Carrie Jones Interview & CAPTIVATE Giveaway

All I can say about this interview: Carrie Jones is awesome.

As a New Englander, the setting of NEED and CAPTIVATE was a huge appeal because it was immediately visual and I felt connected to it. Did the setting inform the story at all? (Snow, for instance, certainly played a large role, and the winter seemed like an isolating character in and of itself.)

The setting informs the story a lot. It propels some of the action (Zara’s car skidding out on the ice), complicates the plot (snow isolating people from outside help), and creates the atmosphere. As the series progresses it also has an important mythological aspect to it.

But honestly, I almost always start my first drafts in the fall or winter and I am not very good with the lack of sunlight/warmth. It leaks through.

*Shivers

There was a time when I said no to shifters – werewolves particularly – but Nick, well, it’s rather impossible not to love him. He, in fact, was one of the ones to turn the tide for me and now I say yes to shifters all the time. (Hmm…That didn’t sound quite right. Moving on.) Is there one thing, Zara aside, that Nick loves beyond reason? One thing that we wouldn’t know from the books?

Oh man… now I feel responsible for your addiction. Hold on, I have to go laugh an evil witch cackle. No, just kidding. I am really sorry that you can no longer have a bumper sticker on your car that says JUST SAY NO TO SHIFTERS. But, I think Nick is absolutely worth it.

Nick loves (beyond reason): the television show COPS
And peanut butter cups

And balls with bells in them that you get at the pet store

I got to a point in CAPTIVATE where I said something close to “Nooooooo!” Were there any scenes – in either book – that you had to grit your teeth to get through? Or how about a scene that you were thrilled with when it was done?

I had an incredibly hard time writing CAPTIVATE. There were two major scenes where I just had to hold my breath as I wrote. And I’d keep stopping and say, “I should probably check my email” because I couldn’t handle the tension in them. Seriously, I can’t even watch the television show THE OFFICE (U.S. version) without leaving the room 500 times because the tension of Michael Scott’s choices are too much for me.  So, yes, there was a lot of teeth gritting.

In the next book (the third in the series) there is a scene that I was sooooo happy to get done. It involved a lot of fighting and I’m not really much of a fighter so it was nice to have it over with.

I, too, love furry, white dogs (mine being an American Eskimo,) and I love stories about adorable furry, white dogs, so…Would you mind sharing one about yours? Or the two of your pups?  (I *love* the vlogs about the two of them!)

Oh gosh. Really? I love American Eskimos. They are such great dogs.

So, I just got Scotty. He’s a rescue dog and he came from a kill shelter in Alabama and he had two huge puncture wounds on his neck, which I like to pretend came from a vampire. And the second day he was here I went to the store and I came back and CATCHING FIRE (the book) was on the floor with the jacket taken off and partially eaten and so I looked at Scotty and Tala and said, “Which one of you did this?”

Tala looked at Scotty. She totally ratted him out.

So, I put away the book on a shelf with a million other books and threw away the cover and the next day when I went to get my daughter Em from school I came back  and CATCHING FIRE was on the middle of the rug again, open to page 110 and with new teeth marks.

I was like, “Dude… Scotty… No more eating the book.”

And he just wagged his tail.

So I put the book on the very top of the book case, which is about six feet tall and the next morning I wake up and CATCHING FIRE is in the middle of the rug AGAIN! And it’s open to page 115 this time and some of the corners of the pages are chewed like Scotty turns the pages with his teeth!

And I looked at him. And he thumped his tail and looked at me and I was like, “Dude, I didn’t know you were such a reader.”

Which is cool, but he is a little slow.

To borrow a (condensed) page from Inside the Actor’s Studio, five questions:

Your favorite “classic”?

Pizza. I’m not into the new trendy pizzas.

Which book do you think everyone should read?

Those state driver’s education manuals where they list all the rules of the road and how you are supposed to stop at the stop sign and not run over pedestrians. I think it would be good if everyone read that. Even babies.

If you could spend the day with one character from any novel, who would you choose?

God.

What was the last song you got stuck in your head?

Right now at this second it’s BIG GIRLS DON’T CRY by Fergie. I have no idea how it got there.

If your books were a flavor of ice cream, what flavor would they be?

Pixalicious Peppermint.

And now it’s giveaway time! If you’d like a shot at a copy of Carrie Jones’ Captivate, leave a comment on this post. (US addresses only, please.) A winner will be selected by Random.org and announced here on April 16th. Thanks to Spruce TV for the opportunity and giveaway copy! And to Carrie for answering my questions!

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