GUYS. Today I'm chatting with the fab Fonda Lee about All the Things, and yes---YES---this includes Zeroboxer, her sci-fi thrill ride set in the action-packed sports arena of the future.
YESSSSS......
Behold, Zeroboxer:
A rising star in the weightless combat sport of zeroboxing, Carr “the Raptor” Luka dreams of winning the championship title. Recognizing his talent, the Zero Gravity Fighting Association assigns Risha, an ambitious and beautiful Martian colonist, to be his brandhelm––a personal marketing strategist. It isn’t long before she’s made Carr into a popular celebrity and stolen his heart along the way.
As his fame grows, Carr becomes an inspirational hero on
Earth, a once-great planet that’s fallen into the shadow of its more prosperous colonies. But
when Carr discovers a far-reaching criminal scheme, he becomes the keeper of a
devastating secret. Not only will his choices place everything he cares about
in jeopardy, but they may also spill the violence from the sports arena into
the solar system.
Can you tell us a little bit about your background?
I was born and raised in Calgary, Canada. I was a nerdy
kid with coke-bottle glasses who wrote a lot of stories and was into the “boy stuff”
like Transformers, Ninja Turtles, and Thunder Cats.
Needless to say, I wasn’t the
most popular little girl. My third grade teacher thought my parents were
helping me write my stories; when she discovered they weren’t, she recommended me for a gifted
program which was a forty-five minute bus ride away. Ninety minutes on the bus
each day; I wrote a whole novel on the bus when I was in fifth grade.
Skipping ahead about a decade, I set aside my high school
English teacher’s
incredulity and pursued a career in business. I majored in finance in college
and went on to work in management consulting and corporate strategy for several
years. I still wrote stories now and then but set aside my “impractical”
writing ambitions. Only after I’d had two kids, was chafing at the
fact that I had no passion for my day job, and realized the urge to write
stories was still in me and would never go away, did I decide I wouldn’t be happy with myself if I didn’t take my writing seriously and try
to become an author.
What drew you into the young adult genre?
Honestly, I have a short attention span. I’ve heard young adult described as, “adult stories with the boring parts
taken out.” I enjoy
adult fiction too, but I love the faster pace of young adult fiction. I also
prefer stories centered on and grounded in the struggles of one main
protagonist, which is often the case in young adult novels.
What is your writing process like?
What is your writing process like?
I’m a
planner. I don’t even
start drafting until I’ve done
at least a month or two of research, outlining, and wandering around staring
into space and thinking. Then I write at a relatively slow and steady pace
until I have a first draft. I usually do one major revision, then another
smaller one before sending it off for critique and feedback.
Who are some of your favorite authors?
Who are some of your favorite authors?
Two of my favorite authors are Neil Gaiman and Paolo
Bacigalupi. Both of them have a talent for making fantasy (in Gaiman’s case) or science fiction (in
Bacigalupi’s) seem
utterly, convincingly real and grounded in common and gritty human experience.
Both of them have very strong writer identities: Gaiman is known for his
fable-like, mythical-seeming urban fantasy and Bacigalupi for his frighteningly
believable dystopias. They tell stories in smooth but unadorned prose, and skip
easily between middle grade, young adult, and adult novels, always maintaining
a consistent style that is uniquely their own.
What inspired you to write ZEROBOXER?
What inspired you to write ZEROBOXER?
ZEROBOXER marries science fiction, martial arts, and
sports marketing. It really felt like a story I was meant to write. I often
struggle through first drafts, but ZEROBOXER came easy. I am a rabid fan of
science fiction movies like The Matrix,
Inception, and Minority Report - chock
full of action, but smart. I wanted ZEROBOXER to feel like that.
About the author:
Say hi to Fonda on her website, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Goodreads.
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