Today, Olivia is chatting with author Lauren Miller about her latest novel FREE TO FALL. Check it out!
Fast-forward to a time when Apple and Google have been replaced by Gnosis, a monolith corporation that has developed the most life-changing technology to ever hit the market: Lux, an app that flawlessly optimizes decision making for the best personal results.
Just like everyone else, sixteen-year-old Rory Vaughn knows the key to a happy, healthy life is following what Lux recommends. When she’s accepted to the elite boarding school Theden Academy, her future happiness seems all the more assured. But once on campus, something feels wrong beneath the polished surface of her prestigious dream school. Then she meets North, a handsome townie who doesn’t use Lux, and begins to fall for him and his outsider way of life.
Soon, Rory is going against Lux’s recommendations, listening instead to the inner voice that everyone has been taught to ignore — a choice that leads her to uncover a truth neither she nor the world ever saw coming.
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| Photo by Genine Esposito Photography |
Olivia with YA-Mag: Lauren, welcome to the Young Adult Magazine! I’ve been enamored with the blurb for FREE TO FALL for months now!
Lauren Miller: Thank you for having me!
YA: So let’s talk about Rory. How did you two first meet? What makes her the perfect character to tell this story as opposed to North or another cast member?
LM: Rory came to life for me as soon as I decided to write a story about reason vs. wisdom (which, beneath the techno thriller surface, is what Free to Fall is really about!) I knew I needed to tell this story from the point of view of someone crazy smart — someone with the capacity to make really solid choices simply by using her innate reasoning skills. But I also knew I needed someone who would be willing to accept that she might not know everything and whose ego wouldn’t get in the way. Rory is a combination of those elements, and that made her the perfect character to tell this story.
YA: What sets Rory’s story apart from other near-future science fiction, like EXTRAS by Scott Westerfeld or the MATCHED series by Ally Condie? What will readers find that they can’t anywhere else?
LM: FREE TO FALL is more real-world than most other near future science fiction stories. There is no dystopian element to my story, and no alternate history. Rory lives in a world that readers will recognize as their own. The only reason it’s set in the future was because I wanted to make it plausible that the technology Rory uses could actually exist.
YA: What non-book influences (films, television shows, music, plays, etc) helped spark this story or your writing career in general?
LM: What a great question! I feel as though most of my influences aren’t books, so I love answering this. Let’s start with TV. I’ve definitely been influenced by JJ Abrams’ brand of grounded sci-fi — stories like Alias and Lost and Fringe, where the world we’re experiencing on screen feel like our world, but with some strange is-it-science-or-is-it-supernatural twist. I’m a huge movie junkie, too, and films like Inception and The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind have inspired and encouraged me not to shy away from complicated, “thinking” plot lines. Popular science is also a huge influence on my writing — particularly, psychology and neuroscience.
YA: When you were a teen, what was your favorite book (YA or otherwise)? Now that you’re an author for teens, what is your favorite contemporary YA?
LM: My favorite book when I was a teenager was THE PRINCE OF TIDES by Pat Conroy, which I read in 5th grade despite the fact that my mom told me I wasn’t old enough to read it. I’d observed my older cousin sneaking Sweet Valley High Books by gluing Little House on the Prairie covers over the real covers, so I figured I’d do the same for THE PRINCE OF TIDES. But the only book in the house as thick as THE PRINCE OF TIDES was Tom Wolfe’s THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES so that’s the cover I used. The ruse worked! I read PoT right in front of my parents, who for some reason had no problem with their 11 year old reading a very grown-up novel about Wall Street in the 80s. She was probably right about PoT being too mature for a 5th grader, but I loved it just the same and it remained my favorite book until I left for college and discovered Tolstoy. My favorite contemporary YA is definitely THE SEA OF TRANQUILITY by Katja Millay. That book destroyed me in absolutely the best way. Other favorites are the UNREMEMBERED trilogy by Jessica Brody, TIME AFTER TIME and TIME BETWEEN US by Tamara Ireland Stone, and ORIGIN and VITRO by Jessica Khoury.
YA: What is the story behind FREE TO FALL?
LM: So, FREE TO FALL didn’t have a title until after it was finished. Nothing seemed right so I just didn’t title it, and kept telling myself that one would just come to me. None ever did. Finally the time came when I could no longer put it off, so I started skimming lines from the poem Paradise Lost, which figures heavily into the story, both plot-wise and theme-wise. When I got to the lines (in Book III), “I made him just and right, sufficient to have stood, though free to fall,” I knew I’d found my title! The phrase — spoken by God in the poem, talking about man — dovetails so perfectly with the meta message of the story. Thankfully, my editor agreed.
YA: Do you have any plans to return to Rory and her world any time soon? A sequel perhaps?
LM: No sequel plans right now, although I could totally see a sort of Girl With The Dragon Tattoo future for Rory and North — same characters, totally different conspiracy to uncover. But for now, I am happy to leave them where they are while I focus on my next story!
YA: If you could cast the Dream Film of FREE TO FALL, who would you cast?
LM: Ooh, this is always fun. How about:
Kaya Scodelario as Rory
Zoey Deutch as Hershey
Lucas Till as Liam
North is definitely the most difficult. I have tried and tried to find an actor who I think fits but can’t!
YA: What’s up next for you in YA land?
LM: I’m working on a third standalone. I don’t want to say too much, other than this book will explore the nature of beauty and will have the same sort of is-it-science-or-is-it-supernatural twist that characterize PARALLEL and FREE TO FALL. My main character in this new story, Jessa, is much different from both Rory and Abby, and that makes her a blast to write.
YA: All right, last one! If you could spend one day with Rory and North, what would you do together? What would advice would you give to Rory about her past or future?
LM: I would love to hang out with Rory and North inside the mausoleum in the Theden Cemetery on a rainy day, listening to music and drinking matcha lattes from Cafe Paradiso! As for advice, I don’t think Rory needs any words of wisdom from me. She’s got the Doubt!
YA: Thank you very much, Lauren! And again, from YA Mag, congratulations on FREE TO FALL! We look forward to hearing a lot more from you in years to come!
LM: Thank you! This was so fun.
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Readers, be sure to check out Lauren Miller at her website www.LaurenMillerWrites.com. Or follow her on Twitter @LMillerWrites.
FREE TO FALL, published by HarperTeen, is now available at your favorite retailers and local independent bookstores!
Olivia Hennis is a transplanted New England girl dropped by a tornado into the magical Land of Jersey. For more info, follow her on Twitter.