Featured Interview With Chantal Gadoury
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
So a little bit about me. . .
I was born in Germany, on a military base – as my father was stationed there. I often get questions on what I do remember about that time in my life. Honestly, I don’t really remember much about it, other than the cobblestone roads, the wonderful scent of an ice cream parlor, and a little red house filled with sand at a park. When my parents returned to the United States, we moved to a small town in Pennsylvania. I currently still live there with my mom, my sister and our family dog – Taran. (He’s a yorkie, and he’s the cutest dog I know.) After I graduated high school, I attended Susquehanna University, where I received a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing. And suddenly had permission to call myself a full-fledged writer!
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I was really young when my fascination with books began. My mom used to take me to the library every Saturday, where she introduced me to the world of books. The library was my most favorite place to go. I loved finding new books to look at, to read. Of course, I had my favorites that I always checked out and read over and over again. I started writing a bit later in my childhood – about seven or eight, when a teacher assigned us to write a story of our own. From then on, I was always writing. I can remember asking my parents for a diary, so that I could be just like Harriet the Spy (because I was young when that movie came out.) I used to cut up my old coloring book pages and create stories for my sister. I would have journals and journals of stories and ideas. And when I learned how to type, I was able to write them down even faster. In high school, I wrote with my friends in journals – we’d take characters and mesh them into different worlds and situations. Many of which were all based on anime characters; “Cowboy Bebop,” “Gundam Wing,” “G-Gundam.” When I was in college, I found a little group of on-line Disney Roleplayers. So when I wasn’t reading – I was writing!
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
When I enter a bookstore, I directly go to the Young Adult section. It’s my go-to for any sort of reading that I might do. In that section, I prefer to read a good, sweet, fluffy romance. Whether it’s fantasy or contemporary, I’m not biased. I’m a fan of Sarah Dessen, Maggie Stiefvater, and Sarah J. Maas. I’ve recently become a huge fan of Jenny Han’s “To all the boys I loved” series, and finished “Fangirl” by Rainbow Rowell. Robin McKinley, Edith Pattou and Donna Jo Napoli were authors that heavily influenced me in the beginning of my “I’m-going-to-write-a-novel” days. I wanted to write a fairy tale retelling just like they had. But I think many of the authors that I’ve listed have influenced me in many different ways when it comes to my own writings. Maggie and Sarah J. Maas have a beautiful way of describing scenes and emotions for fantasy elements. Jenny and Rainbow helped me to grasp onto the emotional tideway that contemporary romances bring to young people. They all are at a standard of writing that I hope to achieve to someday.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
The latest book coming out on June 19th is called “Between the Sea and Stars.” I call it my Disney Crossover. “The Little Mermaid” meets “Treasure Planet” meets villains as cruel as the ones you find in “Aladdin.” When I went about in writing this book, I really wanted to reference real-life mermaid mythology. Instead of being called Mermaids, they’re merrows – based on the Irish/English Origin. The locations are all set in and around Denmark, a nod to the original Little Mermaid tale. And of course, being that it’s my own Disney Crossover, there’s magic, romance, danger, and adventure. Lena is not so much your damsel in distress, but she’s also not one of the many heroines that we read today who hold a bow and arrow and kill all the enemies. I wanted to write a character who felt real and made real decisions; made real mistakes and felt real emotions. I wanted to write a book which explored the many layers of what it is to be human; what makes us who we are. When we’re faced with things that we want the most, who or what do we become? It took about a year to write – but I think I accomplished what I set out to do. Lena meets several different characters while she’s on land – and finds that perhaps the ‘seaweed isn’t always greener, in somebody else’s lake…’ For anyone who enjoyed “To Kill a Kingdom,” “Between the Sea and Stars” might just be for you!
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Chantal Gadoury Twitter Account
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