Q+A With the Author of the Month: Nancy Richardson Fischer

[Mutated Reviewer]

Sorry I'm late on this!
I should have put it up earlier.. hah.
Oops.
Anyways.

I guess I'll start this thing off! :D
First of all.
Thanks to everyone who participated!
I'm sure she appreciates it.
And I hope you all liked the book :D
I thought it was interesting, hah.

Second of all.
Thanks to Nancy for doing this.
It's really awesome of her. :D

So, Uh.
Yeah.
I'll just ask a couple questions to start you guys off. :D


1.What was your inspiration for Evangeline's story?
(ex. Is there anything that was influenced by real life in her story?)

2.What was your goal for this book? Did you reach it?

Sorry if those are hard to answer questions, hah.
Thanks again! :D
You guys can post your questions below. :D

[Nan]

Thanks to everyone for reading Pandora's Key! I hope you loved the story and really appreciate your time and your reviews:-)

Best,
Nan

On the Aurora's questions...

1. The inspiration for Evangeline's story was the myth of Pandora. It struck me as totally unfair that in the original myth Pandora is blamed for releasing all the Furies that plague mankind when she was a pawn used by Zeus.

I wanted to twist that myth and show that Pandora was actually smart enough to close the box once she realized what was inside. And that Pandora's descendants ultimately bear the responsibility for protecting the world - which is so much more that Zeus or any of the other Gods thought the original Pandora's was capable of accomplishing.

As the first descendant to know exactly who she is, Evangeline has the opportunity to become the kick-ass heroine Pandora could've been if she'd known the truth about the box from the start.

2. My goal for Pandora's Key was to tell an exciting, compelling story based on Greek mythology in a modern-day setting.

I wanted to write a book that was hard to put down, and create a plausible, twisted plot that could be figured out by any reader who paid close attention to the small details (because I hate when there's no way to figure out what's really going on in a story). I hope that I accomplished that goal!

You cannot please absolutely everyone, but Pandora's Key has gotten a lot of amazing reviews:-) And, I can promise that if you loved PK, then The Key to Tartarus, Book Two in the trilogy, takes Evangeline's story to an even more suspenseful, twisted, imaginative level. Plus, for those of you who wanted more romance... well, I'll just say that hopefully I've made that happen:-)

[Mutated Reviewer]

Thanks for answering so quickly! hah.
I Love your ideas, and i'm glad you made them work so well in this book! :D
it really made an interesting book, and I couldn't put it down. (:

I think that you definately accomplished it. And you did it in a totally awesome way. :D I hate it when you can't figure out things too.. it's kind of annoying actually. hah.

I get what you mean. and I'm hoping everyone else who's read this book is as excited for the next book as I am (:

[Nan]

Thanks Aurora! I'm so glad you think I accomplished my goal for PK and hope you love The Key to Tartarus, too:-)

-nan

[Mutated Reviewer]

i'm sure i will :D

[J.w.]

Hi Nancy,

Can you tell us a little bit about your writing process for this book? And how long did it take to finish? Were there any parts you got hung up on, or was it smooth sailing start to finish?

[Nan]

HI JW,

My writing process for Pandora's Key was a long and winding one. PK started off as a screenplay and went through about six rewrites before I was happy with the finished product (about a year).

Then I realized I really wanted to write the story as a YA urban fantasy, but somehow a believable fantasy - more magical realism than fantasy, actually - so I started writing all over again - another year.

When I finished a final draft, I hired an excellent editor to give me some super honest feedback (holy harshness!), because friends and family aren't always tough enough on a writer and because I loved the concept and wanted PK to be as great a book as possible - and that took another six months!!

So the process of writing PK was definitely not a short or smooth one, but I learned a TON along the way and writing Book Two of the trilogy - The Key to Tartarus - was a much easier process - although it still took another year:-)

Thanks for the question JW!

-nan