Giveaways

Unbreakable Blog Tour & Giveaway: Kami Garcia on Inspirations & Influences

Today we are very excited to have Kami Garcia over to talk about her new book, YA paranormal thriller Unbreakable. The first book in a planned series, Unbreakable is Kami’s second solo novel effort (she’s also one of the authors behind the Beautiful Creatures books – recently adapted to film).

Kami Garcia Unbreakable

Please give a warm welcome to Kami Garcia, folks!

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Everything I write begins with an inspiration board that I fill with photos, quotes, and song lyrics that evoke the spirit of the project. Before I had an office, Pinterest served as my virtual inspiration board. But I’m a tactile person, and one of the things I love to do is spread the images all over the floor and move them around to create settings or moods that correspond to different elements of my universe. In my new office, I currently have an entire wall covered with photos, charms, poetry, and quotes related to Unbreakable—the first book in my new series, the Legion. Whenever I feel stuck while writing, all I have to do is stand in front of that wall, or play around with the stack of photos waiting to be added, and something will come to me.

Research fuels my writing in an equally important way. It’s easier for readers to suspend disbelief if fantasy is mixed with facts. So I create a foundation that includes an aspect of history, science, etc., before I add my fictional elements. For example, in Unbreakable, I created a fictional secret society called the Legion of the Black Dove. But I researched dozens of real secret societies first, and I chose one of them—the Illuminati—as one of the opposing forces in the series. I also spent a lot of time researching real haunted places and ghost hunting, including the procedures and equipment ghost hunters use in their investigations. I’m too superstitious to venture inside a haunted house myself, but I did stand outside several of them, including Lilburn Mansion, which appears in the book, and Georgetown University, where the story opens.

Art and music have always been huge influences in my life and my writing. In college, I was a Fine Arts major for a while, and I was a painter for years. Kennedy, the protagonist in Unbreakable, is also an artist. I wasn’t intentionally trying to pattern her after me; that aspect grew out of her character. Kennedy keeps her feelings bottled up inside, and art felt like a natural way for a person like that to express herself. I admit that it also gave me the opportunity to mention a few of my favorite paintings, one of which—Chris Berens’ “Lady Day”—took on a life of its own in the novel. The music references in Unbreakable are even more prominent. I don’t listen to music while I write. I wear huge, noise cancelling headphones, because I need complete silence so I can hear the characters talking. But before and after I write, I listen to tons of music. It’s another way to get into the mindset of a character or the mood of a scene. Music says a lot about people, and for me, it helps define my characters.

The topics I research create layers in the story that I wouldn’t have imagined otherwise. For example, in the Legion, each of the characters has an area of expertise in which he or she excels. One of my characters, Priest, designs and modifies all the weapons the Legion uses to exorcise spirits. I would not have come up with that if I hadn’t learned about ghost hunting equipment and the science behind it. As a person with no mathematical skills whatsoever, I found myself drawing diagrams of modified paintball guns, and tools from the hardware store that could be transformed into ghost hunting weapons. As a bonus, I learned how to make a metal detector out of a transistor radio, a calculator, and duct tape!

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About the Book:

Unbreakable

Supernatural meets The Da Vinci Code in this action-packed paranormal thriller, the first book in a new series from New York Times bestselling author Kami Garcia.

I never believed in ghosts. Until one tried to kill me.

When Kennedy Waters finds her mother dead, her world begins to unravel. She doesn’t know that paranormal forces in a much darker world are the ones pulling the strings. Not until identical twins Jared and Lukas Lockhart break into Kennedy’s room and destroy a dangerous spirit sent to kill her. The brothers reveal that her mother was part of an ancient secret society responsible for protecting the world from a vengeful demon — a society whose five members were all murdered on the same night.

Now Kennedy has to take her mother’s place in the Legion if she wants to uncover the truth and stay alive. Along with new Legion members Priest and Alara, the teens race to find the only weapon that might be able to destroy the demon — battling the deadly spirits he controls every step of the way.

Suspense, romance, and the paranormal meet in this chilling urban fantasy, the first book in a new series from Kami Garcia, bestselling coauthor of the Beautiful Creatures novels.

About the Author:

Kami Garcia is the #1 New York Times & international bestselling coauthor of the Beautiful Creatures Series and the author of UNBREAKABLE, the first book in the Legion Series, releasing on October 1, 2013. Kami is fascinated by the paranormal, and she’s very superstitious. When she isn’t writing, she can usually be found watching disaster movies, listening to Soundgarden, or drinking Diet Coke. She lives in Maryland with her family, and their dogs Spike and Oz (named after characters from the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer).

Find out more about Kami and the Legion series at www.kamigarcia.com and www.thelegionseries.com, and follow her on Twitter @kamigarcia.

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The Giveaway:

Unbreakable

We have one copy of Unbreakable up for grabs! The contest is open to all and will run until Sunday October 13 at 12:01am EST. To enter, use the form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

GOOD LUCK!

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43 Comments

  • Lexi
    October 3, 2013 at 12:07 am

    The Forest of Hands and Teeth was a really good book and very high on the suspense.

  • Carl
    October 3, 2013 at 1:21 am

    The Stand by Stephen King. I hope it fits the criteria because it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read.

  • Gerd D.
    October 3, 2013 at 5:32 am

    “Shades of Gray”, Timothy R. O’Neill, I’d sday.

  • Halley
    October 3, 2013 at 7:44 am

    I would have the say Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

  • Shannon H
    October 3, 2013 at 9:58 am

    I actually had to get up and make sure my door was locked and then call a friend when reading part of Anna Dressed In Blood (the attic thing…). So Anna Dressed in Blood for me

  • superbwg
    October 3, 2013 at 11:31 am

    Anna Dressed In Blood was pretty awesome, I just finished Doll Bones and very much enjoyed that one as well

  • Hebe
    October 3, 2013 at 11:40 am

    The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova…which features vampires rather than ghosts, but it’s kind of the same idea, I think.

  • Emma
    October 3, 2013 at 1:26 pm

    My favorite paranormal thrillers are the Experiment in Terror series by Karina Halle.

  • Allison
    October 3, 2013 at 4:11 pm

    Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot, by a landslide

  • Cnd21
    October 3, 2013 at 6:13 pm

    I really like Katie Alender’s “Bad Girls Don’t Die” & “Anna Dressed in Blood” was pretty cool too!

    Thanks for the giveaway!

  • magan bagan
    October 3, 2013 at 6:40 pm

    Anna Dressed in Blood, the Mara Dyer books…

  • whitewolfreads
    October 3, 2013 at 8:35 pm

    Anna Dressed in Blood and The Forest of Hands and Teeth (both really creeped me out).

  • Gaby Metivier
    October 3, 2013 at 8:42 pm

    I just finish reading Jin Village, by Vincent Stoia, and it was AMAZING! Highly recommended 🙂

  • erinf1
    October 3, 2013 at 8:47 pm

    The Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz 🙂 THanks for sharing!

  • Victoria Zumbrum
    October 3, 2013 at 8:55 pm

    The Stand and It by Stephen King. Thanks for the giveaway.

  • Jillian T
    October 3, 2013 at 10:57 pm

    Not sure if it counts, but “The Coldest Girl in Coldtown.” Or Rosemary Clement-Moore. Take your pick.

  • Dovile
    October 4, 2013 at 5:15 am

    I really liked Anna Dressed in Blood.

  • Llehn
    October 4, 2013 at 6:16 am

    Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

  • Cindy
    October 4, 2013 at 1:30 pm

    I love Paranormalcy by Kiersten White.

  • Dana
    October 4, 2013 at 2:23 pm

    My favorite paranormal story is the Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz.

  • Anaïs
    October 4, 2013 at 2:41 pm

    OMG ! They are so many ! Too hard to name them all !!

  • Anita Yancey
    October 4, 2013 at 3:45 pm

    My favorite is Salem’s Lot by Stephen King.

  • Jen M
    October 4, 2013 at 4:45 pm

    I really like Anna Dressed in Blood… Thanks for the giveaway.

  • Erin P
    October 4, 2013 at 5:11 pm

    Anna Dressed in Blood

  • Jenna
    October 4, 2013 at 5:22 pm

    I just finished Laura Ann Gilman’s Paranormal Scene Investigations series. I love the second and third books but was less excited about the first and fourth. They’re sort of paranormal thrillers….right?*
    *In case you haven’t noticed this really threw me for a loop. Apparently paranormal+thriller broke my brain.

  • Alicia Batista
    October 4, 2013 at 11:25 pm

    I love this book UNBREAKEABLE! It is MORE then AMAZING! I only have 40pgs left to read and I’m already anticipating the next!!! AWESOME Giveaway!

  • Frida Arriaga
    October 5, 2013 at 1:22 am

    I actually don’t read much paranormal currently, I did when I was younger, but I guess I need a good book to start re-liking the genre.

  • Stephanie T.
    October 5, 2013 at 11:42 am

    Cabin in the Woods. Best horror, paranormal film ever!!

  • Evie
    October 5, 2013 at 2:50 pm

    First of all – what a great guest post! I love when authors really put their heart into developing their settings and plot lines, and Kami definitely does that well! I’ve heard nothing but great things about Unbreakable so far, and I just love the sound of it! Having a board with pictures, charms and poems sounds almost magical! I’d LOVE to see that! I know about other authors who do that too, for example Sonia Gensler made a Pinterest board for her latest novel, The Dark Between, and it has some beautiful and creepy pictures!

    As for which paranormal thrillers are my favorite, I gotta say that I definitely enjoy Gretchen McNeil, Alexander Gordon Smith (The Fury was really awesome!), Kendare Blake and Sarah Beth Durst (Conjured was really good!). I also love Stephen King, tho that’s obviously not YA:)

    Thank you for sharing this post with us! If you enjoy spooky reads stop by Bookish for our Spooktastic Bookish Halloween event, we have plenty of giveaways going on! ^____^

  • Evie
    October 5, 2013 at 2:54 pm

    First of all – what a great guest post! I love when authors really put their heart into developing their settings and plot lines, and Kami definitely does that well! I’ve heard nothing but great things about Unbreakable so far, and I just love the sound of it! Having a board with pictures, charms and poems sounds almost magical! I’d LOVE to see that! I know about other authors who do that too, for example Sonia Gensler made a Pinterest board for her latest novel, The Dark Between, and it has some beautiful and creepy pictures!

    As for which paranormal thrillers are my favorite, I gotta say that I definitely enjoy Gretchen McNeil, Alexander Gordon Smith (The Fury was really awesome!), Kendare Blake and Sarah Beth Durst (Conjured was really good!). I also love Stephen King, tho that’s obviously not YA:)

    Thank you for sharing this post with us! If you enjoy spooky reads stop by Bookish for our Spooktastic Bookish Halloween event, we have plenty of giveaways going on! ^____^~

  • Evie
    October 5, 2013 at 3:04 pm

    First of all – what a great guest post! I love when authors really put their heart into developing their settings and plot lines, and Kami definitely does that well! I’ve heard nothing but great things about Unbreakable so far, and I just love the sound of it! Having a board with pictures, charms and poems sounds almost magical! I’d LOVE to see that! I know about other authors who do that too, for example Sonia Gensler made a Pinterest board for her latest novel, The Dark Between, and it has some beautiful and creepy pictures!

    As for which paranormal thrillers are my favorite, I gotta say that I definitely enjoy Gretchen McNeil, Alexander Gordon Smith (The Fury was really awesome!), Kendare Blake and Sarah Beth Durst (Conjured was really good!). I also love Stephen King, tho that’s obviously not YA:)

    Thank you for sharing this post with us! If you enjoy spooky reads stop by Bookish for our Spooktastic Bookish Halloween event, we have plenty of giveaways going on! ^____^~
    Evie @ Bookish

  • Mieneke van der Salm
    October 6, 2013 at 1:59 am

    My favourite YA paranormal thriller is Helen Grant’s The Glass Demon, perhaps not truly ghost-ridden, but haunted nonetheless. Currently my favourite adult supernatural thriller is Stephen Lloyd Jones The String Diaries.

  • Stephanie @ A Dream Within A Dream
    October 6, 2013 at 11:49 pm

    I absolutely LOVE paranormal thrillers, so it’s hard to just pick one! Thanks for the awesome giveaway!!

  • Ann
    October 6, 2013 at 11:53 pm

    The Shining 😉

  • Emily
    October 7, 2013 at 2:00 am

    The Mara Dyer trilogy. 🙂

  • angel
    October 7, 2013 at 2:23 am

    There is so many to choose from! anything Stephen King is great!

  • Crystal Chalker-Keene
    October 7, 2013 at 2:37 am

    A recent one is Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake. It wasn’t that scary, but there was one particularly part that had my whole body on edge. But I’m loving the Mara Dara trilogy – they are AMAZING!!

  • maleficent m
    October 7, 2013 at 5:47 am

    I loved the diviners by libba bray. It scared the hell out of me.

  • Helle M. Larsen
    October 7, 2013 at 11:48 am

    Don’t really know if it qualifies as a thriller, but I absolutely loved the Rook by Daniel O’Malley! 🙂

  • Serena
    October 7, 2013 at 12:10 pm

    I think The Historian was an amazing mix of suspense, the paranormal, and historic fiction all in one!

  • Justine
    October 8, 2013 at 12:15 pm

    Anna Dressed in Blood

  • Anonymous
    October 13, 2016 at 2:06 am

    Thanks for sharing this creative ideas blog!

  • www.babyshowerinvitation.info
    June 18, 2017 at 4:33 am

    Actually, believe it or not, but I don’t do any I do a lot of writing for each review, and I do the songs since we can’t use licensed music anymore , but the editing is all Which is why I guest hosted this R is swamped to an irresponsible degree, and turning over half the episode to me means a little less for his So that’s why I occasionally guest host an episode every couple months, just to give the good man a He does so much more than people That’s why I don’t really take it personally when people don’t like my segments, because it’s not really about

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