Interview: M.D. Waters and Archetype
Hello Readers! I have a special treat for you today. I'm excited to welcome author M.D. Waters to the blog to answer a few questions about Archetype, her thrilling new futuristic adult novel. I read Archetype a while back and loved it. I'm excited to share this interview with all of you! If you haven't had the chance to read Archetype yet, I can't recommend it enough. Enjoy!
Archetype
(Archetype #1)
M.D. Waters
Hardcover, 384 pages
Published February 6th 2014
Introducing a breathtakingly inventive futuristic suspense novel about one woman who rebels against everything she is told to believe.
Emma wakes in a hospital, with no memory of what came before. Her husband, Declan, a powerful, seductive man, provides her with new memories, but her dreams contradict his stories, showing her a past life she can’t believe possible: memories of war, of a camp where girls are trained to be wives, of love for another man. Something inside her tells her not to speak of this, but she does not know why. She only knows she is at war with herself.
Interview with M.D. Waters
Welcome M.D. Waters! Can you please describe your book in one sentence.
A woman with no memory of her past must discover the truth before she falls deeper in love with her husband, who may just be her worst enemy.
What inspired you to write Archetype?
I wouldn’t say I was inspired, but driven by a feeling and a mysterious voice in my head with a story to tell. I knew Emma’s secret, and I knew she lived in a world where female children were needed. Everything else, I learned as I wrote, and it was a miracle the draft turned out as clean as it did. In fact, I’d say 95% of what is published today came from that draft.
What sort of research did you do for Archetype?
Very little, actually. I had to look up the luckenbooth, and spent far longer than I wanted learning about seagull migration patterns, but other than that, not much.
Who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?
Dr. Travista was the easiest to write. I almost felt as if I sat in the room with him and Emma, watching him fiddle with his glasses, or type in his tablet. Of all the characters, he has the simplest motives for everything he does.
Emma was the hardest by far. I had the worst time trying to keep track of what SHE knew versus what I knew, and what everyone ELSE knew. I thought it would get easier when she faced Noah and Foster, but it only got harder because they couldn’t exactly come out and say what they all knew. The story would have ended right there at the gallery, and what fun would that have been?
Tell me five reasons you loved writing Archetype.
1. Writing from Emma’s PoV. There was something so peaceful about it.
2. Writing characters who have good intentions, but with negative results.
3. Declan & Noah *sigh*
4. The reveal to this day gives me the chills, and I’m still stunned I pulled it off with so few people guessing beforehand.
5. I loved writing a futuristic world more than anything!
Tell me five things you found most difficult about writing Archetype.
1. Writing from Emma’s PoV. LOL!
2. Tracking motivations for why everyone was keeping their particular secrets.
3. Declan & Noah. I had to make one of them the bad guy, and… Well, you know. *sigh*
4. World-building with a main character that has NO MEMORY… I will never do this again. I didn’t want to have a single info dump chapter, but I also wanted any and all information to come out in very natural settings.
5. Writing without contractions. Never ever doing this again.
Give us one of your favorite lines from Archetype.
“He avoids my eyes, watching his linked fingers and circling thumbs in his lap. He has long and soft fingers. Gentle. Mine are small and deadly.”
What are you working on now / what’s next for you?
What’s next is Prototype in July, and new to the schedule… Antitype, a prequel novella featuring Noah and Declan. That will release in May. I’m as anxious as everyone else for both to release, but in the meantime, I’m planning to continue the series with a new character I introduce in Prototype.
If you could have a superpower, what would it be?
I’d want to have the ability to control time. Sometimes I just wish I could press pause.
Thank you M.D. Waters for sharing with us all about your new novel Archetype!
Don't forget to check out M.D. Waters New Novel:
Prototype
Coming 7/24/14 from Dutton Books
The stunning debut that began with Archetype—and has readers buzzing—concludes in Prototype, when a woman’s dual pasts lock onto a collision course, threatening her present and future.
Add to Prototype by M.D. Waters to Goodreads
