1. What first drew you into young adult fantasy writing? Have you always loved fantasy?

Oh, yes. Fantasy was all I read as a kid. Lord of the Rings, Dragonriders of Pern, Sword of Shannara, ect. I didn’t have a YA section when I was a teen, so I’ve just recently discovered it. Wish I had a lot earlier.

2. Was it difficult for you to find an agent? Did you attend conferences or writing groups?

I met my agent at a writer’s workshop I’d been attending annually for several years. At the end of the week, several agents and editors came in and we got to “pitch” our books to them. Laurie McLean liked the idea of my novel and asked me to send her the first three chapters. A few weeks later, I nearly fell out of my chair when she called to represent me.

3. What advise could you offer someone who is seeking a literary agent?

Agents are busy, busy people. Make sure your work is the absolute best you can make it before approaching one. Also make sure your work is the type they represent. If you can get to a writer’s conference/workshop where there will be agents and editors, that’s a wonderful opportunity to meet and talk to those in the biz. The more you know, the better.

4. Are you doing a book tour/signings? Where can our readers find you on the internet?

For the moment, I’m not doing any tours, though there will likely be signings closer to the release date for Iron Daughter. I post all signing dates on my blog: http://juliekagawa.blogspot.com/ and I’m on twitter as @jkagawa if you just want to chat. J

5. Besides fairies, what is your favorite fictional character? Do you have a favorite fantasy book/author that you would recommend to young adults?

Do you mean as a species, or a single character? Dragons were my first fantasy love, but my favorite fictional character (one of many, anyway) is Valek from Maria V. Snyder’s Poison Study. He’s cool, he’s collected, he’s an assassin. What more do you want?

6. We love fairy stories but why do you love fairies?

I’ve always been intrigued with the idea of a hidden world right under our noses, one that we’re completely unaware of. I also love the many different types of faeries and faery legends. You have limited types of werewolves/vampires/fallen angels, but there are so many different kinds of fey, it never gets dull.

7. How much of Meghan Chase is Julie? Are their personality similarities?

Oh dear, no, lol. Meghan is much more patient and mature than I was at that age. We are similar in the fact that we were both loners in high school, never fitting in with the popular crowd. But while her response to being teased would be to ignore it, mine would have been to meet that person after school and punch them in the nose. Like I said, Meghan is the mature one, not me.

8. Are you naturally drawn toward strong female characters? Meghan is put into some pretty serious situations, would you have reacted the same?

Its funny. I love strong female characters, but I do not like overbearing, bossy, bitchy female characters. It’s a fine line, I know, but I get annoyed when a girl is being obnoxious for no reason then to show off her “kick-assy-ness.” Ziva from the television series NCIS is my perfect example of a strong female lead. Yeah, she can kill you with a playing card, but she never shows it off unless she has to.

(Her and Tony just need to kiss already and get it over with, aagh!)

If I were facing the same situations as Meghan, I would be sure to bring along a cold iron baseball bat. Or at least a katana.

9. What can we expect to see in the future? What are you working on and can you tell us anything about it?

At the moment I’m working on a brand new series. Not sure how much I can give away, but I will leave you with one word: Vampires.

10. Can you give us a peek into Iron Queen ?

Oh, there are plenty of quotes and teaser reviews floating around now (cough…Goodreads…cough) that you don’t really need me to tell you anything. But I will say that in The Iron Queen, the battle with the Iron Fey finally comes to a head, Meghan has a huge decision to make and she, as well as all of Faery, will never be the same.

11. During your debut publication journey, what has been the most surprising?

I was surprised to discover the YA ‘blogosphere.’ I had no idea there was this huge network of book bloggers out there, but I’m so glad I found them. They’ve been absolutely wonderful and supportive and I have a lot to thank them for.

12. Do you have any book tours/signings scheduled for 2011?

A few signings have been tentatively planned but not made official, but I will, barring any catastrophes, be at BEA this May. More info on the signings the closer we get to 2011.

Julie Kagawa was born in Sacramento, California. But nothing exciting really happened to her there. So, at the age of nine she and her family moved to Hawaii, which she soon discovered was inhabited by large carnivorous insects, colonies of house geckos, and frequent hurricanes. She spent much of her time in the ocean, when she wasn’t getting chased out of it by reef sharks, jellyfish, and the odd eel.

When not swimming for her life, Julie immersed herself in books, often to the chagrin of her schoolteachers, who would find she hid novels behind her Math textbooks during class. Her love of reading led her to pen some very dark and gruesome stories, complete with colored illustrations, to shock her hapless teachers. The gory tales faded with time, but the passion for writing remained, long after she graduated and was supposed to get a real job.

To pay the rent, Julie worked in different bookstores over the years, but discovered the managers frowned upon her reading the books she was supposed to be shelving. So she turned to her other passion: training animals. She worked as a professional dog trainer for several years, dodging Chihuahua bites and overly enthusiastic Labradors, until her first book sold and she stopped training to write full-time.

Julie now lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where the frequency of shark attacks are at an all time low. She lives with her husband, two obnoxious cats, one Australian Shepherd who is too smart for his own good, and the latest addition, a hyper-active Papillon puppy.