Claudia Gray Evernight Interview

Claudia Gray Evernight Interview

The third instalment in Claudia Gray's Evernight series, Hourglass, shot straight to number in its first week and with Australian sales of over 120,000 and climbing, it's clear Aussie readers are wild about Claudia's deliciously gothic tales!

Hourglass
Bianca has found refuge again with the Black Cross, and she and Lucas work desperately to keep her secret. In this company, being a vampire is a death sentence, and the two of them live and train alongside the hunters without anyone noticing her increasing need for blood.

Even though she's with the boy she loves more than anyone else in the world, Bianca can't help worrying about the family and friends she left behind. Caught between three feuding worlds, it's starting to feel as though she'll never be entirely at peace again.

When another betrayal puts the lovers in mortal danger once more, they realise that all they truly have is one another. But with the secret of Bianca's birth taking hold, not even Lucas can help her win her toughest fight.

Claudia Gray has worked as a lawyer, a journalist, a disc jockey and a very bad waitress. Her lifelong interests in old houses, classic movies, vintage style and history all play a part in creating the world of Evernight Academy.

Evernight series
Harper Collins Publishers
Author: Claudia Gray
Evernight ISBN: 9780732289676
Stargazer ISBN: 9780732289683
Hourglass ISBN: 9780732289690
Price: $19.99

Interview with Claudia Gray

When you first began writing Evernight did you think the series would be this big, worldwide?

Claudia Gray: Absolutely not! It is still a little surreal to me that anybody else knows about these people I made up inside my head. The series has surpassed my widest expectations.


How did you develop the series and where did your ideas come from?

Claudia Gray: It began with my agent suggesting that I think about writing for young adults and I originally thought that was something I'd never be able to do, even though I liked the idea. I went to a very small high school, in a very small town, I shouldn't even say high school as it was one school, kindergarten through to high school and there were only about 200 of us in kindergarten through to twelfth grade. I think my graduating class had 28 students and 12 of us had started kindergarten together. I never had the experience of wondering where my locker was or being in a new school or wondering 'who is that cute guy?' I knew who that guy was and I knew his grandparents (laughing).

There were never any of the typical experiences at my school, so I knew I could never write about a typical high school. Then I thought why I don't write about an unusual high school. I have always been a big vampire buff, so I think that was pretty natural for first place for me to turn.


Are the characters of Evernight based on anyone you know?

Claudia Gray: No, for the most part I don't do that; I just don't base characters on real people. Although, I will say that the character of Vic, his not based on my friend Steve and his not just like my friend Steve; but if they every met they would hit it off, go on some road trip and call me from Vegas looking for bail money (laughing).


Can you talk about the research that went into the series?

Claudia Gray: No, the closest you could say that I came to 'research', which isn't exactly true, is my avid wishing to go to some other high school, than my own, any other high school. To me the idea of boarding school sounded so romantic and wonderful, it felt like a very exotic thing, that you could do. It was a very natural thing when I was picking the set; of course Evernight would be a boarding school, just like the one that I wished I could go to.


What is the best thing about creating a character like Bianca?

Claudia Gray: I guess the best thing is really trying to look at the world through her eyes and seeing things with that freshness and her perspective as well as her strength of belief- I really enjoy that.