We had an amazing week with Rachel Hartman visiting us on Random Buzzers - not only did we get to chat with her AS Seraphina was released, but Rachel's going to be at Comic Con this week as well!

Unfortunately, Rachel can't stay with us forever because she's going to be super busy in the next few weeks, but here's what we've learned about her:

• The kingdom of Goredd first came to Rachel's imagination when she was in seventh grade when she had to write a narrative poem. Rachel's been worldbuilding ever since!
• Rachel started writing her first fantasy novel at the age eleven after reading Tolkien
• If Rachel could be a creature, she'd be her dog because she sleeps most of the day, loves eating and bounding around
• Rachel isn't a morning person, but her brain and writing work best when she's up before everyone else, not talking to anyone and just writing
• Two of Rachel's favorite words: entomophagy and blurt
• Rachel's favorite character is Orma
• Rachel used to draw comics before writing Seraphina
• Some things that help Rachel have a productive writing day: a good night's sleep, a long stretch of time alone to write first thing in the morning, and an idea. And a cup of tea
• If Rachel could classify Seraphina, she would classify it as Science Fantasy
• Characters always come before plot for Rachel
• Rachel's comic Amy Unbounded, is also set in Goredd
• Seraphina's name was originally Theodosia!
• Rachel looked at her iTunes to see which song she played the most when writing Seraphina and the winner is: A Nest of Stars by Iarla O Lionaird
• None of Rachel's characters are based on people she knows
• Two of Rachel's favorite books: Middlemarch by George Eliot and The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
• Seraphina will have a sequel!
• Rachel used to play the cello and she recently joined a choir
• Rachel describes writing her stories as "inside out" - starting with a character's internal struggles before the characters before the settings, etc
• While Rachel loves living in Vancouver, England affected her very profoundly
• Rachel grew up in Kentucky
• Dracomachia, the martial art of fighting dragons in Seraphina, was inspired when Rachel started taking her son to karate class

That's just the tiniest bit of what we learned about Rachel! To read the rest of Rachel's detailed and thoughtful responses about writing processes, creativity, inspiration, and of course, dragons, read her forum here! We've also got the prequel to Seraphina, The Audition, available right here!

Next week, we're going to have a special program on Random Buzzers! Our publishing team from Random House will be visiting on the blog to talk to you all about the other side of book publishing - from designing book covers, to making ARCs, and even how to start working in Publishing!

We're going to give away 10 copies of Every You Every Me by David Levithan and 10 copies of The Death Cure by James Dashner! Chat with them in the comments of their blog posts and you could be chosen as a winner, so remember to update your mailing addresses!