I am so incredibly pleased to be the final stop on the blog tour for Mary Pearson’s Fox Forever, the conclusion to The Jenna Fox Chronicles. It is out today so be sure to order yourself a copy!
The first book in the series, The Adoration of Jenna Fox, was one of the first books I ever reviewed way back in May of 2010. I totally fell in love with it. Today I am hosting the author Mary Pearson for an interview AND I have a giveaway from the publisher. Lucky you! Now, here’s Mary:
The first book in the series, The Adoration of Jenna Fox, was one of the first books I ever reviewed way back in May of 2010. I totally fell in love with it. Today I am hosting the author Mary Pearson for an interview AND I have a giveaway from the publisher. Lucky you! Now, here’s Mary:
Since Fox Forever is the third and final in a series can you give readers who might not be familiar with The Jenna Fox Chronicles a brief intro?
The Jenna Fox Chronicles begins with The Adoration of Jenna Fox. Jenna mysteriously survives a terrible car crash while her two best friends appear to have died. Jenna is saved through extraordinary means by her parents but when she wakes from a coma she can remember nothing, not even her parents or the friends who were in the crash with her. Bit by bit she has to put the pieces together of who she was and who she has become and take hold of her new identity.
In The Fox Inheritance we meet Locke and Kara, also saved through extraordinary means, but only after 260 years have passed. Their experience is quite different from Jenna’s and their prolonged time in limbo has left lasting scars on both of them.
In the final book of the series, Fox Forever, Locke is again the narrator and this time we see both Locke and Jenna come to grips with their past, what they mean to each other, and what they want their futures to be.
I absolutely love The Adoration of Jenna Fox. I’ve read that it was written as a stand alone novel. What made you decide to continue with the story?
It was written as a standalone to explore some questions I had. That’s the way most of my stories begin—with a question. But as it turned out, my questions weren’t fully answered with one book and the second one, The Fox Inheritance, was born from it.
In The Adoration of Jenna Fox I tried to give light to many perspectives–I love exploring lots of viewpoints and all the gray areas in between, but when I was done I felt there was one viewpoint that still hadn’t been voiced–and needed to be. I think Locke’s experience and perspective brought balance to the story and also opened up a whole new kettle of questions.
In The Adoration of Jenna Fox I tried to give light to many perspectives–I love exploring lots of viewpoints and all the gray areas in between, but when I was done I felt there was one viewpoint that still hadn’t been voiced–and needed to be. I think Locke’s experience and perspective brought balance to the story and also opened up a whole new kettle of questions.
The Fox Inheritance was also intended to be a standalone! But this time mid-way through I already heard the third and final book come knocking. Now it truly feels complete to me.
Okay, Locke. I love him. When you decided to continue with the Jenna Fox Chronicles did you already know who he was and where his story was going? Basically I’d love to know anything about him 🙂
I’m so happy to hear that. I love Locke too. I wrote the first chapter in his voice just to get it out of my system because I really wasn’t sure about writing a second book. Even though it was nagging at me, it wasn’t really in the plan! What would I tell my editor? But as soon as I wrote that first chapter, I was hooked.
Locke was so sweet and vulnerable and damaged too, and maybe slightly dangerous. Like most of my characters, he revealed himself slowly to me. He was the youngest of the three main characters and he idolized them which made it even harder for him to stand up for himself. He had to go through a lot of hard knocks to figure out who he was. Oh, and he wears a size 12 shoe since you wanted to know everything.
The Adoration of Jenna Fox takes place in a world not so very different from ours. The Fox Inheritance is set 260 years after that. Was it difficult to move the story in to the future? Is the world of Fox Forever the same as that of The Fox Inheritance?
Moving to a new world was difficult because I had to create an entirely new setting, but it was also freeing. Adoration took place approximately fifty years in the future so I could only take so much creative license in describing it, but with The Fox Inheritance, we are 310 years in the future! The possibilities were wide open, because heck, no one will be around to know if I got it right or not.
Seriously though, I still had to do tons of research and I tried to base Locke’s futuristic world on a lot of realities and predictions of scientists. There are scientists who actually predict such things as when we will really be able to colonize Mars! And of course, it was fun to take some creative license too, like giant sweepers that clean the skies of impurities, and of course Bots.
Fox Forever takes place in the same era as the previous book but in Boston which was a new challenge. In the story some things were the same as old Boston, but of course, some things were very different. It was an interesting mix of the very old and the very new—and sometimes the very scary—like what the T, Boston’s subway, had become.
And because I’m always looking to add more books to my “must read” pile, read any good books lately?
I haven’t been able to read anything for a couple months now (I know) because of a crazy wild deadline on the first book in my new trilogy, but I’m holding out my TBR pile as a delicious carrot. It includes The Raven Boys, Days of Blood and Starlight, and Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. Pretty good carrots, huh?
Thanks for having me at your blog on publication day, Heidi! And thank you for loving Locke as much as I do. I hope your readers enjoy Fox Forever and the rest of the books in The Jenna Fox Chronicles.
Hooray! It’s finally here!
Thanks so much to Mary for stopping by! I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy of this one! Check out some related links below as well as the giveaway!
To see all the stops on the tour–past and upcoming–check out the schedule here at MacTeenBooks: http://www.macteenbooks.com/
Start reading The Adoration of Jenna Fox with this free chapter sampler
Watch the book trailer
Checkout Mary Pearson’s website
Giveaway:
Must be 13 or older to win. US/Canada only.
Locke Jenkins has some catching up to do. After spending 260 years as a disembodied mind in a little black box, he has a perfect new body. But before he can move on with his unexpected new life, he’ll have to return the Favor he accepted from the shadowy resistance group known as the Network.
Locke must infiltrate the home of a government official by gaining the trust of his daughter, seventeen-year-old Raine, and he soon finds himself pulled deep into the world of the resistance—and into Raine’s life.
Mary E. Pearson brings the story she began in The Adoration of Jenna Fox and continued in The Fox Inheritance to a breathtaking conclusion as Locke discovers that being truly human requires much more than flesh and blood.
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