Title: THE GRACES
Author: Laure Eve
Pub.
Date: September
6, 2016
Publisher: Amulet Books
Pages: 352
Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook
Everyone loves the Graces. Fenrin, Thalia, and Summer Grace are
captivating, wealthy, and glamorous. They’ve managed to cast a spell over not
just their high school but also their entire town—and they’re rumored to have
powerful connections all over the world. If you’re not in love with one of
them, you want to be them. Especially River: the loner, new girl at school.
She’s different from her peers, who both revere and fear the Grace family. She
wants to be a Grace more than anything. But what the Graces don’t know is that
River’s presence in town is no accident.
This fabulously addictive fantasy combines sophisticated and
haunting prose with a gut-punching twist that readers will be dying to discuss.
Perfect for fans of We Were Liars as well as nostalgic classics like Buffy the
Vampire Slayer and the 1996 movie The Craft, The Graces marks the beginning of
a new wave of teen witches.
Today we welcome Laura for an interview!
1.
Did you always know you wanted to be a writer or did you want to
be something else?
Books were my very
first crush. I grew up desperately wanting to do to other people what they did
to me. I wanted that power.
In my teens, as well
as writing, I was drawn towards acting. I was also very into drawing and
painting. Art, writing, drama - those were my three loves, my three gods.
Basically, pretty
much anything I’ve ever loved doing has been about telling stories, in one way
or another.
2. How long does it
take you to write a book from start to finish?
Procrastination, thy
name is Laure. It takes me exactly as long as you give me :D If I don’t have a
deadline, I will nestle into the sofa and mainline Penny Dreadful. If I do, I
will hit that date (more or less - hopefully my editors aren’t reading this).
But it’s been
different every time. I have a full-time job, so I write in the evenings and on
weekends, as much as I can without my brain falling out. I’ve just written the first draft
of the sequel to The Graces, and that took six months.
Of course, it hasn’t
been edited yet…
3. How do you come
up with themes for your stories?
Writers or artists
of any kind, I believe, create what they create because it is their way of processing and
dealing with the world. We use stories to examine how we feel and think about
things, and what we know about the way things are, or could be, or should be.
Basically this is a
long-winded way of saying that the themes live all around me, and I just write
about whatever is worrying or fascinating me at the time.
4. Do you have a
schedule of when you write?
Because I don’t have
a choice - evenings and weekends, full-time job folks! - that is my schedule.
If I wrote full-time I suspect it would be a lot more haphazard…
I like writing on
the train to and from work. There’s something about that restricted amount of
time that makes me flip open the laptop and just do it.
Not… very… well? :) I have the
world’s most understanding partner, who doesn’t mind when I sit writing* on the
sofa every evening until bedtime, instead of talking to him.
* sometimes this maybe translates to
‘being on twitter’
I’m a character
girl. Plot tends to manifest from the tension between the people I write - I
find it hard to come up with plot first and only then find characters to make
it go.
So I would say,
honestly, it’s the characters first and foremost.
Oh dear lord.
Everything? Nothing? It’s a strange process. For me, generally speaking, first
drafts are the most frustrating bit. I actually like being edited - I like
playing with a full something and making it better. Making that full something
in the first place can sometimes be a bit like pulling intestines out. Once I’m
there, though, I have a great time.
8. How many books
have you written so far? Do you have a favorite?
I have written four.
Two are published, one is about to be, and one is in editing stage. We don’t
talk about favourites in front of the books, they may hear us and take offense.
9. Do you have a
favorite character?
Honestly? No. I like
them all for a million different reasons, even the ones who do horrible things
- which is all of them, by the way, as I enjoy complicated characters who aren’t good
and aren’t bad but somewhere in between, and often both in the same scene. Because that
is truth. People are complicated. I want to reflect that. It makes things more
interesting.
10. Where do you
write?
On the train. On my sofa. At the
kitchen table. Anywhere with a flat surface.
11. When deciding on
how to publish, what directed you to the route you took?
I wanted to be
traditionally published by a publishing house who would put my book on shelves
and give me the luxury/money/freedom to write more. That is really all I was
looking for. Anything else is a wonderful bonus.
12. Have you gotten
feedback from family about your book(s)? What do they think?
Ha! They are very
polite. My mother actually seems to really enjoy them. My partner enjoys them
despite not really liking YA, and he’s an honest soul, so that makes me feel
good.
13. What kinds of
things do you like to do outside of writing?
Eating.
14. What kinds of
advice would you give to someone who wants to start writing?
Read like you need
to gobble words constantly to keep on being alive.
Write like you need
to do it in order to feel that your existence is meaningful.
Consume different
types of art - television, movies, paintings, long-form journalism, dance,
photography. All of it will feed you and inspire you and teach you good stuff.
The rest -
technique, form, structure - will come with practice.
15. What is your
favorite book? favorite author? Do you have an author that inspired/inspires
you to write?
‘Favorites’ is the
absolute Sophie’s Choice of questions and I absolutely cannot answer it.
There are so many
authors who inspired me to become a writer. In no particular order, the ones
who spring to mind right now are:
Alan Garner
Terry Pratchett
Stephen King
Robin Jarvis
Bret Easton Ellis
16. Do you have any
go to people when writing a book that help you with your story lines as well as
editing, beta reading and such?
I’m one of those weird
ones who writes in complete isolation. The first person to read anything I’ve
written is my agent (if it’s something we’re trying to sell) or my editor (if
it’s something they’ve already bought). Anything they read will have already
been through a couple of full drafts.
17. Are you working
on anything now?
I’m working on two
different projects while I wait for my edits on The Graces sequel. One involves
a giant fantasy landscape and the other is inspired by a famous French novel.
18. Tell us 5 things
that make you smile
Sincerity.
Kindness.
Good food.
Sunlight.
Star Trek.
19. Tell us 5 things
that make you sad
Poverty.
Inequality.
Bad food.
Helplessness.
That particular kind
of rain that isn’t quite rain so you can’t put up an umbrella but nevertheless
it completely messes up your hair.
20. If you could
travel anywhere in the world to visit a place so you could use it as a
background for a book, where would it be?
Iceland. That country has one foot in fairyland, I
swear.
Thanks so much for stopping by today, Laura. It was great having you with us!
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Thanks so much for stopping by today, Laura. It was great having you with us!
About
Laure:
A French-British hybrid who grew up in Cornwall, a
place saturated with myth and fantasy. Being a child of two cultures taught her
everything she needed to know about trying to fit in at the same time as trying
to stand out.
She speaks English and French, and can hold a vague
conversation, usually about food, in Greek.
A random selection of favourite things: Terry
Pratchett quotes, characters with questionable morals, Jean-Claude Van Damme,
Häagen-Dazs cookie dough ice cream, anything Trent Reznor is remotely involved
in even if it only extends to 'he once touched this artist's arm', bad 90s
dance music and anything a bit weird (see: Davids Lynch and Cronenberg).
Giveaway
Details:
3 winners will receive a finished copy of THE GRACES and Temporary
Tattoos, US Only.
Tour
Schedule:
Week One:
8/22/2016- Quite the Novel Idea- Interview
8/23/2016- Novel Novice- Review
8/24/2016- Stories & Sweeties- Excerpt
8/25/2016- Fiction Fare- Review
8/26/2016- A Dream Within A Dream- Guest
post
Week Two:
9/5/2016- Tales of the Ravenous Reader- Review
9/6/2016- a GREAT read- Character Interview
9/7/2016- All Things Urban Fantasy- Review
9/8/2016- The Cover Contessa- Interview
9/9/2016- Ex Libris- Review
Such an awesome book!! Can't wait to read it again!
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