Hi Becca,
Leighton Meester is a good idea! I wouldn't have thought of her, but she could totally play Nora. I think Steven Strait (from The Covenant & 10,000 B.C.) could be a good Patch. Picture him somewhat similar to his role in The Covenant...bad boy, hot, dark hair, and dark eyes. Though, I don't think him & Leighton Meester would make a good pairing. If I think of someone that would be a better fit, I'll let you know. 
I loved your book! I like your style of writing. I began reading the book and was hooked. It's a big achievement for an author to grab the reader's attention and keep hold of it throughout the book. I really liked that Jules was actually Chauncey. I'm looking forward to the sequel...and this book isn't even out yet!
I was wondering how Patch was able to get to Nora in Portland within a second of her calling him when he was at Bo's Arcade. Is that one of his abilities as a fallen angel? In all the other cases, even the dangerous ones, it took him the normal "human" time to get from place to place. Is it because he knew exactly where she was? And if Nora has a small percentage of nephilim/fallen angel in her, then isn't she immortal?
-Rosa
Vampirelover15JC wrote:
Hi Becca
my name is jessica
and I was wondering how much influence your life had on this story?
My favorite series used to only be about vampires and werewolfs, but now this is my new favorite book
Hi, Jessica!
I did draw from my own life for the original inspiration of the story - when I was in tenth grade, my Bio teacher asked me, in front of the whole class, to name characteristics I'd be attracted to in a mate. Ugh! I remember being so humiliated! I used that idea to create an early scene in the book. Also, I played competitive softball in high school and loved it, so I worked a softball scene into the book; however, Nora and I have very different opinions about softball
All in all I would say I definitely weaved small details of my life experience into the story, but I believe most authors do that. After all, we're usually writing what we know!
Becca
P.S. I'm glad to hear you loved Hush, Hush! What are some of your favorite vampire and werewolf novels? Have you read Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause? I keep hearing amazing things about it!
melissas wrote:
Hi Becca, and congratulations!
I have perused your website and blog, and am pleased to see that a sequel is coming out next year. Although I haven't been able to find any specific details (I'm sure that's still very Hush, Hush
), I'm assuming the sequel continues the story of Nora and Patch. Have you considered writing a prequel that details Patch's fall from grace and his subsequent encounters? I am dying to know his whole history (though I'd settle on just seeing more flashbacks to the historical perspective established in the Prologue).
I enjoyed this book very much, and didn't sleep until I finished it! I am already getting the staff at my store excited for this upcoming release, and am eager to share my ARC with them at the conclusion of the book club discussions.
Congratulations again!
Hi, Melissa!
Yes, there will be a sequel - I'm very excited about that, and a little nervous! Everyone keeps telling me the second book is hardest to write, and I'm doing everything I can to make Crescendo live up to Hush, Hush. No pressure or anything
My editor just sent me the blurb for Crescendo that will go in Simon & Schuster's catalogue, but I think I'm supposed to keep it quiet for now. I will tell you that what happened the night of Nora's father's murder plays a big part in Crescendo. The truth shall be revealed...
I haven't thought about writing a prequel for publication - it's interesting to hear so many readers craving to know more about Patch's history. I tried to keep the angel mythology light in Hush, Hush, because I was afraid it would bore readers, but I'm being proven wrong time and again!
Becca
P.S. Thanks for spreading the love and getting people excited about Hush, Hush! Word of mouth is so powerful, as I'm sure you're well aware!
J.R._BookWorm wrote:
Marsh_Kitty wrote:
Hi Becca,
I'm Yojana from California. First off, I had to admire the great story that you set in Hush, Hush. Its so real and it easily captured me to the point I could not stop reading until I finished the book. It was great!
My question to you is, how come you didn't let Patch become human, but decided instead to let him become Nora's personal guardian angel? And how does that work? Is he no longer a fallen angel? Oh, and one last question, please tell me this was not the only book you are going to write about Patch and Nora, will there be more?
Congrads on your book!
I LOVED it from start to finish!
I have the same question as Marsh_Kitty
Will the other book be about Nora and Patch!
And where did you come up with the name "Patch"?
And, if Jules (i'm not sure how to spell his really name.....sorry) and Nora are related is Nora like half Angel or something!?
Hi, J.R.!
Patch got his nickname from the simple fact that he has a long history of fighting for money (do you remember that scene in the movie Becoming Jane where Tom is boxing? I couldn't help thinking of Patch!) and is always needing to be "patched" up. Rixon gave him the nickname, but maybe in Crescendo I'll reveal Patch's real name. How's that for teasing?
As for Nora, yes, she has Nephilim blood, which means she does have a little bit of fallen angel in her. However, after over four hundred years, Nora's bloodline has really thinned. She's definitely far more human than Nephilim. I tried to clue readers into the fact that there is something different about her blood with her doctor's best guess that she's anemic, but as I'm reading the boards, I'm seeing that many readers took her diagnosis to be hard and fast anemia.
Great question!
Becca
7thgradeteacher wrote:
I too want to know how you came up with the name Patch?
I also want to know who much research you did on angel, fallen angels etc. How much was Biblical research vs research of general beliefs etc about angels?
Hi, 7thgradeteacher! (What subject(s) do you teach?)
Check my response to J.R._Bookworm for how I came up with Patch's name...or, if you want the short answer, back before Patch met Nora he boxed for money, and was always needing to be "patched" up. You can thank Rixon for the nickname
I've read quite a bit of the Bible, so I based the mythology in Hush, Hush on Judeo-Christian mythology. Of course, I played around with it a little to make it unique to my story. At one point, I did quite a bit of research on fallen angels, and it seems most people who believe in fallen angels can be divided into two categories: those who believe Satan rebelled against God and was thus cast out of heaven along with his followers, who became fallen angels, and those who believe fallen angels are angels who lusted after mortal women and mated with them to create the Nephilim race. I thought the second was more fantastical and would make for a more interesting story.
Thanks for the great question!
Becca
sj9642 wrote:
What are you reading right now?
Hello, Sj!
I'm one of those readers who always has more than one book on the nightstand at a time! I wouldn't have it any other way
I'm reading FADE by Lisa McMann, DESTINED FOR AN EARLY GRAVE by Jeaniene Frost, THE ANGELS GAME by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, and SHIVER by Maggie Stiefvater.
How about you? What are you reading?
akymberli wrote:
Becca -
I keep picturing Nora and Patch as the two leads in the new TV show "10 Things I Hate About You" (Lindsay Shaw and Ethan Peck). They have intense chemistry and Ethan is a mysterious bad boy. Check it out~
Kim
Kim!
Just checked Ethan out...is the show based on the movie by the same name with Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles?! If so, I'm going to have to watch - I loved the movie! And, wow. That's all I have to say about Ethan
Becca
Becca -
10 Things is VERY loosely based on the Julia Stiles' movie. I am enjoying it so much more. Mostly because, as a parent, I am loving their single dad's choices for punishment (he took off his youngest daughter's door when he caught her making a web video and his oldest had to spend some time in a wheelchair because she was in a small fender-bender But I love the strong, sassy, intelligent Kat character and her love/hate relationship with Patrick (who was rumored in the first episode to be a cannibal It always gives me at least one reason to laugh. Enjoy~
Hi, Lina!
I did find a lot of inspiration for Hush, Hush from my own life...then twisted it enough times to make it fiction. And I think that was for the best, because I don't think anyone would want to read a memoir of my life 
The very first inspiration for the story came from an experience in my own tenth-grade biology class. We must have been studying human reproduction, because my teacher asked me, in front of the whole class, to name characteristics I'd be attracted to in a mate (I know!) I sat next to a really cute boy, and the thought of naming characteristics I might look for in a mate was a humiliation I was not about to subject myself to. But the experience always stuck with me, and when I sat down to write Hush, Hush, that little piece of my history evolved into an early scene in the book.
I think that's great that you're taking writing classes! Have you ever taken an event from your life, and then tried asking questions like, "What if?" I find a lot of interesting things can come from asking yourself that simple question. Good luck with the writing!
Becca
Becca,
I might have to try that sometime, thanks for the idea! I think that will help me next time.
akymberli wrote:Becca -
I keep picturing Nora and Patch as the two leads in the new TV show "10 Things I Hate About You" (Lindsay Shaw and Ethan Peck). They have intense chemistry and Ethan is a mysterious bad boy. Check it out~
Kim
Kim, great minds think alike! I was picturing Ethan Peck playing Patch too, while I was reading the book!
I hope you read this, really loved the way you manage to describe Patch, that's what create enough curiosity, Patch through Nora's eyes. We know that there is evil in him, but the smiles... there is complicity. The character that you describe us achieved to captivate me and was THE REASON to continue reading.
For someone that speak spanish and do not have a great level of english.. is not a difficult book to read.. I read it without problems, it also has merit, congratulations ! ( and i finish it in a day and a half )
But I have a question, a doubt..
I do not know if are language problems .. but I'm not clear why Patch stops trying to kill her, he said that he intended to kill her with the knife, but I do not understand what was the fact that he does change his mind....
And why so few facts about this nice and charmed badboy .. ? I wan`t more about him
I admire the way that you give a twist to the story and add two or three conflicts in the end, to be resolved, conflicts that the lector don´t see at the beginning and emerging as a surprise to the reader. When do you think will finish, and you see that are several pages ahead, is a pleasant surprise....
