KRISTEN SIMMONS INTERVIEW AND ARTICLE 5 GIVEAWAY

Today I’m excited to interview Kristen Simmons about her debut book ARTICLE 5 which was released on January 31, 2012. Being an attorney, I loved how Kristen explored a world where the Bill of Rights were revoked and replaced by the Moral Statutes. And Kristen created a world more frightening than I could imagine.

Here’s a description from Goodreads:

New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., have been abandoned.

The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.

There are no more police—instead, there are soldiers. There are no more fines for bad behavior—instead, there are arrests, trials, and maybe worse. People who get arrested usually don't come back.

Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that things weren’t always this way. Living with her rebellious single mother, it’s hard for her to forget that people weren’t always arrested for reading the wrong books or staying out after dark. It’s hard to forget that life in the United States used to be different.

Ember has perfected the art of keeping a low profile. She knows how to get the things she needs, like food stamps and hand-me-down clothes, and how to pass the random home inspections by the military. Her life is as close to peaceful as circumstances allow.

That is, until her mother is arrested for noncompliance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. And one of the arresting officers is none other than Chase Jennings…the only boy Ember has ever loved.

Hi Kristen. Thanks so much for joining us.

Thank YOU Natalie! I’m so excited to be here! I’ve been a fan of your blog for a long time. It was so helpful to me when I was looking for an agent!

1.      Tell us a little about yourself and how you became a writer.

I’m originally from the West Coast – I grew up in outside of Reno, Nevada. My dad is a cowboy, which meant that I spent a lot of time feeding horses and cattle, and my mom was once a math teacher, which meant I got to go to Math Camp when I couldn’t pass my times tables tests. I like good stories, big dogs that like to sleep on your lap, and most anything chocolate. I do not, however, like bees, bigots, and beer (allergic to all three). I began writing when I was a little kid when I learned stories on paper got you in less trouble than lying to grownups, and have been doing it ever since.

2.      I bet there’s a story behind the writing is better than lying lesson. You created a world where violation of the Moral Statutes results in immediate arrest and never coming back. You show this right away with Ember’s mom being arrested and then Ember being taken away. What made you decide to create your society the way you did?

In Article 5, the Moral Statutes are a very rigid set of rules, enforced by a very rigid organization. It seemed only right that the punishments for these rules be just as severe. The world in A5 has become so polarized in terms of wealth and politics, and the middle has become so thin that there is no room for shades of gray – unless you’re in the resistance, of course.

3.      You can say that again about the society being completely rigid. It made me appreciate that ours isn’t so black and white. Ember goes through a lot of internal doubts about herself and whether she can trust anyone, including Chase. Tell us how you developed her as a character and how your training in social work helped in creating her reactions in light of all the danger she was constantly in.

Ember has been through some traumatic things, and as a result, is dealing with some pretty hefty emotional consequences. Things that anyone might feel after experiencing what Chase and Ember have. But she’s resilient. Perhaps the most important thing I learned from a career in social work is how resilient we all are. How much we can take and still fight back. Witnessing someone recover after they’ve lost everything is awe-inspiring, and that is what I wanted to capture with Ember’s character. In the beginning of Article 5, she’s fairly naïve to the way the world outside her community works, but she learns quickly. Sure, she makes mistakes and tests her boundaries, but isn’t that how we all learn? By the end, she’ll either have to adapt or give up, and ultimately, that’s a choice many of us will have to face in our lives.

4.      That we’re resilient is an important lesson most of us have to learn at some point in life. And I agree that Ember was naïve at first. And occasionally I wished I could tell her not to make a decision she was making. But you’re right, that’s how she and the rest of us learn. I’ve read that ARTICLE 5 is part of a trilogy and that you’re already working on book 3. Did you have the whole trilogy figured out when you started ARTICLE 5 and do you have any tips on writing a trilogy?

Writing a trilogy is harder than I thought! Each book has to have its own arc (and each character their own arc within the story) while being part of a larger, complete arc. When I set out to write the trilogy, I knew how the overall picture would look, but was a bit fuzzy on the details of the second and third installments. I was never much of a plotter, and had to learn quickly! My advice to those writing trilogies is to plan ahead. Even if the finer points of the plot are unclear, try to figure out where your story and characters are going (in terms of motivation and change) in each book, and where the story and characters need to be by the end.

5.      That’s great advice to plan ahead. Because I think you have to plant threads in book 1 for book 2 and 3. But it’s a hard challenge for our first time around. Okay I’m dying to know the answer to this next question. Your agent is Joanna MacKenzie. I read that when you obtained representation the word count of your manuscript was 154,000 and through revisions with her that you cut that down to 96,000. How did you obtain representation with a word count that was so much higher than the range for YA books? Any tips on getting an agent?

I firmly believe that Joanna finding my query (naively boasting my word count of course) and still agreeing to do a read was some kind of divine intervention. What followed, however, was persistence and hard world. A5 in its original form was long (obviously), but it also had never been read or critiqued (at the time, I hadn’t heard of beta readers or critique groups). Joanna took a huge chance and agreed to do a full crit. If the manuscript was in better shape after revisions, she’d consider offering representation. It wasn’t. But she didn’t give up on me, and I didn’t stop trusting her. I liked her style – the way she offered support and criticism, her availability when I needed to work through something. She loved the characters, and believed in the story. We learned to work together. It seemed like a long time, but after three rounds of revisions, the manuscript was finally streamlined and ready, and she offered representation.

It took me 7 years to find Joanna, and a year to sign a contract once I did. My advice to those in the same boat is not to give up. This takes time, and a willingness to take some big risks. Doing revisions with an agent before a contract doesn’t always work out well for people, but it did for me.

6.      That’s amazing that you were able to get her to take you on. And that you submitted before having the manuscript critiqued. How did you cut your word count so much and what advice can you share for those of us who may be too wordy?

This was mostly done in the editing process with Joanna, but even after we signed a contract with Tor, my editor (very sweetly) asked me to cut 50 pages. Ouch. Here’s the thing about cutting: it sucks. I feel for you if you’re in that position. I still feel like some of my best writing was cut. But if I can’t answer in 10 seconds why a scene needs to be in the book (how does this relate to the story?), or if the answer is something like, “this scene HAS to stay because, well, it’s AWESOME,” then it’s got to go.

7.      Yes, cutting over 10,000 words is a lot. I know. Because my manuscript was about 20,000 words too long for a MG book. And it took a number of revisions to cut it down to the acceptable word count. And word count does matter in this competitive market. What are you doing to market your book, including marketing plans for down the road?

Ooh! Riding the marketing train in my newest adventure! I’m doing several guest posts and fun online interviews. I’m on a blog tour (with Teen Book Scene), and have several appearances in the Midwest lined up – all places featured in Article 5! (Louisville, Lexington, Cincy.) My launch party is 2/2/12 at 7PM at Inkwood Books in Tampa, FL (more information can be found at www.kristensimmonsbooks.com/events). Otherwise I blog at www.kristensimmonsbooks.com/blog, at YAFusion (http://yafusion.blogspot.com/), and at Brave New Words (http://www.bravenewwordsdebut.blogspot.com/), and am on Facebook (www.facebook.com/author.kristensimmons).

8.      That’s so awesome that you’re appearances are tied into the settings in your story. What a unique idea I hadn’t thought of using something like that in marketing. What are the plans for publication of book 2 in your trilogy? Are you working on other projects besides book 3?

Book 2 comes out in January of 2013, and yes! I’m in the midst of writing Book 3. Because this industry can be fairly slow, I did have time to write two other manuscripts, one between A5 and the sequel, and another before starting the third. My agent and I are currently in revisions with one of them. It deals with child labor issues. The other is still top secret!

Thank you for having me Natalie! Like I said, your blog and community of readers have been a great inspiration to me over the years!

Thanks Kristen for sharing all of your advice. You can find Kristen at the links above and at her website and on Goodreads.

Kristen generously offered an ARC for a giveaway. All you need to do is be a follower (just click the follow button if you’re not a follower) and leave a comment by midnight on February 25. I’ll announce the winner on February 27th. If your e-mail is not on Blogger, please list it in your comment. International entries are welcome.

If you mention this contest on your blog, Twitter, or Facebook, please let me know in the comments and I’ll give you an extra entry.

Here’s what’s coming up in the next few weeks. Next Monday I’ll be interviewing a teenager who’s a debut published author for my ASK THE EXPERT series and giving away a copy of her book and a recently published YA book I know you’ll want. Then two weeks from now I’ll be interviewing Merrie Haskell and giving away a copy of her debut book THE PRINCESS CURSE.

Hope to see you next Monday!