Interview with Teri Terry + Slated ARC Giveaway!

And DD2 continues! Now we are featuring an awesome book that I am pretty sure you all are so excited about. I am too!

We are dishing out some juicy info about Slated, so sit tight! Please welcome Teri Terry to our blog!

Follow Terry: Website | Twitter | Facebook

Teri has lived in France, Canada, Australia and England at more addresses than she can count, acquiring three degrees, a selection of passports and a silly name along
the way. The footpaths and canal ways of the Buckinghamshire Chilterns where she now lives inspired much of the setting of Slated. She hates broccoli, likes cats, and has finally worked out what she wants to do when she grows up.

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Your biggest inspiration in writing Slated?

Oh, go on, start with the toughest question first!

Though, when I think about it, writing a story about someone who doesn’t know who they are or where they come from was a natural place for me to go. We moved constantly when I was growing up, and I carried on dashing about the globe when I left home: always trying new things and new places. I think the sense of dislocation I’ve always felt, of not really belonging anywhere, comes out in Kyla.

What do you think is the perfect quote (from Slated) that can describe the book as a whole?

‘But how can I know who I am now, if I don’t know who I was?’

(Kyla to Ben, chapter 23).

I think this encapsulates Kyla’s growing realization of what has been done to her, and the cost of it. Her search for - and fear of - who she was, are central to her story.

What's the future like in Slated? How different is it from the present?

Slated is set in a near future. Decades before it begins, in the 2020’s and 30’s, the UK closed borders and become isolationist after collapse of the EU. Student riots, gangs and terrorists were brutally quashed by a Law and Order Government. But the Lorders had to compromise in a coalition, to give underage criminals and terrorists a second chance and a new life: Slating.

Kyla’s story begins in 2054 England. Mobile phones are illegal to under 21s, there are only 3 channels on TV and unauthorized public assembly is forbidden. Computers and internet use are closely monitored. Teens still live with their parents, go to school, have friends. But they are watched; their lives are controlled. This true for all but particularly so for Slateds like Kyla.

Would you like to be "Slated"?

Definitely not!

Yet…there is a certain attraction to the idea of being able to start over, to have a second chance. Everyone, I’m sure, has moments they wish they could take back, events they’d rather forget than relive in their minds. Decisions they’d like to reverse. Yet you lose everything; it isn’t selective. I’ve never been in a dark enough place to want that.

What are the themes tackled in your novel?

Identity is a big one. Also learning to listen to yourself, to your instincts. Understanding that people are complicated: most of us are good and bad, not just one or the other. And no matter how hopeless things seem or how stacked against you, you still have a voice: you can’t stand by and be quiet when things are wrong.

Who's the character that is the hardest to write? The one you enjoyed writing the most? Do you have a favorite character?
Did you ever base Kyla (or any of your characters) on a real person(s)?

Kyla was my favorite character to write. She is strong, deceptively so, even though she doesn’t always know it. She was also tricky to write in some respects, because she does have different sides. Hidden sides. Especially in the sequel which I’ve just finished writing, but you’ll have to wait until 2013 for that one!

None of my characters are based on real people: they live entirely in my head. They have loud arguments there if I don’t pay enough attention to what they want.

Can you give us one line from your novel that you find important, striking or unforgettable?

I’d like to pick the last two lines of Slated: they are given as two sentences, though they need to be read together. But I can’t possibly quote that here, it would be too much of a spoiler!

Another that really sticks in my mind is the last line of chapter 1: ‘Failure is not an option.’

Imagine being in a position where you can’t make mistakes, where any wrong move could be your last…

Tell us one thing that people do not know about Slated. (A random fact, a weird habit you have developed, etc.)

The prologue was a dream: honest! As soon as I woke up I grabbed a pen and notebook I keep by the side of the bed for these moments, and scribbled it down. It came from some unknown and dark place in my subconscious: the panic, the running. What was this girl running from? Why was someone shouting to never forget who she is? What is the wall she puts up?

It took me a long time to decide if I wanted to go to this strange, dark world, and what would happen there if I did. But eventually I couldn’t stop myself. The voices in my head wouldn’t shut up.

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And have you seen how the cover of Slated became what it was? (A captivating, haunting cover befitting such an intriguing book?) Check out the post at Notes from the Slushpile.

Slated by Teri Terry
Add Slated to your Goodreads list!

Kyla's memory has been erased, her personality wiped blank, her memories lost forever.

She's been Slated.

The government claims she was a terrorist, and that they are giving her a second chance – as long as she plays by their rules. But echoes of the past whisper in Kyla's mind. Someone is lying to her, and nothing is as it seems. Who can she trust in her search for the truth?

Orchard Books, May 2012

GIVEAWAY TIME! 

WIN AN ARC OF SLATED BY TERI TERRY!

The lovely folks over at Hachette UK has given us an ARC to giveaway! You can read Slated 3 months before it's release! This is your chance! And yes, this is OPEN INTERNATIONALLY.

Fill out the form below and the very same question I asked Teri:

Would you like to be Slated? Why or why not? (If you don't know what Slated means, it's a process of wiping out someone's memory and giving that person an entire different identity.)


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