The Secret of Ka

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Exclusive: A Q&A with Author Christopher Pike

Q: How do you spend your time when youre not writing?

Pike: I love to read. I would read all day if I didnt have to write for a living. I read almost as much nonfiction as novels, which seems to surprise people. I enjoy science and history books. I like biographies. Still, my favorite is a great novel; the genre does not matter so much. The last novels I read were The Help by Kathryn Stockett and The Passage by Justin Cronin. Its hard to imagine two books more different, but I loved them both.

Q: What advice do you have for budding authors?

Pike: Write every day, even if its only for half an hour. Dont outline too much, dont think too much. Just start writing and keep writing. Eventually, if you have talent, your own voice will emerge.

Writing involves hard work more than genius. Writing is rewriting. Of course, its true: we all read these articles about a person who sits and writes their first book and it sells ten million copies. But in the real world that doesnt happen too often. And usually those authors who succeed too soon never learn to write. My books were rejected for seven years before I got published, and I consider myself lucky.

Q: Do you have any writing rituals or special practices? Where do you write? When do you write?

Pike: I usually meditate before I write. Im not dogmatic when it comes to the subject. I cant prescribe a specific system. But I can say it helps to sit quietly for half an hour with my eyes closed before I work. For me, my best inspiration seems to emerge in silence.

I seldom write before ten at night. Im an extraordinary procrastinator. I spend the bulk of each day avoiding my computer. Every day I invent a new excuse why I cannot start writing early in the day. The strange thing is, when I finally do sit to write, Im fine. But its difficult for me to get in the chair. I usually write until dawn. Then I sleep till noon. What a life.

Q: You have a long and illustrious backlist. What makes The Secret of Ka special?

Pike: I had more fun writing The Secret of Ka than any novel Ive ever worked on. It was the one novel that swept away my procrastination phobia. Each afternoon that I woke up, I would dive right in. Kas one of the few stories Ive written where I didnt have a clue what was going to happen next. Usually I know the ending before I write a word. With Ka, I didnt know what was going to happen on the next page.

The main male character in the book, Amesh, hes missing his right hand. My girlfriend kept asking, Whats the deal with his hand? Your female fans wont fall in love with him if he cant hug Sara. I kept telling her, "I dont know, I have to see. I only know Amesh lost his hand somewhere along the road." I felt like Sara did when she discovered the flying carpet. How cool it would be to jump on it and fly away to a magical island. It probably seems obvious to my readers that my characters would encounter djinn on the island, but I didnt know that when Sara first got there. Up until then the story had been kind of lighthearted. I had no idea it would get so intense. I loved the first time Sara went head to head against the evil djinn, how it tricked her into almost killing herself. The Secret of Ka was one of those rare books that felt like it was dictated to me. I cant really take credit for it. For example, when it came to the Three Laws of the Djinn, I didnt have a clue what they were. I felt like the carpet spelled out the answer to Saras question and I simply wrote it down. My favorite books that Ive written have been like that. The Last Vampire and Remember Me just came to me. I felt like little more than a typist when I wrote those novels. As I said earlier, thinking is overrated when it comes to writing.

Q: What was your favorite book as a kid?

Pike: Childhoods End by Arthur C. Clarke. I remember I was in seventh grade and I ordered it at school from one of those book club forms they handed out every few months. But before the book could come, I found it in the school library. Only I didnt want to read it because I had just paid thirty-five cents to buy it. Still, I kept sneaking into the library to read a few pages each day because I was enthralled. I had to know what happened next. I did this for about a week and then broke down and checked the book out and read it all the way through. Then, when the book club delivered it, I read it all over again.

I must have read Childhoods End twenty times. I read all of Clarkes novels. The City and the Stars was another favorite. Then I discovered Robert Heinlein, Issac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Clifford Simak, and James Blish. Asimovs Foundation trilogy blew me away. I remember thinking at the time that if I could write one book in my life that touched someone else, like The Foundation, then my time on this planet would have been well spent.

Q: If you had a whole day free with nothing to do, how would you fill it?

Pike: I would read. Theres an old Beach Boys song called "Disney Girls." It has this line that says, "Reality, its not for me, and it makes me laugh." That sums up my life. I read to escape. I write to help other people escape. The world is a hard place. Its good to get away from it now and then.

Review

• "The author ably juggles this central plot, creepy and elegant descriptions of the djinn, and even some juicy family drama to create a freewheeling, suspenseful action novel. Readers who recognize Pike as a key name in teen horror may be initially surprised by this subtly frightening adventure story, but there are still enough gross details mixed in to please even his hardcore fans."--_Bulletin,_ starred review

"Pikes work is about action and twists, both of which are packed into the narrative."--_Kirkus Reviews
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