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| Sarah Elle Emm, Author Harmony Run Series |
With her most
recent release of NACREOUS, Sarah Elle Emm completes her young adult dystopian
Harmony Run Series. Emm considers the dystopian genre ideal for teenagers, given
their turbulent time of life combined with making them think “what if?” She is
a world-builder first, although her characters follow soon after. Although she
definitely writes for entertainment, her books also parallel the real world and
call for “harmony” given that we are all valuable human beings.
When she’s not
writing, Emm likes spending time with her daughters and talking to her dog, who she says is a good listener. She is currently plotting her next young adult dystopian
series in between spending more time with her family.
Don't miss the giveaway opportunity and excerpt following the interview.
Don't miss the giveaway opportunity and excerpt following the interview.
Q: The Harmony Run Series, and its newest release NACREOUS, is dystopian, written for young
adults. Why choose this genre for these readers? What do you consider
dystopian, that is, what are your readers looking for in this genre?
Sarah Elle Emm: I think a
dystopian is sort of an upside down world. It is a story where there have been
drastic changes to a “normal” societal structure. Think 1984, Hunger Games,
Brave New World, The Giver, or the Divergent Series. Basically, the rules have
changed, and typically the characters are dealing with an oppressive sort of
situation in a dystopian. The question becomes, will they overcome these dire
circumstances?
I
think teenagers are going through so much between their hormones and their
thoughts about life goals and their feelings that the dystopian genre is
perfect for them. Plus, the dystopian genre really makes you ask yourself, “What
if?” What if the government
collapsed? What if we were forced to live in segregated cities? What if we
couldn’t go to school? I think teens can handle that sort of thinking and are
into it. I was personally a rather rebellious teen, and I was always
questioning authority and trying to express the pent up emotions I felt at the
time. I can only imagine how a dystopian novel might have turned out had I
tried to write one back then.
Q: How do you
do your world building? Do you create characters first and then the world
around them?
Sarah Elle Emm: Honestly, I
think the world comes first, well at least a general idea about what is wrong
with the society I am writing about. I had a dream about the Harmony Run Series
and started taking notes immediately, outlining the story, but I think the idea
had been brewing in me for years.
After
my first trip to Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany back in the early
nineties, I felt this immense pull to learning more about the victims of the
Holocaust. It never really left me, and I think my desire to write about a
future society, where people were treated so horrifically as those in
concentration camps, old and present ones, sort of stayed with me.
I
wanted to build my fictional world with some parallels to the real world. On
the one hand, as sort of a statement…This has happened before, people. And people
still discriminate based on our outward and cultural differences today, so I
wanted to write a story where the theme was that we are all valuable human
beings, regardless of differences.
So
the world came to me first, at least in this case. Of course, in that dream I
mentioned, I met my main character, Rain Hawkins. So I guess she sort of
arrived with the world.
Q: In a
dystopian world, how or what do you do to assure credibility? Does credibility
matter?
Sarah Elle Emm: I tried to
provide background information in snippets throughout the story, so you can see
how the events unfolded that led to this unbearable dystopian society. I think
providing some history helped for sure. I also tried to make you care about the
characters so much, you weren’t really concerned about much else. Still, the
fun thing about dystopian is that you can create a new government, a new
system, if you will, where the rules have changed. It gives you more freedom as
a writer.
Q: How do you create engaging characters?
Why do readers care about them?
Sarah Elle Emm: I wanted the
reader to be able to relate to the characters. Basically, they were just your
average teenagers until their lives were uprooted. Rain was a soccer player.
They had normal lives in suburbia. In the series, you see glimpses of who they
were before and how they use their past to get through their present. They joke
around, fall in love, and challenge their parents’ decisions like other teens.
And I think you can’t help but care for them once you get to know them and see
what they are going through. You cheer for them. You have to believe they’ll
make it through their situation.
Q: Tell us
about your villains and heroes. Is conflict between them relevant to your
story?
Sarah Elle Emm: My villain in
the Harmony Run Series is a female, Elizabeth Nicks, and she was modeled after
a few dictators throughout history. Slowly over the series, you learn a little
bit more about Elizabeth, which gives readers a chance to decide for themselves
if they want to understand how she became who she is today. I don’t make
readers accept her or her past. I just wanted them to have the chance to make
up their own minds about her.
The
Freedom Front is a small group of teenagers, who are the heroes of the story.
Elizabeth has a couple of things in common with the heroes, but I don’t want to
give that away. As the series unfolds, the conflict between them becomes more
and more relevant, but again, I don’t want to give too much away...
Q: How helpful
is humor to telling your story or developing your characters?
Sarah Elle Emm: I think humor
adds to every story, and I especially wanted to use it in the Harmony Run
Series because it is a darker story. I knew the humor would lighten the
intensity the reader was feeling. Whenever Rain and her friends are
interacting, it isn’t uncommon to see joking around and light-heartedness
between them. It’s how they get through the terrible things they are dealing
with. I think it makes the characters seem more real. They joke around and tease
each other just like other teenagers.
Q: Do you write
your novels for entertainment alone or do you hope to deliver a message or two?
Sarah Elle Emm: I write for
entertainment and to also deliver a message or at least leave the reader
thinking about a few things. My first novel, Marrying Missy, was a women’s fiction, and though it had plenty of
light-heartedness woven into the story, some of the issues pertaining to the
story were loyalty when it comes to friendships, self-image, prejudice, and
even abusive relationships. I guess it sounds sort of heavy if you think about
it, but I think that most readers enjoyed it. A few readers said it had a
Lifetime Movie sort of feel, which I would agree with.
In
the Harmony Run Series, I tried to leave readers on the edge of their seats,
desperate to know what would happen to Rain and her friends, but also rooting
for Rain and Jabari as they fall in love for the first time. So yes,
entertainment was very important in this case as well. Yet, there were many
messages in this series also. The two most important ideas I wanted readers to
take away was the idea of having hope, even in dark times, and that regardless
of our outward differences or the spot on the globe we hail from, we are all
human beings, and we should endeavor to live in harmony.
Q: Can you
explain the significance of the title NACREOUS and Harmony Run without giving
away your plots?
Sarah Elle Emm: Nacreous
means exhibiting lustrous or rainbow-like colors, and it is a synonym to the
other titles in the Harmony Run Series. Prismatic means brilliantly colored or
iridescent. I chose the titles because I wanted them to represent how these
teenagers are and how they work together. They come from various ethnic or
cultural backgrounds, and they work together, sort of like a rainbow, if you
will, to overcome evil with their good. Together, they shine throughout the
series. I chose Harmony Run as the series title because 1) they are
figuratively running towards harmony, and 2) Rain is a runner as you see in each
book, and 3) Rain’s old voice-activated room back in Zionsville was called
Harmony, and in a sense, Rain is fighting throughout this series to get home or
to a place with freedom.
Q: What’s next?
Sarah Elle Emm: Well, my
daughters put a big guilt trip on me this school year. They say I didn’t spend
enough time like the other moms volunteering in their classrooms last year. I
did, in my defense help out with every field trip and class party for both of
them. Anyhow, I am volunteering in their classrooms twice a week in addition to
those other things this year…So in between motherhood and their school, I am
plotting a new YA dystopian series. I am also working on a suspense novel.
Q: Tell us
about Sarah Elle Emm. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
Sarah Elle Emm: Well, I spend
a lot of time with my daughters. I do the household chores, help with homework,
drive them to various activities, (piano, martial arts, speech), and I talk to
my dog. (She’s a great listener). I go to church and do my bible study
everyday. I experiment with my patio garden. I have loads of cucumbers right
now, which I’ll eat and also juice. I spend lots of time prepping my healthy
meal plans, which is key to dealing with my health issues. (I have SLE Lupus).
I have stacks of books I try to make my way through. I love to read. And when
my brain is too tired to write late at night or I feel like totally zoning out,
I watch Netflix. I just finished half a season of Hart of Dixie. It is such a
feel good show. (I also watch the Walking Dead and Game of Thrones).
About
Sarah Elle Emm
Sarah Elle Emm is the author of the Harmony Run Series, a young-adult fantasy and dystopian series, released in
May 2012 by Winter Goose Publishing. (PRISMATIC, May 2012, OPALESCENT,
February 2013, CHATOYANT, September 2014, NACREOUS, August 2015)
Her debut fiction novel, MARRYING MISSY, was published by Bird Brain Publishing in October 2011.
Sarah is a graduate of The University of Evansville, she has lived and worked
in Mexico, Germany, England, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and has traveled
extensively beyond. Sarah lives in Naples, Florida with her family. When she’s
not walking the plank of her daughters’ imaginary pirate ship or snapping
photos of Southwest Florida scenery, she is writing.
About
NACREOUS—Harmony Run Series Book 4
After
two members of The Freedom Front are arrested and interrogated by the UZTA’s
tyrannical President Nicks, Rain Hawkins and her friends face the alarming
reality that their plans to liberate the mixed zones across the United Zones of
The Authority might not come to fruition.
While
the resistance movement is growing outside the walls of the zones, the
president’s forces are strengthening and putting citizens everywhere in more
peril than ever. When Rain receives warnings that her cousin, Calista, has
agreed to support plans to kill the mixed zones, and that her life could be on
the line at the upcoming pure zone initiation ceremony, she must decide where
her loyalties lie and if all of her allies can be trusted.
As
The Freedom Front use their abilities to unravel the mystery of the ceremony,
The Authority captures some of their friends, forcing TFF to either go into
hiding, or plan a rescue mission that could jeopardize everything they’ve been
fighting for.
Excerpt from NACREOUS, Harmony
Run Series, Book four…
For the rest of the walk I tried not to let fear creep over
me, but the more I thought about Nata coming, the harder it was. Still, Takara
had said we’d be okay. Help was on the way. I just had to believe.
We were led down a series of hallways and through somewhat
familiar doors until finally we were pushed into a fairly large interrogation
room. I recognized the set-up from my last trip here. But this room was larger.
There were chairs lined up in a long row, twice as many chairs as there were
people and a bright solar light illuminated the chairs in an otherwise dark,
concrete room. My eyes instinctively searched the ground, checking for holes or
iron bars like the last room I’d been questioned in. Either there weren’t any
holes to lock people in here or I couldn’t find them. Part of me knew they’d be
located in the dark corners, away from the light and though it should have made
me more afraid, the hole was beginning to concern me less as I thought about
the impending arrival of Nata.
Hands pushed me forward, and I was shoved into a metal
chair. Glancing in either direction, I noticed that Marcello was right next to
me on one side, and the crazy man was right beside him on the other side. But
there were still six more empty chairs to my right.
Before I could wonder about the empty chairs any longer, the
door opened and tension filled me anew. Was it Nata? She was here?
Surprise and relief replaced my tension as a tall man with
light brown hair, Officer Eric Collins, our secret ally from the Elizabeth
Guard, spared me a quick glance as he entered the room. Maybe Takara had sent
him here. I closed my eyes. “Marcello,
maybe Eric is our help. He’ll help us get out of here,” I said excitedly.
“I’m not sure about
that,” Marcello replied.
I opened my eyes and glanced towards Marcello, noting his
alarmed expression. I snapped my head back to the door, expecting to see Nata.
Why else would Marcello’s eyes have seemed so fearful?
But as my eyes settled on the doorway it wasn’t our evil
dictator who was entering the room. It was a group of more prisoners, six to be
exact, staggering into the room with another Droid Dog behind them. Their
mouths weren’t covered with tape like our own, but their hands were cuffed.
The second prisoner in line stopped dead in her tracks as
our eyes met. A drumming sound filled my ears. No. This couldn’t be happening. It wasn’t Nata, but it was worse.
The Authority had arrested my mom.
About CHANTOYAT—Harmony
Run Series Book 3
In
the wake of an interrogation led by the UZTA's dictator, President Nicks, Rain
Hawkins and her friends must deal with the consequences of their defiance as
the countdown continues towards the execution of the mixed-zone citizens across
the United Zones of The Authority. The Freedom Front faces new challenges as
Rain's cousin, Calista, prepares for her impending relocation to the pure zone,
and Rain sets out to solve the mystery surrounding her mother's torment while
being followed by an officer of the Elizabeth Guard. As she uses her abilities
to dodge The Authority and follows the strange clues from her dreams, Rain is
determined to persevere, to secure the future she and Jabari have been fighting
for, and to earn The Freedom Front's ultimate goal of liberation.
About OPALESCENT—Harmony Run Series
Book 2
Still
enslaved in a mixed-race zone within the United Zones of
About
PRISMATIC—Harmony Run Series Book 1
Rare
glimpses of birds are the only reminder of the freedoms Rain Hawkins once had.
Now segregated into a mixed-race zone within the United Zones of the Authority,
under tyrannical rule of President Nicks, Rain is forced to endure the bleak
conditions set
Purchase
Links
NACREOUS
CHANTOYAT
OPALESCENT
PRISMATIC
Author
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Giveaway:
- 1 Winner will get a $10 Amazon GC
- 1 Winner will get Signed Copies of all the 4
Books in the Harmony Run Series
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Thank you so much for the interview, Joyce! :)
ReplyDeleteAn interesting interview thank you & I love these covers.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading the interview, Mary! :)
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