Land or Ocean Dweller, & a Giveaway!

Normally I don't post on Thursdays. And I did say I was taking this week off to spend with my kids. Both are true. But when a fabulous YA author asked me to be a part of her blog tour, I couldn't resist. So let's call this an addendum to next week's Young Adult Teen Tuesday's post. I'll be featuring a review of her book, anyway.

Meet the wonderfully talented Catherine Stine, Author of FIRESEED ONE, which launched in December to 5-star reviews. Her first YA, Refugees, earned a New York Public Library Best Book and a featured review and interview in Booklist. Middle grade novels include The End of the Race in the Wild at Heart series and A Girl’s Best Friend in the Innerstar University series. More and more, she’s enjoying writing page-turning suspense. She is also a professional illustrator, teacher of creative writing, and she does manuscript consultations.

Catherine's been gracious enough to share her two main characters with us today. 

Welcome, Varik and Marisa!

Hello! Both wave in unison.

Varik, can you explain a bit about your current world? You live in Ocean Dominion. 

Sure. Ocean Dominion’s a system of stationary and floating islands in the Dominion Sea. Years back most of it was icy, and the area was called the Arctic Circle. But everything melted. We don’t fish the sea—too toxic—we grow things up in floating warehouses. My family farm is called Teitur Farms, but there’s also Arctic Wonder, Atlas and Perseus Sea Farm. We mostly grow agar, sea apples, Finnish blue kelp, but also Flyfish—part grape vine, part fish. I’m usually zipping around in my darter with my friend, Audun, and going to the clubs on SnowAngel. I love living on the ocean, but… since my father drowned, under very strange circumstances I might add, I’m suddenly in charge of running the farm. I’m terrible at it. 

Marisa, what can you tell us about living in Land Dominion?

Land Dominion has the best land around. It’s built up, you know, big cities, like Restavik and Baronland, named after my family, but there’s one last wilderness, way over, in what used to be western Canada. We have the best meat, the best simulation clubs and the best clothes. But, I’m past all of that. I support the refugees down below the border. I’m not into fashion any more, or fancy cars. *Snickers* I crashed my little red sports car. It’s not fair that the refs live in reject land that’s broiling hot. Rich farm like Varik’s should stop the hoarding. Share.

Varik: But, Marisa, your father, Melvyn Baron, is the wealthiest land magnate ever!

Marisa: Oh, that. I testified against his corrupt construction company. He exploits the refugees, works them like dogs. He cut me off for that. See, I told you money’s not important to me!

Geez, sounds like your lives have been full of drama.

Varik, what’s an Agar Farm? How important are your father's discs, and his old research to develop FIRESEED?

Agar’s everything! We eat it, build with it and make clothes out of it. It’s a hybrid of algae. It grows fast. We depend on it. And the seed disks that Marisa and her ZWC thugs stole? It’s only the entire geno-bank of emergency seeds to replenish the world’s crops! My father’s cert form on Fireseed One is confusing. It states that he tested the crop, but then he crossed everything out and wrote “Goddamn the refs and their entire universe!” Why would he turn on them? Must have been for a very good reason.

Varik, once you discovered your farm was being robbed and some of your father's discs were missing, how did you feel when you caught the perpetrator and it was a girl?

She was pretty, okay beautiful. I was shocked. But none of that mattered. I wanted to punch her lights out, strangle her! But you can’t do that to a girl. Plus, she knew things that were none of her business, about me, my father’s research, about Fireseed. So, I had to keep her alive in order to question her. But no way she was getting out of my father’s office. Only a water rat could’ve squeezed out of the one tiny porthole in there.

Varik, Marisa, your relationship was definitely a heated one. What do you think was the turning point that convinced you to work together instead of against each other?

*Mutual blush, quick glances at each other* 

Varik: “I needed her to show me the video she claimed she had of my father, talking about his concept plant, Fireseed. I needed her to get me to the head of the ZWC, that psycho creep, Bryan.” 

Marisa: “Turning point… I wanted to prove to Varik that the ZWC did valuable work, and that the refs weren’t all killers and freaks. *Sighs* When we flew to the ZWC hideout, and Bryan told me what he was really up to, well, I almost puked, I mean, god help us all…”

Varik, what exactly are the mimetoliths? And why did you search there for Fireseed?

Rock formations that look like real things: faces, cups, even stars. The ZWC claimed that my father tested his Fireseed concept by the mimetoliths, but no one knows if Fireseed ever really existed off the drawing board. There’s nothing growing out there but sand.

Marisa, what are your hopes for the future of Land Domain and Ocean Dominion?

Us? We’re hopeless competitors in greed. It’s more like what would I like to see for the folks stuck in the Hotzone, the ones burning up in the desert. I’d like to see them have access north through the wall, have food and respect.

Marisa and Varik, where do you see your relationship with Varik going? 

*Marisa coyly brushes back her fiery hair* “Ah, the big mystery! That’s what all the Streamerazzi’s asking us!” 

*Varik pulls his sleeves down as if to hide something* “It’s kind of private. Um, we’ve been on the Stream news so much, we need a moment… I wouldn’t kick her out of my darter.” *Grins*

As you can see, there really is lots of drama between these two!

But WAIT! THERE'S MORE. Click on this tour banner to follow more of the FIRESEED story or check it out at Amazon, on in e-book form on  Nook, Kindle, iTunes and Sony Reader! AND Catherine is offering up a chance for one lucky follower to win a 10-PAGE CRITIQUE!! YES!! Just fill out the form below to ENTER.

a Rafflecopter giveaway