The Guest Post
What fiction most influenced your childhood, and what effect did those stories have on Tremor?
I am always going back to my youth searching for the stories I loved and reminding myself to write what I would have wanted to read. For the PULSE trilogy, I drew on my fascination with three stories from my teens:
The first was the Star Wars Trilogy, which came out in 1977, 1980, and 1983. Those years correspond to my entry into middle school and my exit from high school, so as you might imagine, the Star Wars universe loomed large in my imagination. The Force was an idea I thought a lot about, in particular as it related to moving things with my mind.
The second story from my teens I tapped into was Spider-Man. Of all the comic book characters that came out of the 1960’s, Spider-Man had the clearest theme. This is saying a lot because the 60’s gave us the Hulk, the Silver Surfer, and the Fantastic Four. While it’s since become a cliché, Spider-Man brilliantly encapsulated the superhero dilemma: with great power comes great responsibility. I loved that idea then and I still love it now as a motivating force behind a big story.
And lastly, the first big trilogy I ever read was The Lord of the Rings. For me, it is the ultimate tale of the hero’s journey, where the character we meet at the beginning of the story has been completely transformed by the time we reach the end. With Lord of the Rings, the adventure miraculously changes the central character into someone else.
PULSE, TREMOR, and QUAKE (February 2015) bring elements of these stories together into something new. The Force from Star Wars lore, for my purposes, became telekinesis. The critical theme of Spider-Man - with great power comes great responsibility – plays out on a large scale in a not-too-distant future. And the hero’s journey transforms the main character, Faith Daniels, into something new by the time we arrive at the end.
I loved taking the classic themes of my youth and re-purposing them for a new generation of readers.
The Book
Author: Patrick Carman
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Publishing Date: February 25, 2014
In the year 2051, some people have a second pulse…
Like all who have “the pulse,” Faith Daniels and Dylan Gilmore have telekinetic powers—they can move objects with their minds. But there are five “second pulses” in the world who have an even greater power: Almost nothing can harm them. They are virtually indestructible.
Both Faith and Dylan have the second pulse. But the other side has second pulses, too, and they’ve been training for a war that has been brewing their entire lives. As Dylan executes a plan to infiltrate enemy grounds, he’ll have to face his only weakness, and a family secret that will threaten his very existence.
Together, Faith and Dylan are the only hope this world has left, but they must go their separate ways in order to accomplish their plan. Will their love survive?
With richly developed characters and heart-pounding action scenes, the second book in Patrick Carman’s Pulse trilogy continues the electrifying dystopian story of love and revenge.
The Author
Patrick Carman is the award-winning author of many books for young adults and children. He grew up in Salem, Oregon, and graduated from Willamette University. His birthday is February 27th, 1966. He spent a decade living in Portland, where he worked in advertising, game design, and technology.
Patrick Carman writes books for young adults and children for Scholastic, Harper Collins, and Little, Brown Books For Young Readers. His bestselling books and series includes The Land of Elyon, Atherton, Elliot’s Park, 39 Clues, Floors, Trackers, Thirteen Days to Midnight, Dark Eden, Pulse, 3:15, and Skeleton Creek. Mr. Carman’s books have been translated into approximately two dozen languages.
Mr. Carman spends his free time supporting literacy campaigns and community organizations, fly fishing, playing basketball, golfing badly, doing crosswords, watching movies, dabbling in video games, reading (lots), and (more than anything else) spending time with his wife and two daughters.
The Giveaway
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