Today, we are excited to continue with the Dark Days of Winter tour.

We have an exclusive interview with the very lovely and super talented, Brodi Aston!

What inspired you to write EVERNEATH?

For years – and partly inspired by events in high school – I had this scene in my head. A girl returns to her high school after a long, mysterious absence. Rumors about where she’s been and what she’s been into run like wildfire through the school, and yet this girl stays. I admired her strength, and I knew I wanted to write a book starting at this scene. Then I simply asked myself, where had she really been? And why was she back?

Was there any particular scene/chapter that was your favorite to write?

Um… any scene with Nikki and Jack. Those were the ones I’d go straight to when I didn’t feel like writing anything else. They always helped with any writer’s block.

During the writing process with Nikki, did she at anytime want to just yell that she’s not on drugs?

I think when Nikki comes back, she’s sort of beyond trying to make people she doesn’t even care about realize the truth about her. I won’t say the rumors don’t bother her. But her time is so limited that she knows she can’t focus on it.

Plus, if she yells that she’s not on drugs, that would bring a lot of attention on her, and she definitely doesn’t want any more attention than she already gets.

Mr. Beckett pulls a fast one with forgiveness, but he seems to have a hard time forgiving Nikki. Why is that?

It’s not that he doesn’t forgive her. It’s that he is so scared of losing her again, but as a single father, he doesn’t know how to handle it. Most of the time, he is just wishing his wife was still alive to help him in handling Nikki. He doesn’t know what to do to fix things at home, so he focuses on his own election. 

Usually there is a Bad Boy vs. Good Boy element when you have two male leads, but you’ve managed to create two extremely desirable boys in Jack and Cole.  Was this your intention from the start of your writing process or did this just take shape on its own?

They each took shape on their own, and often they would do things that surprised even me. But when I created them, I definitely didn’t want their characters to be so black and white. I wanted each of them to have shades of gray. Jack, you know, is more of the “good boy” but he has some elements of the dark about him. He has a reputation. And Cole, the “bad boy” has some moments where he can be really sweet, and even naive, and he can make you very confused.

During our quest to find out if you readers are Team Jack or Team Cole – we had a lot of you write in saying you were Team Jale, Jole, Cack – It is a true testament to an author who can create two very desirable boys! Yay for Team Brodi!!!

Jack had made the ultimate sacrifice for Nikki, much to my yelling and screaming. I’m curious about what Nikki will do and how Cole fits into the picture. Without giving too much away, will we be spending time in the Everneath in the next book?

I like to say that if you’ve read book one in its entirety, then you should have a very good idea of where much of book 2 takes place. If there’s one think Nikki learned from book one, it’s that she will never give up.

Bring on more Jack we say!!

Jack loves Becks. Cole loves Nikki. Is she the same girl with both guys, or completely different?

She’s the same girl, but I think they each bring out and love different sides of her. Of course when it comes to Cole, who knows if what he feels for Nikki can really be called “love.”

Julie loves Jack and was hoping for a chance, until Nikki showed up, but we all know Cole isn’t going anywhere. Will Julie come into play with this love quandary that exists?

Um… I don’t know. I can’t wait to find out though!

Interesting!!! Could we have just given Brodi some ideas?

Which books are you reading right now?

I’m reading ARCs of INCARNATE by Jodi Meadows, UNDER THE NEVER SKY by Veronica Rossi, and THE SAVAGE GRACE by Bree Despain. All excellent books!

What’s next on the agenda?

I’m in the middle of revising the sequel to EVERNEATH, and when that heads to copyedits I’ll start on book three. And now that EVERNEATH is finally hitting shelves, my schedule is becoming busier than I ever thought possible. But it’s a good busy! Mostly.

Tell us one thing about Brodi that we won’t be able to find on the Internet?

Um… sometimes I spontaneously break out into a tap dance in my kitchen. And my bedroom is always, always, messy. Like “Hoarders” messy.

We can’t thank Brodi enough for not only bringing on EVERNEATH, but answering all our questions.

How many of you have read EVERNEATH? Tell us your thoughts below.