After Dark Blog Tour

Author Interview:

Q: After Dark has a very original take on the Changeling myth how did you come up with the idea?

It really came to me. Just hit me one day. I mean, in thinking about how often people change careers and don't really know what they want to do when they 'grow up', I thought ... well ... what if you had to pick right after you'd become an adult and never-ever-ever got a chance to change. Ever. Of course, that's not 'real' so I set it in a paranormal world in order to build upon this as a constraint. That's been very fun as I've written the series.

Q: Much of the novel centers around Mac making choices and having the ability to choose for herself what made you want to write about this topic?

That's right. It's all about making choices and decisions. One of Mac's main problems is that she doesn't want to think about it all. She just wants it to happen. She doesn't want to work for it, but she is committed. She'll do what she has to do without putting any real effort into it. Unfortunately, I see this in a lot of teens these days. There's no true 'effort' to many of their decisions. So in the end of the series, I hope to prove a little bit of a point with Mac, but also to have a lot of fun with her character. Truly, choosing so early in life is just so, so, so hard, so be happy you're human and will have the opportunity to change your mind.

Q: Mac was a very relatable heroine is she based on anyone in particular or is Mac a little bit like you?

Mac is a mix of a lot of people, though I realized, recently that my daughter (my eldest twin) is very much like Mac. Stubborn as all get out, not particularly curious unless it's about something she wants, does exactly what's needed but nothing else and is super-super smart but doesn't show it. I think, somehow, as I wrote Mac, I might have been channeling my 8 year old. :)

Q: How long did it take for you to write and then publish After Dark?

I wrote After Dark in just under 2 months. January-February 2011, actually. So at it's release, it'll be not-quite-two years old.

Q: Can you tell us anything about the sequel? Maybe a little spoiler? (please?!)

Ah ... the sequel. :) Well, well, well .. if you promise not to tell anyone I gave this to you (::wink::) try this PRE-edited opening. Here's 177 words for ya right from the first page. :)

Sitting in front of the twelve most powerful non-humans on the earth would have shaken a lesser guy. In my case, I’d almost thrown up. Twice.

Mackenzie Thorne, my girlfriend, had said ‘don’t worry, it’s just a formality’. She hadn’t known I’d have to go alone.

Only the intake and exhalation of air in the room made any sound. Eery light flickered from the tips of candles mounted along dark, oak-paneled walls.

I refused to look anywhere but ahead of me. To the long, wooden, medieval-length table.

Waiting.

Watching.

Holding my own breath.

For a moment, it seemed the walls began to close in on me.

Nearly midnight on the first day of the year, I prepared to accept a fate no other human had ever taken on, been given or even offered even as sweat pooled under my armpits as alternating cold and hot ran through me.

The scratch of wood against wood had heads turning. Mine included.

Nahir, the oldest of the twelve, rose from his chair. “Winford Richmond Thomas, please rise.”

Review:

The changeling myth is one of my favorites. I like the idea of mean things sneaking into rooms and stealing children, leaving one of their own behind. The whole thing just sort of creeps me out. Emi Gayle really takes this classic myth and completely turns it on its head and makes the story her own.

After Dark is about Mac who is a changeling. Only she is not a changeling in the traditional sense. Mac has been raised by a vampire father and a faerie mother and can change her form into anything she wishes, but only at night. One second she can be a vampire, the next, ghost, then witch, well you get the idea. At 19 Mac must choose one form to stay in for the rest of her life and take her place on the council which rules all of the supernatural beings. The problem is Mac is not ready to pick yet and the council is trying to force her to choose.

Initially Mac irritated me a bit. She was content just to go through the motions on life and not question her history, where she came from, or why she needs to choose a form. I am such a naturally curious and questioning person that I just did not understand her. It wasn’t until she met Winn Thomas that she begins to question where she came from, what happened to her birth mother, and the decision she must make. It was when she starting questioning things that I started to like her.

I liked that Mac did a lot of growing in this novel. When the novel begins Mac hates humans and disdains spending half her day as one. But by the end she has not only made friends with some humans (a feat she hadn’t achieved in 18 years) but she found herself falling for one of them.

The relationship between Mac and Winn it was a sort of slow blooming romance. It was extra sweet too because Winn had had a crush on Mac since elementary school but because Mac has always been so standoffish he had never been able to tell her.

Overall, I enjoyed After Dark and am excited for the sequel I have a feeling Mac is going to do even more growing and changing in the next novel and I’m excited to see what happens between her and Winn!

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After Dark Blog Tour