Crossroads: Stacey Kade and Judith Graves

What is your favorite quality in your character Alona? 
She often says what people are thinking. And there’s a freedom in that. However, a lot of what she says isn’t very nice which is WHY people aren’t saying it.

What do you love about writing the paranormal world? 
What I love about writing the paranormal world is that there’s still room to explore, discover new things/creatures/phenomena. But you can still blend it with the known world. A balance between the exotic and the ordinary. That’s what I like to read and write!


One book or series you think is highly over-looked? 
Well, it’s not overlooked so much as it is new and I LOVE IT and want other people to love it: ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD by Kendare Blake. It rocks, you guys. And it’s super scary.


I loved Anna Dressed In Blood! Can you tell us about any upcoming projects? 
I just turned in the first book of a new series, The Rules. It’s the first book in a new series. It’s about a girl who was raised as a genetic experiment hiding from her creators under the guise of being a “normal” sixteen-year-old, and the boy who tempts her to break the rules that confine her existence and keep her safe.

Tell us about a scary encounter.  
This isn’t quite the scary story you’re expecting, but it’s terrifying nevertheless. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that, “Approximately 50 percent of the nation's unemployed youth age 16-21 are functional illiterate, with virtually no prospects of obtaining good jobs.” Illiteracy is a scary thing. And it’s global. In the U.S. organizations like 826 National have rallied behind literacy awareness. “Author Dave Eggers and award-winning educator Nínive Calegari co-founded 826 Valencia as a place where students, parents, and families from the under-resourced schools nearby could access after-school tutoring, workshops, field trips, and writing programs, all for free.” How’s that for sending terror into the heart of illiteracy? Leap Books is doing its part in publishing Spirited: 13 Haunting Tales (set for release October 31, 2011), an anthology with proceeds going to 826 National. Particiapaing authors include, me...lol…and a bevy of big name authors: Maria V. Snyder, Candace Havens, Jill Williamson, Shannon Delany, Kitty Keswick, Linda Joy Singleton, Dawn Dalton and more! Check out the trailer: http://youtu.be/-9yZlLasZ7Y

Did you always set out to write a series? 
SKINNED was always a series, yes, however, I’ve since expanded the overall story arc and the third book, Skin of My Teeth, may not be the goodbye to the macabre world of Redgrave that I originally intended. That being said, the establishing plot has remained consistent, there are just many more twists and turns before the dramatic ending I’ve planned.

Where do you find your best inspiration?
Anywhere.

But I’m usually struck by amazing plot twists while in the shower – the dogs know to clear the path for the babbling woman bolting from the steaming bathroom for the coil notebook and pen ever present on my nightable. Hmmm….now that just makes me sound a bit crazy. If your series were to turn into a movie, who would you cast? Oh, that would be cool! I’d probably hope the director cast a bunch of brilliantly talented unknowns and together we’d take the world by storm. ;)