‘Debut Author Spotlight’ is a new feature here at Book Chick City. We will be showcasing a debut author each week from the genres of horror, urban fantasy and paranormal romance. We will give you all the relevant book information as well as an insight into the author.

THE AUTHOR

Janet Edwards lives in the Midlands. As a child, she read everything she could get her hands on, which included the works of many of the great names of Science Fiction. She read Maths at Oxford, and went on to suffer years of writing unbearably complicated technical documents. When the company she worked for entered the stormy waters of take-over land, she decided it was time to jump ship and try writing something that was fun for a change. She has a husband, a son, a lot of books, and an aversion to housework.

THE BOOK

RELEASE DATE: 16th Aug 2012 | PUBLISHER: Harper Voyager | GENRE: Science Fiction, Young Adult

Jarra is stuck on Earth while the rest of humanity travels around the universe. But can she prove to the norms that she’s more than just an Earth Girl?

2788. Only the handicapped live on Earth. While everyone else portals between worlds, 18-year-old Jarra is among the one in a thousand people born with an immune system that cannot survive on other planets. Sent to Earth at birth to save her life, she has been abandoned by her parents. She can’t travel to other worlds, but she can watch their vids, and she knows all the jokes the norms make. She’s an ‘ape’, a ‘throwback’ … but this is one ape girl who won’t give in.

Jarra invents a fake background for herself – as a normal child of Military parents – and joins a class of norms that is on Earth to excavate the ruins of the old cities. When an ancient skyscraper collapses, burying another research team, Jarra’s role in their rescue puts her in the spotlight. No hiding at back of class now. And to make life more complicated, she finds herself falling in love with one of her classmates – a norm from another planet. Somehow, she has to keep the deception going. A freak solar storm strikes the atmosphere, and the class is ordered to portal off-world for safety – no problem for a real child of military parents, but fatal for Jarra. The storm is so bad that the crews of the orbiting solar arrays have to escape to the planet below: the first landing from space in 600 years. And one is on collision course with their shelter…

THE INTERVIEW 

Hi Janet, welcome to Book Chick City. What’s EARTH GIRL about?

In the year 2788, only the handicapped live on Earth. Everyone else can portal between nearly a thousand inhabited worlds, but Jarra is among the one in a thousand people born with an immune system that means they can only survive on Earth. She can look up at the stars, but never reach them. She’s stuck on an Earth that’s a ghetto planet run by Hospital Earth, its cities long abandoned and fallen into ruins.

Tell us a bit more about the hero/heroine.

Jarra was abandoned by her parents at birth and made a ward of Hospital Earth. She was raised in a series of institutions, Nursery, Home and Next Step. She’s watched the vids of the other worlds all her life, and she knows all the jokes they make about people like her. She’s an ‘ape’, a ‘throwback’, but she isn’t giving in. Jarra’s almost eighteen now, it’s time to leave Next Step, and she wants to study history because she loves learning about the days when no-one even knew that her handicap existed. She should join a course run by University Earth, but instead she pretends to be the normal child of Military parents and joins a class of students from one of the colony worlds, on Earth to excavate the hazardous ruins of the ancient cities. She’s going to prove she’s not just as good as them, but better!

How did you research EARTH GIRL?

I would have loved to travel to the year 2788 and research the world of Earth Girl in reality. Instead I had to create that world in my imagination, extrapolating from the Earth of today, deciding future events and their consequences, building a future time line. There was some factual research as well. Sometimes several hours of work resulted in one line of the book, or just checked it was reasonable not to say something.

Is EARTH GIRL the first in a series or a stand alone novel?

Judging from the comments of people who’ve read it, Earth Girl definitely works as a stand alone book, but is actually the first book in a trilogy.

When is your favourite time to write?

My favourite time to write is in the mornings. Usually I start early in the morning. Sometimes a lot earlier than I’d like. My muse has a bad habit of waking me in the middle of the night with what it considers a wonderful idea, and nagging me until I start to write it down.

Where is your favourite place to write?

Some people find it helps to write somewhere like a coffee shop, or listening to music. I write best when alone. No conversations. No music. No interesting views out of the window. I bore my brain into concentrating on the writing.

What was the last book you read and enjoyed?

It’s easy for a writer to analyse a book too much, and start thinking about the way they’d have written it themselves. That happened to me with the last book I read.  Before that, I read the Hunger Games, which firmly held me in reader rather than writer mode.

Which authors do you admire?

I admire Terry Pratchett for the number of brilliant books he’s written, effortlessly mingling fantasy, comedy and detective fiction, and populating them with an amazing cast of characters. I am a Granny Weatherwax fan.

Describe yourself in five words

Delighted still disbelieving debut author.

What’s next?

I’m currently working hard on books 2 and 3 of the Earth Girl trilogy.

GIVEAWAY!

Thanks to Harper Voyager, I have 5 (FIVE) copies of Earth Girl to give away This giveaway is open internationally and ends 18th Aug 2012

To enter please leave a comment in the comments section of this blog post and then fill out the form below

Oops! We could not locate your form.

JANET EDWARDS ONLINE

Website | Goodreads | Twitter

BUY THE BOOK

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:

REVIEW: Earth Girl by Janet Edwards

GIVEAWAY WINNERS: West of Want & Swag by Laura Kaye,…

DEBUT AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: Brigid Kemmerer “Storm”…

DEBUT AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: Kim Curran “Shift” (YA…