The Dream Slayer Tour: Character Interview & E-Book Giveaway!

Today I have the pleasure of hosting an interview with Natalie and Tristan from The Dream Slayer! They're super fun so I hope you'll take a gander and read all the way down for a great e-book giveaway!

Welcome to Reading in the Corner, Natalie and Tristan! It's so great to have you both here today. :) Let's start with the basics--can you tell us a little bit about yourselves? 

Natalie: Thanks for having us here! It's so much fun to do something different! I'm Natalie, I'm 17. I live with parents and have an older married sister, who I sometimes see. Soon I'm going to be an aunty! Next year is my last of high school.
Tristan: Score! This school thing is way more work than I was promised on that first day of Kindergarten.
Natalie: *giggle* You thought your mother was waiting right outside.
Tristan: Hey, that was supposed to be our secret….I'm Tristan Miller. I'm 17 and I live a few streets from Nat with my parents and our dog, Corky. I have a brother who moved to the big city of Burlington Vermont. He has a job on the news as an anchor or something like that. Hard to know more since he won't return our calls.
Natalie: I call him stinky Rick face.
Tristan: It's nicer than what I call him. 

 How long have you been friends? How did you meet? 

Tristan: Since as far back as I can remember.
Natalie: We met as babies at the park. Tristan followed me around with his shovel and we played in the sandbox. I was just starting to walk so I guess we were around one.
Tristan: Hilarity and naptime ensued ever since. Except we stopped taking naps together by the time we were three.
Natalie: Otherwise it'd be creepy. We've been in classes together and every summer we'd play and do something every day.
Tristan: *smiles* Some things never change. 

What do you like to do for fun? 

Tristan: I have a popular school blog. Other than that, the normal stuff. Movies, TV. Youtube is a great school work distraction.
Natalie: I love videos with kittens. Too bad my parents still have dial up.
Tristan: I don't even know how that's possible.

What about you, Natalie? 

Natalie: I love to read and sometimes I write poetry and short stories sometimes. When we're together we love to get coffee at the Magic Bean, go to the movies, or just hang out at Tristan's house. Oh, and I daydream *knowing smile*. 

What's one random fact about you? 

Natalie: I still sleep with my teddy bear from when I was a baby. And I have a pet hamster named Plucky because I wanted him to be a bird instead.
Tristan: Hey, you cheated. That's two!
Natalie: *giggle* Oops!
Tristan: One random fact about me is I can whistle out my nose the Mission Impossible theme while drinking milks.
Natalie: He's making that up.
Tristan: Hey, get me a glass of milk and I'll prove it. 

What makes you unique? 

Natalie: Oh, nothing really except my dreams created a thinking, breathing, alternate dimension parallel to ours.
Tristan: And I'm supposed to follow that how?
Natalie: *shrugs*
Tristan: I have the uncanny ability to sense danger and run in the opposite direction. 

If you could do anything after you finish high school, what would it be? 

Tristan: I want to go to college and become an investigative reporter that travels the globe. But first I'd like to backpack across Europe.
Natalie: That sounds fun.
Tristan: You can come with me.
Natalie: *smile* I really just want to get through high school without dying! After that I'd love to open a boutique or something downtown. I love downtown. 

What's it like living in Meadow Creek? 

Natalie: We're really close to ski country, so during the winter I love the rush of people visiting. In the summer, there are some hikers and a lot of shops and restaurants close up, but it feels more intimate. We know everyone and can do normal, everyday stuff without the crowds.
Tristan: What she's trying to say is that it's dull.
Natalie: That's not true. I love it here. The mountains are gorgeous and we can go hiking whenever we want.
Tristan: Except we never do.
Natalie: Yeah, but we *could*. 

Has it always been so weird? 

Tristan: I want to say no, but the people that live here are eccentric and strange.
Natalie: That's why he lives here *smirk*
Tristan: I think maybe people are drawn to here. When we were kids we used to think that the circus clowns were possessed and we ended up stranded in a tent.
Natalie: Mr. Buckle rescued us.
Tristan: Right, which just proves, that yes, it is always been strange. That or I have an active imagination. Your guess is as good as mine. 

Natalie, let's talk just a little about your dreams. Can you tell us a little about them? 

Natalie: Like everyone else, when I dream sometimes I'm someone else. I'm taller, my hair is blond instead of brown and I have these crazy adventures and I always save the day. Sometimes they're campy, but they're always fun. I had no idea they were more than dreams until some of the dreams began to um, manifest in town.
Tristan: It sounds creepier every time I hear you talk about it. 

When did they start? 

Natalie: I don't remember exactly when. I think I've always dreamt of her, even when I was little. I remember being 10 and dreaming I was blond, just like my older sister. But it was 2 years ago where in my dreams I became the slayer and I met Damien.
Tristan: Oh, yay, we're talking about him now?
Natalie: Just for a second, I'm done now. 

And Tristan, has Natalie ever talked to you about her dreams? 

Tristan: Only once stuff started getting tough. Now, yeah we've talked about it some. At first I admit I was really freaked out. Another dimension where we all exist and have lives different from this one? It's like having a twin that's you, and you have no control over them. But then I realized it was kind of cool that another me was living in this world and he has a pretty cool life. I mean, I do. I mean…
Natalie: It'll get easier the more you talk about it. 

What are your thoughts on her dreams? 

Tristan: It's hard to put my thoughts into words. I always thought Natalie was amazing and always felt like I was the only one who knew, you know? Oh , no offense, Nat… Now our friends know she's amazing and I have to share her. What happens in our dreams affects us and vice versa. Imagine if that got out?
Natalie: People would freak.
Tristan: There would definitely be freaking. 

Blog Tour: On Writing Monument 14's Characters

Thanks for stopping by today! I'm excited to be hosting Emmy Laybourne today as part of the Monument 14 blog tour!  She's stopped by today to talk about one of my favorite things about a good book--characters!  Emmy's debut has a pretty good size cast, so I asked her to talk a little about how she went about developing them all.  Read on to find out more about her characters and Monument 14. :)

On Crafting Good Side Characters

My debut novel Monument 14 has a bunch of characters in it - fourteen kids and a couple of adults thrown in, too! I really needed to be sure that the characters stood out from each other, so the reader would know who was who. But in terms of my writing process, I didn't want to draw up some kind of chart and try to set them all apart from each other in some phony kind of way. Instead I worked in a number of ways to really bring the characters to life.

One technique I used was to look to specific people from my life when envisioning characters. Niko, for example, is absolutely based on the son of a friend of mine. He's this very serious boy with big brown eyes and straight brown hair. He's thin and quiet and moves like he's a part of the f. There is nothing about the kid that is wild or impulsive - even his hair is completely straight.

Chloe, one of the most loud and funny characters in the book, is also based on a kid I know. It helped me, when I was writing her, because I could just focus on this other little kid (actually a boy) and try to imagine what he would say.

There are some characters you need to create, like the ones I just mentioned - others seem to be waiting, right in your imagination. Max was one of those characters. He was just hanging around in my mind, waiting to "get borned," as he might say. To tell you the truth, Max is a character that could kind of take over. In fact, I think I could write a side-novel to Monument 14, written entirely in his voice. It would be one hell of a story. Max has had a more interesting life than most of us, I think!

Another tool I used when creating the characters in Monument 14 were my acting skills. Working on films like Superstar and Nancy Drew, I really had to go deep into character work. I would work on characters for a long time - I would focus on how they walk and talk. I'd do housework in character and go shopping for clothes in character (and boy, did I ever come home with some horrible outfits!)  I did the same type of work with my literary characters. Sometimes when I was writing I would speak the dialogue out loud. I'd imagine myself to be Sahalia and bam - something snarky and sarcastic would pop out of my mouth. Or I'd take on Jake's slow drawl to see what he had to say about a development in a scene.

I'll tell you, writing Monument 14 was hard for me, at times, because I came to really love my characters. They came to be real, living and breathing people in my imagination. I hated putting them in so much danger. And man, then I had to write the sequel! Talk about turmoil and despair!

Please read Monument 14 and let me know what you think of the characters! You can leave a message for me here or write to me at emmylaybourne.com. Thanks and safe reading!

Find out more about Monument 14, Emmy, and the Fierce Read tour!

Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/MfeyjuEMaOI

Author website: http://emmylaybourne.com/

Short Story Prequel: http://www.tor.com/stories/2012/05/dress-your-marines-in-white 

Fierce Reads Tour Info: https://www.facebook.com/FierceReads/events

Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong.

In Emmy Laybourne’s action-packed debut novel, six high school kids (some popular, some not), two eighth graders (one a tech genius), and six little kids trapped together in a chain superstore build a refuge for themselves inside. While outside, a series of escalating disasters, beginning with a monster hailstorm and ending with a chemical weapons spill, seems to be tearing the world—as they know it—apart.

Emmy began her writing career as a playwright. The first play she wrote and performed was called, The Miss Alphabet City Beauty Pageant and Spelling Bee. The New York Post said it, “restores faith in our country’s comedic future.” The Daily News called it, “hilariously clever.” Her next play, Smorgas-Bourne, landed Emmy a starring role in the Paramount feature film, Superstar, opposite Will Ferrel and Molly Shannon.

As an actress, Emmy went on to have featured roles in the films “Nancy Drew,” “The In-Laws,” and “Lucky Numbers.” She was a season regular on the NBC sitcom “DAG,” and performed original comedy on Comedy Central, MTV, and VH1. She has improvised with the Upright Citizens Brigade, Chicago City Limits and the Heartless Floozies.

Emmy has performed original comedy material throughout LA and New York, including the song she sang with her brother, Sam, “We Can’t Make Love Because We’re Related.” In addition to writing YA novels, Emmy is currently a Lyricist in the prestigious BMI Musical Theater Writer’s Advanced Workshop, writing a musical called "The Midnight Princess" with composer Paul Libman.

Macmillan has been kind enough to provide a copy of Monument 14 for giveaway to one lucky reader!  Use the Rafflecopter form below to enter for your chance.  US/Canada addresses only, please.

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