Monday, April 2, 2012

Embrace Blog Tour: Where Are You From?

Hey Remarkable Readers,Today I'm hosting Jessica Shirvington for the blog tour of Embrace!  She'll be talking about the role of location in her books!  I'm currently reading her book, so look for a review soon!  Scroll down for her post and to check out a giveaway! :)
Where Are You From?
By Jessica Shirvington

In my first draft of EMBRACE (there were eight!), I didn’t set the city. I was in two minds the entire time. I suppose I was drawing on all the places I have been around the world. Although I now live in Sydney, when I started to write EMBRACE, my family and I had just moved back from six years living in London. And prior to that, I’d spent quite a lot of time travelling to many cities around the world – so much so, that when I was writing scenes in EMBRACE, I found myself thinking of different cities around the world and never being able to truly decided which one most suited Violet’s world.

In my second and third and fourth drafts, I chose different cities (I’ll never tell) from around the world and set Violet’s story there. But each time, it felt forced.

I wanted her to live in a city, as opposed to some small town where all these major apocalyptic events just miraculously found her. To be believable she had to be in a metropolitan environment, but which one?

In the end, the answer was … any of them, and none of them. It wasn’t that the cities I chose didn’t work; it was that in my mind I’d amalgamated them into what I needed for her story to work for me. So I made the decision to give that option to all of my readers and simply called her city, the City. 

It isn’t the ‘done thing’ usually, but I believe for this story, it works. I want readers to be able to put this story where they know. If they live in a city, it can be there, if they live in a rural area, then it isn’t a stretch for them to imagine a city nearby. It is an element of control that I wanted to give to the reader.

That said, I like a little control myself … and I discovered that by giving this open setting for Violet’s hometown, it also opened up the possibility to use other locations around the world that would really pop off the page. 

In ENTICED (the sequel, out in September!), Violet and her friends find themselves travelling to Jordan – on a quest to the place of Moses’ death – Mount Nebo. In EMBLAZE (book 3, out March 2013) they travel to the island of Santorini in Greece, which is small and stunning, and holds terrors that none of them are prepared for.

Each book I take the characters somewhere new and as I write the series, I have discovered how very important this is to me. I want my characters to go to the world, to find the problems and be part of the solution, rather than the fight always, and too conveniently, finding them.
a Rafflecopter giveaway Photobucket

10 comments:

  1. I like the idea of keeping where she lives open to the readers interpretation. I always picture things in books a certain way and sometimes if I'm even told to picture it a certain way, I end up picturing it differently. If that makes sense lol Thanks for the giveaway. Such a pretty cover. I love angel stories and can't wait to read it.

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  2. I love it when authors don't say something about the review, because then it make you figure out an image in your head.

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  3. Always looking for great reads

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  4. Hi! I left a comment on your Freshman Year & Other Disasters Review.
    I am so jealous you have Instagram! FINALLY it became avail for Android users but only Android phones. Argh.
    Soon I will be able to use instagram..
    TY for the contest :)

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  5. This contest is wonderful!! Thank you so much! I also left a comment on your review for Matched!! :)

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  6. This book looks so awesome! Thanks for the chance to win it!

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  7. I left a comment on your freshman year and other disasters review.

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  8. I left a comment on your freshman year and other disasters review.

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  9. I also left a comment on freshman year and other disasters, mostly because I just read this book!
    Thanks for the giveaway :)
    Krista

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What did you think of my post? Have you read any of the books I may have spoke about? Do you agree with what I said? Etc. I love hearing from my readers!!