Welcome to our stop on the Seeker blog tour!
Title: SEEKER
Author: Arwen Elys
Dayton
Pub. Date: February
10, 2015
Publisher: Delacorte
Books for Young Readers
Pages: 448
Formats: Hardcover,
eBook, audiobook
Their Legacy is…A
calling. An Honor. A lie.
#SeekerSeries
The night Quin
Kincaid takes her Oath, she will become what she has trained to be her entire
life. She will become a Seeker. This is her legacy, and it is an honor.
As a Seeker, Quin
will fight beside her two closest companions, Shinobu and John, to protect the
weak and the wronged. Together they will stand for light in a shadowy world.
And she’ll be with
the boy she loves—who is also her best friend.
But the night Quin
takes her Oath, everything changes.
Being a Seeker is
not what she thought. Her family is not what she thought. Even the boy she
loves is not who she thought.
And now it’s too
late to walk away.
You spend time
researching for your books. And I see it takes you to all different places. Can
you name the top three places you've visited and why they were of the most interest to you?
For Seeker, I went to both Scotland and Hong Kong. They are fascinating
places on their own, each with a strong and undeniable identity, but there's
something about the difference between them that especially inspires me.
Scotland and Hong Kong are in many ways opposites of each other, and thinking
about them in the same tale created a friction in my mind that gave this story
a lot of its energy.
Seeker is set in the
near future, so the world is a bit different than it is now, but Scotland feels
timeless. From the first moment I began to imagine Seeker, I saw Quin Kincaid (the main character) there. It naturally
seemed to be her place.
Once you get outside the Scottish
cities, you have the sense that you're seeing the country much as it was
hundreds of years ago, and much as it will be in the future. Scotland's essence
will not change, even in a story that leaps forward across several decades. In
the future, you'll still come upon views like these around every corner:
(Kilchurn Castle.)
(Tree-lined lane on the way to
Ullapool.)
At the other end of the spectrum, Hong
Kong is a crowded, dynamic, ever-changing city that feels futuristic already.
It doesn't take much imagination to push it forward in time slightly. I love
its mix of East and West, its busy throngs, the crazy markets for all sorts of
strange items, and the interaction of the whole city with the ocean.
(Victoria Harbor from the Kowloon side of Hong Kong.)
(A restaurant menu in Hong Kong—you pick what you're going to eat.)
My research for Seeker was focused mostly on geography
and the emotional experience of the places in the book. I hope this comes
through for the reader!
Another favorite place I've
traveled is Egypt, which I visited while researching a previous book, Resurrection. The most memorable day was
a trip to the Great Pyramid, which happened to be closed to visitors at that time
while the interior ramps were being renovated. My guide had an "in"
with the man in charge of the Giza Plateau, however, and somehow he talked this
fellow into letting us inside anyway.
I spent the afternoon exploring the
pyramid with one of the best Egyptian guides in the world, by the light of a
single dying flashlight. It was awe-inspiring.
(Inside the King's Chamber
sarcophagus in the Great Pyramid.)
About Arwen:
Arwen Elys Dayton spends months doing research for her
stories. Her explorations have taken her around the world to places like the
Great Pyramid (which she explored by a single fading flashlight when
researching Resurrection), Hong Kong and its many islands, and lots of ruined
castles in Scotland. She enjoys creating complete worlds inhabited by
characters who charm, frustrate or inspire.
Arwen lives with her husband and their three children on the
West Coast of the United States. You can follow her @arwenelysdayton on Twitter and Instagram.
Tour Schedule:
2/9/2015- Supernatural Snark- Interview
2/9/2015- The Cover Contessa- Guest Post
2/10/2015- Once Upon A Twilight- Review
2/10/2015- Reading YA Rocks- Guest Post
2/10/2015- The Eater of Books!- Interview
2/11/2015- WinterHaven Books - Review
2/11/2015- Paranormal Book Club- Interview
2/11/2015- Literary Meanderings- Guest Post
2/12/2015- A Dream Within A
Dream- Review
2/12/2015- I'd So Rather Be
Reading- Guest
Post
2/12/2015- Bookhounds ya- Interview
2/13/2015- Bookish- Review
2/13/2015- Nerdophiles- Guest Post
I'd love to enter the giveaway but I have no idea where to look to See the #Seek Image as instructed. can you give a dumb guy a hint?
ReplyDeleteI don't really understand the question. Assuming it's the picture with the sword and rams head above a landscape? I think it's implied that we need to seek the truth... Sorry, I want a chance, but I just don't understand. Thanks :)
ReplyDelete