Breathless Reads Week is almost over, but I’ve got two more interviews for you guys! Today is Elizabeth Richards, author of Black City, an amazing Darkling (vamps!) Dystopian story! (You can find my review here)
Fiction Freak: The oh-so original question- what inspired Black City?
Elizabeth Richards: It all began with Ash. I was watching a movie called Charlie Bartlett and while watching that film the character of Ash just popped into my head. I couldn’t get him out of my mind, and I spent the entire movie just daydreaming about this supernatural, drug-dealing boy who gets a heartbeat when he meets his soul mate – who just happens to be a human. Immediately after I watched that movie, I wrote a scene between Ash and his friend Beetle. It never made the final cut of the book, but it all started with that kernel of an idea.
ER: I was both overjoyed and completely stunned – I literally had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. It’s such an honor to be selected as a Breathless Read and I’m incredibly grateful to be given such an amazing opportunity. I can’t wait to go on tour and meet the readers!
FF: What's your funniest moment, the one that makes you laugh every time you think about it?
ER: Hee hee. Sorry, but that story is way too rude to recount.
ER: Hee hee. Sorry, but that story is way too rude to recount.
FF: There have been a sudden onslaught of Vampire Dystopian books this year. How is yours different?
ER: I think Black City stands out because it isn’t really about ‘vampires’ in the traditional sense. In my novel the supernatural creatures are called Darklings and they’re a race in their own right – they’re not humans that have been sired. Also, in Black City, humans are the bad guys and the Darklings are the good guys. They’ve been forced to live in walled ghettos by the tyrant Purian Rose and the book is about their struggle to be liberated. Black City deals with some serious issues, but it’s all wrapped up in a passionate romance with plenty of conspiracy and intrigue, so all of that combined makes Black City stand out.
FF: Since not many have read Black City, care to give us a hint of what's to come?
ER: I can do one better! Since Black City was selected as a Breathless Read, Penguin put together a sampler of all the Breathless Reads books, so you can read a few chapters of Black City here: https://www.facebook.com/breathlessreads/app_190322544333196
FF: Your cover is definitely a change from the regular girl on cover and I love that, but what is ONE thing you would change about it?
ER: Honestly, I wouldn’t change a single thing about the cover. I absolutely love it. The shattering rose, the cityscape, the colors – it’s utterly perfect! Putnam’s art department really know their stuff, and I was so pleased to have a cover without the traditional ‘girl in a ball gown’ on it – not that there’s anything wrong with them, because I think those covers are beautiful too – but I’m really pleased to have something individual and unique.
FF: Let's split this: A good blood sucking vampire book or a creepy, controlling dystopia?
ER:Creepy, controlling dystopia. While there is clearly a supernatural element to the book, at its core it’s a dystopian novel and that’s certainly how I’d categorize it, rather than vampire fiction.
FF: What do you think is the best thing about Black City?
ER: Ash! I love him as a character. He’s a very complex person – he has darkness in him, he’s broken, but underneath it all is a brave, heroic boy ready to die for what’s right.
FF: Do you think you can relate to a character in any YA book? If so who and why
ER: I think, like a lot of girls, I can relate to Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games. She’s quite standoffish, unimpressed with material things and ambitious, but also fiercely protective of her family / friends and those are all qualities I see in myself.
FF: What do you think you're going to do when Black City is finally in the wild?
ER: I’m intending to have a party with my family and close friends to celebrate my Book Birthday, because I want to thank them all for their love and support over the years. Then I’ll probably just go *SQUEEEEEEE*, bask in the glow of having my book out in the world, then crack on with book #3.
FF: Anything left to say to readers/aspiring writers/bloggers?
ER: If you’re an aspiring writer / blogger, my best piece of advice is to have a clear vision about what it is you’re trying to achieve. For example, if you love reading YA vampire fiction then that’s what you should write / blog about, because your passion, knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject matter will shine through in your work and make you successful.
Short Author Bio
Elizabeth Richards is an award-winning journalist, who spent her early career reviewing videogames before making the bold (or crazy) move into travel writing, despite suffering from terrible travel sickness.
In her spare time, she ran a successful lifestyle website aimed at teenage girls, where she got to interview many of her favourite bands, go to gigs and basically blag loads of free swag all in the name of ‘research’.
Elizabeth lives in Buckinghamshire, England, with her husband. Black City is her debut novel.
Fun facts
· She's an identical twin. (No, they don’t have psychic powers, and yes she is the evil one.)
· She's a little bit in love with Daniel Radcliffe.
· Her favourite book of all time is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
· Her second favourite book is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
· Her third favourite is Harry…oh, you get the idea.
· Her ambition is to see 10 volcanoes before she dies. She's already seen Stromboli, Vesuvius and Mt Etna. Just 7 more to go!
Black City Blurb
A dark and tender post-apocalyptic love story set in the aftermath of a bloody war. In a city where humans and Darklings are now separated by a high wall and tensions between the two races still simmer after a terrible war, sixteen-year-olds Ash Fisher, a half-blood Darkling, and Natalie Buchanan, a human and the daughter of the Emissary, meet and do the unthinkable--they fall in love. Bonded by a mysterious connection that causes Ash's long-dormant heart to beat, Ash and Natalie first deny and then struggle to fight their forbidden feelings for each other, knowing if they're caught, they'll be executed--but their feelings are too strong. When Ash and Natalie then find themselves at the center of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to pull the humans and Darklings back into war, they must make hard choices that could result in both their deaths.
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Black City is one of the most anticipated of 2012 books for this girl. The cover is stunning, the idea of Darklings is a great one, the idea that the humans are the bad guys is something that I think should have been explored more often. This is just a fabulous book for me, and I haven't even read it yet. I plan to change that soon, though!
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