Devoured by Amanda Marrone- Contest has ended, thanks all for entering!

Devoured
by Amanda Marrone
9/22/09

Megan’s twin sister Remy died in an accident nine years ago, and she’s been haunting her ever since. Knowing how crazy that sounds, Megan keeps this secret to herself and tries to lead a normal life. But when she takes a summer job at Land of Enchantment to keep an eye on her new boyfriend and his lovesick best friend, Samantha, she meets fellow employee Luke who can see Remy, too. Things get even twistier because Megan’s new friend Ari is sporting a massive crush on Luke, who seems to be developing a massive crush on Megan…making for a love triangle that’s positively possessed.
Megan wants to keep her distance from Luke, but when Remy’s visions get crazy violent; she knows she needs his help. Because someone’s definitely in danger...the only question is who?

We Talk with Amanda Marrone

IBT: If you could choose one fictional character to bring into real life,who would you choose?

AM:Off the top of my head I’d say Leslie from Bridge to Terrabithia in hopes of avoiding her tragic end. That book has haunted me since I’ve read it over 31 years ago!

IBT: How did you survive being a teen?

AM: ‘Survive’ is a good word. Unfortunately I was a little too much like my main character in Uninvited. I was extremely shy and having had undiagnosed Inattentive ADD (Unlike ADHD, there’s no hyperactive component) I self-medicated a little too much. I would wake up each morning vowing not to repeat last night’s behavior only to get sucked back into it as the day wore on. What kept me sane? Reading—I read constantly and it was a great escape.

IBT: Have you ever written something that you feel uncomfortable writing,knowing that your family and friends will probably end up reading it?
AM: Uninvited was tough because I lived a lot like Jordan did. I felt very helpless as a teen, made a lot of bad decisions, and having people read something similar to what I went through was hard. It’s also hard because some readers (mostly adults) read Uninvited and think I’m glorifying teen drinking and sex, and they don’t see that Jordan isn’t happy with they way she’s conducting their life. It bothers me that they don’t get that the story is ultimately about taking control of an out of control life.

IBT: What were some of the issues you faced as a teen (that you can share) that you've been able to weave into your books? Have they changed very muchfrom what teens are facing today?

AM: I’ve mentioned a few above, but there was a lot of drug use and drinking going on when I was a teen—and we weren’t the so called ‘druggies’ or ‘stoners’. I hung out with the theatre crowd and I think most adults looking at us would never have guessed the things we were doing. We looked like good kids—actually we were good kids, but as a group we also had a lot of issues—parents in bad marriages, getting along with step parents and their children, alcoholic parents, hiding the fact you were gay, and just the every day pressures teens have: keeping up grades, getting into colleges, navigating boyfriend/girlfriend issues. I’ve come to realize that the people I spent the most time with all had parents who weren’t asking where we where or what we were doing. I think today’s parents are paying more attention to their kids as a whole—but having recently had half of our local pom-pom squad caught drinking and kicked off the squad, and warnings about increased drug arrests in town, things haven’t changed that much. It helps that parents are being held more accountable by law now—I think a parent would think twice about supplying the keg for a party these days, but that was a common occurrence when I was growing up.

IBT: How have the books you've read or movies you've seen inspiredthe books you've written, if at all?
AM: I read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy books in high school. Ray Bradbury, Anne Rice, Stephen King, Piers Anthony—I was always drawn to the fantastic and it’s what I like to write best. I think it’s the appeal of being able to escape reality for a while.

IBT: What is the strangest thing you have ever gotten inspirationfrom?
AM: I saw a hand blown glass witch ball in a catalogue and thought how cool it would be if the description (being able to trap spells or mesmerize bad spirits) were true. Years later I was rocking my daughter late at night and looking out her window. I got the image of a girl seeing people fly by on broomsticks and land in her back yard. At first I thought the girl would be scared of the people and it wasn’t until I realized they were her friends that the story for Revealers came to me. A witch ball is in the opening scene.

IBT: Many writers say parting with a character is hard. Do you ever lookbackon a character and wish you had changed something about him or her?
AM: I haven’t wanted to change something about a character, but I did have a hard time saying good-bye to the girls in Revealers—especially Dani and Jules. I have an idea for another adventure for them, so perhaps I’ll get to revisit them again.

IBT: What is the one thing such as, sky diving or any other daring thing,that you would love to do but you are too afraid?
AM: ?" I’ve often thought about sky diving, but I am too chicken. I’d love to be comfortable swimming in the ocean again. I grew up visiting the Jersey Shore and could spend all day in the water and then came Jaws. I was nine when my father dropped me and my younger stepsisters at the theatre to see it and it totally ruined the ocean for me. I can’t go in without constantly worrying about shark-attacks. If you haven’t seen it—don’t!

IBT: What do you do when you are faced with writer's block? What helpsyou getover it?
AM: I’ve never really been blocked, but I’ve avoided opening the file a lot. Best advice I’ve been given is to try to write just five lines—it’s not too much pressure, but sometimes just getting back in there to write gets me going again.

IBT: Is there anything you can share about your upcoming series "The Magicrepair Shop Chronicles"? I'd love to hear where the inspiration camefrom.
AM: The first book in the series was my very first novel and finished over thirteen years ago! It was the novel that I cut my writing teeth on, and the one I’ve revised the most. I never gave up on it and kept going back to it over the years. It started as a picture book inspired by a birthday card I painted. (I’ll attach a jpeg of it) The story kept growing and I realized it wasn’t a picture book—I also realized I loved writing dialogue—and my love of writing novels was born! Anyway, the first book is about twelve year old Maggie Malloy working as an apprentice in a magic repair shop and solving a mystery with the help of her obnoxious talking rabbit, Hasenpfeffer, and brainiac neighbor, Raphael Santos.

IBT: If there was any other profession you could do besides writing, what would it be?
AM: My dream job would be a star on Broadway—I’m a total theatre geek. Unfortunately, my voice is completely unremarkable. I’m also very interested in entomology—yes, I know, weird—but I think it would have been fun to be an entomologist or wildlife biologist.