Judging a Book By Its Cover #3: A Kid's Perspective on The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Okay, so I totally stole this idea from Sara at Forever 17 Books, who got the idea from an article on Babble called Judging a Book by Its Cover: A 6-year-old Guesses What Classic Novels Are All About.  I just discovered her lovely segment, and I immediately requested forced my own four-year-old daughter Katie to provide me with some of her own cover art artwork and then asked her what she thought the book was about.



Okay...so, I wasn't going to use this particular cover art from Katie because it's kind of a work in progress, which translates to:  she lost interest when I left the room for a minute and never returned to finish it.  But, it made me laugh pretty hard when I really looked at it, and there's kind of a funny story to it, so I thought, What the hell?

So, earlier this week, Katie caught me in my office and asked if she could draw me another cover.  I tell her sure and ask her to pick a book from my shelf if she doesn't want to draw the one I'm currently reading -- she didn't and I don't blame her...that one's too pretty to mess with.  Here's what she picked:

The funny story about this one is, I don't even have to ask her what she thinks this novel is about.  When she saw the ARC sitting on my desk earlier this year, she asked me, "Mommy, is this book about vampires?"  Yeah.  The kid also likes to watch The Vampire Diaries with me, even though I've told her time and again she's not old enough, though maybe she is because she's constantly informing me who's good, who's bad, and who's in love.  =)  Oh!  She did say this about the cover, though, as she was drawing her interpretation:  "I like the blood coming from her eye."  Erm, ooookay.

Cover Art:

The Immortal Rules by Katie

Or, as Katie titled it:  IMMORTAL KATIE.  How funny is that?  After I noticed that, I envisioned her saying it in an evil voice, followed by deep, raucous laughter.  Maybe we're both a little deranged.  :-P  She asked me what the black around the girl's eye was, and I told her probably make-up, which she then proceeded to make very prevalent in her rendition, and she also made sure to draw a red line to represent the blood she seems to have taking a liking to.

What do you think?  Funny or just plain creepy?

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Labels: cover art, judging a book by its cover, julie kagawa, katiebug, the immortal rules

Teaser Tuesday #2

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


This week's teaser comes from the following book:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Title:  The Immortal Rules
Author:  Julie Kagawa
Series:  1st book in the Blood of Eden series
Publisher:  Harlequin Teen
Publication Date:  April 24, 2012
Source:  ARC

In a future world, Vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity.

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.

Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die or become one of the monsters.

Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.

Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.

But it isn't easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for.

My teaser:

"Whoops."  Zeke put out both hands to steady us.  For a half-second, we were face-to-face, so close I could see the rings of silver around his pupils, hear the pulse at his throat.  The Hunger stirred, and I clamped down on it, hard. - p. 277-278


I love Julie's The Iron Fey series -- so much so that I forced it upon my bestest book buddy, who is reading it now after loving The Immortal Rules -- and I can't wait to delve further into this futuristic vampire world she's created! 

What are you reading this week?

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Labels: harlequin-teen, julie kagawa, teaser tuesday, the immortal rules, vampires

Interview with The Immortal Rules author Julie Kagawa + Giveaway

To pay the rent, Julie worked in different bookstores over the years, but discovered the managers frowned upon her reading the books she was supposed to be shelving. So she turned to her other passion: training animals. She worked as a professional dog trainer for several years, dodging Chihuahua bites and overly enthusiastic Labradors, until her first book sold and she stopped training to write full-time. Her third novel, The Iron Queen, became a New York Times bestseller and her debut novel, The Iron King recently won the RITA award for best young-adult fiction novel of 2010.

Julie now lives in La Grange, Kentucky, with her husband, two obnoxious cats, one Australian shepherd who is too smart for his own good and the latest addition, a hyperactive papillon.

 

I absolutely adore The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa, so when I was offered the chance to read and review The Immortal Rules before its April release, I responded with a resounding "YES!"  Check back soon for my thoughts on what is sure to be an epic read.  Also, after the interview below, enter for your chance to win your own copy of The Immortal Rules!


After writing the Iron Fey series for so many years, how difficult was it to immerse yourself in a futuristic world filled with vampires, rabids and an enslaved human race?

JK:  It was...very different. I think the hardest thing for me was the fact that this story does take place in the real world -- a futuristic, vampire-infested world, but the real world nonetheless. Things had to make sense, for example: how far can a large group walk in a single day if there were no roads, they were going through thick woods, and there were children in the group? I had to have logical reasons for everything; I couldn't just make something work "because of faery magic," lol.

Just like Meghan Chase in the Iron Fey series, the main character in The Immortal Rules, Allison Sekemoto, is a “take charge and kick butt” kind of girl. Is this intentional? What woman – real or fictional, alive or deceased – do you look up to or admire?

JK:  Yes, Allison comes from a very different world than Meghan Chase. Meghan's upbringing was pretty normal; Allison grew up among vampires and monsters, where every day was a fight to live, so she couldn't afford to be weak. While Meghan had to learn to "take charge and kick butt," Allison's first impulse is stab first, talk later.

As for female role models, the first that comes to mind--when it comes to kicking vampire butt, anyway -- is Buffy Summers. Thank you, Joss Whedon, for making me love feisty, snarky, heroines who can dust all sorts of nasties but who also look good in a cheerleading outfit. ;)

You mention in your acknowledgements in The Immortal Rules that at the beginning of your writing career you promised yourself you wouldn’t write a vampire book. What changed your mind?

JK:  Well, there were already so many really good books about our favorite bloodsuckers, so many stories and ideas, I thought I didn't have anything new to add to the masses. I was actually toying with a post-apocalyptic YA novel when my agent mentioned I might want to try writing a vampire series. I wasn't intrigued with the idea at first, but then I thought about combining vampires with the post-apocalyptic novel and then rest sort of fell into place.

Allison claims she hates vampires and believes they are monsters yet when faced with a choice of die or become one, she becomes a vampire. Would you have made that same decision?

JK:  Me personally? No. I'm like Zeke in the belief that there is something better waiting for me beyond this life, and I just have to do my best until it’s time for me to go. Besides, I love pizza and Mountain Dew too much to give it up.

Who do you think the most complex character is in The Immortal Rules?

JK:  Probably Kanin, Allie's sire. He's a vampire who has made his peace about being a monster, yet chooses to live by his own set of moral rules. He warns Allison about getting too close to humans, yet he does not kill unless he absolutely has to. He is tormented about something in his past that he refuses to share with anyone. He is certainly the most mysterious of all the characters, if not the most complex.

How many books will be in the Blood of Eden series? When will the next book be coming out?

JK:  At the moment, there are three books planned, with the second coming out sometime next spring, after the release of the new Iron Fey series this fall.

Before you starting writing full time you were a professional dog trainer. Do the professions share any similarities?

JK:  Lol, well you have to think on your feet a lot. And some of the small dogs could be compared to tiny snapping goblins, but writing requires less dodging skills, though perhaps the same amount of creativity and problem solving.

When starting a new series, like Blood of Eden, do you have the entire series mapped out in detail or do you let the story develop book by book?

JK:  I have a high point that I write toward in each story; I know this and this has to happen, but getting from point A to point B usually develops as I go along.

And for the speed round:

What book have you read and re-read, and read yet again?

JK:  Any of the Harry Potter books.

Favorite song to play when writing a fight scene?

JK:  My "favorites" change daily. Right now its "Awake and Alive" by Skillet.

Worst job?

JK:  Working a kiosk in the mall during Christmas. It sold glass figurines, and the maneuvering space around the hundreds of very breakable merchandise was quite small. I was like a bull in a china shop.

Best vacation spot?

JK:  Walt Disney World

Sweets or salty?

JK:  Sweet.

One thing most people don’t know about you – and would never guess!

JK:  I used to play the flute when I was a kid. I was really good at it too, but my instructor stopped teaching to have a family, and I never went back to it.

A big thank you to Julie Kagawa and Karen Wadsworth at Media Masters Publicity for putting this together!


Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Harlequin



You will kill. The only question is when.

In the dark days since the insidious Red Lung virus decimated the human population, vampires have risen to rule the crumbling cities and suburbs. Uncontested Princes hold sway over diminished ranks of humans: their "pets." In exchange for their labor, loyalty and of course, their blood, these pets are registered, given food and shelter, permitted to survive.

Unregistered humans cling to fringes, scavenging for survival. Allison Sekemoto and her fellow Unregistereds are hunted, not only by vampires, but by rabids, the unholy result of Red Lung-infected vampires feeding on unwary humans. One night, Allie is attacked by a pack of rabids, saved by an unlikely hero...and turned vampire.

Uncomfortable in her undead skin, Allie falls in with a ragtag crew of humans seeking a cure, or cures: for Rabidism and for Vampirism. She's passing for human...for now. But the hunger is growing and will not be denied. Not for friendship—not even for love.

And now for the contest!  This giveaway is for one finished copy of The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa in hardcover.  The contest will run from now through the release date of the book. On April 24th, one winner will be selected via Rafflecopter, and I will provide the winner's shipping info to the publisher, who will then ship the book directly to the winner.  The prize will not be sent prior to the book's release date of April 24th.

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Labels: author interviews, giveaways, julie kagawa, the immortal rules