Parchedby Georgia Clark
YA Romantic Sci-Fi
Hardcover, 312 Pages
March 14th 2014 by Holiday HouseRobots, renewable resources, and romance get tangled together in this thrilling futuristic adventure novel about a utopian city struggling to keep its peace.
"A gutsy teen living on an arid, depleted Earth two centuries in the future faces danger and shocking revelations when she covertly joins a subversive group.
Sixteen-year-old Tess lived in Eden, a seemingly idyllic, domed city where access to information and water is regulated by the governing Trust. After a rogue robot killed her scientist mother, Tess fled with a terrible secret to the desperate, arid Badlands, where she’s recruited by Kudzu, explained to her as a “nonviolent collective working to undermine the Trust and free the Badlands.” Learning Kudzu plans to destroy Aevum, the Trust’s latest advanced robot, Tess reluctantly returns to Eden, where she finds the luxurious life morally unconscionable and secretly trains with Kudzu. Living with her uncle, who’s involved with Aevum, Tess is strangely attracted to his sympathetic assistant, Hunter. During a Kudzu raid on the Trust’s lab, Tess discovers that Aevum will be used to eradicate all inhabitants of the Badlands—and that Hunter’s not what he seems to be.
Tess’ first-person, present-tense voice lends chilling immediacy to her no-nonsense story of mixed loyalty, disturbing secrets, and ethical dilemmas associated with diminishing natural resources and scientific experimentation.
Bold futurist adventure with unusual romance, riveting action and ominous ecological red flags." —Kirkus Reviews
Georgia Clark is an award-winning Australian author and performer currently living in Brooklyn, New York.
While allegedly studying a BA in Communications (Media Arts & Production) at the University of technology, Sydney, she instead became an activist in the student movement and spent too much money making terrible short films.
After graduating, she became a professional hipster as Editor of The Brag, a free, weekly music magazine. This lead to her starting a band, the not-at-all seminal electro pop trio, Dead Dead Girls. This experience formed the basis of her first novel, SHE’S WITH THE BAND, published by Australia’s largest independent publisher, Allen & Unwin in 2008. SHE’S WITH THE BAND was distributed in the U.S. and the U.K. in 2011 and attracted five-star reviews.
In 2007, Georgia won a national pitching competition at SPAA, the Screen Producer Association’s annual conference, for Starts At Sunset, a one-hour drama/comedy about vampires who play in a band.
Georgia has worked as an acclaimed freelance teen and lifestyle journalist for over ten years. She is published in Girl’s Life, Cosmo, CLEO, Daily Life, Sunday Life and more. She has worked as the acting Features Editor and senior contributor for Australia’s number one teen magazine, Girlfriend. She has also attended writers’ residencies in Martha’s Vineyard, California and Portugal, and received grants for her work.
Georgia moved to New York from Sydney in 2009. Here, she performs improv comedy and writes from the New York Writers Room, which involves eating macaroons and drinking many, many cups of tea. A play she co-wrote and performs in, PICKLES & HARGRAVES, AND THE CURSE OF THE TANZANIAN GLIMMERFISH, will be on in the 2014 New York International Fringe Festival.
Georgia is gearing up to teach a short, online writing class about writing sci-fi through a Lit Reactor course. Want to go check it out and join? Go HERE! Begins January 14th.
Georgia Clark's interview
Where did you grow up? Tell us a little about yourself.
I was born in Australia, in a suburb called Manly, which is ironic because I certainly am not. Raised in a small, fairly sleepy part of Sydney where I kept my nose firmly in a book. I went to school at Gosford High School, which I commuted 2 hours each way to! Had a great time at school: I loved my friends and I was pretty good at the learning.
How did you get into writing? Who inspires you?
I think writing found me. The Dark is Rising series and The Hobbit both were pivotal in creating an early love of adventure; twisting, exciting plots that took me out of my bedroom and into other far away places.
Talented writers inspire me, and so does my girlfriend. She is the most positive, generous, hard-working person I know! I feel inspired to be as good as she is, and be a writer she admires.
Did you do any kind of research to determine the details of your characters lives / lifestyles?
I did a ridiculous amount of research! I interviewed experts I tracked down online, subscribed science-y magazines, read articles, listened to podcasts. A lot of podcasts, specifically, Robots and Singularity 1 on 1. These were super helpful: I love being told information, as opposed to reading it. I watched movies and TV shows: AI, Bladerunner (again), I, Robot, Battlestar Gallatica, Caprica. I read books by Isaac Asimov, the inventor of the Three Laws of Robotics. One film that was particularly inspiring was a documentary called Transcendent Man, which is about the famous future theorist Ray Kurzweil. It introduced me to the idea of neuroscience and intelligence augmentation; how we could use nanotechnology (microscopic robots) to enhance our brains and bodies. (I tried to read Kurzweil’s book The Singularity is Near, but it was just too weird for me.)
On top of this, I was reading sci-fi themed YA (Cinder, Starters, Hunger Games etc), attending conferences, connecting with other authors and talking about my ideas with people. I even presented a talk in AI right here in Brooklyn!
Do you have strange writing habits? If you could eliminate one thing from your daily schedule, what would it be and why?
Usually I like to write in total silence, but if someone is making noise around me (like sniffing, which absolutely drives me nuts), I listen to the French band Air. I’ve listened to their albums probably hundreds of times: their music is soothing, and because I know it so well, I don’t focus on it. That’s probably as strange as it gets!
Eliminating one thing, hmm. I was going to say my commute but actually, that’s when I listen to whatever audiobook I’ve got going (right now it’s The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell). I should probably eliminate the time I waste scrolling through Facebook. Do I really need to see another cat video? (Unfortunately, the answer is yes).
What gender you prefer for your main character to be? Why?
So far, all my main characters have been female. I’m a woman, so I know women better than men. Also, there are just SO MANY stories about men, I don’t feel the need to write any more. I’m far more interested in the female experience, because it’s my experience, too.
Name one thing that drives you crazy in the publishing industry.
That it takes so long! The time between selling a book, and it coming out is usually a year and a half, sometimes more! And it takes forever to write a novel in the first place. If course that makes it particularly satisfying when it does come out, but you need a loooooot of patience to be an author!
All the things! (in order of preference if you don’t want to include them all)
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Ends January 25th
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