The Qwillery

TQ:  Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?

Sarah:  I started writing at the age of eight. I was obsessed with Nancy Drew and wanted to write a mystery of my own. I still have the notebook somewhere.



TQ:  Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Sarah:  Pantser. Plotting is a waste of time—I never follow the outline.



TQ:  What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Sarah:  Being satisfied with something enough to think it’s ready to be published. I’m a compulsive reviser. I’m going to be one of those authors who wants to take their book off the store shelf and mark it up with a pen.



TQ:  Who are some of your literary influences? Favorite authors?

Margaret Atwood, Lev Grossman, and Angela Carter off the top of my head. They all write in a way that terrifies me and astounds me all at once.



TQ:  Describe The Wicked We Have Done in 140 characters or less.

Sarah:  Girl commits heinous crime. Girl sentenced to prison that kills if she doesn't pass its simulation. Girl makes friends and fights for them.



TQ:  Tell us something about The Wicked We Have Done that is not in the book description.

Sarah:  The prison in The Wicked We Have Done is located in a closed off portion of experimental wilderness.



TQ:  What inspired you to write The Wicked We Have Done? The novel is described as "New Adult". What is "New Adult"? The novel mixes the romance and SF (dystopian) genres. Why did you choose to write a dystopian novel? In your opinion does a romance have to have an HEA?

Sarah:  The Wicked We Have Done was inspired by me wanting to write a speculative book that was both scary and emotional. I also really wanted to write something in the point-of-view of someone who wasn’t your standard hero, which is where the criminal aspect came in.

New Adult is a new category that encompasses the college age range. Books within this category are commercial and read a lot like fast-paced Young Adult, but with content geared more toward people in their twenties. I like to think of them as adult books for people who love the style of YA.

In all honesty, I didn’t really mean to write a dystopian novel. I just needed a near-future setting where technology was advanced enough to establish the prison that you read about in The Wicked We Have Done. The world kind of painted itself!

I don’t think that romance needs a HEA. I know people believe that the hero and love interest must get together at the end, but just because they get together doesn’t make the story have a happy ending. I think romance can be more complicated than that.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for The Wicked We Have Done?

Sarah:  Oh God… so much “How to Kill Someone via [insert method]” research. The book is pretty morbid.



TQ:  Who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why? Who is your favorite character?

Sarah:  The easiest to write was a secondary character in the book, Valerie, who gets her own novella being released in August. Her voice flowed from me very naturally. The hardest was the villain that you meet in flashback, mostly because I have more of a difficult time fleshing out truly evil characters.

As for favorite… honestly, it changes every time I read through the book. I know I sound like a fair Mom, but I promise I’m being honest!



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite lines from The Wicked We Have Done.

Sarah:  I drag across his skin three claws of blue sky. Reaching his scars, I’m desperate to read him like braille.



TQ:  What's next?

Sarah:  Two more Chaos Theory books are being released this year—a novella in the point-of-view of a secondary character, and A Vault of Sins, the sequel to The Wicked We Have Done. It’s a busy year!



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

The Wicked We Have Done

The Wicked We Have Done
Chaos Theory 1
InterMix, March 18, 2014
eBook

Darkly suspenseful and completely unexpected, The Wicked We Have Done is a debut author’s thrilling new take on New Adult romance.

Twenty-two-year-old Evalyn Ibarra never expected to be an accused killer and experimental prison test subject. A year ago, she was a normal college student. Now she’s been sentenced to a month in the compass room—an advanced prison obstacle course designed by the government to execute justice.

If she survives, the world will know she’s innocent.

Locked up with nine notorious and potentially psychotic criminals, Evalyn must fight the prison and dismantle her past to stay alive. But the system prized for accuracy appears to be killing at random.

She doesn’t plan on making friends.

She doesn’t plan on falling in love, either. 

About Sarah

Sarah Harian grew up in the foothills of Yosemite and received her B.A. and M.F.A. from Fresno State University. When not writing, she is usually hiking some mountain or another in the Sierras, playing video games with her husband, or rough-housing with her dog.








Website  ~  Facebook  ~  Twitter @sarahharian

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Books-A-Million : iTunes : Kobo

Melanie's Thoughts:

The Wicked We Have Done is a first in two respects - it is Sarah Harian's first novel and the first in her Chaos Theory series. This novel introduces us to Evalyn who has been incarcerated for killing her best friend and several other people in a massacre at her college. Evalyn has volunteered to take part in a pioneering experiment - The Compass Room which will judge her morality in a series of tests. The Compass Room or CR as it is referred to throughout the book will monitor each prisoner's brain waves while they are subjected to simulated events from their crime and judge whether they are morally corrupt. If their reactions tip them into the sociopathic, murderer range then they will be executed in any manner of horrific way. There is always the slim chance the CR will judge them to be guilt fee and they will be released and free from prison. Evalyn doesn't think she has anything to lose and along with several other teenage criminals she embarks on a month long test of to prove her innocence, even though she doesn't believe she is innocent. It doesn't take long for the horror to start or for Evalyn to suspect that the Compass Room isn't working properly and murdering the innocent, as well as, the guilty. Its only a matter or time before Evalyn's past comes to haunt her in a very real way and its a fight to the death for survival for both Evalyn and her fellow inmates.

This book reminded me a bit of a mash up of The Running Man and The Hunger Games with emphasis on the latter - teenagers fighting for survival in a simulated wilderness. However, in this novel the main characters have all been convicted of quite chilling crimes and are not the innocent victims in The Hunger Games. As the novel progresses and as Evalyn is tested in the Compass Room we get to find out the events preceding and following her arrest through POV chapters. We don't get the same level of detail with the other characters and only find out how they ended up in jail through their 'trigger' events in the Compass Room or from when they confess to Evalyn. I liked the fact that Harian didn't have completely innocent characters and the title of this book is really sums up the lead characters' stories. While they aren't innocent of murder there are circumstances that led them to kill which chips away at their public personas as heartless murderers.

There are several teenagers that join Evalyn in the Compass Room but the story focuses mainly on a core of four including Evalyn, Casey - her love interest, Valerie, and Jace.  Evalyn and Casey started out disliking each other but it didn't take long for the romance to bloom in amongst the killing and fleeing for their lives. This was a relatively short book (under 300 pages) so its only a few days between Casey hating Evalyn to Casey wanting to jump in Evalyn's pants. I thought the story would have been just as good (perhaps better) without having the romance or without it happening so early. I had a bit of a love/hate with Evalyn as a character. I don't think you can be a kindhearted killer.  I thought this story suffered a bit from similarities to other stories and I am at a loss to think of what Harian is going to do next with these characters. Having said that, I am still looking forward to finding out where Harian takes Evalyn next.

I started to worry when I hit Wednesday and I hadn't finished a single book and therefore would have nothing to say to you in this Week in Review. I didn't even have a excuse like I was studying for a test but then it all came together towards the end of the week and I got two books read. I am returning to work next week after 2 months away so hoping that with the commute time that I am able to get back in the reading saddle and get through some books.

I started and finished the week with The Kingmakers by Susan and Clay Griffiths. This was the final book of the Vampire Empire trilogy and wrapped up the story for the Queen Adele and her vampire consort Greyfriar/Gareth. This was another treat in my book care package that I received a few weeks ago.  I read the first two books - The Greyfriar and The Riftwaker back in 2012 and had been searching for the final book since then. I could only find it here in the UK in the very expensive hardcover version and didn't feel like parting with £15+. I was very lucky to receive a review copy.

I enjoyed Griffiths' alternate world where vampires ruled Britain, Ireland and parts of France with Persia, Egypt and the rest of the middle East as the civilised world in the domain of humanity. I thought both lead characters Adele (a human Queen) and Gareth (a vampire prince) were well developed throughout all three novels and Griffiths' steampunk world was rich in detail. The start of this story found the pair in the midst of the war which was slaughtering most of the Empire's army and civilians as well.  Back in Britain, Gareth's brother Cesare was making plans to place himself as the king of the vampire race after a little patricide. This part of the story was really engaging and I was a little surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did as I don't often like stories with military themes. The story seemed to almost slow down once the main battle was done and felt like it was dragging. The rest of the action including the culmination of at least 3 different plot lines all happened in the last 15-20 pages. It felt very rushed after drawing out the middle chapters. Overall, this is a good series, set in an interesting world.

I also finished The Wicked We Have Done by Sarah Harian which is one of the debuts out next week and the first in the Chaos Theory series. I will be writing a full review of this book so be sure to check back on Tuesday to find out what I thought.

I only just started Dream London by Tony Ballantyne which has me really intrigued as I have no idea what  is going on! Sometimes, I like the feeling that a book is going to challenge me and get my brain working.  I hope to tell you more about this book next week when I will also hopefully figure out what it is all about.

I am keeping this WIR short and sweet as I have been taxing my typing skills and your reading skills over the last few weeks. Until next week Happy Reading.

Sarah Harian

The Wicked We Have Done
Chaos Theory 1
InterMix, March 18, 2014
eBook

Darkly suspenseful and completely unexpected, The Wicked We Have Done is a debut author’s thrilling new take on New Adult romance.

Twenty-two-year-old Evalyn Ibarra never expected to be an accused killer and experimental prison test subject. A year ago, she was a normal college student. Now she’s been sentenced to a month in the compass room—an advanced prison obstacle course designed by the government to execute justice.

If she survives, the world will know she’s innocent.

Locked up with nine notorious and potentially psychotic criminals, Evalyn must fight the prison and dismantle her past to stay alive. But the system prized for accuracy appears to be killing at random.

She doesn’t plan on making friends.

She doesn’t plan on falling in love, either.