I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the blog tour for GLITTER by Aprilynne Pike! I freaking adore Aprilynne and her books!! I have an interview Aprilynne to share with you today! And make sure to enter the awesome giveaway for a finished copy of the book!!
Haven't heard of GLITTER? Check it out!
Title: GLITTER
Author: Aprilynne
Pike
Pub.
Date: October
25, 2016
Publisher: Random
House Books for Young Readers
Pages: 384
Formats: Hardcover,
eBook
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Aprilynne Pike comes a truly original new novel—Breaking Bad meets Marie Antoinette in a near-future world where the residents of Versailles live like it’s the eighteenth century and an almost-queen turns to drug dealing to save her own life.
Outside the palace of Versailles, it’s modern day. Inside, the people dress, eat, and act like it’s the eighteenth century—with the added bonus of technology to make court life lavish, privileged, and frivolous. The palace has every indulgence, but for one pretty young thing, it’s about to become a very beautiful prison.
When Danica witnesses an act of murder by the young king, her mother makes a cruel power play . . . blackmailing the king into making Dani his queen. When she turns eighteen, Dani will marry the most ruthless and dangerous man of the court. She has six months to escape her terrifying destiny. Six months to raise enough money to disappear into the real world beyond the palace gates.
Her ticket out? Glitter. A drug so powerful that a tiny pinch mixed into a pot of rouge or lip gloss can make the wearer hopelessly addicted. Addicted to a drug Dani can sell for more money than she ever dreamed.
But in Versailles, secrets are impossible to keep. And the most dangerous secret—falling for a drug dealer outside the palace walls—is one risk she has to take.
Now on to the interview!
Hi Aprilynne! First I want to say welcome back to Two Chicks on Books
it’s been a while since you’ve been here! GLITTER was absolutely fantastic and
I can’t wait for everyone to read it! And am so happy that you could stop by
for a visit!
Thank you! I haven’t had a big book release in two years and it really
does feel like visiting friends after a long time.
For the readers:
can you tell us a little bit about GLITTER and the characters?
Glitter is about a 17yo courtier named Danica who lives in a
futuristic, corporate owned kingdom that mimics the French Baroque. She finds
herself blackmailed to a dangerous man and decides the best way out is to start
selling a designer drug.
Is this a
standalone or a series? And if it’s a series do you have a title for book 2
yet? And if it’s a standalone what are you working on next?
It is a duology and I just turned in the first round of edits on the
sequel. It doesn’t have an official title yet … Although, there’s
one I’ve been using. *shifty eyes*
Were any of the
characters in the book inspired by people from your real life?
I’m actually really careful not to base characters on real life because
I start calling people by the wrong names. No really. At one point my brother
in law would answer to both Ryan and Jared because I said the wrong name so
often. But on top of that, as most of the people in Glitter are quite morally
questionable, I’ve really avoided it in this book.
Who was your
favorite character to write? What about your least favorite?
I have so much fun writing my male MC, the King. Justin Wyndham is
unabashedly, unapologetically bad. He is selfish and ruthless and gets a kick
out of offending people because they can’t do a darn thing about it. Because … he’s the King.
And the CEO. He is large and in charge.
Least favorite? I had to really think about this one because unless
it’s a person with, like, one line and no name, I don’t write characters that
aren’t fun to write. But then I realized that I very much dislike writing
Danica’s mother, Angela, because she’s so unfeeling toward her daughter. There
are many ways to be a good mother … Angela doesn’t do any of them. As a mother of four little rugrats who I love to
pieces, it’s hard to write a mother who sees her
offspring as thing.
What is your
favorite passage/scene in GLITTER?
Oh gosh, I have to pick a non-spoilery one. For AFTER you’ve read the
book, I love the last scene, the beginning of Chapter 11, and this one:
“And this,” he says, handing me two
tubes of plain lip balm. “Reg says you’re making some colorless?”
“For the men,” I confirm. “Though
some will probably also use the rouge.”
He scoffs openly at that. “The men?
I thought you were just going to pass it around to the executives’ wives while
you all sit around and drink tea.”
“Oh, gentlemen will be in
attendance too. The Palace has more than its fair share of kept men.” I lean
forward, allowing my pushed up cleavage to show a little, just to throw off his
tightly held composure. “You don’t think our company has run so smoothly for
nearly a hundred years because men were in charge, do you?”
His eyes jump up from my breasts to
my face and it’s clear he assumed exactly that.
I straighten,
removing my enchantments from his view again with a jolt of satisfaction. “We
may emulate the court of the Sun King, but make no mistake, Sonoma is a modern
corporation and its court isn’t so backward-thinking as you clearly believe.
Many of our men routinely use cosmetics, and even those who don’t certainly
aren’t intimidated by a little sparkle now and then. Are you?”
What kind of
research did you have to do for the story?
*laugh* Oh, I did some very interesting research. A ton of research
into French history and fashion and the Palace of Versailles, as one would
expect, but I also had to do a ton of research into drugs and how corporations
run. There were a lot of technical details I had to familiarize myself with as
well, but I confess, I leaned on my techie husband to do a lot of Explain Like I’m
Five.:)
Who is your
ultimate book boyfriend?
Oh, this is such a hard choice! I think my ultimate book boyfriend is
the hero from a regency romance by Elizabeth Hoyt called Lord of Darkness and
his name is Godric St. John. He’s a really calm, smart hero who is a daring
vigilante by night, but is totally not Alpha-Male-ish when he’s being himself.
I kinda love that.:) It’s also possible that this is the audio book I turn on
at night to help me go to sleep.
What inspired you
to write YA?
I’ve found that a lot of authors accidentally find themselves in YA and
I’m the same. I started out writing adult epic fantasy and even got my first
agent with it! But when she sent my stuff out, I got several rejections that
said, “This is a great story … but it really feels YA to us.” So the
next book I wrote I purposely wrote featuring teens and I loved it so much
that’s all I’ve written since.
Lightning Round
Questions
What are you
reading right now? Or what do you have on your TBR that you’re dying to read?
I just finished YOU by Caroline Kepnes, where the main character is a
stalker who gets obsessed with a girl and kills people who get in his way and … um, it’s very dark. 0_0
What Hogwarts
House would the Sorting Hat place you in?
Hufflepuff!!!!
Twitter or
Facebook?
Twitter.
Favorite
Superhero?
Cap. :D
Favorite TV show?
I am loving the crap out of BBC’s Poldark right now.
Sweet or Salty?
Sweet!
Any Phobias?
I really don’t. I’m claustrophobic about having my arms unable to move,
but I’m luckily rarely in that situation. (Though getting my first wrap at a
spa about a year ago required so deep breathing and wriggling to convince
myself that I could get out if I
really wanted to.)
Song you can’t get
enough of right now?
Le Temps des Cathédrales from the musical Notre Dame de Paris. But it HAS to be in
French, and it HAS to be sung by Bruno Pelletier.
Winter Movie
you’re most looking forward to?
Oh gosh. I almost never watch movies. I’ve literally been to the movie
theatre twice in the last five+ years. (Maze Runner and Zootopia.) I really do
need to see Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.
Thanks so much Aprilynne for answering my questions! I can’t wait for
everyone to read GLITTER!
About Aprilynne:
Aprilynne Pike is a critically acclaimed,
#1 New York Times best-selling author of young adult fiction.
At the age of twenty she received her BA in Creative Writing from Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho. When not writing, Aprilynne can
usually be found running; she also enjoys singing, acting, reading, and working
with pregnant moms as a childbirth educator and doula.
Aprilynne lives in Arizona with her husband and their four children.
Giveaway Details:
3 winners will receive a finished copy
of GLITTER, US Only.
Tour Schedule:
