Top 12 of 2012: 6 Teri Terry

Welcome to day 6 of my Top 12

Today I am featuring one of my favourite new authors of 2012. I saw this author feature a lot on Facebook last year, with her book cover exploding over Cover Pictures, then I met her briefly at a book event in London and I decided I should really give her book a try and I am so glad that I did.

Teri Terry is the author of 'Slated' a new Dystopian/thriller.

 

Kyla’s memory has been erased,
her personality wiped blank,
her memories lost for ever.

She’s been Slated.

The government claims she was a terrorist, and that they are giving her a second chance - as long as she plays by their rules. But echoes of the past whisper in Kyla’s mind. Someone is lying to her, and nothing is as it seems. Who can she trust in her search for the truth?

Sounds awesome right? Well it is. As soon as I picked this book up I was hooked. I read it in one day and did not want to put it down. as soon as I had finished it I wanted more and was left totally speechless. I remember just sitting there going 'woah!'

This book also rocked for me as I run a Book Group for Teens and it's hard to find a book that will suit all the different reading tastes and styles but this one seemed to be a great pick and I got some great feedback from the group. I already have 2 of them putting their names down for book 2 when it comes out later this year.

As Teri Terry is so awesome I had to include her in this promotion and she very kindly agreed to do an interview for me. So here it is, an exclusive interview from the lady herself:

1) Did you always know that you wanted to be a writer? If not, what else did you have lined up?

The first time I admitted to myself I wanted to write I was 17, but I didn’t do very much about it for a long time. I went to university in Canada and did science and law, and worked there as an intellectual property solicitor. Then I moved to Australia and did an optometry degree. I was an optometrist there for years before moving to the UK to get married. My overseas qualifications weren’t recognized here, and I had to come up with something else to do. I remembered being that 17 year old who wanted to write, and went for it.

2) What was your favourite book as a child?

I was one of those kids who always had their nose in a book, and I really read everything I could get my hands on. But if I had to pick one, it’d be Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings: I think I read it about ten times!

3) Do you have a particular place to write or do you just do it anywhere?

I like to write really early in the morning, in bed, before I’m really even awake. Afternoons are more variable. I have a Writing Shack in the garden and that is my favourite place, but it isn’t heated so is really too cold this time of year. I’m amazed at people who can write in coffee shops: I like quiet and solitude.

4) What gave you the inspiration for Slated?

Slated began with a dream I had: a girl running, terrified, on a beach. I woke up early and wrote it down, and the story in Slated grew from there.

5) Was it hard writing a dystopian world, what obstacles did you face?

Because of the way I started writing Slated, I never set out to write a story set in the future. As the writing went along I had to pull back from the story and consider the world in which it is set. One tricky aspect was writing someone whose memory has been wiped, and trying to work out how they’d be.

6) Slated seems like such a realistic idea, do you think that the Government could ever try something like this?

I hope not! But I remember thinking when the UK riots in the summer of 2011 were playing out on TV that it was frighteningly easy to imagine how authorities can overreact – and how the people will let them, or even support them – in  an environment of fear and hysteria.

7) There was a craze on Facebook to ‘Slate’ your photos, which I thought was awesome! Who came up with that idea? Any tips on how to do it?

A few writing friends, Jo Wyton and Candy Gourlay, came up with it. They used photoshop to put different faces into the Slated book cover, and it was all over Facebook before I knew a thing about it: it was such fun!

(for anyone wondering what we are talking about, you can see a report of it here: http://notesfromtheslushpile.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/facebook-stealth-mobbing-and-book-is.html)

8) Kyla loves art and is very good at it; is that something you have in common?

I’m really fascinated by visual artists, and often write characters who can draw or paint. Unfortunately, I’m not one of them. Stick figures are about my limit!

9) Are any of the characters based on people you know?

None of the characters are based on real people, though I do have a few things in common with Kyla, like hating broccoli and liking cats. I also used to run, though it has been years. But apart from that she is her own girl.

10) Can you give us any hints of what is to come in ‘Fractured’?

Kyla’s story continues in Fractured: the more she learns about her past, the more uncertain her future becomes. She’s caught between different forces that are rushing towards collision, and has to work out where she stands – before it is too late.

 GIVEAWAY!!! 

And because Teri Terry is so amazing she got in touch with her publisher - Orchard Books - and they have agreed to Giveaway 1 copy of her book (Slated) to someone in the UK. So this is your chance to get your hands on a copy.  

If you would like to win a copy, simply leave a comment below, but make sure I have a way to get in touch with you if you are selected as the winner.

Rules are:

- you must be a follower of this blog

- contest open UK only.

- opens 7th January 2013

- ends 14th January 2013

- comment below.
- Prize - 1 paperback copy of Slated.

Good Luck!!!!

 

You can read my review of Slated here
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Come back tomorrow for my next pick of 2012.

Don't forget you can win one of the featured books from any of the days if you go to the 'Introduction post', any time during the duration of this feature (1st - 14th Jan) Earn extra entries for spreading the news.