Saturday, November 6, 2010

Interview - Christine Johnson

Books by Christine Johnson-
Nocturne(Coming Soon)


Claire de Lune - Torn between two destinies?
Claire is having
the perfect sixteenth birthday. Her pool party is a big success, and gorgeous Matthew keeps cha
tting and flirting with her as if she's the only girl there. But that night, she discovers something that takes away all sense of normalcy: she's a werewolf.




As Claire is initiated into the pack of female werewolves, she must deal not only with her changing identity, but also with a rogue werewolf who is putting everyone she knows in danger. Claire's new life threate
ns her blossoming romance with Matthew, whose father is leading the werewolf hunt. Now burdened with a dark secret and pushing the boundaries of forbidden love, Claire is struggling to feel comfortable in either skin. With her lupine loyalty at odds with her human heart, she will make a choice that will change her forever?
Information from Goodreads.Com


Interview -
1. What are five words that come to your mind when you think about Claire de Lune? Excitement, romance, challenge, struggle, acceptance

2. How long did it take you to write Claire de Lune?
All told, from the first word of the first draft to the moment it hit the shelves was about two and a half years. The different drafts took varying amounts of time, from seven-ish months for the first draft, five for the major revision, two for the minor revision and then weeks for things like copyedits, etc.

3. Where did the idea for Claire de Lune come from?
Claire was born the way almost all of my ideas are - by what-ifing. When I thought of the idea, I’d just read a bunch of YA novels with a human girl who fell for a supernatural guy. I thought “what if the *girl* were supernatural? And what if she were dating a human guy?” It was a teensy little poppy-seed-sized idea, but after a lot more what-ifing, it got more and more interesting until I knew that I *had* to write it!


4. What character can you most relate to from Claire de Lune?
I’m going to take Claire out of the equation here, because it’s just too easy an answer. So, aside from Claire, I probably find it easiest to relate to Victoria, just because she’s the most like me. She’s a good girl, sort of quiet, part of the group but not the head of it - at least, not right now. But she has an inner strength that I admire and aspire to have.

5. Was it easier writing Claire de Lune or Nocturne?
They each had their challenges. CLAIRE was hard because I was building the world from scratch, but then again, I had zero external deadlines when I was drafting that book, which meant I got to take as much time as I wanted/needed creating Claire’s universe. With NOCTURNE, I already had a solid mythology for my wolves and a developed cast of characters, but my deadline was pretty tight and my youngest child was VERY TINY when I drafted it. It was quite challenging in its own way!

6. Who is your favorite character to write?
Again, *other* than Claire, who’s too easy an answer, I’d have to say Emily. Her voice is very, very clear in my head. In fact, I find it very difficult to *make* Emily say anything. She knows what she thinks and is very stubborn! Plus she’s fun - she’s larger than life in many ways, and her flamboyance is very refreshing to write.

7. How do you choose names for your characters?
I have a couple of favorite ways to pick names. I love baby name websites - I can go and browse through thousands of names, sorting them in multiple ways, including by meaning. What a name means is important to me, though it can be overridden if it’s fitting in every other way. For last names especially, I like old cemeteries. I like to look at the names on the headstones and pick from those. I figure, people put up headstones so they’ll be remembered - and what better way to “remember” them than to use the name in a book?

8. What is your favorite YA book?
My favorite book changes daily. Seriously. I can tell you that *today*, my favorite YA novel is Libba Bray’s GOING BOVINE, but tomorrow it’ll be John Green’s PAPER TOWNS and the day after, it’ll be Holly Black’s WHITE CAT. I love so many of them, and it all depends on my mood what my favorite right *now.

9. Do you participate in NaNoWriMo?
Not exactly. When I’m drafting (which is often,) I have daily word minimums to reach. I sort of do NaNoEveryMo, really, as I hate to be between projects. If I’m not revising, I’m drafting. Otherwise, I don’t have anywhere to put my crazy and it spills over into my real life. Everyone’s happier when I keep that stuff on the page!

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