Mundie Moms

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Author Interview with Sarah Beth Durst


Welcome to today's author spotlight. I'm so thrilled to have The Lost author, Sarah Beth Durst on the blog today, to talk about her new YA/NA cross over. I'm looking forward to reading this one! It's currently near the top of this month's TBR pile. Before I share my interview with Sarah, here's a little bit about her newest releases.

About The Lost

Published by: Harlequin / Mira
Released on: May 27th, 2014
Series: The Lost #1
Purchase from: AmazonBarnes & NobleBooks-a-Million
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Lost your way? 

Your dreams?  

Yourself? 

Welcome to Lost. 

It was supposed to be a small escape. A few hours driving before turning around and heading home. But once you arrive in Lost...well, it's a place you really can't leave. Not until you're Found. Only the Missing Man can send you home. And he took one look at Lauren Chase and disappeared. 

So Lauren is now trapped in the town where all lost things go-luggage, keys, dreams, lives-where nothing is permanent, where the locals go feral and where the only people who don't want to kill her are a handsome wild man called the Finder and a knife-wielding six-year-old girl. The only road out of town is engulfed by an impassable dust storm, and escape is impossible.... 

Until Lauren decides nothing-and no one-is going to keep her here anymore. 

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HI Sarah! Congratulations on your new release. The Lost seems like a great cross over for YA and NA readers. Did you find it harder to write a book for older readers? Why?

Thanks so much!

The key is to stay true to the characters.  If you're writing about a sixteen year old and stick to her worldview, the story will come out as YA.  If you're writing about a twenty-seven year old and stay true to her, then it will be adult.  While I write, I try not to think about who will be reading it and try to simply focus on telling the story as best I can.

 The concept for The Lost is intriguing.  What inspired you to write the story?

THE LOST is about a woman trapped in a town full of lost things and lost people.  The idea came from wondering what would happen if someone got in their car and simply kept driving...  Where would they end up?  What if someone were lost in every sense of the word?

If you found yourself in a town with lost things, what sort of lost things would you be most intrigued with finding? Is there anything you've lost over the years you'd hope to find there?

I'd love to find lost artwork -- like the paintings that were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and never seen again.  Or lost great novels.  Or songs that have been forgotten.

On a personal note, there's a pair of blue butterfly earrings that I'd like to find again... 

What advice would your character give to those who find themselves in a town full of lost things & lost people?

Don't walk into the dust.  You might not ever come out.  Stay out of the alleys.  They're full of feral dogs.  Don't clean up your yard -- you're safer if no one knows which house you're squatting in.  Keep to the rooftops as much as possible.  (Most people don't look up.)  And don't be squeamish about eating half-eaten sandwiches.  People rarely lose whole ones.

Also, and this is very, very important... don't anger the Missing Man.

Which character did you have the most fun getting to know? 

Claire.  She's a six year old girl who wears a tattered princess dress and carries a teddy bear and a very sharp knife.

Can you please tell us what you're working on next? 

THE LOST is the first in a trilogy.  The second, THE MISSING, will be out in December, and it will be followed by THE FOUND in April.

I also have my next YA book, CHASING POWER, coming out in October from Bloomsbury.  It's an Indiana Jones kind of adventure about a girl with telekinesis and a boy who can teleport (and who lies as easily as he travels).

Thank you Sarah for stopping by today!

Thanks so much for interviewing me!


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About Sarah Beth Durst

Sarah Beth Durst is the author of eight fantasy novels for teens and adults. Her YA titles includeConjuredVesselDrink Slay Love,Enchanted IvyIceOut of the Wild, and Into the Wild. Her first book for adults, The Lost, came out in June 2014 from Harlequin/Mira and will soon be followed by The Missing, in December 2014, and The Found, in April 2015. Sarah's next book for teens, Chasing Power, comes out in October 2014 from Bloomsbury. She was awarded the 2013 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature and has been a finalist for SFWA's Andre Norton Award three times.

Sarah was born in Northboro, Massachusetts, a small town that later became the setting for her debut novel. At the age of ten, she decided she wanted to be a writer. (Before that, she wanted to be Wonder Woman, except with real flying ability instead of an invisible jet. She also would have accepted a career as a unicorn princess.) And she began writing fantasy stories. She attended Princeton University, where she spent four years studying English, writing about dragons, and wondering what the campus gargoyles would say if they could talk. Sarah lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her husband, her two children, and her ill-mannered cat. (source: Sarah's blog)

Find Sarah via: her Website | her Blog | Twitter | Facebook 

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson, Waiting on Wednesday



By: Mary E. Pearson
Published by: Henry Holt
To Be Released on: 7/ 8/14
Series: The Remnant Chronicles
Pre-Order from: Amazon | B&N | More links found here
Add it to Goodreads

In this timeless new trilogy about love and sacrifice, a princess must find her place in a reborn world.

In a society steeped in tradition, Princess Lia’s life follows a preordained course. As First Daughter, she is expected to have the revered gift of sight—but she doesn’t—and she knows her parents are perpetrating a sham when they arrange her marriage to secure an alliance with a neighboring kingdom—to a prince she has never met.

On the morning of her wedding, Lia flees to a distant village. She settles into a new life, hopeful when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deception abounds, and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—even as she finds herself falling in love.

If you're looking for that perfect Summer Read, add this book to your list. I am so excited that this book will be out hitting shelves next month! I'm reading it now and LOVING it!! I also love this cover. I can't wait to add the published copy to my favorites bookcase.

What book are you waiting on?

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