an interview with Arise author, Tara Hudson + GIVEAWAY
Welcome to our stop on the Arise Book Tour hosted by our dear friend, Mundie Moms! We love Tara and her ghostly star-crossed love story!! So, we had a few questions we were dying to ask about Arise, the second book in the Hereafter series! Find out if Tara believes in Voodoo, what research she did for Arise, and what college football team she roots for. We also can’t WAIT for Elegy, can you?
Do you believe in Voodoo?
I believe that all religions have power, if you believe in them – particularly Voodoo. I try NOT to believe in it, mostly because I don’t want to end up hexed, like the girl in that Skeleton Key movie 
New Orleans has such a spooky, old world atmosphere and it’s a perfect setting for a ghost story (especially the cemetery!). Did you travel there to do research?
Heck yeah. I visit New Orleans at least once a year, but while I was writing ARISE I travelled there specifically to research. And I spent way too much time in the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1!
Do you get any of your ideas about situations from old cases that you worked on as a lawyer? Do you ever miss being a lawyer?
All the freaking time…but that whole confidentiality thing will keep me from acting on them. (Grimace) I sometimes miss the pace of my old work…which is why I couldn’t help but get a part-time job while I still right.
Tell us about Amelia in 5 words.
Kind, Frightened, Giving, Getting Tougher
Since you are from Oklahoma we have to know… Sooners or Cowboys?
BOOMER SOONER! I went to the University of Oklahoma for 8 years – 5 as an undergrad (I know – I was THAT student), and 3 as a law student. I’m a Sooner forever.
How much of you do you put in your books?
I try NOT to include my major personality traits in my characters, although I can’t always help it. But as far as settings go, my books have to be set in places that I love or am fascinated by. I’m too much of a descriptive writer to pick a setting that doesn’t thrill me.
Were the ghosts Amelia encountered in Jackson Square based on any real historical figures?
Absolutely, although they each are kind of an amalgam. Marie Laveau, Jean Lafitte, even Andrew Jackson – they each sort of make a kind of appearance
We have to know what you are working on now.
Well, I just finished ELEGY (the 3rd book in the HEREAFTER trilogy) today, if you can believe it! I’ll probably spend a few weeks editing that, but I am starting to get into some new YA novels. Right now, I’m kind of in love with a new idea: a murder mystery, told from the perspective of the three possible murderers.
What are you reading these days?
I just finished Josephine Angelini’s DREAMLESS (loved it!), and right now I’m simultaneously reading Robin Mellom’s DITCHED: A LOVE STORY and Barry Lyga’s I HUNT KILLERS. Really enjoying them both, but they could not be more different!
Lightening Round!!!
Mountains or Beach - Mountians, preferably haunted ones!
A book that made you cry - A MONSTER CALLS, by Patrick Ness. Just ripped me apart.
A book that scared you - THE STAND, by Stephen King. Every time I get the flu now, I panic.
All-time favorite movie - Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!!!!
Coke, Pepsi, or Dr. Pepper - Diet Coke, please!
Harry Potter, Hunger Games, or Lord of the Rings - Harry Potter. Forever and ever, amen.
a little more info:
Code word for the scavenger hunt: fascinating
Buy Arise: amazon / barnes&noble
Check out Tara: website / goodreads / twitter
Follow the rest of the tour: Mundie Moms
***GIVEAWAY***GIVEAWAY***GIVEAWAY***
Thanks to Tara and Harper Teen, Mundie Moms will be giving away 1 signed set of Tara’s books. In order to be entered to win Hereafter and Arise, you’ll need to visit each blog on the tour and collect the word each blog will be posting. At the end of the tour you’ll be able to put the words together to unscramble the sentence Tara has picked for this scavenger hunt.
Then head back to Mundie Moms to enter the giveaway! The first one who enters with the correct information wins the prize. GOOD LUCK!
I cried too after reading A Monster calls *sniff sniff*
Love this interview! You guys always have such fabulous interview questions. Thank you for being on the tour!
Loved the interview! Thanks! (And yay for HP forever and ever, amen.)
Great interview ladies!!!
A MONSTER CALLS is on my to read list!