Celebrating Debutantes 2016: After the Woods by Kim Savage (Character Interview with Alice + Giveaway)

So, I got the chance to corner Alice Mincus of After the Woods for a short interview today with permission of course from her talented creator Kim Savage. For those who haven’t met Alice, she is Julia’s next-door neighbor. She’s also the friend who didn’t make the middle-school cut, who was eclipsed by Liv’s magnetism somewhere around 6th grade and eventually dropped, about which Julia feels a lingering guilt. But Alice is Teflon: nothing sticks. She still considers them close friends, and sees herself as Julia’s strongest ally. She’s also recently discovered Jesus, and has WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) Sharpie’d on her inner arm. It’s meant to remind her what to do when faced with questionable choices. And when Julia turns to Alice for help, she ends up pushing up that sleeve—a lot.

I hope you all enjoy the interview. Also, don’t forget to check the bottom of the post for the giveaway!

Character Interview with Alice of After the Woods

You told Julia you prayed for her every hour that she was gone. But Julia isn’t religious. At all. Do you think that still means something to her?

“We’re all works in progress. That’s what my mother says. Julia’s figuring out what means anything to her.”

How do you really feel about Liv Lapin?

(shoves sleep up to elbow and stares hard). “Next question.”

You once called Paula Papademetriou, the journalist who is reporting on the anniversary for the Shiverton Abduction, Julia’s ‘avenging angel.’ Care to elaborate?

I’ll tell you exactly what I told Julia: Paula wins all kinds of awards, and she’s gorgeous, and she’s powerful, and maybe if the local police and these guys in the state government did something wrong that put Donald Jessup out on the street, they should pay. I guess I want something good to come. Maybe that makes me naive. Or annoying. I think the laws ought to be toughened or something, so that nothing like this ever happens again. Paula is doing what Jesus would do…I think.

“Julia thinks you have a kind of immunity to evil, to the black thing in her belly, for example, and to the Donald Jessups of the world. Do you think that’s true?

(Cocks head, headbands slips over eyes, jams it back up again) I think there are advantages to keeping things simple, black and white. Julia’s always talks about gradations of black. Maybe by recognizing evil so easily, I stay safe from it. Yeah, I like that idea.”

Last question: Nick Jonas or Kellan MacDougall?

(blushes) Kellan is crazy about Julia, so that would be wrong. Nick Jonas, hands down. (fiddles with Promise Ring). Wait, is this going to be published?

—

Thanks so much Alice for dropping by here today.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

KIM SAVAGE is a former reporter who received her Master’s degree in Journalism from Northeastern University. She worked as a business journalist, pitching story ideas along the lines of “When Murder Kills Property Values.” You get the idea. Today, Kim lives in a town north of Boston, Massachusetts, near the real Middlesex Fells Reservation of After the Woods. Born directionally challenged, the fear of getting lost in that lovely, dark forest lives close to her skin. She and her husband have three children, each of whom beg to appear in her books. They shouldn’t.

Find Kim

Website | Instagram | Goodreads | Pinterest | Twitter | Tumblr

---

ABOUT THE BOOK

Book Details:

Title: After The Woods
Author: Kim Savage
Publisher: FSG/Macmillan
Publication Date: February 23, 2016
Pages: 304
Formats: Hardcover, eBook

Would you risk your life to save your best friend?

Julia knows she beat the odds. She escaped the kidnapper who hunted her in the woods for two terrifying nights that she can’t seem to fully remember. Now it’s one year later, and as Julia settles into her junior year, a dead girl turns up in those same woods. The terrible memories resurface, leaving the whip-smart Julia in a stupor at awkward moments—in front of gorgeous Kellan MacDougall, for example. Julia copes by recording facts: collecting statistics about abductions, drawing diagrams of the players, and making lists.

Her best friend, Liv, was also abducted by the same man, but she escaped while Julia was left behind. Is Liv’s guilt over leaving Julia in the woods the reason she’s starving herself? Is hooking up with Shane Cuthbert, an addict with a volatile temper, Liv’s way of punishing herself for not having Julia’s back? As Julia struggles to make sense of her friend’s self-destructive behavior, she realizes the one person she thinks she knows best—Liv—is the person she knows least of all.

Book Links:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books A Million | Book Depository | IndieBound | Goodreads

PRAISES FOR AFTER THE WOODS:

Kirkus calls After the Woods, “a riveting exploration of what it’s like when the enemy is much closer than you suspect.” (starred)

 

Giveaway:

What’s up for Grabs?

• One Hardcover copy of After The Woods
  

The Rules:

• Open to US addresses only
• There will be one (1) winner only
• Winner will be chosen by rafflecopter
• Winner will be contacted thru email & should response within 48 hours
• Ends March 13, 2016
• Prize will be sent by the author

To enter fill out the rafflecopter form

Good Luck!!!

Treat yourself to a complete #CelebratingDebutantes2016 experience. Click the image below for the full list of schedule and links to each feature post!