Hi guys! I'm so excited to share my interview with the author of Spectacle, Jodie Lynn Zdrok. I read an early copy of Spectacle and really enjoyed it, and was exactly what I expected; mysterious with a paranormal twist, and amazing settings that added to the intrigue. Honestly, it's a perfect read for readers like me, looking for more YA mystery novels, and perfect for fans of Stalking Jack the Ripper. Now, without further ado, I'll let you get to the fun stuff.
About the Author
Author Interview
Can you describe yourself with five words or less?Loves food, travel, pets, sports.
What's your Hogwarts house?
*holds up blue and bronze banner* Ravenclaw!
What has been the hardest thing about being an author?
Finding work-life-book balance, for sure, because I have a day job. But also…hearing and seeing
what people think of my book. Favorable reviews and opinions are the best feeling in the world.
Learning or reading that someone didn’t like it—that’s not fun, no matter how steely and
intellectually prepared for it (i.e., knowing that of course not everyone will love your book) you
think you are.
What is your favorite thing about being an author?
Interacting with readers and fellow authors. Love, love, love engaging with readers online or in
person. And getting to know some fellow authors in the YA space has been incredible. Walking
through a bookstore and knowing the author of this book, that one, and that one over
there…that is so humbling and amazing, all at once.
What scenes are your favorite to write (dialogue, romantic scenes, action or anything else)?
I enjoy writing dialogue scenes because I can envision the characters having the conversation
line by line. What would he or she say next? What would the body language be? It’s almost like
I’ve eavesdropping on my characters (I hope that doesn’t sound creepy). I like writing
suspenseful scenes, too. I try to put myself in the character’s shoes from a sensory perspective--
feel what they feel, hear what they hear, see what they see, and so on. It takes me forever to
write suspenseful scenes, to translate those sensations into words, but I embrace the challenge.
Could you introduce us to the main character of Spectacle?
Sixteen-year-old Nathalie Baudin writes the daily morgue report for the newspaper. So as you
might guess, she’s got a macabre streak. She’s also clever, curious, and bold. Nathalie is
confident (sometimes to a fault) and adventurous, and she takes her relationships and
responsibilities seriously. Her friends Simone and Agnès mean the world to her, and her
beloved white cat keeps her company, even on the roof at home. Lastly, not unlike the author
who created her, Nathalie has a sweet tooth.
We can all probably admit to have at one point judged a book by it's cover. How important is
the cover to you as an author?
I’m grateful to have a gorgeous, distinctive cover. Thank you, Tor Teen Art Department! The
cover became more important to me as time went on, because I discovered, with all the promo
and reader connection, that it becomes a tangible extension of your identity as an author,
particularly as a debut. Now that it’s out, it’s interesting to see what it looks like on a
bookshelf—how much it stands out, which other titles the art resembles, what kind of mood it evokes when someone is browsing and has hundreds of other nearby titles from which to
choose.
If you could pick three songs to represent Spectacle, which would they be?
Well, any modern music I listen to tends to be happy, telling a contemporary tale, upbeat, or
chill. Spectacle is none of these! So I’ll go with two classical pieces I’ve cited before as well as a
movie theme song: Mozart’s Requiem (specifically, Lacrimosa—so haunting!), Dies Irae (“Day of
Wrath”—it’s very somber, as you can imagine), and—wait for it—the Jaws theme song,
because it’s so ominous.
What's your favorite quote?
From Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: “Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.”
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Read a lot—and when you truly connect with a book, study it. What worked so well? What
made the characters resonate? Why was the pacing so solid?
I’d also say to be prepared for a lot of rejection. “No” is a reality of the businesses, and it
typically far outweighs the number of times you’ll hear “yes.” But when you get the yes that
leads to an agent, and then another that leads to a book deal? All worth it.
About the Book
Spectacle by Jodie Lynn Zdrok
Genre: Young Adult, Historical, Thriller
Published on February 12, 2019 by Tor Teen
Synopsis: A YA murder mystery in which a young reporter must use her supernatural visions to help track down a killer targeting the young women of Paris.
Paris, 1887.
Sixteen-year-old Nathalie Baudin writes the daily morgue column for Le Petit Journal. Her job is to summarize each day's new arrivals, a task she finds both fascinating and routine. That is, until the day she has a vision of the newest body, a young woman, being murdered--from the perspective of the murderer himself.
When the body of another woman is retrieved from the Seine days later, Paris begins to buzz with rumors that this victim may not be the last. Nathalie's search for answers sends her down a long, twisty road involving her mentally ill aunt, a brilliant but deluded scientist, and eventually into the Parisian Catacombs. As the killer continues to haunt the streets of Paris, it becomes clear that Nathalie's strange new ability may make her the only one who can discover the killer's identity--and she'll have to do it before she becomes a target herself.
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