ALTERED Playlist

I love listening to music while I write, especially when it’s a first draft. And while I listened to a variety---lots of different playlists on Spotify, or Pandora if I wanted something random---there were a few tracks that I listened to repeatedly. I can’t NOT think about ALTERED when I hear these songs:

1. The Outsider                                  A Perfect Circle

2. The Humbling River                      Puscifer

3. Running Up That Hill                    Placebo

4. Drumming Song                            Florence + the Machine

5. Painted on my Heart                      The Cult

6. Black Dog                                      Kelli Schaefer

7. The Change                                    Evanescence

8. Rapture                                           Hurt

9. Slow Life                                        Grizzly Bear

10. Danse Russe                                 Hurt

And for those of you on Spotify, here's the full ALTERED playlist. (And if you're not on Spotify, you should be!)

Jennifer Rush is the author of ALTERED coming Fall 2012 from Little, Brown. Check out her blog for news and updates.

ALTERED Character Interview

One of my favorite writing exercises is the character interview.  So when I read this week's topic, I was insanely excited. And since I couldn't pick just one character from ALTERED to interview, I decided to pick two and have one interview the other. 

Nick & Cas are two of the four boys from ALTERED. They're very much a family, albeit a dysfunctional one. 

**

Nick: (peruses list of questions, eyes moderator) This seems like a massive waste of time.

Cas: (smirks, turns to moderator) He has trouble reading. Just give him a minute.

Nick: (scowls at Cas, clears throat) What do you like to do with your time? Besides annoy the hell out of me.

Moderator: Please stick to what’s written on the paper, Nicholas.

Cas: (laughs) Like any growing boy, I like to eat. Chocolate. Cookies. Marshmallows. Doritos. I like to BBQ. Anything is better BBQ’d. You know what I mean?

Nick: Who is most important in your life? (snorts)

Cas: Hmm. Let me see. I would have to say Sweet Baby Jesus. And his dad, for giving me these guns. (flexes biceps)

Nick: That's your answer? Jesus?

Cas: (spreads out arms) Who else am I going to say? You?

Nick: Sam? Anna?

Cas: Well, duh. Anna, yeah. She makes me cookies. And Sam was the obvious answer. I don’t want to disappoint the readers with the obvious answer.

Nick: That’s assuming anyone even reads this shit.

Cas: Next question, babe. (snaps fingers)

Nick: (grumbles) Boxers or briefs?

Cas: Commando.

Nick: Dog or cat?

Cas: Cat. I like kitties. I’d name mine Mr. Fluffy Snuggles. If I had one.

Nick: Jacob or Edward?

Cas: Pfffttt. Emmett. Dude’s got a badass Jeep.  

Nick: Pancakes or French toast?

Cas: Can’t pick between the two. Next.

Nick: Where do you see yourself in five years?

Cas: On a white sandy beach. Hopefully annoying the hell out of you.

Nick: You’re such a fuc—

Moderator: Nicholas, if you could please refrain---

Nick: (throws list of questions) I’m not doing this.

Cas: (watches Nick leave room) Come on! We were on a roll!

**

Jennifer Rush is the author of ALTERED coming Fall 2012 from Little, Brown. Check out her blog for news and updates. 

What Distracts Me

This week we're supposed to talk about writing distractions. I think it would have been easier for me to write about what doesn't distract me. Actually, this post probably would have been empty. Because I can find something interesting in a paperclip if I'm supposed to be writing.

Take this post for instance. I could have simply written a paragraph or two about Twitter and TV, but instead Photoshop distracted me with all the pretty fonts! and pictures! and now this post comes to you with visual aids.

Let's start with the biggest distraction, shall we?

Nothing makes me happier than Twitter. Writing at the same desk everyday in the same house surrounded by the same people can be depressing. Twitter makes me feel less alone.

Plus, it's nice knowing you're not the only crazy writer person out there.

If you know me, you know I am boy crazy. I like my Gosling. My Worthington. My Pitt (it's Michael these days). So this one will certainly not shock you.

I don't have to explain this one.

Or this one. 

I call it imagery research. My husband calls it staring off into space. What does he know?

I really have no excuse for this one. Except that I'm a girl. 

Jennifer Rush is the author of ALTERED coming Fall 2012 from Little, Brown. Check out her blog for news and updates.

When I was in junior high, I devoured Christopher Pike’s The Last Vampire series. I can’t quite remember what YA was like back then, but I do remember thinking there weren’t enough books with kickass female characters like Sita or Alisa. I started working on my first novel—told from the POV of a vampire, naturally—not long after finishing the series.

I don’t even remember what that first book was about, but it was handwritten and kept inside a miniature 3-ring binder and I thought it was amazing. I bought my first publishing reference book around that same time. But then I read the terrible, dream-crushing news that it generally takes people years YEARS to get published and that they don’t make much money doing it. I was a money hungry kid, growing up in a lower income family. I wanted to be rich.

Then I became a teen mom. And I spent a lot of time at home with a baby. Somedays I needed an escape, so I started writing again and never stopped.

Writing for me is still about the fantasy. It’s like living in a virtual reality game. On the outside, it looks like we’re just sitting there typing away, but on the inside, we’re fighting pirates, slaying vampires, kissing hot boys! There is power in the written word, and even more power in having written it.

So that’s why I write now. The boring story is, I started because of a vampire. :D

Jennifer Rush is the author of ALTERED coming Fall 2012 from Little, Brown. Check out her blog for news and updates.

Favorite ALTERED Scene

This week we’re supposed to talk about what our favorite scenes are from our books. And not to be lame, but the first chapter of ALTERED is by far my favorite. Trying to put the why into words is harder than I thought it’d be, however.

A large part of ALTERED is spent running from someone, shooting someone, or hiding from someone, so I wanted that first chapter to show the reader how Anna, the main character, has lived her life the last few years. I wanted the reader to know what she was leaving behind when her life finally turned upside down.

But most of all, I wanted to show how much Anna cared for Sam (the love interest), and I wanted the reader to feel how hard it was to care for someone you couldn’t touch. Because the Sam Anna knows has spent the last few years locked on the other side of a glass wall.

There’s something simple and poignant about that first chapter (I hope). Anna wants Sam and she wants Sam to want her, but there’s more than just a glass wall standing between them.

Whenever I talk about the genesis of ALTERED, I can’t help but describe it as a story that started with a boy and a girl. A girl who loved the boy so much, she’d do anything for him. I can't imagine the book opening anywhere else than with those two.

Jennifer Rush is the author of ALTERED coming Fall 2012 from Little, Brown. Check out her blog for news and updates.