Gretchen’s Comments (group member since Jan 04, 2013)

Gretchen’s comments from the Q&A with Gretchen Powell group.

If you had to pick one or two characters from TERRA, who would you say was your favorite? Your least favorite? Why?

Rebekah wrote: What is your favorite part about being a successful new author?"

My favorite part about being a published author is getting to see the slow spread of my book! Seeing reviews from people that legitimately don't know me, getting emails from readers who really enjoyed my book, and getting Facebook messages from my friends who read it and had to tell me right away that they finished and loved it -- it's wonderful!

And definitely more than I could have ever asked for. I think every author secretly hopes that their book is going to take off and become the next Harry Potter or Hunger Games OMGRIGHTNOW, but it's been a good lesson in patience trying to remember that books really do last forever, so there is TIME. Just seeing it's slow but steady continuation has been really awesome. I just gotta make sure to keep writing! Urrrgh, book 2!!!

Rebekah wrote: "Who did you publish through? CreateSpace? LSI? Lulu? None of the above?

I published through CreateSpace, figuring that it would be easiest to go with Amazon's subsidiary since Amazon is the biggest powerplayer in online book sales. But I've heard really good things about Lightning Source if you already have your own ISBNs (which I do). And then for Kindle, Nook, Kobo I published on those platforms individually, and for iTunes I published through Smashwords (because the iTunes ePUB checker hates everything, hahaha).

So, continuing with the trend... Fun Fact #2!

Well, this is not really so much fun as it is telling of my truly silly and ridiculous side, but the very (VERY) initial planning stages of Terra included a robotic dog that Terra would find in the Dead Woods, and that Mica would fix.

...

I know. I wanted it to follow them around and be an adorable robotic sidekick, because I am 12. Hehe.

Elizabeth wrote: "Hi Gretchen! Here are my insightful questions for you!

If you were to write a book of a different genre, what would be your next choice?

If you were to cast actors for Terra and Adam, who would ..."

Bahahahaahaaaaa. Oh man, this is fun. Okay, from the beginning:

Can my different genre still be young adult-based? Cause, that's pretty much all I know. Just saying. Aaaanyway, if I wasn't swimming in the waters of dystopia and science fiction, I think my other natural pick would be, I dunno, contemporary romance maybe? I'm a super big ball of romantic cheese at my core (just ask my editor about how much ridonkulous cheesiness was in the first draft of Terra, haha), and I think it would be fun to explore that in a book. You know, where people who read it might actually WANT it there.

Oh man, actors. Well, it's probably pretty trite since he's a bit of a hot commodity these days, but I always envisioned someone like Alex Pettyfer when I thought about Adam visually.

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So, basically a super hot blonde guy... but I guess I'd want someone who could convey Adam's layers and complexity... because I don't really think Alex Pettyfer might be able to, hahaha.

As for Terra, that's much harder, because I have SUCH a specific vision of her in my head and it's hard to replace her with a real, actual, live human. But maybe someone like Malese Jow?



I love her, and she was AWEsome on her guest stint on The Vampire Diaries, and both Terra and Mica have some Asian (or, rather, "Exodasian" heh) characteristics. In fact, I imagine all of the terrestrials as being pretty blended at this point in the future. What with a plague that decimated a crapton of the populus, I imagine that society would be quite the melting pot.

As for my writing environment, I will say that there's really not any one thing that works or doesn't work for me, other than NO MUSIC. I don't know what it is, but I just CANNOT write with music. I think I love music too much, you know? So it's like, when it's on, I have to listen to it. I like to listen to music when I'm editing, but I just can't when I'm writing. Other than that, it's a crapshoot. Writing at home, at my desk, in my bed, at Starbucks, at Panera, in a notebook while riding the metro... honestly, I will take whatever I can get when inspiration decides to strike!

Aaaaaand, your last question feels like kind of a non-sequiter, but I will answer anyway: boxer briefs. BAM. Diplomat..ed. ;)

Lara wrote: "Is Adam named after Adam like Adam and Eve? That's pretty damn earthly. "

That was absolutely an influencing factor! You know, that whole "first man" thing, which as you know from the twist, ends up being mildly ironic, hehehe.

Ai Rei wrote: "Do you sometimes act out your scenes either with someone or alone to help with your writing process?"

I don't do a lot of acting out. Sometimes I'll make a movement or play out a gesture by myself just to kind of figure out how to best describe something, but it's not very involved. I got asked the other day if I diagram my fight scenes or anything, too, haha. Might be a good idea to, but I never have employed anything other than a good old-fashioned mental picture! :)

Jennifer wrote: "Your list includes all of mine and a couple more. I have read Legend or Angelfall yet but the others are in my top 5 along with Rose from Vampire Academy. A recently added heroine to my list is Ev..."

I just got the first Vampire Academy book! Should be arriving soon. Of course, I have about a zillion other books to get through, too, but I've heard really good things about the series so, here's hoping I end up adding Rose to my list, too!

So I thought it might be fun to list a couple of fun facts for you guys about the book! If you have any questions that pop up, of course, feel free to ask 'em! :)

Fun Fact #1: My inspiration for the names of all the terrestrial characters came from, well, the earth! For the most part, they are all either inspired by or related to minerals, metals, rocks, gemstones, or other earth-related things.

Some of these are pretty obvious: Terra, Mica, Coal, Copper, Gem. But some are a little bit less: Mal (Malachite), Chrys (Chrysalis), Emery (like the mineral that goes on emery boards!), etc. Yttria is actually another term of Yttrium Oxide, a powdered mineral, and that is totally my favorite name transition/pull.

I actually did some research to figure out a lot of these, and kept an ongoing list of words that I thought had potential as names. Fun stuff!

Ai Rei wrote: "Buffy is ultimate.

With my limited exposure to YA novels, I'll have to name Katniss Everdeen and Terra Rhodon.
Even though it's a kid's series, I'd like to give a shout out to Hermione Granger. Sh..."

OMG YES HERMIONE. How could I forget her? I think this graphic has always summed my feelings on the matter pretty well, hehe.

산드라 ❤ wrote: "Hey Gretchen! It's Sandee.
I am currently reading Terra and its pretty original for me so far.
Where'd you get the idea of it? How did you start? ^^,"

Hey Sandee!! Thank you, I hope you're enjoying it! :D

So the very basic idea for Terra (and the series as whole) came about one day as I was talking to my brother. He's into pretty hard sci-fi and was talking about what he thought would be a really cool concept for a book. And as we were talking, I kept being like, "Yeah, I can see why that would be cool for you, but if *I* were to write a book, it'd probably be more like this..." and that's where the ideas first started to form! Of course, if you were to take a look at my very first outline/notes for the story, you'd probably laugh -- they are SO different (and way lamer, haha) than the book ended up. Which just goes to show that sometimes stories really do take on a life of their own... in a really, really good way!!

Katniss Everdeen (Hunger Games), Bella Swan (Twilight), Tris Prior (Divergent), Penryn Young (Angelfall), Clary Fray (Immortal Devices), Lena Holoway (Delirium), June Iparis (Legend)... and now, Terra Rhodon.

You can't swing a cat (not that you'd want to...) without hitting a young teen protagonist in this generation of young adult fiction. When I set out writing TERRA, I was worried that she would have too many mimicked characteristics of the other characters listed above, and struggled really hard to find a balance of admirable qualities with realistic ones, as well as a personality that is entirely her own.

Who is your favorite book heroine, and why? Or your least favorite, and why? What qualities do you think a protagonist should have?

Heather wrote: "If you yourself lived in Terra's world would you consider yourself a skydweller or a terrestrial?"

Ooooh, great question! You know, I feel like this is one of those cases where there's very clearly a "right" answer and a "wrong" answer, but I gotta go with honesty. As much as I wish I would be able to have the fortitude to carve out a life for myself on the groundworld, I just don't think I'd really be able to cut it. I'm not particularly strong or scrappy... although maybe I'd be able to hack it as a shop assistant or in some other mid-level job... but I would never have made it as a scav. I'd probably do much better as a skydweller, if I'm being honest. I've always thought I'd be really good at being rich, if I were given the chance. ;)

Of course, that's not to say I wouldn't WANT to be a terrestrial. They're the salt of the earth--the ones we all should aspire to be. Banding together in the face of adversity, brought together by the multiple odds they all face as a people, the ones with real heart. So it's kind of like how if I had a CHOICE, I'd really want to be a Gryffindor, but I think we all know that the Sorting Hat would put me squarely in Hufflepuff, hahaha.

Lena wrote: "Coffee or tea?"

Oh man. Both! I love tea--I got the most awesome Le Creuset tea kettle from my sister and brother-in-law for Christmas--but coffee is my lifeblood on those days I'm plugging away at my dayjob after staying up 'til 3 AM writing.

Alex wrote: "When you began writing Terra did you have a plan for the arc of the entire series (i.e. did you know who the trilogy was going to end in advance) and has that changed at all since the publication o..."

A lot of the little details, the world-building things, the secondary characters, etc, developed as I was writing Terra. But the big stuff--Terra, Mica, Adam, the main plot, and the "big twist"--has been planned pretty much from the beginning, and stretched into books 2 and 3 from the get-go. I had my big plot points for book 2 (and to a lesser extent, book 3) mapped out from the beginning, but all of the smaller things--individual scenes, the hows and whats, just not the whys--will get probably figured out along the way. Which keeps it fresh and exciting for me as the writer, too!

So while there are a lot of things about the series that I haven't totally figured out yet, the really important stuff has been set for a while. And yep, I definitely have my idea for how I want things to end, though we'll have to see what happens along the way for sure. I know every author is different, and some need to know everything that's going to happen before they start writing, while others (like me) kind of like to let the story develop as it's written. For me, it's really the best of both worlds this way. :)

Samantha wrote: "What is the wierdest thing you've ever done?"

Hahahaha, the weirdest thing I've ever done EVER?! Man, I don't know... I'll have to think about that. I do a lot of weird stuff. :P For now, I guess I'll pinpoint the time I tried to dye my dog Daxter with food coloring. I read that it was a non-toxic way to color your dog's hair, and Daxter is white, and I'm a crazy person, so I figured, why not? I attempted to dye a green stripe down his back, but the dye ended up running down on either side of him and didn't really stick, so he just looked kind of... off... all-over. It lasted until he got his next haircut, hahahaha.

Don't tell PETA. :P

Ai Rei wrote: "Which scene in Terra was the hardest for you to write and why?
Also, which scene was the most enjoyable and why?"

POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW! :)

Funnily enough, it's a pretty random scene that ended up being the toughest for me to write. Near the end of the book, amongst all the action, there's a scene where Terra, Adam, are just creeping through the halls of the Capital building that took me FOREVER to write. It's a really innocuous part of the book, one you wouldn't even think amounted to anything because it's literally just bridging two really action-driven parts of the book, but I think that's why it was so hard for me. I was totally in action-mode during the entire last third of the book, and had those scenes planned out for so long, that the act of tying them together was torturous. I ended up going through about 15 different ways for the characters to get from A to B before finally just settling on a straight line. Random, I know.

As for my favorite... my opinion probably changes daily, cause there are so many favorite parts for me, but right now I'll say it's a tie between the 2nd raider escape scene (with Adam and the truck) and the Korbyllis escape scene. The first because it's really a turning point for Terra's character--the moment she stops thinking only of herself and her survival, but of Adam's, too. And the second because, well, it's just awesome, hahaha.

My favorite things (and the easiest things!) for me to write are the action-driven ones. Things that have a lot of running, near-misses, and heart-pumping stuff.

When I set out to write Terra, I wanted to write the kind of book I liked to read--and I did! So it's pretty obvious that dystopias/sci fi is my jam.

My all-time favorite is probably a gimme, but Hunger Games still resides in top spot #1. I also loveloveLOVED Divergent, and right now I'm reading Delirium (finally!).

What are some of your favorite young adult books?

Samantha wrote: "Where do you find your inspiration?"

Oh man, I feel like I am the most random person ever when it comes to getting inspired. Unfortunately, it's usually nothing so poetic as being inspired by the wonders of the world around me, like I feel some authors would say. I can be looking at art or appreciating the beauty of nature and not be inspired by a single thing. But I'll be walking through a wintery mix storm on my way out of the Metro to meet my friend for lunch, and slip on some slush, and suddenly I'll have an entire idea for a scene. Go figure. :)

I also get a lot of ideas in the shower. It's very strange, and inconvenient, since popping out of the shower to jot down my thoughts in a notebook often leaves quite a few wet pages in its wake, hahaha.

Rebekah wrote: "Your book was only out for a few days before you had several reviews on it. Mine's been out since July and I only have four. Did you request your friends, family and beta readers to review your boo..."

I did send out advanced copies of the book to beta readers and people who were especially interestd in the book (it definitely helps that I had some early buzz thanks to my healthy living blog). Some of my early readers (but definitely not all!) wrote reviews for me right upon finishing the book. I also put out one general request on my writing blog (not my healthy living blog) and one on my author facebook page, asking if people are up to it, I'd appreciate their honest review. But I feel pretty strongly about not wanting to spam people to get them to review for me, and I think I've just been very fortunate that so many people are willing to write them up! My feeling is that it doesn't hurt to put out the occasional, general request, but definitely never to specifically hunt people down and ask them to, becaues then it potentially puts them in an awkward position.

I have been reading that Amazon's cracking down on friends & family reviews, sorry to hear about them striking your mom's!