Claudia Gray: Evernight

Title: Evernight
Author: Claudia Gray
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen
ISBN: 978-0061284397

1. First off, congratulations on the big novel sale! Give us the elevator pitch. What’s your book about?

Evernight tells the story of Bianca, a shy girl who has to leave the small town where she grew up when her parents take jobs as teachers at Evernight Academy, a centuries-old, creepily Gothic boarding school in the hills. The other students are almost too perfect: sleek, smart, sexy and contemptuous. She feels awkward about not fitting in until she meets Lucas, a loner who defiantly refuses to make friends and even seems to go out of his way to make enemies. Despite his hot temper and mysterious ways, he makes Bianca feel safe; finally, she’s no longer alone. But there are secrets at Evernight Academy that will come between them and make Bianca question almost everything she’s ever known.

2. Most new novelists have an interesting story to tell about their journey to publication. What’s yours? Did you use an agent? Make sure to tell us about the day you found out you’d sold a book.

My agent and I started working together on another project entirely, a chick-lit idea that has since rightfully withered away. But we’d talked about my doing some YA, in particular something about vampires. Well, an editor called her at the agency one day asking if they had anything sort of like Evernight — and my agent said, no, not currently, but we could have a proposal to her within a few weeks. Then she picked up the phone and basically told me, “Drop everything and write.” I dropped everything and wrote. (It helped that I was preparing to move at the time. Given the choice between writing or doing the hard physical labor of packing, writing wins every time.)

We went back and forth with the proposal for quite a while. The idea was very raw, so not only did HarperCollins want to revise it, but I did also. Just from that process, I could tell that the editor (Clare Hutton) and I thought alike about story and structure, which made me want to work with her even more. But I always thought it was a long shot — very few new authors sell on proposal.

Finally, about six months after we turned the first version of the proposal in — and on the very day that I had become extremely depressed and essentially given up all hope — my agent called and said they were offering a four-book deal. I didn’t actually collapse or faint, but I did get out of my chair and sit on the floor so that I wouldn’t fall over. I am still incredibly grateful to Clare and HC for taking such a chance on a new writer.

3. Do you have another book in the pipeline? What are you working on now?

I’ve already finished Stargazer, the second book in this series, and am in final revisions on the third, Hourglass. I’ll write the fourth book later on this year, but first I’m taking some time to work on a couple other YA ideas I have, as well as a possible thriller for adult readers.

4. What’s your writing process like? Morning writer, night writer, or something in between?

I tend to write more in the afternoons and evenings than in the morning. Lately I’ve been working only a little on weekdays, but totally immersing myself on weekends — which means I’m working seven days a week at one job or another, but I love the writing enough to make it worthwhile. While I’m deep in a first draft or revisions, I might work 8 hours or more on both Saturday and Sunday, starting around noon and going into the evening (with breaks for food and laptop recharging, of course). I find that getting started is the hardest part, so putting in a lot of time afterwards is most productive, for me.

5. There seems to be an unusually high percentage of writers who own cats. Here at the The First Book, we’re doing a study to find out if there’s a direct relationship between writing success and cat ownership. Do you own a cat? If so, tell us about him or her. If not, tell us what you have against cats.

No cats here, I’m afraid. I love them, but I’m also violently allergic.

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