Hey Towelites! I recently had a birthday, and for my birthday I was given a book that I had been dying to read since I found out it was being written. It’s called The Dark World by Cara Lynn Schultz and I have to say, it’s pretty damn good.
The Dark World is about a girl Paige, who like myself, and I’m sure many of you, is kind of on the outskirts, an outcast if you will. Her best friend is a ghost named Dottie and has been having conversations with dead people since she got in an accident a few years before. She meets Logan, a practiced demon slayer, and they basically hit it off right away (with a few bumps of course.)
Paige somehow gets stuck in the middle of a battle between warlocks and demons and if she’s not careful she could be pulled into the Dark World, an alternate version of our world that’s overrun by demons.
I really, really liked this book. It’s fun, funny, quirky and it keeps you on your seat. Plus, I really love the relationship between Paige and Logan. The characters are well written, you end up feeling like they’re your friends. The book ends with a cliff hanger, so right now I’m just impatiently awaiting the release of the second one in the series.
I had a chance to talk to Cara Lynn Schultz about The Dark World and she answered a few questions for us. Also, I would like to say that her first two books, Spellbound and Spell Caster, are also available and I HIGHLY recommend them! She’s published through Harleyquinn Teen and you can get her books pretty much anywhere.
So, here’s our interview. Now go read her books!
CheriMonster: Who have your biggest influences been?
Shultz: I’m influenced by everything from the books I loved in elementary school (for example: Baby-Sitters Club, where all the characters had unique little quirks and details that really made them pop off the page) to books I read when I was older (like Leon Uris’s Trinity, which had a rich romance set against an even richer historical setting). I’m influenced by music — I listen to music while I write, in fact. I’m influenced by TV shows I love (particularly comedies, which is probably why humor is such a big part of my main characters’ personalities). And I’m really influenced by my childhood in New York, which is why all my books are set in NYC.
CheriMonster: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
Shultz: I don’t know that there was a light-bulb moment, where I realized, “Oh, THIS is what I want to do.” It’s just something that was always there, in some form or another. I used to write plays and short stories when I was a kid. I was editor of Fordham University’s Observer, and after I graduated, I was an entertainment and music journalist for a long period of time. During those early post-grad days, I used to write little stories for a friend of mine to read on her commute home. Writing a book was something that was always in the back of my head, as a goal for “someday” — and it probably would have stayed there had my friend not found those stories tucked into an old purse, years later. Those characters ended up being the foundation for Brendan and Emma from Spellbound.
CheriMonster: Where did you get your inspiration for The Dark World?
Shultz: The Dark World was somewhat born out of the challenges of writing a book set in New York City. It’s the most recognizable city in the world, whose landmarks are fixed in pretty much everyone’s mind. I can’t exactly move Central Park to suit the needs of the plot, after all. Anyway, I was playing with the idea of a book about a boy who was looking to avenge his sister, who had been kidnapped by demons and taken to an alternate dimension when I had an ocular migraine. My vision looked fractured and weird and as I joked to a friend, it looked like the portal to another dimension was opening up. Everything sort of crystallized in that moment, and I had the idea for the book I wanted to write. It’s not a particularly sexy story, unfortunately.
CheriMonster: Cliff hangers make me crazy, WHEN IS THE SECOND BOOK COMING OUT!?
Shultz: I’m working on revisions now! There isn’t a release date, but hardcover books usually come out a year apart.
CheriMonster: How has the fan response been so far?
Shultz: So far, Ajax seems to be the breakout character — and I absolutely adore writing him, even though I crave junk food whenever I’m working on his scenes. I can promise that you haven’t seen the last of him!
The Dark World is available now, everywhere books are sold!
~CheriMonster
