So I have seen this “Next Big Thing” post going around for awhile now and have been patiently waiting to get picked. However, when I saw my friend Tabitha post hers I pretty much begged her to pick me as someone to tag. She is a super nice girl so she obliged willingly. Thanks Tabitha!! 🙂
Now on to the questions!
Ten Interview Questions for The Next Big Thing:
1. What is the working title of your book?
THE BEHOLDER
2. Where did the idea come from for the book?
Months ago, I had a dream – more like a nightmare – in which I was back in high school and for some reason I had murdered a fellow classmate. There were no leads on the case when it initially happened, but as my dream progressed, a new detective came to town and started poking around, revealing clues that I had been the culprit. I woke up from that dream seriously panicked because I still thought that I had killed someone. It was the scariest feeling in the world, and even when reality set in and I realized it was a dream, it still stayed with me for awhile. This is where I based the start of my story off of, placing my MC in the same horrifying situation; only hers don’t go away – they get worse.
3. What genre does your book fall under?
Young Adult Urban Fantasy/Paranormal
4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
My MC, Candace Callihan, would be played by Lily Collins
Candace’s boyfriend, Roland Cruze, would be played by Hayden Christensen
Candace’s arch-enemy, Cecelia VanCamp, would be played by Claire Holt (same exact attitude that she plays in TVD too)
Ink, the comic-loving boy trying to steal Candace’s heart, would be played by David Henrie
5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
One year after Homecoming Queen Alice Halls is killed on school grounds at Roscoe High, 17 year old Candace Callihan is suddenly haunted with vivid nightmares of being the killer and must solve the case quickly or admit to being a murderer.
6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I would prefer going the traditional route of finding an agent to represent myself and the book. If it does not get any bites the first go-around I will probably put it aside and try to acquire an agent from other projects first before considering self-publishing.
7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Three months and counting! But at the rate I am going I believe it will be completed with a four month time span.
8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I am sure that there are many books out there with a similar premise, but I can’t really say that I recall any. I just recently read PAPER VALENTINE by Brenna Yovanoff that was kind of similar in that their were paranormal elements involved (ghosts) and someone murdering young girls in a small town that the MC had to figure out.
9. Who or What inspired you to write this book?
I kind of answered this in number two in that the dream inspired me. To wake up with that kind of fear was terrible and it bothered me the following few days. It really got me thinking about how horrible it would be if I continued to have the same dream over and over if they became more detailed about the person and the emotions leading up to killing someone. I think it would have driven me insane and I pretty much push my MC to the brink of insanity in this way.
10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
Well I am not very good at writing pitches, especially only one sentence so I didn’t really fit in all the elements that make up the story but there are some strange things that are going on in Roscoe that run parallel to Candace trying to figure out who the murderer is and I really believe I have a lot of great twists in the story that should come as a shock to readers but, in the end, make sense when they really think back on the clues I gave leading up to it.
Below is my opening draft prologue as a sample from the book. I am considering changing it to present tense but this is the current version as of right now:
The chance for immortality. That is what my mother said always clung to every page of writing. You could be gone tomorrow and your words would be all that was left of you.
And it was true.
When she left, all I had were her words. An old grocery list fluttering on the fridge. Some unfinished manuscripts in her bottom desk drawer. A letter to my father telling him to let her go…
He had always disagreed with her theory saying that immortality lies within your actions. But he has never been a man of action and so I found that speculation quite ironic coming from him. When she left for Massachusetts with her friend Sherry Halls’ much younger brother, my father did not grab up his car keys and chase after her or file for divorce with conviction or even cry or scream or laugh or throw things or get drunk or find God. Three times he read the letter that she left and then folded it up neatly and went into his bedroom.
I know that no action is still an action but it was so very anti-climatic. What he does do, without fail, is pull that letter out every night. I pass by quietly on my way to brush my teeth and I see him reading intently by his bedside table light, ingesting every single word she put on paper with an endless hunger. Her words were all that was left of her and so he swallowed them every night like a pill that is awkward and bitter and claws at your throat as it goes down but you take it because you have to; it is keeping you alive.
I don’t think immortality really lies in either of those things in particular, although both ways can definitely lead to it. It cannot be just any words or any actions though, it has to be something that sticks in a mind forever. It has to be something that people couldn’t forget even if they wanted to.
I know that is why she left; she was looking for it.Immortality.
I hope when she finds it she can come home. Unless I find it first.
J.A. Ward Writes 