Getting to Know the Authors: Featuring Emily Suvada!

Bio:

     Emily Suvada is the award-winning author of the Mortal Coil trilogy, a science fiction thriller series for young adults. The first book, This Mortal Coil, won the Oregon Spirit Book Award, and was shortlisted for an Aurealis Award, the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, and the Readings Young Adult Book Prize.
      Emily was born in Australia, where she spent her childhood reading, writing, and watching Star Trek. In college, she studied math and astrophysics, and went on to a career in finance before finding her way back to her first love—books.
     Today, Emily lives in Portland, OR, with her husband, and still spends most of her free time reading, writing, and watching Star Trek. She also enjoys cooking, coding, powerlifting, hiking, and art. Her interests include AI, nanotech, virtual worlds, space travel, and genetic engineering. She is represented by DongWon Song of the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency.

What has she written?

She has written:

Now on to the Interview!!!

1) How old were you when you started writing?

      I started writing stories as a young child - maybe seven or eight. I made a few serious attempts at short stories for competitions, but didn't try to write a novel until I was in my early twenties. It took me six years until my book was accepted for publication - publishing is a long, long road!

2) What do you want a reader to gain from reading your works?

      I hope that readers find themselves wondering about the future when they read my books, and questioning how they feel about widespread genetic engineering and other technological developments that we'll be seeing in the next few decades. I try not to say what's "right" or "wrong" in the future portrayed in these books, and instead want the reader to think about it and make up their own mind.

3) What are your three top suggestions on becoming an author, or being a pleasure writer?

      1 - Find a critique partner or group. You might be tempted to think that the most useful thing to come out of these relationships is other people's advice on your own work - but critiquing other people's writing is one of the best ways to learn and improve your own work.

      2 - Decide what you want out of writing. Do you want to be an award-winning writer? A bestseller? An inspiration to children? A page-turner who keeps people awake at night? A philosopher who makes them think? A romantic who makes them cry or swoon? A wordsmith who makes them gasp with the beauty of your prose? There are as many ways to be a "good" author as there are ways to have a "good" holiday, and the earlier a writer figures out who they really want to be, the better odds they'll have of achieving it. 

      3 - Develop a thick skin. This doesn't mean 'toughening up' - but rather facing the truth that many people will criticize, hate, or be utterly bored by your writing - and finding ways to deal with it. You don't love every book you read - so why should every reader love yours?

4) What is your favourite novel, why?

      I have three favourite novels - Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, and Neuromancer by William Gibson. Three very different books that I love in very different ways, and which have all equally influenced my writing.

5) What are your favourite pass times besides writing?

      I really enjoy reading, obviously! I also love cooking, gardening, and getting outdoors - I love hiking and cycling especially.

Getting to Know the Authors: Featuring Jeff Giles!

Bio:

      Jeff Giles is a writer based in Montana. He was previously the Deputy Editor of Entertainment Weekly, where he oversaw all coverage of movies and books. Prior to EW, Giles was an arts writer and editor at Newsweek, where, among other things, he served as a Rohan Army extra in “Lord of the Rings” while chronicling the trilogy from start to finish (Peter Jackson shot a close-up of him, then cut it, saying he “looked silly.”) Giles has freelanced for many outlets, including Rolling Stone and The New York Times Book Review.
      Jeff’s debut novel, THE EDGE OF EVERYTHING is a Young Adult Contemporary/Fantasy. A Montana girl, who’s grieving after the mysterious death of her dad, chases her little brother into a blizzard—and stumbles on a bounty hunter from the underworld who’s come to take a soul. She tries to help him escape his life before all hell breaks loose.

What has he written?

He has written:

Now on to the Interview!!!

1) How old were you when you started writing, in your opinion?

I remember taking a cool blank journal on a family vacation to Greece when I was 9 so I must have been thinking about it even then. (I ended writing about five words in it and that's it. I still have it somewhere, I think.) By 14 or so, I was probably sure that it's what I wanted to do for a living if I could. I wrote many, many bad stories and poems before I graduated from high school. I even put the date on all of them, because I thought they'd be important some day!

2) What do you want a reader to gain from reading your works?

My YA books, "The Edge or Everything" and "The Brink of Darkness," are fantasy novels but they've got a lot of stuff about family and grieving and shame and empathy. Those are the themes that mean the most to me personally.

3) What are your three top suggestions on becoming an author, or being a pleasure writer?

First, find a schedule you can stick to, even if it's only writing a couple hundred words a day or week. That way you won't wander away from a project because you haven't sat down to write in a while. Secondly, I always suggest writing at least a simple outline if you're thinking of a novel, so that you know where it's going and that the plot is interesting enough to carry a reader through a novel. Third, make sure you have snacks in the house, preferably chocolate.

4) What is your favourite novel, why?

I have many favorites, depending on what genre. My favorite young adult novel is "Still Life with Tornado" by A.S. King. It's about a teenage girl going through a hard time with her family. She skips school to walk around her city and keeps magically meeting up with herself at older or younger ages-- and she tries to get advice from herself on how to handle her life.

5) Who is your favourite author, why?

In YA world, it's A.S. King. In other genres, I love the Canadian short story writer Alice Munro and the Japanese novelist Huraki Murakami.  I also love the British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro. His sci-fi novel "Never Let Me Go" is one I recommend to all kinds of readers.  I also recommend Ann Patchett's thrilling/romantic novel "Bel Canto" constantly.

6) What are your favourite pass times besides writing?

I love music. I play a few instruments really badly and listen to all kinds of music.

7) Who in your life do you credit your imagination to the most?

Cool question! I'm not sure. I had a great high school teacher, Mr. Emmons, who really encouraged me to write. But I think it was all the reading I did as a kid that inspired me the most. When I was in high school and college, I read a lot of John Irving's novels ("The Hotel New Hampshire" and "The World According to Garp" were my favorites) and I loved the funny, generous way he looked at people, especially messed-up families.

8) What are the top five things on your bucket list?

I've never actually made a bucket list! But because I was a journalist I've already been really lucky in my life and gotten to meet many of my heroes and go to many places I dreamed about.

9) What is your funniest childhood memory?

Oh, I could write about a novel about being president of the high school marching band. We were the worst band ever.

10) To the youth of today, if you could tell them one thing, what would it be?

I'm sorry about what we've done to the earth and to people who are different and to politics, and I know your generation will fix everything.

Getting to Know the Authors: Featuring Elizabeth Lim!

Bio:

      Elizabeth Lim grew up on a hearty staple of fairy tales, myths, and songs. Her passion for storytelling began around age 10, when she started writing fanfics for Sailor Moon, Sweet Valley, and Star Wars, and posted them online to discover, "Wow, people actually read my stuff. And that's kinda cool!" But after one of her teachers told her she had "too much voice" in her essays, Elizabeth took a break from creative writing to focus on not flunking English.
      Over the years, Elizabeth became a film and video game composer, and even went so far as to get a doctorate in music composition. But she always missed writing, and she turned to penning stories when she needed a breather from grad school. One day, she decided to write and finish a novel -- for kicks, at first, then things became serious -- and she hasn't looked back since.
      Elizabeth loves classic film scores, books with a good romance, food (she currently has a soft spot for arepas and Ethiopian food), the colour turquoise, overcast skies, English muffins, cycling, and baking. She grew up in Northern California, with a brief stint in Tokyo, Japan, but now lives in New York City with her husband and their daughter.
​      Elizabeth graduated from Harvard College with a degree in music and a secondary in East Asian Studies, and completed her graduate degrees at The Juilliard School.
 ​     She is represented by Gina Maccoby of the Gina Maccoby Literary Agency.

What has she written?

She has written:

Now on to the Interview!!!

1) How old were you when you started writing, in your opinion?

         The first story I remember writing was in third grade. It was a mystery fanfic starring the twins from Sweet Valley. 

2) What do you want a reader to gain from reading your works?

         I want readers to fall in love with a new world, and to see that heroes come from all backgrounds. Most of all, I want readers to feel emotionally invested in my stories and characters, enough that they remember it long after they've finished reading. 

3) What are your three top suggestions on becoming an author, or being a pleasure writer?

        Read as much as you can, but listen too. A good ear can improve one’s writing immeasurably. 

Give yourself goals, not a timeline. 

Don’t let rejections get you down. Persistence is key. 

4) What is your favourite novel, why? 

         It's so tough for me to pick just one! I love most of the books I read, so I'm going to cheat a little and pick some favorites from the last month. As of December 2018, my favorites would be Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok, Circe by Madeleine Miller, and The Light Between Worlds by Laura Weymouth.

5) Who is your favourite author, why? 

         Same problem as the question above! Right now, I'd say Madeleine Miller and Laini Taylor because they both have a magical way of turning the most mundane action into something beautiful with their prose. 

6) What are your favourite pass times besides writing? 

         I love writing music, reading, and traveling. Lately I’ve started to enjoy taking and editing photos. In typical neurotic-writer fashion, I also really like updating my calendar and making lists.  

7) Who in your life do you credit your imagination to the most? 

         My mother

8) What are the top five things on your bucket list?

         1. See a shooting star

         2. Visit the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park (and see its pillar-mountains)

         3. Learn to lucid dream

         4. See the Northern Lights

         5. Learn how to cook Cantonese cuisine

9) What is your funniest childhood memory? 

         When I was around 4 or 5, I loved playing pranks on my family. Sometimes I’d use red marker and draw all over my hands and pretend I was bleeding to freak out my parents, or pour tons of sugar into my aunt’s hot chocolate. I also really loved reenacting shampoo commercials in the shower in my bathing suit. 

10) To the youth of today, if you could tell them one thing, what would it be? 

         Chasing adventure, a successful career, a way to change the world for the better are all admirable goals, but don't forget to prioritize love and building relationships that will last.