Fiction Freak: GYDO: Lydia Kang

Saturday, September 28, 2013

GYDO: Lydia Kang

Lydia Kang, Author of Control

When I starting writing, I didn’t realize that I’d have to become my protagonist’s worst nightmare. Fellow writers would advise, “Don’t go easy on your main character. Put them through hell! Make them suffer! Don’t hold back!” Because a tepid story about a character who’s happy with no problems is, well, boring. As in, watching-paint-dry boring.

So let’s look at some of the terrible things I’ve done to Zelia Benten, the main character of CONTROL:

I’ve made her runty and not too pretty.

I’ve made her a lab science geek. (Okay, that is debatable, since I actually think that’s cool but maybe for Zelia, it didn’t exactly make her social life blossom.)

I tore her family apart.

I gave her a life-threatening illness she has to live with, day in and day out.

I gave her enemies within the one sanctuary where she could be safe.

I made her hair frizzy. Really, really frizzy.

I had this really freaky-looking, monstrous guy chase her in a club. A guy with black teeth.

I revealed secrets about her life that made her question everything she knew and trusted.

I hurt the people she loves in some wretched ways.

Basically, I was Queen Mean to Zelia.

But hey, she’s got her work cut out for her, right? You’ll have to read the book to see if she overcomes these mighty obstacles. Oh, and whether or not she gets a good makeover!*

*which may or may not happen in the book. Okay, okay. She does gets a makeover. Because I love makeovers. But it’s only temporary. J

Control Blurb
When a crash kills their father and leaves them orphaned, Zel knows she needs to protect her sister, Dyl. But before Zel has a plan, Dyl is taken by strangers using bizarre sensory weapons, and Zel finds herself in a safe house for teens who aren’t like any she’s ever seen before—teens who shouldn't even exist. Using broken-down technology, her new friends’ peculiar gifts, and her own grit, Zel must find a way to get her sister back from the kidnappers who think a powerful secret is encoded in Dyl’s DNA.
A spiraling, intense, romantic story set in 2150—in a world of automatic cars, nightclubs with auditory ecstasy drugs, and guys with four arms—this is about the human genetic “mistakes” that society wants to forget, and the way that outcasts can turn out to be heroes.

Author Bio

Lydia Kang is a young adult fiction author, part-time doc, salt-lover, geek-girl, and hyphen addict. She is represented by Eric Myers of the Spieler Agency, and her YA sci-fi novel, CONTROL (Dial Books for Young Readers/Penguin) releases in December 2013 and its sequel CATALYST (Kathy Dawson Books/Penguin) arrives Fall 2014.