Alexandra Bracken wrote Brightly Woven as a birthday present for a friend, and the story grew and flourished during a year of unpredictable, wild weather. A native of Arizona, she is a recent graduate of the College of William and Mary, where she majored in History and English. She now lives in New York City and works in children’s book publishing. Her most recent book is The Darkest Minds.
Tell us 5 random facts about yourself.
1. I’ve never broken a bone before (knock on wood!).
2. My dad was a huge Star Wars collector, so I’ve been to six conventions.
3. I was almost kidnapped as a child.
4. I’m terrified of swimming in the ocean.
5. I don’t like the taste of coffee or chocolate. (I know, I know…)
Tell us about your journey to becoming a writer.
My journey started when I was in college—freshman year to be exact. I knew from a really young age that I wanted to be a writer, but I didn’t actually attempt to write for publication until I was 18 and NaNoWriMo. I figured, hey! If nothing else, it’s a great challenge. Challenge being the keyword there. I still have no idea how I wrote a book and kept up with all of the schoolwork I had.
That book went nowhere—thankfully—but during that time, I befriended a girl on my freshman hall named Carlin, who read and edited it patiently for me. When I decided to try writing another book, I took a lot of pressure off myself by writing it for her birthday, not for publication. This was the book that got my first agent—in fact, she called to offer representation on my twenty-first birthday, which was strange, totally awesome timing. That became my first book, Brightly Woven, which sold my senior year of college (2009) and was published in 2010.
Why do you feel you had to tell this story?
As strange as it’s going to sound, it’s really because Ruby had my ear. She had such a strong voice and story that no matter how many times I tried working on something else, Ruby kept calling me back. I felt, too, that it tied in nicely to what was happening in our version of America today.
What was your favorite chapter/scene to write and why?
My favorite chapter is still the one in which you discover what Ruby did to her parents. It wasn’t even in the first drafts of the book; it was born out of a suggestion that an early reader had, and I wasn’t even sold on including it until I had it down on paper. Now I can’t imagine the book with out it. It gives such an insight into who Ruby is as a person and why she struggles to embrace her abilities.
In The Darkest Minds the camp scenes are reminiscent of tales from concentration camps. Was it difficult to write those scenes and how did you come up with the different things happening in the camps?
Oh, they were terrible to write. Honestly, it’s sometimes really difficult to tell Ruby’s story because so many horrible things happen to them, and they keep having to dig deeper inside of themselves to overcome everything that’s thrown in their path. I sympathize with all of the characters to such a degree that it’s hard, even for me, to see what they have to face on a daily basis.
There are definitely meant to be echoes of the internment camps of WWII, but I see them as being closer to the Japanese internment camps in America than the concentration camps in Europe. As brutal and awful as the rehab camps are in The Darkest Minds, they’re not meant to be death camps. The government isn’t trying to kill the kids, they’re being kept in what amounts to very large, desolate holding cells-initially because the government is afraid that it’s a contagious disease or virus causing this and they’re trying to quarantine the first cases. When it becomes clear it’s more than just a few hundred kids affected, they expand the camps to “contain” the threat until they figure out a cure… or, really, how to use them. The rehab camps are really more about eliminating the “threat” the kids pose to national security through fear and deprivation.
The Darkest Minds is a mix between the X-Men and the setting of The Hunger Games, yet it is completely its own book. How did you come up with the idea for the book?
This is such a hard question for me to answer because there were so many different things that inspired it. Many of the emotional undercurrents are the result of observations I had as teenager during and after 9/11. I wanted to write a story that would comment on our times, but fill it with things that I love in a book: a tight, close-knit central cast of characters, high-stakes plot, road trips, classic rock, impossible romance…
Your first book, Brightly Woven, was a high fantasy novel. How hard was it to write in a completely new world?
Because I set The Darkest Minds in our world—the near future—it actually involved a lot more research and careful consideration than creating a world from the ground up.
What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?
In terms of The Darkest Minds, the best compliment has been that the world and characters felt real to them—like this could actually happen. The toughest criticism in my mind has to do with Ruby and people who dislike who she is—I feel very protective of her, maybe to a fault!
Where’s your favorite place to write?
I almost always just write in my little room in my little apartment, which works for me! It’s nice to shake things up every once in a while, but my desk is where I focus best.
What character do you relate most to?
I relate to each of them in different ways, but I feel like Chubs and I are secretly kindred spirits. He and I are both a little, um, high-strung, but we’re fiercely loyal and protective of our friends.
What is easier to write: The first line or the last line?
For me, it’s always been the last line. I tend to have the end in place from the beginning and usually hit upon a good last line in the process of writing. I really struggle with beginnings as a rule… though while I’ve been working on The Darkest Minds sequel, I’ve had the opposite problem! The end needed the most work.
What one YA novel do you wish you had when you were a teen?
Code Name Verity. Words cannot describe how much I love that book as a history geek and a writer—it’s so beautiful.
Do you have things you need in order to write ie. coffee, cupcakes, music?
This is so pathetic, but I have a severe dependency on Mountain Dew! I’m really trying to kick my Dew habit.
What are you working on now?
Well! I’m in the middle of revising book 2, just starting book 3, and playing around with a few ideas for stories that’ll come once this series is over.
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