WTF Are You Reading?: SoHo TEEN Presents: An Interview With Heather Terrell

Title: Relic
(Book Eva #1)
Author: Heather Terrell
Format: Print
Length: 288 pages
Publisher: SoHoTEEN
Expected Publication Date: October 29, 2013
Buy Links
Goodreads, Amazon, B&N

The truth will test you...

For fans of Game of Thrones and The Hunger Games: high fantasy and dystopia meet in this high-stakes tale of a civilization built on lies and the girl who single-handedly brings it down.

When Eva’s twin brother, Eamon, falls to his death just a few months before he is due to participate in The Testing, no one expects Eva to take his place. She’s a Maiden, slated for embroidery classes, curtseys, and soon a prestigious marriage befitting the daughter of an Aerie ruler. But Eva insists on honoring her brother by becoming a Testor. After all, she wouldn’t be the first Maiden to Test, just the first in 150 years.

Eva knows the Testing is no dance class. Gallant Testors train for their entire lives to search icy wastelands for Relics: artifacts of the corrupt civilization that existed before The Healing drowned the world. Out in the Boundary Lands, Eva must rely on every moment of the lightning-quick training she received from Lukas—her servant, a Boundary native, and her closest friend now that Eamon is gone.

But there are threats in The Testing beyond what Lukas could have prepared her for. And no one could have imagined the danger Eva unleashes when she discovers a Relic that shakes the Aerie to its core.

An Interview With Heather Terrell

WTF: Do you have a favorite place or time of day to write?

Heather: In an ideal world, I would wake up, make a steaming cup of coffee, and begin writing in my home office very first thing. I adore writing in the morning, before anything worldly has clouded my thoughts. This never happens, however! I have two small children, so in the mornings, I tend to them and get them off to school. Then, if I am lucky, I sit down at my desk and write furiously for two to three hours before I have to pick them up again.

WTF: Where did you get the idea for Relic?

Heather: All of my books share a common theme – whether young adult or adult historical suspense -- about the hidden stories that lie within history, myth, and legend, and the ways in which our societies alter those histories and myths in order to shape our understanding of ourselves. But with my new series, THE BOOKS OF EVA -- of which RELIC is the first book -- I wanted to get at this theme of hidden historical stories differently. Uniquely. Instead of going back in time to a real, existing mystery, I wanted to go forward, to a future that may or may not exist, and examine OUR time through another’s eyes. And actually show how history is created through the alteration of myth and literature.

WTF: What is your favorite scene in Relic?

Heather: Answering this question is a little bit like answering the question which is your favorite child. The RELIC scenes are all my favorites, for very different reasons. That said, I usually prefer the scenes that come to me fully formed. With those scenes, writing is almost like capturing a memory; I only hope that I can depict them as vividly as they appeared in my mind. The very first scene in RELIC -- the prologue, in which I write from the point of view of Eva’s twin brother, Eamon -- materialized in that way.

WTF: Who was the most difficult to write?

Heather: This is a tricky question. Unlike my earlier works of historical suspense -- in which I told the tales through at least three sets of very different eyes -- RELIC is written almost entirely from Eva’s perspective. While I didn’t find it difficult to write RELIC from her viewpoint, occasionally, I found challenging certain issues and situations that Eva faced. For example, Eva grieves for her brother Eamon throughout RELIC, and writing about that intense emotion -- as well as her attempts to hold it at bay -- was sometimes tough. Also, Eva undertakes some extremely dangerous ice-climbing excursions, and given that I’m a novice at such climbs, I found demanding the task of ensuring these scenes were authentic, both technically and emotionally.

WTF: Do you plan to write a sequel?

Heather: Absolutely. In fact, I am working on a sequel to RELIC as we speak. The end of RELIC is a cliff-hanger in the truest sense. The next in the BOOKS OF EVA series follows Eva as she faces two enormous life changes -- which I cannot name for fear of spoilers -- and dares to unearth the truths about her world and her twin brother’s death.

About The Author

Heather Terrell is a lawyer with more than ten years' experience as a litigator at two of the country's premier law firms and for Fortune 500 companies. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston College with a focus in History and Art History, and a cum laude graduate of the Boston University School of Law. She lives in Pittsburgh with her family.
Heather is the author of The Chrysalis and The Map Thief, which will appear in more than ten countries, as well as Brigid of Kildare. She turned her hand to young adult fiction with the Fallen Angel series, and continues it with the upcoming series The Books of Eva. The first book in the series -- Relic -- releases in October 2013.