Alienated Event: Interview with Melissa Landers

There are certain moments when I'm convinced the decision to start this blog was the greatest decision I've ever made, and meeting an author is always among those moments. I was supposed to attend the release day event and signing for Melissa Landers back on February 4th in Cincinnati, however snowmageddon hit Ohio that day and prevented me from traveling. Fail.

Luckily for me however, Melissa was nice enough to invite me to a different signing in Cincy the following Saturday, and Mother Nature actually deigned to let me make the drive from Columbus snow-free. I had the amazing opportunity to sit down with her before the signing and ask her a few questions about Alienated, and I'm super excited to share her answers with all of you today. Melissa was absolutely adorable (as you can see in the picture of her below) and really easygoing, and I'm just so thankful to her for taking the time to chat with me!

This signing was a little different from most of the signings I've been to where the author talks a bit about their book and answers questions, it was much more informal and strictly a meet and greet signing with no official program or Q+A session, which is why you'll find no recap or photos besides the one I quickly snapped of Melissa being the cutest thing ever with her book.

When reading Melissa's answers below, please note that I deliberately asked questions that would only require brief answers from her because it's hard for me to keep up with lengthy answers when writing by hand, she wasn't being intentionally short or terse with me:)

Q+A WITH MELISSA LANDERS

If you were traveling with Aelyx to his planet, what’s one thing you would bring with you to make yourself feel at home?

A digital photo album (or iPad/iPhone, anything that could have family photos on it).

What intergalactic or alien world from any other piece of fiction (or TV show/movie) would you most like to live in? Least like to live in?

Most: Battlestar Galactica!

Least: Any alien horror movie (Aliens, Predator).

If you were to attend a high school on Aelyx’s home planet, what subject do you think you would most excel in?

Either history or humanities.

You’ve just found indisputable proof of alien life here on Earth. What’s the first thing you do?

Ask to be taken to their leader.

*snort* I, on the other hand, would run away like a little girl. We joked that Melissa would definitely have been one of the crazies on the top of the building in Independence Day, begging the spaceship to take her before being tragically blown up ;-)

If Cara was in my position and asking you questions, what’s one question you might be afraid she’d ask?

What's the last book you didn't enjoy?

What movie or TV show has your very favorite depiction of aliens?

*I guessed the answer to this based on the earlier question, but had to ask anyway!

Battlestar Galactica!

You have $50 and fifteen minutes in a bookstore. What are the genres of the first three books you pick up to buy?

Young Adult, Romance, and then more Young Adult and more Romance.

WORD ASSOCIATION

*This was a highly amusing game to play with Melissa. She kept second guessing the first word that popped into her head because she said her first thoughts were "lame":)

Cara: Firecracker

High school: Hell

Space: Infinite

Book series: Trilogy

Secret: Key

Young love: Sweet

Humanity: Intricate

Mystery: Sherlock

Book cover: Pretty

Science fiction: Fun

Princess Leia: Hot

Sequel: Empire Strikes Back

Imagination: Movers
*Imagination Movers is a TV show Melissa watches with her kids ;-)

Writing: Work

Beginning: Ending

Find Melissa:

Website • Facebook • Twitter

• • • • • • • • • • •

ALIENATED

Two years ago, the aliens made contact. Now Cara Sweeney is going to be sharing a bathroom with one of them.

Handpicked to host the first-ever L’eihr exchange student, Cara thinks her future is set. Not only does she get a free ride to her dream college, she’ll have inside information about the mysterious L’eihrs that every journalist would kill for. Cara’s blog following is about to skyrocket.

Still, Cara isn’t sure what to think when she meets Aelyx. Humans and L’eihrs have nearly identical DNA, but cold, infuriatingly brilliant Aelyx couldn’t seem more alien. She’s certain about one thing, though: no human boy is this good-looking.

But when Cara's classmates get swept up by anti-L'eihr paranoia, Midtown High School suddenly isn't safe anymore. Threatening notes appear in Cara's locker, and a police officer has to escort her and Aelyx to class.

Cara finds support in the last person she expected. She realizes that Aelyx isn’t just her only friend; she's fallen hard for him. But Aelyx has been hiding the truth about the purpose of his exchange, and its potentially deadly consequences. Soon Cara will be in for the fight of her life—not just for herself and the boy she loves, but for the future of her planet.

Amazon • B&N • Goodreads • Book Depository

INVADED

(releases 2015 from Disney Hyperion)

Cara always knew life on planet L’eihr would be an adjustment. With Aelyx, her L’eihr boyfriend, back on Earth, working to mend the broken alliance between their two planets, Cara is left to fend for herself at a new school, surrounded by hostile alien clones. Even the weird dorm pet hates her.

Things look up when Cara is appointed as human representative to a panel preparing for a human colony on L’eihr. A society melding their two cultures is a place where Cara and Aelyx could one day make a life together. But with L’eihr leaders balking at granting even the most basic freedoms, Cara begins to wonder if she could ever be happy on this planet, even with Aelyx by her side.

Meanwhile, on Earth, Aelyx, finds himself thrown into a full-scale PR campaign to improve human-L’eihr relations. Humans don’t know that their very survival depends on this alliance: only Aelyx’s people have the technology to fix the deadly contamination in the global water supply that human governments are hiding. Yet despite their upper hand, the leaders of his world suddenly seem desperate to get humans on their side, and hardly bat an eye at extremists’ multiple attempts on Aelyx’s life.

The Way clearly needs humans’ help . . . but with what? And what will they ask for in return?

Goodreads