Guest Star: Elana Johnson

It’s time for another Guest Star! Our guest this week is Elana Johnson, author of the brand new release, Surrender!

About SURRENDER

Raine has always been a good girl. She lives by the rules in Freedom. After all, they are her father’s rules: He’s the Director. It’s because of him that Raine is willing to use her talent—a power so dangerous, no one else is allowed to know about it. Not even her roommate, Vi.All of that changes when Raine falls for Gunner. Raine’s got every reason in the world to stay away from Gunn, but she just can’t. Especially when she discovers his connection to Vi’s boyfriend, Zenn.

Raine has never known anyone as heavily brainwashed as Vi. Raine’s father expects her to spy on Vi and report back to him. But Raine is beginning to wonder what Vi knows that her father is so anxious to keep hidden, and what might happen if she helps Vi remember it. She’s even starting to suspect Vi’s secrets might involve Freedom’s newest prisoner, the rebel Jag Barque….

Purchase your copy here!

Find Elana Online:

Special GIVEAWAY:

Elana is hosting a Spectacular Seconds giveaway this week! You can enter to win one of five signed sophomore books by Beth Revis, Ally Condie, Veronica Roth, Kristi Cook, and Kim Harrington. CLICK HERE for all the details and to enter.

Check out our Q&A with the Author:

What kind of research did you have to do to bring Raine and/or Gunner to life on the page?

Um, none. I abhor research with every fiber of my being. It’s why I write speculative fiction. Ha! So for Raine and Gunner (two narrators in SURRENDER), I didn’t have to do much research. I actually did more of that for the world-building than that character development.

What was your favorite part of writing this book? Your least favorite part?

My favorite part of writing SURRENDER is getting to know the characters during the drafting stage. It’s fascinating to me to see who they really are and what they really care about and then have to go back and make sure readers can go on that journey with them.

My least favorite part was making the timelines match up. SURRENDER is dual narrated, and there’s a point in the story where one of the characters leaves, and I had to make the events happening to each character match up so when they met up again, it was on the same day. That was harder to do than I thought it would be.

If you could have dinner with one of your characters who would it be?

Jag Barque—ooooh, JAG BARQUE.

Who’s your favorite character in the book and why? Who was the most fun to write?

My favorite character in SURRENDER is Starr Messenger. She’s sort of a fringe character, but she is so interesting to me. She’s complex and layered, and I love her. The most fun to write is Gunner. He’s like a skater-dude—but with hoverboards. He’s calm and rational and steady, and he uses that to his advantage.

What are you working on next?

I’m working on a sci fi thriller with time travel elements. It’s kicking my butt, but I will prevail!

About the Author:

Elana Johnson‘s work including POSSESSION, REGRET, and SURRENDER is available from Simon & Schuster wherever books are sold. She is the author of From the Query to the Call, an ebook that every writer needs to read before they query, which can be downloaded for free on her website. She runs a personal blog on publishing and is a founding author of the QueryTracker blog. She blogs regularly at The League of Extraordinary Writers, co-organizes WriteOnCon, and can be found on Twitter and Facebook.

She wishes she could experience her first kiss again, tell the mean girl where to shove it, and have cool superpowers like reading minds and controlling fire. To fulfill her desires, she writes young adult science fiction and fantasy.

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June 11th, 2012