Interview with Heather Anastasiu + Shutdown (Glitch #3) giveaway!

I am back with another interview from a fabulous author whose book, Shutdown, has been recently released and with that wraps up the Glitch series! Sit tight and read on and you might get yourself a copy of Shutdown!

The book
It's the third book in the series! How's the writing journey so far? How does it feel to finally write Shutdown and conclude such a thrilling story?

It was so strange to write that final page and know that I was done! I felt so many things as I was working on Shutdown – anxiety, relief, and just happy that I felt like I was giving these characters the right ending.

Glitch and Override were fantastic books. What else can we expect in Shutdown? (Will it break a lot of hearts???)

Well, because I’m an evil author, I do have fun breaking hearts. But from what most people have said after reading Shutdown, I give a very satisfying ending for all my characters. That’s all I can say without getting all spoilery ;) But there’s also a ton of action and a lot of time spent with our favorite characters.

Your most favorite part in writing the Glitch series?

Ooo, great question, and so tough! I would say that probably my favorite part was writing the middle section of Shutdown. I finally knew these characters back and forth and I could really take them emotional places in the romance and wring them for all they were worth.

Dystopia
Why dystopian?

I’ve loved dystopias since I was a kid reading The Giver and 1984 watching movies like Total Recall and Logan’s Run. As a writer a dystopia is fun because you get to write in this high stakes setting where your characters are constantly in danger. It lent a certain thriller aspect to it just from setting alone. And you can make very dramatic things happen and drop the floor out from underneath your characters at any point. All in all it was just such a fun genre to write in.

There are sci-fi elements in Glitch as evident in the role Link plays in everyone within the Community, how important is world building for a book, especially if it's a dystopian? Is it hard to build Zoe's world? What inspired you to shape it the way you did?

The world-building for Glitch came pretty naturally. I spent about a semester when I was in college not writing any of the book, but just thinking about it. So I figured out a lot of the rules for Zoe’s world by just daydreaming through the problems and coming up with logical explanations for them. And I knew I wanted to write a classic dystopia – where everything looks so pretty on the outside only to find out there’s a heinous underbelly. So that shaped a lot of how I made the Community work. And really the first thing I came up with that inspired the entire idea was the V-chips that control people’s emotions. So then I just built and went daydreaming from there. It was a lot of fun!

You, the author
After the Glitch series, any plans on working on a new book?

Of course, always! I’m always writing and have a book out on submission now – a contemporary horror story with Beauty and the Beast themes. And I’ve got another sci-fi series percolating in my brain too. So many ideas and only these two little hands to write them with!

Shutdown (Glitch #3) by Heather Anastasiu
July 2nd 2013 by St. Martin's Griffin

The battle is all but over, and hope seems to be lost. Zoe and her fellow Resistance fighters are on the run, having lost their home, their protection, and their leader. They are outnumbered and outmatched by the powerful corporation that controls the world, and the cruel Chancellor is inches away from completing a scheme that would kill most of humanity. Zoe's only remaining option is to chase the impossible dream of upending the Link system, freeing the world from the hardware that controls their thoughts and emotions, and hope it will trigger a revolution.

The plot requires a nearly impossible mission to infiltrate the dangerous Community, and it is a task that Zoe must unfortunately complete alone. With challenges and surprises at every turn, nothing goes according to plan. Adrien's visions of the future now show two possible outcomes: one in which they succeed, and one in which humanity falls. It all lies in Zoe's hands.

Buy the book: Amazon | Book Depository

About the author:

Heather Anastasiu is the author of the young adult sci-fi Glitch trilogy (St. Martin's Press).

She grew up in Texas but recently moved to Minneapolis with her family. She spends all her time writing, reading, and dreaming about getting new tattoos.

GIVEAWAY TIME!

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