Do you enjoy sarcastic, adventurous reads? Then you'll love Infiltration! (Author's August #2)
- 12:00 PM
- By Kenzie
- 8 Comments
If you've been in the blogging world for a little over a year now, you may be familiar with the Continuing Forever Trilogy. The first book, Continuing Forever, is written by my very good friend, Anna, and GUESS WHAT YOU GUYS? The second installment to the trilogy is now out and ready for reading!
In honor of the release of Infiltration, I thought it would be fun to chat about the books a bit (with no spoilers) and then chat with the author herself!
What is the Continuing Forever Trilogy? And, like, why haven't I read it?
Idk man, you tell me. But seriously... Let me tell you a little bit about it. These books are in the sci-fi genre but are set in modern time. Well, for the first world, that is. These books involve various dimensions better known as 'Worlds'. While the setting of this series is scientific, the story overall is not hard to understand. Which I really enjoyed because sometimes sci-fi novels can get pretty darn confusing.
Me going into a sci-fi book I know nothing about:
But hey, if you're still confused just keep reading and it'll all make sense eventually. #mylifemotto
Anywho. I've been very blessed to have been chosen to be one of Anna's beta readers for both books. The second book actually surprised me a bit because it focused on other characters with new settings of the other Worlds, which was interesting and fun! If you want to know more about the second book, you can read my non-spoilery review from Goodreads:
Sweet. But who is this Anna McAuley?
*gasp* Only one of the most amazing humanoids to ever roam this earth!
Honestly, whoever asked that question is just plain silly and probably has some weird fetish for the color yellow or a certain type of food, like pizza* or something. (lol get it? cuz i'm the one who asked it. lol i'll shut up now.)
* I'm eating pizza while editing this post. o-o
Meet Anna
Anna is a seventeen-year-old writer/blogger from North Carolina. She’s been writing short stories since second grade, and wrote her first complete novel and the first installment of the Continuing Forever Trilogy, Continuing Forever, at the age of fifteen. When she isn’t writing, Anna can be found reading, dancing, talking with friends, listening to music, eating skittles, or journaling in her art journal.
Now, a super duper fun (with a dash of awkwardness from me) interview with the author!
Hello, Anna! Thank you so much for joining us here at Paper Pizza. Um, no, we actually just ran out of pizza but we have skittles and that, hopefully, makes up for our lack of consideration. *wipes mouth from eating the last slice of pizza* Well- *awkward laugh* Let's get to it!
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I know how generic this question may seem but it’s definitely one many of us would like to know-- especially from writer to writer-- but; what is your writing process? Do you write in the morning or the evening? How do you, you know, get the job done?
My writing process is kind of all over the place; I’ve never had one set routine or time to write. However, even though I don’t plan to write at any particular time, I often find that I do some of my best writing during the evening/night hours.
I know how hard it is to get inspiration, and perhaps having too much inspiration can get kind of hectic... With that said; how do you stay inspired to write a trilogy? What helps you stay determined to tell your story?
Ack… inspiration is hard. There’s so much of it available, and yet it always seems too difficult to find. For me personally, I get inspired when I talk to friends and tell them about what I have written. I’ll also occasionally talk them through where I think I want the story to go. That always helps me to make more sense of it, as well as get some immediate feedback. :)
The Continuing Forever trilogy is categorized as a sci-fi genre, but you know how much I like to #ship all the ships... ;) So, If you could have one OTP from Continuing Forever or Infiltration, who would it be? If you don’t have one then maybe your OTP could be, for example, Noah and bread. #Boah
JUST GIVE ME SOMETHING, ANYTHING TO SHIP! ...*coughs* Sorry ‘bout that. I’m just a curious bean.
JUST GIVE ME SOMETHING, ANYTHING TO SHIP! ...*coughs* Sorry ‘bout that. I’m just a curious bean.
Ohh… gosh, this is hard. Well, I really like Chrissa and Will, but you probably can’t tell because *cough* SPOILERS *cough* I’m, ah... really mean to them. In a happier world, I wouldn’t mind seeing Derek and Marie work out, either. And who knows what’s in store for book #3… ;)
The title of your books are #amazing, so I’m dying to know... How did you come up with the name for your newest edition to the trilogy, Infiltration?
Aw, thank you! Infiltration was actually a pretty hard book to title… I scoured the book and looked over the plot line dozens of times before I finally decided that I wanted to title it a synonym of or word similar to “Invasion”. As it turns out, Infiltration worked out much better and is a bit more accurate to the plot. Basically, I spent a lot of time flipping through a dictionary/thesaurus. ;)
Okay, so when I’m writing or reading I like to snack. C’mon, I know I must not be the only one. Your fingers are moving, your eyes are scrolling, your stomach is desperate for attention... WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO GIVE IT?
Yes yes yes! I am almost always hungry while writing. o_o A few of my favorite writing snacks are skittles (not very substantial, but still...hehe), pizza, and ice cream. If none of those are available and I’m hunting through the kitchen for a quick fix, however, I usually make a quick turkey+cheese+lettuce sandwich. Oh, and I sometimes make smoothies, if there’s fruit on hand. :)
Can you describe your new book, Infiltration, in six words? I’ll be counting! ;)
Oohh boy… okay, here we go…
“Parker and Savannah are sarcastic ‘royals’.”
Heh, there we go. I don’t think that spoiled anything...
Assuming that one of those words were either “sarcastic” or synonym close to it... Your books are filled with the best playful banter, and sarcastic bicker, how. do. you. do. It.?
Ohh, you were right!! ;) And yes, hehe… I sometimes wonder if there’s too much sarcasm and such, but I love writing/reading it, so… there ya go. ;) I don’t know, honestly… I have a natural tendency to be pretty sarcastic, but I have a friend or two who can easily beat me at the game, so I gather inspiration from them as well. ;)
I know no writer likes hearing this but... Let’s talk about editing for a second. I’ve only edited small projects... Are there any tips you could give us when it comes down to editing a real manuscript? How did you survive?
First tip: Give yourself plenty of time. The only thing worse than editing is editing during “crunch time”. I’m a natural procrastinator, but this is one instance where you do not want to procrastinate if at all possible.
And since you’ve given yourself plenty of time, break it up in smallish sections and set a goal for each day. I set a goal of three chapters a day for the initial read-through and two chapters a day for the revisions. This worked well and gave me a lot of breathing room between completing the final draft and the publication date. Also, reward yourself! Coffee, chocolate, pizza, skittles… whatever works!
You are on a ship, heading to a world you have never been to, and you can only take two people from your books... Who will it be? Why?
Parker and Savannah. Why? Entertainment and good companionship.
What do you plan on working on next after the Continuing Forever trilogy is complete? Are there any new story ideas you would like to explore? Or are you ready to grab a few slices of pizza and call it a day? (The latter sounds pretty satisfying, to be honest.)
There will definitely be pizza involved in the aftermath of the Continuing Forever Trilogy. But I do think that I’ll be writing more… maybe even another series (maybe one consisting of more than three books!). I have a few ideas that I’ve written down and would like to investigate further after completing book #3, so we’ll see where they lead!
YOU HAVE WRITTEN AND PUBLISHED TWO BOOKS. Honestly, you are my idol, and I applaud you. So... HOW DOES IT FEEL???
Thank you so much!! You’re too kind. <3 And honestly, it feels great. Writing/editing/publishing both books was such an amazing experience, but it was also hectic and involved a lot of hard work. I feel satisfied in knowing that I complete the entire process two times, and I’m very pleased with where the story is going!
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Thank you so much for joining us on Paper Pizza, Anna. <3 Congrats on the publication of your second book! YA'LL CAN GRAB YOUR COPY HERE SO WE CAN FANGIRL! ~(^-^)~
And while you're at it, you can check out Anna's other links here:
Thanks so much for reading. <3
xx Kenzie
Talk to me!
Have you read Continuing Forever? Were you one of Anna's beta readers? Did you ship Parker and Savannah in book #2? TELL ME I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE!
pea ees: I'm thinking of using gifs more often in some of my posts. Yay or Nay?
pea ees to dah pea ees: SUMMER IS BASICALLY OVER BECAUSE THE CLASSES THAT I HAVE NOT SIGNED UP FOR YET START AT ANY SECOND (srsly tho) AND I AM NOT READY. HELP MEEEEEE. *sobs from unpreparedness* Update: I just found out that classes don't start until the 5th so summer isn't over yet! Yay! Who wants to go swimming with me? ^-^
