I'll keep this short because I want to get to my guest authors--FINALLY--but life has been utterly crazy this month. The Magic Under Glass musical (the title has been changed to match the books instead of Clockwork Heart) premieres in just a little over a week in Columbia, MD. Get tickets here!: http://www.tix.com/Event.aspx?EventCode=872553
Our Erris has been vlogging the process so you can get a tiny peek of all the behind the scenes work to get the music, choreography and everything else to be spectacular! It really only is a tiny peek. I wish I could show you some of the amazing music I've heard at rehearsals.
Onto our first guest for the Created Beings tour! Since the two series I have going this year involve my lifelike living doll people, Fanarlem...an adult romance between a Fanarlem concubine and a sorcerer in The Sorcerer's Concubine, and a YA subplot that really kicks off in The Stolen Heart, I thought it would be cool to round up as many authors as I could whose books involve doll people, androids-with-feelings, cyborgs, automata, golems, etc. And today we have Beth Revis, whose book A WORLD WITHOUT YOU also releases today (and sounds fascinating)...but she is also known for her sci-fi novels. I spoke with her about THE BODY ELECTRIC, which has a very interesting variety of created being.
1. Tell us about the created being(s) in your book! How were they made? Who made them and why? What is their place in the world?
The beings in The Body Electric are called cy-clones, a combination of cloned and cyborg body parts. They're (of course) an experiment of the government's...and I can't say much more than that in order to avoid spoilers!
2. Stories about created beings can delve into many themes, such as what it means to be human, how we treat people who are different, the quest for immortality, and the relationship between an artist/craftsman and their work. What was your reason for telling this story?
But the creation of cy-clones is highly experimental and not entirely ethical--two topics that I really wanted to explore. When is it too far to push for this kind of technology? Can we "play God" if we're doing it to find a cure for disease...and where is the line for finding a cure for disease and finding a cure for death? A huge part of my story wanted to explore that--at what point do we just stop, and is there even a point?
Another part of me wanted to question souls. I believe in souls, and I wanted to explore the point when the body and the soul disconnect. Are you still you if your body (or a cloned version of it) exists but not your soul? When do you lose yourself?
3. Do you have a favorite fictional created being?
Right now, because I'm in an angry mood, I'm going with the Terminator. That movie always gets me--I love it when he fights so hard that his humanity literally is ripped from his metallic frame.
Find Beth on the web:
Twitter: @bethrevis
Find Beth on the web:
Twitter: @bethrevis
Facebook: /authorbethrevis
Instagram: @bethrevis