Today, Olivia from YA-Mag is getting the latest from Tony Abbott, author of THE SERPENT’S CURSE! Check it out!
Wade, Lily, Darrell, and Becca may have found the Copernicus Legacy’s first relic—a beautiful blue stone named after the constellation Vela—but they have lost much more than they have gained. Darrell’s mother, Sara, has been kidnapped by Galina Krause, the conniving leader of the Teutonic Order, who hopes that the renowned academic will lead her and her minions to the next relic.
That means the stakes couldn’t be higher for the Kaplan kids, who trek across the cold wilderness of Siberia, along the winding canals of Venice, and through the streets of Moscow’s Red Square in search of their beloved family member and the sought-after relic called the Serpens. In the process, they meet another network of Guardians and discover that Galina’s plan for Sara involves a scientific experiment that could jeopardize her life.
Olivia with YA-Mag: Tony, welcome to the Young Adult Magazine! I’m excited to be here chatting about your latest, THE SERPENT’S CURSE!
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| Tony Abbott, photo by Thomas Sayers Ellis |
YA: Let’s talk about Wade. How did you two first meet? What makes Wade, Lily, Darrell and Becca the perfect characters to tell this story?
Tony Abbott: Ha! Meeting one’s characters is always exciting, and a little terrifying—like meeting new people in real life. I will say that Wade, like most all my characters, came to me first through his voice. I almost always hear a character speaking before I envision him physically. Whether he is young, old, blond, short, mean, or human, I hear the voice first, and in that tone of voice are the seeds of all the other parts of his character. In THE SERPENT’S CURSE, the second book of THE COPERNICUS LEGACY series, Wade has a struggle. Lily, Becca, and Darrell have their own struggles, too, but Wade is worried about how this international search for priceless relics–and how battling a fairly creepy criminal organization to get to them first–is changing him. He used to be a regular kid, a boy who loved stargazing, and what’s happening to him is that he’s becoming darker and stronger. He’s worried that it’s not all a good thing.
YA: What sets Wade’s story apart from other YA fantasy novels, like those by Rick Riordan or Peter Lerangis?
TA: Wade and his fellow characters are, I think, all different from one another, and they deepen and change over the course of the books. I’m writing the fifth book of twelve (including the six LEGACY novels and six COPERNICUS ARCHIVES novellas), and the characters are growing together as well as becoming more distinct and developing themselves. Trauma—which part of the relic search involves—will do that to you. You’ll be thrown back on the people that love you, but you’ll also be forced to find resources inside yourself to help you. It’s that dual development that I think I love most about the characters in the story.
YA: What non-book influences (films, television shows, music, plays, etc.) helped spark this story?
TA: Gosh, I suppose one of the most formative would be the Indiana Jones films. Well, the first and the third. The second and fourth were . . . you know. There was something about them, and the timing of the first one in my creative development, that accepted them all. Beyond that are the films that my father taught me to love: detective films from the 1940s, international spy films from the 1960s, and, of course, the Bond movies. There’s quite a bit of espionage in the COPERNICUS stories, as the kids learn to keep themselves safe from their enemies. Music? Well, one of the bad characters likes string quartets, and quartets have always been my favorite sort of classical music. Darrell is a guitar player, so he loves all the guys I grew up liking (and still like): Hendrix, Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn. Also, because the book I’m currently writing partly takes place in Africa, I’ve been listening to the Mali guitarist Bombino. Darrell likes him, too.
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?
TA: I remember reading a lot of the JOHN CARTER ON MARS series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I loved them. (I haven’t seen the film with Taylor Kitsch, who was fantastic in Friday Night Lights. Random thought.) The other thing I read a lot of was not YA lit but the TALES OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS, which can be pretty racy and gross in parts, but that gave me a lifelong love of eastern fantasy—the world of flying carpets and deserts. Today, I like Matt de la Pena, Chris Lynch, Todd Strasser. There are some very fine YA writers.
YA: Sometimes a title sticks from rough draft to published novel; sometimes the author works with their agent or editor to find the perfect title. What is the story behind the title THE SERPENT’S CURSE?
TA: Right. I’ve had titles come both ways—right at the beginning or at the end when the drafts are all done. For me, having the title in mind at first helps me shape the book. I get something like a “vision” of the complete book before a single word is set down. I know what I want the book to be, and a title will fit that image. I’ll keep that in mind as I write. But then, sometimes you get to the last chapter and you say to yourself—No, this is the title! It’s case by case. The main point for me in all titles, is that it has to SOUND right, when you say it aloud. It goes back to that sense of tone from the character’s voice. If it sounds right when you say it, then it passes the first and final test for me.
YA: This is the second in a series. Are there plans for a third novel? And why is this a good place for new readers to jump in?
TA: This is a unique series, I think, because it’s made up of six 400-plus page books—THE COPERNICUS LEGACY—and six smaller novellas, about 180 pages each, called THE COPERNICUS ARCHIVES that appear between the bigger books.
Another interesting aspect is that the LEGACY books are written in third person from a variety of viewpoints, while the ARCHIVES are narrated by one of the characters. The first of the Archives is Wade’s story. The second will be Becca’s. The way the storyline goes, it would be great for readers to read each book as it came out, but each of twelve books will bring the reader up to speed no matter where they are in the series. I have always had a sense of the arc of a story, and I plan out series several books ahead. What I love is when readers really follow the books and characters and realize that something that happened in book 1 means something huge in book 3. I love that. I like it from other writers, and it’s a challenge, but so rewarding to do.
YA: If you could cast the Dream Film of THE SERPENT’S CURSE, who would be in the lead roles?
TA: Akkk! There are several unusual adult characters in THE SERPENT’S CURSE, and I know how I would cast them—Emilia Clarke as Galina, Hugh Jackman as Copernicus, Willem Dafoe as Markus Wolff, etc. For the kids I have certain faces in mind when I write them, but at the moment, I haven’t seen too many YA films, so I’m not sure who I would choose. Will have to give this some thought when Hollywood calls!
YA: What’s up next for you in YA land? Any pet projects you can tease us about?
TA: Well, the COPERNICUS books will keep me busy for a long time (I’m a little less than halfway through), which is fine, because there is so much good story to come. But I do have a YA book of serious fiction that I’ve been sketching out and writing. I have maybe 50 pages of it, which isn’t enough to give the full scope of the story, but I’ll tease you with this: the main character, a 16-year old boy, undergoes an experience that nearly tears him apart but which instead . . . makes him a writer.
YA: All right, last one! If you could spend one day with Wade, what would you do together? What advice would you give to Darrell about his past or future?
TA: Because Wade is an astronomer like his father, I think I’d want to be his student for a day, learning from him, what he knows about the stars, what he feels when he looks at the night sky, what he thinks he wants to do in the future. There’s no better scenario than a writer sitting down with a character and just talking. I can also see us flying a plane together, which is my new obsession. For Darrell, well, he’s different. Like Wade, he’s a survivor of parents who split up, and like me he is always jumpy and moving. He’s very talented, plays tennis, plays guitar, but not at all comfortable with himself, not deeply. I think he’s blocked out a bunch of stuff about his father, and maybe there’s a way to make him face up to that. His future? Well, at this point, it looks happy, but you never know. There are a lot of books coming up in the series. And in a few days, I will be starting Darrell’s book. So we’ll see where that goes . . .
YA: Thank you very much, Tony! And again, from YA Mag, congratulations on THE SERPENT’S CURSE!
Readers, be sure to check out Tony Abbott at his website www.TonyAbbottBooks.com. Or follow him on Twitter @TonyAbbottBooks.
THE SERPENT’S CURSE, published by Katherine Tegan Books, is now available at your favorite retailers and local independent bookstores!
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