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Interview with author Keira Michelle Telford
Did you read my review of Silver yesterday? Today I have author Keira Michelle Telford
[jbox]PAV: Keira, Silver Acheron (A River of Pain) is a fan-freaking-tastic book! Oh My God! Where in the world did you ever come up with the idea for this world?[/jbox]
[jbox color=green]KM: It’s all to do with love and romance. I wanted to set a love story (which is beautiful and sensual and erotic) against the backdrop of a dystopian world (which is vile and cruel and depraved). I hope it gives a sense that, no matter how vulgar the world you live in, love can still remain untarnished and incorruptible. True love is enduring, and can withstand all the horrors that you throw at it. Even if you have nothing else left in the world, you can still hold onto love. [/jbox]
[jbox]PAV: I absolutely love the Chimera, they are both endearing and overwhelmingly gross. Can you explain the milk they excrete?[/jbox]
[jbox color=green]KM: Has a guinea pig ever sneezed on you? I have nine pigs. Although it’s rare, every now and again I get the pleasure of being sneezed at, right in my face. Just like humans, when pigs sneeze they squeeze their eyes closed. (It’s really kinda cute). When they close their eyes, sometimes the force of the sneeze causes some white goo to squirt out. (Yes, I did just use the words ‘white goo’ and ‘squirt’ in the same sentence – clamber on up out of the gutter now). This white goo is a secretion that they use to clean their face, and they can express it whenever they want. When I first discovered this, I was fascinated by it. (‘Cause I’m weird like that). I imagined that it could have antibacterial properties. I imagined that, if Chimera were to secret the same substance, it could be harvested as a post-apocalyptic version of polysporin. [/jbox]
[jbox]PAV: So why can people eat Chimera is they are mutant humans? I know there’s no other meat but wouldn’t it make them sick like eating human meat?[/jbox]
[jbox color=green]KM: This is a good question because, especially in later books, the genetic divide between human and monster starts to become ever more blurred. Mostly, though, I think it’s a social issue. In most parts of our world, people are disgusted by the thought of eating animals that are commonly kept as pets. Guinea pigs, for example. I’d never eat one of my pigs, but in South America, eating guinea pigs isn’t strange at all. Then there’s also the fact that if you cooked a guinea pig, shredded the meat, called it chicken and fed it to me in a salad, I’d eat it and probably quite enjoy it. Therefore, it’s only the thought of eating a guinea pig that bothers me, and that’s only because I’ve been socially conditioned to view them as pets, not food. Likewise, if you’re socially conditioned to hate something – and you want to destroy it at all costs – eating it probably wouldn’t seem like such a big deal. In Silver’s world, for hundreds of years, humans have been taught to loathe Chimera. The fact that they used to be human has been pushed so far back in the social mind, it’s practically a non-existent fact. One which we might all be reminded of at some point… [/jbox]
[jbox]PAV: Silver is an amazing character. She’s so bad-ass and yet you still keep her sensitive. I’m in love with how she takes care of Alice and her feelings for the men in her life. What is it about her that makes her capable of such hardness and compassion?[/jbox]
[jbox color=green]KM: I think the real question might be: what came first? Was she always a hardass who later had her heart melted by a few select people? Or was she a compassionate, tender girl who forged herself into a hardened warrior over a decade of war in the Hunter Division? Quite simply, she was raised to be a Hunter. She never had any choice about that. From a very early age, she always knew what was expected of her. She knew there was no room for weakness, so she embraced the traits that pleased her father (Maydevine) the most. I don’t really want to say anymore than that, though. So much of who she became as an adult is linked to events in her adolescence, and I get the feeling that a later book in this series might answer a few of those questions… [/jbox]
[jbox]PAV: Do you think there’s any place in Silver’s world for love? Now that she lives in the Fringe District, it seems like love is more likely to get you killed than be a good thing![/jbox]
[jbox color=green]KM: Love is the only thing keeping Silver from self-destructing. Love is the only thing she has to hold onto to remind her that she’s human. If she didn’t love, she’d be completely hollow. She stopped living for herself the day she was banished, and caring for Alice gives her a reason to keep on keeping on. Caring for Alice gives her a purpose; it makes her feel necessary. Without Alice, I dread to think what she might do to herself. [/jbox]
[jbox]PAV: What about Alice? What is she exactly?[/jbox]
[jbox color=green]KM: As if I could tell you that! That’s a major plotline in the second book: The Lost & Damned. [/jbox]
[jbox]PAV: Come on, give us a hint! PLEEEEEAAASE![/jbox]
[jbox color=green]KM: Haha. Okay. Let’s just say that Alice has a tendency to say whatever she needs to say, to make the people around her believe whatever they need to believe, in order to solicit their care and protection. Does that help? [/jbox]
[jbox]PAV: So what’s in store for Silver? I saw that this is going to be a 10 book series (I can’t tell you how rocking that is to hear!). [/jbox]
[jbox color=green]KM: The current series is split into two chunks: The Amaranthe Chronicles and The Outlier Trilogy. And therein lies a clue. The Amaranthe Chronicles portion contains 7 interwoven books which all take place in the city of Amaranthe. The Outlier Trilogy, however, does not have anything whatsoever to do with Amaranthe. Silver’s going global… [/jbox]
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Genre – Science Fiction
Rating – 18A
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