Welcome to BEA Blitz!  today I'm interviewing Michelle K Pickett, author of the forthcoming young adult dystopian PODs as well as the currently available Concilium duology!  Don't know what BEA Blitz is?  Head over to my BEA Blitz Master Post to find out and see who else is being interviewed!

Is this your first time at Book Expo?  Had you heard of it previously?

I first heard of BEA last year, but I wasn't able to attend. I'd just signed with Spencer Hill Press and everything was moving so fast BEA got lost in the shuffle.  So this is my first year and I'm SO excited!

Okay, first of all, the thought of me having a fan is unbelievable!  I can't view myself that way. But if someone would like to approach me at BEA I would be thrilled. I can't think of a proper way to do so. I'd rather them not run up and grab me into a hug without introducing themselves first. lol! But I'd love to meet anyone who is interested in talking with me. It would totally blow me away!

I'm hoping to spend a lot of time with my fellow Spencer Hill Press family. This will be the first time I've met them face-to-face.  When I'm not with them, I really want to visit the Guggenheim and Natural History Museums.

My publisher approached me, and all the authors at Spencer Hill Press, about BEA. So far the process has been smooth. I've booked my hotel room and my plane ticket is purchased. I'm ready to pack and go! I'm not thrilled about flying (not my favorite thing) and I'm a little apprehensive about travelling alone in such a large city (I'm a small town girl), but I'm too excited to get worked up over it.

Oh, there are so many! First, I'm looking forward to meeting all the Spencer Hill Press authors. Some of us have emailed back and forth regularly and I feel I know them already, but I'm excited to meet them in person.  Kate Kaynak the author of the Ganzfield Series and my editor is on top of my list of people to meet.

I'm really, really hoping to get a chance to talk with Veronica Roth, author of the Divergent trilogy. I'm attending an author's breakfast where she'll be speaking. I'm sure she'll be surrounded by people wanting her attention so I may not get a chance to meet her, but she is definitely one I'd love to talk with.

Rebecca Donovan is an author I'm planning to meet. We've emailed a few times and she seems very nice. I'd really like to talk with her. I was hoping she'd be signing her last installment of the "Breathing Series," but unfortunately she won't be.  I have autographed copies of the first two books and I'm not so patiently waiting for the last book's release in July.

Tammara Webber is another author I hope will be at BEA. I'd love to meet her. I enjoyed her novel "Easy" so much! I wanted to meet Colleen Hoover, but she emailed me and said she wouldn't be there this year.

Other authors I hope to meet include: Dan Wells (who wrote Partials and Fragments), Abbi Glines, Cora Carmack (wrote Losing It), Lisa Bernstein (who wrote Pretty Amy), Amy Plum (who wrote the Revenants Series), Jennifer Echols, Goodness, I could keep listing authors until I ran out of paper. My son even has a list of authors he wants me to check out for him!

I'm also going to make an effort to meet a lot of new authors, either debuting authors or ones I'm not familiar with.

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So remember guys don't tackle the author out of enthusiasm! I may have to tattoo this on my hand  Thank you so much Michelle for being part of our Blitz!

Seventeen-year-old Eva is a chosen one. Chosen to live, while others meet a swift and painful death from an incurable virus so lethal, a person is dead within days of symptoms emerging. In the POD system, a series of underground habitats built by the government, she waits with the other chosen for the deadly virus to claim those above. Separated from family and friends, it's in the PODs she meets David. And while true love might not conquer all, it's a balm for the broken soul.

After a year, scientists believe the population has died, and without living hosts, so has the virus. That's the theory, anyway. But when the PODs are opened, survivors find the surface holds a vicious secret. The virus mutated, infecting those left top-side and creating... monsters.

Eva and David hide from the infected in the abandoned PODs. Together they try to build a life--a new beginning. But the infected follow and are relentless in their attacks. Leaving Eva and David to fight for survival, and pray for a cure.

Michelle will be signing copies of PODs at the Spencer Hill Booth (booth 2567), so make sure you stop by and meet her!