Tell us a little bit about your new release, Initiation.
Initiation (The Warrior #1) was really an incredible process in terms of coming to life. Very different from any other book or series I’ve ever written. It went through many manifestations before it settled into what it was and then it was the best, most fluid writing I’ve ever done. Traditionally, I write adult books. But when I had this idea and I sat down to write it, it was clear very early on that the book was different than any other I had written. The heroine started out at 16 years old. Trying to write her any other way didn’t fit. (I realize this sounds funny to non-writers but for sometimes the story goes where it needs to go because it just does.)
The book is also first person, which is a change for me.
Initiation is a five book series. The books are Initiation, Driven, Subversive, Redemption and Justice. They’re all written and my plan is to release them all very quickly together, having them all out by November.
Rachel has grown up in a world where she has lived underground in a habitat, protected from vampires and werewolves who rule above ground. But her specific set of genes has branded her a Warrior and so, starting on her sixteenth birthday, she is sent Upwards to fight the monsters. When she gets there she discovers everything is not as she was raised to believe it to be.
What advice would you give your teenage self?
Not to be so concerned with what others thought of me. I’m really a geek at heart. I love science fiction and the paranormal. I believe in happy endings. I love super heroes. I wish I could have embraced the things that make me who I am earlier. I like being a little different, I like walking to the beat of my own drummer. I wish I could have known that when I was a teenager.
What books do you find yourself returning to again and again?
Lately, I have been rereading the books of CL Stone, who is writing at great YA series called the Ghost Bird. Even further back, the Wrinkle in Time is my all time favorite book. I read it constantly. And the book Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier changed my life.
Say you’re the host of a talk show. Who would be your first guest? What would you want to ask?
Oh wow. Um, I’m going to go ahead and decide I can have anyone alive or dead because I’m just cool like that. And say Gene Rodenberry. I’m going to ask him what came next. What did he see happening with the Star Trek universe? Where did he think it should go?
What makes your world go round? Why does it bring you joy?
My family. My husband, my kids, my parents, my pets. Also my friends who are like family to me. Other things, include live theater, music, reading, and being new places, seeing new things, learning something new.
When you were a teenager, what career did you see yourself pursuing?
I wanted to be a stage manager of Broadway shows. I’ve also loved live theater but I have no talent. I used stage manage in high school. I wanted to keep doing it. But then I realized I’d be working when everyone else was off. I didn’t want that.
Who are your literary heroes?
Meg Murry from a Wrinkle in Time. Jane Eyre from Jane Eyre. Those are really my top two.
Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?
“If you can’t take a little bloody nose, maybe you oughtta go back home and crawl under your bed. It’s not safe out here. It’s wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross; but it’s not for the timid.” — Q (Q Who?)
Rebecca Royce is the author of the new book Initiation.
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