All posts tagged: YA

An interview with author Marie Lu

If you’re a fan of dystopian YA books, chances are you’re familiar with Marie Lu, the writer behind the best-selling Legend trilogy, which has been picked up for adaptation by CBS Films. Last October, she debuted her new fantasy series The Young Elites with a book of the same title. This story follows Adelina Amouteru, a girl who emerged from the blood fever with strange markings and a dark, mysterious power. She falls in with the Young Elites, a society of other teens with magical capabilities, who are hunted by the Inquisition Axis. As her control over her powers grows, so does the call of the darkness within her. I’ve already passed the halfway mark of this book, and I can say that it’s a dark, compelling read that’s mostly narrated by an unexpected main character—a budding villain. Last week, National Book Store delighted readers by bringing Marie to Cebu and Manila for a signing tour. I was supposed to interview her for a website that I’m writing for, but since there was a last-minute scheduling conflict, I thought of doing it for my blog instead. Thankfully, the lovely folks at NBS accommodated me. This opportunity came …

Things I learned from 8 best-selling YA authors

In honor of it being midway through NaNoWriMo, I thought it was the perfect time to write about one of my favorite parts of my freelancing gig—interviewing published authors. It’s been a long-time dream of mine to publish my own novel, and nothing inspires me quite like talking to people who have done it, and done it well. More than celebrities, it’s authors who bring out the fangirl in me. It’s always such a pleasure to meet them and realize that they aren’t just extremely smart and well-spoken, they’re also down-to-earth and, well, awesome. Like I said, total fangirl. Thanks to National Book Store and Hitlist.ph, I’ve been able to meet several authors whom I never would’ve dreamed of being in the same room with, let along talking to one-on-one. I’ve picked up some great insights from them, and I thought I’d share them with you all. I hope you find these interesting and useful too, and if you’d like, you can click on the links to each of my articles to check out the full interviews. Enjoy! …