Title: Crushed (Cracked #2)Author: Eliza Crewe
Publication Date: September 22, 2014
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Meda's back. This time, she has a friend.
The battle is over; the choice has been made. Meda Melange has officially hung up her monstrous mantle and planted her feet
firmly on the holy and righteous path of a Crusader-in-training. Or, at least, she’s willing to give it a shot. It helps that the Crusaders are the only thing standing between her and the demon hordes who want her dead.
The problem is, the only people less convinced than Meda of her new-found role as Good Girl are the very Crusaders she’s trying to join. So when a devilishly handsome half-demon boy offers escape, how’s a girl supposed to say “no?”
After all, everyone knows a good girl’s greatest weakness is a bad boy. -Goodreads
The battle is over; the choice has been made. Meda Melange has officially hung up her monstrous mantle and planted her feet
firmly on the holy and righteous path of a Crusader-in-training. Or, at least, she’s willing to give it a shot. It helps that the Crusaders are the only thing standing between her and the demon hordes who want her dead.
The problem is, the only people less convinced than Meda of her new-found role as Good Girl are the very Crusaders she’s trying to join. So when a devilishly handsome half-demon boy offers escape, how’s a girl supposed to say “no?”
After all, everyone knows a good girl’s greatest weakness is a bad boy. -Goodreads
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A few weeks ago, I read and devoured Cracked, the first in the series, and knew that this series and I would always be BFFs. While I haven't yet read Crushed, (and I totally intend to correct this asap) I am honored to be a part of this blog tour and had a chance to interview the talented author, Eliza Crewe!
Hello Eliza!
Hi Summer, thanks for having me!
1) Meda is a spunky and hilariously sarcastic narrator. Do you see a bit of yourself in her? How did you create a character with such a distinguishable voice and personality?
Thanks! Ha, I joke that Meda is my road rage personified. I came up with most of her scenes while I was stuck in rush-hour traffic on my daily commute.
I think Meda’s voice is the product of me having fun while I was writing her. I’d just written a book previously where the main character is a rather sad little soul, and when I wrote Cracked I was in the mood for something lighter and less serious. Meda was my version of “cutting loose”!
2) Earlier this year, Strange Chemistry (the publisher of Cracked) shut down. How did you overcome this hardship and continue being the awesome author you are?
Thanks. I’m not sure yet whether I have managed to overcome it--we’ll have to wait and see how the numbers turn out ☺. The hardest part so far is marketing. With Strange Chemistry, Cracked was in book stores, it was included in their catalog, in their newsletter. We had a PR person. Without any of that, I rely entirely on word of mouth by my readers.
3) What were some inspiration(s) for this story?
Meda was the inspiration. I remember staring at a blank screen, drinking my coffee from my favorite red mug, and I just “saw” a frail little girl curled up on the floor of an insane asylum and heard her creepy, lyrical thoughts as she plotted the murder of a nurse. I had no idea who she was, why she was there, or whether her crazy plans were real or…well, crazy…her being in an asylum. That scene became the first chapter of Cracked, and the rest of the book was me filling in the blanks.
For Crushed, I wanted to add some romance, but love between monsters can’t be like normal love. It had to be ruthless. A ruthless love story.
4) What was the most frustrating part in the writing process of Crushed? The most enjoyable?
There wasn’t anything that was frustrating about the process of writing Crushed, but it was challenging just because of the timeline and where I am in life. Most books have about two years from signing with a publisher to publication, which gives the author a lot of time for edits and in drafting a sequel. Because my first publisher, Penguin’s Indian branch, was launching their first YA imprint in April and wanted Cracked to be an inaugural title, we were really under the gun to get it out quickly--as in six months, quick. We didn’t want there to be a huge time lapse between when it was published in India and the rest of the world, so Cracked was released everywhere else in November--the same time the rough draft of Crushed was due to Penguin. Because I had separate contracts with each publisher, that meant two separate editing cycles, cover designs, publicity rounds, and paperwork. Then, on top of all that, I gave birth to my daughter in April--at the same time Cracked was released in India, so I was learning how to balance mommy-hood with my full-time job with being a writer. It was a CRAZY year. Then, of course, right before Crushed was to be released, my publisher folded, so the wild ride continues!
The most enjoyable was writing the banter between Meda and Armand. I would sit in traffic and imagine bits of conversation between the two of them and chuckle (or cackle, as was appropriate). It was fun.
5) It says in your Goodreads profile that you marry the books you love and have their book babies. What are some notable books you're married to?
Haha, it actually says I would marry them. My husband might otherwise object.
Oh man, I love so many books this list probably changes every time I answer this question. Anne of Green Gables (a first love), Gone with the Wind (my first anti-heroine), Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar series, and Tamora Pierce’s Protector of the Small series, just to name a few.
6) Do you take joy in ripping readers' hearts out and stomping on them in your steel-toed boots (or whatever footwear you prefer)? *cackles* *pauses* *cries*
I happen to wear very sensible flats.
But yes. Yes, I do.
Thanks for having me!
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And don't forget to check out the previous installement, Cracked!
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