I'm so happy to be a part of the the Unremembered blog tour! I loved this book. It is pretty amazing. And you all need to read it now that it's out :) My guest post with Jessica is about supporting roles. And it is amazing! I truly love what Jessica wrote for my post. You must read it. It's amazing. Sigh. Also, thanks to Macmillan, there is an US/Canada giveaway at the end of the post :) You want this book.
And the Award for Best
Performance in a Supporting Role goes to...
by Jessica Brody
I have Oscar on
the brain. And no, sadly, Oscar is not a hot, swoon-worthy love interest in a
new YA romance novel (I wish!). But rather the little gold man who stands atop
of the most prestigious statue in Hollywood. With the Academy Awards still in
our TV rear-view mirrors, I thought it only appropriate that I hold my own
little award show here on Carina’s Books. And in honor of Anne Hathaway’s big
exciting win, I’ve decided that ALL the awards will be going to…Supporting
Roles.
Sometimes
readers (and writers) are so focused on the lead characters of the book, we
forget about all the great people who are standing behind them, propping them
up, making them look good (or bad, depending on the book), and rounding out the
story, so I thought it would be fun to dedicate an entire post to the
supporting roles of my book. As they played such important parts in the story.
And it seems
that all of my supporting characters have a fun “behind the scenes” story
associated with them so I thought I would share those as well. So...without
further ado, I present three awards for the Best Performances in a Supporting
Role:
The award for the “Character Most Determined to Stay
in the Book” goes to...
CODY CLARK
(applause!)
Cody is
Seraphina’s socially-awkward 13-year-old foster brother who aides and abeds
Sera’s unauthorized field trip to follow a “clue” about her past that leads her
200 miles away from her foster home. He also teaches Sera about every day
things (that she strangely has no familiarity with) like cell phones,
computers, the internet, and credit cards.
The reason Cody
deserves this award is because during a very early revision of the book, my
editor strongly suggested I cut him completely from the story. She claimed that
he didn’t serve enough of a purpose and kind of “got in the way.” This comment
surprised me (and saddened me a little) because Cody was one of my favorite
characters to write! He’s moody and sarcastic and totally uncomfortable around
Sera who he calls an “amnesiac supermodel.”
I argued that
Cody is necessary to the story because he represents an “average teen.” Sera is
so far out of the norm (with her
exquisite beauty and superhuman skills and complete ignorance of the modern
world) I feared that readers would have trouble relating to anyone in the book.
So I created Cody to serve that purpose. His reactions, I believe, are similar
to how an everyday teen reader might react to someone as “off” as Sera. Plus
he’s the comic relief of the story. When anything gets too heavy or serious,
Cody can always be counted on to crack a joke and lighten the mood a bit.
Not to mention
Cody plays a significantly larger role in book 2...but more on that later (much
later.)
In the end, my
editor came around to my side. It’s always a little nerve wracking, disagreeing
with your editor. But I think we made the right choice. Several readers have
already told me how much they love Cody. And while my editor was reading my manuscript
for book 2 (which comes out next year), she specifically texted me to say,
“Okay, I’m glad we kept him.” :)
The award for the “Character Who Can’t Decide if
They’re Male or Female” goes to...
DR. RYLAN MAXXER
Anyone who’s
ever read an “ARC” knows that ARCs are advance, unproofed bound copies of the book that the publisher prints for
earlier reviewers which may or may not be full of typos. In fact, the publisher
usually slaps a big warning label on the front of the book that alerts people
to the fact that there might be glaring typos inside.
Never has that
warning been more appropriate than in the case of UNREMEMBERED.
In the beginning
there was a character named Maxxer. He was
a scientist who Sera meets toward the end of the story, who helps her piece
together the final puzzle pieces of the mystery about who she is and where she
came from. He was a kind man who sympathized with Sera and her
plight and just wanted to help.
And then one
day, late in the revision process, someone at the publishing house made a
comment to me. She said, “Why are so many of the scientists in this story men?
Are there no women scientists in this world?”
This was an
excellent point. I had no real reason for making all the scientists in the
story men...it just unconsciously turned out that way. But I also didn’t really
like that this was the case. So I decided to turn Maxxer into a woman. Instant
sex change!
I spent a few
days, tweaking the story and the character and of course, going through the
manuscript and making sure all the hes became
shes and all the hims became hers but
apparently a few were missed and ended up printed in the ARCs. And yes, MANY people have contacted me asking
me why Maxxer seems so terribly undecided about his/her gender.
It was pretty mortifying.
But I’ll tell you. These kind of things happen. At least I ended up with a
great story to tell!
The award for the “Character with the Most
Unpronounceable Name” goes to...
DR. HAVIN RIO
Okay, so I know
this name doesn’t look hard to pronounce and the truth is, it’s not…now. But when I first wrote the proposal
for the trilogy, Rio, the scientist who Sera meets halfway through the book,
was actually written as Ryo.
In my head, it
was easy. I pronounced it like the Japanese would pronounce it. With kind of an
L/R sound, rhyming with low. Like “yo” with a slight rolled “r” sound in front
of it.” But yes, even as I type that, I realize that I can’t even explain how to pronounce it. And every
time my agent or editor would talk about the character they would have some
other crazy way of saying it. RI-YO, R-YO, Ry-o. I eventually couldn’t take it
anymore. I thought about all the confused looks on the faces of readers and I
cracked. I decided to change the name. I went with Rio. (Pronounced ree-o) Partly because I liked the sound
of it and partly because I had just gotten back from an amazing trip to Rio to
promote The Karma Club and was still
enamored with the city.
Unfortunately I
can’t tell you much about Rio’s character without spoiling a large chunk of the
plot. Just know this. In addition to the award listed above, Rio would also win
the award for “The Character Who Knows the ENTIRE Truth About Seraphina.” And
he’s the only one who would even be nominated
in this category. J
Thanks so much for
stopping by! I hope you enjoy UNREMEMBERED!
Ta ta!
You can watch the Unremembered book trailer here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jugd9FoFshc&feature=youtu.be
Read and download the first five chapters here:
http://www.macteenbooks.com/ebooks.html#new
Like Unremembered on Facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/unrememberedtrilogy
All things Jessica Brody:
Twitter - Blog - Facebook
And you can follow her tour details here:
https://www.facebook.com/unrememberedtrilogy/events
