Amy Plum, author of the new book Die for Me, is here today to discuss the book and her writing.
Die for Me will be released tomorrow!
Check out the bottom for a link to follow the rest of the tour stops.
1. From reading some of the background of Die For Me, it's easy to see how much thought you put into the story long before you began writing. Can you share with us 3 things that you were determined to achieve with this story?
2. I wanted to create a brand new paranormal mythology where I could let my imagination roam and have the freedom to form my own little universe.
3. And thirdly: redemption. Kate is strong and independent in a way that I wasn’t at her age. And I gave her a family I would have loved to have had.
So, although I hadn’t thought about it ahead of time, as I wrote the book (especially figuring out Kate’s past, although much of it isn’t spelled out) I was aware that I was rewriting my own past. In a small way, the book is a sort of redemption for a childhood and adolescence that included lots of not-very-nice things. And although Kate’s parents die when she is sixteen, up until then her life is what I wish mine had been.
2. Many of the locations in Die For Me were ones from your past. What made you decide to do that and is there any other place special to you that you wish you could include in a book?
I am very visual, so places are important to me. And dropping my characters into locations I myself have known is—again—like recreating my past. I loved putting Jules’s art studio in my old apartment, placing a lot of the action in my old neighborhood, the Marais, and then there’s the Pont des Arts… *sigh*. So perhaps it’s a bit of a crutch. I know these places so well that I can easily go to them in my mind when I’m writing a scene. It might just facilitate the action to be able to close my eyes and be right back there.
Although… I made up the interior of Jean-Baptiste’s house from my imagination (dropping in a few elements that I knew: the staircase, Charlotte’s heart-shaped windows… ). BUT even though I’ve never been there, I know every room in that place like it was my own house.
And yes – I would write a book that takes place, at least partly, in New York City, my other urban love besides Paris. It is just as magical as Paris, but in a completely different way.
3. What is the hardest part of juggling family time and writing? Do you have any tips for anyone who may be struggling with the same thing?
I can’t write if my children are in the house with me. (Unless they’re asleep, and by that time I’m usually too exhausted to write.) They’re only three and five, and if I am around they want to be rightnexttome. I’m lucky enough to have an office outside of my home. It’s a little building that’s just across the yard from our house. And when I go there I know that no one is going to bother me. I can immerse myself completely in my writing without my concentration being broken.
So my advice would be to find a place where you know you can let your mind reign supreme. Without listening for that next knock on the door or ringing phone. In Stephen King’s book ON WRITING, he spoke of writing his first two published novels “in the laundry room of a doublewide trailer, pounding away on my wife’s portable Olivetti typewriter and balancing a child’s desk on my thighs.” He says that John Cheever wrote in the basement of his Park Avenue apartment building, near the furnace. It doesn’t matter where it is or if it is even comfortable. If it is YOURS AND ONLY YOURS—for the time you are writing—that is what matters.
4. What has been the biggest adjustment for you since you started writing? What is your favorite thing to do that helps you relax after a long day of writing?
The biggest adjustment has been having a project that is long-term. When I was an art dealer or a professor or wrote articles for magazines, I had short-term projects that I could work hard on and then be done with in a relatively short amount of time. Now, writing the draft of a book usually takes me a few months. I’ve had to learn to chop that up into short-term goals. One day will be just for planning. The next I will write one chapter. I can’t stop until I finish it, but once I do I’m done for the day. Or if I’m editing, I have to finish two chapters per day. Whatever it is, I have to look at it as small tasks, because seeing it as a whole is too overwhelming for my impatient, impulsive personality.
And favorite thing to do at the end of a long day of writing? Usually after writing, I am busy splitting parenting activities with my husband: making dinner, getting the kids’ bath, pajamas, bedtime books, etc. So it’s not until the kids are in bed that I have time to relax. At that point, I’m usually so exhausted that I flop into bed with a book or my New Yorker magazine, or bring my laptop with me and read scandalous celebrity gossip! (Shhh… shameful confession!) When my husband offers to do all the kiddie stuff himself (when he sees that I’m falling over), I take a one-hour bath with a book and a glass of wine.
5. Can you tell us something that people would find surprising about you?
I don’t have a television connection… by choice. My tv set is only used for DVDs! So when people talk about different television series or personalities, I don’t have a clue what they’re talking about. (Except for True Blood – my friend Kim sent me the series on DVD. Which I LOVE.)
6. What else can people expect from the Revenants series? Do you know how many books will be in the series?
DIE FOR ME is a trilogy. But I certainly have enough of a story to write another book or maybe spinoff books. I also have another series I’d like to write however, so who knows what will happen! So as far as the actual books go—your guess is as good as mine.
However, as for the story line, you can expect to discover more about the revenant mythology. You will learn more about the other characters. And you will see how Kate and Vincent respond to new challenges posed both by their relationship and by this dangerous supernatural world that Kate is just beginning to discover.
Die for Me by Amy Plum
Publisher: HarperTeen (May 10th, 2011) Reading Level: Young Adult Hardback: 341 pages Series: Revenants, book #1 My life had always been blissfully, wonderfully normal. But it only took one moment to change everything.
Suddenly, my sister, Georgia, and I were orphans. We put our lives into storage and moved to Paris to live with my grandparents. And I knew my shattered heart, my shattered life, would never feel normal again. Then I met Vincent.
Mysterious, sexy, and unnervingly charming, Vincent Delacroix appeared out of nowhere and swept me off my feet. Just like that, I was in danger of losing my heart all over again. But I was ready to let it happen.
Of course, nothing is ever that easy. Because Vincent is no normal human. He has a terrifying destiny, one that puts his life at risk every day. He also has enemies.. immortal, murderous enemies who are determined to destroy him and all of his kind.
While I'm fighting to piece together the remnants of my life, can I risk putting my heart—as well as my life and my family's—in jeopardy for a chance at love?
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