What was your inspiration for Scavenger Girl?
I had a dream that I just
couldn’t shake. It was the kind that simmers in your mind the entire day and
makes you wonder how the particular snap-shot of what you saw came to be. I
made several hypotheses as to why Una and her family were what they were to fit
the construct of my dream. Some fit, some didn’t. When the pieces started to
come together, I wrote them down in effort to keep them straight. You see, I
can stop thinking about something if I write it down. Otherwise, I keep
twirling it around in my head for fear I’ll forget. If I jot it down and put it
in a safe place, I can let my mind relax and tend to other things. The problem
with this was that it was not a grocery list, or a reminder of some sort of
appointment; it was the details of a world and a life of a young woman in it.
As such, Scavenger Girl was created.
What was the hardest part about writing this book?
The hardest part was
trying to have a conversation about something OTHER than the novel! Once the
people closest to me had read it, it’s all we’d talk about.
Tell us something surprising about yourself.
I rarely sit down, and
when I do it’s to write.
What books/TV shows/movies do you enjoy and why?
I don’t watch too much TV,
but when I do it’s generally something on Netflix. Before I started writing, I
was a huge movie buff. I’d see anything that was out. I loved movies so much,
my first ‘real’ job was as a cashier at a drive-in movie theater. That’s where
I met my husband!
If Scavenger Girl were going to be a movie, what would be
the tagline?
There are worse things
than losing your birthright
What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
Write what you want to
read. There is so much pressure to write for a particular audience, but at the
end of the day, I can say I’m proud of what I created because I wrote from the
heart. There is not a lot of opportunity to be authentically creative. Writing
is one avenue, but you have to love it. Otherwise your readers will know.
Instagram
Scavenger_Girl_Series
Twitter
(author) @JennArntson
(characters) @Una_Ashlund @Cal_of_Ashlund @Mar_of_Ashlund
About the Book:
Stripped of their birthright and shunned by the people of Ashlund, Una and her family are forced to live on the fringe of society as Scavengers. There is no question that her family's bond is strong, but the law of the Authority is stronger...and soon it will come to collect her. After all, the family is on borrowed time already.
When a night of torment and truth reveals well kept secrets, Una takes new freedoms - free from the Authority, her family, and possibly her fate. Pulled between the life she's always known and a world where status and rituals are everything, Una struggles to understand a culture that has rejected all she holds dear. As Atchem comes to an end and she learns who she really is, will Una find the courage to do what it takes to ensure her family's survival, or will she find the faith to follow her heart?
Find it on Amazon
Disclosure: this post contains links to an affiliate program (Amazon), for which I receive a few cents if you make purchases.
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