FFBC: Welcome to the club, The Edge of Forever by Melissa E. Hurst

The Edge of Forever
by Melissa E. Hurst
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Release Date: June 2nd 2015

Synopsis:

In 2013: Sixteen-year-old Alora is having blackouts. Each time she wakes up in a different place with no idea of how she got there. The one thing she is certain of? Someone is following her.

In 2146: Seventeen-year-old Bridger is one of a small number of people born with the ability to travel to the past. While on a routine school time trip, he sees the last person he expected—his dead father. The strangest part is that, according to the Department of Temporal Affairs, his father was never assigned to be in that time. Bridger’s even more stunned when he learns that his by-the-book father was there to break the most important rule of time travel—to prevent someone’s murder.

And that someone is named Alora.

Determined to discover why his father wanted to help a “ghost,” Bridger illegally shifts to 2013 and, along with Alora, races to solve the mystery surrounding her past and her connection to his father before the DTA finds him. If he can stop Alora’s death without altering the timeline, maybe he can save his father too.

It’s impossible to pick a favorite book, but A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle is one I love and it is the one that made me want to become a writer.

The Walking Dead

Guardians of the Galaxy

This changes all the time, but currently I’m loving Taylor Swift’s latest song, Bad Blood.

Chocolate

Atlantis, Caprica (well before the Cylons destroyed it), and Hogwarts

Captain America!

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default. – JK Rowling 

The Avengers. I love them, especially Black Widow.

Stephen King. I devoured his books while I was in high school.

Readers are awesome! They’re intelligent, kind, and more empathetic to others. And since I was a reader long before I was a writer, I’m thrilled to say that you are my people.

Hello Melissa! We are super excited to have you in our FFBC tours.

The Edge of Forever is the second book I’ve written. I’ve been a lifelong fan of science-fiction and fantasy, and after I shelved my first book, I knew I wanted to write something else that would be considered speculative fiction. The Edge of Forever combines my love of futuristic science-fiction with weird things that take place in a contemporary setting.

Alora was a lot of fun to write because she has such a sarcastic voice. Her view of everyone and the town she grew up in is heavily influenced by the fact that she didn’t really have friends growing up and she doesn’t feel like she fits in. She definitely has opinions, but she keeps them to herself and goes along with what everybody else wants because she hates confrontation, which is a trait she learned from her Aunt Grace, who raised her. But this changes over the course of the book.

The Edge of Forever was the second book I wrote. After shelving my first book in early 2011, it took me a little while before I figure out what I wanted to write next. I was driving one day, and heard the song IF I DIE YOUNG by The Band Perry on the radio. I was also thinking about an old time travel movie called SOMEWHERE IN TIME. In that weird way that writers’ brains work, I twisted those ideas together and came up with this: What if a boy went back in time to save the life of a girl who was supposed to die? Later, I realized that my story shared a few elements with an old STAR TREK episode (CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER). I decided to name my story THE EDGE OF FOREVER as a nod to the series.

This is from a scene when Bridger realizes that he is going to be stuck in the past for a while. “After Grace deposits me in my room, I collapse on the bed. The fact that I’m an idiot keeps racing through my mind. It’s like I’m trying to see how many stupid things I can do today. Travel illegally to the past? Check. Shoot my professor and a high-ranking DTA official? Check. Agree to socialize with some ghosts? Check.”

I loved writing the scene in which Bridger has to quickly shift to 2013 in the yard behind the bed and breakfast, and two older guests (who happen to be ghost hunters) see him appear and think he is a ghost.

Probably If I Die Young because it’s the song that inspired the book.

From the beginning, I pictured AnnaSophia Robb as Alora, and Josh Hutcherson as Bridger.

Maybe have a few donuts or chocolate chip cookies since Alora loves them. 

I’m working on the sequel to The Edge of Forever, and I’m also brainstorming my next project.

Thank you so much for everything, Melissa!

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Melissa lives in the southern US with her husband and three kids. She writes YA science fiction and fantasy, which means she considers watching Star Trek and Firefly as research. She dreams of traveling around the world and maybe finding Atlantis one day. You can usually find her with a book in one hand and a Dr. Pepper in the other. Or consuming lots of chocolate.

THE EDGE OF FOREVER is her debut novel.

Win a stack of books which includes a paperback of Arclight by Josin L. McQuein, a paperback of Avalon by Midnee Arnett, a paperback of Gates of Thread and Stone by Lori M. Lee, an ARC of Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch and an ARC of Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard + a signed copy of THE EDGE OF FOREVER and swag (US Only)

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