David Estes Fans and YA Book Lovers Unite! discussion
This topic is about
Scott Sigler
Author Q&A
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Scott Sigler (Author of Alive & The Infected Trilogy) Q&A Event--June 29-July 2nd
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I agree w/messages 95-100. This has been an awesome event. Thanx much to the Estes group to hosting and administering, and Scott for 1) giving us some of his valuable time, 2) answering those questions he got to so in depth, and 3) donating excellent prizes for the group to give away. I've been a hard core Sigler Junkie for 10 years and I learned quite a bit from Scott's answers here. Those fans who didn't come over and join us really missed out. Cest la vie; I shouted from the rooftops to one and all for a couple weeks beforehand. I look forward to future events of this kind in the Estes group. Y'all are fabulous!
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No problem, @David. Glad to help. I'm happy to socialize and learn from *all* readers. Unfortunately, I suspect that's more the exception than the rule. Age has zero to do with whether someone's ideas are good. Historically, most inventions and important breakthroughs actually come from people under 25 years of age, so I really don't understand why so many "adults" automatically disregard concepts set forth by those younger than them. It makes no sense to me. I saw that Jonathan Mayberry had some YA work, which I'm going to have to check out now. I didn't know he'd done any. I loved his V-Wars books, and am eagerly awaiting book III: Night Terrors. Of course, Scott's contribution to book II is what made me check out the series to begin with ;)
Scott wrote: "Stephen KingKate wrote: "I hate to ask but I have to :)Which author has been your biggest inspiration, and if you were ever to co-write a novel with them what do you think it would b..."
This was such a great answer - I'm so glad I asked. Thanks for hanging out with us and putting so much time and thought into your answers!
~
I won? Whoo-hoo! Thanks for the opportunity!
Scott wrote: "Todd wrote: "Do you have any book idea, that you can tell us a little about, so completely different from anything you've written so far that you dare not write it for fear of alienating your fan b..."Thank you very much for your answer Scott. I'm glad that you are always giving us something different, though there are often little threads that tie many of your stories to the larger Siglerverse.
As everyone should know by now, one shouldn't judge a book by its cover, and that literally applies here. You keep coming up with the great ideas and leading us down new paths, and we'll keep reading your stories and then make our judgments after we've finished the last page and closed the cover!
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Thanks so much for that Arioch! You're pretty awesome yourself :)
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I COMPLETELY agree :) Hope you enjoy Maberry's YA books, love 'em!
Congrats to the winners! This book does look very interesting...
Zeinab wrote: "I was wondering made you start writing? Why write this genre? Do you ever write your personal experiences in your work? What are you working on now"I'll answer in reverse order. Right now I'm working on ALIGHT, which is Book II in the Generations Trilogy and the sequel to ALIVE.
Do I put personal experience in my work? Constantly. Pretty much everything that I've experienced goes into a book, or is planned to go into a book. Most times I'm having a conversation with someone, I'm mentally logging cool little bits that will contribute to a new character. After 15 books, much of my life has been put into my stories in one way or another.
I write in the genres of horror, thriller and scifi because I think there's enough mundane life around me and I want to thrill people with something they haven't seen before. These are also the genres that entertain me, and a writer wants to enjoy what is being written.
I started writing because I wanted to scare people. Ever since I was a little kid, this is what I have wanted to do. I wrote my first monster story in the third grade and haven't stopped since.
Sophia wrote: "I hate doing this, but ... ALIVE sounds VERY similar to The Maze Runner. What makes ALIVE different?"I started writing ALIVE back in 2008. I'm a huge fan of Lord of the Flies and wanted to take that concept of "kids making their own culture" into a new place, with more of a spooky, brutal setting. I wrote several drafts and had my movie agent pitching it even before it was published.
So imagine my surprise when in 2011 or so, I was telling a friend about "six kids who wake up with no memory of how they got there or who they are," and he asks if I've read Maze Runner. I hadn't even heard about it at that point. When i read the overview of that book on Amazon, I almost stopped writing ALIVE. But, when I read the full plot on Wikipedia I knew my story was quite different.
How is it different? I think the only thing the two books have in common is kids waking up with no memory, and having to figure out what's going on. That's it. I think the reveal in ALIVE really set it apart from The Maze Runner. So you have two stories starting in a similar place, then going in extremely different directions.
It's hard to tell you more without giving spoilers. If anyone else on this thread has read ALIVE, perhaps they can attest to why I can't answer you question without ruining the joy of reading ALIVE for yourself.
Lucy wrote: "I'M ALWAYS INTRIGUED WITH WHAT INSPIRED THIS TYPE OF WRITING, AND DO YOU PREFER A SPECIAL NAME FOR THE TYPE OF WRITING YOU HAVE?"Hmmmm, I don't know if there is a name for this style of writing. It's my first first-person book. I usually write third-person, with rotating point of view characters. ALIVE, however, is seen all through the eyes of Em.
As for what inspired me, you have a character waking up with no memory of who she is or how she got there. She doesn't know anything, including if she can trust the other kids around her. So I wanted the reader to experience her discovery alongside her — when she sees something for the first time or figures something out, you're in exactly the same place.
I think that makes for a pulse-pounding story, where you feel like you either are or you are right there with her, her friend, learning about the world together. You never know more than she does.
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I started writing ALIVE back in 2008. I'm a huge fan of [book:Lord of the Flies..."
I actually say something similar to you, Scott, in my review from weeks ago! https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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Alive are doing so well, they're only $9.43 right now! I preordered my copy when it was $11.78 and thought I got a deal!
This is our BotM for July. :)
That's awesome news, @Karen! It was a bit over $14 when I pre ordered my first copy, but I think that was in March. This'll be the most I've ever saved w/Amazon's pre-order price guarantee.
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I saw Scott's unboxing of the hardback and knew I had to have it with the gorgeous "glossy" parts!
http://scottsigler.com/podcast/alive-...
Karen wrote: "Wow, that's crazy, Arioch! I'm excited! I've never bought a brand new copy for so cheap before. :)Neither have I, Karen. I've been injecting Scott Sigler proverbial Crack (no, it's not a drug reference, parents) since almost the very beginning, and this is far and away the most a book's price has ever been knocked down prior to release.
During his 5-novel Crown contract, I believe MSRP was typically $25, and books usually wound up shipping somewhere ~$19 from Amazon. That's 76% of initial MSRP. With ALIVE, MSRP was $18. $9.43 is only 52% of the initial MSRP!!! That's astounding.
Many different elements were implemented this time around, and the overall climate is a bit different. With any luck, Scott will be able to break into the NYT top ten best sellers this time. He made the alternate list with INFECTED and the regular list with CONTAGIOUS. It'd be nice to get back up with the big boys. I'm certainly keeping my fingers crossed for his success!
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this week!
That's awesome news. Thanks for the heads up, Jenny!
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Hey all, so sorry about the delay in answering your questions here. The tour has been a little bit unforgiving as far as time goes. I should be back on track in a few days.
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No one here wishes you anything but the best, sir, and a busy tour, I would assume, is a sign of good things. Best of luck, and we'll see ya when we see ya.
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No worries at all Scott! We'll all still be here when you're ready :)
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Zeinab wrote: "I was wondering made you start writing? Why write this genre? Do you ever write your personal experiences in your work? What are you working on now"I've always wanted to write. I wrote my first monster story in the third grade, a wonderful ditty called TENTACLES, TENTACLES AND MORE TENTACLES (which the adult version of me recorded at Dragon*Con several years ago, then posted on YouTube.
I've always loved monster movies. When I watched the 1976 King Kong, I was so scared I almost peed myself. Leaving the theater, I knew I wanted to scare people like that, and even at that early age I had a hunch that writing books was easier to control than making movies, so I committed my life to figuring out how to become a full-time novelist. It only took me another 30 years to accomplish that.
Sophia wrote: "I hate doing this, but....Alive sounds VERY similar to The Maze Runner. What makes Alive different?"
Have you read Lord of the Flies? The question you should be asking is why is The Maze Runner and Alive similar to Lord of the Flies?
Both Runner and ALIVE explore a theme established in the classic Lord of the Flies — when you remove all adults and leave only kids, what kind of society evolves?
A more direct answer to your question is that The Maze Runner is more like LOST than ALIVE is like The Maze Runner. In ALIVE, it's not an experiment, there is no one watching to see what happens to the kids. They are on their own.
Other than the aforementioned LORD OF THE FLIES comparisons, and the fact that the characters don't remember where they came from, ALIVE and The Maze Runner are quite different.
I'm afraid I can't say any more without significant spoilers. Read for yourself if you like.
Lucy wrote: "I'M ALWAYS INTRIGUED WITH WHAT INSPIRED THIS TYPE OF WRITING, AND DO YOU PREFER A SPECIAL NAME FOR THE TYPE OF WRITING YOU HAVE?"Hmmmm, a special name ... no, I don't think so. To me, this is "storytelling." I'm focused on creating a great, logical, complete story for the reader.
Toa_of_pi wrote: "Considering how interconnected all of your other novels are, how hard was it to work on a project that doesn't exist in the same universe?"ALIVE does exist in the same universe. I can't tell you how, why, or where, but it is part of the Siglerverse timeline.
I got my personalized copy of Alive yesterday!! I'm so happy. I got to read the ARC, but now I have a special copy I can keep and re-read. Thank you!!
Toa_of_pi wrote: "The first episodes of the podcast had some surprisingly violent moments for a YA book. Was it always planned on being YA, or was this something Del Ray approached you about after the pitch and you had to make adjustments?"I didn't make a YA book. I wrote a story about kids trapped in a desperate situation. Del Rey read it, bought it, and were excited to sell this as a YA novel. Keep in mind they compare it to The Hunger Games, Red Rising and Divergent, three extremely violent novels.
Those three novels, and ALIVE as well, are really YA only in that they a) have young protagonists, and b) there is very little cursing and sex. That's it. Other than that, I don't see how you can define the four scifi novels as anything but just that — scifi novels — that happen to have younger protagonists.
Melissa wrote: "I got my personalized copy of Alive yesterday!! I'm so happy. I got to read the ARC, but now I have a special copy I can keep and re-read. Thank you!!"You're welcome! Enjoy!
Scott wrote: "Melissa wrote: "I got my personalized copy of Alive yesterday!! I'm so happy. I got to read the ARC, but now I have a special copy I can keep and re-read. Thank you!!"You're welcome! Enjoy!"
I'm still waiting on mine. No worries though, always good to have something to look forward to :)
Anne Marie wrote: "What genre of books do you read?"Mostly scifi and fantasy. Books of "things that could happen to me" don't hold me that much, so I don't read a lot of literary fiction or classics that involve everyday people doing everyday things. For me, there has to be some element of the fantastic that takes me away from the regular life I see around me. John Green books, for example, are excellent stories, but unless the dying girl is either saved by an alien or an alien caused her illness in the first place, it doesn't captivate me.
Karen wrote: "What lead you to offer your Alive podcast for free?"When I was trying to land a publishing deal from about 1994 to 2005, I had trouble getting publishers to accept my cross-genre work. I learned about podcasting in 2005 and gave away my novel EARTHCORE as a serialized podcast, so I could prove to publishers that people liked my stories. It worked! Here's a writeup from back in 2005 from BoingBoing: http://boingboing.net/2006/06/01/boin....
Anastasia wrote: "If there was one thing you could change about one of your books, what would it be?"One thing? Sister, there are so many things about each and every book I couldn't begin to count. I think a lot of writers feel as I do, that a book is never "done." At some point, however, you have to either publish your work or starve to death.
I make a point to never re-read my old material except for the purpose of continuity research. Every story drives me batty with little things I would fix.
Dustin wrote: "Scott, what is one of your earliest memories of writing, and how do you think it impacted you today?"My earliest memories that stick are from my game mastering days, playing D&D and Champions back in the 80s. Creating plots and then watching the impact those plots had on my friends, who were the player-characters, showed me a lot about how text and story can impact human emotion. Watching people get excited and/or upset about imaginary characters I had created generated a lasting impression.
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My copy of Alive came today and I am so excited to dig in. Now to burn through these library books so I can get to it :)I mean that figuratively, of course. Don't burn books.
My copy came in today and I can't wait to get started! I'll have to go through my library books first too!
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I'm really excited for it. Just for the fact of how cool a guy Scott seems makes me want to support him. The fact that the book sounds interesting doesn't hurt either haha.
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Tommy wrote: "I'm really excited for it. Just for the fact of how cool a guy Scott seems makes me want to support him. The fact that the book sounds interesting doesn't hurt either haha."I couldn't have said it better!
I caught up with Scott at SiglerFest 2k15 and interviewed him to get the rest of y'all's answers for you. Here is that interview. It actually turns out to be a bit serendipitous that Scott & I had a minor communication mishap, because registration for SiglerFest 2k16 is now open if you are interested. We discussed numerous books during this interview. Here are links to Myke Cole's Shadow Ops series as well as Naomi Novik’s Téméraire series on Amazon if you'd like to check either of those out.
If you'd like to experience more of Scott's dulcet tones, you can get his audiobooks for free via Podiobooks or buy them ad free via Audible. I hope you enjoyed the interview!
David Estes Fans and YA Book Lovers Unite!
Books mentioned in this topic
Alive (other topics)Alive (other topics)
Alight (other topics)
Divergent (other topics)
The Hunger Games (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
John Green (other topics)Stephen King (other topics)
Stephen King (other topics)
Jack London (other topics)
Anne McCaffrey (other topics)
Can't way to see what you and Tommy think of it! You write the BEST reviews, Lauren!!!"
I can't wait either!
Aw, shucks! Thanks for such kind words. :)