Winter Warmers ~ Maria V. Snyder picks The Farm by Emily McKay

Today we are more than a little excited to hand the blog over to Maria V. Snyder! We are very big fans of Maria here at Midnight Reads and we thought this was the perfect post to kick off our event. So, without further ado we'll hand over to Maria.


It is my pleasure to introduce to you Emily McKay, author of THE FARM. It's her YA debut novel and it's a post-apocalyptic story with these creatures called Ticks (very similar to vampires). She asked me to read her book back in the summer for a cover blurb and I LOVED it! My blurb was something like this: Be prepared to stay up all night - I did! The main characters, Lily and Mel are very unique and likable. The plot is different enough to stand out among the current wave of dystopians/post-apocalyptic novels.

I asked her why change from writing romance novels for adults to YA. Emily said, "Don't laugh, but I think there's actually a common thread between romance novels and a lot of post apocalyptic fiction. Obviously, I've always loved reading and writing romance novels. Romance novels are the most optimistic of all fiction and also the most intimate. [I didn't laugh - it's true!]

But I've also always been drawn to post apocalyptic stories. The Postman by David Brin is one of my all time favorite books. There's a sort of basic optimism in many post apocalyptic books (not all, but a lot). They're stories of humanity sinking to the absolute depths, but rising out of those depths to carry on. There's a powerful message of love and hope in the very idea that there will be a post apocalypse, that there will be anything after. Of course, to me the most interesting aspect of the apocalypse is how we take care of the people we love as things are falling apart. What kind of sacrifices we're willing to make to for others.

I had known for years that someday I wanted to tell a post apocalyptic story, I just needed to find the right setting. And then, of course, I added in lots of scary monsters, dramatic sacrifices and a hot guy. :-) With THE FARM, I got to play around in all the sandboxes I love best."


We would like to say a very big thank you to both Maria V. Snyder and Emily McKay for taking the time to be part of Winter Warmers Event. If you would like to learn more about Maria and Emily you can do so by following the links below.



Maria V. Snyder: goodreads website blog




Emily McKay goodreads website twitter