Hi there gorgeous people! I have a treat for you today in the form of a Q&A post from none other than Aimée Carter author of the Goddess Test series. You can find my review to The Goddess Test here and my review of Goddess Interrupted here. Here's your treat, please enjoy (and scroll down for dessert :)
How familiar were you
with Greek myths and folklore before writing the Goddess Test series? Was a lot of research required?
+ I first fell in love with Greek mythology when I was a kid
learning how to read, and my infatuation only grew from there. I’ve studied
various kinds of mythology for years, sometimes for class and always for fun,
but even then I put a great deal of research into the Goddess Test series.
Mostly as a refresher to make sure I was getting my facts right, but I also
researched the various myths looking for ways to tie the plots and characters
together in unexpected ways.
Was Goddess Interrupted any easier or harder
to write than the first book in the series, The
Goddess Test?
+ It was both easier and harder, in a strange way. I rewrote
The Goddess Test multiple times, and I’ve never edited a book more heavily in
my life. Goddess Interrupted did require some editing, of course, but it was
much easier.
However, the pressure to deliver a sequel worthy of the
series made the writing process for Goddess Interrupted more difficult than I’d
anticipated. There’s something called the “sophomore slump”, where sequels or
second books generally don’t quite match up to the second, and I wanted to
avoid that at all cost. So that added a lot of stress, but in the end, I was
very happy with the results.
You give the gods and
goddesses in the series “ordinary names” – Zeus is named Walter, Aphrodite goes
by Ava, Hermes is named James. Why did
you do that and do the more contemporary names have any significance?
+ This was something I went back and forth on multiple
times. Initially the characters Kate encounters weren’t council members at all
– I changed that very, very quickly though. By the second draft, I had a place
for each of the Olympians, and I did some heavy rewriting to replace my first
draft characters with the gods. I wanted to find a way to keep their names the
same, but since they’re supposed to live among us in secret in the modern
world, it didn’t really make sense. How many men named Zeus do you know, or
women called Aphrodite? On top of that, keeping the council’s identities secret
was incredibly important to the plot. So eventually I decided they would have
changed their names when Western civilization stopped worshipping them as gods,
allowing them to live freely among us.
I did choose each name for what it means, some more than
others – Walter, for instance, means “army leader”, while James means
“supplanter”. The exception is Calliope, which in the story was chosen by her
counterpart for its Greek roots. The reason the gods changed their names – and
why Artemis didn’t wind up with the name Diana – is explained throughout the
series, but you get to actually see this happen in The Goddess Legacy (July 31).
Goddess Interrupted
begins with the main character Kate Winters adjusting to her new life as an
immortal. Given Kate’s innate strength
and stubbornness, was it difficult to switch gears to portray her as a bit more
vulnerable and unsure of herself in her new role as goddess AND wife?
+ Not so much, to be honest – her progression felt natural
to me. While Kate is very tough in certain ways, she’s extremely vulnerable as
well. She’s emotionally dependent on the people around her (her mother in the
first book, Henry in the second), and that in and of itself carves the path she
takes in the sequel. She’s spent six months with Henry, falling in love with
him and forming a relationship she thinks is going to last for eternity. But
Henry is battling his own demons and isn’t ready to be the person she needs him
to be, and because Kate is so stubborn, she has a hard time coming to terms
with that. In the sequel, Kate really is her own worst enemy emotionally – her
entire world has changed, after all, and that’s a lot for anyone to take – but
it’s all part of her development into a goddess and queen.
Kate finds herself
trying to work through her rather complicated relationship with James, as well
as her relationship with her new husband, Henry (Hades). Neither seems to be black and white, but
rather varying shades of gray. Were any
of Kate’s feelings or situations based on any relationship struggles you’ve
been through?
+ Not personally, no, but I did try to make Kate’s
relationships with the people in her life as realistic as possible. She isn’t
perfect, and neither are they, and that’s something they all have to work
through at varying points in the series. None of the relationships in the books
are based off of specific experiences I’ve been through though.
What is your favorite
part of the writing process? Least
favorite?
+ Outlining is by far my favorite part of the process. I
love the idea stage, where anything’s possible, and it’s such a shiny place.
All of that comes crashing down when I write the first draft though, which is
the hardest part for me. I tend to get mentally exhausted about two thirds to
three quarters of the way into the manuscript, and it’s always a struggle for
me to push through it, especially if I’m on a deadline. And inevitably there
are a ton of problems I didn’t notice in the outline stage that have to be
fixed for the story to work. I’m a perfectionist, so in order for me to
continue writing the story, everything I’ve already written has to make sense.
Do you have a
favorite quote or line from a poem or book?
+ I love so many quotes that I couldn’t possibly pick a
favorite.
How did you get your
first publishing deal and how did that feel?
+ My agent, Rosemary Stimola, sent the manuscript out to
various publishers, and after a long submission process, Harlequin TEEN offered
to publish it! I was stunned at first, but that quickly gave way to giddiness.
It was an incredible feeling to know I’d be published, and to this day, I still
can’t quite believe it.
When is the next book
in the series due out? Any hints on what will happen in book 3?
+ Goddess Interrupted, the sequel to The Goddess Test, came
out in late March. The next book in the series, The Goddess Legacy, will be out
July 31. It’s a collection of five novellas told in the perspectives of
Calliope, Ava, Persephone, James, and Henry, and together they form one story.
The third book in the series, The Goddess Inheritance, is
currently scheduled to be released in March 2013. Unfortunately I can’t say too
much about it, but the challenges that Kate will face are pretty clear by the
end of the sequel!
After the huge
success of The Goddess Test, Goddess Interrupted is on many, many TBR lists for
this summer. What’s on your TBR list?
+ I’m so excited for a slew of books coming out – The Girl
in the Clockwork Collar, Grave Mercy, The Selection, The Serpent’s Shadow,
Philippa Gregory’s YA novel, and a ton of others. I never have as much time to
read as I want, but I’m definitely making time for all of those and more!
Yearbook
Superlatives! If you went to high school with the Greek gods and goddesses, who
would you vote for?
·
Most likely to succeed? - Hera
·
Class clown? - Hermes
·
Nicest? – Demeter or Hephaestus
·
Best dressed? - Aphrodite
·
Best dancer? - Apollo
·
Most school spirit? - Iris
·
Most likely to attend summer school? - Ares
·
Teachers pet? - Athena
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