Interview: Anastasia Hopcus -- Shadow Hills

Today I have Anastasia Hopcus here to answer some questions about herself and her debut novel, Shadow Hills (out on July 13th). 

Quick! Describe Shadow Hills in 7 words or less!   

Phe finds romance and danger in Shadow Hills.

How about a bit more of description?  

Phe Archer is drawn to Shadow Hills by a series of cryptic dreams.  She starts school at Devenish Prep and finds that the residents of the town have unusual abilities.  But the most unusual townie of all may be the gorgeous and enigmatic Zach Redford.

What was the most difficult part of writing Shadow Hills? The easiest?  

The most difficult part was a major rewrite I did where I changed the ending and added about a hundred new pages.  The most fun was the research, though I don't know that I could really call it the easiest since so much of it was scientific text that I only understood about every fifth word of it.

What inspired this novel?  

It started when I saw a story on 60 minutes about a gifted savant and just grew from there.

What's one unusual talent that you have most people might not know about?  

I can recognize an actor in a movie in a split second.  I once named an actress from just a glimpse of the side of her face.  My boyfriend Brent said there was no way I could recognize someone from that, but I was right.   *triumphant*

What are you working on right now?  

I have several projects in the works, but what I'm concentrating on right now is further developing Phe's and Zach's story.

Anything else you'd like to add?  

Joining the Tenners and getting to know all these people in the online community has been great.  Everyone has been so nice and supportive of my book, and it's really been cool.  I had the pleasure of meeting a lot of the bloggers at BEA, and getting to know them has been a reallly good experience. 

Thanks so much for the interview, Anastasia! And to everyone else, I definitely suggest checking out Anastasia's very cool website, she's even got an excerpt to read!

Lea