The brilliant mind that is A.E Rought took the time to chat with me about her upcoming novel Broken, writing influences and Halloween plans! Check it out:

As a child, which book first introduced you to literature?

The first book I remember was Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. My mom read it to me and my brother when we were small enough to fit on her lap. One of my favorites was The Chronicles of Narnia–my poignant memory of reading as a child was crying when Aslan died on the great stone table. (Cried at that scene in the movie, too).

 As an adult, what is your favourite book?

This one is harder to answer. I have favorites for different reasons. I love The Replacement for the spookitude, and the main character Mackie Doyle. I love Amy Plum’s Die for Me series for lots of reasons, among them is the location, and her spin on life and love after death. The Beautiful Creatures series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl is one of my very favorite series for it’s steeped-in-magic atmosphere.

 What inspired you to become a writer?

I don’t think it was so much an thing of inspiration, as a need. Writing is what I do, it’s what I love, it’s how I express things I can’t say in a tweet, or a Facebook post, or an email.

 What are your plans for Halloween?

Probably hiding in the house with the lights off an watching horror movies. All the trick-or-treaters coming to the door stress out our Labrador. Your new YA novel, Broken—which will release in January is simply beautiful. It pulls the reader under its grasp within the first paragraph. What inspired you to write such a nail-biting story?

Aw ❤ Thank you!! Broken was a feeling, like a sad harpy in my chest trying to claw it’s way out. I bounced from story idea to story idea until my beta reader and I talked up this idea on the phone. I knew it had to be an achingly romantic, heart-breaking story to purge the feeling that had take up residence inside me.

 The plot is refreshing, it is so different from other YA works. Was that the intended goal, to be different from the pack?

It actually was not my intent. When I started writing Broken, I planned to write it just for me and my beta readers. It was what I loved and knew they would too. I had no plans toward publication when I started it. I’m thrilled at how it turned out, and that it IS different.

 The love story is like no other. It is beautiful. Was there an inspiration behind the romance?

That comes from my dark side, I think. It might sound horrible, but I crafted Emma and Alex’s romance for maximum heartache. Their love had to have a ring of realness to it for them to hurt when I twisted things.

 Are any of your characters inspired from real life?

Yep. Emma’s dad is my dad, right down to the sawdust. (*shhh* This is a secret… Emma’s mom is totally someone I know, too. And NOT my mom) Emma has some of my beta reader Lexie’s spunk.

 How do you craft your storyline? Do you just let it flow, or do you plan and then write?

It usually starts with a ‘what if’ question. (Broken’s ‘what if’ was “what if Frankenstein’s monster wasn’t so monstrous, and fell in love?” Then I flipped it to the love interest’s point of view.) I used to be a pantser and a puzzler, writing scenes out of order and then stringing them together. Now, I’m a ruthless outliner. I give the plot enough wiggle room from point to point for natural growth and expansion, but I have all the major pinch and pivot points figured out.

 Can you tell us about the novel being transferred onto the big screen?

I can tell you there IS hope for Broken to appear on a screen, be it big or that screen almost everyone has in their homes… We signed with the prestigious Gotham Group in Hollywood to represent Broken’s film/television adaptation rights, and it’s currently in the hands of producers and studios for consideration. *dies*

 If you could choose the cast, who would be your dream cast?

I so totally suck at this. I think it would be brilliant to have unknown actors who haven’t been type-cast to certain roles to play the characters. When I started writing, though, I had pictured Alex Pettyfer as my Alex, and maybe a blond Michelle Trachtenberg as my Emma.

 What author would you love to co-write with?

Oh wow! What a great question. and a really hard one to answer. I love love LOVE Amy Plum’s writing and stories, I think we would mesh well. I adore Michelle Zink and think we would work really well together.

 Do you have any words of encouragement for any other aspiring young authors?

It CAN happen. You CAN do it. I’ve fallen down, gotten frustrated, tried a style that didn’t work, that at points I wanted to just chuck in the towel. If I can do it, anyone with a true love of writing and story-telling can too. My best advice is to find a good support system of friends and others who “get” the writer side of you. Find a good peer group, be it beta readers and critique partners, and/or an online writing community like YALITCHAT. These are the people who will help you hone your craft, will lift you up when you fail, and will celebrate you when you succeed.

What can readers expect from you in the future? Any current projects? Planned future projects?

I have another book contracted with Strange Chemistry, that’s set to come out next fall. I can’t tell you much, as we’re keeping it under wraps. I will say there is a bit of a mystery, and heartache, and death! As to planned future projects, I have boards for them on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/aerought/ I’m leaning heavily toward the one designated PROJECT ON HOLD S.C.

Thank you for your time!

Keep up to date with A.E on her website: www.aerought.com

aerought

Broken hits bookstores everywhere January 8^th 2013

Broken Overview: Imagine a modern spin on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein where a young couple’s undying love and the grief of a father pushed beyond sanity could spell the destruction of them all.

A string of suspicious deaths near a small Michigan town ends with a fall that claims the life of Emma Gentry’s boyfriend, Daniel. Emma is broken, a hollow shell mechanically moving through her days. She and Daniel had been made for each other, complete only when they were together. Now she restlessly wanders the town in the late Fall gloom, haunting the cemetary and its white-marbled tombs, feeling Daniel everywhere, his spectre in the moonlight and the fog.

When she encounters newcomer Alex Franks, only son of a renowned widowed surgeon, she’s intrigued despite herself. He’s an enigma, melting into shadows, preferring to keep to himself. But he is as drawn to her as she is to him. He is strangely…familiar. From the way he knows how to open her locker when it sticks, to the nickname she shared only with Daniel, even his hazel eyes with brown flecks are just like Daniel’s. The closer they become, though, the more something inside her screams there’s something very wrong with Alex Franks.

And when Emma stumbles across a grotesque and terrifying menagerie of mangled but living animals within the walls of the Franks’ estate, creatures she surely knows must have died from their injuries, she knows.