Mundie Moms

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Skylark Blog Tour: Author Interview



For today's Skylark Blog Tour stop, I'm excited to have author Meagan Spooner on Mundie Moms. She's stopped by to answer a few of my questions about her debut, which will be out on bookstore shelves TOMORROW! First, here's a little about her book:



Vis in magia, in vita vi. In magic there is power, and in power, life. 

For fifteen years, Lark Ainsley waited for the day when her Resource would be harvested and she would finally be an adult. After the harvest she expected a small role in the regular, orderly operation of the City within the Wall. She expected to do her part to maintain the refuge for the last survivors of the Wars. She expected to be a tiny cog in the larger clockwork of the city. 

Lark did not expect to become the City's power supply. 

For fifteen years, Lark Ainsley believed in a lie. Now she must escape the only world she's ever known...or face a fate more unimaginable than death. 


To Be Released on: August 1st, 2012

Interview:

Hi Meagan! Thank you for being on Mundie Moms today to talk about your debut, Skylark. Are you able to sum up what it feels like to a published author to a few words or less? I can only imagine how surreal that must feel.

Thank you for having me! Surreal is actually a pretty good word for it. Also, see: amazing, terrifying, humbling, and crazy-making.

What inspired you to start writing Skylark?

The initial glimmerings of the world in SKYLARK came to me first, while listening to a public radio piece on the energy crisis. I was only listening with half my brain, but it did make me think about alternate power sources, and my mind (being what it is) leaped to magic. I think the real inspiration, though, came when I figured out whose story, within that world, I most wanted to tell. I think there's a little bit of the kid I was (and still am deep down) inside Lark... afraid she'll never fit in, uncertain of her strength, always wondering if perhaps there's something else, a little further beyond the places she's gone. SKYLARK is above all else a character story, and for me that was the real driving force behind my writing it. I wanted to see what Lark became.

Do you have a favorite moment or line from your book that you can share with us?

What I wanted was to go back, unlearn what I had learned, make him again just a boy, helping a girl, lost in the wilderness.

But I can't tell you why. I'm not being cagey, I promise! It's just spoiler-y to explain why this is one of my favorite moments in the book. I will say that the heartbreaking things are what stick with me, whether it's in my own writing or in someone else's.

What's something you came to admire about your character, Lark?

Her capacity for faith. I'm not really talking about religion, or anything spiritual whatsoever, when I say faith--but her first major decision in the book, the decision to flee the city she knows for the wild, potentially lethal, unknown land beyond the Wall comes from the fact that she believes there has to be something better out there. And in the beginning, this ends up being tangled up in naivete, as well. But I think she outgrows that as the story progresses, leaving her with simple conviction. And through all the ups and downs, particularly the downs (and there are many) she hangs onto that capacity. Betrayed, lied to, half-starved, stripped of everything she thought she knew--she still gets back up and says, "There's more than this." I think that makes it a hopeful book, despite its dark moments.

What author has been the greatest influence on you as a writer?

Waaay too many to name, but I'll do my best to at least narrow down the list a little and give you three: Lois Lowry, Robin McKinley, Peter Beagle.

If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring writers, what would that be?

Keep moving. The moment you let yourself stop, whether it's that you stop writing, stop critiquing, stop querying, or even just stop reading, you're going to make it twenty times harder to start again later. It takes time to build momentum and build discipline, and when you stop you lose that so quickly, no matter how long it took you to gain it in the first place. The instant you give in to the urge to stagnate, something switches over in your brain and you start treading water. Which, if I can risk stretching my metaphor too thin, will only make you tired--it won't get you anywhere. Always keep reading, writing, learning. Keep swimming. Keep moving. 


Bio:
Meagan Spooner grew up reading and writing every spare moment of the day, while dreaming about life as an archaeologist, a marine biologist, an astronaut. She graduated from Hamilton College in New York with a degree in playwriting, and has spent several years since then living in Australia. She's traveled with her family all over the world to places like Egypt, South Africa, the Arctic, Greece, Antarctica, and the Galapagos, and there's a bit of every trip in every story she writes.

She currently lives and writes in Northern Virginia, but the siren call of travel is hard to resist, and there's no telling how long she'll stay there. 

In her spare time she plays guitar, plays video games, plays with her cat, and reads.

She is the author of SKYLARK, coming out August 1 from Carolrhoda Lab/Lerner Books. She is also the co-author of THESE BROKEN STARS, forthcoming from Disney-Hyperion in Fall 2013

4 comments:

  1. Awesome interview. I loved learning more about Meagan. And I just stayed up way too late last night because I had to finish Skylark. Good luck with your debut Meagan.

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  2. Great interview, I've been hearing good things about Skylark and it's made it to my TBR list as well!

    - Jessica @ Book Sake

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    1. Thank you Jessica! It's a good read. I'm definitely looking forward to more of Meagan's books.

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