Author Crush Friday: Tobie Easton
Glitter girls, you have pressing questions for your favorite authors and we have their answers. Welcome to our weekly segment, Author Crush Fridays.
We love asking questions and we love the answers from some of our favorite authors. Today we’re talking to Tobie Easton, author of Emerge ( March 29, 2016; Month 9 Books). Thank you for talking to us today, Tobie! We’re honored!
GLITTER: For those who haven’t read your work yet, how would you describe your writing style?
TOBIE: I’ve heard readers say I write modern fairy tales. I write what I would most like to read, which means I write books that feel magical—whether that feeling comes from magic itself, from beautiful, alluring settings, or from the sparkle and temptation of first love.
GLITTER: Is Emerge in any way a retelling of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid?
TOBIE: Emerge takes place 200 years after Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. It adds on to the end of his story—namely by explaining that the Little Mermaid unleashed a curse on all Merkind. I won’t give too much away, but that curse has led many modern-day Mermaids to live on land, keeping their true identities secret. Lia, a descendant of the Little Mermaid, lives in this secret Community. Emerge is Lia’s story and is filled with magic, danger, and romance I hope readers will really enjoy.
GLITTER: When did you first start writing and what drew you to writing?
TOBIE: Writing was always the subject I enjoyed most in school—I found it fun and gratifying to play with words and find just the right phrasing for a given thought. But even though I enjoyed it, writing felt like something I had to do for whichever teacher gave me the assignment. It wasn’t until a few years after I graduated college and stopped having anyone making me write that I realized I wanted to write. It was perfect timing because it gave me just enough distance to gain perspective on my teen years, and I feel like I now have something to say in YA.
GLITTER: What one message would you like readers to walk away with when they’re done reading Emerge?
TOBIE: I hope each reader connects to the story and takes away something personal. I will say, the book includes the idea that growing up means learning to cope with gray areas. So, I hope it gets readers thinking about when to follow rules, when to question them, and when to break them—as well as what role expectation should play in our actions.
GLITTER: Describe Emerge in 160 characters or less.
TOBIE: Mermaids hide on land in Malibu from the Little Mermaid’s curse. 17yo mermaid Lia will risk exposure and dangerous magic to save the human boy she loves.
GLITTER: Did you always want to be an author? Did you ever feel like giving up? Did you receive rejection letters in the beginning? How did you get over them?
TOBIE: The goal of being an author didn’t become real in my mind until I was writing Emerge and I let myself start hoping for publication. It’s definitely a hard process, and yes, it’s filled with rejection. In the same day, I got one rejection telling me the book was too old for YA and another telling me it was too young for YA. One person would say she loved the humor and another would say she didn’t find it funny. It helps to remind yourself how subjective reading is. There are plenty of truly great books I haven’t personally connected to—and that’s true for everyone. Keep believing in yourself and your writing. All you really need is one agent who loves it, and then the two of you just need one editor. It can take a lot of tries and a lot of time, but once you have that team in place, magic can happen. Books can happen.
GLITTER: What are you currently working on?
TOBIE: I’m currently writing Submerge, Book 2 in the Mer Chronicles. Guys! So much happens! I can’t reveal too many details yet, but I will tell you we’ll learn more about the characters from Emerge and we’ll see new, unexpected sides to them. There are also new characters I’m SO excited for you to meet. Submerge really raises the stakes and the emotional tension of the series. And, of course, it includes my two favorite things: magic and kissing!
Tobie Easton was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, where she’s grown from a little girl who dreamed about magic to a twenty-something who writes about it. A summa cum laude graduate of the University of Southern California, Tobie hosts book clubs for tweens and teens. She and her very kissable husband enjoy traveling the globe and fostering packs of rescue puppies. Learn more about Tobie and her upcoming books at www.TobieEaston.com.
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