Hello my friends!  As I mentioned in my Beautiful Creatures giveaway post today I’m sharing with you the last in my Teen Read Me webinar interviews.  Please welcome Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, authors of the fabulously southern gothic YA series Beautiful Creatures.

MF:  There has been a lot of buzz on Twitter and online about the fact that you both have individual projects in the works now.  Congratulations! How does it feel different for you?  Is the process going to be very different?  How will that work for you as you finish up this last book and you kind of go your separate ways?  And then, will you ever consider coming back together and doing something else collaboratively?

KG:  Well, hopefully.  You never know if the Caster Chronicles will continue or we’ll write something else.
But, the weirdest thing about it is that, when we are writing our individual books, even though we let each other read stuff when we’re done, it’s not a back and forth anymore.  Like, I would be writing and, instead of being able to send it to Margie and say, “Hey, this part seems like it really sucks,  what do you think?” I would just have to sit there and stare at it sucking by myself.
So, it’s way more depressing and it reminded me, in a weird way, how much fun the process we have together is, because you’re not only a writer but you get to be a reader.  Whenever I would get a new chapter from Margie, I got to enjoy the universe and read things for the first time, too.  And when it’s your own words, somehow that seems a little less exciting.
For me, the majorly different part was it was such a long stretch before there was another person talking to me.  It was just me all alone and my dogs.

MS:  I think it was interesting because I think we thought we’d be really involved in each other’s projects.  And then, when we would read something that the other person wrote, all you needed to say was, “You’re great.  It’s great, just keep going,” just like a regular friend.  And we haven’t functioned like regular friends in so long.  We’ve had this kind of shared identity. It was really interesting to go back to, of course we can both do this by ourselves.  Of course we are writers.  We’ve been doing this together and working apart for a long time.
But, it was fun to kind of go back to being cheerleaders. We’ve been friends so much longer than we were writers.  It was kind of nice to have that friendship aspect, in a sort of simple and wonderful way, to come back again.

KG:  And it’s really interesting, too, because when Margie’s book was announced it was just so much before mine. It’s not the same as when our things are announced.
When our things are announced, I think, “Uh, whatever.  You It’s our stuff. It’s embarrassing.”  But, when it’s my best friend’s thing and it’s not my thing, it’s super exciting.  When something happens to your best friend, you’re like, “Oh, my God.  I can’t believe it.”  I’m like, “My best friend has a book and it’s coming out and it’s got this giant announcement.”
So, it’s totally different because you get to be excited about it in a different way.  It feels kind of strange to be that excited about your own stuff.  But it’s much more allowable to be super excited about something that happens to someone that you care about.

MS:  I think we really liked coming back together to write the Dream Dark book.  And I’m sure that there are still little extended pieces that we would want to do.  So, even in the near future, I’m sure there are more evolutions our partnership will take.

MF:  So, I read Dream Dark this weekend.  Of course I loved it.  I can’t wait for the next book.
But, the question I have for you is that clearly Dream Dark is more about Link and Ridley than anything else.  And I wanted to know if, as we move into Beautiful Chaos, will they continue to play a larger role in the story overall, or will we see that scale back?

KG:  We’ll never tell.

MS:  We never actually talk about what happens in our books.

KG:  These guys are trying to trick us into telling us what happens.  I love you guys.  You’re all so clever.

MS:  Bloggers.  We adore Link and Ridley.  And they’re always a part of the story.  And aside from that, that’s really all we ever say.

Thank you ladies!  I’m very much looking forward to Beautiful Chaos.  The Beautiful Creatures series is one of my absolute favorites!