Last fall,
Sophie Littlefield, author of the
Bad Day crime series, joined me to talk about her debut YA novel,
Banished. A year has passed, and she's since released the critically acclaimed apocalyptic zombie novels
Aftertime and
Rebirth, one more Bad Day book, and, just this past month, the companion to Banished:
Unforsaken.
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ABOUT UNFORSAKEN:
Hailey Tarbell is no typical girl. As one of the Banished who arrived from Ireland generations ago, Hailey has the power to heal—and, as she recently learned, to create zombies if she heals someone too late. But now, Hailey is finally getting a chance at a normal life.
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In celebration of the release of
Unforsaken, Sophie is joining me today to answer five random scary questions, plus she's offering a giveaway of the novel.
Without further ado, here's Sophie...
1. What's the most terrifying book you've ever read?
SOPHIE: One of Stephen King's short story collections
—I'm sorry that I don't remember which
—set the tone for an entire summer when I was twelve or thirteen. I practically read the stories with my eyes shut
—but I couldn't stop. I was reminiscing with our agent the other day about "The Raft" (that's what she and I remember it being called, though we may be making that up). Got scared all over again just talking about it!
2. Which food scares you the most?
SOPHIE: I'm a picky eater, and though I love red meat, I like to pretend that it came from trees. Burger trees! Lovely ribeyes, growing on shrubbery! Little bacon vines twining around the mailbox! The minute food starts to look *anything* like an animal part, I'm done. (I make an exception for chicken wings with hot hot hot sauce.)
3. Blood: nauseating or fascinating?
SOPHIE: Oh, fascinating, for sure, though I am a terrible wimp around wounds. So naturally, I was given a hellion of a son to raise, a boy that burst his scabs the minute they were formed and bled all over everything. (He's nineteen now, and sure enough, he managed to bleed all over the house when he was home for twelve hours. Skateboard accident.) I manage to keep my sh*t together long enough to cleanse, bandage, and/or drive to emergency room
—but once the immediate danger is over I fall entirely apart.
4. Which of your own undead characters should readers most fear if they encounter him or her in the dead of night?
SOPHIE: Well, let's see: Beaters (the zombie-like creatures from the Aftertime series) don't see well, and not at all in the dark, so they tend to sleep in their nests at night. But if they catch the scent of an uninfected, they'll stop at nothing, running blindly toward their victims, even if that means tripping, knocking into things, falling, crawling, dragging themselves along the ground. I would find that kind of determination pretty scary, myself.
5. How would you personally react to a zombie takeover of your neighborhood?
SOPHIE: I would hope that Steve Hockensmith was visiting. He wrote
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After, and he makes fictional zombies as amusing as mine are horrifying. I think we would have a great time playing cards and wishing we had some saganaki and gossiping until someone (else) had matters well in hand.
Thanks so much for celebrating the release of Unforsaken here at Suburban Vampire, Sophie! Best wishes to you and all your novels.
SOPHIE: Why thank you, Catherine! My pleasure as always!
(The contest is now closed. The winning name was announced
here.)
SophieLittlefield.com
Buy Unforsaken at Amazon
