Hi everyone! Today I’m so thrilled to share Because You Love to Hate Me, an anthology featuring villains as the main characters. I’m so excited because I had the lovely opportunity of interviewing Kat and Steph from Cuddlebuggery and Nicola Yoon, the author they partnered with.
About the Book
Because You Love to Hate Me: 13 Tales of Villainy
Anthology edited by Ameriie
Leave it to the heroes to save the world–villains just want to rule the world.
In this unique YA anthology, thirteen acclaimed, bestselling authors team up with thirteen influential BookTubers to reimagine fairy tales from the oft-misunderstood villains’ points of view.
These fractured, unconventional spins on classics like “Medusa,” Sherlock Holmes, and “Jack and the Beanstalk” provide a behind-the-curtain look at villains’ acts of vengeance, defiance, and rage–and the pain, heartbreak, and sorrow that spurned them on. No fairy tale will ever seem quite the same again!
Featuring writing from . . .
Authors: Renée Ahdieh, Ameriie, Soman Chainani, Susan Dennard, Sarah Enni, Marissa Meyer, Cindy Pon, Victoria Schwab, Samantha Shannon, Adam Silvera, Andrew Smith, April Genevieve Tucholke, and Nicola Yoon
BookTubers: Benjamin Alderson (Benjaminoftomes), Sasha Alsberg (abookutopia), Whitney Atkinson (WhittyNovels), Tina Burke (ChristinaReadsYA blog and TheLushables), Catriona Feeney (LittleBookOwl), Jesse George (JessetheReader), Zoë Herdt (readbyzoe), Samantha Lane (Thoughts on Tomes), Sophia Lee (thebookbasement), Raeleen Lemay (padfootandprongs07), Regan Perusse (PeruseProject), Christine Riccio (polandbananasBOOKS), and Steph Sinclair & Kat Kennedy (Cuddlebuggery blog and channel).
The Q&A
- Describe your short story (Sera) using any 5 words.
Nicola: Bloody, creepy, feminist, apocalyptic, distressing
Or
Stay far away from Sera
Kat: Cold calculating kick ass warrior
Steph: Stab, burn, explode, scream, die
- Sera is based on the premise of a gender-swapped God of War. Kat and Steph, how did y’all decide on this prompt? Nicola, what were your thoughts when you were first presented with it?
Kat: Well, the first thing you should know is that Steph and I are big fans of awesome things. And badassery comes in at a close second to being awesome. We knew we wanted a very special main character and we wanted it to be of someone or something usually ascribed to a man. We actually named two gods we wanted Nicola to write about and had Genderbending in a different prompt. It was actually, Nicola who came back with the idea to meld the two into one prompt.
Steph: We spent a few days thinking about what kind of villain we’d love to see. Obviously it had to be something fantastic, but we also wanted it to be a character that’s not as frequently portrayed. We quickly discovered how challenging that was, but after a bunch of horrible ideas, we had 3 solid prompts for Nicola to choose from. Gender-flipped god of war was a combination of two: 1. gender-flipped Dorian Grey and 2. Egyptian Goddess of Chas and Greek Goddess, Hera, team up.
Kat: We almost forced her to write about evil ducks trying to take over the world. That was a close second. But Genderbent God of War came out on top.
Steph: And thank goodness for that.
Nicola: I thought it was so creative and fun! I also really loved the opportunity to write something that was not at all a love story.
- What was the collaborative process like for this project? It seems like such a unique concept and I’m sure that many people (myself included) are curious about the process.
Steph: Working with Kat is always fun. We get along so well and our ideas complement each other really well. We really enjoyed brainstorming together and co-writing the essay.
You know, as bloggers, it was interesting going through the editing process for our essay. We aren’t used to having someone edit our writing (apart of each other) or writing deadlines. You go from just writing whatever you want, doing a little proofreading, testing your dick jokes out on your co-bloggers to having several people edit your work and offer really helpful suggestions. To be honest, I think we’re kind of spoiled now!
Kat: It’s been a wonderful experience, being able to be involved in this project. We got to come up with several ideas that Steph and I believed in. We got to pitch it to Nicola. We got to write our own little part for the anthology. We’re just immensely proud of it all. It is a unique concept and I’m very grateful to Ameriie for coming up with it.
Thank you so much for having us on your blog!
Thank you so much to Kat, Steph and Nicola for their lovely answers and for Bloomsbury for facilitating the interview!
Schedule
July 11: The Candid Cover
July 12: Once Upon a Twilight
July 13: Bumbles and Fairy-Tales
July 14: Lost in Literature
July 17: Nicole’s Novel Reads
July 18: curlyhairbibliophile
July 19: Page Turners Blog
July 20: A Page with a View
July 21: Novel Novice
July 24: Peace Love Books
July 25: The Plot Bunny
July 26: The Eater of Books!
July 27: Read.Sleep.Repeat
Giveaway
One copy of Because You Love to Hate Me, open to US/Canada residents!
Don’t forget to enter to win above and to check out the rest of the tour!
Nicola Yoon is one of my favorite authors–her story will be exciting to read and so different than her books, yet I know her writing will not disappoint. Thanks for the interview today.
Hi Shelly,
This was one short and sweet blog post. Thanks for posting the tour, I was so confused as to why I couldn’t find it in the morning (eager beaver). Love seeing the different types of process each author and booktubers go through for their stories and the questions each blog hosts had!
Question 1 grabbed my attention:
“Describe your short story (Sera) using any 5 words.
Nicola: Bloody, creepy, feminist, apocalyptic, distressing
Or
Stay far away from Sera
Kat: Cold calculating kick ass warrior
Steph: Stab, burn, explode, scream, die”
This whole anthology sounds great, and I know I’ll love Nicola Yoon’s story because I loved both of her books. Thanks for hosting. 🙂