#BIR Interview with Aimee Carter, Author of the Goddess Test

Today I have the final author and book from my Top 7 of '11:  Aimee Carter, author of The Goddess Test.  The Goddess Test is Aimee's debut.  In the Goddess Test, we follow Kate as she meets a mysterious man named Henry and agrees to undergo testing to possibly become his wife.  Kate would do anything to save her mother so she agrees.  This is a beautiful story about the Greek gods and goddesses and Hades in particular. In the world that Kate finds herself in, nothing is as it seems.  I loved this book and can not wait for the sequel: Goddess Interrupted.  Now, here's Aimee Carter! 

1) I love the choice of Hades as your leading man. Can you tell us a little about how Henry came to be? How did you develop his character/personality? - Creating Henry was simultaneously one of the easiest and one of the most difficult parts about writing The Goddess Test. The basis of his personality is very much taken from the original Greek myths - a lonely deity who spends his time in the Underworld ruling over the dead. Pop culture has this idea that Hades is evil, but in mythology, he's this neutral guy who has rules and sticks to them. And that's what I really wanted to show with Henry. He's not evil, he's not malevolent; he's stuck in the Underworld, Persephone has left him, and he's essentially alone and miserable, without the chance to move on. He wants to escape that however he possibly can, through Kate or through his own demise. At the same time, eleven other girls have died taking this test, and he's essentially responsible for them. And he'll do anything to save Kate from the same fate.

2) What is your favorite moment in The Goddess Test? - This changes every time someone asks me this question. Without giving much away for those who haven't read it, a few of my favorites were the Christmas scene, the scene with Henry and James, and the council scene toward the end.

3) If you had to choose one character other than Henry as your favorite, which would it be? - Ava, no question, though James is a VERY close second. However, this changes in the sequels - each book (and the novella), I have a handful of favorite characters whose scenes were so much fun to write.

4) What can we expect from the second book, Goddess Interrupted? - Lots of Kate, lots of Henry, and lots and lots of Underworld. The first book was quiet, in a lot of ways - Kate's trapped in a manor for these tests, and a lot of it was the development of her character, her relationship with Henry, and figuring out who was trying to kill her. The second is much more action-packed. Kate has a lot more to do, and she also has several choices she has to make that could change quite literally everything.

5) What is your writing process like? Do you know in advance what is going to happen or does the plot come to you as you write? - I'm an outliner, which means I pretty much know the entire plot before I start writing. However, while I write, I almost always change aspects of the outline, sometimes slightly and sometimes significantly. I always leave room there. And I typically only outline the action-based plot. I leave the emotional arcs for when I'm writing. That way there's a bit of surprise left in it for me too. :)

Thanks so much for having me!

Make sure that you check out The Goddess Test before Goddess Interrupted releases on March 27, 2012!! 

Today on the BIR Blog, they're featuring: DELIRIUM by Lauren Oliver