Reviews By Martha's Bookshelf: Novel Publicity Blog Tour: Interview with Alyson Miers and Giveaway

I shared my review of Chalinder's Walk in the preceding post. Now, please help me welcome the author, Alyson Miers, and Charlinder to share about their experiences.

Hello Alyson! Thank you for sharing at Reviews by Martha’s Bookshelf. I have really enjoyed Charlinder’s Walk and there are so many issues covered I am not quite sure where to begin the questions!

Questions for Alyson:

Q1 How did Charlinder’s Walk develop? Did you have the idea plotted out from beginning to end or did it grow as you wrote?

I had the idea of the post-Plague world first. I could picture the setting, and there was Eileen and company and all their struggles, but for a long time there wasn't really a plot. In 2006, in the first few months of my Peace Corps assignment of teaching English in Albania, Charlinder presented himself and the idea of a walk around the world took shape. It was a story I couldn't have written without some experience abroad.

Q2 Had you planned to cover so many social issues when you began to write or did that grow too?

Looking back, I think the social issues became inevitable once the plot began to take shape. There are just so many ideas banging on steel drums in my head. There will be more social issues covered in my later novels, though perhaps not so many per book.

Q3 What made you create Gentiola as the unique character she is?

That is a very tough question. I had just arrived at site for my assignment, I spent a week reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell because I had almost nothing whatsoever to do with my time, and that book seemed to shake something loose in my mind, so that once I was finished with it, Gentiola began talking to me. She's very quintessentially Albanian in some ways, but in other ways she's a citizen of all countries and none at all.

Q4 Please share with us one surprising thing about your experience writing Charlinder’s Walk, or about something else related to your career as a writer.

A memory that jumps out is how the comparison---which is not spoken out loud, but sort of left in plain sight in the text---between Charlinder and Marietta's son George. It didn't really occur to me until I was writing the conversation, and this parallel took shape before my eyes. I liked the comparison, so I ran with it.

Q5 Which word would you use to describe yourself and your personality?

Creative.

Q6 Did you include knitting in Charlinder’s skills because it is something you like to do too?

It's something I like to do, so I can write it accurately, and it's also a handy skill for a post-apocalyptic setting in a non-tropical climate. It's a way of making things with your hands while you're walking somewhere or waiting for something. It's an accessible field on which gender differences can play out, because everyday knitting has nearly always been classified as women's work, and in pre-industrial setting, it's work that absolutely must be done. So, when we have a man who doesn't have a mother, sister or wife to take care of him, he has to take care of himself by doing things that men aren't supposed to do.

Questions for Charlinder:

Q1 Which word would you use to describe yourself and your personality?

Pragmatic.

Q2 Briefly, can you share with the readers the most important thing you want them to learn from your story?

This life and this world are all we have, so we need to make the most of the time we get on Earth and be good to the people and creatures around us.

Q3 What is something you would never be caught dead doing/saying?

I would never, ever lie to or manipulate a woman so she'll have sex with me. If she isn't interested, I can find someone else who is.

Q4 What is the one thing your readers would be surprised to know about you?

I normally hold that the best fistfight is the one you don't get into, but when someone I care about is being insulted, abused or threatened, I'm throwing caution and good sense to the wind and flying into battle.

Q5 If you (either Alyson or Charlinder) could have readers finish a sentence what would it be?

This is from Charlinder:

The best thing you can give to someone is......?

Thank you again for sharing time with my blog followers and me.

GIVEAWAY!

Novel Publicity Blog Tour Notes: Wanna win a $50 gift card or an autographed copy of Charlinder's Walk? Well, there are two ways to enter...

Leave a comment on my blog answering Charlinder's Question 5 above. One random commenter during this tour will win a $50 gift card. For the full list of participating blogs, visit the official Charlinder's Walk tour page.
Enter the Rafflecopter contest! I've posted the contest form below, or you can enter on the official Charlinder's Walk tour page--either way works just as well.

About the author: Alyson Miers was born into a family of compulsive readers and thought it would be fun to get on the other side of the words. She attended Salisbury University, where she majored in English Creative Writing for some reason, and minored in Gender Studies. In 2006, she did the only thing a 25-year-old with a B.A. in English can do to pay the rent: joined the Peace Corps. At her assignment of teaching English in Albania, she learned the joys of culture shock, language barriers and being the only foreigner on the street, and got Charlinder off the ground. She brought home a completed first draft in 2008 and, between doing a lot of other stuff such as writing two other books, she managed to ready it for publication in 2011. She regularly shoots her mouth off at her blog, The Monster's Ink, when she isn't writing fiction or holding down her day job. She lives in Maryland with her computer and a lot of yarn. Connect with Alyson on her website, blog, Facebook, Twitter or GoodReads.