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Amy Plum   (Author - 'Die For Me') Amy Plum (Author - 'Die For Me')

In the City of Lights, two star-crossed lovers battle a fate that is destined to tear them apart again and again for eternity.

When Kate Mercier's parents die in a tragic car accident, she leaves her life - and memories - behind to live with her grandparents in Paris. For Kate, the only way to survive her pain is escaping into the world of books and Parisian art. Until she meets Vincent.

Mysterious, charming, and devastatingly handsome, Vincent threatens to melt the ice around Kate's guarded heart with just his smile. As she begins to fall in love with Vincent, Kate discovers that he's a revenant - an undead being whose fate forces him to sacrifice himself over and over again to save the lives of others.

Vincent and those like him are bound in a centuries-old war against a group of evil revenants who exist only to murder and betray. Kate soon realizes that if she follows her heart, she may never be safe again.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with author Amy Plum about her new book, 'Die For Me':

Aprilynne Pike, another of Harper Collins' authors, and someone we have also just interviewed, has said this about your book: "I devoured this lush, mysterious romance, which delivers a refreshingly human heroine alongside a hero truly deserving of the title." My goodness, now that's some praise! So, I was wondering if you had, in turn, read her latest book, 'Illusions'?! And if you had some words for hers, perhaps? "I have read WINGS, SPELLS and ILLUSIONS, and I love the world that Aprilynne has created in these books. There’s nothing like going back to fairy tales after not having read them since my childhood. And with her seasonal faerie mythology as the backdrop and Laurel, Tamani and David acting as our tour guides for Laurel’s world and Avalon, Aprilynne’s series totally captivated me."

'Die For Me' features a lush Parisian setting, some gorgeous, well-constructed characters, and a world (let alone a story) that is sure to intrigue teen readers everywhere. That said, in its writing, were you at all distracted by the whole Twilight series and where (do you hope) it will all take you ie: your ultimate goal? "Before writing DIE FOR ME, I had just written a book in a completely different genre, and was ready for a brand new project. And since I had recently read TWILIGHT and had been swept away by the story (and pretty hooked on Edward, I will admit!), I thought I’d give YA a try. I wanted to create a love story with very different characters and in a setting that was just as magical as their experience."

"That said, besides the basic elements that most YA paranormal romances share, I feel like DIE FOR ME deviates away from the norm and into its own world. This will be even more obvious in UNTIL I DIE, the second book of the trilogy. Since the set-up and characters were already introduced in Book 1, I have even more freedom to plunge into the world of Paris’s revenants."

Yes, as this book/series brings with it some, well, dead-undead folk named The Revenants, was it you yourself that created/termed them in such a unique manner - or does that phraseology actually exist for Zom ... I mean, for such dead-undead folks?! "I actually used the Z-word in the first draft of DIE FOR ME, but quickly realized that the only thing my characters had in common with those monsters was the fact that they were undead. I soon decided that term wouldn’t do, and started fishing around for an original word to describe them. I asked my French husband what “revenant” meant and he said “a kind of spirit that comes back after death”. So I grabbed it and thought I had commandeered a word that was obsolete. Was I in for a surprise!"

"Little did I know that both English- and French-language writers have used the term to describe all sorts of beings from ghosts to vampires to zombies. But there hasn’t been a general consensus as to exactly what a revenant is. So I have basically appropriated the term to cast my revenants as historical creatures who are as old and established as vampires, zombies, werewolves and other mythical beings."

'Die For Me' has a great cast of characters, but were any modeled after friends of yours - and, if they were, and as we're not called Exclusive Magazine for nothing, can they now be revealed?! "Let’s see, Kate was modeled after me. And Georgia after...me. And Jules...hmm...me. No, really, several of the characters share traits or interests with different parts of my personality, and that is because I followed the age-old advice for new writers of “Write What You Know”. Vincent, being the dashing Frenchman, is modeled in a large part on my husband. Laurent’s sexy broodiness was a model for Vincent’s personality."

"But most of my characters came to me pre-packaged with personalities complete. I’m a big believer in the story existing outside of our consciousness, and that good things come to those who listen. I didn’t reach into my social circles to borrow personas. I just listened to my characters: they came to me on their own and told me who they were."

Finally, Amy, you have certainly made this book into a roller-coaster ride for the reader, and so when can they expect the next book in the series - and does it already have a title yet, perhaps? "The second book in the DIE FOR ME series is entitled UNTIL I DIE. It will be released around May 2012."

Interviewed by: Russell A. Trunk

Book Purchase Link

Official Author Website

www.facebook.com/amyplumfanpage

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