Young Adult Interview with Georgia Clark (Parched)

Today, I am excited to welcome Georgia Clark, author of Parched, to the blog to discuss her book and show off her writing cave.

About the Author:

I'm a young adult novelist with a weakness for hot nerds and cheese platters, not necessarily in that order. I live in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and spend a lot of time hanging out with improvisers and searching for the perfect pair of skinny jeans. I love Katniss, Katsa, Karou, Clary, Grace, Puck, Lena—you get the picture.

You can haunt Georgia Clark at-
Goodreads | Twitter | Website |

Interview

• In five words tell us about your book Parched.

Girl meets boy. Action happens.

• Why do you think readers will enjoy Tess's story? One personality trait of Tess's that might prove to be problematic to staying alive?

I reckon readers will be into Parched if they were excited by Hunger Games and Divergent. I wrote this novel to be a big, high-concept action-adventure story featuring a plucky young girl with nothing to lose. It’ll also appeal to sci-fi geeks who are into robots. And people who like kissing.

Tess is stubborn and proud. She’s actually pretty good at staying alive – when the story starts she’s been living in the hot, tough Badlands for a year, on her own – but she refuses to bend to authority. So that puts her life in danger more than once!


• What was the hardest part of the book to write? Care to share with us a two sentence teaser from your favorite chapter of Parched?

Hmm, good question. For this book, the hardest part was the romance. I love romance but it’s hard to write it in a way that feels fresh, real, and sigh-worthy. I think that’s a real skill, and I take my hat off to those who can do it well! I also think succiently expressing my belief about something important is hard. It should be easy. But it’s not.

Okay, here’s the start of Chapter 17. I like this because it’s immediate and enticing.

The front door is ajar: an invitation. I push it open, knowing this is dangerous, knowing this could be a trap.

• If you could live inside a book for the day and befriend a character, which book and character would you spend the day with? Tell us why you chose both?

This is such a great question because so many books I love take place in settings or situations I NEVER want to be in (Delirium, Never Let Me Go, Fight Club etc) One of the first books I remember loving as a teen was My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell. It tells the story of the author’s boyhood spent on the Greek island of Corfu in the 1930s. It paints a wonderful, imaginative and generous portrayal of his life then, and makes me long for Greece. So I would want to be there! All of the characters would be fun to spent time with, but I seem to recall Spiro, a local taxi-driver as being particularly colorful.

• Last book you lost sleep to finish and why you couldn't put it down?

I just finished Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. I loved Gone Girl and was interested in her back catalog. It is DARK! Truly creepy. She is a master of suspense. I couldn’t put it down because I had to find out who killed the Day family! For thriller fans only!

• Three non-writing things: one thing your good at; one thing your bad at; and one thing you wish you could do?

1. Good at: I’m a good host! I love having people around for wine, cheese, and conversation. I have a cute apartment and love nothing more than a long, uproarious evening with a jazz soundtrack and close friends.
2. Bad at: Exercise. I keep myself healthy but really, any excuse to put off a yoga class. My girlfriend can attest to this. She stretches every morning; I lie in bed and drink coffee.
3. Wish I was good at: I’d love to be a “whizz with desserts”. I want people to be like, “Oh Georgia? Boy oh boy, she is a whizz with desserts!”

• If you could meet any author, dead or living, and ask them one question about one of their books who and what would it be?

Thanks to Twitter, I can ask any living author anything I want, so I’d have to use this wish on a dead author. So, Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books. I’d make it nice and open-ended. “Tell me about your life. Everything. Just start talking.”


• The world has fallen to a robot invasion and only one heroine/hero can possibly save the day, who do you choose?
•
Buffy. Okay, so her thing is vampires, but I just really like Buffy. I want her around. Let’s get her in the mix.


• Care to tell us about your writing cave (include picture if you want)? Any up coming project you can

share with us?


My writing cave is The Writers Room, which is in New York City. It’s a quiet space for writers, and I’ve written three books there so far, including my new book, The Regulars. It’s my first adult fiction, and is a contemporary, set where I live in Brooklyn, about three girls in their early twenties. It’s about beauty, and it has a magic realist premise. It’s fun! I’m just about to finish the first draft – wish me luck!

Georgia, thanks so much for stopping by and answering a few questions.

Parched by Georgia Clark, March 14, 2014. Published by Holiday House.

Robots, renewable resources, and romance get tangled together in this thrilling futuristic adventure novel about a utopian city struggling to keep its peace.

"A gutsy teen living on an arid, depleted Earth two centuries in the future faces danger and shocking revelations when she covertly joins a subversive group.

Sixteen-year-old Tess lived in Eden, a seemingly idyllic, domed city where access to information and water is regulated by the governing Trust. After a rogue robot killed her scientist mother, Tess fled with a terrible secret to the desperate, arid Badlands, where she’s recruited by Kudzu, explained to her as a “nonviolent collective working to undermine the Trust and free the Badlands.” Learning Kudzu plans to destroy Aevum, the Trust’s latest advanced robot, Tess reluctantly returns to Eden, where she finds the luxurious life morally unconscionable and secretly trains with Kudzu. Living with her uncle, who’s involved with Aevum, Tess is strangely attracted to his sympathetic assistant, Hunter. During a Kudzu raid on the Trust’s lab, Tess discovers that Aevum will be used to eradicate all inhabitants of the Badlands—and that Hunter’s not what he seems to be.

Tess’ first-person, present-tense voice lends chilling immediacy to her no-nonsense story of mixed loyalty, disturbing secrets, and ethical dilemmas associated with diminishing natural resources and scientific experimentation.

You can add Parched to your Goodreads shelves.