Cuddlebuggery have created a Last List Blog Hop to help authors who were previously signed with Egmont find new homes and promote their books. As soon as I spotted their post I signed up, hoping to help. I was paired with Bree Despain, author of The Dark Divine series and the Into The Dark series, and I got to ask her some questions.

1. What inspired you to become a writer?

I always enjoyed writing but my big “Ahah, I want to be a writer!” moment came when I was a junior in college. I was pre-law at the time, but I realized that I wasn’t very happy with this decision. I took a semester off from school to work for a summer program that served at-risk kids from Philadelphia and New York. There, I wrote and directed a series of plays based on fractured fairytales (like a Cinderella murder mystery). I had so much fun that by the end of the summer I had come to the realization that I wanted to be a writer, and I wanted to write fun things for kids and teens.

2. For those who aren’t familiar with your series, Into The Dark, explain it in one sentence.

Haden Lord, the disgraced prince of the underworld, must undertake a quest to our mortal world to convince a certain girl to return with him to the land of the dead–if he succeeds, he’ll have his honor restored, but if he fails, all hell will literally break loose on our world. (Heheh. I totally cheated with that em dash.)

3. What are some of your favourite books, or who are some of your favourite authors, and why?

I love Meg Cabot because her books were my first real introduction into modern YA writing. All American Girl and Pants on Fire are two of my all time favorites of hers. The Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters was probably the first series I ever became obsessed with. The Harry Potter series will always be my favorite series. One of my newer favorite authors is Rainbow Rowell.

4. Do you think any of your real life experiences have influenced your work, and how?

I think everything I write is influenced by my real life experiences. I believe it is a writer’s job to be a sponge. We soak up as much input from the world around us as possible, and then wring it through the filter of who we are as a person, and what comes out is our writing. That’s why no two writers could ever write the exact same story.

5. What’s next for you?

I’m working on proposals for a couple of new projects (one contemporary and one fantasy) while waiting to find out the future of Book 3 in the Into the Dark series. Book 3 was canceled when Egmont closed, but now that Lerner has picked up the rest of my books, I hope that there will be good news for Book 3 in the near future. Even if a publisher doesn’t pick it up, I promised my readers that I will make Book 3 available to them in some form. I love these characters too much to let their story go unfinished.

Enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway to win a signed copy of Shadow Prince! (INT).

Have you read any Bree Despain books? The Dark Divine is on my TBR and I’m really looking forward to reading it!