Sunday, August 29, 2010

Catching Up with Anastasia Hopcus


Catching Up with Anastasia Hopcus/Blog Tour 2010

Awhile back I had the pleasure of reading and reviewing Shadow Hills along with chatting with author Anastasia Hopcus. Today I'm catching up with the author and welcoming her back to my blog to talk about setting scenes in her novels.


Setting the Scene

One of my favorite things about writing is setting a scene. I get asked quite a bit about why I chose the location and type of school that I describe in Shadow Hills. Why didn’t I just use Austin where I grew up? Or LA where I lived for several years? There are many logical reasons that I’ve explained in several interviews, but I think one reason I often neglect to mention is ambiance.

I’m half Polish and my father was raised in a large (11 kids) Roman Catholic family. He even went through seminary, though he wasn’t a priest for very long, as he wanted to get married and have children. He’s fairly liberal, considering his faith, but one thing I never got out of when I was little was going to Church on Sunday. There may be people who criticize the Roman Catholics for their elaborate rituals and grandiose churches, but that was always my favorite part. The flying buttresses, the smell of frankincense and myrrh, and the exquisite strains of a pipe organ melded together to create this astonishing experience. And that lavishness really made it all seem very otherworldly (especially to a kid with an active imagination).

Nowadays, when my mind wanders, as it does when I’m planning a story, it goes to someplace expansive, beautiful, and a bit intimidating. My mind doesn’t want to wander into fluorescent lit grocery stores and sit on metal bleachers in the gym. It wants to go someplace amazing and mysterious. The locations in Shadow Hills---like the crumbling cemetery tucked away in the woods and the campus populated with two hundred year old buildings covered in tangles of ivy---are a perfect backdrop. They add enough drama so that you can (hopefully) believe that in this fantastical place anything can happen. And while I may not remember every hymn and prayer I learned in Sunday school, I will always remember that feeling of going into a cathedral and being awed......


Thanks Anastasia that was great and if you havent read Shadow Falls yet be sure to check it out.








Posted by Tina~ at 4:53 PM

2 comments:

  1. Juju at Tales of Whimsy.comAugust 31, 2010 at 11:17 AM

    My mind likes to wonder to mysterious and beautiful places too :) Great post :)

    I NEED to get my hands on this book.

    ReplyDelete

  2. Another great post on the blog tour!! I fell a little behind on the tour but I am catching up :)

    ReplyDelete

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