Chatting with Maria V. Snyder

I want to welcome one of my favorite authors. I picked up Poison Study a few years ago because I Loved both the title and the cover - and then fell in love with the series. Since then I've devoured Maria's other books and become a fan girl. I met VERY briefly at BEA this past year and had Inside Out signed!

What made you choose to write YA after The Study series? I had the idea for INSIDE OUT for a number of years and had even wrote about 7 chapters. I wanted to try something different and my publisher and editor were very supportive.

Where do you write best? At home in my office. I write from 10 p.m. until 3 – 4 a.m. – it’s the time I’m most creative and no one bothers me at that time of night J Then I slept in until 10 or 11 a.m.

Wow, that's a unique answer.

How do you get your ideas? Do you use real events in your novels and if so, can you describe one? My ideas can come from anywhere. I get ideas from newspaper and magazine articles, from something I see on television, from something that comes up in conversation, from dreams, or from something my children say or do. I tend not to lack for ideas just time!

I don’t use real events in my novels, but I do take parts of events and incorporate them into the stories. For example, when I learned how to work with molten glass, many of the mistakes the new glassblowers make are ones I made.

How did you come up with your titles? I had a hard time coming up with Poison Study at first. I knew I wanted Poison in the title, but wasn’t sure about the rest. I thought of Poison Education, Poison Test, and Educating Yelena, but none really grabbed me until I thought of Poison Study. Usually the publishers will change a title, because it’s very important to have an engaging title. My editor kept it and Magic Study was a natural title for the second book. My editor wanted to title Storm Glass – Glass Study, but since I had a new main character I thought that would be confusing to my readers and they might be disappointed that Yelena was no longer telling the story. She liked Storm Glass so that was good J Inside Out was originally Inside, but my critique group at Seton Hill thought it was too plain, so they started brainstorming and the real Tricky came up with Inside Out.

I do love your titles.

Can you tell us a little bit about Spy Glass? SPY GLASS picks up a few months after SEA GLASS. Opal is home recovering from a struggle where she had to sacrifice everything in order to save another. Now without her special magic, she's feeling lost and directionless until she discovers that there may be a way for her to become powerful again. Determined to reclaim her powers, Opal will do anything to get them back. Or so she believes.

I loved this series. You can read my review of Spy Glass here

What did you do on your release day? I sent out an issue of my free email newsletter to let my subscribers know the book was available. Most of my promotion is done online, so I probably spent the day on the computer. I don’t celebrate every release – I had a huge party when POISON STUDY was released and that was a ton of fun and a ton of work J

You seem to do a lot of hands-on research for your books. Do you have a favorite or worst research memory? How about my scariest research? I toured a maximum security prison for men to do research for SPY GLASS. Walking among the prisoners was the biggest surprise to me. I thought my tour would be behind bullet-proof glass or at a safe distance, but the facility isn't all maximum security and my friend showed me the cell blocks, the cafeteria, the gym, the classrooms and the exercise yards. The cafeteria was filled with prisoners and we passed a bunch when we entered the block. We were outnumbered 50 to 1, but everyone was nice and polite. There were correctional officers nearby, but only a few, and they weren't even armed. That was uncanny and scary. And one CO (the real Black Sergeant – which he told me was how to address him) asked me what I was doing there and he called me Visitor number one three six five! He made an impression and the Black Sergeant made a cameo appearance in the book. I quoted him exactly.

That sounds scary - but great info for the book.

Will you write more books in this world? (I know I would LOVE reading stories from the other characters) There are characters from the Study and Glass books that I would love to expand on and see what happens to them. Reema and Teegan or Fisk or Heli (the young Stormdancer) or Quinn. I would also like to write another Yelena and Valek story – I am writing a short story about them for my free email newsletter subscribers right now. I'm also thinking about expanding that story and flashing back to Valek's past when he meets the Commander and assassinates the King of Ixia. But for right now, I need a break and a new creative challenge to keep my writing fresh. I do intend to go back to Ixia and Sitia in the future.

Oh good! I'd love to read about Fish and Jenco and Ari. Plus Valek and Yelena well you get the idea!

Can you tell us a little bit about Outside In? OUTSIDE IN picks up about 12 weeks after the end of INSIDE OUT. The world of Inside has been turned…er…upside down ;> and there are many changes and problems involved with the aftermath. Trella feels she has done her part and can now relax and explore, but soon events drag her back into the thick of things.

I can't wait to read the next installment. You can read my review of INSIDE OUT here

What’s up next after Outside In? After OUTSIDE IN, I’m going to work on a new fantasy novel set in a world that is recovering from a deadly plague. Her world has blamed the plague on the healers and has hunted them down. She is finally caught only to be rescued by a group who wants her to heal their Prince. The group's leader, Kerrick, knows the healers aren't to blame for the plague and that she could do some good for a change instead of hiding. Unfortunately, she believes this Prince is the one who started the plague as an attempt at biological warfare so she isn't risking her life for some pampered Prince. As they travel to the Prince's hidden location, they're pursued by others who have realized having a healer around might just be a good thing for them, but not necessarily for her.

Oh, sounds awesome!

What was the last book you’ve read that you’ve been recommending to everyone? Soulless, by Gail Carriger! So funny – it’s a Victorian Steampunk with werewolves and vampires as part of high society. I suggest that everyone listens to this one – the reader/actor Emily Gray was fantastic!

Are there any authors you’d love to meet? One of the perks of being a published author is I’ve already met a bunch of my favorite authors and have made friends with a few. I would like to meet J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer just so I’d have an answer to when people ask me if I’ve met anyone famous J

Do you have a favorite literary quote? Nope. I’m not the literary type – I’m a pop culture – genre fiction kind of girl J I do have a favorite movie quote from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. When the main character Tula complains about her father being the head of the family to her mother, the mother, Maria says, “He may be the head of the family, but I’m the neck. And I can turn that head any way I want.” Love it!

Listing if your favorites:
Candy - Swedish Fish
Pizza topping - Pepperoni Genre of books - Fantasy
Singer and/or Song – Current band/singer favorite is 3 Doors Down / but I love the song, The Reason by Hoobastank.
Restaurant – Olive Garden
TV show /Movie – Bones / The Princess Bride
Color - Red
Shoe - sneakers
Video Game – Dance, Dance, Revolution

Interested in the books? Find the first chapters of all the books here: http://www.mariavsnyder.com/books.php

Maria also has a new blog: http://officialmariavsnyder.blogspot.com and is on Facebook and Goodreads and welcome new friends.

Spotted: Book Trailer for INSIDE OUT

I adore this author and her books. You can read my review here, but check out the awesome book trailer. Add this to your books to read. It's amazingly good.

Inside Out: from www.teensreadtoo.com

Trella is a scrub – but she’s not your average scrub. She has one friend and prefers to spend her time in the pipes rather than with the overcrowded living quarters of the other scrubs. They’re forced to clean the Inside for the Uppers. Trella doesn’t know much about the world, but when her friend comes to her and says there’s someone who wants to meet her, she’s suspicious. What she discovers is something she never imagined. Unknowingly, she starts a revolution. Now, people who once scorned her are helping her complete tasks, steal food, and giving her valuable information, all for the hopes of a better life. Everyone wants to know what’s on the Outside. Everywhere Trella goes, danger follows. The Pop Cops have captured her best friend. He’s sentenced to die if she doesn’t get to him in time. They’re watching her every move and questioning her acquaintances. Plus, she doesn’t know who to trust. She’s going by her instincts, but the last time a rebellion occurred, the leaders were betrayed. Trella’s hoping she trusts the right people and, with time running out, hoping that they find something that makes all their sacrifices worthwhile.

I reviewed this one for www.teensreadtoo.com
where I gave it a:


Inside Out is an edge-of-your-seat science fiction action adventure ride filled with twists and turns you’ll never see coming. Maria V. Snyder has quickly become a favorite author of mine. I love her Glass series and her Study series. I can’t wait to see what she and Trella have in store for us in the next book of this series.

Intrigued? Check out the first chapter here

* comes out in April*

Introducing HarlequinTeen: a Guest Blog

What kind of book becomes a Harlequin TEEN?
by Natashya Wilson, senior editor, Harlequin TEEN

As soon as Harlequin announced the creation of Harlequin TEEN , a new young adult fiction imprint, people wanted to know—what kind of books were we going to publish? The short answer: compelling teen fiction covering a variety of genres. The long answer….well, here is how the launch year of titles came to be!

First, I have to say, the speculation over what we’ll publish has been both exciting and, sometimes, amusing. Judging by a few recent blog posts, when people heard “Harlequin”, and “young adult,” some automatically thought of that outdated term ‘bodice-ripper” and pictured torrid stories of hormone-driven teens panting over first kisses and… more. Yes, most of our stories do include a love interest—whose real-life story doesn’t?! —but romance is just one part of what we’re about. Here’s the scoop on what to expect from Harlequin TEEN’s first year.

The first manuscript the company bought that would eventually become part of Harlequin TEEN was Maria V. Snyder’s story Inside Out. When Maria came to her editor with the project, we didn’t have the perfect place for it, but we knew we couldn’t let it go and bought the book anyway. Perhaps that was the spark the reignited the company’s desire to create a general young adult fiction imprint! This unique futuristic story features Trella, a quiet loner who accidentally becomes the leader of a rebellion while exploring forbidden levels and uncovering secrets of life “Inside.”

Due to Maria’s adult publishing schedule, Inside Out was slated for April 2010—and the hunt was on for more books. To start, we focused on authors who were writing stories with a paranormal/urban fantasy appeal. Harlequin looked at its current author base to see if there were more potential TEEN authors, and bestselling authors Rachel Vincent and Gena Showalter had what it took.

Rachel’s SHIFTERS series had really taken off, and Gena had a huge paranormal romance readership plus had already written several YAs for other publishers. Both authors came to their editors with projects we adored, and My Soul to Take, featuring a teen banshee, and Intertwined, featuring a teen with four souls living inside him, soon became the August and September 2009 launch projects for the imprint. Sequels to both will be out in 2010.

We were also fortunate to have two titles previously published under our Luna imprint that made perfect sense to reprint for Harlequin TEEN, both by bestselling House of Night author P. C. Cast. Elphame’s Choice (October 2009) and Brighid’s Quest (March 2010) take place in the fantasy world of Partholon and feature goddess-blessed heroines who must leave everything familiar and risk their very lives as they meet forbidden soul mates and face their destinies.

Word got out, and more projects began to trickle in, among them a memorable modern faery story from debut author Julie Kagawa. The Iron King (February 2010), the first novel of the Iron Fey, stars reluctant half-faery Meghan Chase and her perilous trip into the faery world, where she must rescue her little brother and resist falling for an icy faery prince who might as soon kill her as kiss her.

The hunt expanded to include a variety of story types. We found a fabulous fun contemporary story, Tagged (March 2010), by another exciting debut author, Mara Purnhagen. Tagged features a mystery graffiti artist and the girl determined to find the artist without being labeled a snitch or revealing her secret crush. It doesn’t help that she’s the police chief’s daughter…or that the artist may be someone she’s close to!

An unusual and thrilling opportunity also came our way around this time. We connected with the right people at ABC Family and acquired the rights to publish books based on their TV series GREEK! We’ll be publishing four stories based on the GREEK characters, beginning in May 2010 with GREEK: Double Date by Marsha Warner.
We were also excited to acquire books from popular YA authors Allison van Diepen and Douglas Rees. Allison’s contemporary story The Oracle of Dating (May 2010) features teen relationship buff Kayla and her Web site, through which she anonymously offers advice on the ups and downs of dating—getting herself into a bit of trouble and a turbulent romance of her own!

Douglas Rees’s Majix: Notes from a Serious Teen Witch (July 2010) stars smart-mouthed Kestrel—don’t call her Susan!—a teen witch determined not to give in to the pressure to be like everyone else, even when faced with unfair detentions and nasty, unenlightened classmates. Don’t worry…Kestrel shows them all!

July 2010 also brings the re-release of a favorite novel originally published in Red Dress Ink, Carrie Pilby by Caren Lissner. Carrie’s a teen genius—and hermit—on a mission to change her social misfit status, but does she have to dumb things down just to fit in?

We can’t wait to hear what readers think of each release. Let us know—which book are you looking forward to most? What do you want to see from Harlequin TEEN?



Comment here for a chance to win a copy of either My Soul to Take or Intertwined, or a Harlequin TEEN T-shirt. Contest will end on Monday @ midnight (eastern time).

Be sure to visit us at www.HarlequinTEEN.com, and on Twitter (www.twitter.com/HarlequinTEEN/) for the latest info. We hope to see you at our next blog tour stop, The Story Siren on August 5!