Title: GODS OF CHAOS (Red Magic #2)
Author: Jen McConnel
Pub. Date: March 31, 2015
Publisher: Month9Books, LLC.
Pages: 288
Formats: Paperback, eBook
The gods of chaos cannot be trusted.
Since battling her best friend, Darlena’s grip on Red Magic has been shaky. She heads to Scotland after the Winter Solstice in search of another Red Witch.
On a sightseeing excursion with girls from her hostel, Darlena arrives at The Vaults, a mysterious underground city beneath Edinburgh. But there is something there that make Darlena’s instincts go haywire, as she lets loose a defensive burst of Red Magic, putting everyone around her in danger.
If there was ever a time when Darlena needed the help of another Red witch, it was now. But beware the witch who wields Red Magic.
Now on to the interview!
Hi Jen! First I want to
say welcome to Two Chicks on Books! DAUGHTER OF CHAOS rocked and I am so happy
that you could stop by for a visit!
Thank you! I’m thrilled to be here! :)
For the
new readers: can you tell us a little bit about the RED MAGIC series and the
characters?
Sure! The series focuses on Darlena, a sixteen-year-old Witch
who made a very bad choice. She’s been raised to believe that there are three
kinds of magic: Green, which her parents practice; White, the path Justin, her
ex, is drawn to; and Black, the magic her best friend, Rochelle, likes. Lena
doesn’t feel pulled to any of the three, and when Hecate pops up in her living
room one night, demanding that she pick a path, Darlena says the first word
that flashes through her mind: RED. Turns out, Red Magic is real (and
destructive), and with that one impulsive word, Lena’s plunged into a world of
gods and goddesses, chaos, and powerful magic.
So what
has Darlena been up to since book 1?
Not much! The events of the first book left her traumatized (no
spoilers!), and she’s basically been hiding out in her room, wallowing in guilt
and depression. From Halloween until the Winter Solstice, she’s basically
avoided magic…and people. Her mom and Justin haven’t given up on her, though,
and eventually, their combined efforts pull her out of her slump, which is when
we meet her again in GODS.
Were any
of the characters in the book inspired by people from your real life?
All my characters have a pinch of myself or people I’ve
encountered in them, but they’re all fully themselves, too. Darlena has a lot
of my teen self in her in some ways: the impulsiveness, the need to be active
rather than passive, and the need to make her own path are all things that echo
my sixteen-year-old memories, but then again, Lena isn’t just a stand in for
me. She’s sassier and braver than I think I could ever be, and she also makes
choices I like to think I’d be able to avoid.
Who was
your favorite character to write? What about your least favorite?
I think Lena wins that one, not just in this series, but out of
all my books so far. I’m not sure why I love writing her so much, but she’s a
character it’s easy for me to come back to, even when months (or years) pass
between revisions. Conversely, her best friend, Rochelle, was hard for me to
write, and I didn’t really feel like I got a handle on her until I’d been
working on the Red Magic series for a really long time.
What is
your favorite passage/scene in GODS OF CHAOS?
Without giving too much away, I’ll say that one of my favorite
scenes happens once Lena has found the other Red Witch, and they’re posturing,
showing off their magic and trying to threaten the other one. Spoiler alert:
Lena may be powerful, but she’s no match for the other Red, and she knows it. J
What kind
of research did you have to do for the story? I know there’s a lot of mythology
involved.
I’ve always loved global mythology, and I’ve read a ton of
myths from different cultures long before I started this series, so I didn’t so
much do specific research for the Red Magic books; I’d been doing the research
my whole life, and it was all there, hanging out in the back of my mind and
waiting for me to find a chance to use it. I loved creating characters out of
the gods and goddesses of familiar mythology, and there are even more new faces
in GODS and the upcoming TRIUMPH, so that was a lot of fun, to stretch myself
beyond the classic Greco-Roman pantheon.
What are
you reading right now? Or what do you have on your TBR that you’re dying to
read?
I can’t wait for WINTER, the final Lunar Chronicles book by
Marissa Meyer: I ADORE fairy tale retellings, and that series has been awesome
so far. I’m also eagerly awaiting the next Sarah Maas book; I absolutely love
her world building!
Who is
your ultimate Book Boyfriend?
My teen self is torn between Phoenix from Jessica Shirvington’s
VIOLET EDEN CHRONICLES, and Thorne from Marissa Meyer’s series. I love
misunderstood boys :)
As an adult, I’m also torn: Rhett Buttler from GONE WITH THE
WIND vs Jamie Frasier from OUTLANDER.
What
inspired you to write YA?
The biggest thing was my teaching; I taught middle school for
four years, and I LOVED working with that age, especially my eighth graders.
While I was teaching them, I was reading everything they were reading (and
trying to stay one jump ahead of them, too), and my love for YA lit that
developed in college was rekindled. My
teaching has such a huge impact on my writing; I started the Red Magic series
during my last year teaching middle school, and now that I teach college, I’ve
found myself writing a lot of NA, too.
Lightening
Round Questions
Twitter or
Facebook?
Right this minute? Facebook. I go in cycles. J
Favorite
Superhero?
My hubby. J
Favorite
TV show?
Loving ONCE UPON A TIME and DOWNTON ABBEY.
Sweet or
Salty?
Both! Love popcorn and M&Ms together!
Any
Phobias?
Hospitals terrify me. Not sure why.
Song you
can’t get enough of right now?
The entire 1989 album by Taylor Swift.
Spring/Summer
Movie you’re most looking forward to?
I fail this question; don’t even know what’s coming out!!
Thanks so much Jen for answering my questions! It was a
pleasure to have you on the blog!
My pleasure! Thank you for hosting me! J
Jen McConnel first began writing poetry as a child. Since then, her words have appeared in a variety of magazines and journals, including Sagewoman, PanGaia, and The Storyteller (where she won the people’s choice 3rd place award for her poem, “Luna”).
She is also a former reviewer for Voices of Youth Advocates (VOYA), and a proud member of SCBWI, NCWN, and SCWW.
A Michigander by birth, she now lives and writes in the beautiful state of North Carolina. She's a graduate of Western Michigan University, and she also earned her MS in Library Science at Clarion University of Pennsylvania.
When she isn't crafting worlds of fiction, she teaches writing composition at a community college. Once upon a time, she was a middle school teacher, a librarian, and a bookseller, but those are stories for another time.
Follow Jen on Twitter @Jen_McConnel, and visit www.jenmcconnel.com to learn more.
Giveaway
Details:
Five (5) winners will receive a digital copy of Gods of Chaos by Jen McConnel (INT)
I love these covers :) thanks so much for the great spotlight and giveaway!
ReplyDeleteI want to read this series so bad. I need to go and get the first book.
ReplyDeleteGreat interview!
You made me even more excited to read it
Michelle @ Book Briefs
The title says it all. Gods of Chaos automatically brings images of the Greek/Roman Gods.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for hosting me! :)
ReplyDelete