Story Secrets: FREAK MAGNET with Andrew Auseon

Awesome readergirlz diva Liz Gallagher introduced me to today's Story Secrets author Andrew Auseon of FREAK MAGNET fame! Plus I got to meet his lovely editor when I was at ALA, and she clued me in on the secret pronunciation of his name (oss-EE-on).

This guy is totally a person after my own heart - he's a game developer in addition to being a novelist. People have been saying really nice things about this book, so enjoy the interview and check it out!

*****

Freak Magnet is the story of two young people who are working to overcome personal tragedies but feel stuck on their paths to recovery. Charlie, a brilliant, albeit socially awkward, astronomy student has built his life around caring for his terminally ill mother. Gloria, an aspiring poet who always attracts the wrong kind of guy, can’t seem to move past the death of her older brother, a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan. However, a chance meeting between Charlie and Gloria leaves the teens wondering if they’ve become too isolated, that perhaps it’s time to look for help in the unlikeliest of places: each other.

Holly Cupala: I love to hear the stories behind the story – how did you come up with the idea for your novel?

Andrew Auseon: Let me start by saying this: I love Freak Magnet. I say that unabashedly. There’s something very special to me about Charlie and Gloria. Maybe it’s just that I appreciate their feelings in a way I’ve never felt about any of my previous characters, or maybe it’s because their story appears simple but isn’t. I don’t know. Regardless, I have a very large little part of my heart reserved for this novel and its cast of characters. They want so badly to find joy, to reach a place where they can be happy and secure in their lives. And they will stop at nothing to get there. I understand that. I appreciate that longing for refuge—for love.

The novel came about in a very interesting way, actually. As a writer, I get bored very quickly. By the time the ending of a project comes around, I am incredibly pumped to seek out something completely new and different...


Read the rest about Andrew's secrets here...

~Holly Cupala