Author Interview with Lisa McMann and GONE Give Away!

Happy Release Day for Lisa McMann's GONE!!! In celebration of this exciting news, and thank you to Simon & Schuster, we're giving away some copies of GONE!!!

Lisa kicks off her GONE tour tonight! More information can be found at the bottom of our Q&A with Lisa.

1) We know that you had finished FADE as WAKE was being released, did you have in mind the plot line of GONE, even as you were finishing FADE?
Yes, my editor and I had discussed GONE a short time after WAKE came out. I had a pretty solid idea of where I wanted the series to end and editor Jen had some terrific ideas too. By the time FADE came out, GONE was essentially written.


2) Mundie Moms love Playlists, is there one song that you listened to as you wrote GONE that you can share with us?
I don't normally listen to music when I write, but I used Here With Me by Dido to really get me started writing GONE -- to get me back into that pulse-pounding place Janie was in after Durbin's party in Fade, and to help me sort out where her brain would be as things settled down a bit after graduation.

3) If Janie were to fall into one of your dreams, how would she describe it?
Familiar, maybe. I used a lot of my own dreams in the trilogy. Carrie's dream in WAKE was a recurring nightmare I had when I was a kid. And a few of the nightmares in Fade and Gone were from my own recollection too.

4) We love how your characters are so 3D and fully fleshed out. Is there a character that was cut out of any of the stories and can you share a little bit about them?
There were no characters cut out of any of the stories. I write sparsely in pretty much every aspect of the craft, so I don't generally have to cut passages or characters -- I have to add them. There was a scene in GONE that I attempted, just to see if the story needed to go in a different direction, but I nixed it immediately because it felt totally wrong. That scene involved Officer Rabinowitz -- you might remember him from near the end of WAKE.

5) GONE ends the story of Janie and Cabel on a completely believable note. If we had the two of them sitting here and asked them how they felt about their future, what would they say?
I am so tempted to say things here, evil things that would make people cry or laugh or freak out, but I will refrain. They'd probably just shrug and smile wistfully... it is what it is. They're tough. They can handle anything that comes their way, in time.

6) Thank you for the gift of Cabel's short story; do you have any plans to continue that?
You're welcome! I get this question every day, and my stock answer is "Not at this time." Why not? A couple reasons. Because I don't have a contract to do anything more with the WAKE trilogy. And because I'm not sure if Cabel's story would be the right thing to do. If my publisher comes to me and asks me to consider writing Cabel's story, I would consider it. And if I decided to continue it, I'd probably start by telling the story of his life before he met Janie, because to me, that is a very interesting part of his life that we only get a small taste of in the WAKE trilogy. And because the Wake trilogy is told essentially from Janie's point of view, there could be some very interesting scenes from Cabel's perspective. But...I'm still not sure it would be a good idea. What do the Mundie Moms think?
We'd LOVE to hear Cabel's story.

7) Thank you for giving us Cabel and Janie's story. We loved how the series ended! Can you tell us a little bit about the new series you're working on?
Thank you -- that's great to hear! Let's see, new books. Well, I'm contracted for five more books at the moment -- three of them are already written, two are not. None are officially "series'" at this point, but at least one has tremendous potential to be. Here they are, in a nutshell, in order of publication date:

CRYER'S CROSS (spring 2011): a stand-alone paranormal novel. Creepy -- more so than WAKE. Romance too. Readers who loved Cabe will likely love Jacián. I'd tell you more but my editor hasn't read it yet.

THE UNWANTEDS (fall 2011): my first venture into slightly younger territory (ages 10-14). It's a dystopian fantasy about a society where creative children are put to death. I can see a strong possibility for a series here. Possible sequel in fall 2012.

DEAD TO YOU (spring 2012): An emotional thriller (YA) about a 16-year-old boy who returns to his family after having been abducted at age seven. He doesn't remember his family. At all.

UNTITLED (spring 2013): Possible start of a new series, or maybe something else -- not sure yet.

As you can see, my middle grade books will come out in the fall, and my YA in the spring as usual. Hope you enjoy!

Thank you Lisa for taking the time to chat with us. Congratulations on your release of GONE!

You can read our 5 star review of GONE here- http://tinyurl.com/yeqtadc

You can meet Lisa TONIGHT as she kicks off her GONE tour with Becca Fitzpatrick @ Helping Hands for a book signing. You can get more information here:

http://www.changinghands.com/event/mcmann_fitzpatrick

To see where Lisa is headed too next, please visit here:

http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Lisa-McMann/45103601/author_appearances

How can you win a copy of GONE? Well, we've got two copies we'd love to give away!! All you have to do is:

+2 for being a blog follower

+4 for being a forum member

+5 for retweeting this/posting this on your blog etc *please include your link*

+5 for leaving us a comment and letting us know what you think will happen in GONE. *No spoilers* if you've read it already

One entry per person, leaving a valid email address so we can contact you. This contest will run from 2/9/2010-midnight 2/12/2010. We'll randomly draw the winners names and post them on our blog the morning of 2/13/2010. The winners have 48 hours to contact us after we contact them. If we don't hear from the winners, new names will be drawn. GOOD LUCK and HAPPY READING!!