An Interview with Averella
Good morning, friends! I've got another character interview for you today! This one is from a book that is releasing TODAY so that's exciting! Also, there's a giveaway going on, so make sure you read all the way to the end for that! The author is giving away a bonus DVD about Hunter, a poster, and a magnet!
A reckless young woman named Averella does what no woman has ever done.She disguises herself as a man and purposefully gets herself arrested and thrown into Zagerah. Her brother Gabriel was taken, and with his disease, he will not survive on his own. She has no idea what to expect inside the prison; all she knows is that once men get taken, they never come back.The Hunters will find her.Genetically altered to be faster and stronger than humans, the Hunters use their powers to find and kill every prisoner who enters Zagerah. The only ones who can defeat them, are in fact, themselves.Jared is a Hunter. It’s all he’s known, all he remembers. He kills ruthlessly and without regret, one prisoner after another. When a new prisoner Dalex shows up, everything begins to change. Jared goes undercover to make Dalex and the other prisoners believe he is one of them, a prisoner himself.No one knows the truth.He will trick them.Toy with them.Then, he will kill them.BUY THE BOOK HERE
I stand in the thick forest, clutching my badge a little nervously. This is by far the most dangerous fictional location the InterFiction Gazette has ever sent me. Zagerah. A prison filled with Hunters who are constantly on the prowl looking for someone to kill. But somewhere in here is the character I have been sent to interview.
A movement in the trees, and a small, lithe figure steps forth. It is hard to see in the faint light of the moon filtering down through the thick canopy overhead, it could be a Hunter, but I think it's too small. I step forward. "Averella? My name is Jenelle Schmidt, I'm with the InterFiction Gazette. Would you be willing to answer a few questions?"
Cautiously, Averella takes a slow step forward, hand on a sword at her side. Her eyes dart in every direction before she nods. “We should hurry.”
I study her for a moment. Having the InterFiction database at my fingertips, I know Averella's identity, but anyone inside the world could easily mistake her for a man with her short black hair and black leather clothing. "Can you tell my readers a little bit about yourself? Why are you here in Zagerah? And why are you in disguise?"
Taking a deep breath, Averella purses her lips and her voice deepens as she speaks. “I’m here to save my brother, but – you can’t tell anyone. No one can know I’m a woman. Only men and boys are taken. In order to save my brother, I had to. I couldn’t just leave him to die.”
I nod sympathetically. "I won't tell anyone here, I promise. Have you been able to find your brother? And why is he in here to begin with?"
She shakes her head. “No, not yet…” Before continuing, she clears her throat. “I don’t know why the Aretul take them; no one does. All we know is that men get taken here and they never come back. It’s never made any sense to me either. Why take them just to force them to run for their lives from the Hunters?” Tears glisten in her eyes, but they quickly disappear.
I want to reach out and give her a hug, but she strikes me as the type who would be offended if I acknowledged the emotional pain she is in. "If you can find and save your brother, do you have a plan for getting out? If all goes well, what will you do once you have escaped?"
She laughed mirthlessly, shaking her head. “There is no escaping Zagerah. If – when – I find him, the best thing I can do is keep him alive.”
"Wow," I give a small whistle. "That's a bit... bleak. Um... can you tell me a bit more about this world? What is it like outside of Zagerah?"
A small smile slowly emerges on her face. “I thought it was bad. Everyone lives in fear and it’s hard to survive. The Aretul keep us weak, hunting what we can. Now I know it’s not as bad as Zagerah.”
I write this down and then look her in the eye. "Thank you for taking the time to talk with me. One final question: if you could speak with your author, what is one thing you would like to say to her? Or is there a question you'd like to ask her? Or anything you wish she'd change about your story?”
Averella nods and her jaw clenches. “I would ask her what kind of monster she is.”
Joanna White earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing for Entertainment at Full Sail University. The Valiant series is her first published work, which first started off being updated on a website called Wattpad. She lives in the country of Missouri with her husband, where she continues to work on her other upcoming books. Writing has been a passion since she was ten, when she wrote her first book. Ever since then, writing has become her life outside of her family, God, and being a nerd.
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