Haunted Halloween 2011: Guest Post - Julianna Baggott + A Giveaway!

This year, my sixteen-year-old daughter is considering a costume that entails the head of a baby doll, some red make-up that would look like a burn, and tattered, ash-streaked clothes. It will be a costume that almost no one will recognize -- not yet at least. She will be the lead character from my upcoming novel, Pure -- a 16-year old girl named Pressia Belze. Pressia lives in an ashen post-apocalyptic world. She's survived the detonations -- but not unmarked. The detonations caused scars, burns, and fusings. When the detonations hit, Pressia was a little girl. She was holding a baby doll. That doll's head is now fused to her fist.

So imagine my daughter cutting off the head of a rather large baby doll and fitting her fist inside of it. It's a dark image and one that I can't blame on anyone but myself. Pressia Belze is my creation, but, actually, if it weren't for my daughter she might never have seen the light of day. A few years ago, I read the opening pages to my daughter. She said that it was the best thing I'd ever written and that I had to finish the book. I did. In February the book will be published and my dark imagination -- born from my own greatest fears -- will be on full display. (And, one day, perhaps in theaters. The film rights have sold to Fox2000.)

I can honestly say that I was the kind of kid who was easily terrified. My mother -- a hyperphobic matriarch -- instilled in me fears of common every-day objects -- unwashed grapes, radiated tap water, exhaust fumes, germy doorknobs ... From there, my imagination revved. I recently walked into a producer's office in LA. On his desk was a medium-sized, square box. My first thought? That it contained a beating heart. This is how it goes with me. I once house-sat for someone and became so convinced that there was someone in the house (not just someone, but, perhaps, some grotesque thing) -- that I screamed. It was just the cat. I have trouble playing the boardgame Clue. Why would someone beat someone to death with a candlestick in a library? I see it all too vividly in my mind. (Think Inception: down to the nub of the carpeting.)

And so now, instead of living so fearfully, I've started writing novels of the things I fear -- detonations, grotesque beasts, an ashen world, a girl with a doll-head fist hiding in a cabinet in the back of a burnt-out barbershop. I hope that my dark, otherworldly subconscious one day finds yours -- via inky words on a page. 

-- Julianna Baggott is the author of 18 books. The first novel in her upcoming trilogy, PURE, will be published in February. Justin Cronin has said of the novel, "You will be swept away." Julianna hopes he's telling the truth. For more on PURE, visit www.pure-book.com. For more about Julianna, visit www.juliannabaggott.com.

nize the costume. One advanced reading copy of Pure has been floating through her school. It's now in the hands of her cool English teacher from last year -- a big Margaret Atwood fan. Copies are floating around out there too. 

Pure is available Grand Central Publishing, February 8th, 2012

Synopsis: We know you are here, our brothers and sisters . . . 

Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

Burn a Pure and Breathe the Ash . . . 
There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss-maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it's his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her.

When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again.


Pre-order Online:

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository


Find Julianna Online:

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter

Enter to win a copy of PURE!

Rules and how to enter:

You MUST be at least 13 years old to enter
To enter, please fill out the form provided below
This giveaway is open to US residents only
Giveaway ends: October 19th, 2011

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Julianna, it was great to have you here today for Haunted Halloween. What a great idea for a Halloween costume, I'd love to see a picture! Also, thank you so much for setting up the donation for the copy of Pure we're giving away. I know I can't wait to read it!

*I am not compensated at all for any of the links within this page.