the penguin five: q & a with andrea cremer

And now for a Q & A with Andrea Cremer to finish off the week of NIGHTSHADE. This is also your chance to win the second of two hardcover copies…so make sure to comment by midnight tomorrow (Saturday) night, MST. (Contest open to US only.)

1. Andrea, welcome! Can you tell us the top five things you think we should know about you?

5) I have two dogs: a pug and a border collie.

4) My middle name is Darrelle, after my father, Darrel.

3) I'm a history professor.

2) I don't like the Beatles.

1) Calla and I have the same favorite book: Watership Down.

2. You've mentioned on your blog that you draft at an intense pace and that your manuscript really consumes you until you finish that initial draft. The pacing in Nightshade is INCREDIBLY well-done. How did you accomplish this? Do you think it is partially because of that wonderful/terrible consuming rush of the initial draft? Or is it something that comes out later in revision?

Thank you so much, Ally. Pacing is really important to me. I think the result is a combination of how absolutely lost I become in the first draft (I don't mean lost in a wandering sense, but lost as in I forget about the real world for awhile) and refining that passion during the revision process.

3. Andrea, sometimes you and I joke about sharing a muse (we both love similar poems, etc.). How do you get your muse to come visit while you're writing? What do you do to invite creativity into your life and writing?

My muse doesn't visit, she holds me hostage. When I'm writing I have a hard time doing anything else. I get in the shower and get out again, forgetting to wash my hair. I pour orange juice on my cereal. I throw clothes in the garbage instead of the hamper. My muse is fueled by music and coffee and I would say the music does jumpstart my creative process. I create playlists for each of my novels.

4. Can you share with us one of your favorite paragraphs/passages from Nightshade?

Sure! This is one of my favorite lines from Calla: "Don't ever, ever try to pet a wolf. It's just insulting."

5. And, finally, what are you reading right now?

I just finished Beth Revis's debut, ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (January 2011). It's amazing. Now I'm reading Diana Gabaldon's OUTLANDER.

Thank you, Andrea! And congratulations again on the release of NIGHTSHADE!