We can hardly believe that Martina Boone stopped by to chat with us today about Compulsion, which was one of our most coveted titles at BEA! We have an awesome interview with her, but first, we’ll tell you about the book:
Compulsion by Martina Boone Series: The Heirs of Watson Island #1
Published by Simon Pulse on October 28, 2014
Pages: 448
Goodreads Buy the Book
Beautiful Creatures meets The Body Finder in this spellbinding new trilogy.
Three plantations. Two wishes. One ancient curse.
All her life, Barrie Watson had been a virtual prisoner in the house where she lived with her shut-in mother. When her mother dies, Barrie promises to put some mileage on her stiletto heels. But she finds a new kind of prison at her aunt’s South Carolina plantation instead--a prison guarded by an ancient spirit who long ago cursed one of the three founding families of Watson Island and gave the others magical gifts that became compulsions.
Stuck with the ghosts of a generations-old feud and hunted by forces she cannot see, Barrie must find a way to break free of the family legacy. With the help of sun-kissed Eight Beaufort, who knows what Barrie wants before she knows herself, the last Watson heir starts to unravel her family's twisted secrets. What she finds is dangerous: a love she never expected, a river that turns to fire at midnight, a gorgeous cousin who isn’t what she seems, and very real enemies who want both Eight and Barrie dead.
***INTERVIEW***
A short story I wrote for an anthology stuck with me, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the plantation setting and the characters. One night, after doing more research into the history of the Charleston area, I dreamed about a ball of fire drifting through the woods and setting a river aflame in a magical ceremony that had been repeated for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years. That became the anchoring visual for the book. The rest all came from asking what if and that much more important question: why.
I adore Watson’s Landing and Watson Island, and all the quirky characters. A Southern Gothic is very different from most other kinds of books—the characters are often strange and a little crazy—so it’s a blast to work with them while at the same time getting to play with and exaggerate the sense of empowerment, entitlement, obligation, and entrapment that comes with centuries of privilege. Imagine having a family in which every boy born has the same name for generation after generation—so many that all the nicknames have long been exhausted and they resort to numbers. It all results in a lot of drama and tension. The tension between Barrie and Eight (Charles Beaufort VIII) was my absolute favorite.
A lot of this is historically based—and then I twisted it and bent it so much it’s barely recognizable. But I took two separate trips to Charleston as well, and I worked with the head archeologist excavating Charles Town Landing, the site of the original settlement on building the plantations.
Sheltered, feisty, stubborn, compassionate, and courageous.
Imagine growing up with a mother who never went outside and was scared and jealous every time that you were able to leave. The main loving influence in Barrie’s life was her godfather Mark, the ex-drag queen who stepped in to take care of her when she was a baby, and he loved her so much that he stayed to take care of her ever since. But at the beginning of the book, both of those people are yanked away, and Barrie discovers she has a family she never knew about on the other side of the country. She’s been so sheltered she doesn’t know how to read people, and she longs for connection so badly that she’s prone to making a lot of mistakes about whom to trust. Especially with regard to using the family gift for finding lost things, trusting the wrong people can be deadly.
This is a great question, but it’s hard to answer because the characters at the beginning of my favorite books are very different from the characters at the end of the books. I think I’d like her to meet Katniss, because Katniss is so sure of herself at the beginning got THE HUNGER GAMES and Barrie takes a while to get there.
Reader. Writer. Traveler on a bumpy road.
My writing ritual is pretty basic. I think most writers would recognize it: Sit in chair. Open laptop. Write. Erase what I’ve written. Rewrite. Rinse. Repeat ad nausuem until I think I have something, Write. Write the next page. Go back to the previous page. Decide what I wrote isn’t good enough. Start all over again. Drink some tea. Eat some chocolate. Start all over again. Wonder where all my hair went.
Maggie Stiefvater wrote a post once about thinking about the core of her story—the one thing that she would never sacrifice to sell it or for any other reason. Identifying that core early on is fabulously important.
Besides Mr. Darcy? LOL. Since I just finished reading Claudia Gray’s A THOUSAND PIECES OF YOU, I’m going to go with Paul as the Russian soldier. You’ll have to wait and see what I mean when the book comes out! I do have to say that I love Eight though. He’s been raised to be a Southern gentleman, but he so wants to get out of that role to go play baseball. And living with the Beaufort gift of knowing what people want makes him both the perfect boyfriend and the worst possible one. Especially since Barrie rarely knows what she wants. There are scenes in COMPULSION that make me grin every time I read them, and there are even more of those scenes in book two.
I just turned in the sequel to COMPULSION a couple of weeks ago, and just got the cover and approval for the title on Friday. I can’t share the cover yet, but the title is going to be PERSUASION. I love it, and there are two new characters in the book that are some of my favorite characters ever. Obadiah, the magician, made that book for me, but of course I still love the tension between Eight and Barrie as things get even more complicated for them and between them.
I always love when people ask about what authors or characters in other people’s books I love ;), but I’ve always wanted to turn the tables. So can I ask YOUR readers what characters or authors make them swoon and why?
***About Martina Boone***
Martina Boone is the founder of AdventuresInYAPublishing.com, a two-time Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers site. She is also a founding member of YASeriesInsiders.com and the First Five Pages Workshop. When she isn’t writing, she loves to ski, ride dressage horses, travel, and read beautiful, slightly-twisted fiction. She eats Nutella on pretty much anything, adores marzipan, has guilty cravings for stale sugar-free licorice, drinks chocolate-flavored tea with milk, and watches Doctor Who, Chicago Fire, Nashville, Suits, Top Gear, So You Think You Can Dance, Hart of Dixie, Vampire Diaries, Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Grey’s Anatomy, and Downton Abbey. She’s on the fence about The Blacklist, and she’s so, so done with Scandal.
***GIVEAWAY***
Good luck!
LOVE Martina Boone and she’s done so much to truly get that Southern setting.
Her characters sound awesome!
I’d choose Servants of the Storm by Delilah Dawson 🙂
thank you 🙂
If I won the book I would pick is Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira. I’ve been wanting to read that one for a while! 🙂
I’d pick Let’s Get Lost or Kiss of Deception.
thanks for such an awesome post and giveaway!!! COngrats to Martina on the new release!!! This sounds very intriguing, definitely adding to my wishlist. I’m having a veeeeeeerra long, hard day so my mind’s fried. I’m reading my fav blogs to decompress… I can’t even think of a book title right now 🙂
I’m so excited to read this. Sounds amazing. Thanks for the giveaway XD
Honestly, I have no idea! There are so many good choices. Thanks for the giveaway!
Wow I have no clue… It’s really hard to choose.
Evertrue by Brodi Ashton!
Oh my, so many great books to choose from….I’ll have to ponder this awhile. Some of the books I am patiently (???) waiting for are The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey, Golden Son by Pierce Brown, The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon, The Boy Who Lost Fairyland by Catherynne M. Valente.
I’d pick Strange & Ever After by Susan Dennard. I’d love to have an ARC of Compulsion!
Thanks for the giveaway! I have no clue what to choose.
I really want a copy of In the Age of Love and Chocolate by Gabrielle Zevin.
This would be so awesome to win! There’s so many good choices!
I’d probably pick Kiss of Deception!
Maybe Earth Girl by Janet Edwards.
Where She Went by Gayle Forman. 🙂
That’s a super hard question! I definitely would need more time to think over it! Haha 🙂
I would pick the Raven Boys the first book was soooo good and I need to read this one!!!
There are so many books I want right now. But I think I would pick The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson or Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne. I have really been wanting to read both of those for a while now.
Great interview!
I would pick Spellcaster, If I stay or Anna and the French Kiss 🙂
I would love to read Spellcaster, If I Stay or Anna and The French Kiss 🙂
I’m not entirely sure what I would choose, but it would definitely be horror/paranormal. Thank you for the chance to win!!
I’d pick up..uhm… Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
I would choose Shatter Me for my book.
Thank you for this awesome giveaway! If I had to choose out of all of these awesome books, I would pick Charm & Strange. My fingers are crossed!
I’d have to go with Isla and the Happily Ever After. That or Strange and Ever AFter by Susan Dennard.
Days of Blood and Starlight or Spellcaster!
I’d pick The Raven Boys or Days of Blood and Starlight. Thanks for the giveaway!
I’m not sure what book I would pick because there are so many great ones to choose from!
Oops! That posted before I was done! Lol! I am super excited for The Brokenhearted, Blackbird and Remember Me!
I most probably would choose Amy Zhang’s FALLING INTO PLACE. ♥ I’ve always wanted to read it, really. So excited for this giveaway! Thanks for the chance! 🙂
Wow. I don’t know what I would choose ! Maybe Let the SKy Fall or Of Poseidon, but I’m really not sure.
i think The Fifth Wave or The Kiss of Deception!
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo:)
I would choose The Raven Boys because GANSEY! And for all the other boys too!
Super hard to choose so many good books out right now, but I think I’d go with Anna and the French kiss!
So excited for the giveaway! ! Can’t wait! (:
I don’t know what to choose! If I won and could pick any YA book, maybe “Lola and the Boy Next Door” by Stephanie Perkins. I just finished the first one, “Anna and the French Kiss” and can’t wait to finish the series!
I would pick Shatter Me (Book #1) by Tahareh Mafi!