Lindsey Fairleigh lives her life with one foot in a book—as long as that book transports her to a magical world or bends the rules of science. Her novels, from post-apocalyptic to time travel and historical fantasy, always offer up a hearty dose of unreality, along with plenty of adventure and romance. When she’s not working on her next novel, Lindsey spends her time reading and trying out new recipes in the kitchen. She lives in the Napa Valley with her loving husband and confused cats. You can visit Lindsey’s blog at www.lindseyfairleigh.blogspot.com
Lindsey Pogue has always been a little creative. As a child she established a bug hospital on her elementary school soccer field, compiled books of collages as a teenager, and as an adult, expresses herself through writing. Her novels are inspired by her observations of the world around her—whether she’s traveling, people watching, or hiking. When not plotting her next storyline or dreaming up new, brooding characters, Lindsey’s wrapped in blankets watching her favorite action flicks or going on road trips with her own leading man. You can visit Lindsey’s website at www.lindseypogue.com
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Lindsey Pogue
Lindsey Fairleigh
The Virus spread. Billions died. The Ending began. We may have survived the apocalypse, but the Virus changed us.
When people started getting sick, “they” thought it was just the flu. My roommate, my boyfriend, my family…they’re all gone now. I got sick too. I should have died with them—with the rest of the world—but I didn’t. I thought witnessing the human population almost disappear off the face of the earth was the craziest thing I’d ever experience. I was so wrong. My name is Dani O’Connor, I’m twenty-six-years-old, and I survived The Ending.
The Virus changed everything. The world I knew is gone, and life is backwards. We’ve all had to start over. I’ve been stripped of my home, my dreams…all that is me. I’m someone else now—broken and changed. Other survivors’ memories and emotions haunt me. They invade my mind until I can no longer separate them from my own. I won’t let them consume me. I can’t. My name is Zoe Cartwright, I’m twenty-six-years-old, and I survived The Ending.
We’ve been inseparable for most of our lives, and now our friendship is all we have left. The aftermath of the Virus has stranded us on opposite sides of the United States. Trusting strangers, making sacrifices, killing—we’ll do anything to reach one another. Fear and pain may be unavoidable, but we’re strong…we’re survivors. But to continue surviving in this unfamil-iar world plagued by Crazies and strange new abilities, we have to adapt. We have to evolve.
And more than anything, we have to find each other.
Q) What inspired you to write this story?
LP: We were driving home from a book conference—this was while we still worked at Copperfield’s Books together—and we started talking about a story idea. LF had been thinking about writing something entirely epistolary that chronicled an adult woman’s post-apocalyptic experience. During the two-hour drive we toyed with the premise, tossing ideas back and forth, and by the time we arrived at my house, we had characters, a rough backstory, and a very general outline. We actually started this as a blog based solely on emails, but as we wrote, we realized we wanted to give ourselves the space to explore our characters, to show the audience who they were outside of their quirky and oftentimes melodramatic emails. We wanted more, and it turned into a massive book with first person narrative and a few straggling emails.
LF: That’s definitely where the story originated, but I’ll readily admit that as we’ve continued on with the second book, Into The Fire, it’s been the two MCs, Dani and Zoe, who inspire us and drive the story. Those two young women have certainly taken on a life of their own.
Q) How long did it take you to write?
LP: Because we went back and forth on format and POV, it took us almost two years from starting with the blog idea to After The Ending’s fruiting into a novel.
LF: Into The Fire took a much shorter period of time to create from start to finish, maybe ten months. We’ve developed a fairly intensive review and revision process as we’ve evolved as writers, which is what takes up most of the time. Also, co-authoring a novel definitely takes longer than creating a book solo.
Q) What is your favorite thing about writing?
LP: The possibilities: to dream up new stories and characters, to inspire and entertain people, to conjure emotions and create lasting impressions…the list goes on. But all the possibilities lead to a sense of achievement and that’s always a great feeling, especially if your writing is well received.
LF: I really just love letting people see parts of the crazy worlds that already exist in my head. I can never explain them very well out loud, which LP can certainly attest to, so writing them down and telling the stories of some of the people who live in those worlds is such a freeing experience. And it’s just so damn fun!
Q) What is your least favorite thing about writing?
LP: Grammar…and editing. I’m horrible at it. I have a difficult time grasping the whole concept of “grammatically correct”. I wish what made sense in my head could just be…accepted. I feel like the more your writing is edited, the less yours your writing becomes.
LF: For me, it’s how easy it is for other things to get in the way. Yes, writing is essential to what we’re doing, but there are things that have to be done RIGHT NOW, like coordinating marketing and advertising campaigns with hard deadlines. It’s sometimes frustrating how those other “non-writing” aspects of writing can get in the way of, well, writing.
Q) If you could be any famous person for one day, who would you be and why?
LP: Oh, the possibilities! So I could live out a fantasy then, yes? I would have to go with Elsa Pataky, Chris Hemsworth’s wife. She’s a beautiful model (plus I’ve always wanted to speak Spanish), and I’ve definitely had scandalous thoughts about her husband. That could be fun, just sayin’.
LF: I’d love to be Felicia Day, who plays Charlie on Supernatural every now and again, but only on a day when she’s guest starring on the show. Whenever she’s on there, she’s always in the middle of some awesome-pants hunt or adventure with Sam and Dean (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles), and I just think it would be the coolest thing ever to be able to interact with those two boys. They’re supposed to be hilarious and completely ridiculous on-set, and I would LOVE to be able to witness it with my own little ol’ eyes. *Wipes tear away* I just love them so much!
Q) What is the oldest thing in your fridge and how old is it?
LP: This is a hilarious question because I was just thinking yesterday when I was putting away groceries that I really needed to throw away the jar of pesto sitting on the top shelf. It’s been in there for over a year and still, it sits there.
LF: I’m just going to pretend this question includes my “wine fridge,” because that’s so much more fun—at least, considering my wine fridge. My husband works in the wine industry, so we have the privilege of getting our hands on some very exclusive items that aren’t readily available out there. At the moment, it’s a bottle of 1981 Cabernet Sauvignon from Newton Vineyards here in the beautiful Napa Valley.
Q) What can readers expect from you in the future?
LP: I love reading historical fiction and romance novels, and some of the New Adult authors are truly amazing and inspiring. I feel like the New Adult genre has a gritty, more realistic edge to it that I really enjoy. I will definitely continue writing in the romance genre, but I give myself the freedom to go in different directions depending on the will of the characters bombarding my brain on any given day, urging me to get them onto paper.
LF: I’m definitely with LP here—whatever I do in the future, it will always have romantic elements. It’s what I like to read, so it’s what I like to write. Beyond that, I’m not sure. I like to write whatever is currently playing out in my head, and I can’t really predict what that will be beyond 2014.
LP: We were driving home from a book conference—this was while we still worked at Copperfield’s Books together—and we started talking about a story idea. LF had been thinking about writing something entirely epistolary that chronicled an adult woman’s post-apocalyptic experience. During the two-hour drive we toyed with the premise, tossing ideas back and forth, and by the time we arrived at my house, we had characters, a rough backstory, and a very general outline. We actually started this as a blog based solely on emails, but as we wrote, we realized we wanted to give ourselves the space to explore our characters, to show the audience who they were outside of their quirky and oftentimes melodramatic emails. We wanted more, and it turned into a massive book with first person narrative and a few straggling emails.
LF: That’s definitely where the story originated, but I’ll readily admit that as we’ve continued on with the second book, Into The Fire, it’s been the two MCs, Dani and Zoe, who inspire us and drive the story. Those two young women have certainly taken on a life of their own.
Q) How long did it take you to write?
LP: Because we went back and forth on format and POV, it took us almost two years from starting with the blog idea to After The Ending’s fruiting into a novel.
LF: Into The Fire took a much shorter period of time to create from start to finish, maybe ten months. We’ve developed a fairly intensive review and revision process as we’ve evolved as writers, which is what takes up most of the time. Also, co-authoring a novel definitely takes longer than creating a book solo.
Q) What is your favorite thing about writing?
LP: The possibilities: to dream up new stories and characters, to inspire and entertain people, to conjure emotions and create lasting impressions…the list goes on. But all the possibilities lead to a sense of achievement and that’s always a great feeling, especially if your writing is well received.
LF: I really just love letting people see parts of the crazy worlds that already exist in my head. I can never explain them very well out loud, which LP can certainly attest to, so writing them down and telling the stories of some of the people who live in those worlds is such a freeing experience. And it’s just so damn fun!
Q) What is your least favorite thing about writing?
LP: Grammar…and editing. I’m horrible at it. I have a difficult time grasping the whole concept of “grammatically correct”. I wish what made sense in my head could just be…accepted. I feel like the more your writing is edited, the less yours your writing becomes.
LF: For me, it’s how easy it is for other things to get in the way. Yes, writing is essential to what we’re doing, but there are things that have to be done RIGHT NOW, like coordinating marketing and advertising campaigns with hard deadlines. It’s sometimes frustrating how those other “non-writing” aspects of writing can get in the way of, well, writing.
Q) If you could be any famous person for one day, who would you be and why?
LP: Oh, the possibilities! So I could live out a fantasy then, yes? I would have to go with Elsa Pataky, Chris Hemsworth’s wife. She’s a beautiful model (plus I’ve always wanted to speak Spanish), and I’ve definitely had scandalous thoughts about her husband. That could be fun, just sayin’.
LF: I’d love to be Felicia Day, who plays Charlie on Supernatural every now and again, but only on a day when she’s guest starring on the show. Whenever she’s on there, she’s always in the middle of some awesome-pants hunt or adventure with Sam and Dean (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles), and I just think it would be the coolest thing ever to be able to interact with those two boys. They’re supposed to be hilarious and completely ridiculous on-set, and I would LOVE to be able to witness it with my own little ol’ eyes. *Wipes tear away* I just love them so much!
Q) What is the oldest thing in your fridge and how old is it?
LP: This is a hilarious question because I was just thinking yesterday when I was putting away groceries that I really needed to throw away the jar of pesto sitting on the top shelf. It’s been in there for over a year and still, it sits there.
LF: I’m just going to pretend this question includes my “wine fridge,” because that’s so much more fun—at least, considering my wine fridge. My husband works in the wine industry, so we have the privilege of getting our hands on some very exclusive items that aren’t readily available out there. At the moment, it’s a bottle of 1981 Cabernet Sauvignon from Newton Vineyards here in the beautiful Napa Valley.
Q) What can readers expect from you in the future?
LP: I love reading historical fiction and romance novels, and some of the New Adult authors are truly amazing and inspiring. I feel like the New Adult genre has a gritty, more realistic edge to it that I really enjoy. I will definitely continue writing in the romance genre, but I give myself the freedom to go in different directions depending on the will of the characters bombarding my brain on any given day, urging me to get them onto paper.
LF: I’m definitely with LP here—whatever I do in the future, it will always have romantic elements. It’s what I like to read, so it’s what I like to write. Beyond that, I’m not sure. I like to write whatever is currently playing out in my head, and I can’t really predict what that will be beyond 2014.
