Please welcome author Sean Beaudoin who was kind enough to participate in this interview!
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September 1st. Virtual reality plays a large part in your novel Fade to Blue, can you share with us what your inspiration for this virtual world was?
I think there's a little bit of a condescending notion that wrestling with certain "big ideas," like about identity and the afterlife and the capacity for self-delusion, are better left for adulthood. I recall being just as perplexed by these things at 16 as I was at 25. I wanted to write something that wrestled with the perception of reality without making judgments about its ultimate meaning. Virtual reality, due to the technology of the last ten years, is now as much a facet of all our lives as a hamburger or the wheel.
Did you do any special research on virtual reality to write this novel?
I lived through all three Matrix movies, untold seasons of Survivor, and the launch of Google Earth. I think my research method was not to pay direct attention to any of these things and sort of let their influence seep in sideways.
Throughout the novel, narrarators change several times--how did you make each character sound unique? How did you keep all of their perspectives straight?
Making characters sound unique is one of the key elements of good fiction. I think any author of almost any book wrestles with trying to do so convincingly. Keeping perspectives straight, for me, involves lots of different colored Post-Its stuck to my office wall.
Okay, so I have to ask, what's with all the Kirstys?
Man, that's a good question. It seems like every few years there's a certain name that gets ridiculously popular-like Conner or Ella-that parents sort of robo-name their kids, and then there's always a glut of those kids in any given class. The name Kirsty seemed to stand in for a certain vacuous blondeness for a few years in my high school. I apologize in advance to the untold Kirstys who defy that description.
Fade Labs is a pretty shady operation--any actual real-life events inspire the story of Fade Labs? No. I think. But there is this odd scar in the crook of my elbow I've been meaning to ask my mother about.
Who would you say is your protagonist in Fade to Blue?
Sophie Blue. And, of course, her little brother.
Who's (or what) the antagonist?
That's harder to answer. There are a number of candidates, but is Sophie ultimately her own antagonist?
How long did it take you to write Fade to Blue?
A majority of the Bush administration. Actually, that's not true. Off and on for two years, at least. It was much more complicated than Going Nowhere Faster. Not only the editorial process, but also finding an illustrator, overseeing the production of the comic book and the cover, and integrating the two.
Any special stories about the your road to publication you care to share?
There's so many. The road to publication was really a series of unpaved cow paths. I think it's interesting how many different titles the book went through. They were agreed to and then rejected again and again. Originally, the book was called Sour White, after the fictional soda many of the characters drink. A focus group somewhere along the line decided some people might think Sour White was a sequel to Snow White and get confused. I argued that wasn't giving the reader very much credit, but that was an argument I lost.
Thanks for stopping by Royal Reads! Readers remember to comment for a chance to win a signed copy of this unique novel!
Yeah, so when I said Royal Reads would be in a Time Out...4 months was not what I had in mind! Turns out, Royal Reads is PREGNANT! Unfortunately, due to my being incredibly dense about my own well-being, I had several complications that led to surgery and a lengthy hospital stay :(
