Saturday, June 29, 2013

Solstice Blog Tour: Interview with P.J. Hoover


I am so excited to have P.J. Hoover here today for an interview as part of the blog tour for Solstice! This book has been on my radar forever, and for good reason. Have you heard of another book to combine dystopia and mythology? Have you?? And you know you desperately want to read one. :)

About the book:

Piper's world is dying.

Each day brings hotter temperatures and heat bubbles that threaten to destroy the earth. Amid this global heating crisis, Piper lives under the oppressive rule of her mother, who suffocates her even more than the weather does. Everything changes on her eighteenth birthday, when her mother is called away on a mysterious errand and Piper seizes her first opportunity for freedom.

Piper discovers a universe she never knew existed—a sphere of gods and monsters—and realizes that her world is not the only one in crisis. While gods battle for control of the Underworld, Piper’s life spirals out of control as she struggles to find the answer to the secret that has been kept from her since birth.
Since Solstice is based within mythology and I've read how Edith Hamilton's Mythology had a big impact on you, I'm curious. What is your favorite mythological story?
I've always been partial to the Cupid and Psyche story. I loved the betrayal and the romance and all the other emotions that are captured so perfectly. Plus, it's Cupid! Woot!

Mixing dystopia and mythology (definitely two of my favorites!) is such an interesting and exciting thing to do. How did you come up with the idea? Was it something that just happened or a conscious decision?
It actually was not completely planned out before. It more happened as I was writing the first chapter of the first draft of Solstice. All of a sudden, I found my main character in a dystopian world, and I ran with it!

What are some of your favorite books, or books that influenced you as a writer?
I loved the world of Middle Earth that Tolkien created above all others! There is so much to be learned from this world, from the languages to the people to the mythology. As for dystopian books, I fell in love with Brave New World back in high school, and the idea of a crazy futuristic society always stuck with me. And of course there was Logan's Run.

How has it been going from self-publishing Solstice into traditional publishing?
It's been a really fun journey! As much as I adore the world of self-publishing, I love the access to school libraries that traditional publishing provides. Libraries are so key in getting books into reader's hands, and I'm enjoying every minute of it!

I read that you worked as an electrical engineer for quite a while before turning to writing. How do you think your time as an engineer affected your writing?
Engineering (and the school required for it) taught me a lot of discipline. Writing, just like engineering, benefits hugely from this discipline. Being able to stick to a schedule, keep at a project through revisions, and treat the business as a profession are all things I learned in the engineering world previously and use in the writing world today.

And just for fun, can you tell us one random fact about yourself?
I am scared of roller coasters. They seriously make me want to pee my pants. And I love Disney World more than any place in the world. Okay, so that is two.


Photobucket



About the author:

P. J. Hoover first fell in love with Greek mythology in sixth grade thanks to the book Mythology by Edith Hamilton. After a fifteen year bout as an electrical engineer designing computer chips for a living, P. J. decided to take her own stab at mythology and started writing books for kids and teens. When not writing, P. J. spends time with her husband and two kids and enjoys practicing kung fu, solving Rubik's cubes, and watching Star Trek. Her first novel for teens, Solstice (Tor Teen, June 2013), takes place in a global warming future and explores the parallel world of mythology beside our own. Her middle grade novel, Tut (Tor Children's, 2014), tells the story of a young immortal King Tut, who's been stuck in middle school for over 3,000 years and must defeat an ancient enemy with the help of a dorky kid from school, a mysterious Egyptian princess, and a one-eyed cat. For more information about P. J. (Tricia) Hoover, please visit her website www.pjhoover.com.
As part of the blog tour, there are 25 finished copies of Solstice being given away! Enter below! Also, be sure to check out the EPIC giveaway P.J. is having on her blog in celebration of the book's release; she's giving away 6 sets of 7 books!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

No comments:

Post a Comment