The Testing: Una apasionante aventura distópica sobre la supervivencia, los secretos y las pruebas despiadadas

Descripción

From the Publisher A conversation with Joelle Charbonneau The author of the best-selling Testing trilogy discusses the series, her background, and her next project. This is a trilogy. Did you know how the series would end when you began writing? I wish I could say yes, but I really didn’t know where the whole story arc was going to take Cia. The only thing I was certain of was what I wanted the final scene to be. I knew I wanted to show the moment that occurs either during or just after college when you realize that home will always be there, but that it isn’t your home anymore. That your life is no longer just about the place where you grew up or about what you dreamed you’d be doing as an adult. It’s that moment when you understand that your life is yours and that the choices you make are the ones that will define how that life goes. In your opinion, what are Cia’s biggest strengths? How do they help her survive? I think that Cia’s greatest strength would also be considered a liability—her compassion and willingness to see the world for what she hopes it will be. Those traits motivate her to continue forward even when she knows there is a chance she will fail. I think so often in life, people don’t take a difficult step because there is a chance of failure. Like all of us, Cia doesn’t want to fail, but her compassion and wish to contribute to helping her society is more compelling than the fear of taking a wrong step. Why did you choose to set this series in the Midwest? The Midwest, to me, is an ideal place to set a dystopian society. Most people associate the Midwest with very traditional American values— values that Cia and her family embrace—so setting the series in the center of the country seemed like an obvious choice. For the center of my new government and society, I then needed to pick a city that I felt would not only survive a world war, but also could weather the environmental changes that would occur after such catastrophic manmade damage. Wichita provided an ideal location since its moderate size and location in the middle of the heartland would allow it to avoid being on an international government’s first-strike list. Also, the lack of towering skyscrapers would help much of the city’s infrastructure withstand the environmental upheaval. All three books were published within a single year. Does your brain hurt from all that writing? Is my editor reading this? That might change my answer. Writing the entire series posed a huge challenge. There were times that I wasn’t sure I would be up to the task, but I am so grateful that I was given the opportunity to push myself. It was a unique opportunity to be able to write the story from beginning to end without feeling the expectations or anticipation of the next installment from readers. Cia, Tomas, and the world of the United Commonwealth were mine and mine alone throughout the writing process. And now I am thrilled that the readers who have joined me in the journey get to come along for this the final ride. The series asks questions about courage, loyalty, duty, and honor. What drew you to these topics? I am a huge civics junkie and I love debating politics. Every time an election come around, I hear people throw around words like courage and loyalty and honor all the time, but rarely do they seem to connect with what those things mean in the larger context of the world. While writing, I wanted to explore the words that our leaders use in sound bites and test what they really meant to me. For Cia, she thinks she understands what those words mean. But it isn’t until her beliefs are tested that she truly understands the importance of loyalty and how there are different kinds of courage required in our leaders. Most people believe it takes courage to face an enemy head-on. People understand the ideas of duty and honor when the choice appears black-and-white. But I believe the greatest forms of courage happen in the choices that no one sees, and that duty and honor are most important at times where there are no good answers. You’re a singer, an actress, and a voice coach. In what ways does this inform your writing? When you perform on stage, you have to create a character that audiences will connect with and make sure that you perform each scene with enough energy and interest that the audience will want to come back after intermission. When I write, it often feels like a performance, because the characters have to be well-rounded and each scene has to make the reader come back for more. And since both fields involve a lot of reviews and rejection, I tend to be really good at dealing with both of those, too! Graduation Day is the third book in the series. Do you have any advice for graduating teens? I think a lot of graduating students feel pressured to know where their life is going and to have a plan that will get them to those predetermined goals. My best advice is to remember that life is about the journey and that learning new things doesn’t

Especificaciones