2015 Spooktacular Day 5 - Scott Sigler + Giveaway

Today's author is actually one that I asked last year (which is why the questions are a little different), but he was so busy that it took him a while to get back to me, and thus here he is this year.  I'm happy to introduce

Scott Sigler

whose first novel directed more toward YA audiences came out.

Alive

is the first book in the Generations Trilogy!

The Interview;

Once Upon A Teen Reader: Straight to the point, can you describe Alive in 10 or less words?

Scott Sigler: LORD OF THE FLIES meets SAW. 

OUATR: Your books have all been geared towards adults in the past (although I think I read Infected when I was just over 13), have you toned down the blood and gore in this novel or left it on par with your previous books and why?

SS: Quantity-wise, yes. Quality-wise, no — there are some deeply visceral scenes in ALIVE that will make many readers wince. The fact that it’s being marketed as YA will, if anything, set those scenes up as far more shocking to the reader. As for the “why,” I don’t tell the story what needs to be done, it tells me. There is a slow build in ALIVE where the characters are struggling to deal with a reality that defies explanation. They are lost and alone. The horror of these emotions takes center stage. Once they start to take control of their situation, once they start to fight, that’s when things get crazy. In my opinion, ALIVE maintains a general theme of my work: if you want blood, you got it. 

OUATR: It sounds like this novel is going to play at some very real fears a lot of people have (being buried alive, being left for dead, ect), did you incorporate any of your own fears into the book and if so what are they?

SS: I watched my grandfather wither away with dementia due to Alzheimers. I was a teenager when it happened. At the time, it scared the lining hell out of me to watch this loving, brilliant man stare at his own flesh and blood and not know who they were. He couldn’t remember his own daughter. That stretch of time drastically shaped my outlook on life — Grampa’s hardware was working just fine, but the software was forever corrupt, permanently scrambled. When I began to understand that end might be hereditary in my family, I felt deep fear imagining what it would be like to have my knowledge of the world gradually fade away. I dug deep into that emotion for ALIVE. Our characters are teens, but for all intents and purposes they are just like my grampa — floundering in a hell of memory fragments where you know just enough to realize that your memories are gone.

OUATR: What’s next?

SS: Next is ALIGHT, the sequel to ALIVE and Book II in the Generations Trilogy. ALIGHT is scheduled for a 2016 release. So much of the ALIVE experience revolves around the reader discovering the world at the same time the characters do, so I can’t even give a partial teaser about what happens in Book II for fear of spoiling Book I. What I can say is that those characters who do survive ALIVE are going to feel the heat crank even higher in ALIGHT. Things are going to get nasty. 

Fast Five;

1.On a scale of 1 to 10 how scary is your book?  I think ALIVE is about a 6. There are severe moments of intense creepiness, but it shouldn’t get anyone nightmares. Well, not a lot of nightmares, anyway. The frightening bits of ALIVE  are deeper than jumping-cat scares. The books philosophical elements speak to the human nature of divisiveness that is embedded in our core — if we move past sexism and racism, what new reasons will we find to hate each other?  

2.If you were a character in your book would you survive? I think so

3. Favorite scary movie?  ALIENS is the end-all be-all of scary movies. It’s an absolute masterpiece of physical terror and strangle-you-to-death story pacing. 

4. Fight or die?  Fight. Always. And a quote from alive: “If you run, they will hunt you — kill your enemy and you are forever free.”

5.Tricks or treats?  Treats!!

The Book;

Title: Alive
Author: Scott Sigler
Publisher: Del Ray
Series: The Generations Triology #1
Published July 14, 2015
Add it on Goodreads

A young woman awakes trapped in an enclosed space. She has no idea who she is or how she got there. With only her instincts to guide her, she escapes her own confinement—and finds she’s not alone. She frees the others in the room and leads them into a corridor filled with the remains of a war long past. The farther these survivors travel, the worse are the horrors they confront. And as they slowly come to understand what this prison is, they realize that the worst and strangest possibilities they could have imagined don’t even come close to the truth.

Buy the book on Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | The Book Depository

 The Author;

New York Times best-selling author Scott Sigler is the creator of fifteen novels, six novellas and dozens of short stories. His works are available from Crown Publishing and Del Rey Books.

In 2005, Scott built a large online following by releasing his audiobooks as serialized podcasts. A decade later, he still gives his stories away — for free — every Sunday at scottsigler.com. His loyal fans, who named themselves “Junkies,” have downloaded over thirty-five million individual episodes.

Find him on His Website | Twitter | Facebook

The Giveaway;

I have one copy of ALIVE to give to someone!  All you have to do is fill out the rafflecopter below and you're all set.  And yes, this giveaway is international! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway