One Hell of a House: An interview with Debra Chapoton about her YA paranormal novel, Sheltered

1) Please tell us about your book.

Living together unsupervised, five troubled teens confront demonic forces and are compelled to deal with their problems in distinctly different ways.

High school junior, Ben, hacks into his step-father's real estate holdings and provides rooms in an old two-story house to various outcasts: the schizophrenic kid, the angry Goth girl, and the homeless girl who worships him. When Megan needs a place to live she comes to the rooming house with a different set of problems and the ability to confuse and attract Ben.

One by one strange and mysterious occurrences stretch the teens’ beliefs in the supernatural. How they deal with demons, real and imagined, has tragic as well as redeeming consequences.

2) Your book focuses om several different teens. Please tell us a bit about them.

Ben is cute, smart, industrious, and kind, but he lies a lot. He carries the burden of having an alcoholic mom and an oppressive step-father, but his heart is in the right place as he tries to help emancipated teens. Emily was living in a homeless shelter until Ben stepped in. She is very quiet, smart, and never seems to get that long hair out of her face as she tries to hide her troubles and her desire for Ben. Megan is polite, pretty, and vacillates between being strong-willed or caving to temptation. She harbors a secret that may ruin her chances with Ben. Cori is my favorite character because she was kicked out of her home for being incorrigible. Messy dyed black hair, lots of make-up, pierced ears and lip, and a tattoo on her back all hide the little girl inside. Cori uses foul language, exhibits a bad attitude and is a bitchy thief. She was as much fun to write about as Chuck and Adam, twins with a tragic past and future.

3) The haunted house is one of the oldest plots in horror, yet people keep coming back for more. What's the appeal in your opinion?

 Do I need to tell you how many times I’ve been alone at home and heard strange noises? I’ve walked around the house with various weapons, like a high heeled shoe or pair of scissors, checking behind doors and under beds. Aren’t we all afraid of the dark? Hmm?

4) Like I said, haunted houses aren't exactly a new idea. What distinguishes your story from others with a similar basic premise?

In Sheltered the house is not exactly “haunted” though there was a gruesome event in its history. There are no ghosts in this story, but worse than ghosts, there are demons, fallen angels who can posssess a person and make them exhibit great strength or manifest symptoms of epilepsy or bring them to the brink of suicide.

5) Your last novel, Edge of Escape, delved into the dark psychological corners of obsession, but there was nothing supernatural about it. Why did you choose to explore a different genre this time about?

I wanted to do something in the paranormal genre because it’s so popular and such fun to read. Despite the fact that an author can go absolutely as far as she wants, imaginatively speaking, I tried to keep the demon stuff within the parameters of actual Biblical accounts.

6) The YA commentariat has been abuzz in recent years with battles over the relative amount of dark material in YA books, including several very high profile editorials in the New York Times complaining about perceived excessive darkness in modern YA fiction. How do you feel about this entire controversy? Your book has more than a few dark themes and situations itself.

Give me a break, dark material has been around since Beowulf. That’s life – there’s good and evil. I’d be more concerned with books that go heavy on the evil and exclude redemption or triumph. All in all, though, I respect the debate and both sides have valid points, but there will always be disagreement on, well, on everything.

7) Please tell us briefly about your other projects.

Edge of Escape, my first YA novel, delves into obsession and fear. Emotionally impaired yet clever, Eddie obsesses over the most popular girl. He drugs her, abducts her and locks her away.
The Guardian’s Diary will probably be out next spring. It’s about a teen boy who was born with a gruesome deformity that causes him to drag his foot. He faces some tough challenges and dangerous decisions. The story is told through the eyes of his guardian angel.

Right now I am working on a young adult novel in which the teen characters maneuver through a supernatural world, yet there are neither angels nor demons in this story.

8) Do you have any links to any excerpts you'd like to share?

Here’s a link to a short excerpt from chapter 1 of Sheltered, which I posted on my blog: http://edgeofescape.blogspot.com/2012/10/sheltered-excerpt-from-chapter-1.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EdgeOfEscape+%28Edge+of+Escape%29
-----

Thanks, Debra.

If you'd like to see more from Debra or purchase Sheltered, please check out the following links:

http://edgeofescape.blogspot.com/

Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008TQ0PB6
Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sheltered-debra-chapoton/1112412513?ean=2940014940177
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15827913-sheltered

Blog Tour - Author Interview: Debra Chapoton (EDGE OF ESCAPE)

Today, I present an interview with Debra Chapoton as part of her blog tour for her YA novel, Edge of Escape.

1) Please tell us about your novel.

EDGE OF ESCAPE is a fast-paced novel that reveals the intersecting lives of two high school students, Eddie and Rebecca. Eddie is emotionally impaired yet very bright and good-looking, but because he is part of the invisible crowd, the special ed. kids, Rebecca is not really aware of him. He devises a plan of stalking and kidnapping in a pathetic attempt to win her over. Eddie has some issues that will make him repulsive and creepy to the reader and yet arouse some sympathy for him. Rebecca, though a strong female character, also has her weaknesses which are exposed as the story unfolds through multiple flashbacks and flash forwards.

2) What was your inspiration for this novel?

I was inspired by Dean Koontz’s novels which so often have bad things taking place in lonely deserted cabins in the middle of the woods. Wait, I live in a log home in the middle of the woods. Anyway, I few years ago there was a boy in one of my classes who was tall, handsome and smart, but cried when he couldn’t understand how to conjugate Spanish verbs. He sat with the special ed. kids at lunch and I never saw him talk to anyone. I started imagining what he would do if he liked one of the popular girls who wouldn’t give him the time of day. What if he drugged her and drove her to a woods like mine and devised a number of traps she had to escape from . . . what if he pretended to be her rescuer . . . what if she started to like him . . .

3) What sort of difficulties, if any, did writing a YA novel present?

The biggest difficulty is getting the characters to do and say what I want. They seem to have minds of their own. I will plan out a scene as I walk back and forth down my half-mile long driveway, chipmunks, deer and raccoons following behind, and then when I get back to the computer to write it down the characters change it all up. They invent their own dialogues or bring a knife in their pocket or leave a clue where I wasn’t expecting one. It has gotten so that every day I try to stop writing at a cliff-hanging point just to see how they’ll get themselves out of the corners I write them into. It’s kind of fun.

4) Stalking is a rather dark topic. Given some of the recent controversy over dark themes in YA, have you worried at all about negative reaction to some elements of your book?

I haven’t heard of any negative reaction to the stalking part probably because Eddie is a pathetic but understandable character. His part in the tragic death of his father and the way his mother mistreats him mold his personality and are factors in his emotional damage. The message hidden beneath the layers of plot is one of understanding, acceptance and forgiveness.

5) Are there any authors who have influenced you?

Every single author I have ever read has influenced me in some way. I learn from each of them and appreciate different styles, plot devices, character building techniques and so on. I have too many favorites to list them, but I will give a recommendation that every romantic girl should read Robin Hardy.

6) Tell us a little about your writing process.

I like to write about 1000 words a day, 5 days a week. First I proofread the previous 2 days’ worth and edit like crazy then I go for a long walk and think about what the next scene should be. It may take one or two hours for that scene to take form when I get back to the computer because those darn characters will go off in other directions. More proofing follows and then it’s lunch time.

7) If you had one piece of advice for an aspiring author, what would it be?

Don’t ask family and friends to read your work and expect to get honest opinions or advice. Seek out a writers’ group or post excerpts on forums that critique and review.

-----

Her novel is available in both digital and paperback versions at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

You can also find out more Debra and her novel at www.edgeofescape.blogspot.com and www.bigpinelodgebooks.com