“Our fires burn brightly for our readers and as a way to say thanks to our readers we’ve launched our latest division of Entangled Teen and it’s name is Ember. We have two exciting launch titles: Darker Days by Jus Accardo and Chaos by Christine O’Neil. Read away!” Entangled Teen Ember is a division of Entangled Teen that specializes in digital-first YAs
We had the opportunity to chat with Christine O’Neil about her upcoming release Chaos!
Chaos Synopsis:
My name is Maggie Raynard. After sixteen years being just plain me, suddenly, when I lose my temper, my fingers become weapons of mass destruction. Turns out I’m a semi-god, descended from Aphrodite. Sounds cool in theory, but when I accidentally put my ex-boyfriend in a coma, things go downhill pretty fast.
Now some new guy named Mac Finnegan has made it his mission in life to continually piss me off. I’m stuck learning how to use my new powers while also dealing with regular high school problems, and with this annoying and super-hot—guy all
up in my business, I’m about to flip out.
But it gets worse. I just learned there’s this watchdog council of semis who keep an eye out for any bad apples. They think I’m the baddest one in the bunch and want to take me out before I do any more damage. My nemesis Mac might turn out to be my salvation, only he’s got secrets of his own…and they may just kill us both.
Darker Days Synopsis
A little sin can be deadly…
Jessie Darker goes to high school during the day, but at night she helps with the family investigation business.
Cheating husbands and stolen inheritances? They’re your girls—but their specialty is a bit darker. Zombie in your garage? Pesky Poltergeist living in your pool? They’ll have the problem solved in a magical minute. For a nominal fee, of course…
When gorgeous new client, Lukas Scott, saunters into the office requesting their help to find a stolen box, it sounds like a simple case—until the truth comes out. The box is full of Sin.
Seven deadly ones, in fact.
They’ve got five days to recapture the Sins before they’re recalled by the box, taking seven hijacked human bodies with them. Easy peasy—except for one thing…
There’s a spell that will allow the Sins to remain free, causing chaos forever. When the key ingredient threatens the life of someone she knows, Jessie must make the ultimate choice between love and family—or lose everything.
Exclusive Interview:
Describe Chaos in one sentence.
ACK! Okay, PRESSURE! Let’s see…girl finds out she’s a descendant of Aphrodite and has crazy powers she can’t control, and meets a super-hot boy who has secrets too, and he’s either going to be her savior or her nemesis.
Why will readers will enjoy Chaos?
Why will readers will enjoy Chaos?
I think readers will like Chaos because of the characters. Maggie is sharp and funny and really smart, and Mac *dreamy sigh* Mac starts out as a real hardass and then you just know that he’s met his match in Maggie.
How did you come up with the idea for Chaos?
This book was actually a collaboration between me and my editor and publisher at Entangled, Liz Pelletier. She was looking for someone to write a book on an idea she had and put out a call to authors, asking them to write a sample chapter that incorporated their best YA voice. Then she would pick one of the authors to work with. 156 of us sent in writing samples, and a week later, she called me, SUPER excited about the scene I sent her. She loved it so much, she wanted to contract my story immediately. So we took the little kernel of an idea I had written, and sat on the phone until around 2 a.m. brainstorming and world building around that scene. What we ended up was a loose outline for Chaos (and the rest of the Kardia Chronicles series). It was literally one of the most exciting and fun creative experiences of my life!
If Chaos were made into a movie who would you choose to play Maggie & Mac?
I’d love for Mac to be played by Colton Haynes. He’s got a fun, bad boy vibe to him, but he’s got a sincerity in his face that I feel like girls are drawn to. And then I’d love to have Maggie played by actress Daveigh Chase.
When did you begin writing?
For fun? When I was in like fourth grade. For realz? About four years ago. It’s the best thing I ever did. I’ve never been so happy! I feel like I found my dream job.
Do you have any writing quirks or rituals?
I guess you could call it a ritual, because I do the same thing every day. I wake up around 7, change from my sleeping yoga pants to my working yoga pants and get some coffee. Then I surf the web for a while, searching out all the important things I might need to know that day, like “What do Channing Tatum’s abs look like?” Then I head to Twitter and see what my tweeps are up to. After that, I feel guilty for slacking off for and hour so I guilt myself into writing some words. This is where the magic happens. Somehow, after banging away on my keyboard, I look up a couple hours later with lots of words on a page. Full of accomplish-y feelings and self-pride, I clomp into the kitchen, paw through the fridge like a mad bear looking for any food that doesn’t require fire, peeling, chopping or opening, and I jam handfuls of it into my mouth and chew. After that, I pour some more coffee and go back to more writing (enter, more magic). Then, at about a quarter to four in the afternoon, I jump up in horror when I realize my husband will be home soon, and I check my shirt for any egregious stains, brush my teeth and sometimes even my hair and pretend that I looked that good all day. Glamorous, no??
What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
Take a basic editing workshop (Before You Hit Send by Angela James is a great one for aspiring authors). It will take some time, but trust me, learning how to fix basic and common new author mistakes will be super helpful in the long run. It could also keep you from getting a manuscript rejected for things that you might have avoided with some preparation. I also suggest reading books in your preferred genre and well as read books on writing (I love Stephen King’s On Writing, and a book called Save the Cat). Last and most importantly? Don’t quit!
What are you reading now?
I’m actually RE-reading Neil Gaiman’s Stardust. It’s one of my favorite books AND movies, and I tend to fall back into reading it (and watching it) once a year for a refresher!
Do you have a favorite book?
I have a ton of favorite books, and they change all the time, but this year I’ve been having mad love for two in particular. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins and Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. I am obsessed with Flynn’s writing style. She’s my hero.
Can you tell us about any current or future projects you’re working on?
I’m working on completing books 2 and 3 of the Kardia Chronicles series, and then I just started plotting my next YA series, which is shaping up to be urban fantasy. I also write adult contemporary romance under the pen name Christine Bell, and am working on books for both Entangled’s Brazen and Indulgence lines, so it’s busy busy over here!
About Christine:
Christine O’Neil was born and raised in Connecticut, where she spent most of her childhood outdoors catching salamanders, frogs and colds. When she wasn’t terrorizing Mother Nature, she was curled up under the covers with her nose in a book. As an adult, she’s stopped stalking amphibians, but still loves books. When she isn’t reading, she likes to spend her time people-watching. In fact, she’s probably watching you RIGHT NOW O_O She’s also pretty obsessed with writing YA books, but if she had to pick another profession she would be a ninja…or a Professor of the Dark Arts. Christine also writes adult romance under the pen name Christine Bell.
Jus Accardo is the author of YA paranormal romance and urban fantasy fiction.
A native New Yorker, she lives in the middle of nowhere with her husband, three dogs, and sometimes guard bear, Oswald.
Her first book, Touch, came out in November 2011 from Entangled Publishing. She is represented by Kevan Lyon of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.
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