Category Archives: Author Q&A

We’ve reached the end of our exclusive Q&A with Hero’s Guide author Christopher Healy, in which he answers our flash questions!

What did you have for breakfast today?

Oh, man. I just got back from London, so if you’d asked this yesterday, I would say a full English breakfast with eggs, toast, sausage, bacon, beans, tomato, coffee, and scones. But since I’ve come home to a house with a virtually empty fridge, my answer is Cheerios.

What is the most annoying song you’ve ever had stuck in your head?

Ever? Wow, there have been so many. But at this moment, I feel like saying “Mambo #5.”

Favorite type of Halloween candy?

Hershey’s Miniatures. More specifically, Krackle.

Best cartoon, period. What is it?

The more times I see it—and I’ve watched the entire run several times with my kids—the more I come to think of it as one of the greatest things that has ever been on television. Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, or The Hulk?

If you’re forcing me to choose, I’ve always had a soft spot for Captain America’s mix of heroics and dorkiness. But let’s be honest: The true awesomeness comes when all four are together.

Avengers, assemble!

It’s time for part 2 of our exclusive Q&A with The Hero’s Guide to Storming the Castle author Christopher Healy!

We know there will be a third book with our favorite Princes … any chance you’d share what we can expect? A taste of what’s in store for the Princes?

Well, without giving away too much… the princes will go from heroes to fugitives when someone is unjustly accused of a heinous crime.

I heard you talk about this at Wordstock last year, but for our readers here — can you tell us a bit about the movie process, with the first HERO’S GUIDE being optioned by Fox Animation. Specifically, the idea of other artists imagining the characters in lieu of artist Todd Harris’s illustrations.

Todd’s illustrations are so amazing—and they matched up so remarkably with my own initial images of the characters—that it’s hard for me to mentally untether them from the story. So it will definitely be a surreal experience for me to see my characters depicted by someone else. But the animators at Blue Sky Studios (Fox’s animation wing) are incredible artists and innovators. I trust them completely with my characters. And as excited as was when I first learned they’d be working on Hero’s Guide, that sense of bubbly anticipation has tripled ever since I saw the trailer for Epic. Have you seen it? That is honestly some of the best CGI animation I’ve ever laid eyes on. So while I have no idea how much the animators will base their character designs on Todd’s artwork, I’m beyond thrilled by the prospect of seeing their interpretations.

(C) Todd Harris

I think it’s similar in a way to hearing the audiobook. When I first heard that Bronson Pinchot would be performing Hero’s Guide, I was super-excited simply because it was Bronson Pinchot. But I was still trepidatious when it came to first hearing the recording. I have all these characters’ voices in my head and wasn’t ready to hear anyone give them new voices. But Bronson’s reading was a tour de force. And now I can’t wait to hear him do Storming the Castle. It helped a lot in me mentally preparing to see new visual interpretations of my characters.

Have you thought at all about what you want to work on after the HERO’S GUIDE series?

Yes. But I can’t say much right now. All I can tell you is that it will be very different from Hero’s Guide. You can expect a similar sense of humor (since that’s just my sense of humor), but my next book will have a contemporary setting and nothing to do with fairy tales.

Today we are delighted to bring you part 1 of our exclusive Q&A with The Hero’s Guide to Storming the Castle author Christopher Healy. Tune in for parts 2 and 3 throughout the rest of this week!

The Princes are back! And despite their heroics in the first book, it seems they are still not getting the fame and glory they feel they’ve earned. Do you think the Princes will ever have their praises sung?

What it means to be a hero and what it means to be famous (and whether those two things need necessarily be intertwined) are some of the essential questions at the heart of the Hero’s Guide series. I couldn’t possibly go on forever denying these guys their moment in the spotlight. So I think that, yes, before this trilogy is over, you can expect to see the League of Princes earn a bit of fame. However, considering the satirical nature of these books, you can also probably expect this bit of fame to come with a catch. It may not be exactly the kind of fame the princes expect… or even want.

Your books feature the Princes from four classic fairy tales: Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Rapunzel. So what gives? No love for Beauty & the Beast? The Little Mermaid?

I ruled out the Beast from the get-go, because he has never really been presented as a “Prince Charming.” First off, the title of his story gives him equal billing with the princess—he’s got the fame part covered. Plus, he’s one of the few fairy tale princes to have a fleshed-out, well-defined personality—one that is inherent to his story. Ask someone to describe the Beast and they may say things like, “stubborn, quick-tempered, desperate”—all based on the character’s actions in the story. But ask them to describe the prince from one of those other four tales and they’ll toss out generic “Prince Charming” traits like, “handsome, brave, dashing”—none of which are necessarily backed up by those fairy tales.

The guy from the Little Mermaid, on the other hand, I actually considered using for a while. But frankly, he is almost too irredeemably dumb to make over. He marries the wrong girl! He’s got so much sea foam between his ears that he is completely unable to recognize the person who saved his life, simply because he can’t hear her voice. I suppose I could have made him blind. Or amnesiac, maybe. Either way, I decided he wasn’t League material. But, you never know… as far as I’m concerned, he does exist out there somewhere in the Hero’s Guide world. And maybe, at some point in the future, his ridiculous life will intersect with that of the Princes Charming.

The HERO’S GUIDE is framed as if Duncan is writing the story, sharing his tips for how to be a hero. How might the books have been different if, say, Gustav had written them? Or Briar Rose?

If Gustav had written them, they’d have a lot more misspellings and grammatical errors. The story would probably skip from one fight scene to the next, with little to no dialogue in between. If Briar were telling the tales, she’d be the star. I don’t think she’d be a reliable narrator.

Prince Liam. Prince Frederic. Prince Duncan. Prince Gustav. You remember them, don’t you? They’re the Princes Charming who finally got some credit after they stepped out of the shadows of their princesses – Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White, and Briar Rose – to defeat an evil witch bent on destroying all their kingdoms.

But alas, such fame and recognition only last so long. And when the princes discover that an object of great power might fall into any number of wrong hands, they are going to have to once again band together to stop it from happening – even if no one will ever know it was they who did it.

Christopher Healy, author of the acclaimed The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, takes us back to the hilariously fractured fairy-tale world he created for another tale of medieval mischief. Magical gemstones, bladejaw eels, a mysterious Gray Phantom, and two maniacal warlords bent on world domination – it’s all in a day’s work for the League of Princes.

Today we wrap-up our exclusive Q&A with The Program author Suzanne Young with a round of our flash questions!

Alexander Skarsgard

Living or dead, who would you like to have dinner with?

Is a date? Because if it is, I pick Alexander Skarsgard. If it’s just dinner? I pick YOU!

(Um, Suzanne … can you pick Alexander Skarsgard and just invite me to join you?)

Pizza toppings?

Extra cheese. And then I dip it in hot sauce.

Private concert: who’s playing?

Radiohead.

Perfect vacation?

A clean house with wifi, a beach close by, and unlimited snacks.

Look at your desk right now. Name five things within reach.

Aw, it’s cute that you think I write at a desk. Well, near me on the couch I have: Peeps, remote, computer mouse with a dead battery, a copy of THE PROGRAM to check story lines against, and a can of Diet Pepsi.

Thanks again, Suzanne! I’m ready for that date … er, I mean, dinner with you and Alexander Skarsgard any time!

Today, we’re excited to kick-off part 1 of our three-part exclusive interview with The Program author Suzanne Young. Tune in for part 2 on Wednesday, and part 3 on Friday. Thanks, Suzanne, for stopping by!

THE PROGRAM has little elements of dystopian, but it’s really a contemporary story with a twist. Tell us about the inspiration for the book. Anything “ripped from the headlines”?

Honestly, I didn’t intend for a dystopian feel when writing THE PROGRAM. It was a combination of three different projects I’d worked on over the years mixed with some of my own life experiences. The first novel I ever wrote—safely tucked away where no one will have to read it—was about a girl who fell in love with her brother’s best friend after he died. Another book was about a girl suffering from a bad break-up who takes a pill that will erase all of her emotions, and the third book was about a girl who survived a suicide attempt and her difficulty going back to her life afterwards.

My original thought for The Program was the question: Given the chance, would we make the same mistakes if the circumstances had changed? Would we fall in love with the same person? Have the same friends? That was really what I wanted to learn when writing the book.

I often wondered while reading THE PROGRAM if The Program is really helping prevent teen suicide, or if it’s a catalyst that causes more suicides than it prevents. As the author, what’s your take on it?

Writing THE PROGRAM I didn’t want there to be a clear cut answer. Is anything in life so black and white? I wanted the question of whether The Program is truly sinister or just somewhat misguided to always be there, and I wanted to show that the alternative is death. However, the role of The Program is explained a bit more in the second book THE TREATMENT.

Talk a bit about the music that inspired THE PROGRAM. What did you listen to while writing it?

What a dark playlist this was. Originally I titled the book Uncomfortably Numb—so Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb is the first song on the playlist. Other songs I listened to included: Mad World by Gary Jules, ‘Round Here by The Counting Crows, Glorybox by Portishead, and Everybody Hurts by REM.

Today, we conclude our exclusive Q&A with The Madman’s Daughter author Megan Shepherd with her responses to our flash questions. If you missed them, be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2.

Living or dead, who would you like to have dinner with?

Mark Twain.

Pizza toppings?

Just mushrooms. I know, thrilling.

Private concert: who’s playing?

My husband on a guitar.

Perfect vacation?

Currently I’m obsessed with the idea of sailing around Greece and Turkey.

Look at your desk right now. Name five things within reach. 



1. Cat.
2. Photos of famous actors I use to base characters on.
3. A friend’s daughter’s drawing of The Madman’s Daughter cover.
4. Mug of Egyptian licorice tea.
5. Post-it notes.

Thanks, Megan!

Today, we bring you part 2 of our exclusive Q&A with The Madman’s Daughter author Megan Shepherd. If you missed it, check out part 1 here.

What other sources of inspiration did you draw on for The Madman’s Daughter — and its sequels?

The Madman’s Daughter and its sequels draw on many common themes and tropes in gothic literature. Elements from Frankenstein, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dracula, Wuthering Heights, and Jack the Ripper stories might be recognizable in their pages. I was also heavily inspired by the TV show LOST. That’s what made me first want to write an island mystery!

The ending of Madman’s Daughter isn’t exactly a cliffhanger, but it definitely leaves the reader aching for more! Can you give us a hint of what’s to come in the sequel?

I don’t want to give away too many spoilers, but I’ll say that even though Juliet survives, she’s still plagued by nightmares—some more real than others—and that certain people from her past might return to make a reappearance. The sequel takes place in London in wintertime, which provides a great creepy juxtaposition from the steamy island.

You also have another trilogy coming next year, called The Cage. Can you tell us a bit about it?

The Cage is a YA sci-fi (though as I like to say, light on the “sci” and heavy on the “fi”) about six teenagers placed in an elaborate “human zoo” by a super-intelligent humanoid alien race known as the Kindred. The main character is no stranger to captivity; her troubled past makes her determined to escape, even though they aren’t certain what happened to Earth, or if they can ever even return, or what the real reason is the Kindred have taken them.

It’s obviously quite different from The Madman’s Daughter series, but I think it has the same blend of mystery, action, and romance. It also addresses a lot of the same philosophical questions about the line between man and animal.

Part three comes on Friday!

Today, we bring you part one of our three-part interview with The Madman’s Daughter author Megan Shepherd. Thanks to HarperCollins for arranging the interview, and Megan for stopping by!

What originally drew you to write a YA novel inspired by The Island of Dr. Moreau?

When I was a teenager I fell in love with the classics. When I think back to my interests and mindset at that age, books like The Invisible Man and Heart of Darkness spring to mind. The classics tend to be full of high drama, swashbuckling fight scenes, star-crossed romance, exotic settings, big thought-provoking themes, and so many other elements found in modern YA novels. I had been thinking of writing a book with a mysterious island setting, and it seemed quite natural to think of HG Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau, and how it could be reimagined from a fresh perspective for a modern YA market.

What sort of research went into writing The Madman’s Daughter?

As an author, I always end up Googling the strangest things! Much of the research for The Madman’s Daughter was for the historical time period: the mechanics of corsets (which are far more complicated than you’d think), ladies’ fashion, historical London geography, nineteenth century sailing. There are some very dark aspects of the book too, such as surgical procedures on animals, which required a lot of more unpleasant research. And to capture the feel of the island setting, I often hiked through the forests around my hometown.

I think The Madman’s Daughter is proof that classic, gothic novels like The Island of Dr. Moreau are still pertinent to today’s readers. What about books like these do you think still resonant with readers?

I mentioned how packed full of exciting action and romance classic novels are. I also think so many of the themes are timeless. In 1896, cloning and genetically modified organisms might not have been an issue like they are today, but scientific hubris and the dangers of modern technology most definitely were. I think we are fascinated by seeing, as a species, how humans can change over the decades, and yet also stay exactly the same.

Catch part 2 of our Q&A tomorrow!