Blog Tour: Override

Synopsis: Zoe is free. She has escaped the enslavement of the Community, disconnected from the hardware that had controlled her every thought and emotion, and evaded capture by the Chancellor intent on killing her. She is finally free, but she is far from safe.

Zoe and Adrien hide themselves from detection at the Foundation, an academy that trains teen glitchers to fight in the Resistance movement. Together, Zoe and her new team of superhuman fighters must risk their lives to rescue other glitchers and humans from the Chancellor’s control. Challenges abound at every turn, and Adrien, who has become silent, distant, and tormented by his visions of the future, only adds to the growing certainty of defeat. But worst of all, as Zoe’s team fights against impossible odds, distrust and betrayal leads to the terrible discovery that their greatest threat could already be lurking behind the safe walls of the Foundation.

Full of high-adrenaline action and shocking twists, Heather Anastasiu’s Override is an exciting continuation of this popular young adult trilogy.

– Hi Heather!! Welcome to Shortie Says! So excited to have you here, I love these series!

Thanks so much for having me!

– So the all important (mostly asked question) where did you come up with the idea or concept for this series?

I came up with the idea for this series when my husband was talking to me about a Popular Science article he’d read about research into implanting the equivalent of memory chips in Alzheimer’s patients. I started wondering about what other hardware we might start putting in our heads (for good reasons initially), but then thought about how the government might try to control us through it.

But really, that’s just the external plot idea. What really drew me to writing this trilogy was the idea of getting to see a girl wake up to emotion for the first time. I had so much fun writing Zoe as she sees color and feels joy and falls in love. And also as she learns about the darker side to emotion—sadness, and as we get into the later books in the series, hate. But usually the good and the bad emotions are mixed up all together in a complex mess, and that’s what it means to be human.

– If you could have any “glitch” which one would you have?

Super-endurance! Then I could get everything done in my day and chase around my kiddo without getting tired J

– Do you have a favorite place to write or any special tricks or routines you have while writing?

I write on my couch, and I usually start right after I wake up. I’ll give myself maybe ten minutes to look at email and twitter, but unless something’s pressing, I don’t answer it. It’s easy to let that stuff distract you, so I’m pretty disciplined about writing for a few hours first, then answering emails and jumping on Twitter and FB. I also almost always listen to music, especially when I’m writing the first draft. I try to find music that fits the mood of the scene, so it can help me get caught up in the emotion of the moment I’m trying to write.

– I have to ask because it’s one of my favorite questions (plus I love Disney) if you could be any Disney princess which one would you be? Why?

Great question! Probably Ariel because The Little Mermaid was my FAVORITE movie when I was a kid. Seriously, I was obsessed. I watched it every afternoon when I got home from school for a year straight!

– For those of us who read Override (or will soon) what can we expect from Shutdown (Glitch #3)? Please tell me you’re going to re-stitch my heart back together!

Tee hee. We authors are evil aren’t we? Yeah, so Override kind of ends with a bit of a cliffhanger, and all I can say is that you will get resolution in Shutdown (but I won’t say what kind).

Lightning Round!

– Black or White? Black

– Tattoos or Piercings? Tattoos all the way!

– Noise or Silence? Noise, if it’s music

– Paranormal or Contemporary? Lately, contemporary

– Polka Dots or Striped? Polka dots

– Anything else you’d like to let us all know?!

Just that I’m so excited for everyone to get to read Override finally! This book was hard to write, but in the end it came out really tight with some wicked twists and turns—I really think readers are going to enjoy it.

– Thank you SO much for stopping by Heather! Cannot wait for Shutdown!! 🙂

Thank YOU! Fabulous bloggers are a huge part of what makes YA such an awesome genre to be a writer in!