Expected Aberrations: In Which Thea Memes

Looks like I've been tagged for a meme. Well, that makes it sound far more serendipitous than it really was.

Mike Duran, a writer who I greatly respect, and whose blog I read regularly, got tagged with this meme. I loved the idea behind it and really wanted to be tagged by someone at some point.

A few days later, D Jordan Redhawk, a friend from an online writing community called Forward Motion, said on Facebook that she'd been tagged for this meme and asked if anyone wanted to be tagged by her (thank you very much for doing that! :D). I said yes.

Which is a very short story to say that, once you know what you want, and if you pay attention, you have the ability to take advantage of the opportunities that come your way. :)

I take it back: The whole thing really was wonderfully serendipitous, which is pretty cool.

The Next Big Thing

This meme is about books. Specifically, writers tag other writers so that we all can talk about our upcoming books, and we all link to each other so that our readers have a chance to discover more authors. Which is always awesome. And now I shall meme away!

What is the title of your next book?
For a while, I had the title, then lost it, but I have it back again (in case you've been following me on Twitter and have been wondering how that was going):

Hidden in Sealskin

Where did the idea for your book come from?
I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.

Wait, that's rather violent of me. Let me try again. *assumes a stern expression*

Spoilers!

What genre does your book fall under?
Fantasy, with an urban-ish feel, and definitely nothing like Tolkien.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Adren (the main character)
Chloë Grace Moretz would be an awesome Adren if she were about five years older (Adren's about twenty). My second choice would be Jennifer Lawrence, just because she's the second person who came to mind who would also play the part amazingly.

Nadin (the second most major character)(is there a word for that?)
Currently, the only person I can think of to play him would be Dev Patel, because Nadin's skin is brown, but he's not black, and Dev is the only actor around Nadin's age I know of who fits that description (which may be more a comment about me than anything else, unfortunately). The only thing is that Jennifer would change to my first choice for Adren, because Nadin's between three and five years younger than Adren. For reasons that will be clear later in the series, she has to be older than him for certain things to make sense.

Lady Watorej (an important personage)
Bryce Dallas Howard would be an interesting casting choice for the lady. There are several scenes that would need to be done quite well and that I think she would be good at.

The footman (an entertaining personage)
Alan Rickman. When this character spoke in his first (and only planned) scene of dialogue, he did it in Alan Rickman's voice. I would be delighted beyond measure if Alan actually did end up playing the footman in a movie version of this book.

I won't mention anyone beyond that. It's terribly difficult to cast people that both look right and do the role well when most of the actors you're familiar with are white, and most of the characters in your book are various shades of brown.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
An outlaw girl must steal a sealskin from a lord in order to get a cure for madness, but the sealskin isn't what it seems... and neither is anything else.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Part of me is entertaining the idea of traditional publishing, but this is the first in a ten-book series, and my first novel, period. Basically, I'm an unproven author with a very ambitious plan. Self-publishing is probably the more logical choice, because then I know for sure publishing would actually happen.

Also, I'll be able to make sure that the covers get everything right. Or wrong within acceptable parameters, but that's it.

Why, yes, I am a cover snob. How could you tell? :)

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
32 days. It was my Camp NaNo novel this year. :D

What other books of the same genre would you compare yours with?
*blinks*

I suppose the world in the Abhorsen Trilogy has the biggest similarities to the one in Hidden, if Ancelstierre had magic and the Old Kingdom didn't exist. But it's got a completely different tone.

*blinks again*

To be honest, I'm trying very hard to come up with books in the same genre, and I can't think of any. I might have made it up. O.o

Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Nice try. Like I said about where I got the idea for this book: That information is confidential. Releasing it would cause spoilers of a kind and amount previously unknown to mankind. The world would explode. Or something.

Unless you wanted the world to explode. :O

Well, you're too late. The end of the world was last Friday, don'cha know?

What else about your book might pique the reader's attention?
Three things:

1) It's the first book in a series that's structured like a TV show.

2) I took a personality psychology class just before writing this book, and I used what I learned from that class to make what are undoubtedly the best characters I've ever written, and to do it in a way that their interactions can't help but be interesting. And occasionally argumentative.

3) Adren, our main character, seems to have jumped on Twitter already before I gave her permission (makes sense, she's not the kind of person who likes to take orders. I'm not even sure why I tried). She hasn't tweeted yet, but I think it's because she's surveying the territory. She'll have something to say very soon...

(Adren's Twitter profile)