Slayers: The Giveaway!

We are so pleased to welcome Janette Rallison back to YA Fresh, to talk about her latest release, SLAYERS (writing as C. J. Hill).

Please, tell us about your book in ten words or less.

Dragons are coming back. Slayers have superpowers to fight them.

Other than your main character, who's a favorite character of yours in your novel and why?

I'm going to have to go with Bess because she doesn't take anything too seriously--not even the fact that she's been conscripted into fighting dragons. Plus she has a good sense of humor. I love people like that.

Tell us something fun about SLAYERS. It can be a character detail, something that inspired the story, or a behind the scenes story from the writing process.

One of the inspiring incidents of this novel happened when I was fifth grade and had just moved to Silver Springs, Maryland. All the adults there were quite excited because this was the year that the cicadas would emerge from the ground after remaining dormant and hidden for 17 years. The next door neighbor happily explained to me that this was the cicadas’ way of avoiding predators. Since they only emerged every 17 years, predators couldn’t depend on them as a food source.

A brilliant adaptation, I might add, for an insect that isn’t smart enough to avoid accidentally flying into your hair.

I remember finding a lot of hollow cicada skins that summer, because cicada’s also shed their skin. Ahh, there’s nothing nicer to find hanging from your bedroom windowsill than a creepy, hollow bug skin.

But anyway, the point to all of this was that as a child I immediately picked up on what the adults seemed to have missed in the cicadas’ amazing return from the underworld. If bugs could (sort of) hibernate for nearly two decades in order to give themselves a natural advantage, why couldn’t other species do it too? Maybe there were animals with such long life cycles we just hadn’t caught them emerging yet.

I grew up on Godzilla movies and so had a strong and deep rooted fear that dinosaurs might one day show up and start smacking buildings around and eating screaming Japanese people—or worse yet: eat me.

No one knew what had caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and I was surprised that no one had come up with my theory. They weren’t really gone. They were just hibernating. Waiting until there were lots of yummy fifth grade girls around to chomp on. And there were probably some eggs buried under my house!!

The nice thing about childhood fears is that you can use them later in your novels. Nothing is ever wasted when you’re a writer. In Slayers, dragon eggs can hibernate for over a hundred years, and now they're coming back.

Great story, and love how you were able to bring it forward to your writing! What is a favorite comment you've ever received from a fan?

Sometimes kids tell me they they were reading my book in school--when they were supposed to be doing something else--and they got caught because they laughed out loud. You've got to love a kid who risks punishment to read.

Great! What are you working on now?

I have some revisions to do on a paranormal romance, and then I'll start writing the second book of Slayers.

Thanks so much, Janette!

Now, for our readers, in order to be entered to win a signed copy of Slayers, and playing off Janette's chat about cicadas flying into her hair and shedding their skins on her window sill, mention a bug that is less than thrilling to you in our comments. (I'll start: since I have a bee allergy, for me it's, well, bees!)

Best of luck, and be sure to check in on Monday to see the name of the randomly drawn winner!

What’s Fresh with Janette Rallison!

Some of you may remember that Janette Rallison and I did a booksigning together in Mesa, Arizona in the summer of ’07.


She’s great fun to be around, not to mention a heck of an author, so I touched base with her again over the Thanksgiving holiday, and invited her to visit with us on YA FRESH...

Hi, Janette! Could you tell us a bit about your career, the types of books you write, and how you made your first sale?

I started writing long ago when I realized that writing was way more fun than doing housework. Twelve years later (and countless unmopped floors) I've written fifteen books, nine of which are young adult novels. My books tend to be romantic comedies because I love a book that can make me laugh and I'm a hopeless romantic. Even though My Fair Godmother is a fantasy, it's still a romantic comedy. But it was way more fun to write than my typical high school novel so it definitely won't be my last fantasy. I'm hooked on mysterious Black Knights, dragons, wizards, enchanted goats--all of it.

I found my agent, Erin Murphy, through the recommendations of people in my SCWBI group. I sent her a manuscript and she accepted it. I know that's not the way it is for a lot of people, though. It's more common to query tens or even hundreds of agents before they find a fit. I just got lucky that I got an agent who liked my writing style and story on the first try.

What's your writing routine like?

After I get the kids off to school, I tell myself that I will not get ready for the day until I've written four pages. Then I go check my email and somehow manage to spend two or three hours on the computer doing email and business stuff. Finally I realize that it's getting late, I eat lunch, and start writing. This is when the time-continuum speeds up, and suddenly the children come home and I'm still in my pajamas. I'm trying to convince people that I actually have a job working night-shift, but I'm not sure anyone buys it.

Please tell us about your latest novel, My Fair Godmother.

I admit that I'm awful in describing my own books. Authors are supposed to have snappy synopsis on hand for this question and you'd think after twelve years of being a published author I would. Instead I always end up telling people, "Well, it's about this girl . . ." So here's the flap cover:

After her boyfriend dumps her for her older sister, sophomore Savannah Delano wishes she could find a true prince to take her to the prom. Enter Chrissy (Chrysanthemum) Everstar: Savannah’s gum-chewing, cell phone–carrying, high heel-wearing Fair Godmother. Showing why she’s only Fair—because she’s not a very good fairy student—Chrissy mistakenly sends Savannah back in time to the Middle Ages, first as Cinderella, then as Snow White. Finally she sends Tristan, a boy in Savannah’s class, back instead to turn him into her prom-worthy prince. When Savannah returns to the Middle Ages to save Tristan, they must team up to defeat a troll, a dragon, and the mysterious and undeniably sexy Black Knight. Laughs abound in this clever fairy tale twist from a master of romantic comedy.


Sounds great! And Romantic Times clearly agreed, because I read the very nice review they gave it! So, what's up next?

I'm always working on something new. I have a book coming out in March called Just One Wish. It's about this girl . . . okay, I will try to be less boring as I describe it. Annika's little brother has a brain tumor and wants to meet his idol--an actor who plays Teen Robin Hood--before his upcoming surgery. Annika decides to drive to Hollywood to find and convince the actor (who, by the way is extremely hot) to come visit her brother. It's still a romantic comedy--but this book will make you cry. I cried when I wrote it and every single time I went through it doing revisions.

Would you like to close with a writing tip?

It seems like the writing tip I'm giving to people most these days is this: get deeply into your protagonist's point of view. See, think, feel, what they are seeing, thinking, and feeling. Your story should hardly ever be told from the author's point of view. Let the main character tell it.

I couldn’t agree more! Thanks so much, Janette, and I know we’re all going to be looking forward to picking up My Fair Godmother.

Which...by the way, I will be reviewing here at YA Fresh in upcoming weeks, as Janette has been gracious enough to offer to send me a copy. So look for that, and for all of Janette’s very funny books.