HAPPY RELEASE DAY!!!!!

• Spells & Sorcery is your first YA series! What compelled you to write YA, as someone who typically writes NA/Adult?
  
  I definitely don't think about genre when I write. I think about characters and story and setting and then when it's all finished, I figure out which genre it fits into. Sometimes, like with the Madion War Trilogy, it's a little more difficult to pin them down. Luckily, Lexie fit perfectly into the contemporary fantasy genre. Lexie came to me in high school, and high school is where she stayed. When characters wander into my brain, they usually come at the age they stay at, although originally Lexie was 13.
  
• Witchcraft is a central element to Lexie's story, yet it's a unique sort of witchcraft not typical to your average Harry Potter or American Horror Story notion of witches. How did you develop this, and what compelled you to write about witches? How does this process differ from what you're used to writing? This story came to me as part of a dream I had at 13. My cousin Nicole and I were trapped in the movie theater by evil sorcerers and we had to hide our wands in the wall with peanut butter. Obviously, only the magic and Nicole survived 15 years of drafting. Since this book grew up with me, I borrowed a lot from the media that I watched, including a lot of anime. I also liked the idea of innate talent being almost identical to the amount of time spent on growing strength.
• What was the most challenging aspect of bringing Lexie to life?
  
  The most challenging aspect was actually finishing it. I had spent fifteen years telling myself "I'll figure it out later" or "who cares if I don't have an answer, it'll never get published." BOOP. Time's up. I'm running into the same issue at the end of Book 2, which is definitely giving me fits right now.
  
• If you had abilities like Lexie and her family, would you be a potion maker, warrior, or healer?
  
  I'd probably be a healer. I don't like to get in the middle of things, and I enjoy healing people.
  
  
• Would you sort your characters into Hogwarts houses? I totally see Lexie as a Slytherin with Hufflepuff traits.
  
  Girl, Slytherin? Lexie and Gavon are Ravenclaws. Marie is a Slytherin. Nicole is a Gryffindor.
  
• What is one thing you hope your readers take away from Spells & Sorcery?
  
  I think it's really a story about where your people are and who you can count on when the stuff hits the fan.

 S. Usher Evans is an author, blogger, and witty banter aficionado. Born in Pensacola, Florida, she left the sleepy town behind for the fast-paced world of Washington, D.C.. There, she somehow landed jobs with BBC, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic Television before finally settling into a “real job” as an IT consultant. After a quarter life crisis at age 27, she decided consulting was for the birds and rekindled a childhood passion for writing novels. She sold everything she owned and moved back to Pensacola, where she currently resides with her two dogs, Zoe and Mr. Biscuit.