Marissa Meyer comes to the UK; Author Interview + Giveaway (INT)

Marissa Meyer is coming to the UK! 

On March 26th, 2013 she will be visiting Waterstone's in Bromley at 6pm. 

I'm gutted I won't be able to make it - as you know I'm from Birmingham and it's difficult for me to travel during the week due to work. Anyway, if your a fan of Marrissa's work then we highly suggest you get yourself to Bromley, so you can meet this awesome author. 

To celebrate her UK tour, Marissa has stopped by today for a quick Q&A with us along with an international SWAG giveaway. You can enter below.

1) What was your inspiration for writing The Lunar Chronicles?

I entered a writing contest a few years ago in which the host had listed about ten random prompts and writers had to choose two of them to include in their stories. My two prompts: set it in the future and include a fairy-tale character. My contest entry was a sci-fi version of Puss in Boots and I had so much fun writing it that I thought I would try to do an entire series of sci-fi fairy tales! (The ironic part of that story is that only two stories were submitted for the contest—and mine didn’t win!)

A couple months after that I was drifting off to sleep when the lightning bolt struck: Cinderella… as a cyborg! I crawled out of bed and spent about an hour brainstorming and jotting notes. Thus, The Lunar Chronicles was born.

2) Which book was the most challenging to write? 

That would probably be a toss-up between CINDER or WINTER (Book 4, which I'm working on now). Cinder was difficult because there's a lot of set-up that goes into the book: world-building, character introduction, foreshadowing of some of the conflicts still to come, etc. But I of course had to try and convey all that information while still making the book fast-paced and exciting. On the other hand WINTER is the book in which everything finally comes together and all the subplots (and main plots) are finally resolved. Plus, there are just a lot of characters by this book and they're all still telling their own stories. It's a big balancing act.

3) We love the covers for Cinder and Scarlet –  what are your thoughts?

Thank you - I absolutely love them as well! I didn't have much say in them, and I was caught off-guard when I first saw the cover for Cinder. (Spoiler: there are no red shoes in the book!) But I can see now that all the book covers will be tied together with a striking red element, and I love how they pop of the shelves. The designer did a really amazing job.

4) What’s your progress with the next books in the series – are they wrote? 

Book 3: CRESS is almost-almost-almost done. I'm just working on final revisions from my editor right now. And I have the first draft written of Book 4: WINTER, and so I'll be diving into those revisions once CRESS is sent off.

5) Do you have a favourite quote from any of your books?

I really love the last line of CINDER: "But they would be looking for a ghost." I think it plays on a lot of themes that crop up throughout the book, and I was really proud when the line came to me. Of course, lots of people shook their fists at me for ending the book on such a cliffhanger, but I've always been happy with where it ended and how Cinder and Scarlet linked together.

Author Bio;

I live in Tacoma, Washington, with my fiancé and our two cats. In addition to my slight obsession with books and writing, I'm big on road-tripping, wine-tasting, and hunting for antiques. I'm represented by Jill Grinberg.

CINDER, my debut novel, is a futuristic re-envisioning of Cinderella in which Cinder is a cyborg mechanic. Release date: 3 Jan 2012.

website: http://www.marissameyer.com

twitter username: marissa_meyer

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