Life Eternal (A Dead Beautiful Novel) by Yvonne Woon

LIFE ETERNAL
A Dead Beautiful Novel

by Yvonne Woon


Young Adult

Hyperion
www.YvonneWoon.com
www.un-requiredreading.com


5 Signed Copies will be given away on Friday, January 27, 2012!

About the Book:

Renée Winters has changed. When she looks in the mirror, a beautiful girl with an older, sadder face stares back. Her condition has doctors mystified, but Renée can never reveal the truth: she died last May, and was brought back to life by the kiss of her Undead soul mate, Dante Berlin.

Now, her separation from Dante becomes almost unbearable. His second life is close to an end, and each passing day means one less that she will spend with the boy who shares her soul.

Just when Renée has almost given up hope, she learns of the Nine Sisters—brilliant scholars who, according to legend, found a way to cheat death. She can’t shake the feeling that they are somehow connected to her dreams, strange visions that hint at a discovery so powerful, and so dangerous, that some will stop at nothing to protect it.

Renée thought she knew the truth about life and death. But there is a secret woven through history that holds the only hope for Dante and Renée. Unless they find answers soon, their time together is doomed to be cut short. The heartstopping follow-up to Dead Beautiful.

Check out our Exclusive Interview with the Author here:

1) How did you get the idea for the novel?

I first had the idea when I visited my brother, who lives in Montreal. He took me to the huge cemetery at the foot of Mont Royal, and we biked around until we stumbled upon a section with incredibly small tombstones. Curious, we parked our bikes and started to read the inscriptions, only to discover that they all belonged to children. At that moment, the entire cemetery felt like it was part of Renée and Dante’s story, and scenes started grow from there.

2) When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer? Have you had other jobs along the way?

I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. When I was little, my parents used to take me to a bookstore with a restaurant attached to it for breakfast every weekend, so I spent a lot of time there, sitting among books, which must have helped plant the idea. I started my first “novel” in elementary school, which I wrote on my mom’s typewriter. It was one page long, and had something to do with a girl in a jungle.

Since then, I’ve pretty much stayed on the same course, writing in my free time, and working during the day to support myself. The best jobs I had were writing related: assisting editors and literary agents, reporting for a newspaper, teaching a freshman-level writing class at Columbia. The worst were a lot more boring: alphabetizing books in the stacks of the library, waitressing at a café, bagging groceries for Stop & Shop, shucking oysters at a flea market. I was also the world’s worst paralegal, and for one misguided year, I thought it would be a good decision to get a stable job and go to medical school. That ended after I took (and almost failed) chemistry.

3) How do you come up with your character names?

Some of the names, like Renée, Dante, Clementine, and Ophelia Hart, have meanings, and I chose them according to the needs of the plot and the kind of characteristics I wanted to convey. Most of the other names I actually borrowed from friends and past teachers.

4) Let's talk about your main character, Renée. How did you think her up and is there any of you in her?

There is definitely a lot of me in Renée, though I could say that about all of my character. Renée and I are much more different than we are the same. She is a lot more forthright and outspoken than I am, and has a lot of characteristics that I wish I had, which is, I think, how she came into being. I knew I wanted to write about someone who was brave and curious and a little impulsive, so I started with that and went with it. In a way, writing her allowed me to experiment being someone else, which was really nice.

5) If there was one thing about Renée’s life that you’d like to have in your own life, what would it be? What about the one thing about her life that you’d NEVER want to have?

Oh wow. Good question. I’ve always wanted more mystery in my life, and I really envy that about Renée and her world and the people that she knows. And while I do envy the unbearable passion of her relationship with Dante, I would never want to be in their situation, or to have to make the decisions she makes. It’s too tragic!

About the Author:

Yvonne Woon grew up in Massachusetts, where she attended Worcester Academy. She lives in New York and holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in fiction from Columbia University. Dead Beautiful was her first novel. Visit the author online at: www.YvonneWoon.com.

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