Publisher: CreateSpace
Date of Publication: November 2011
Sixteen-year-old Kira Moore is a zero, someone who can’t read thoughts or be read by others. Zeros are outcasts who can’t be trusted, leaving her no chance with Raf, a regular mindreader and the best friend she secretly loves. When she accidentally controls Raf’s mind and nearly kills him, Kira tries to hide her frightening new ability from her family and an increasingly suspicious Raf. But lies tangle around her, and she’s dragged deep into a hidden world of mindjackers, where having to mind control everyone she loves is just the beginning of the deadly choices before her.
I never know what to expect with a new to me author. I liked the synopsis when I read it and was intrigued by the premise. This book far exceeded my expectations. I really enjoyed it.
Open Minds is a very well written YA novel. I liked the world that the author has created. Most of the world population becomes a "reader" some time in their teens. Imagine being able to read everyone's mind. Most people don't even talk out loud anymore. For Kira, the change doesn't seem to be coming. She is facing life as zero, someone who is not considered normal anymore. Boy was she wrong. Once she finds out the truth about herself, she isn't sure who to trust or how to keep those that she loves protected.
There is a little something for every reader packed into this novel. I loved the ending and had I not known it was part of a trilogy, I would have been very happy with the way it ended. I love when an ending makes me sigh. I look forward to see what the future has in store for Kira and her loved ones.
Where Ideas Come From: A Mind Reading
World
by Susan Kaye Quinn
One
of my favorite writing quotes goes something like this: "I don't know
where ideas (for writing) come from. I only know where they come to: my
chair, 9 am, every morning." The attribution for that quote is lost in the
swirl of ideas that roam my mind, but the inspiration of it guides what I do
every day: sit down and do the creative work that beckons those ideas to my
chair.
My YA novel Open Minds is set in a world
where everyone reads minds. That one aspect of the world changes everything
from the architecture of houses to the social interactions of people to the
political systems around the world. But I didn't know any of that when I
started.
In the beginning I had a simple image in my mind,
born of the desire to write a rockin' paragraph for the great Nathan
Bransford's 1st paragraph contest.
I knew that none of my current novels had a hooky
first paragraph, and for the record, I don't believe novels live and die on
their first paragraph. There has to be a whole lot more to a story than those
first 100 words. But I wanted to have a good showing in the contest, so I
decide to make up a paragraph for a novel that didn't exist.
I had previously toyed with an idea about a boy who
was a touch empath - he could feel everything that another person felt or
thought by touching them, which led him to become a recluse. His guidance
counselor at school had discovered what he could do and helped him deal with
his hidden power. But I hadn't done much with the idea, just a few notes and
scribblings. I wasn't even sure it was strong enough to support a novel.
But maybe it could support a first paragraph.
I mulled ways to write that story into a paragraph
while drifting off to sleep one night. Then a completely different story popped
into my head. It was encapsulated in a single image: a girl in a high school
classroom of the future where everyone could read minds but her. Her isolation
was utter and complete, as everyone around her learned, talked, and gossiped
via mind link. She was trapped in a silent bubble of exclusion.
I jumped out of bed, ran downstairs, and wrote that
first paragraph.
I didn't win the contest, but I didn't care. I had a
story idea that I loved, and that image haunted me for about a month before I
decided I had to write this girl's story.
So, in this case, the idea came to me at bedtime.
But all the other ideas for the novel came to my chair every morning as I
puzzled through, fabricated, and pounded out this future world where everyone
read minds except one girl. The original paragraph (highly modified) is still
buried somewhere in chapter one. And that empath boy who could feel everyone
else's feelings and thoughts? He became the model for the normal mindreaders in
Kira's world - a society where simply touching someone was an intimate act of
sharing thoughts and feelings. An act that Kira would never experience.
Where do ideas come from? Everywhere, nowhere,
contests, bedtime, and that fertile place we call imagination. I believe
creativity is a muscle that gets stronger every time we use it.
Right now I'm writing Closed
Hearts, the sequel to Open
Minds, and I keep finding more and more ideas springing from that first
brain spark. Kira's story has just begun. :)
About the Author:
Susan Kaye Quinn grew up in California, where she wrote snippets of stories and passed them to her friends during class. Her teachers pretended not to notice and only confiscated her stories a couple times.
Susan left writing behind to pursue a bunch of engineering degrees, but she was drawn back to writing by an irresistible urge to share her stories with her niece, her kids, and all the wonderful friends she’s met along the way.
She doesn’t have to sneak her notes anymore, which is too bad.
Susan writes from the Chicago suburbs with her three boys, two cats, and one husband. Which, it turns out, is exactly as a much as she can handle.
CONTACT SUSAN
Susan's Website/Blog | Susan's twitter | Susan's Facebook Page
Susan left writing behind to pursue a bunch of engineering degrees, but she was drawn back to writing by an irresistible urge to share her stories with her niece, her kids, and all the wonderful friends she’s met along the way.
She doesn’t have to sneak her notes anymore, which is too bad.
Susan writes from the Chicago suburbs with her three boys, two cats, and one husband. Which, it turns out, is exactly as a much as she can handle.
CONTACT SUSAN
Susan's Website/Blog | Susan's twitter | Susan's Facebook Page
1 comment:
I love hearing how authors play around with ideas and where their ideas come from. It's often hard to explain how from one thought the other pieces fall in place (or we beat them there with a hammer).
Post a Comment