Crossroads Blog Tour Day 7: Jackie Morse Kessler

It's day 7 of The Crossroads Blog Tour! If you're not familiar with how the tour works, you can check out my kick off post here, and then be sure to visit The Crossroads Tour main page for a full list of participating authors and bloggers as well as details on prizes, giveaways, and collecting the mystery clues!

I have Jackie Morse Kessler on the blog today answering a few questions, welcome Jackie!




You write both adult and young adult novels, do you have a preference for writing to one audience over the other?

Lately, I’m very into young adult and middle grade. But I also enjoy writing for adults. I guess it depends on what stories I want to tell.

Did you have any initial reservations about tackling controversial teen topics such as anorexia and self-mutilation?

I’ve wanted to write a story about an anorexic teenage girl who becomes the new Famine for a very long time—like, about 10 years. The only reservation I had was that no one would want to read it. My agent convinced me otherwise, and I’m so glad she did!

Did you ever get overwhelmed when writing either Hunger or Rage and have to take a step back?

For HUNGER, no—that book was very cathartic for me. But RAGE was the most difficult book I’ve ever written. There were times when I felt like I had to wrestle the words out, but maybe that’s appropriate when writing a book about a teenage self-injurer who becomes War.

If you had a choice, which of the four horsemen of the apocalypse would you be?

Oh man…none of them. Too overwhelming!!! To have to find the balance between destruction and creation, to witness the horrors people choose to inflict upon themselves, every day…no. Just no. Sorry, I’m not that strong!

However, I’d be happy to hang out with Death, because his perspective on things is pretty awesome and he’s rather funny (okay, and at times more than a little scary). And he looks and sounds exactly like Kurt Cobain, so bonus: there’d be music!

Name one book you’ve read over and over again yet still could read again tomorrow as though it was the first time.

Almost anything by Neil Gaiman, Christopher Moore, or Jim Butcher. And of course, Heather Brewer and Rachel Caine. My current favorite book is LAMB; I’m biting my nails to read Jim’s GHOST STORY when it comes out next year.

A huge thanks to Jackie for taking the time to stop by and answer my questions! Hunger just released this week, so if you haven't had a chance to read it yet, go out and pick it up! The second book in the Horsemen of the Apocalypse series, Rage, releases on April 18th and you can find a synopsis of it below. For more information on Jackie and this series you can find her here:

Website
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RAGE (from Goodreads)

Missy didn’t mean to cut so deep. But after the party where she was humiliated in front of practically everyone in school, who could blame her for wanting some comfort? Sure, most people don’t find comfort in the touch of a razor blade, but Missy always was . . . different.

That’s why she was chosen to become one of the Four Horsemen Apocalypse: War. Now Missy wields a different kind of blade—a big, brutal sword that can cut down anyone and anything in her path. But it’s with this weapon in her hand that Missy learns something that could help her triumph over her own pain: control.

A unique approach to the topic of self-mutilation, Rage is the story of a young woman who discovers her own power, and refuses to be defeated by the world.