Today is the last day of the Penguin Teen on Tour! With this said, we want to share our stop at Books and Books. We had a blast and we even had the chance to pick out the questions for the moderator our friend, Aurora. Not only this, but Andy and I, Leydy, had the chance to interview April Genevieve Tucholke! It was a very unique and funny interview. I wish I could share the audio because we laughed so hard. We talked about Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and everything relating to scary and creepy stories! Check our interview below!
INTERVIEW WITH APRIL!
OUAT: Was it hard to switch from character to character when they're so different?
APRIL: No, I liked it because it was a nice change. I've only written from one perspective before. In Wink Poppy Midnight, the chapters are short and fun. Midnight chapters worn me down, while the other two I stood wherever I wanted and carry out the plot. It was great, I would like to do it again.
OUAT: It is a nice change to go into a book and read someone else perspective and the way they see this world from our main character.
APRIL: It does make the plot more complex to see it in different perspective. I think Game of Thrones, have you girls read Game of Thrones?
OUAT: YES!
APRIL: It was my first book with different perspectives. I was like, I don't want to read about Sansa again, but then you get to the end of the chapter and I was like no, I don't want this to end!
OUAT: Oh yes, then you have to think hard to remember what was said in the previous chapter from this person. You always have to go back.
APRIL: It is fun!
OUAT: While writing Wink Poppy Midnight did you always have in mind who was the hero, the villain and the liar? Or were you as surprised as us?
APRIL: I was surprised because I had definite roles for each of them and as the story went on, within two-thirds of the book, I was like okay, I am not going to write the ending I first was going to write. I completely changed it. I redeem a character (NO SPOILERS HERE), however I was going to keep (NO NAME) pure and made her more great. Then (NO NAMES), I kept the same. It was a surprise. OUAT: You were blown by away by your own writing.
APRIL: Yes, it is weird when that happens. People say the characters just told them what to say and I really never had that experience. With this book, it kind of did.
OUAT: Going of that, authors often say these characters speak to them, who do you think of the three spoke the loudest?
APRIL: Poppy. I started to like her but I also liked Wink.
OUAT: The villein is whom people are drawn to.
APRIL: I remember reading Anne Rice saying Lestat was her favorite. Well it was pretty obvious.... Why do we always like the villain? They're unpredictable.
OUAT: A lot of author write down their plot, did you go off your written one? Since it surprised you at the end?
APRIL: I usually have some ideas of what will happen at the end but by the time I get there, it just completely dissolved to something else. I'm always like, Old April, what was she thinking? She doesn't know what is going on. And I know what's going on so let me change it. Once I decide that, I know what I know what I will do.
OUAT: So you're like "Oh, look at that post it from two weeks ago. No, not going that way".
APRIL: Yeah, I have problems with authority, even if I am the authority.
OUAT: Was it hard to transition from a duology to a standalone?
APRIL: No, I wrote Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea as a standalone and Between the Spark and the Burn came out of nowhere. I like clean slate so I was really excited for this standalone. I like standalone.
OUAT: Why>
APRIL: I like having a book done. I don't have to carry the plot around or in three books. It's terrifying. I like to read standalone.
OUAT: It's more enjoyable for me to read a standalone, I don't have to be on the edge of my seat waiting for the next book. It's terrible to wait for a year!
APRIL: It is horrible! Speaking of Martin (George RR Martin), he has put us all through hell. It's rough!
OUAT: With this new season, we are all asking WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN.
APRIL: They are way pass what he has written. What book are they... I don't know what's going to happen.
OUAT: The fifth book, they haven't cover the first half. I am wondering if they will include this in this season.
APRIL: Oh, yes!
OUAT: They started season 5 with the second half of the book and there's a HUGE twist.
APRIL: Do you girls think Jon Snow is dead?
OUAT: NO! HE IS NOT DEAD.
APRIL: Yeah, no he is not.
OUAT: I'm glad we solved this.
OUAT: Speaking of your series, how is working from a series now then what it was at the start?
APRIL: I don't even remember.
OUAT: Was it a struggle?
APRIL: Yes, for the sequel, it was hard. You have to remember everything you did on the first book and tie it. Tie it together but not to tightly. It's tricky. We are going to keep talking about Martin. I don't know how... Does he have an assistant? How does he remember everything?
OUAT: He must have a room but nothing in there but his world of Game of Thrones. Actually he does.
APRIL: The universe he is keeping in his head...
OUAT: It's so expand. It's hard for me to keep up with this fantasy that has this amazing world. Then the sequel comes out and you can't remember anything.
APRIL: It's hard to get into those books. I love fantasy but it takes thoughts, patience and dedication. When the book has one or two characters, it is a bit easier.
OUAT: Specially with the world building.
APRIL: Oh my god, yes.
OUAT: How did you balance to come up with new information on your sequel?
APRIL: I don't know. It was hard. You do forget things when you create them. I had to keep going back over and over.
OUAT: If you could, what fictional world would you like to live in or explore?
APRIL: HARRY POTTER, obviously.
OUAT: Still waiting for our letters.
APRIL: We are all waiting for our letters. It's a universal angst.
OUAT: We should petition.
APRIL: We should. It is an incredible world.... Not Martin's.
OUAT: We're okay just watching them all die.
APRIL: What would you girls pick?
OUAT: Besides Harry Potter, Nardia.
APRIL: That is a good one but it is pretty intense. There's always a battle.
OUAT: The first book. It introduces you to this world and characters.
APRIL: I do love that world.
OUAT: With Harry Potter, I wouldn't want to jump in at the beginning. I would like to start with Order of Phoenix. I love when Sirius comes in. I mean I do like the start but then it gets darker. And I love that.
APRIL: Have you girls done the sorting hat?
OUAT - LEYDY: I'm Gryffindor.
OUAT - ANDY: No, no. She wishes to be one! She's Ravenclaw
APRIL: I am Slytherin but I more Ravenclaw
OUAT - ANDY: I see myself more of a Hufflepuff than Slytherin.
APRIL: Do you know any Gryffindor? Are you that brave and reckless? It's a rare trait. It's hard to be brave. Where is Luna from?
OUAT: Ravenclaw.
APRIL: I love her.
OUAT: Book-wise, if you were stranded on an island, what three books would you have with you?
APRIL: I've read Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell four times and that book is so loooong. I love that book. It's a huge world, there are so many things there. I always discover things every time I read it. The adaptation is good too. I love how I just discover the true hero. It's not Jonathan nor Mr. Norrell. I love how many layers one can peal. The Little House because I grew up reading that book. Those haunting simple little stories are beautiful. Re-reading them as an adult I discovered their life are really dangerous. They're always on constant threat.
OUAT: It's funny when you re-read books as an adult. It's like you switch a light bud and you see things different. I love it. Specially going back to your childhood reading.
APRIL: What book has done that to you? OUAT: It's like Lion King. You re-watch and you wonder what is Disney teaching our kids?!
APRIL: I was a child when The Dark Crystal and ET first came out and those movies are really dark. I can't believed we watched those! I had nightmare. Do you have kids?
OUAT: NO
APRIL: Are you going to allow them to watch scary movies?
OUAT - LEYDY: I used to watch scary movies. Chucky used to be my favorite.
APRIL: I wasn't allow to watch him. I wonder what it does to our little brains.
OUAT: The one movie that freaked me out was IT.
APRIL: IT is terrifying. You're looking at the book and you see the clown running out... I just got goosebumps.
OUAT: The was the one movie that got me. Chucky was cute compare to IT.
APRIL: Were you ever scared?
OUAT: I was always drawn to the villein or anything creepy and anything related to horror.
APRIL: I still can't believe you watch It. I don't think I could watch the movie now and not be freaked out.
OUAT: What do you think makes a good story?
APRIL: That's tricky. In general, I am not a fan of black and white characters. Then I think of To Kill a Mockingbird, Finch... Although on the sequel he's not so perfect. I personally love vengeance, tales of vengeance, when someone gets revenge. I love when there's a twist like We Were Liars. Did you girls read it?
OUAT: Not yet.
APRIL: Do you girls like M. Night Shyamalan? He produced The Sixth Sense.
OUAT: Yes, we do.
APRIL: I love his twists. Have you watched The Visit?
OUAT: Yes, although I did find it funny and not scary.
APRIL: I thought it was terrifying. The crawling...
OUAT: I went with my best friend and her 8 years old niece, she was laughing.
APRIL: She was laughing? Did you like the twist?
OUAT: It was predictable. I remember telling my friend, I bet they're not the real grandparents.
APRIL: WHAT? What made you think about that?
OUAT: I'm always looking at the background and there were no picture of them... But it was at the very beginning when they picked up.
APRIL: And the crawling....
OUAT: You know it is a real disease.
APRIL: What? No way!
OUAT: To finish off, what's next for you?
APRIL: So many things but I want to do a fantasy and actually commit to this grimm dark fantasy... It's long and I usually write short. If I can commit. I love fantasy. I read tons of fantasy... It won't be like Martin.
We are so excited for April's new book! It was such a blast interviewing her! And we obviously had to take a cool picture with her:
You can view some of the pictures below of the
released March 22, 2016 from Dial/Penguin. April has lived in many places around the world and currently resides in Oregon with her husband.
Wink Poppy Midnight
Author: April Genevieve Tucholke
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Mystery
Released: March 22nd 2016
Publisher: Dial Books
Every story needs a hero.Every story needs a villain.Every story needs a secret.Wink is the odd, mysterious neighbor girl, wild red hair and freckles. Poppy is the blond bully and the beautiful, manipulative high school queen bee. Midnight is the sweet, uncertain boy caught between them. Wink. Poppy. Midnight. Two girls. One boy. Three voices that burst onto the page in short, sharp, bewitching chapters, and spiral swiftly and inexorably toward something terrible or tricky or tremendous.What really happened?Someone knows.Someone is lying.
Alwyn Hamilton was born in Toronto and spent her childhood bouncing between Europe and Canada until her parents settled in France. She grew up in a small town there, which might have compelled her to burst randomly into the opening song from Beauty and the Beast were it not for her total tone-deafness. She instead attempted to read and write her way to new places and developed a weakness for fantasy and cross-dressing heroines. She left France for Cambridge University to study History of Art at King’s College, and then to London where she became indentured to an auction house. She has a bad habit of acquiring more hardcovers than is smart for someone who moves house quite so often.
Rebel of the SandsRebel Of The Sands #1
Author: Alwyn Hamilton
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Released: March 8 2016
Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
She’s more gunpowder than girl—and the fate of the desert lies in her hands.
Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mystical beasts still roam the wild and barren wastes, and rumor has it that somewhere, djinni still practice their magic. But there's nothing mystical or magical about Dustwalk, the dead-end town that Amani can't wait to escape from.
Destined to wind up "wed or dead," Amani’s counting on her sharpshooting skills to get her out of Dustwalk. When she meets Jin, a mysterious and devastatingly handsome foreigner, in a shooting contest, she figures he’s the perfect escape route. But in all her years spent dreaming of leaving home, she never imagined she'd gallop away on a mythical horse, fleeing the murderous Sultan's army, with a fugitive who's wanted for treason. And she'd never have predicted she'd fall in love with him...or that he'd help her unlock the powerful truth of who she really is.
Alison is best known for her New York Times bestselling fantasy duololgy EON and EONA, and her ability to dance a mean English contra-dance. She also writes award winning science fiction and crime fiction, and lives with her lovely husband and their machiavellian Jack Russell Terrier in Melbourne, Australia.
Lady Helen #1
Author: Alison Goodman
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction
Release Date: January 26th 2016
Review Source: Viking Books for Young Readers
New York Times bestseller Alison Goodman’s eagerly awaited new project: a Regency adventure starring a stylish and intrepid demon-hunter!
London, April 1812. On the eve of eighteen-year-old Lady Helen Wrexhall’s presentation to the queen, one of her family’s housemaids disappears-and Helen is drawn into the shadows of Regency London. There, she meets Lord Carlston, one of the few who can stop the perpetrators: a cabal of demons infiltrating every level of society. Dare she ask for his help, when his reputation is almost as black as his lingering eyes? And will her intelligence and headstrong curiosity wind up leading them into a death trap?
Spent my childhood in the Mojave Desert, where I didn’t have cable and thus chose to entertain myself with books and radio. My parents assured me that I wanted to become a doctor, but a brief stint working in a hospital changed my mind.I left the desert for university at 17, graduated from UCLA a few years later, and went to work for The Washington Post directly after. Five years later, I left the Post and started working on a book.
If I could be anything, I’d be a space explorer, but a cool one, like Jean-Luc Picard.
An Ember in the Ashes
Author: Sabaa Tahir
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Released: April 28th 2015
Publisher: Razorbill
Set in a terrifyingly brutal Rome-like world, An Ember in the Ashes is an epic fantasy debut about an orphan fighting for her family and a soldier fighting for his freedom. It’s a story that’s literally burning to be told.LAIA is a Scholar living under the iron-fisted rule of the Martial Empire. When her brother is arrested for treason, Laia goes undercover as a slave at the empire’s greatest military academy in exchange for assistance from rebel Scholars who claim that they will help to save her brother from execution.ELIAS is the academy’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias is considering deserting the military, but before he can, he’s ordered to participate in a ruthless contest to choose the next Martial emperor.When Laia and Elias’s paths cross at the academy, they find that their destinies are more intertwined than either could have imagined and that their choices will change the future of the empire itself.
Rachel Hawkins was born in Virginia and raised in Alabama. This means she uses words like "y'all" and "fixin'" a lot, and considers anything under 60 degrees to be borderline Arctic. Before deciding to write books about kissing and fire (and sometimes kissing while on fire), Rachel taught high school English for 3 years, and is still capable of teaching you The Canterbury Tales if you're into that kind of thing.
She is married to a geologist, which means that they have incredibly strange dinner conversations ("So today at work, I wrote a chapter where killer fog, like, ATE PEOPLE." "Huh. Well, I was chased by an angry reindeer while trying to map parts of Norway." "Um...okay.")
Rachel also has a little boy whose main hobbies are playing video games, running around in circles, and plotting his Future Intergalactic Take-Over.
When not writing books, Rachel enjoys reading, travelling, and knitting (very terribly.)
Lady Renegades
Rebel Belle #3
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Released: April 5th 2016
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Reader
From the New York Times bestselling author of Hex Hall comes the sparkling finale in the beloved Rebel Belle series.Just as Harper Price starts coming to terms with her role as David Stark's battle-ready Paladin, protector, and girlfriend—her world goes crazy all over again.Overwhelmed by his Oracle powers, David flees Pine Grove and starts turning teenaged girls into Paladins—and these young ladies seem to think that Harper is the enemy David needs protecting from. Ordinarily, Harper would be able to fight off any Paladin who comes her way, but her powers have been dwindling since David left town, which means her life is on the line yet again.Now, it’s a desperate race for Harper to find and rescue David before she backslides from superhero to your garden-variety type-A belle.New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins brings the fun once again in the finale of this pitch-perfect romantic paranormal comedy series.
Thank you Books and Books and Penguin Tour for this night. We had such a blast!
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