The time it was about Take the Fall

I read and loved Emily’s first book, Through to You, and when I saw the synopsis for Take the Fall, I was totally on board.  I read it and loved it, so I immediately asked Emily if she would have time to do an interview and she said yes! Before we get to her answers, let’s check out the book.

WHO KILLED GRETCHEN MEYER?

Fear grips the residents of Hidden Falls the night Sonia Feldman and her best friend, Gretchen Meyer, are attacked in the woods. Sonia was lucky to escape with her life, but Gretchen’s body is discovered at the bottom of a waterfall. Beautiful, popular, and seemingly untouchable, Gretchen can’t be gone. Even as Sonia struggles with guilt and confusion over having survived, the whole town is looking to her for information…could she have seen something that will lead the police to the killer?

At the top of the list of suspects is Gretchen’s ex-boyfriend—and Sonia’s longtime enemy—Marcus Perez. So when Marcus comes to Sonia for help clearing his name, she agrees, hoping to find evidence the police need to prove he’s the killer. But as Gretchen’s many secrets emerge and the suspects add up, Sonia feels less sure of Marcus’s involvement, and more afraid for herself. Could Marcus, the artist, the screwup, the boy she might be falling for have attacked her? Killed her best friend? And if it wasn’t him in the woods that night…who could it have been?

Sounds good, right?

1. Please give the elevator pitch for Take the Fall.

A girl survives an attack in the woods, but her best friend wasn’t so lucky, and the killer could be anyone they knew.

2. Where did the idea come from?

The short, annoyingly vague answer is: I asked myself a question (and the book is the answer). Less-annoying longer answer: I started an early version of Take The Fall years ago, but at the time all I had was this Twin Peaks-esque image in my head of a dead girl floating under a waterfall and her sad best friend left behind. I had no idea what to do with it until much later when I finally knew the right question to ask (see above), and then it all came together.

3. Why do you love Sonia and why should we root for her?

I think what I love most about Sonia is her belief that she can get what she wants out of life if she just tries hard enough—if she can just do everything right. It’s easy to root for her because basically, don’t we all want to believe that at some point?

4. What makes a good villain and how did you incorporate that into Take the Fall?

A good villain is complex, emotional, and driven by their own desire more than anything else (the inability to set desire aside is often what pushes ordinary people/characters to become villains). Take The Fall may or may not have a traditional villain, and I doubt everyone will agree on who that could even be. But it does have a large cast with loads of personal demons. The challenge is figuring out whose demons have gotten the best of them.

5. Without spoilers, what was your favorite scene to write?

Oh, definitely the last several chapters (I won’t say what the scenes are for fear of giving something away). I always write in order, so by the time I get to the end of a book, I’m dying to have everything fall into place and make sense just like everyone else.

Speed [ish] round:

1. You get the call/email/letter that says you’re being published for the first time. Describe the next 5 minutes.

Easy, because I’ve done this! ;) I sat in shock for at least 5 minutes. There was dancing later, but first it definitely had to sink in.

2. What three things would you take to a desert island?

Water. Chocolate. Books.

3. You can only read one book for the rest of your life. What is it?

The Neverending Story? Haha, this question is way too hard!

4. Who are your favorite swoony boys/girls?

I seem to have a soft spot for animated boys. My very first fictional crush was Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon and I totally crushed on Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle. Fictional boyfriends are the BEST…but apparently if you animate them, I will swoon even harder.

5. You wake up and discover you are Bella in Twilight. You know how it plays out. What do you do differently? {Huge thanks to Bookish Broads for letting me use this question}

LOL, hmmm…I always sort of wanted the bite to do its job at the end of the first book. But I will always be Team Edward. ;)

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Emily Hainsworth was raised in Syracuse, New York, until she fell in love and fled its gray skies for the sunny Rocky Mountains. Before she started writing full time, she worked as a turndown maid at a fancy golf club, scooped poop at a dog boarding kennel, worked retail in an upscale pet boutique, and owned a dog grooming business. She currently resides in Denver with her family.

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Huge thanks to Emily for taking the time!! Make sure you’re checking out her website, following her on Twitter, liking her Facebook page, and adding all of her books to your Goodreads TBR shelf.

Take the Fall is awesome and releases on February 16th. You can pre-order it at HarperCollins | Indiebound | Barnes & Noble | Amazon

Will you be reading Take the Fall?