Interview: Veronica Wolff author of Isle of Night

Today we have Veronica Wolff with us today so that we can get to know her and her work a little better.
Read our review of Isle of Night HERE!

1. How did you come up with the concept for this book?

I’ve always wanted to write a smart, strong girl, place her in a dangerous paranormal world, and make her one part struggling and misunderstood and the other part a super-kick-ass female James Bond figure. To round it out, I looked to two of my favorite things: vampires and bleak landscapes, particularly the islands off of Scotland’s northern coast. I imagined some added weaponry and hot guys, and that was when I knew I just had to write it.


2. How did you come up with the names for the characters?
Naming characters is one of the most arbitrary, whimsical, and just-plain fun parts of the whole book-writing process. Sometimes I choose a name as a result of a random search on a baby name web site, as with Josh. Sometimes, there’s a lucky—or unlucky!—person in my life to suffer (my apologies, Masha). Or sometimes I know a character’s nationality and will scour foreign language sites to cobble together something fitting—can you say, Hugo de Rosas Alcántara? But most times, I just get a name in my head that I like and want to use, like Drew or Ronan.


3. How much are you and the characters alike?
Ooh, that’s a tough one. There are two answers: totally, and also not at all. My characters all come from somewhere inside me, so sure, there are echoes of me, or of someone I’ve met, or of someone I’d like to meet. I’ve never written a character, though, to whom I could point and say, yup, that’s 100% me all right.


4. Do you read a lot and what are you reading now?
I read a ton! I’m constantly reading. I just began The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. My to-read pile is teetering, and includes some romance classics that I never got to (including one by Susan Elizabeth Phillips and an old Penelope Williamson novel), some YA that I bought but just haven’t gotten to yet (still dying to read Sarah Maclean’s The Season), plus a few oldies but goodies (I’ve been meaning to reread Lord of the Flies for ages).


5. How did the cover come about?
The Cover Gods came down from the sky and sprinkled some major fairy dust on me.
But seriously. How awesome is that cover?!
The real answer is, I have an amazing editor who solicits my ideas, which she then communicates to the art department at Penguin. Luckily for me, the art department is made up of a bunch of total rock stars, who have always, always given me to-die-for cover art.


6. So what is your next project and when is it due out?
I’ve got two books coming out in the Spring! Book two in The Watchers hits shelves in March 2012. And, get this, the title is Vampire’s Kiss—oh yes, there’s a vampire, and man is there ever a kiss. That’s all I’m sayin’.
Then, in April, I’m launching a new contemporary romance series called Sierra Falls, set in a fictional town in the Sierra Nevada mountains. It’s got it all—romance, drama, excitement—just not of the fanged variety.


7. Do you have a daytime job or are you a full time writer?
I’m lucky enough to be a full-time writer. It’s a good thing I have a husband, two little kids, two big dogs, a cat, and one snake or I fear I’d never leave my cave.


8. How did you get into writing novels and were you worried about peoples reactions to your books?
Honestly, I had a job that I hated. My work felt like it was sucking me dry, and I wanted to work on something that felt like it was just for me, so I began what became my first book, Master of the Highlands.
And yes, at first I was SO nervous about people reading what I wrote. In some ways, that’s the reason I came to write so many books so quickly. If I keep moving onto the next book, I don’t end up fretting too much about what people will say about the one that just came out.


9. One last thing do you collect anything personally.
*Sigh* You just need to refer to question #7 above, and the part about little kids and big dogs, to guess that in my free time, I collect…let’s see…stray Lego pieces, tiny barrettes, action figure limbs of indeterminate origin, Barbie shoes, and lots of dog fur tumbleweeds, all usually from underneath the couch or, as is more often the case, from where said item has become lodged in the sole of my foot.

I Love this interview it is so fun. Thanks to Veronica for stoppiing by our blog. And to Rosanne Romanello for introducing my blog to the author and her work. I hope we can do this again soon!