12 November 2016

Weekend Interview with M Pepper Langlinais



Hello M!  Thank you so much for visiting Written Butterfly with me today!  It’s such a pleasure to chat with you.  So tell me…


Q) How did you dream up the dynamics of your characters?

I think we’ve all had an experience of having a crush on someone who doesn’t return our feelings. It’s especially tough and awkward when that person is a friend. In the case of Cee and Marcus, I’ve more or less eliminated the chance of them getting together because Marcus is gay. I felt like I wanted friendship to be the key to this story. Romance will come later in the series.


Q) Is this book part of a series?  If so, can you tell us about it?

Yes, this is the first in a trilogy. I’m currently working on the second book.


Q) What gave you the inspiration for your book?

When my oldest son (now 11) was about three years old, he got into his head that I could transform into a dragon. I think it had to do with his having seen the Disney animated feature Sleeping Beauty. Anyway, later on he convinced his younger sister and brother of this, and I used the idea of having an “inner dragon” as a jumping off point.


Q) Do you plan all your characters out before you start a story or do they develop as you write?

They develop as I write. Rand and Guin were originally just castoff mentions and then became key characters the more I wrote.

Q) How much real life do you put into or influences your books?

I don’t do it consciously, but whenever I look back at something I’ve written, I can usually see echoes of my real life experiences.


Q) What are your upcoming projects?

The second book in the Changers series is called The Great Divide. I’m working on that and also on a Regency romance novel titled Brynnde. I also have a screenplay that’s on the brink of going into production, and a number of other ideas clamoring for my attention. I get requests for more Sherlock Holmes stories, and I’ve had a couple for more in the Peter Stoller series as well . . . I’ll be busy for a while!


Changers: Manifesting Destiny

Sixteen-year-old Cee has a hopeless crush on her best friend Marcus. Unfortunately for her, he’s gay. In the wake of Marcus’s older brother leaving home to join the Aerie, Marcus has become increasingly distant. Then, when Cee discovers she has a troublesome dragon named Livian living inside her things grow even more complicated.
Marcus urges Cee to go to the Magi to have Livian removed, but the more used to Livian Cee becomes, the less certain she is about letting him go. Should she change her natural self for the crush who will never love her anyway?

BUY LINKS










EXCERPT

Heat spread through her. Cee’s face elongated, her arms extended, her nails formed into claws, and her feet became suddenly very heavy. The bony spires erupted from her shoulders, and Cee was compelled to double over to allow the wings to grow.

Throughout, Cee fought the urge to resist, though her instinct was to do just that. She wondered what she looked like, caught a glimpse of red scales, and realized her eyesight had become sharper. All the details of the trees around her impressed themselves upon her brain: the cracks and flakes in the bark, the saw-tooth edges of the leaves, and every little spot and insect thereupon.

How big was she? Cee realized she was at eye level with the middle of the trees. She looked down and saw her friends pushing themselves even harder against the trunks, making way for Cee’s—or Livian’s, she supposed—tail as it snaked by.

Yes, we’re very pretty, said Livian impatiently. But we don’t have time for showing off just now.

The massive wings began to move, slowly at first, gathering speed that put the force of the helicopter’s artificial wind to shame. Cee realized she had no control over what was happening. It was all Livian, and she was housed inside him, somehow, along for the ride.

It was equal parts thrilling and petrifying, bursting through the treetops and being free of gravity. Cee would have liked to spend more time experiencing it, but there was the helicopter, like a massive black bug, and Livian went right for it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Award-winning screenwriter, produced playwright, and author. Her latest novel CHANGERS: MANIFESTING DESTINY, first in a new YA fantasy trilogy, is now available from Evernight Teen.

M holds a Master of Arts in Writing, Literature and Publishing and a Bachelor of Science in Radio-Television-Film. She has a love of Shakespeare, having both performed and taught his work, and has also interned on Hollywood film sets. M worked for Houghton Mifflin and Pearson before deciding to devote her full time to writing (and occasionally parenting). She lives in Livermore, California with her family, cat, and hamster. Find out more about her and her books at http://PepperWords.com.

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