After reading The Forever Girl by Rebecca Hamilton I had the privilege of getting to know her.  Aside from being intelligent, clever, and downright riddled with awesome, she was kind enough to answer some of my lingering questions about her, and her kickass book.

 
Hey Rebecca!  You are awesome for taking the time to do this, I really appreciate it!  As you know I loved your first novel The Forever Girl.  Why don’t you give a brief summary of the story?

Thanks for having me here, Jess :) I think YOU are the awesome one. And thank you so much for the compliment on The Forever Girl.

 The Forever Girl is about Sophia Parsons’, a young Wiccan woman cursed with a hissing noise in her head that makes it hard for her to concentrate. She’s shunned by the town she lives in and, in many ways, even shunned by her own mother. She thinks a Wiccan spell might silence the static shhing through her skull, but instead the noise turning into whispers. When this leads her to look into her family history, she discovers an ancestor was hanged during the Salem witch trials and that the body went missing before burial. This sets Sophia off on her adventure to find out what really happened, in hopes that solving the mystery will end the family curse. Instead, she discovers a world full of vampires-like creatures, shapeshifting elementals, ghosts, supernatural grim reapers, and children ruled by the element of fire. Charles, an elemental with a dark past and many secrets, remains by her side as she clings stubbornly to her goal to unveil the truth about her ancestor. At first, he only wanted to help her, but soon he caves into his desires to do more than that. In the end, Sophia’s discoveries only thrust her further into this strange, dark new world.


Your book centers on the Wiccan Religion.  Are you Wiccan, or did you do intense research on the subject for your novel to get such accuracy?

I’m not Wiccan. I was when I was younger, if that counts, but I’m non-religious. I think there is a lot of beauty in many religions, but there are a few religions (such as Wicca) that are painted in such an inaccurate and poor light, which is why I wanted to draw from that for this book (and most of this series). With all my books, I hope to help readers uncover the truth and beauty of the unknown. And that’s really what it comes down to. People don’t know what Wicca really is, and their assumptions are so far from the truth it’s scary. Hollywood doesn’t help with that. I guess they think the only way Wicca can “sell” is if it’s some dark evil craft. I say boo to that.


The Forever Girl takes place in a very small town.  Did you grow up in a small town?

I didn’t grow up in a big city, but not really a small town, either. Maybe you could say I grew up in a big town?


Did you write a lot of yourself into the main hero Sophia?

Sophia has some traits similar to me. For example, reasoning things to the point of being unreasonable. Over-thinking things. Not always saying what she’s really thinking. In other ways, we’re not quite the same. I prefer coffee to tea (actually, my coffee tastes more like hot cocoa…). I’m also not as brave as she is and I’m decidedly lazier. I’d say every character I wrote has a piece of me in them, whether it’s a trait they got from me, or I used a trait within myself to create an opposite trait for them, or even if it’s just a trait I’ve observed in someone else at some point in my life.

If you could be one of the characters in your book, who would it be?

Lauren. :)

Are any of your characters based on the personalities of real people in your life? (Supernatural abilities aside of course)

As I said before, I think all my characters reflect something I’ve experienced in some way or another, so in that sense, yes. I don’t think I really wrote any of my characters with anyone in mind, though.


What is your favorite book?  What books have inspired you?

The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard: This one challenged me to think outside the box on a story-level. The way the plot is woven together is ingenious and the occasional “rolling POVs” (that’s what I call them) break the rules in all the right ways. It goes to show that writing can still be creative and effective. It doesn’t have to be some color-by-number approach that we see when writers try too hard to stick to the newbie writing advice people like to shove down writers’ throats. Though this does mean that because I’ve intentionally opted to use these techniques, I occasionally get people who throw the “rule book” at me for my “newbie mistakes”. I just smile, though. The reader who reads for the sake of reading…they don’t have this problem. 


What made you interested in writing Fantasy over another genre?

No idea. It just happened. And it’s fun to write. But I still have major interests in Horror and Literary Fiction (which make peek through my fantasy writing sometimes, too).


When writing, do you ever picture particular actors/actresses playing certain parts?  If so, who?

No. My characters come to me as their own person. I have to “cast” them after the fact (when people ask me this) and it’s always hard because I’m thinking … well, they’d be great at playing themselves LOL. Problem is they don’t really exist. I have noticed, however, that it’s most fun to imagine all my male leads as Jensen Ackles.


What do you find to be the most difficult part of the writing process?

 Rewriting. I know it needs to be done and I don’t mind having to do it. It’s the actually doing it part that I struggle with. I feel like my brain has to remember the whole story all at once, every step of the way, in order to rewrite. It kills me. Now, revising, editing, all that jazz? I don’t mind. I’m not married to my words or my story, but it’s easier to break up with the wording than it is to shuffle around and break up with and make new connections within the story. Brain hurts just thinking about it.


You are very active on Twitter.  What is your favorite part of the Twitterverse?

Meeting cool people  :) There’s so many friendly and talented people out there, and Twitter as opened up the world to me so that I can find more of them.


When can we look forward to the second book in The Forever Girl series?  

The actually second book in the series? I’m aiming for January 2013. And with three kids and a full time job … I’m just hoping I can pull that off.


What was your favorite scene in The Forever Girl to write?

 

 *****SPOILER ALERT KIDS, SPOILER ALERT*****

 The Samhain scene, with Thalia and the rest of her Cruor coterie in the alley on Basker Street. I really enjoyed meeting Thalia in that scene. It was the first time I met her and I totally fell in love with her there, even if she is a baddie!



Thanks Rebecca!  As you can see, she has excellent taste (especially about Jensen Ackles)  Look for her on Twitter and pick up your copy of The Forever Girl today!

Since receiving my shiny new Kindle just a few months ago, I’ve been opened to the awesome world of new novelists.  It has been a rocky adventure of books.  Oftentimes awesome reads have sucked me in for days, other times I curse the heavens (in that very dramatic, TV movie sort of way) and then erase them from my Kindle immediately.

I’d seen some tweets concerning The Forever Girl by Rebecca Hamilton, but hadn’t fully sought it out.  The cover was pretty, and the author’s tweets were fun.  Finally, last week, after stumbling across the book for the millionth time, I took it as a sign.  This book was intended for me.

I can say now, my only regret is that I didn’t buy it sooner!

I won’t give you too much back story.  Partially because you can read the synopsis, but mostly I don’t trust myself with spoilers. 

The bones of the tale are this:  Sophia is an average girl, living in a painfully small town.  She is very much the ‘Boo Radley’ of the neighborhood due to her Wiccan religion, and a very overzealous Christian woman who hopes to rid the town of her evil.  As if being stalked by a crazy lady wasn’t enough, Sophia must deal with a constant hissing, a buzz that rattles around in her brain 24/7.  She managed to go to college, and now hold a job, but the constant noise never leaves her mind.  Curing her curse is her number one priority.  That is until she meets a whole host of supernatural beings, some dangerous, some carrying very human burdens, and one downright sexy.  She finds herself embroiled in a centuries old battle, first to find out about her own ancestry, then to save those she loves.

I loved this book, and I’ll give you just a few reasons why although I could probably come up with dozens. 

I was a Wiccan for fifteen years.  Rebecca Hamilton has been the ONLY fiction author I have ever read who described ritual, as well as Wiccan beliefs accurately and completely.  For her insight and research, I applaud and respect her.

The main character Sophia drew me in from the beginning of the book.  She has a crazy mother (who can’t relate to that) and is trying very hard to live her life, despite her hardships financially as well as medically (the constant noise in her head)  As the book evolved my only complaint was Sophia’s fear of her own power and her raging self doubt.  More than once, I wanted to hop into the story, shake her like a ragdoll and tell her she was strong enough to do anything!  (There is also a sex scene I wouldn’t have minded hopping into as well.  I’m telling ya, buy the book!)

Keeping the storyline moving was the lovable Charles.  He is a member of the supernatural realm, and I don’t want to say too much on that, but he oozes sex appeal.  He added some much needed humor to the extremely serious Sophia, and helped to keep the story moving at a good pace.  Not to mention he sounds drop dead gorgeous, and there are a few scenes not intended for children in the book.

I have to tip my hat to Hamilton for my favorite line in the book.  I don’t know if it was an intended knock on the ever popular yet poorly written Twilight series or not but as Charles pops up at Sophia’s window one night, she crossly asks him if he’s spying on her.

His response?  “You’re not so interesting that I came to watch you sleep, darlin’.”  

Rarely does a line literally make me laugh out loud as that one did.

Hamilton also manages to put together an excellent “supporting cast” of characters, including Sophia’s best friend Ivory, and Charles’s best friend Adrian.  The characters are not only rich and welcoming additions, but they end up having very deep and meaningful backgrounds that assist in tying the entire story into a neat little bow.  Personally, I love neat little bows, and so I was in reader heaven.

All in all the book was great.  It wrapped up nicely while still leaving a few questions unanswered for the next books in the series.  Those books I will not hesitate to buy.  As I clicked The Forever Girl from my To-Read folder over to my Modern Classic folder, I stuck my kindle on my overflowing bookshelf, propping it next to the framed picture of my Grams and her pet cardinal from so many years ago, and smiled.

Don’t worry, you’ll understand everything, the book is only a click away!