So I'm going to take a break from nanoing (which I am doing despite the fact I keep forgetting to go and update my total) to come and play with the lovely Caridad Ferrer, but before we start let me just tell that Caridad doesn't just write about stars, she is a star!!!!
Not only was she the first young adult author to win a Rita for best contemporary single title book after the ya category was canceled that year, but she has also been through quite a journey to get her third book, When the Stars Go Blue - a reworking of Carmen - published and she has done it in a totally awesome and inspiring way!!! And haven't the cover gods been kind to her!!!!!
So here is the skinny:
A dancer driven to succeed.
A musical prodigy attempting to escape his past.
The summer they share.
And the moment it all goes wrong.
Dance is Soledad Reyes’s life. About to graduate from Miami’s Biscayne High School for the Performing Arts, she plans on spending her last summer at home teaching in a dance studio, saving money, and eventually auditioning for dance companies. That is, until fate intervenes in the form of fellow student Jonathan Crandall who has what sounds like an outrageous proposition: Forget teaching. Why not spend the summer performing in the intense environment of the competitive drum and bugle corps? The corps is going to be performing Carmen, and the opportunity to portray the character of the sultry gypsy proves too tempting for Soledad to pass up, as well as the opportunity to spend more time with Jonathan, who intrigues her in a way no boy ever has before.
But in an uncanny echo of the story they perform every evening, an unexpected competitor for Soledad's affections appears: Taz, a member of an all-star Spanish soccer team. One explosive encounter later Soledad finds not only her relationship with Jonathan threatened, but her entire future as a professional dancer.
What was the inspiration behind this book?
On the surface, the primary inspiration is Bizet's famed opera, CARMEN, probably the most popular opera in history. Even people who swear they've never heard a note of opera, have in all likelihood, heard something from CARMEN because its music has permeated pop culture to a huge extent. And the story the music supports is absolutely fantastic-- a love triangle with passion, betrayal, forbidden attraction... it's pretty much got it all. Another important component of my version is the setting, which is competitive drum and bugle corps, an activity with which I was heavily involved as an adolescent. It's an intense and passionate pursuit-- the sort of thing you have to really love in order to do it, because of the massive amounts of work involved. I'd been looking for an opportunity to set a book in that world and reimagining Carmen within a contemporary setting just seemed to provide the perfect fodder.
Are you a panster or a plotter and do you find your writing process changes from book to book?
I'm a hybrid. While I have a general idea of a story line, I'm a total pantser through the first several chapters, getting to know the characters and their quirks and seeing how the story is going to shape itself. Then, once I have those elements established, I'll stop and write a chapter by chapter outline for the rest of the book that helps me keep track of various threads and subplots. Where that point is, however, differs from book to book. Sometimes it's as early as six chapters in, the last manuscript I finished, I was eighteen chapters in (out of ultimately, thirty) before I knew where the story was going and could finish the outline.
I'm a quote queen and there's nothing I like more than reading other people's words of wisdom. Do you have a favorite quote that motivates you or sums up the way the you write?
Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning. -- Maya Angelou
I love this quote by Maya Angelou because for me, it so completely sums up what I love about writing. Anyone can put words to paper and call themselves a writer, but it takes something more, a piece of your soul as it were, that takes words from mere writing to storytelling. I love being a storyteller.
What's your favorite television series right now? Okay, I know this isn't a writerly question but I'm a very nosy person who has a very large television habit to feed!!!!
Oh boy-- I love so many. Chuck, because he's just my idea of the perfect beta hero, Castle, ditto and I love the witty banter, Criminal Minds, because I'm a sucker for procedurals and this one in particular because it's so centered on the psychological, Doctor Who, because I'm a geek from way back, although I'm still somewhat in mourning for David Tennant's Tenth Doctor, and the BBC's recent adaptation of Sherlock, because that's the ultimate procedural. Finally, I love GLEE, although this second season is dragging a bit for me. But any series that can marry show and pop tunes and has the incomparable Jane Lynch is worth sticking with!
Everyone has a talent. Mine is being able to discover chocolate no matter where it is hidden in the house. What about you? What is your secret talent (apart of course from being a fabulous writer!!!!!)
Erm... okay. I can listen to a melody once and be able to hum it back. Does that count? Counts for me - especially since I'm a musical dunce despite the fact that my husband has a music degree and has been playing guitar for thirty years!!!!! Retweet this button on every post blogger
