The FAYZ: The Gone Series discussion
The Series
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Michael Grant gives sneak peak of FEAR!!!
thank you so much for posting these!!!
and i finally know how to say Lana's name!! :P
aww i really wanted a spoiler...at least a little one :P
also was number four was he talking about LP???
and i finally know how to say Lana's name!! :P
aww i really wanted a spoiler...at least a little one :P
also was number four was he talking about LP???
Crazyfan wrote: "thank you so much for posting these!!!...also for number four was he talking about LP???"
i actully think he was talking about albert or dekka but maybe it was lp
oh yea i forgot they were about to die and edilio
i seriously thought he meant LP but i guess it could be dekka or edilio or albert... ill rewatch it but he doesnt give many hints :P
he said he go ta character into trouble and they were going to die, and then he found a way to save them. I think its Dekka because she had the bugs in her and was dying but then she was saved when LP made the bugs dissapear
hmmm true.. :P ok i think it was dekka only makes sense :P
I ASKED ONE OF THOSE QUESTIONS!!!!I asked the one about Hunger. What the last 200 pages were before he changed it. :D
:O thats so cool MG answered your question!!!! :O
i wish he would answer 1 of my questions
Crazyfan wrote: "thank you so much for posting these!!!and i finally know how to say Lana's name!! :P
aww i really wanted a spoiler...at least a little one :P
also was number four was he talking about LP???"
I don't remember that. Which one did he say Lana's name in?
i wish he would answer one of my questions, that would be so cool!
Mercier wrote: "Crazyfan wrote: "thank you so much for posting these!!!and i finally know how to say Lana's name!! :P
aww i really wanted a spoiler...at least a little one :P
also was number four was he talkin..."
he was talking about the first charcater he came up with. he said first was Sam and then he created Lana. Im happy cuz thats how i always pronounced it hahah
i never pronounced it la-nah i said lay-na :( o well ill still say lay-na :P
Haha i pronounce it lay-na too(: I had to read some of Lies out loud for english and my teacher got all pissed cuz she said i pronounced it wrong lol she'll still be lay-na in my mind(:
lol you read lies to your class, did they get all freaked out?
i seriously need to get back in these books. Lies is still un-read becuase i don't want to read plague and lies and have to wait so long for Fear.
Mercier wrote: "Haha i pronounce it lay-na too(: I had to read some of Lies out loud for english and my teacher got all pissed cuz she said i pronounced it wrong lol she'll still be lay-na in my mind(:"lah na 4evr
As promised, we have our interview with Michael Grant, author of Gone, Hunger, Lies, Plague and many others. Thanks heaps Michael.1. Do you have a strong connection to the characters in Plague? And if so, is it difficult to write the scenes in which bad things happen to them?
My connection is to the story rather than the characters. So if I ever come to a point where I think, “Oh, this is terrible for poor Astrid,” I plough straight on ahead, so long as the story makes sense. I do sometimes imagine readers getting angry with me, but I remind myself that my job is to tell a story.
2. Can you also talk about how you go about writing from the perspective of characters that think differently to you?
They all think differently than me because we’re each unique. I am very alert to the possibility that I might use a character as my spokesperson, and I try to quash that. I’m not using my books to say something to the reader, I’m telling a story. I kind of hate books where I feel I’m being preached at, or where I can sense the author trying to convince me.
It’s not my job to do that, my job is to create real characters and go from there. Inevitably that would mean some of those characters doing things differently than I would do, or understanding things differently than I do. But I’m not a character. I’m not in the story. I don’t live in Perdido Beach.
3. We couldn’t help but the notice the Macbeth quote on page 389 of Plague!
“ The F.AY.Z: full of sound and fury and signifying nothing but death and despair. Why cling to this life?”
Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s tragedies. Is this how you see the Gone Series – as a tragedy?
P.S: Are there any other references we’ve missed?
I do think GONE is tragedy, but I would never, under any circumstances compare myself to Shakespeare. If you imagine all of literature as a sort of pyramid, you can see Shakespeare sitting in a beach chair up on the pinnacle of that pyramid. I’m way down on the part of the pyramid where vandals scrawl graffiti.
I sneak in references all the time, but then I forget where I’ve done so. The map of course is full of references, for example Trotter, Achatz and Tramonto are the names of three Chicago chefs I really admire. There’s a Santa Katerina for my wife, Katherine. San Francisco de Sales, patron saint of writers. A Golding street for Lord of the Flies. And of course the Stefano Rey which, translated from Spanish is Stephen King.
4. We love that in the Gone Series there are lots of different plots and different perspectives that seem to come together at the end and still leaves us wanting more. How do you keep track of all the mini plots and different perspectives?
I keep track with great difficulty. I don’t plan in advance, I feel my way forward each day. The plot grows and becomes more and more complex, and then it’s hell if I have to take time off for any reason. It’s as if I’m in the midst of knitting or whatever and have to drop a handful of threads and figure out how to pick them all back up later.
I wish I had a better memory, that would be helpful.
5. What are you working on at the moment and do you already know how the series will end?
The next thing I’m writing is MAGNIFICENT 12 #3. Then, the final book of the GONE series, which will be called, LIGHT. (Book 5 FEAR has already been written and sent to the Publishers).
I don’t know how it ends. Not yet. But I’m getting some ideas.
6. As we want to be authors one day, can you talk more about your writing process?
Do you write the book in order?
I write from page 1 to The End, in order.
How much do you plan?
I don’t plan beyond thinking of a title and a sort of general theme.
How frequently do you refine and edit your writing?
Before I hand in a first draft I’ve gone back over some of it a dozen times. Other parts are good from the first pass so I may only go over them once. Then, when I send it in — as an email — my editor, Katherine Tegen, goes over it. She sends me back a marked-up version with a bunch of tracking notes in the margins. Usually I agree with her, because she’s very smart and very experienced. But sometimes I don’t and we bat it back and forth until there’s a peaceful resolution.
Who or what has influenced your writing?
I think every writer I’ve ever read has influenced me. I’d also include all the screenwriters and TV writers. Obviously Stephen King is the master of suspense and horror, so I’ve drawn on him a lot for GONE. But beyond him it would be the full set of all writers whose work I’ve ever absorbed. Including master Shakespeare.
thank you for posting this!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i just did that because more people will read it if they think lots more commentys are there
yea now they r editing it WHICH THEY NEED TO HURRY UP WITH!!
i no :( i wish i could read it now, i only had to wait a week for plague cuz i read it in march. i think i will die waiting a year!
lets see who started reading the series first. i started in 2010 how about you guys?
I started reading them whenever Gone came out, so I think that's since 2008?
i thought gone came out in 2007
Oh well i can't remember when it came out I just know I got it then :p
wow so you had to wait a year for all four books.
I found Gone just a few months after it came out. It's nerve grinding to wait for a good book for a year, especially a book that only takes me a day or two to read. I'm always sad when I get to the last page.
i found gone a few days before plague came out
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