A few days ago, I came across a great questionnaire on Miss Snark's First Victim about WIPs and I thought, "What a fun idea! I shall stealz it!"
Hehe.
Usually, you have to be "tagged" for these sort of questionnaires but I figured I'd tackle it anyway. Does that make me weird?
NO MATTER!
So here we go...a questionnaire called The Next Big Thing!
Anomaly.
Where did the idea come from for the book?
I got the idea when I read The Aquariums of Pyongyang, a memoir by a North Korean refugee. After I finished the book, I couldn't stop thinking about it---about the oppression, the grimness, and the slim line of hope that many North Koreans clung to. My brain started brewing with story possibilities and one such possibility pushed to the forefront of my mind:
A sixteen-year-old girl who is trained by her uncle to assassinate Kim Jung Il.
My mind kept spinning and I took the idea a little further: what if I set the story in an alternate history America? What if there were superpowers? And Nazis? I took that idea and ran with it.
What genre does your book fall under?
Hmm, I've been describing the manuscript as a "YA alternate history with superpowers." It's not really a "real" genre but there you go!
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
That's tough! My protagonist Zara is skinny, scrappy, and half-Japanese; and so I haven't been able to find an actress that quite matches her look. But recently I watched a movie about the Red Baron and I thought the actor who played him, Matthias Schweighofer, would be a great fit for Zara's love interest, Bastian.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
I am so bad at the one-sentence pitch! How about some key words instead? Scrappy girl! Who can fly! Who fights the Nazis! And starts a revolution!
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I'm very lucky to be represented by Jim McCarthy of DGLM. He has provided some awesome revision notes for Anomaly, which has made the manuscript much stronger and not so sucky.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? May we see an intro?
About three months, which is rather quick for a slow-poke writer like myself. But after that, it took me months and months to revise the novel, especially because I switched the voice from first present to third past. As for an intro, here are the first two lines:
The Nazis always arrived on schedule. Today was no exception.
What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
Superpower battles? Nazi ass kicking? Are you guys 'piqued'? Haha.
And now, I shall tag five writers for The Next Big Thing! And those lucky gals are:
Here are the questions for The Next Big Thing. (I omitted a few of them because I got lazy. Ha!)
What is the working title of your book?
Where did the idea come from for the book?
What genre does your book fall under?
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? May we see an intro?
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
