Interview: Mindee Arnett + Avalon

I'm super excited today to welcome young adult author Mindee Arnett back to the blog to answer a few questions about her new sci-fi release, Avalon. I fell a little in love with Mindee after reading least year's The Nightmare Affair, and Avalon only further solidified that love. She writes fantastic characters and hugely entertaining stories, so if you haven't had a chance to read either of her books I hope you add them to your lists immediately!

If you could spend one day aboard a fictional spacecraft from any book, movie or TV show, which one would top your list?

Ah! I love this question. I would definitely have to go with the TARDIS from Doctor Who. It can go anywhere in space and time. Plus is has a swimming pool, a library, racquet ball court. Heck, it probably has stables in there somewhere. That makes it impossible to beat.

Jeth is our protagonist, so we get glimpses of his thoughts and feelings toward every member of his elite team of thieves. What’s one word each member of the team might use to describe him?

Okay, I’m going to cheat with this one and provide phrases.

Lizzie: “butthead but I love him”
Celeste: “handsome but not my type”
Flynn: “can kick my ass but I’m okay with that”
Shady: “thinks he can kick my ass but I’d like to see him try”
Milton: “hard of hearing and thinking”

Of course, you could really add “but I love him” to all of these phrases, because Jeth’s crew definitely does.  

You’ve joined the crew aboard Avalon and are hovering just outside the boundary for the Belgrave Quadrant. What’s the last thought running through your head as you cross into it?

Is there any way to leave a trail of bread crumbs in space?

There’s some pretty fabulous futuristic technology in this book. What gadget from Jeth’s world do you wish existed in ours?

Metatech all the way. I know, of course, that faster than light travel is impossible, but if it were, could you imagine what we might learn and discover out there in the big wide universe? So often in our modern world it feels as if there’s nothing new under the sun, but that would all change if we could travel through space without it taking multiple lifetimes.

Jeth is clearly a very capable team leader, staying cool and calm even when his mission seems like it might be headed south. Celeste works closest with him in the field, so she must have witnessed an episode or two where Jeth wasn’t quite as together as he is when we meet him. Does she have a funny and/or embarrassing Jeth moment she can share with us?

Celeste definitely does! More like repeat offenders. The truth is Jeth was very clumsy at fifteen when they first started working together. He just hadn’t grown into his body. So early on, Celeste dreaded anytime she had to hand him something on the sly. He had a tendency to drop it. Oh, and she is extremely grateful that none of their jobs ever required them to dance. Her feet wouldn’t have survived. Fortunately, at 17 Jeth has grown into himself and is much slicker.

Let’s say Jeth and his crew grew up in today’s world rather than their world of intergalactic space travel. Obviously they wouldn’t be able to pilot various spacecrafts, so who would you guess might accumulate the largest number of traffic tickets or moving violations?

I think Jeth and Celeste would be tied. They both love to go fast.

For the entire crew, but particularly Jeth, Avalon is more than a ship; she’s a vital member of the team and a character unto herself. Even though she’s inanimate, how might Jeth describe her personality?

Jeth would describe her as steadfast. It’s an old, kind of hokey term, but also true. Avalon is like his noble steed that will carry him safely through any battle. She’s the Silver to his Lone Ranger, the Black to his Alec, the Artax to his Atreyu. Minus the drowning in the Swamps of Sadness thing, of course. At least in book 1. Book 2 however…joking…mostly…mwhahahaha!

*The mere mention of Artax in this interview had me sobbing via email to Mindee. I can't help it, okay? I simply cannot deal with that horse sinking in the swamp! *curls into a fetal ball*

As always, thanks for such a superb interview! Truly a highlight :)

*Thank you so much, Mindee!

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AVALON

Of the various star systems that make up the Confederation, most lie thousands of light-years from First Earth-and out here, no one is free. The agencies that govern the Confederation are as corrupt as the crime bosses who patrol it, and power is held by anyone with enough greed and ruthlessness to claim it. That power is derived from one thing: metatech, the devices that allow people to travel great distances faster than the speed of light.

Jeth Seagrave and his crew of teenage mercenaries have survived in this world by stealing unsecured metatech, and they're damn good at it. Jeth doesn't care about the politics or the law; all he cares about is earning enough money to buy back his parents' ship, Avalon, from his crime-boss employer and getting himself and his sister, Lizzie, the heck out of Dodge. But when Jeth finds himself in possession of information that both the crime bosses and the government are willing to kill for, he is going to have to ask himself how far he'll go to get the freedom he's wanted for so long.

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MINDEE ARNETT

Mindee Arnett lives on a horse farm in Ohio with her husband, two kids, a couple of dogs, and an inappropriate number of cats. She’s addicted to jumping horses and telling tales of magic, the macabre, and outer space. She has far more dreams than nightmares. 

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