New Adult Book Club discussion
This topic is about
Genesis
Archived- Promotional Q&A's
>
Q&A with Brian Palmer and Jason Rowe - CLOSED
date
newest »
newest »
"Why 12?" is something I'm curious about too :)- The idea of the New Earth is very complex, did it take a long time to plan or did ideas flow smoothly?
- When will the next book be available?
- Why New Adult and not Young Adult or Adult?
- Any tips for aspiring writers?
Cheryl wrote: "Okay, most of my questions are more of a "curious" nature, as in where you got some of your ideas or why this or that.Here's something kind of basic...
Why 12? Did you guys first come up with a li..."
Great question, Cheryl! The title was actually the first thing I knew about this story before I had ever met the characters - and way before I shared the idea with Brian and he joined me on this journey! It had nothing to do with talents or my love for the number XII (Though I am fond of Roman numerals I must admit). :)
There are elements of mythology throughout the book as a result of my love for its place in classic literature, and likewise, my faith and love for the Bible have seasoned the story and is found throughout as well and I'm certain had some influence on the title.
But that said, I just saw the Roman numerals twelve set against the coloring of a very dark future when the title found me.
Zoe wrote: ""Why 12?" is something I'm curious about too :)- The idea of the New Earth is very complex, did it take a long time to plan or did ideas flow smoothly?
- When will the next book be available?
- W..."
Hi Zoe!
The answer to your first question is "yes". It took the better part of a year for the initial New Earth to be conceived - but concepts did flow smoothly!
We were shooting for December 2013 for book two and would love for that to hold true but I especially have had a lot of major life happening that has set us behind schedule. We're off to a great start, and have it mapped out start to finish, though, with major "WOW's!" coming to us in every session. December may be ambitious but SOON is still the release date. :)
I was actually driven to write this for YA when the concept was first developing in my mind, but after Brian and I were done with it (Three complete re-rewrites later) it very much became a New Adult offering.
Tips for new writers: Read a lot. Write a lot. Rinse and repeat.
Zoe wrote: ""Why 12?" is something I'm curious about too :)- The idea of the New Earth is very complex, did it take a long time to plan or did ideas flow smoothly?
- When will the next book be available?
- W..."
Hi Zoe!
Jason pretty much covered it with regard to developing New Earth's complexity. I will say that throughout the course of writing book one in the series, we were continually having new revelations about things like which segments of New Earth's population would be affected by certain aspects of life, certain rules that are in place, certain threats that are posed, etc., etc., and it caused the book to become larger in scope and more detailed than we ever expected. Truth be told, we are now more confident than ever that eight books is the right number for this series, because there is so much to explore and there are so many people who will be impacted by The Twelve. As you will see in subsequent books, this is a truly massive series that will impact all of New Earth, so it's only going to get bigger!
The series is also interesting from a genre perspective because while it is largely New Adult, it has a bit of the Young Adult feel to it as well, primarily in the form of our youngest character, Jin, who is 16 when this series begins. As Jason mentioned, this series was originally conceived as a Young Adult series, but as time went on most of the characters let us know that they were more of a fit for the New Adult world and it just seemed more natural to go that route even though New Adult dystopian stories are few and far between right now.
As for tips, I would say write something you care about out. Readers are smart and they can tell when you are mailing it in, so if you don't care, they won't care either. So do that, and keep working at it; if you love it but for some reason it isn't working, put it away, work on something else for a bit and come back to it later. But if you aren't digging what you are writing, or if you are writing solely to meet a perceived blockbuster novel series formula so you can become a successful author, toss it out immediately and go after something you are actually passionate about. And Jason is right, reading a lot helps too!
Cheryl wrote: "Okay, most of my questions are more of a "curious" nature, as in where you got some of your ideas or why this or that.Here's something kind of basic...
Why 12? Did you guys first come up with a li..."
Hi Cheryl!
Jason pretty much summed everything up with his answer. Thanks for the good questions!
Thank you! It's so interesting to learn about the process of creating the book. Great writing advice :)
I'm curious also about "The Gathering" mentioned in chapter 3 (and maybe in other places). Is there a specific type of disaster this is intended to have been? I'm assuming it was something of human-caused, such as a nuclear war. Or is it kind of left up to the reader? The word "gathering" intrigues me. I apologize if this is explained later in the book ...been a few months since I read it. I don't remember if it was explained or not elsewhere, and couldn't find it just now.
Cheryl wrote: "I'm curious also about "The Gathering" mentioned in chapter 3 (and maybe in other places). Is there a specific type of disaster this is intended to have been? I'm assuming it was something of human..."Hi Cheryl!
"The Gathering" is something we didn't really get into with this first book, but plan to do more with as the series progresses. This is a reference to New Earth's citizens being gathered into the Population Centers throughout the world (or else choosing not to join the Population Centers and thus being left to fend for themselves in The Wilds) .
Here's something kind of basic...
Why 12? Did you guys first come up with a list of 12 talents and diverse personalities that you felt pretty much covered most possibilities? Or did the number 12 just appeal to you, and you went from there? It also could be seen as a "Biblical" number too (12 disciples)...does that have anything to do with it?