Author Interview: G.P.Ching

A little about author G.P. Ching:

G.P.Ching is the youngest child of five. Her mother was a florist and her father was a sheet metal worker. Growing up, she can't remember a time when writing and reading weren't her favorite things to do. Her first paid published work was short fiction and most of what she has published in the past has been flash fiction. The Soulkeepers is Genevieve's first full length novel.  Her writing influences include Sara Gruen, Arthur Golden, Diane Setterfield, JK Rowling, and Jane Austen.

About Soulkeepers:

When fifteen-year-old Jacob Lau is pulled from the crumpled remains of his mother's car, no one can explain why he was driving or why the police can't find his mother's body. Made a ward of his uncle and thousands of miles from home, a beautiful and mysterious neighbor offers to use her unique abilities to help him find his mom. In exchange, she requires Jacob to train as a Soulkeeper, a warrior charged with protecting human souls. He agrees to her demands, desperate for any clue to the mystery of his mother's disappearance. But soon Jacob finds himself trapped in a web of half-truths, and questions her motives for helping him.

The Soulkeepers at its heart is a book about accepting imperfection in self, family, community and ultimately the God we choose to believe in, and finding the good in each other despite these imperfections.

*Where did you get the idea for the Soulkeepers series?

Several years ago I was talking to someone about the creation story. I am Christian so for me the story was of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  I'd heard this story told hundreds of times as a kid but for some reason that year something new occurred to me.  The Garden of Eden was supposed to be this perfect place, the safest place created by God.  Who let the serpent in? It doesn't make a lot of sense when you think about.  Why would evil be hanging out right next to the tree of life?

My mind continued down this path and I was awestruck by the number of imperfections our minds have to overlook to make sense of our lives.  We live in a tough world.  Each of us deals with things about ourselves that we wish we could change.  I haven't met a person yet that didn't struggle with at least one member of his or her own family.  We often disagree with public policy and are at odds with our community, and no matter who or what religion you are, if you have faith it's not because everything you've been told makes perfect logical sense- it's because you've made sense of the imperfections.

Back then, I had the idea for a story but I didn't know my character.  As I researched the market, I recognized that YA books seemed to either avoid the issue of God all together or else were very prescriptive about one specific religion.  I wanted my character to be real and I believe that real teenagers are all about questioning. So, I wrote a character who drove the events in my story in the throws of inner turmoil about who he was and if his life had a greater purpose. 

Jacob sees imperfection everywhere - in himself, in his family, in the new town he lives in, and he's completely written off any possibility that there could be a God. But Jacob is rebelling, he's searching, and he's deciding how he's going to make sense of his world...a world that is invaded by the supernatural.

*I love the book cover for Soulkeepers. Who designed it and how much say did you have in the designing of it?

Adam Bedore of Anjin design (www.anjindesign.com) created the cover.  I was involved every step of the way and picked out each of the elements used in the cover.  Adam pulled it all together to create a cover that embodies what The Soulkeepers is all about.

*The next book of the Soulkeepers series, Weaving Destiny, is out at the this fall. Could you tell us a little about it?

From the bck cover:

Malini Gupta thought Jacob Lau was her destiny, that they were meant to be together. But after months of failing to decipher how she fits into the Soulkeepers, frustration threatens to tear their relationship apart. As does a new Soulkeeper named Mara who is ready to stop time itself to earn Jacob's love.

When Malini faces her worst fears and even death, she learns a funny thing about destiny; nobody said it couldn't change. The future is a tapestry of choices, and she's about to weave hers.

There is quite a bit of romance in The Soulkeepers as Jacob meets a girl in his new town and falls in love with her.  Her name is Malini and she plays an important role in the story. In Weaving Destiny, their relationship is challenged when a new Soulkeeper comes to town.  It has all of the action of the first book but takes the romantic aspects of the series up a notch.

  

*Are you currently working on any other projects at the minute?

I've started working on book three, Return to Eden, and I have another YA book called Grounded that is currently in development. I also have two romance novels waiting to be edited.

G.P.Ching Book History:

 *Favourite book as a child?

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.  I loved escaping into the world C.S. Lewis created.

*Favourite book as a teenager?

Jane Eyre.  I still think this book has everything: horror, suspense, action, and of course romance.

*A book you have loved reading this year and why?

The last book I read was The Green by Karly Kirkpatrick.  It's not out yet but it's a story about a Latina girl who turns to selling pot to support her family's suburban lifestyle.  It's fabulous as are all of the books by the authors at DarkSide Publishing.

*If you could be a character in any book. Who would it be and why?

Sookie Stackhouse in the Southern Vampire Series (a.k.a Trueblood) Why?  Sexy vampires everywhere, duh!

*If you could have written any book, which book would it have been and why?

I wrote the book I was meant to write. I feel blessed to have the muse I have and I enjoy seeing other authors succeed. I wouldn't want to write someone else's book. That would be like living someone else's life.

Thanks to G.P.Ching for this interview!

Check out G.P.Ching website: http://genevieveching.blogspot.com/