Elana Johnson: Surrender! Bacon! Awesomesauciness!!

I am so happy to welcome a long time blogger friend Elana Johnson. We've known each other way back from my Querytracker days and I think she might have actually invented the word "awesomesauce." Her newest book, Surrender, is out this week! *insert crazy Kermit dance*

All right, then. Let's get on our awesomesaucey way, shall we?

First, some questions! Because I always torture authors with my middling questions. That's what I do.

When during the course of writing/publishing Possession did you get the ideas that eventually became Surrender?
Oh, boy. See, POSSESSION was written and intended to be a stand-alone novel. It wasn’t until it went into copyedits that my agent and I discussed a possible sequel. And it’s not a real sequel, either, though some have said it is.
     I knew I couldn’t write from Vi’s POV again, and so I needed something else. I needed someONE else. In the end, I came up with two people, and their stories are intertwined throughout SURRENDER.
     I wrote an outline for SURRENDER for my agent—it took me three months. I seriously wanted to cry everyday. I then wrote the book in 25 days. I’ve learned that when my agent wants an outline, I can draft the book in less than a month, and then take a week to put together an outline. No matter what, it’ll take less than the three months of torture I put myself through to outline SURRENDER.

Do you think that writing Surrender and Insider Information was harder or easier than Possession? Why?
I definitely think it’s harder to write additions (sequels, companions, shorts) to stories that are already published. Because POSSESSION is printed. It’s solid, right there in black and white—it can’t be changed.
     The author has to make everything in the additions line up with what’s already in black and white. So that’s why SURRENDER and INSIDER INFORMATION were harder to write.

If you could tell Elana the Younger (by five years) a thing or two, what would it be?
Don’t be afraid to fail at this. Oh, and there are going to be a lot of people who won’t like your book. That’s okay. Oh, and spend the bulk of your time writing new stories instead of obsessing over something that’s not working. Oh, and… Just kidding. But I’ve learned a lot in the past 5 years!

If all the bacon on the face of the earth suddenly disappeared, and in fact, all pork products suffered a mysterious disappearance, what new food vice would step up to that responsibility?
Holy mother of pork products. I do not want to live in that world! I think the next food vice after bacon would be cheese. There is little I wouldn’t do for a good piece of havarti with dill… Very. Little.

Thanks Elana! And now, here it is, Elana next book!

About SURRENDER: Forbidden love, intoxicating power, and the terror of control… 


Raine has always been a good girl. She lives by the rules in Freedom. After all, they are her father’s rules: He’s the Director. It’s because of him that Raine is willing to use her talent—a power so dangerous, no one else is allowed to know about it. Not even her roommate, Vi. 

All of that changes when Raine falls for Gunner. Raine’s got every reason in the world to stay away from Gunn, but she just can’t. Especially when she discovers his connection to Vi’s boyfriend, Zenn. Raine has never known anyone as heavily brainwashed as Vi. Raine’s father expects her to spy on Vi and report back to him. But Raine is beginning to wonder what Vi knows that her father is so anxious to keep hidden, and what might happen if she helps Vi remember it. She’s even starting to suspect Vi’s secrets might involve Freedom’s newest prisoner, the rebel Jag Barque....

• Releasing June 5, 2012, from Simon Pulse (Simon & Schuster) Order here.
• Read the first two chapters for free HERE.

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