Anastasia Hopcus: Interview & Shadow Hills Giveaway!

Texas is known for some pretty great things, yours truly included (LOL).

So imagine how excited I was to learn that author Anastasia Hopcus is a TX gal, too, after I read and fell in love with her debut novel Shadow Hills! Now imagine the thrill that shot through me when Ms. Hopcus granted me an interview! (I even got her to tell a little lie!)

Check it out, along with the Shadow Hills book giveaway below!   

1. Phe made some great friends at her new boarding school. The characters were lots of fun. Were they based on people you knew in high school? Were you in any cliques?

My characters contain little bits and pieces of real people, including me. Toy’s looks are based on two of my friends from middle school. My friends both had cute pixie haircuts and delicate features, though they were both taller than Toy. Personality wise, Toy is most like my boyfriend, who collects old records, Dunnies, and Frank Kozik toys. I enjoy fashion like Adriana, live music like Phe, and I’m into horror movies like Toy. I listen to all the different music that my characters like, though my taste is probably closest to Phe’s. But, for the most part, their personalities are really their own. That’s one of the things I like best about writing—creating these characters and figuring out what events shaped them into the people they are now.

In high school, I had a group of friends that I hung out with a lot, but I wouldn’t consider us a clique. We were more like the weirdos—the anti-cheerleader group. A few years later, I became friends with a girl I’d considered ‘popular’ and she turned out to be really nice. I felt pretty awful when she told me that back in high school I’d actually hurt some of her friends’ feelings. I figured they wouldn’t care that my friends and I thought they were tools; I mean, they thought we were weirdos. The rear-view-knowledge that I gained comes into play with Adriana’s and Phe’s relationship. At first Phe thinks Adriana’s just a snob, but then Phe comes to see how witty, loyal, and even fragile Adriana is underneath it all. Phe basically had the same experience that I did; luckily, she only takes a few weeks to realize she was wrong.

2. Phe was interesting to me because even as she made new friends and developed a new relationship with Zach, I got a vibe from her that she kept herself a little distant and maybe even a bit guarded. Was that your intention? What was it like developing her character?

You’re definitely right. While Phe likes different people and is good at making friends, the things that have happened to her in the past year have made her reserved and wary. When she first gets to Devenish, Phe’s afraid of getting too close and getting hurt; but she really grows as she comes to terms with her sister’s death and begins to open up.

Phe was a great character to create. Her interests are similar to mine, but her personality is really different. She’s much more impulsive and more likely to take risks. But she has values that I admire, and she’s someone that I would like to have as a friend.

3. Not only does Shadow Hills have some unique paranormal elements in it, there is also some science involved. Was this something you were planning all along? What kind of research, if any, did you have to do?

I love paranormal, but I wanted to do something a little different, and I liked the idea of rooting the characters’ special abilities in something scientific. Things really began to click when I saw a 60 Minutes segment on a gifted savant. I could see the possibility of making the characters’ abilities the result of changes in the make-up of their brain; from there, I did quite a bit of research. (Fortunately, it’s something I really enjoy.) I looked at various scientific studies that had published their results on the internet, and I read about neuroplasticity and the restructuring that can take place after significant trauma to the brain.

To develop the idea of the epidemic, I watched a PBS video on the Bubonic Plague and also read some articles about it. For the setting, I visited Massachusetts and took a massive amount of pictures. To make sure the boarding school information was as accurate as possible, I looked up websites for several and printed off their handbooks, and I also read about student’s personal experiences at a boarding school review site. I requested literature and information packets as well, and they arrived in the mail a few weeks later (which gave me the idea of having Athena’s packet arrive after she was dead). For the Greek mythology I got some books on the more obscure myths as well as several books devoted to Hekate and ancient Greek religion and magic.

4. The one thing I enjoyed most about Shadow Hills was the you illustrated in words the settings and places. The descriptions provided visuals that felt so real, and it freaked me out yet kept me enthralled. Did you ever feel scared writing some of those scenes?

I definitely got goose bumps, but I didn’t scare myself enough that I had to get up and check the doors and window locks. After I wrote the scenes, I’d rewrite with atmosphere at the forefront of my mind. I’d try to find exactly the right words to convey the mood and sensation—not only in meaning but also in the sound of the word. Some words, like ‘slither,’ for instance, just kind of make my skin crawl.

5. What do you like to do for fun when your not writing/reading?

I love music, especially going to live shows, but I also enjoy just having friends come over to play Sing Star. I usually go to South by Southwest, the music festival here in Austin. I also love TV shows on DVD. I watch too many to recount them all but some new favorites are Vampire Diaries and Dexter. Supernatural and Bones are ones I’ve watched for a while, and then Friends, Gilmore Girls and Buffy are my old stand-bys. I love to laugh, but I find most ‘sitcoms’ cheesy—however, I love The Office and 30 Rock.

6. Can you give any details on any new writing project you have coming up?

I wish I could! But let’s just say I’m really interested in continuing the story of Phe and Zach and their friends at Devenish Prep. I’ve been working on something, and I really hope that before too much longer, I’ll have some news on that front.

A. I’m named after my grandmother.

B. When I was really young, my parents took me to a Neil Diamond concert.

C. I took tap lessons until I was 12.

One of these fun facts about Anastasia Hopcus is a lie. Can you guess which one? Enter your guess in the comments section. If you guess correctly, you will be entered in a drawing to win a new copy of Shadow Hills!

Contest open to anyone I can ship to, just leave me a way to contact you. Feel free to leave links to any extra entries with your guess! Winner will be announced on Friday!

TX sized hugs to Ms. Hopcus for the interview opportunity! I’m still squeeing! 

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Posted at 1:00 pm  •  Labels: 2010, Anastasia Hopcus, author interview, giveaway