Author Interview with Jacquelyn Sylvan
I’m happy to host an interview today with Jacquelyn Sylvan, the author of supernatural thriller “Blind Study”. Thank you for answering my questions, Jacquelyn!
1) When did you know you wanted to become an author?
Honestly, that was a long time coming—it was never on my list in school. But about eight years ago, I had this idea, and it just kept rattling around in there. It wouldn’t leave me alone, so I decided to put it down on paper. That turned into my first book, Surviving Serendipity.
2) Where did you get the inspiration from for Blind Study?
From a single image that hit me right as I was about to fall asleep one night, of a boy and a girl trapped in a dungeon, with no idea how or why they’d gotten there, taking comfort from each other through a hole in their cells’ shared wall. Obviously that scene asked a lot of questions, and the story slowly spun out as I figured out the answers.
3) How long did it take you to write Blind Study from start to finish?
It usually takes me about six months to write a book, and three months to edit. So, nine months total. Same time it takes to gestate a baby, ironically!
4) What is your editing process like?
I follow the Stephen King formula, roughly; once I’m finished, I’ll take a single pass, just to fix any glaring inconsistencies, and then I put it away for about six to eight weeks and start working on something else. Then I come back and rip it to shreds.
5) What was the most challenging part about writing Blind Study?
Probably the dream world—world-building is hard, and I wanted this world to be nice and creepy. I spent lots of time on Pinterest for visual inspiration.
6) What are your writing goals for 2013?
Well, I’d like to finish the book I’m working on, outline the next one, and prep another manuscript for publication. So, you know, not too much. 😉
7) Are you working on something right now? Can you tell us more about it?
I’m always working on something. But right now, I’m on book two of my series about a professional teenage thief who falls into quite a mess when a simple job turns into a (literally) hellish nightmare.
About Blind Study
Title: Blind Study
Author: Jacquelyn Sylvan
Genre: YA Supernatural Thriller
Eighteen-year-old Alice has spent the last year of her life in a hospital bed, held hostage by pain from a freak accident. Doctors can neither explain nor cure her condition, and her medical insurance is about to run out. Then, she’s offered one last chance—inclusion in a study for a revolutionary new pain medication.
Miraculously, the medication works. There’s only one side effect—vivid, terrifying nightmares, of imprisonment in a pitch-black cell, with no memory of her identity or how she got there. At least, she thinks that’s all they are, until someone from her dreams shows up in real life.
When other sinister happenings cross the boundary between dreaming and waking, Alice must choose: return to a half-life of isolation and agony, or confront the malevolent force behind the dreams, before she and those she cares about are trapped in their nightmares forever. But by the time she makes her choice—it may already be too late.
Author Bio
Before Jacquelyn Sylvan became a writer, she worked as a waitress, video store clerk, trail-riding guide, and veterinary technician, among other things. She’s a few inches shy of five feet tall, which means she’s sometimes mistaken for a child when she rides her bike, and often looked at suspiciously by amusement park ride operators. When she’s not writing, you’ll probably find her watching Vampire Diaries or trying to warn people about the impending penguin apocalypse. Jacquelyn lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, two cats, and two very large dogs. Her YA novel, Blind Study, a supernatural thriller, comes out August 20, 2013.
Links
www.jacquelynsylvan.blogspot.
www.jacquelynsylvan.tumblr.com
Twitter: @jacquelynsylvan