Interview with *Hush Hush* Author Becca Fitzpatrick!

Today I am so excited to post an interview with Becca Fitzpatrick! Especially this particular interview as I admit to asking some pretty personal questions about Patch, the sexy leading man in Hush Hush; thank you, Becca, for your patience and for a very fun interview!

Hush Hush is available October 13th.

***

Hush Hush is your first book. It must be SO exciting, this whole journey towards publication. This is a huge question to answer, but what does it all feel like? What’s been the most exciting thing for you? How does it feel to have fans?

Oh man, it's incredibly exciting! It's also very nervewracking! It's terrifying to think people will be reading a piece of my soul. In some ways I wish I'd been a little more cautious about what I wrote, but that's just self-doubt whispering in my ear, and I probably need to get over it and just concentrate on enjoying the feeling of having my story in print. Which is a huge accomplishment!
The most exciting thing, hands down, was the book deal. My dream was coming true! It's hard to top that feeling. As for fans, all I can say is getting emails from people who've read and love the book is the best feeling in the world.

Patch is a great character. He’s sexy and mysterious and a bit dangerous. Where did he come from? And most importantly, do you have a crush on him as most of your readers will?

Patch is based loosely on someone I knew a long time ago. At one point in my life, this person meant a lot to me. I'd like to think I've moved on, but since in a roundabout way, I'm still writing about him, that's probably not the case. Do I have a crush on Patch? Laughing. Let's just say I don't want to go down that road again...

How did you develop the fallen angel world within Hush Hush? What inspired this theme? Was there research involved?

Truth be told, I didn't set out to write about fallen angels. I knew I wanted Patch to be the ultimate bad boy...but with a twist. He hadn't always been bad. In fact, at one point, he'd been really good, and something had caused this big change. While pondering what had caused Patch's fall from grace, the metaphor of “falling” that I was carrying around in my head became something quite literal – a fallen angel. Since I already knew Patch was going to be the ultimate bad boy, this revelation seemed perfect – after all, fallen angels are the original bad boys.
Once I knew Patch was going to be a fallen angel, I relied on Judeo-Christian mythology as my foundation, adding a few twists to make it unique to my story.

When Hush Hush is printed it will have a completely different ending than the advanced reader’s edition released earlier this year. How and why did this huge change come about? What can the readers of the galley edition of Hush Hush expect?

Laughing, I'm not sure it's a huge change – it's actually only the final page that's been modified. I'm very happy with the new ending, and I think it leads into the sequel well. I originally wrote the book as a stand alone, so during the editing process, I had to make a few changes that would allow for a sequel. I think the new ending really accomplishes that. Hopefully those who've read the ARC ending will agree!

Do you love being a YA author? This question is totally leading. J Was Hush Hush always intended as a YA book? What do you like about writing for teens? How have the responses been, so far, to Hush Hush?

Hush, Hush was absolutely meant for teens! I started reading YA over six years ago, and I still remember the day I read SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson and knew this was the genre I wanted to write. So many of my own memories have ties to my teen years, and in some ways, I feel like it's an unresolved time period in my life. I suppose that's one of the biggest reasons why I write about teen relationships.

As far as the response, well, it's been unbelievable. I never could have guessed so many readers would enjoy the story and fall in love with the characters...especially Patch ;)

You are at work on a sequel to Hush Hush called Crescendo. Will there be a third book to this series? Did you know that you’d like to write Hush Hush as a series, or was it a publisher’s idea?

I signed a two-book deal with my publisher, so I don't know about a third book. Maybe, if I'm very lucky! As I mentioned above, I wrote Hush, Hush to be stand alone, but during the aquisitions process, my publisher asked for two books. They felt the story wasn't over, and needed more. As you can imagine, I was more than happy to help them out!

***

I can say that having already read the galley edition of Hush Hush, my first response to the ending re-write was "NOOOOO!". But I have since read the published copy of the book and I LOVE the way it ends! Anyone who's read a galley copy should take a peek and see how it's been changed. It kind of comes full circle in a satisfying way. And the book's cover is gorgeous. The dust jacket is thick, matte paper and the feathers near the top are red-tinged.

Becca's website!

Hear the first chapter of Hush Hush on Becca's website!

Visit the first Hush Hush Fansite!

Read my review of *Hush Hush*

Mandy