The Fox Inheritance Blog Tour (Guest Post & Giveaway!)

As part of the blog tour for Mary E. Person's The Fox Inheritance, the sequel to the widely popular The Adoration of Jenna Fox, I had the chance to ask Mary a question. So without a further ado...


My Question: 

Will you talk about the bridge between The Adoration of Jenna Fox and The Fox Inheritance, and the upcoming third book?

Mary's Answer: 

Thanks for kicking off my blog tour, Lauren! I'd be happy to talk about that!

When I finished The Adoration of Jenna Fox, I thought I was done, but I did keep wondering about one particular scene and a ‘what if’ question developed. Without giving too much away for your readers who haven't read the first book, it was the scene where Jenna threw something in the water. I kept wondering if she really had the right to do that, and also I couldn't get it out of my head that with all the pirating and illegal copies of everything from books to games, wouldn't it be likely that there would be copies made of something that was so very valuable.

I did my best to put this question out of my head, especially since I was now working on another book, but the question kept surfacing and I eventually succumbed to my curiosity. I set my work-in-progress aside for just one afternoon, and wrote what I thought would be just one quick chapter to get it out of my system. But after that I was hopelessly hooked. The voice exploded in my head. I had given it life and I couldn't wait to write more, but I was hesitant too, because I hadn't really planned to write a second book in the Jenna saga–plus I was in the middle of another one!

What should I do? So I ran that first chapter past my editor and agent to get their reactions, and I got a huge thumbs up from both of them. That's all I needed to dig in. This time I was certain it was only going to be a two volume series, but about mid-way I began to get a sneaking suspicion that a third story was lurking, and by the time I was done I was crazy with the possibilities. Did I dare tell my editor? But when I told her she was just as enthusiastic as I was. She thought a third story was begging to be told too.

I’m very much an organic writer, not planning ahead too much, and it's really interesting for me to see how this three part story has evolved and how the emotional plots seem to be following the natural progression of relationships in our lives. The emotional plot of Adoration centered around the first people in our lives–our parents–and the very strong and lasting bonds we have with them. In The Fox Inheritance the emotional plot revolves around our next meaningful relationships, our friends and peers who help to shape us at such a pivotal time in our lives and leave us forever changed–sometimes for better or worse. And the third book seems to be evolving into the final relationship we seek–a deep and lasting love relationship. But we’ll see. It's not finished yet and I'm often surprised at the unexpected turns my stories take before I get to the end.

Of course these are the underlying emotional plots–there’s a lot more going on that I had a great time exploring. The Fox Inheritance takes place 260 years after Adoration. That’s a huge jump into the future! So much could happen! I had lots of new territory to research before I wrote it, but like I did with the first book, I tried to make the advances and changes believable based on current events and where technology is now and where we may be headed.

For instance, I had read about a monster volcano in Yellowstone that erupts roughly every 600,000 years and now at 640,000 years was overdue for an explosion. If it explodes at full capacity it could be cataclysmic and even a “species-ending” event, plunging earth into winter for several years. Even though such an explosion happens in the future I have written, it doesn’t play a front and center role other than we see some of the lasting effects of it–like the rise of robots to supplement the wiped out workforce. All kinds of Bots! One in particular that I became quite fond of! But I’ll be talking about that in another post . . .

Thanks so much for having me here, Lauren! I hope you and your readers enjoy The Fox Inheritance!

~~

Thanks so much for stopping by, Mary!

About The Fox Inheritance:

Once there were three. Three friends who loved each other—Jenna, Locke, and Kara. After a terrible accident destroyed their bodies, their three minds were kept alive, spinning in a digital netherworld. Even in that disembodied nightmare, they were still together. At least at first. When Jenna disappeared, Locke and Kara had to go on without her. Decades passed, and then centuries.

Two-hundred-and-sixty years later, they have been released at last. Given new, perfect bodies, Locke and Kara awaken to a world they know nothing about, where everyone they once knew and loved is long dead.

Everyone except Jenna Fox.

Book Trailer/Amazon/Goodreads/Barnes and Noble

To find out more about Mary and her books, check out her website. 

Tomorrow the blog tour will take Mary to the Ya Ya Yas book blog where she will be talking about AI and her fictional fave robots.

Mary has also offered up one signed, personalized hardcover copy of The Fox Inheritance! To enter, please fill out the following form.

Official Giveaway Rules:

~ Must be 13 years or older

~ Must have a US mailing address

~ This giveaway will close on August 31, 2011 at 12:00 PM EST

~ For an extra entry, comment on this post.

*THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW OVER.*