When Kayla is Assigned to care for Zul Manel, the patriarch of a trueborn family, she finds secrets and surprises; not least of which is her unexpected friendship with Zul's great-grandson. Meanwhile, the children that Mishalla is Assigned to care for are being stolen in the middle of the night.
After weeks of toiling in their Assignments, mystifying circumstances enable Kayla and Mishalla to reunite. Together they hatch a plan to save the disappearing children. Yet can GENs really trust humans? Both girls must put their lives and hearts at risk to crack open a sinister conspiracy, revealing secrets no one is ready to face.
Thank you very much Ms. Sandler, for the opportunity of having you on our blog today!
1) What made you want
to become a writer?
I first decided I wanted to be a writer when I was nine years old. I guess I became a writer because a just had to. It was in my blood. I think it was also because I loved books so much, I loved reading. I don’t know that there were particular authors at that point that really inspired me to become an author (although I really liked Dr. Seuss). It wasn’t until later, when I was in high school, that I started reading science fiction (a lot of Ray Bradbury) and decided I wanted to write those kinds of stories.
One of the first novel-length stories I wrote was a science fiction romance, but the first book that was published was a romantic comedy. I wrote and sold 16 romances for the adult market before my first young adult science fiction book, TANKBORN, was published.
2) Tell me something about your book, TANKBORN.
TANKBORN started out as a movie script called ICER. The script was optioned a couple of times (that is, I made agreements with producers that they would try to make a movie from my script), but it never went into production to become a film.
I liked the ideas in ICER so much that I thought I’d try to adapt it into a novel. I decided to make the characters all teens so it would be a young adult book. I’ve used other parts from the script in the two sequels, AWAKENING and REVOLUTION.
Here’s the blurb from Amazon:
Best friends Kayla and Mishalla know they will be separated when the time comes for their Assignments. They are GENs, Genetically Engineered Non-humans, and in their strict caste system, GENs are at the bottom rung of society. High-status trueborns and working-class lowborns, born naturally of a mother, are free to choose their own lives. But GENs are gestated in a tank, sequestered in slums, and sent to work as slaves as soon as they reach age fifteen.
When Kayla is Assigned to care for Zul Manel, the patriarch of a trueborn family, she finds a host of secrets and surprises-not least of which is her unexpected friendship with Zul's great-grandson. Meanwhile, the children that Mishalla is Assigned to care for are being stolen in the middle of the night. With the help of an intriguing lowborn boy, Mishalla begins to suspect that something horrible is happening to them.
After weeks of toiling in their Assignments, mystifying circumstances enable Kayla and Mishalla to reunite. Together they hatch a plan with their new friends to save the children who are disappearing. Yet can GENs really trust humans? Both girls must put their lives and hearts at risk to crack open a sinister conspiracy, one that may reveal secrets no one is ready to face.
3) Is there a character in your book that you particularly love? Is there a character that gave you headaches?
I really love the three main characters, Kayla, Mishalla, and Devak. In some ways, they’re all parts of me (which always seems to happen in my books), but also their own unique selves.
I think the “bad guys” are always hardest to write. I want all my characters to be well-rounded, but if the “bad guys” are nothing but evil, they’re too much like comic book characters. I have to show some sympathetic aspects to them.
4) How have you done your research for this novel?
The Internet is a great resource for research. Most of the information I’ve needed has been cultural. Since TANKBORN’s society is based on the Indian caste system, I used the Internet to learn about that system, the Hindu religion, and the Hindi language. I went searching for appropriate Indian names, and in some cases based my science fiction terminology on Hindi and Sanskrit. I used the site http://www.shabdkosh.com/ quite a bit. Then luckily we had an expert cultural reader who made sure the words I was using were correct.
I also used names and words from other cultures such as Celtic, Roma, African, Japanese, and Chinese.
5) In the end, would you like say some words to your fans from Romania?
Thank you for your interest in the Tankborn trilogy. I wish there were a Romanian edition, but so far there’s only the English language and Italian versions. If you have an ereader, here’s where the English language Kindle version is available from the North American Amazon site: http://www.amazon.com/Tankborn-ebook/dp/B005ODGZDY/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1362864997&sr=1-1 Also, if you’d like to contact me, you can go here: http://www.karensandler.com and click Contact. And I’m on Twitter too: @karensandlerYA.
I’m sorry to say I’ve never been to Romania, but as an international folk dancer, Romanian dance is a particular favorite, especially Roma dances. I’ve been lucky enough to learn many of those dances from the wonderful Cristian Florescu from Bucharest, an amazing dancer and fantastic teacher.
I first decided I wanted to be a writer when I was nine years old. I guess I became a writer because a just had to. It was in my blood. I think it was also because I loved books so much, I loved reading. I don’t know that there were particular authors at that point that really inspired me to become an author (although I really liked Dr. Seuss). It wasn’t until later, when I was in high school, that I started reading science fiction (a lot of Ray Bradbury) and decided I wanted to write those kinds of stories.
One of the first novel-length stories I wrote was a science fiction romance, but the first book that was published was a romantic comedy. I wrote and sold 16 romances for the adult market before my first young adult science fiction book, TANKBORN, was published.
2) Tell me something about your book, TANKBORN.
TANKBORN started out as a movie script called ICER. The script was optioned a couple of times (that is, I made agreements with producers that they would try to make a movie from my script), but it never went into production to become a film.
I liked the ideas in ICER so much that I thought I’d try to adapt it into a novel. I decided to make the characters all teens so it would be a young adult book. I’ve used other parts from the script in the two sequels, AWAKENING and REVOLUTION.
Here’s the blurb from Amazon:
Best friends Kayla and Mishalla know they will be separated when the time comes for their Assignments. They are GENs, Genetically Engineered Non-humans, and in their strict caste system, GENs are at the bottom rung of society. High-status trueborns and working-class lowborns, born naturally of a mother, are free to choose their own lives. But GENs are gestated in a tank, sequestered in slums, and sent to work as slaves as soon as they reach age fifteen.
When Kayla is Assigned to care for Zul Manel, the patriarch of a trueborn family, she finds a host of secrets and surprises-not least of which is her unexpected friendship with Zul's great-grandson. Meanwhile, the children that Mishalla is Assigned to care for are being stolen in the middle of the night. With the help of an intriguing lowborn boy, Mishalla begins to suspect that something horrible is happening to them.
After weeks of toiling in their Assignments, mystifying circumstances enable Kayla and Mishalla to reunite. Together they hatch a plan with their new friends to save the children who are disappearing. Yet can GENs really trust humans? Both girls must put their lives and hearts at risk to crack open a sinister conspiracy, one that may reveal secrets no one is ready to face.
3) Is there a character in your book that you particularly love? Is there a character that gave you headaches?
I really love the three main characters, Kayla, Mishalla, and Devak. In some ways, they’re all parts of me (which always seems to happen in my books), but also their own unique selves.
I think the “bad guys” are always hardest to write. I want all my characters to be well-rounded, but if the “bad guys” are nothing but evil, they’re too much like comic book characters. I have to show some sympathetic aspects to them.
4) How have you done your research for this novel?
The Internet is a great resource for research. Most of the information I’ve needed has been cultural. Since TANKBORN’s society is based on the Indian caste system, I used the Internet to learn about that system, the Hindu religion, and the Hindi language. I went searching for appropriate Indian names, and in some cases based my science fiction terminology on Hindi and Sanskrit. I used the site http://www.shabdkosh.com/ quite a bit. Then luckily we had an expert cultural reader who made sure the words I was using were correct.
I also used names and words from other cultures such as Celtic, Roma, African, Japanese, and Chinese.
5) In the end, would you like say some words to your fans from Romania?
Thank you for your interest in the Tankborn trilogy. I wish there were a Romanian edition, but so far there’s only the English language and Italian versions. If you have an ereader, here’s where the English language Kindle version is available from the North American Amazon site: http://www.amazon.com/Tankborn-ebook/dp/B005ODGZDY/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1362864997&sr=1-1 Also, if you’d like to contact me, you can go here: http://www.karensandler.com and click Contact. And I’m on Twitter too: @karensandlerYA.
I’m sorry to say I’ve never been to Romania, but as an international folk dancer, Romanian dance is a particular favorite, especially Roma dances. I’ve been lucky enough to learn many of those dances from the wonderful Cristian Florescu from Bucharest, an amazing dancer and fantastic teacher.
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