Interview with Sasha Alsberg & Lindsay Cummings for Nexus

Nexus (The Androma Saga #2)

by Sasha Alsberg & Lindsay Cummings

Publisher: Harlequin TEEN
Release Date: May 7th 2019

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fantasy

Synopsis:

#1 New York Times bestselling authors Sasha Alsberg and Lindsay Cummings deliver the dazzling finale to the acclaimed Androma Saga, where stunning betrayals and devastating secrets send an embattled galaxy spiraling into the ultimate nightmare.

Her ship is gone, her crew is captured and notorious mercenary Androma Racella is no longer the powerful Bloody Baroness, but a fugitive ruthlessly hunted across the Mirabel Galaxy. The bloodthirsty Queen Nor now rules most of the galaxy through a mind-control toxin and she’ll stop at nothing to destroy her most hated adversary.

Andi will risk anything, even her precious freedom, to find a cure. Stranded with her unlikely ally, Dex, on the unforgiving ice planet of Solera, their plan to infiltrate a black-market city proves dangerously irresistible.

Back in Arcardius, Nor’s actions have opened Mirabel to invasion. As Andi’s crew fights to regain their freedom, Andi and Dex discover a threat far greater than anything they’ve faced before.

Only by saving their mortal enemy can the crew of the Maraudermake one last desperate strike to save the galaxy—unaware that a shattering, centuries-old secret may demand the most wrenching sacrifice of all.

Can you briefly describe NEXUS and their main characters?

Nexus picks up not long after ZENITH left off. If you’ve read book one, it ends on a pretty big cliff-hanger, so we had a blast getting to tie up all the loose ends that we left our space pirates with at the end of book one. This one is all about redemption, and “getting the band back together” so to speak…it’s also about new alliances forming, and a darker force at work than the Marauders had to face in book one.

Who would you say is your favourite character from the story and why?

Lindsay- I love Valen in this one. His story is heart-breaking and dark, and I had an absolute blast digging into the corners of his mind that people never got to explore in book one! 

Sasha – I love Nor, she is seen as the “villain” but I loved dissecting her character and figuring out WHY she does what she does. 

How did the story occur to you? Did you find inspiration anywhere?

Lindsay- Sasha and I always have a blast coming up with scene ideas, and we’re super inspired by art, music, basically anything creative. I remember specifically a time when we were on tour last year for Zenith, where Sasha got a really fun idea for an ice dragon scene, and we fleshed that out together on one of our flights! 

Sasha- We find inspiration in everything, from people to landscapes to really, whatever! I loved our brainstorming sessions when we would throw crazy ideas at each other until one of them sticks!

If you could choose one song to describe your book, which one would it be?

Lindsay – Wrecking Ball.

Sasha - The Sound of Silence: HELLO DARKNESS MY OLD FRIEND…

What would you say it is the best thing about writing a book with another author? What was the process of writing this series?

Lindsay- It’s just fun to get two minds together…it almost feels like the creative possibilities are endless! We wrote a lot of this series on Google Docs, where we’d sort of plot out scene-by scene, and then tackle them at random. It’s messy, but fun!

Sasha – I find collaborating with people the BEST THING EVER. I am such a people person so I feed off of others. Getting to create this world with Lindsay was a DREAM. We wrote online together and in person. Zenith and Nexus both had different creature processes, which was so interesting to see once the series was complete.

Between Zenith & Nexus:

Which book has your favourite cover? We can’t decide!! They both are *heart eyes* to us!

Which one was more fun to write? Zenith, because it was all so new and exciting!

If your book was going to be made into a movie, who would play your characters?

Andi: Iskra Lawrence 

Dex: Marlon Teixeria

Nor: Naomi Scott

Valen: Francisco Lachowski

Since it is still cold outside, what hot drink do you think will go with your book to have a perfect book date?

Lindsay - Peppermint mocha 

Sasha – Extra caramel latte or macchiato 

Can you recommend your readers any other books in case they are left hungry for more once they finish NEXUS?

Lindsay- Definitely Beth Revis’ ACROSS THE UNIVERSE series, and Avalon by Mindee Arnett! 

Sasha – Aurora Rising by Jay Kristoff & Amie Kaufman!

What’s next for you?

Lindsay- I have a new single title coming up in 2020 called BLOOD, METAL, BONE…it’s sort of a space western fantasy mashup with alien horses! 

Sasha – I am working on an urban folklore fantasy book set in Scotland! Its code name is PROJECT RED ;)

Sasha Alsberg is the #1 NYT Bestselling Co-Author of ZENITH: The Androma Saga.

When Sasha is not writing or obsessing over Scotland she is making YouTube videos on her channel Abookutopia. She lives in Massachusetts with her dogs, Fraser and Fiona

For her writing, she is represented by Joanna Volpe at New Leaf Literary.

Lindsay Cummings is the #1 NYT Bestselling co-author of ZENITH, along with her duology, THE MURDER COMPLEX from Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins, and the MG trilogy THE BALANCE KEEPERS, from Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins. She is represented by Pete Knapp at Park Literary in NYC.

Lindsay deals with chronic fatigue, writes full time from her home in the deep woods in North Texas, and loves to chat with fellow book nerds. Lindsay created the #booknerdigans hashtag.

She's still waiting on her letter from Hogwarts--it was probably just lost in the mail. You can follow Lindsay on twitter @authorlindsayc or on instagram @authorlindsaycummings.

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FFBC: Welcome to the club, Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid

Never Always Sometimes
by Adi Alsaid
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release Date: August 4th 2015
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction

Synopsis:

Never date your best friend 

Always be original 

Sometimes rules are meant to be broken 

Best friends Dave and Julia were determined to never be cliché high school kids—the ones who sit at the same lunch table every day, dissecting the drama from homeroom and plotting their campaigns for prom king and queen. They even wrote their own Never List of everything they vowed they'd never, ever do in high school. 

Some of the rules have been easy to follow, like #5, never die your hair a color of the rainbow, or #7, never hook up with a teacher. But Dave has a secret: he's broken rule #8, never pine silently after someone for the entirety of high school. It's either that or break rule #10, never date your best friend. Dave has loved Julia for as long as he can remember. 

Julia is beautiful, wild and impetuous. So when she suggests they do every Never on the list, Dave is happy to play along. He even dyes his hair an unfortunate shade of green. It starts as a joke, but then a funny thing happens: Dave and Julia discover that by skipping the clichés, they've actually been missing out on high school. And maybe even on love.

HOW DO I ANSWER THIS? I’ll say Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, but I hope you know I’m going to lose a lot of sleep wishing I could answer this a million different times.

I’d say I go through phases. Pushing Daisies is up there.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. 

THESE QUESTIONS ARE SO HARD. “No Children” by The Mountain Goats. 

I’m going to cheat and say a whole category: Asian soups. 

Hmm. Let’s say Night Vale from the Welcome to Night Vale podcast. The version of Seattle in The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton. And the cartoon world of Looney Tunes.

I hate to be repetitive, but I might have to go with Chuck from Pushing Daisies. 

“An ordinary life examined closely reveals itself to be exquisite and complicated and exceptional, somehow managing to be both heroic and plain."- The Bullfighter Checks her Makeup, Susan Orlean.

Is undead an option? I’d love to meet Stephen King as a zombie. Cause, like, if he’s creepy now, imagine after he’s experienced death.

A trick I learned to making the perfect grilled cheese sandwich is that you butter up and grill the inside of the bread first before putting the cheese in for extra meltiness AND extra crunch. You’re welcome.

Hello Adi! We are super excited to have you in our FFBC tours.

Of course! The book is about Dave and Julia, two best friends who’ve distanced themselves from others throughout high school, existing in their little world of two. They even went so far as creating The Nevers; a list of clichés they promised themselves never to do. When graduation approaches and they re-discover the list, they decide to burst their little bubble and try to cross out every cliché they swore off. Dave, however, is already guilty of number seven on the list: Never pine silently for someone for all of high school.

I want to call them smart and funny, but that would be totally self-absorbed and patting myself on the back, right? Julia has always been the driving force of the friendship, and she’s the one that insulates them from their high school classmates and eventually leads them back to explore the outside world. She idolizes her biological mom, who gave her up for adoption at birth and now roams the world being a very hip person. Dave, on the other hand, lost his mom as a kid, and now has a strained relationship with his dad and older brother Brett. 

Did you find inspiration in any other story/movie/show and how has this affected your writing? I think high school is such a struggle between finding out who you are and how you fit into the world around you. You want to be original and unique, but you also want to connect with others, be liked. I wanted to tell a story that was different than what I wrote in Let’s Get Lost, something that zoomed into two friends and what happens in their relationship when they change the rules of how to interact with the world around them.

I was already writing the story when I watched the movie Drinking Buddies, and that definitely had some influence in how I approached the arc of the best-friend love story, because I thought the movie handled it without a single cliché.

My favorite aspect of the book might be the one-liners and banter between Dave and Julia, so I’ll pick one of those, mostly out of context.

Dave: “I’m sure that’s an exaggeration.”

Julia: “Dave, you know I swore off hyperbole a thousand years ago.”

I was really proud of myself while writing the slam poetry scene. It’s full of ridiculous puns and I was being a weirdo and giggling to myself while writing it.

Not particularly. Male or female, I’m always trying to make sure a character feels well-rounded and like a whole person. I pay particular attention to this during revisions, but it’s just as true for male characters as for female ones.

“That Teenage Feeling” by Neko Case.

It’d be so awesome. I’m a huge film buff so I’d be delighted to see my story in a theater. I know this is a ridiculous answer, especially when I write mostly teen characters, but I’d love to see a movie where Nic Cage plays every single role. So, why not in my movie? (Okay, there are a million reasons why not. I’d make an awful casting director. Or the best one.)

I’ve got a number of projects in the works! Nothing I can officially talk about at this time, unfortunately, but maybe soon.

Thank you so much for everything, Adi! 

Thank you for having me!

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Adi Alsaid was born and raised in Mexico City, then studied at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. While in class, he mostly read fiction and continuously failed to fill out crossword puzzles, so it's no surprise that after graduating, he did not go into business world but rather packed up his apartment into his car and escaped to the California coastline to become a writer. He's now back in his hometown, where he writes, coaches high school and elementary basketball, and has perfected the art of making every dish he eats or cooks as spicy as possible. In addition to Mexico, he's lived in Tel Aviv, Las Vegas, and Monterey, California. A tingly feeling in his feet tells him more places will eventually be added to the list. Let's Get Lost is his YA debut.

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