Today I have fellow Curiosity Quills author, Aja Hannah, dropping in. I've asked her the most wonderful question ever--the same one I always ask. What part of you is in your main character.
Take it away, Aja!
~The first editor who ever read my novel had thick glasses and she towered above me in a splattered-colored chair at the Maryland Writers Conference. I was still painfully shy in those days and I could not keep my eyes on her pink face. Instead, I would repeatedly glance over the open room, searching the other tables and the abundance of professionally dressed people. As if I were waiting for one of them to say, “Is that kid really here? What a waste of time.”
One author at a table adjacent to us was furiously scribbling down everything their editor was saying—I’d forgotten a notepad and a pen—while another author stuck his hand out on his query and pointed, arguing with his chosen agent.
The editor pulled out my papers from a black folder and told me I had submitted too many. “The standard is to double-space the work,” she said.
I probably apologized. Hopefully. But honestly, I can’t remember and I don’t think it mattered to her because all I remember is her talking a lot after that and very fast because I was late and we only had a few minutes.
She pulled the first page out and said something to the effect of: “I can tell you’re using your own voice. Your main character is a lot like you.”
My immediate response was to backtrack. “Attie is more violent than I am.”
The editor grinned at me. “It’s a good thing to have such a distinct voice.”
I don’t know why it bothered me to hear that Attie was like me. I have an affinity for “A” names but aside from that I never meant to make her someone like me.
Still, I’d have to say Attie is not too far from the rough-and-tumble kid I was in high school.
We both hated our hair.
We both wore more modest clothes—more modest than Kate anyway.
We both had a rather blunt way of putting things.
But it goes deeper than that. I kept to myself a lot and had only a few close friends. While I never got in trouble with teachers, peers and adults told me that I looked “intimidating” by the way I walked down the hallways and never seemed to smile.
Trust has never come easy to me, and—while I’m no Zarconian—I kept some serious secrets from even my closest friends.
I am proud to say that that’s no longer the case. I’ve grown a little more open and a little less shy since the start of Zarconian Island. And, as I complete the sequel, I hope readers will see that Attie has too.
One author at a table adjacent to us was furiously scribbling down everything their editor was saying—I’d forgotten a notepad and a pen—while another author stuck his hand out on his query and pointed, arguing with his chosen agent.
The editor pulled out my papers from a black folder and told me I had submitted too many. “The standard is to double-space the work,” she said.
I probably apologized. Hopefully. But honestly, I can’t remember and I don’t think it mattered to her because all I remember is her talking a lot after that and very fast because I was late and we only had a few minutes.
She pulled the first page out and said something to the effect of: “I can tell you’re using your own voice. Your main character is a lot like you.”
My immediate response was to backtrack. “Attie is more violent than I am.”
The editor grinned at me. “It’s a good thing to have such a distinct voice.”
I don’t know why it bothered me to hear that Attie was like me. I have an affinity for “A” names but aside from that I never meant to make her someone like me.
Still, I’d have to say Attie is not too far from the rough-and-tumble kid I was in high school.
We both hated our hair.
We both wore more modest clothes—more modest than Kate anyway.
We both had a rather blunt way of putting things.
But it goes deeper than that. I kept to myself a lot and had only a few close friends. While I never got in trouble with teachers, peers and adults told me that I looked “intimidating” by the way I walked down the hallways and never seemed to smile.
Trust has never come easy to me, and—while I’m no Zarconian—I kept some serious secrets from even my closest friends.
I am proud to say that that’s no longer the case. I’ve grown a little more open and a little less shy since the start of Zarconian Island. And, as I complete the sequel, I hope readers will see that Attie has too.
My stomach knotted tighter, winding so hard it hurt.
Kate watched me, rubbing a piece of her hair between two fingers.
I bit my tongue, trying to work the words out.
"The boat …we're going under.”
Possessing powers that are feared and shunned, eighteen-year-old Alexandra “Attie” Hotep is no virgin to attacks. Her ancestors, the Zarconians-- mixed-blood inhabitants of Atlantis--were rumored to be the English fairies who kidnapped children, the Caribbean sirens that sunk ships, and the dream-like apparitions who broke into psyches. By the 1850s, they were hunted to near-extinction, leaving the existence of Atlantis and Zarconians little more than myth.
When a class trip turns deadly, Attie and her friends become stranded on an uncharted tropical island in the middle of the Pacific, and Attie finds herself targeted once more. With a jungle full of extinct and prowling animals, she struggles to find a compromise between keeping her friends safe and keeping her family's secret.
Enter Doug Hutchinson—the school’s soccer star, and a handsome boy with his own secrets. But Attie and Doug soon realize the animals aren't the only threat. There is a traitor amidst the group, one that plans to turn all Zarconians into permanent myths. And Attie is next on the list.
You can find her book on Amazon!
Great question and such an honest answer! Love it!
ReplyDeleteThanks Sus! I am glad to have written for Krystal. She was the one that really got Zarconian Island in the door.
ReplyDeleteAwesome interview! I'm intrigued by the plot of this book. Adding to my list. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete