Debreviews Presents: Aprilynne Pike, author of WINGS
From Aprilynnepike.com:
Aprilynne Pike's Wings is the first of four books about a seemingly ordinary girl named Laurel who discovers she is a faerie sent among humans to guard the gateway to Avalon. When Laurel is thrust into the midst of a centuries-old battle between faeries and trolls, she's torn between a human and a faerie love, as well as her loyalties to each world. In this extraordinary tale of magic and intrigue, romance and danger, everything you thought you knew about faeries will be changed forever.
Welcome, Aprilynne! Before we jump to the questions, please tell us a little about yourself!
I am a mother of three whose husband just graduated from law school. We are busy, busy, busy! I am a total gym rat who loves singing and musical theatre and reading just about anything I can get a hold of. I currently live in Utah where my husband has been going to school but I will be moving down to Phoenix next month where it doesn’t snow. Yay!
As writers, we're often told to READ. What kind of books do you enjoy reading?
I really like to read mystery and thrillers. However, as a young adult author, I find myself reading more and more young adult until it is now almost all I read. I love the depth and breadth the genre has that it certainly didn’t have when I was a teen and I love exploring that! I also like to keep an eye on the market and keep myself pretty enmeshed in the teen world.
Did you outline WINGS, or let it fly?
Some of both. I actually started with just my mythos and a main character and the tiniest wisp of a story. However, I soon discovered that I had gotten way off-track without a planned out story and after deleting nearly fifty pages (ow!!!) I realized that I personally write much better-not necessarily with a detailed outline-but with a very solid story-line in my head.
Did you pursue a writing degree?
I did. I actually started out pursuing a pre-med degree in Human Biology. But I had a really great professor who-when he observed how hard I was having to work to pull an A in his class-suggested that maybe I had chosen the wrong profession. Turns out he was right. I switched my major to Creative Writing and earned my BA a couple of years later.
Do you listen to music while writing? If so, what kind?
I avoid a lot of music when I am writing because I tend to listen to the music and the lyric start weaving their way into my book. J However, sometimes I really just need music blaring in my ears. When times like that come I choose something familiar-and usually loud-and blare it in my headphones over and over and over. I often think of Juice Newton’s Angel of the Morning as the theme song on Wings not because it has anything to do with the story, but because when I was working on revisions I would sometime blare it in my ears for four and five hours at a time and it really helped me make a lot of my scenes better.
The tagline on your UK cover says “A new kind of faerie tale.” How did you create your own unique twist on faeries?
*laugh* I amaze myself with my mythos sometimes; I’m really not sure exactly where it came from. When I decided I wanted to write a book about faeries, I knew that I didn’t want them to be the same kind of faeries as everyone else had. I wanted them to be truly unique, while still fitting with the traditional mythology that is woven throughout history. I was seven months pregnant and was used to tossing and turning at nights, but that night, it was for more than just aching hips. I went through a lot of very strange ideas-including a Cinderella-esque idea of a faerie who couldn’t go out after midnight-before coming up with my current mythos. Once I had it, everything really fell into place.
Remember the childhood rhyme, I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight? If your main character could wish on a star tonight, what would she wish?
She would wish that she could reveal what she is without endangering her loved ones. She hates hiding.
What color does your main character look best in?
Blue. That’s why her “wings” are blue. She is inherently suited to the color.
You signed a four-book deal. What is the best part about writing a series?
The absolute best part of signing a four-book deal is knowing that my whole series will, in fact, come out. Publishing is an uncertain world and I love knowing that Harper has committed to publishing the whole series.
I think the best part about writing a series is that there is always another opportunity to put in things that you feel you have missed in previous books. I don’t have to cram all my info into one book because I can let the reader know about it in the next couple of books. It really helps me to be able to have a very complete world, without having to fill my book with info-dumps.
Thank you, Aprilynne! WINGS is available Tuesday, May 5th at bookstores everywhere.