Interview with Unearthly author, Cynthia Hand

We are so excited to have Cynthia Hand on our blog today! Unearthly is one of our favorite reads so far this year and if you haven't already picked up, we highly recommend that you do. Unearthly was featured as our Debut Spotlight Author of the month in January. Here's a little bit about Unearthly-

By Cynthia Hand

Published by Harper Teen

Released on January 4th, 2011

In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . .

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.

As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?

Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.

Clara and her family move from California to Wyoming at the very beginning of your story. What made you choose those two locations? And yes, based on your descriptions alone, some of us are now ready to move our families to Wyoming.

I chose Mountain View, CA and Jackson, WY because both were places I know pretty well and thought I could treat with great detail and accuracy. I lived in that part of California for two years (my son was born in the Mountain View hospital) and one of my favorite places to go in that area was Big Basin Redwoods State Park (where Clara's mom takes Clara to tell her about the angels), which I thought would be a perfect setting for the telling of the big secret, and some flying. It also made sense to put Clara's mother there for her job as a computer programmer. All in all, Mountain View just fit the bill of what I needed for Clara's family.

I chose Jackson mainly because it's one of my favorite places on the planet. I grew up in Idaho Falls, which is about two and a half hours' drive from Jackson. I've always loved the town, both for its proximity to Grand Teton National Park, which never fails to fill me with awe with those gorgeous towering mountains, and for the part-rugged, part-polished feel of the town itself. I thought this vibe fit Clara's situation perfectly, and the town is just a rich, rich setting, ripe for writing about. One of the things that made writing Unearthly such great fun was getting to capture all those wonderful little details about Jackson. I am so glad that my readers are getting to fall in love with this place along with Clara.

Your angel lore is unique in how they have to fulfill a single purpose. What was your inspiration for that particular twist on the mythology?

Clara's purpose was really the seed that got me writing the book. I think what inspired me was the idea that most of us, at some point, ask ourselves the question, Why am I here? Clara's story is really her journey to find the answer to that question. Metaphorically that's a journey we all take, within ourselves, and, like Clara, we often find that the answer is more complicated than we could have ever dreamed it to be.

As moms ourselves, we understood Clara's mom all too well. If she could give only one piece of advice to her children, what would it be?

Wow, good question! I think her one piece of advice might be, "Let go." (closes eyes and whistles, thinking about Book 2. . .) I think it's hard for Maggie to follow this advice herself, though, to let go of her children and watch them make mistakes and get hurt and do things she knows will have lasting consequences. What she says more than anything else to her kids is "trust," trust in her, trust in the plans marked out for them, trust in themselves.

Which character would you have wanted to be friends with growing up and why?

Wendy! Poor Wendy often gets a lot of her scenes cut in my the editing stages of the books. She had a whole story arc in my original draft of Unearthly about dating a popular guy (King Brady, from history class) that never made it through the revisions. But I love Wendy--she's that kind of steadfast friend who's always there for you, who tells you the truth when you need to hear it, who stands by your side when you need backup, and who doesn't take herself to seriously. Clara needs a friend like that. Who knows, though, maybe Wendy will get her moment in the sun one of these days. . .

We know that writing is a lot of work and some days scenes flow well and other days they make you want to pull your hair out. How do you get over the days where you feel nothing in your story is coming together?

I think it was Einstein who said that genius comes from the bed, the bath, or the bus, places where we let our minds drift open a bit. Supposedly he came up with the theory of relativity while shaving. When I'm stuck I usually try one of these things. I lay down and take a little nap, try to get my mind to relax. I take a long bath or shower. I cook or do the dishes, something to get one part of my mind occupied by some sort of task so another part of my mind can wander around my story. I came up with a key piece of dialogue for Unearthly while folding laundry, for example. Sometimes I take a drive or walk. I also listen to music as a way of focusing.

My other secret weapon is my husband. Nothing helps me get unstuck more than sitting down with him and talking through my current story problem. He's a writer, too, and has an amazing brain (sends a smooch in husband's direction). We've had so many late night conversations about Clara, it's like she's part of our family!

There are times, of course, when none of these things work, not even the amazing husband, and I start to have doubts about myself as a writer, or about my story. This is especially true for me in the editing process, where sometimes it feels like I've blasted my story with a shotgun and it's lying in pieces around my feet, and it doesn't feel like I'm ever going to put things back together again.That's where the faith comes in, a trust in the process of writing. I have to believe, in those moments, that the solution will present itself, and I will be able to write it, and everything will be all right if I just keep hammering away at it. And, mysteriously, this always happens! It's like magic!

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Thank you Cynthia for visiting with us and thank you to Harper Teen!

You can read our reviews for Unearthly here http://tinyurl.com/28rcp6v and http://tinyurl.com/4umr9lf

We will be giving away a copy of Unearthly as part of our Mundie Moms 2 year birthday bash later this month!!

Be sure to visit Cynthia here http://cynthiahand.blogspot.com/ and you read more about Unearthly by visiting Harper Collins.

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Cynthia is one of 5 awesome authors who make up this years Harper Teen, Dark Days of Supernatural Tour.

Be sure to visit their site here http://www.harperteen.com/feature/darkdays/

where you can grab widgets, badges and see which cities the authors will be coming to.