Gina Linko is the contributor for this week’s Take Five, a regular series where we ask authors and editors to share five facts about their latest books. Linko is the author of FLUTTER, available now.
All Emery Land wants is to be like any other 17-year-old—to go to school, hang out with her friends, and just be normal. But for as long as she can remember, she’s suffered from seizures. And in recent years they’ve consumed her life. To Emery they’re much more than seizures, she calls them loops—moments when she travels through wormholes back and forth in time and to a mysterious town. The loops are taking their toll on her physically. So she practically lives in the hospital where her scientist father and an ever-growing team of doctors monitor her every move. They’re extremely interested in the data they collect when Emery seizes. It appears that she’s tapping into parts of the brain typically left untouched by normal human beings.
Escaping from the hospital, Emery travels to Esperanza, the town from her loops on the upper peninsula of Michigan, where she meets Asher Clarke. Ash’s life is governed by his single-minded pursuit of performing good Samaritan acts to atone for the death of a loved one. His journey is very much entwined with Emery’s loops.
Drawn together they must unravel their complicated connection before it’s too late.
Gina Linko:
1. The cover photo for FLUTTER was taken by a high-school photography student and found on DeviantArt by the Random House design people. The photo is perfect in so many ways, capturing Emery as her eyes flutter mid-loop. Also, the looping curls right under the title of the book end up having a special significance later in the book. (Which I can’t tell you about!)
2. In the pitch that went out to editors, my agent called the surprise-twist-of-an-ending in FLUTTER, one that rivaled The Sixth Sense. I LOVE that comparison. I do think the end will make you want to read it over again!
3. When I first wrote FLUTTER, I wrote it with a dual-POV, alternating between Emery and Ash. But when I revised, I realized how much more mysterious Ash could be with just the one POV. Plus, it was always really Emery’s story.
4. FLUTTER was first titled The Dala Cabin, after the little, wooden, good-luck-charm horses that Emery falls in love with at the cabin in the Upper Peninsula.
5. I’ve always been into science, its blurred edges into the supernatural, and questions just beyond our understanding. And when I was writing FLUTTER, I thought of the framework of the mystery like an X-Files episode. That might be weird. Is that weird? ; )
