Before we begin, here's a little bit about Jodi and Incarnate!
NEWSOUL
Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.
NOSOUL
Even Ana’s own mother thinks she’s a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she’ll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are suspicious and afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?
HEART
Sam believes Ana’s new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana’s enemies—human and creature alike—let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else’s life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?
And Jodi...
Jodi Meadows lives and writes in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, with her husband, a Kippy*, and an alarming number of ferrets. She is a confessed book addict, and has wanted to be a writer ever since she decided against becoming an astronaut.
And on to the interview, folks!
What
part of INCARNATE was hardest for you to write?
No
single scene or chapter of INCARNATE was more difficult than others,
but in general, action scenes are a challenge for me. Occasionally,
I'll get lost in an action scene I'm reading and start skimming. Even
in big action movies, I've been known to snooze through the epic
fights at the end because I either can't clearly tell what's going
on, or I don't care.
It's
not because I don't like action scenes. I do! I love when events are
moving fast and characters need to act now. But being
aware of how easily they can lose me, I find myself very critical of
action scenes in my own stories, and working extra hard to make sure
they're clear and compelling enough so that someone like me won't
skim.
How
long was the total writing process for INCARNATE?
A
loooong time. I had the original idea for INCARNATE three years
before I started working on it. I spent a month planning,
worldbuilding, and character developing. Another two months writing
the first draft. And then a month revising before I submitted it to
agents.
From
there, it gets more difficult to count, because I revised again for
my agent, had some time of not working on INCARNATE, revised for my
editor, had more time of not working on it, revised again for my
editor, had more time of not working on it . . .
Were
any of the characters based on people in your life?
Nope!
All my characters appear fully formed in my head, though I do often
name secondary characters after friends.
INCARNATE
is a totally fresh spin on the dystopia genre, how did you pull off
being original and keep all the things everyone loves about this
genre?
When
I started writing INCARNATE, I didn't have a genre in mind. I wanted
to write a fun story with things that were interesting to me. Because
of that, INCARNATE has elements of a lot of different genres:
fantasy, science fiction, paranormal romance, and dystopian.
I
tend to think readers will see -- and classify it it by -- whatever
elements are most important to them, and that's just fine by me.
Which
do you prefer- Twitter or Facebook?
Twitter!
Describe
Incarnate in three words, GO!
Music. Kissing. WE'REALLGONNADIE!
Great questions. I am amazed it took Jodi only two months to write the first draft! For not liking action scenes, she does a fabulous job writing them!
ReplyDelete-Jenna @ Fans of Fiction
It looks like Jodi's last answer was cut off. I'm dying to know her three words....
ReplyDeleteThank you, I will fix that!
DeleteJodi Meadows is a very talented writer.
ReplyDeleteNow, I have to find out what a "Kippy" is
thanks for the review, will look her amazing
sounding book up. thanks.