Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith

ETERNAL

by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Paranormal Young Adult

Candlewick Press
www.CynthiaLeitichSmith.com

5 Signed Copies will be given away on Friday May 22, 2009



About the Book:

At last, Miranda is the life of the party: all she had to do was die. Elevated and adopted by none other than the reigning King of the Mantle of Dracul, Miranda goes from high-school theater wannabe to glamorous royal fiend overnight.

Meanwhile, her reckless and adoring guardian angel, Zachary, demoted to human guise as the princess’s personal assistant, has his work cut out for him trying to save his girl’s soul and plan the Master’s fast-approaching Death Day gala.

In alternating points of view, Miranda and Zachary navigate a cut-throat eternal aristocracy as they play out a dangerous and darkly hilarious love story for the ages.

With diabolical wit, the author of Tantalize revisits a deliciously dark world where vampires vie with angels — and girls just want to have fang.

Read our exclusive author interview with author Cynthia Leitich Smith!

1) Where did the idea for ETERNAL come from?

ETERNAL is one of three books inspired by Bram Stoker’s classic DRACULA. The idea is that Stoker’s novel was loosely based on truth, and my contemporary stories are affected by its characters and events.

Beyond that, I was interested in writing a story that would pair two characters on as far opposite sides of good and evil as possible. From that, I came up with Miranda, a vampire princess, and Zachary, her one-time guardian angel. I also wanted to write a love story for thinking readers, and these two really lent themselves to that.

2) For those of us who didn’t read TANTALIZE can you catch us up really quickly?

TANTALIZE is the story of Quincie P. Morris, a young girl trying to help save her family’s struggling Italian restaurant by re-launching it with a vampire theme. It’s a great idea until some real vampires show up.

3) This is a very cool world that you’ve set up here for the two books, with its own set of rules and laws and hierarchy. Was it difficult to create? What have been the biggest challenges in writing it?

I started by doing my homework—studying the old folklore and classic horror novels. From there, I took a look at how my modern views varied from the old-school masters.

My world includes shape-shifters, and they were a lot of fun to write. For ETERNAL, I looked at old stories that featured werebears and researched real-life bears to decide how those bear traits would manifest in a usually human-form character.

4) Do you ever get the feeling that you have your own guardian angel, just like Zachary?

I used to. Up through high school, I’d sometimes swing at the park and think about people I’d loved who’d gone on to heaven. I never felt alone, even though I usually was. Maybe it was my guardian angel, keeping me company.

5) Readers love seeing characters come to life on screen and this sounds like the perfect idea for a movie. Any interest yet?

Not that I’m aware of, but that’s all in the hands of my lovely literary agent. Authors generally aren’t front-and-center on the ground for such things.

6) I read you have a third book that will combine the two casts of characters. Can you tell us a little about that?

BLESSED will pick up right where TANTALIZE leaves off. Quincie’s restaurant has just lost its “vampire” chef, and now she and her new friends have to deal with the potential rise of hundreds of new vampires.

Don't miss ETERNAL's companion book...TANTALIZE! Out now!





The Book Trailer:



About the Author:

Cynthia Leitich Smith is the acclaimed author of TANTALIZE and several other books for young readers. A member of the faculty at the Vermont College MFA program in writing for children and young adults, she lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband, author Greg Leitich Smith. Visit her author website at: www.CynthiaLeitichSmith.com