A Q&A with Andrea Cremer Q: Where did you get the idea for Nightshade? A: Nightshade is Calla's story and she was the inspiration for the book. I tend to write from characters and Calla was floating around in my head for a week or two before I started putting her story onto the page. I knew she was a girl who was also a wolf. I knew she was strong, but also in serious trouble. I couldn't figure out how someone so powerful could be in that sort of a fix. That's where Nightshade's world emerged it was all about building a history and society that explained Calla's predicament. Q: Nightshade takes place in such a vivid, well-developed fantasy world. What sort of research went into the development of the world and the mythology of the series? A: Like I said earlier, Calla started it all. The world of Nightshade came as I tried to figure out how someone like Calla, a girl who I knew was incredibly powerful, could be afraid and angry. What was controlling her? Why would she be fighting against her own destiny? I realized that she was facing off with something even more powerful than herself. That’s where my background as a historian came in. I teach early modern history (1500-1800)--a period of immense, violent change in human societies. This is the time of witch hunts, religious warfare, colonization, the Inquistion; all types of cataclysmic social transformation that turned the lives across the globe upside down. The more I thought about Calla I thought about the ways in which wolf warriors and witches could have intertwined lives. The mythology in Nightshade is a blend of history and lore plus new twists I imagined along the way. Q: Your narrator, Calla Tor, is a very take-charge female character—in fact, she’s the alpha of her wolf pack. What are the unique benefits and challenges of her position? Are you hoping that teenage girls will see Calla as a role model? A: Calla is a natural leader and fierce warrior. She loves taking charge and she’s intensely loyal to her packmates, but her role as alpha comes with restrictions set by her masters. Calla’s sense of duty comes into conflict with her independent spirit--she wants to make her own choices rather than just follow orders. I hope that girls, and boys, will see the way Calla’s journey is about finding her true self, questioning a society that limits her strengths, and fighting for what she loves even when that goes against the rules of her world. Q: Why did you decide to set Nightshade in Colorado? What does the setting bring to the story? A: Calla’s masters, the Keepers, are powerful witches who live in luxury, but also seclusion. I wanted a setting that evoked that type of exclusive, almost unreachable landscape where a world of privilege is bordered by the wildness of forests and mountains. Vail, Colorado offered the best mixture of those qualities. Q: What do you like best about writing for teens? A: I love writing YA because it’s full of characters who are testing the limits of their world and figuring out who they really are. Coming of age and self-discovery are incredible moments that reveal so much about human nature and offers the chance to explore pivotal questions and ideas we all struggle with. I also think YA fiction is fearless about expanding the realm of the possible. It’s a boundless, thrilling place to be a writer. Q: Will there be more books featuring Calla, or set in the Nightshade world? A: Yes! Nightshade is a trilogy. Wolfsbane (Nightshade #2) will be published in July 2011 and Bloodrose (Nightshade #3) in spring 2012. After that I’m writing a prequel about the origins of the Witches War, which will be on bookstore shelves in fall 2012. Beyond that--who knows! I’m always coming up with new ideas, so this is just the beginning. Q: What is one thing you would like people to take away from their experience of reading Nightshade? A: I hope that readers will be as invested in the struggles, hopes, and fears of Calla and her pack as I am. The most important thing to me is that the world of Nightshade and the lives of its characters draw readers in so that we’re all going through the series together--cheering, laughing, crying, fighting--that it becomes more than a good story, that we feel like we’re traveling with Calla and her pack on their journey to unravel the tangled mystery of Nightshade’s world.

You may not like your sister, but are you really going to fight a war against her? James and Emily never get on - always fighting and arguing! But when James wakes up one night as his tooth is stolen by a jelly monster he follows it into a weird and wonderful world. Chocolate archers come out of the walls and fly in bubble gum balloons, giant rock candy trolls roam around, icing sugar snowmen appear and disappear, all under the direction of the Candy King who is preparing a war against the tooth fairies! Soon Emily and their cat Muffins find themselves joining the fairies, with only a toothless dragon and a phoenix with hay fever to help them fight the mighty Candy Army! "The Candy King is waiting for you." CANDY WARS is suitable for all readers aged 8 and above.

In Book One, The Seven Stones, young readers were caught in the exciting adventures of Terry, Gwen, Meeska and Polka as they set out on their quest. Remarkably, many parents have been entranced too, and the adult fan base is equally large, enthusiastic and impatient for Book Two. Now, in The Pale Death Moon the adventure continues. The Torus has saved Terry, Gwen, Meeska and Polka from the Baron's secret police, but abandoned them in a completely new world. Three more riddles must be solved - three more stones must be found. But it's not going to be straightforward. The evil Ackru has already stolen one of the stones and now he is making sacrifices each full moon to appease the black spirits who have started to appear on the island. Polka is going to need his best plan ever, because Ackru has a hostage, and the next full moon is only three nights away... Expected to sell out at all book signings and author events, and with an exciting interactive competition running in tandem with the launch of The Pale Death Moon on www.terry-torus-tumblestones.co.uk - make sure you are part of the adventure!

Lena has lived her whole life near the beach – walking for miles up and down the shore and breathing the salty air, swimming in the cold water, and watching the surfers rule the waves – the problem is, she’s spent her whole life just watching. As her sixteenth birthday approaches, Lena vows she will no longer watch from the sand: she will learn to surf. But her father – a former surfer himself – refuses to allow her to take lessons. After a near drowning in his past, he can’t bear to let Lena take up the risky sport.   Yet something lures Lena to the water … an ancient, powerful magic. One morning Lena catches sight of this magic: a beautiful woman – with a silvery tail. Nothing will keep Lena from seeking the mermaid, not even the dangerous waves at Magic Crescent Cove. And soon … what she sees in the mermaid’s mirror will change her life …