A Q&A with Kyle Prue, author of The
Sparks,
Book One in the Feud trilogy
1.
Where did
you get the idea for the Feud series?
This is a coming of age story for
young adults and I am a teen in that demographic. Everyone struggles to find
their path in life and my characters are all struggling with not wanting to let
people down and to find their way; forgiveness and hope is a part of that
journey as well. One night, at the age of 15, I had terrible insomnia and I
couldn’t sleep. I was thinking about the different personalities of my siblings
and myself and how we will all follow different paths. That gave me the idea to
create three different families loosely based around our differing
personalities. I decided it would be fun to take these families and place them
in a fantasy world where the obstacles we all face could be magnified to a
whole new level. I wrote out the plot for the three books that night.
2.
What drew
you to write YA Fantasy?
I wanted to write for me. Recently,
I’ve hit an “in-between” zone where it’s harder for me to find books I want to
read. I wanted to write something that I would want to read and that would
appeal to other kids my age. I wanted to appeal to boys who have lost interest
in reading and I also created strong female characters that girls will love.
3.
When did you
first start writing?
Like a lot of kids, I was bullied
in middle school. I doubt you will ever find a kid that says, “I rocked 7th
grade! That was the best time in my life.” I was short and fat and had a bowl
haircut with braces. This was not a great time in my life. But I discovered I
could come home and pick up a pen and create a whole fantasy world that I could
control, when the rest of my life felt out of control. I learned that I loved
to create characters because their potential is limitless.
I was lucky because I learned to
use writing as an escape at an early age. I was in a multi-age program from 1st-3rd
grade where I had the same teacher for three years. She had an experimental
writing program where she gave us an hour a day to write in our journals. She
told us to just write freely and not worry about punctuation or grammar, just
let the creativity flow. So by the end of that program, I had a stack of
notebooks filled with an adventure series. I also did a series called Three
Rings that I wrote from the age of 12 to 14 when middle school was really
rough. It was a 200-page manuscript. It wasn’t good, but it was good practice.
4.
What are
your other interests besides writing?
I love stand up comedy because like
writing, it requires an ability to look at the world in a unique way and find
the humor in that. I’m a varsity swimmer for my school. I’m involved with mock
trial, I’m in a number of plays every year, I started an improv club at my
school and I’m really involved with our film club—we spend our weekends writing
scripts and filming. We are currently working on a web series called
“Amockalypse” that I’m really excited about. I pretty much gave up on sleeping
after middle school.
5.
When do you find
the time to write?
If you love something, you find the
time. I write during any hour that I can get free. With extracurriculars, I
don’t usually get home until around 7:00 p.m. or later, and then I have
homework, so I may only write an hour or two during the week. I try to make
time to write during the weekends and breaks—I get the most writing done in the
summer. I started the second book in the trilogy, The Flames, this past summer and am working on editing it over this
school year.
6.
Where is
your favorite place to write?
I’ve usually got a notebook or
computer on hand so any time I feel even the slightest bit inspired I can
write. I am a big fan of writing in bookstores—it’s an interesting feeling to
be surrounded by the works of people who have achieved what you are trying to
accomplish.
7.
What is your
family like?
My family is nothing like the
families in the book, I better clarify that up front. My parents are incredibly
supportive and have allowed me to follow my dreams. I have two siblings: a
brother and a sister. They are great; we are very close. I am the youngest.
My brother and I used to fight a
lot and that dynamic inspired my idea for the three feuding families in the
books. We don’t fight anymore, as we’ve outgrown that phase, but it gave me
plenty to write about.
8.
What were you
like as a child?
I lived in a fantasy world all the
time—I was always inventing stories and reenacting them. I lived in costumes. I
had a cat suit that I particularly loved. My mom would always get me a new
costume for Halloween and inevitably I would end up back in my cat suit when it
was time to go trick-or-treating. I wore that cat suit until the legs only came
to my knees. It’s weird…for some reason when you dress like a cat all the time
you don’t make a ton of friends. But anyway, that’s why my parents signed me up
for acting classes. I started taking acting classes at the age of six. I loved
it from the start.
9.
I understand
you still have the acting bug. What are you doing now?
Currently, my whole focus is on
college auditions. I’m crazy enough to be applying for programs where thousands
of kids audition and they literally accept only six boys. So it’s kind of like
trying to win the lottery, but I’m giving it my best shot. As I mentioned, I’m
writing, directing and acting in my web series and we are launching a
Kickstarter campaign to fund that this week. I spent last fall in LA and I was
so lucky to take acting classes and perform improv at LA Connection. It was
like what I imagine grad school is like. I spent 40 hours a week in acting
classes and seminars—and still had to keep up with schoolwork online. It was
intense but amazing.
10.
What's your
favorite part of acting? Favorite thing about improv?
My favorite part of acting is
initially stepping into the shoes of a character and just beginning to break
them in: finding out what they want, how they talk, how they move, etc.
My favorite part of improv is when
you are easing into a scene and the really good lines just start flowing,
especially when you’re working with a talented partner.
11.
Were you a big
reader as a kid?
In 5th grade, I started
at a new elementary school when I moved to Naples. They had a reading contest
for whoever read the most books. I ended up reading like 200 books, which was a
bit of overkill as the next highest kid read about 75 books, but apparently I’m
more competitive than I realized. I just really wanted to beat this girl in my
class who told me she was a better reader.
12.
Were you drawn
to a certain genre as a kid?
When I was younger, I really
disliked reading. My mom would read me the books that my brother liked and I
just never got into them. One day she was at the bookstore picking out books
for us, and she mentioned to the owner that I didn’t seem interested in reading
and he asked her about my personality and interests. He recommended that she
try some fantasy books for me. She brought home a few of those books and from
then on, all I did was read and write. I love young adult fantasy.
13.
Were there
certain authors that you really liked?
I’ve always loved Rick Riordan, and
every kid in my generation loves JK Rowling. My mom started guarding the Harry
Potter books and reading them aloud to us, because otherwise I would read one
whole book in a night and then tell my siblings what happened. We would barely
leave the house until we had finished each book. Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games
series has been phenomenal.
14.
How have those
writers influenced your writing?
I think Rick Riordan introduces and
writes characters very well, which is something I kept in mind, because I have
a group dynamic with my book. But I really like the way JK Rowling set up the
overall plot and carried it through, intertwining a lot of different elements.
She knew how to set up a big, epic adventure and finished it beautifully. That
is what I hope to do with this trilogy.
15.
Do you work
with an outline or do you just write? Do you ever get stuck?
Normally, I have a basic idea of
where the story is going when I start writing a chapter. But there have been
times when I am writing the chapter that I suddenly decide to take it in a new
direction. Sometimes I struggle with writing a chapter or a character in the
book, so to overcome that I’ll take a break and work on another project.
16.
Do you have a
favorite character in The Sparks?
It alternates a lot. In general,
I’ve always been a fan of characters that are only around for one book and that
are very big and eccentric. I really like Michael Taurlum because he’s kind of
the epitome of what’s wrong with the Taurlum family and he’s just such a child.
So it was really interesting to write about him and make him such an
aggressive, haughty character.
17.
If your book
was made into a movie, which actors would be cast as the main characters?
I’ll try my best at this one.
(Disclaimer: this would be one expensive movie . . . )
Neil: Brenton Thwaites (or Kyle
Prue, if Brenton Thwaites is not available)
Saewulf: Michael Fassbender
Darius: Luke Bracey
Lilly: Alexandra Daddario or Emma
Watson
Rhys: Dane DeHann
Jennifer and Victoria: Teresa
Palmer
Bianca: Leven Rambin
Michael: Chris Hemsworth
Carlin: Mark Strong
The Emperor: Benedict Cumberbatch
Jonathan: Rico Rodriguez
Sir Vapros: Mads Mikkelsen
Quintus: Jonah Hill (Cameo Role)
18.
Can you tell us
a bit about the second book, The Flames?
One of the big themes of the second
book is that no one should get to a point in their life when they should
experience a complete absence of hope. Things will always get better. My best
friend from childhood committed suicide this year and I really want other teens
to understand that whatever seems so overwhelming in your life today, won’t be
what’s important to you down the road. When my characters experience this loss
of hope, that is when they gain their advanced powers. Something good can come
out of something that in the moment seems so terrible.
The second book in the series
focuses on the remaining family members (spoiler alert!) and their friends, as
they begin to kindle the revolution. It’s a lot about personal growth for the
characters, like Neil and Darius. Even Robert Tanner, who is a minor character
in the first book, comes back and has a very big story arc. It is the book
where we start to reach that giant conflict that the characters have been
stepping toward in the storyline.
19.
What was
your favorite part or chapter to write in The
Sparks?
I really, really enjoyed writing
the fight between Darius and Jennifer. It’s interesting when you write
characters separately, then give
them a chance to interact together. Jennifer is one of my favorite characters.
Neil describes her as the model assassin so it was really fun to write her in
that type of setting.
20.
How did you
come up with the title?
The entire book is based on a family feud so that was the reason for
the series name, Feud. But the individual titles are The Sparks, The Flames
and The Ashes; these are symbolic of
the Vapros family motto which is “Victory Lies Within the Ashes.” The Vapros
turn a person to ash when they kill them. For them that is a macabre way of
saying, “You have to bust a couple of heads to get what you want.” So the
titles reveal that there is going to be a lot of bloodshed and a climax to this
storyline, which we are building up to in the series.
21.
How did you
pick the names of the families?
I based the family names on Latin
root words: Taurlum is based on the Latin word for bull, Celerius is the Latin
word for swift and Vapros is smoke.
22.
How did you get
the idea for the three families?
In the first book, there are three
main families and since I have a brother and a sister, I loosely based these
families around the three of us—their mannerisms, their traits, resulting in a
black-and-white version of us blended with a more honorable, respectable side
and a more aggressive, audacious side. So the Taurlum are based off my brother,
the Celerius off my sister and the Vapros off me, a little bit.
23.
What can you
tell us about the challenges of getting a book published?
I went to the New York Pitch
Conference and Writer’s Workshop and got the opportunity to pitch my book to
Random House, Penguin and McMillan Press. Each requested the manuscript (it was
the most requested manuscript at the conference!), so I felt like I had a sound
idea. The conference director advised me to use the publisher interest to try
to get an agent. So, I began the process of sending query letters. I got some
good advice from the agents I talked to. One advised me to hire a
well-respected editor, as publishers expect manuscripts to be perfect, so I did
that. Then another agent took the time to really ask me about my goals. I
wanted the book to be read by as many people as possible and I wanted to get it
published in a timely manner. She explained that—if I was lucky—the publishing
process would take 3-5 years. She recommended that I meet with a small,
independent publisher with a good reputation. They could meet my timing needs
and I would have more input in the process, ensuring that I could retain some
creative control of the final product. I met with the publisher she recommended
(Barringer Publishing) and we hit it off immediately. So far, I’ve been
thrilled with the process.
I’m hoping to publish Book 2, The Flames, in late summer 2015.
24.
Do you have
advice for other high school students wanting to write a book?
Yes, never stop writing. Write, and
write and write, until you’ve got something that you like. Don’t be afraid to
have a very rough copy of something. The editing process is terrible and long
and arduous, but it’s something you have to do. What matters is getting
something on paper and then really shaping it into what you are looking for.
25.
Is there
anything you would like to say to your readers and fans?
Thank you for sharing this journey
with me. The series only gets better and more intense from here and I can’t
wait to see what you guys think of it all.
26.
Tell us
where we can find your book and more information about you.
You can find more info on my
website, www.kyleprue.com,
Facebook www.facebook.com/kyleprue,
Twitter @KylePrue
and Instagram @KyleStevenPrue.
PRESS CONTACT
Ashley Lauretta | PR by the Book
512-481-7728 | ashley@prbythebook.com
