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Monday, February 25, 2013

DUALED Blog Tour Kick-off! Interview w/ Elsie and Giveaway :0)




I am beyond excited to be able to bring you the DUALED blog tour! I stumbled upon this book in June of 2012. I had just started following Elsie on Twitter, when she made a tweet announcing that DUALED was up on NetGalley. Thanks to Random House, I was able to snatch it up immediately and boy am I glad I did. This little gem rocked my socks so hard and I told everyone who would listen about it. Unfortunately, it was more than six months before it's release date and telling people about it that soon didn't do much good. I got with Elsie about putting together a blog tour, she got with her publicist, and the rest is history!

The tour is going to run through the beginning of March and there are some great blogs on board. We've got interviews, reviews and guest posts for you to enjoy, plus Elsie is hosting a giveaway!!


Tour Schedule:

2/25/13 Sarah @ The Book Life – Tour kick-off and Interview w/ Elsie
2/26/13 Jenna @ Making the Grade - Guest Post
2/27/13 Sarah @ The Book Life - Review
2/28/13 Anna @ Literary Exploration - Guest Post
3/1/13 Inky @ Book Haven Extraordinaire - Review
3/2/13 Joli @ Actin’ Up with Books - Guest Post
3/4/13 Sara @ Forever 17 Books - Review
3/5/13 Tara @ Hobbitsies - Guest Post
3/6/13 Lilian @ ANovel Toybox - Guest Post
3/7/13 Kayla @ Bibliophilia, Please - Review
3/8/13 Emily @ Emily's Crammed Bookshelf - Review
3/9/13 Michelle @ Passionate Bookworm – Review

For those of you that don't know Elsie, through Twitter or otherwise, she is just about the sweetest person ever and I couldn't be happier for her that DUALED is finally going out into the world! To kick off the tour I asked her some questions about DUALED, her writing process, and some random silliness :0)
-------------------------------------------------INTERVIEW------------------------------------------------
 
I love the premise behind DUALED, but I have to ask, do you have a twin sister that you weren’t especially fond of growing up? That would certainly be great inspiration for fighting your Alt to the death. Haha. Okay, kidding, but what was one of the biggest inspirations for the premise of DUALED?

Hi Sarah! Thanks so much for hosting me today! Well, my son just asked me one day how did we know for sure we all didn’t have twins out there and just didn’t know it. So it kind of stuck with me, the implications of such a crazy idea.

West has not had an easy life. What was it like writing a fight to the death story from the perspective of a character who has almost nothing left to lose?

West is definitely someone who’s had to deal with a lot. And even though it takes her a bit to realize that she can only run for so long, when it comes right down to it, she reacts the way she’s been trained to react. Even though she often doubts herself, she still doesn’t want to fail her family and what they taught her.

Which character was the most vocal in your head while you were writing DUALED?

West, for sure. She needed to figure some stuff out, and she took the long way around for most of it. Then probably Chord and his frustration—the guy’s way too patient for his own good!

In case you haven’t noticed, us YA fans like our book boys and we like them swoony. Chord is a very understated character and is behind the scenes a lot in DUALED, but still so dreamy. Can you tell us what his role will be like in book two, or if that’s off limits, do we at least get to see a little more of him?

I’m so glad you like Chord, Sarah! Readers really do seem to love the guy, despite the fact that he is pretty understated as you mention. Well, things can definitely change between now and final edits, but I can say right now that he does appear a lot more in DIVIDED. His role deepens a bit.

West is seriously kick butt and has seen and done a lot of not so pleasant things, but she is not heartless or completely ruthless, which we get to see on more than one occasion in the story. What is it that makes her not completely give into the darker parts of her world?

I think it’s just a way for her to keep feeling human because she’s constantly surrounded by circumstances that ask horrible things of her. It would be very instinctual, I think, and she’s probably not even aware of why she’s doing it, or even that she’s doing it at all.

What is it like creating your own society, with its own rules and various ways of life? Was world building the most difficult part of writing DUALED?

I’m not sure if it was the hardest part, but it was definitely up there! I have to thank my editor for her guidance in helping me visualize West’s world, from the big things to all the little details. All of that makes an impact on how a person would act, and how they would think, or feel.

Okay, so I’m not going to make you pick your favorite character, because that would just be mean. I am, however, going to make you choose between sparkly, happy, magical Unicorns and dirty, bloody, mindless Zombies. Let’s make it official, Zombies or Unicorns?!?

Always, always, Zombies! But I also love the idea of zombie unicorns (vs unicorn zombies, which would actually be pretty hilarious!)!

And because being silly is my favorite past time, if you were the captain of a pirate ship, which literary characters would you want as your crew?

Roland Deschain from Stephen King’s THE DARK TOWER, Dr. Pellinore Warthrop from Rick Yancey’s THE MONSTRUMOLOGIST, Jason Bourne from the Robert Ludlum novels, and the Dashwood sisters from Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.

Thank you so much for doing all of this, Elsie! I'm so excited about this blog tour and for everyone to get to know West and her crazy world :0)
---------------------------------------------------ABOUT THE AUTHOR--------------------------------------------




Elsie grew up in Prince George, BC, before graduating from the University of British Columbia with a BA in English Literature. She currently lives in Vancouver with her husband and two kids, where she writes to either movies on a loop or music turned up way too loud (and sometimes both at the same time).

She's repped by The Chudney Agency, and her debut novel, DUALED, published by Random House is out NOW! The sequel, DIVIDED, will be published February, 2014.

Find Elsie on Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

She's also a contributing member of Friday the Thirteeners and The Lucky 13s group author blogs.

GIVEAWAY TIME!!!
You or your Alt? Only one will survive.

The city of Kersh is a safe haven, but the price of safety is high. Everyone has a genetic Alternate—a twin raised by another family—and citizens must prove their worth by eliminating their Alts before their twentieth birthday. Survival means advanced schooling, a good job, marriage—life.

Fifteen-year-old West Grayer has trained as a fighter, preparing for the day when her assignment arrives and she will have one month to hunt down and kill her Alt. But then a tragic misstep shakes West’s confidence. Stricken with grief and guilt, she’s no longer certain that she’s the best version of herself, the version worthy of a future. If she is to have any chance of winning, she must stop running not only from her Alt, but also from love . . . though both have the power to destroy her.




Elsie has graciously offered up one finished copy of DUALED for one lucky International winner! As long as The Book Depository ships to you, you are eligible to win this awesome book :0)
Along with that, Elsie has sent me a bunch of signed DUALED bookmarks, so I will mail a couple of those to five (5) lucky commenters! Show Elsie and DUALED some love and you could be a lucky winner. Rafflecopter form below is for the book and the commentors will be chosen with random.org.

12 comments:

  1. Dualed does sound like a good read. I am excited that it's coming out. Thanks for the giveaway.

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  2. What sounds so so good is Leap of Faith by Jamie Blair:)

    Thank you:)

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  3. Dualed sounds so good! I am also really eager for Let the Sky Fall... I don't have too much longer to wait!

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  4. I am really excited for the debut of Pivot Point! This book looks amazing. I am really excited to read Dualed also! Thank you so much for this awesome giveaway and good luck to everyone!

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  5. I love how her son almost helped come up with the idea by mentioning everyone having a twin out there. And yay, more Chord in Divided! :)

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  6. Dualed sounds so amazing. There are so many 2013 debut books I simply must have. I couldn't name just one.

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  7. There are a lot of good books coming out this year. Most of them are debuts that makes me excited!

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  8. So many good ones, but definitely Invisibility by Andrea Cremer and David Levithan : )

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  9. I'm excited for Clockwork Princess and Requiem!

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  10. Besides Dualed, super excited to read Pivot Point by Kassie West, Taken by Erin Bowman, The Collector by Victoria Scott, Reboot by Amy Tintera, Coda by Emma Trevayne, Transparent by Natalie Whipple, The Ward by Jordana Frankel, Proxy by Alex London.. Lots of awesome debuts this year, can't wait to read them. :)
    Thanks for a giveaway!

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  11. Besides Dualed I would also like to read Leap of Faith.

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