
If I had stumbled upon this book in 2011, rather than a month ago, I would be livid having been waiting around so long for some resolutions. Probably abandoning the book, deleting it – so I wouldn't be reminded that I still did not have the end to Neil & Ellen, and Josh.
Even now, this short interview is the most helpful information I could find.
I can sympathize and respect her struggle to get the first book out, but once you begin and publish a story – how long do you think you can leave your audience waiting for answers?
Not an author's blog, or Facebook or Twitter under her pseudonym – no sequel teasers or hints at a release date?
In this social networking age, its seriously bothersome to begin a story, even an easy semi-predictable, but good, YA novel as this, with no true conclusion in sight.
Thank you for this interview. I LOVE this book. I have been looking all over for more information, a teaser, something that help get at ease with my intrigue about this story, and find NOTHING!
I can understand your coy about this, your first book, scrutiny scares; but please come on board with social media… With your pseudo and give your characters and us the readers whom have support your work a happy ending!
Please don’t make us wait five more years. Even the thought if it is INSANE!!!
Thank you and looking forward for this trilogy or series SOON!