Blog Tour: Resist by Sarah Crossan

EEEP! I feel so excited to be able to host SARAH CROSSAN on my blog! I haven't had the time to read Resist, but I LOVED Breathe, I remember! 

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WRITING SPACES

When I listen to other writers speak, I’m always intrigued by what they reveal about where they write. Roald Dahl wrote in a shed, as did Virginia Woof. Libba Bray writes in her local coffee shop, while Phil Earle types away on the top of a double decker bus on his way to his day job. It makes me wonder about the ideal space and whether or not there really is one.

I suspect there is, though many writers make do with what they’ve got or where they live because they’ve no other choice.

When I was writing the BREATHE series, I convinced myself that the only way to get it written and to make it good was to find the ideal location for my writing. I tried hunkering down at home in my spare room, but the window looked out onto an intersection and with drivers compelled to honk one another for the most trifling of offenses, not to mention the fact there was a gym below my apartment where people worked out to Gangham Style from 6am-9pm, I looked elsewhere.

What I discovered was that in NYC there are writing spaces you can join where people with a common goal show up every day, borrow a desk, and get scribbling. I joined The Writers Room on Broadway, a loft-like space with around a hundred desks (plus couches for napping and a kitchen for tea breaks) where I could be alone – but not alone – and write.

It was bliss. In the kitchen I could chit-chat with other writers about the misery of the process and then in the actual writing room (which was silent apart from the patter of fingers on keyboards) I could focus and get to work. It meant being away from home and away from distractions and made me feel like I was getting up to go to work every day like a normal human being. The worst thing about being a writer for me is the isolation and having places like The Writers Room solves this problem.

But then I got sick and the doctor told me to stay at home and not to ride the subway, so I was back to my noisy spare room and the sexy lure of laundry and reruns of The Office. I had to find an alternative, so I spoke with my building manager who had a solution: He had an empty building across the street and for a nominal fee would happily rent me a room. I didn’t hesitate. I snapped up the space and dragged a desk across the street. However, what I hadn’t thought about was the fact that I would be alone. And when I say alone – I mean, A-L-O-N-E. I was on the fifth floor of a dilapidated nursing school with no one else about. The other rooms were open and filled with junk and the only space lacking creepy was my office. In short, it terrified me. I kept expecting zombies to appear down the hallway and every time the elevator pinged (which it kept doing even though there was no one else there) I wondered with Jason from Friday the 13^th would appear. I lasted a week before I frightened myself into submission and went back to the spare room. I tried listening to music. I tried a white noise machine. Then I went down to the foyer and got working. 

And that’s where RESIST was born. Between hospital visits (I’m very fit and healthy now btw, thank you) I sat in my apartment building foyer and wrote. I tried to ignore the mailman and the doorman and hoards of folks carrying groceries and the kids all looking at me strangely and wondering exactly what I might be doing. Perhaps they all thought I just wanted to use the free WiFi. Not so. In fact, wherever I write, I turn off the internet because more than gym noise or honking cars, Twitter is a killer to creativity.

And now what?

Well, since then I’ve moved to the UK where I bought myself a real grownup house with a garden. And as a treat I have built a special office which has everything I’ve ever craved. It has space for my desk, a huge armchair and bookshelves. It’s got no internet (Hallelujah!) but even has its own bathroom! It has bright windows for light, it’s quiet, and it’s also close enough to the house so I can mosey on down there when I

need a chin-wag to stop myself from going round the bend.

Is it the perfect space to write? Well it’s what I’ve dreamed of for years. And I guess we’ll see what I produce. What I know for sure though, is that if I don’t just sit down and do it, it doesn’t matter where I am. The most important writing space to keep tidy and silent is the mind – fill that up with clutter and you haven’t got a chance. 

About the Book

Bea, Alina, and Quinn are on the run. They started a rebellion and were thrown out of the pod, the only place where there's enough oxygen to breathe. Bea has lost her family. Alina has lost her home. And Quinn has lost his privileged life. Can they survive in the perilous Outlands? Can they finish the revolution they began? Especially when a young operative from the pod's Special Forces is sent after them. Their only chance is to stand together, even when terrible circumstances force them apart. When the future of human society is in danger, these four teens must decide where their allegiances lie. Sarah Crossan has created a dangerous, and shattered society in this wrenching, thought-provoking, and unforgettable post-apocalyptic novel.

Author Info

Sarah Crossan is Irish. She graduated with a degree in Philosophy and Literature before training as an English and Drama teacher at Cambridge University and worked to promote creative writing in schools before leaving teaching to write full time.

She completed her Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Warwick in 2003 and in 2010 received an Edward Albee Fellowship for writing.

The Weight of Water, published by Bloomsbury in January 2012, was her first novel.

Breathe published by Greenwillow and Bloomsbury in October 2012 and Resist in October 2013.

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Schedule

11/11/2013- Fiction Freak- Guest Post

11/12/2013- Mundie Moms- Review

11/13/2013- Two Chicks on Books- Guest Post

11/14/2013- Fiktshun  - Character Interview

11/15/2013- Fantasy Book Addict- Interview