Singer-Writer-Clown Gretchen McNeil is a founding member of vlog group the YARebels where she can be seen as “Monday,” and she is an active member of both The Enchanted Inkpot, a group blog of YA and middle grade fantasy writers, and The Apocalypsies, a group blog of 2012 children’s debut authors. Here she brings us 3:59, a haunting tale that focuses on the notion of identity.
Josie Byrne’s life is spiraling out of control. Her parents are divorcing, her boyfriend Nick has grown distant, and her physics teacher has it in for her. When she’s betrayed by the two people she trusts most, Josie thinks things can’t get worse.
Until she starts having dreams about a girl named Jo. Every night at the same time—3:59 a.m. Jo’s life is everything Josie wants: she’s popular, her parents are happily married, and Nick adores her. It all seems real, but they’re just dreams, right? Josie thinks so, until she wakes one night to a shadowy image of herself in the bedroom mirror – Jo.
Josie and Jo realize that they are doppelgängers living in parallel universes that overlap every twelve hours at exactly 3:59. Fascinated by Jo’s perfect world, Josie jumps at the chance to jump through the portal and switch places for a day.
But Jo’s world is far from perfect. Not only is Nick not Jo’s boyfriend, he hates her. Jo’s mom is missing, possibly insane. And at night, shadowy creatures feed on human flesh. Can she figure out a way home before it’s too late?”
YOUNG ADULT: Hello Gretchen! What three words come to mind when you think of writing?
Gretchen McNeil: “Straight to the point.” Okay, that’s four words, but “to” and “the” are REALLY just like one word, don’t you think?
But to me, that defines YA. Books get into the story quickly. Within a few chapters, if not a few pages, you know who the main characters are, what they want, what’s in their way, and what’s at stake if they fail. This kind of pacing hooks the reader and holds their attention, and I feel that’s one of the reasons the genre has been so popular with readers of all ages.
YA: Tell us a little bit about your latest work. What is different about 3:59, aside from the neat title?
GM: 3:59 is the story of two girls who are the same girl in parallel universes, who discover that their worlds connect every twelve hours for exactly one minute at 3:59. When they decide to switch places, all hell breaks loose. Literally.
3:59 was a different kind of book for me in two ways. First, it’s science-heavy sci-fi, relying heavily on a science-minded heroine and some pretty dense theoretical quantum physics. This was new territory for me, and it took me a long time to get over the fear of doing sci-fi “wrong.”
Second, romance plays a large part in this book, actually driving a significant amount of the plot. Romance has always been an afterthought in my writing, so to make it the crux of the book was new territory for me.
YA: There have been many fascinating stories involving doppelgängers and parallel universes. What were your specific influences for this work (film, TV, literature, mythology)?
GM: I pitched this book originally as The Parent Trap meets Event Horizon, which made a lot of people’s eyes bulge. But the comparison is valid. The parallel universe in 3:59 has some very dark and violent elements, similar to Event Horizon, and the idea of doppelgängers switching places totally reminded me of the original The Parent Trap with Hayley Mills that I loved as a kid. In retrospect, I suppose it’s more like Single White Female…
As for the horror element, I was drawn to an old episode of The X-Files entitled “Darkness Falls” where Mulder and Scully travel to a logging camp deep in the Pacific Northwest, and discover that when the sun goes down, a light-sensitive bacteria on everyone’s skin will literally eat you alive unless you stay in some sort of light source. I love the idea of danger coming with the onset of the setting sun, something humans literally can’t control, and I worked a similar horror into the plot of 3:59.
YA: If you had to pick between Jo and Josie’s worlds, which would you choose and why?
GM: With the Nox around? No way I’d live in Jo’s world. *shudder*
YA: Take us through a typical writing day for you.
GM: I wish I my days were typical. I swear I’d get more done.
Basically, I’m a morning person, so on the days when I don’t go to my part-time day job, I get the husband out the door to work, fire up the espresso machine and settle down to my laptop with a massive latte in my hand by 9am. I tend to write in spurts – 15 minutes of concentrated writing, followed by 15 minutes of email/Twitter/Facebook/general internet rabbit holing – until I hit my daily word count, usually in the 1500 word range. I don’t like desks, so I write in bed or on the sofa, which I’m pretty sure is doing a number on my posture.
YA: Along with writing, you are involved in several other creative pursuits. What do you enjoy about those, and how do you balance it all out?
GM: Singing and performing will always be my first love, so whenever I get an opportunity to perform (like with Cirque Berzerk), I jump at it. But the deeper I get into the publishing business, the more difficult it’s been to balance my writing and performing. Unfortunately, that means I don’t get to sing in public nearly as much as I used to. The trade-off is worth it, but I still have that dull, yearning ache for my opera days that will never entirely go away.
YA: What’s next for you?
GM: My next book is called GET EVEN and it’s the first in the Don’t Get Mad series, which I pitched as “John Hughes with a body count.” The series is about four girls at an elite Catholic prep school who have formed a secret society where they get revenge on bullies, mean girls and teachers who have victimized their classmates. It all goes well until one of their targets turns up dead, the secret society is implicated in the murder, and the girls don’t know if one of them is a killer or if someone else knows their secrets. GET EVEN will be out Fall 2014, and the sequel GET DIRTY will be out one year later.
YA: What other authors, YA or otherwise, do you idolize? Or, what YA books are on a pedestal for you?
GM: Agatha Christie for sure. Her books are a huge influence, and really developed my taste as both a reader and a writer for tightly plotted, quick moving books. I also love Diane Setterfield’s THE THIRTEENTH TALE, which is one of my favorite books, pulling on my love of all things gothic. I recently finished Kate Morton’s THE SECRET KEEPER, which was a masterpiece of multiple timeline plotting. I love the books of John Buchan, Emily and Charlotte Bronte, Scott, Austen, LeFanu, duMaurier… Basically, I’m a reader first.