When the World Was Flat (and We Were in Love) Blog Tour: Guest Post & Giveaway

 

Welcome to the official blog tour for When the World Was Flat (And We Were in Love)! I'm excited to have the author, Ingrid Jonach, here today for a guest post and don't forget to scroll to the bottom of the post to enter the tour wide giveaway! Also - I just finished reading the book and I'm WAY too emotional and unable to form words for how I feel about it to write anything substantial to do it justice. Be sure to check back soon for my review!!

When the World Was Flat (And We Were in Love)

Author: Ingrid Jonach

Genre: YA Science Fiction/Fantasy /Romance

Release Date: September 3, 2013 (US/CAN) and September 5, 2013 Worldwide

Publisher: Strange Chemistry

Description:

Looking back, I wonder if I had an inkling that my life was about to go from ordinary to extraordinary.

When sixteen-year-old Lillie Hart meets the gorgeous and mysterious Tom Windsor-Smith for the first time, it’s like fireworks — for her, anyway. Tom looks as if he would be more interested in watching paint dry; as if he is bored by her and by her small Nebraskan town in general.

But as Lillie begins to break down the walls of his seemingly impenetrable exterior, she starts to suspect that he holds the answers to her reoccurring nightmares and to the impossible memories which keep bubbling to the surface of her mind — memories of the two of them, together and in love.

When she at last learns the truth about their connection, Lillie discovers that Tom has been hiding an earth-shattering secret; a secret that is bigger — and much more terrifying and beautiful — than the both of them. She also discovers that once you finally understand that the world is round, there is no way to make it flat again.

An epic and deeply original sci-fi romance, taking inspiration from Albert Einstein’s theories and the world-bending wonder of true love itself.  

Tipping Your Hat To Other Artists, a.k.a. Intertextuality 

I am really excited to be stopping by A Dream within A Dream as part of my Around the World in 80 Days Blog Tour, because the title of this blog is actually connected to my debut YA novel When the World was Flat (and we were in love)! 

I have previous posted on intertextuality by imitation, but this post is about intertextuality by quotation. I have read a thousand (probably not an exaggeration) books which directly or indirectly reference other books, poetry, films, paintings, songs, etc. A lot of books also include an epigraph to capitalize on prior understanding of a text, including its themes.

Bible passages tend to be popular (I am using one in my current WIP!). Stephanie Meyer used a quote from Genesis in Twilight to foreshadow the forbidden relationship between Bella and Edward:

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 

thou shalt not eat of it: 

for in the day that thou eatest thereof, 

thou shalt surely die. 

Meanwhile, the epigraph Mary Shelley selected for Frankenstein gives me goosebumps!

Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay 

To mould me Man, did I solicit thee 

From darkness to promote me? 

I think this quote from Paradise Lost really sums up how the monster feels towards Dr. Frankenstein. 

F. Scott Fitzgerald not only used intertextuality in his epigraph for The Great Gatsby, but metafiction, as his epigraph quotes his own fictional character Thomas Parke D’Invilliers: 

Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her;

If you can bounce high, bounce for her too

Till she cry, “Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover,

I must have you!"

My epigraph for When the World was Flat (and we were in love) is not from another work of fiction, but instead quotes Albert Einstein: Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. However, there are a number of references to other texts within the novel, including:

A Dream Within A Dream – Edgar Allan Poe
I have loved this poem since my childhood and when it came time to decide upon the first words of a certain character (I am not going to say who!), I realized the final words of this poem were perfect on so many levels.

Excerpt from A Dream Within A Dream:

Take this kiss upon the brow! 

And, in parting from you now 

Thus much let me avow 

You are not wrong, who deem 

That my days have been a dream

Yet if hope has flown away 

In a night, or in a day, 

In a vision, or in none, 

Is it therefore the less gone? 

All that we see or seem 

Is but a dream within a dream. 

Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

I credit this novel for inspiring When the World was Flat (and we were in love). In the novel my main character Lillie likens Tom to Mr. Darcy and his home to Pemberley.

Excerpt from When the World was Flat (and we were in love):

Tom paused when he saw us and, in that moment, he looked like some kind of modern day Mr Darcy on the steps of Pemberley. I frowned. When had I read Pride and Prejudice? Jo was the bookworm. Maybe I had seen the movie. I think it starred Colin Firth. And maybe Keira Knightly? Or was that the BBC series?


Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

This is one of my all time favorite children’s books and I jumped at the opportunity to reference it a couple of times in When the World was Flat (and we were in love).

The concept of going down a rabbit hole or through a looking glass is very much aligned with my story.

Here is the non-spoilerish reference from When the World was Flat (and we were in love):

I dropped my camera and heard it clatter on the sidewalk, its lens shattering. But the sound was distant, as if it had fallen down a deep well or down a rabbit hole, like in Alice in Wonderland. The blare of music through the open doors of the record store became muted, as did the roar of cars up Main Street, full of college guys doing laps during their summer break. All I could hear was the rush of blood in my ears, like static from a TV.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Truman Capote

Holly Golightly famously says, “Cross your heart and kiss your elbow,” which I use to show the change in a character (again, I am not going to tell you who due to spoilers!).

Excerpt from When the World was Flat (and we were in love):

“Are you… OK?” I asked, as we walked down the driveway.
“Fine.”
I bit my lip. “Cross your heart?”
“And hope to die.”
Wrong answer. 


I also referenced Shakespeare and The Road not Taken by Robert Frost in When the World was Flat (and we were in love), as well as a range of musicals like Oliver, Chicago and Singing in the Rain. 

There is also some metafiction in When the World was Flat (and we were in love), as the characters talk about an information booklet that I really want to write
(again, I am not going to give details due to spoilers, but it relates to something in the novel called the Evacuation).

But metafiction is a whole other post! 

Thank you so much for stopping by the blog today and talking about some of your inspirations while writing your novel Ingrid! I especially love the nod to Edgar Allan Poe's poem, since it is the name of my blog! :)

Ingrid Jonach writes books for children and young adults, including the chapter books The Frank Frankie and Frankie goes to France published by Pan Macmillan, and When the World was Flat (and we were in love) published by Strange Chemistry.

Since graduating from university with a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Writing (Hons) in 2005, Ingrid has worked as a journalist and in public relations, as well as for the Australian Government.

Ingrid loves to promote reading and writing, and has been a guest speaker at a number of schools and literary festivals across Australia, where she lives with her husband Craig and their pug dog Mooshi.

Despite her best efforts, neither Craig nor Mooshi read fiction. 

Find out more at www.ingridjonach.com

Enter below for your chance to win one of two awesome prize packages as part of the Around the World in 80 Days Blog Tour for When the World was Flat (and we were in love) by Ingrid Jonach!
 

There will be two winners worldwide. Each prize package includes:

* a signed copy of When the World was Flat (and we were in love)

* a pair of silver plated key-shaped earrings in a When the World was Flat (and we were in love) gift box

* a When the World was Flat (and we were in love) bookmark.

The competition will run until 21 October 2013 and the winners will be announced on this page and via www.ingridjonach.com

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