S.C. Arscott
In my series The Write Path, my guests talk to me about their books. Today I welcome author S.C. Arscott, who will be discussing End of Normal with me.
Let me hand over my mic. The next voice you’ll hear will be Susan’s.
1. What is your book about?
End of Normal is an action/science fiction young adult novel, which takes place on the fictional island of Orion in the Gulf or Mexico. It’s the story of 16-year old Olivia Richards, her twin brother Charlie, and their friends, Axel, Sawyer, and Clara.
The book begins on Olivia’s last day of normal, and her day is simply that, normal. She spends her entire morning dressing to get noticed by Sawyer Rising, the hottest guy in school. She argues with her mother about her skinny jeans being too tight, which Olivia considers ridiculous because isn’t that the point of skinny jeans? Sometimes mothers make no sense. Olivia’s normal world also includes her gentle astrophysicist father and her twin brother Charlie, who is deaf.
Olivia and Charlie’s normal ends that night when strange lights shoot out of the sky and turn into stinging drones, killing their parents. Forced to flee, the twins join forces with friends Axel, Clara, and Sawyer, to search for answers about the strange invasion. Along the way, they uncover a conspiracy to hide the coolest thing ever—a second Earth.
2. What do you think attracts readers to your main characters?
The main character, Olivia Richards, is in her own words average, average height, average weight, average face, but in reality she’s anything but. It’s her tough determination that helps them survive. She also loves her brother, Charlie, fiercely and despite her declaring that his deafness is no big deal, deep inside she feels it is a big deal and that it’s her duty to protect him.
Twin brother Charlie Richards is my personal favorite. He doesn’t allow his deafness to stop him or get in his way. He’s a super smart science nerd, and is kind, loving and brave. He’s also tall and skinny, my favorite look in a boy.
Clara Patel is Olivia and Charlie’s best friend. She’s spoiled, annoying, slightly neurotic, and a loyal friend to the twins. We all have friends like Clara; friends we love with all our heart despite their annoying habits driving us a little nuts.
Axel Cortez is a close friend to both Charlie and Olivia, and plays on the high school football team. He’s the true gentle giant, the guy we take for granted until one day something happens and we see him in his true light and realize how much we love and need him.
Sawyer Rising is the ultimate popular guy, he has a killer crooked smile, blue eyes and shaggy brown hair (be still my heart). He’s a star on the soccer team and a member of the most famous family on Orion. He is also Olivia’s big crush until she comes to her senses and falls for Axel. Of course, as with all of life, things happen and Olivia learns that Sawyer is not as obnoxious as he at first seems.
3. What message do you hope the reader takes away from your book?
From the very beginning, I wanted to include Charlie as a deaf person because, as far as I know, no one has written about a strong, heroic semi-superhero deaf person. Charlie is my salute to those unable to hear the rest of us as we babble on and on. Plus, he’s just someone you would like.
As the book progressed and progressed and progressed, I also added a very basic message about the negative effects of pollution and how each of us should attempt to do our part to clean up our place on earth. Not preachy, I simply included a few relevant actions for the characters.
4. What do you think was it about your book that attracted your editor?
Several things attracted my editor, including Olivia’s voice and spirit, the idea of the possibility of a second Earth and, best of all, the idea of the moon landing being a conspiracy. How fun is that?
5. Comparing the ideas you had before writing the book with the finished product, would you change anything if you could travel back in time?
If I could figure out Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity, I know it could help me figure out the whole time travel conundrum—too bad my brain doesn’t work that way. Personally, I would love to travel back to 12th Century France and England.
I started this book under a different title in the second semester of my MFA program a couple of years ago. It has gone through dozens of transformations, most of them related to my coursework. Much as I would have liked for the book in its present form to have occurred during those semester, I guess I just didn’t have enough skill as a writer to put it on paper. If I could do anything over again book-wise (not life-wise, life-wise is a different ball of wax completely), I would focus more on exposing Olivia’s feelings throughout the novel. It wasn’t until my editor dragged them out of me that Olivia developed into a more believable and real person instead of a one-dimensional girl no one really cared about. It would have been nice to have figured that out a year or so ago.
Bio
I worked as a high school teacher until I thought my head would explode from all the ideas and questions my students asked. Thinking it would be easier, I foolishly switched from teaching to the ridiculous job of professional fundraiser. After spending more years than I want to admit begging strangers for money, I gathered what pride I had left and enrolled in Spalding University’s MFA program where I became blissfully happy working with other writers and improving my writing. I live and write in Seabrook, Texas with my husband Mike, our two children, Vlad the cat, and Bob the stray.
My first YA novel, End of Normal, will be available October 6, 2014 by Burst Publishing and can be purchased through any online bookstore, or click the link below. I am in the process of developing a new, and much better website, so look out for that. My current site has my bi-weekly blog and books I’m working on.
You can order End of Normal at: http://www.amazon.com/End-Normal-S-C-Arscott-ebook/dp/B00N46WY38?tag=literescap-20
Check out any of my sites. I get kind of lonely and hope you’ll come by.
www.susanarscott.com (Currently under revision, but should be up and running by November 2014)
https://www.facebook.com/pages/S-C-Arscott/182957018422127?ref=hl
