WakeAmanda Hocking is the USA Today best-selling author of the Trylle trilogy and six additional self-published novels. After selling over a million copies of her books, primarily in eBook format, she is widely considered the exemplar of self-publishing success in the digital age. Her much anticipated new Watersong series brings together myth and modern teen life. In Wake, 16 year old Gemma Fisher is pulled into the world of sirens and magic.  As she uncovers the truth about her own mythical powers, Gemma is forced to choose between staying with those she loves or entering a dark world brimming with unimaginable secrets.

Amazon.com: What sort of research did you do for Wake and the Watersong series?

Amanda Hocking: I’ve always been fascinated with mythology. When I was in grade school, I read about everything I could on Greek mythology, so I already had some knowledge about the subject. But before I actually sat down to write Wake, I read several books on the subject, and did more basic internet research.

Amazon.com: What was the experience of writing Wake like? Was it different from Trylle?

Amanda Hocking: Writing Wake was a lot different than Trylle. I’d been brainstorming the idea for the Watersong series for about a year before I started writing it, but I began writing in the most chaotic time in my entire life, so at first, it was much harder to sit down and really get into it. But once I did, the whole world of Wake definitely became a reprieve, and I completely fell in love and connected with the characters in a way I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to.

The Watersong series has become my favorite of all my books to write, with me getting more excited with each book I write.  

Amazon.com:  Gemma from Wake and Wendy from the Trylle series are both strong characters that have to make impossible decisions. Who are some of you favorite fictional women characters?

Amanda Hocking: My all-time favorite fictional woman is Ellen Ripley from the Alien series. She’s just so straight-forward and bad ass. Some of my first favorite female characters were Jo March from Little Women, and Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables. And I always love old school villainesses--Maleficent, Cruella Deville, any evil witch or sorceress, and I’m there.

Amazon.com: What non-spoilery tidbits can you share about Lullaby and the Watersong Series?

Amanda Hocking: Lullaby picks up right where Wake leaves off, with both of the Fisher sisters trying to deal with the aftermath of the events at the end of Wake, but in drastically different ways. Harper is on a search for the thing that matters most in the world to her, while Gemma has to make some serious compromises. Gemma also finds out more about her new friends, as more of the girls’ complicated history is revealed. Meanwhile, both Daniel and Alex run into some dangerous obstacles of their own.