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Incarnate was the talk of the town late last year/early this year, and the sequel (Asunder) is building up some awesome buzz, too (have you SEEN that cover?!). So I'm very pleased and excited to welcome Jodi Meadows to the bash! Be sure to check out my interview, enter to win Incarnate and then party with Jodi!


So, when I started reading Incarnate I thought it was a book about reincarnation. Then I was bombarded with dragons, sylphs, hot musicians, and a mystical deity. Holy cow! When you started writing did you know that you were going to pack SO MUCH into the book? Did one idea come first, or did they all rush in together?

INCARNATE started with one idea: a society of perpetually reincarnated souls who remember everything . . . plus a new soul.

The note on my computer is dated summer 2006, and I didn't get the courage to write the story until fall 2009. (I like to think I spent those three years working on other things to get good enough to write INCARNATE, but the truth is I spent those three years avoiding it. It sounded too hard. The best ones usually do.)

I went about writing INCARNATE differently from my usual process, which was just open a blank document and start going. This time, since the premise was so complicated and needed so much forethought, I did a lot of planning. I made notes about how a society like that might work, came up with different worldbuilding aspects based on that, and plotted out all three novels, though they've evolved a lot since those early synopses. I'd also done a lot of thinking about teenage girls and their hot immortal boyfriends, so I wanted to make sure there was something real about Ana and Sam's relationship, something that would tie them together even when they fought.

All that early planning involved a lot of daydreaming, and one scene I couldn't get out of my head was a girl alone in the woods, trying to sleep, but shadows begin to attack. From there, the world just kind of . . . unfurled in my head, like it had been this real and whole thing all along, but I was only just becoming aware of it.

Well, I think you've done a masterful job of combining the elements. But... being attacked my Sylphs is kind of... terrifying. So if you could live in the world of Incarnate would you want to? And if you did, would you want to be an “old” soul or a newsoul?

Gosh, no. I mean, I love my characters and I think the world is cool -- I'd totally visit -- but life there is dangerous, and since they only have the million people, they don't have much of a concept of fiction about other people. My job -- making up stories about people who exist in imagination -- would be pointless there.

. . . Or make me filthy rich.

Can I change my answer?

HA! Since there are only a limited amount of people in the world of Incarnate, how much, if any, of Incarnate is based off real-live people/events? Do you know any hot musicians? Ever dived in a freezing lake? Gone to a masquerade?

Nothing in the story is really based off my real life, or people in my real life. I'm without hot musicians. I try to avoid being outside when it's cold, so the lake thing is out. And no one has invited me to a masquerade . . . yet. I have a feeling the masquerade thing is the most likely to happen. I'll be watching my mailbox.

What is inspired from my real life, though, is Ana's feelings of inadequacy, her desire to be good at something important to her. I've had all those feelings and that need to succeed, not just with writing, but with music and dance as well. It's a difficult, ugly place to be, needing more approval than anyone can ever provide.

I’ve always been under the impression that ferrets are mean, yet yours are some of the cutest things I’ve ever seen! Why the love of ferrets?

Ferrets are not mean! They're totally maligned in fiction. I don't know why.

Ferrets are different, that's for sure. Their personalities are this weird cross between puppies and kittens. They're ridiculously playful. That is, when they're not asleep.

I fell in love with ferrets when I first saw them in a pet store, shortly before I got married. They were just so cute! And they wanted looooove. And I wanted to give them my love! So I spent about a month doing as much research as I possibly could before I decided I could offer a ferret a good home. (Their needs are much different from cats' and dogs' needs, and certainly more involved than a lot of other small animals'.)

And that was that. My first ferret's name was Miss Suzi, and then I began to experience something called ferret math, where I needed "just one more."

Do you read a lot of YA? I ask because YA authors often say they don’t read YA while they’re writing because they are concerned about absorbing too much of another author’s voice. Is that an issue for you?

I read a ton of YA. It not only keeps me inspired, but it keeps me knowing what is out there and what other people are reading and writing. I figure I read much more quickly than I write, so I'm unlikely to absorb anyone else's voice long enough to affect my story. And that's what revisions are for: getting everything just how I like it.

Speaking of revisions, how much say did you have in the title for Incarnate? Did you have the same amount of say when titling Asunder?

A lot, actually. The original title for INCARNATE was . . . Erin Incarnate. (Ana had another name once. Boy was that a change that took getting used to!) And ASUNDER was once called Erin Asunder. (The last book was titled Erin Eternal, but just in case anyone thinks they're clever and can spot the trend, the last book will not be titled Eternal. There are already fifty million and they're all about vampires, as far as I can tell. IN3 will have a completely different title.)

For the first book, we just chopped the name off without much of a fuss, though we did consider a few alternatives. For the second, I came up with another list of options -- a big list! -- and then Marketing told me they really liked Asunder, so we'd be keeping that.

I have a few ideas for IN3, which I've already sent my editor so she can agree/disagree/send it to Marketing to deal with, but my file on my computer is Ana Notitle. Maybe Marketing will just want to call it Notitle. ;)

And now a mad-lib! As always, credit for this idea goes to the reviewers at Everead.

We stood in the middle of the butterfly without twisting for what seemed like eons. The sparkling in my eyes kept me staring at the star cups on the table, steam rising and he probably knew it. If he'd had any decency, he'd excuse himself to use the ferret or something, give me a chance to haunt my cloud into submission.



You can win a Signedcopy of Incarnate! Today's giveaway is hosted by Debz Bookshelf. Head on over to win. This giveaway is open TO US ONLY!