The Dark Unwinding Blog Tour: Interview with Sharon Cameron and Giveaway!

I am proud to be a part of the marvelous blog tour for Sharon Cameron’s marvelous book, The Dark Unwinding. I love this title so much! Hannah at the Book Vortex organized this blog tour and she did a wonderful job, as usual. You should all go out and get a copy of the Dark Unwinding; it is fantastic! Sharon answered some of my questions and I hope you all enjoy her responses! Below is some more info on Sharon and her book.

 

Sharon Cameron Author Bio:

Sharon Cameron was awarded the 2009 Sue Alexander Most Promising New Work Award by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators for her debut novel, The Dark Unwinding. When not writing Sharon can be found thumbing dusty tomes, shooting her longbow, or indulging in her lifelong search for secret passages.

You can find Sharon…

on Twitter: @CameronSharonE
on Facebook: Sharon Cameron’s Page
on her Website: sharoncameron.com

 

 

The Dark Unwinding by: Sharon Cameron
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: September 1, 2012
Genre: Steampunk, Historical, Mystery
Page Count: 318
Buy the Book: Amazon, Barnes and Noble

Summary from Goodreads:

A spine-tingling tale of steampunk and spies, intrigue and heart-racing romance!
When Katharine Tulman's inheritance is called into question by the rumor that her eccentric uncle is squandering away the family fortune, she is sent to his estate to have him committed to an asylum. But instead of a lunatic, Katharine discovers a genius inventor with his own set of rules, who employs a village of nine hundred people rescued from the workhouses of London.
Katharine is now torn between protecting her own inheritance and preserving the peculiar community she grows to care for deeply. And her choices are made even more complicated by a handsome apprentice, a secretive student, and fears for her own sanity.
As the mysteries of the estate begin to unravel, it is clear that not only is her uncle's world at stake, but also the state of England as Katharine knows it. With twists and turns at every corner, this heart-racing adventure will captivate readers with its intrigue, thrills, and romance.

And now for the interview!

Describe The Dark Unwinding in one sentence.
The Dark Unwinding is an eerie gothic mystery with splashes of steampunk, romance, intrigue, and insanity, a bit like Jane Eyre, only with gears!

What kind of research is involved in writing a steampunk novel?
The research for the steampunk aspects of The Dark Unwinding was much more hands on than the other topics I researched (like autism and mental illness). It involved things like listening to a steam engine, or watching clockwork run, or manufacturing gun cotton in the basement and exploding it in the back yard. Really I just needed to know how bad the gun cotton smelled (confirmation: it reeks!), but the opportunity to explode it was more than my husband could resist. Still worried we’ve put ourselves on some sort of FBI list by purchasing all those weird chemicals!

Is there a message in The Dark Unwinding that you want your readers to grasp?
Many! Compassion, and the willingness to stand up and sacrifice for those you love being two of them. But I think one of the more subtle messages in the book is the question: “what is normal?” The Victorians had such rigid ideas of “normality” and Uncle Tully certainly flies in the face of all them. I think one of the major lessons for Katharine is learning to let go of her idea of “proper” and allowing herself to become a free and independent thinker.

What do you think makes a good story?
Tone and atmosphere, to begin with. I’m always hooked immediately when I can “feel” a story from the first few sentences. And of course multi-layered characters with difficult choices make a good story. But I’m always looking for a “great” story, and for me a story becomes “great” when not only am I sucked in by the atmosphere and characters and the plot, but by a deeper meaning that runs beneath it all. It may be a meaning that only I pull out, but that’s okay!

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Not a writer! The thought never occurred, which seems ridiculous to me now. I wish it had! I wanted to be a musician, and then later I wanted to teach music. I loved teaching, especially one on one, though now I realize that what I was really doing was just delving into people’s brains and learning what made them tick, which is not all that different from what I’m doing now! I think teaching was great training for developing characters.

What did you consider most challenging about writing The Dark Unwinding, or writing in general?
I think my toughest challenge so far has been learning to how to find a way to please others while pleasing myself. When you’re getting critiqued from several different sources (agent, editor, critique group) it can be hard to find ways to solve problems that are obviously problems, but in a way that still makes the story uniquely yours. I think I’m still working on this. Probably always will!

What was your inspiration for Katharine?
Well, she’s definitely a little like Jane Eyre in her strong-willed practicality, but she’s also got a liberal dash of Anne Shirley when she puts on those roller skates and goes sliding down hills.

Is there something that makes The Dark Unwinding stand out?
That’s a difficult question, Sara, especially when you’re talking about your own work! But I think maybe what makes my book different from other YA out there is that it’s not easily defined, it’s historical (only different), gothic (only different), steampunk (only different) and romance (only different). And maybe that it feels a more like a classic than most books out there, though with structure and language that is a touch more modern.

Thanks so much to Sharon for the wonderful interview! I definitely think that The Dark Unwinding is unique to YA!

 

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Clockwork Prince by: Cassandra Clare

Clockwork Prince by: Cassandra Clare
Publication Date: December 6, 2011
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Page Count: 502
Format: Hardcover/Collector's First Edition
Series: Infernal Devices #2
Buy the Book: Amazon

Summary from Goodreads:

  In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa's powers for his own dark ends.

 With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister's war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move and that one of their own has betrayed them.

 Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, though her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will; the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?

 As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart.

 
My Review:

For an entire year I waited for this book, during which time I formed ideas in my mind as to how the book would play out. None of what I guessed, happened, of course. It was so much better than I could've imagined!

Tessa Gray is one of my favorite characters. Her love of books is amazing and very relatable to myself. Also, she is so full of mystery, because we still don't know what she is! This bothered me a bit and now I have yet another reason to pine like crazy for Clockwork Princess.

The setting of Victorian Era London is even further accentuated in Clockwork Prince. There is also a bit of Yorkshire in there too. I love everything about the UK and so I especially enjoyed escaping into the historical world of Shadowhunters and Downworlders.

After reading Clockwork Angel, I wasn't exactly sure how I felt about Jem. He was a great character, but nothing really made me very interested in him. In this book, however, I completely fell in love with him! No joke. He is utterly selfless and seems to absorb the emotions of the people he cares about, as if they are his own. His sickness made me so sad, especially as his relationship with Tessa started to heat up. Cassandra better find a cure, is all I have to say!

Since people are proudly declaring themselves Team Jem or Team Will, I feel obliged to say that I am proudly on board with Tem Will! This book revealed so much about Will and his past. To everyone surrounding him, he seemed like an unloving, contemptuous, sarcastic boy. When really, he loved so greatly and passionately than any of them. This made me cry a few times, both of joy and sadness.

And, as most of you know who have read any of Cassandra's works, there was an abrupt cliffhanger ending. It showed a lot of promise though, for Will's future especially.

Official Rating

Five Un-Birthday Cakes!