BY MINDI SCOTT

At age eight, what did you want to be when you grew up? And at age eighteen? And while you’re at it, what about at age twenty-eight?

Elana Johnson: At both age eight and eighteen, I wanted to be a teacher. At age twenty-eight, as a teacher, I had no plans to do anything else. It wasn’t until age thirty that I started writing and looking to become an author.

Which Breakfast-Club-style label would have best fit your teenage self?

EJ: Marching band geek? That would fit. I was pretty brainy too.

Without giving away too much from your newest book, which character or scene from it are you the most pleased to have created, and why?

EJ: I love Raine Hightower. She has a wicked power that her dad exploits. I love (love!) the scenes where she’s using that power, mostly because it’s painful for her and helps her grow in ways she didn’t think possible.

Which are your favorite movies to watch again and again?

EJ: Two Weeks Notice, X-Men, and Mission Impossible. Oh, I also like The Bourne Identity movies.

And, now, the most important question of all: Beatles or Elvis? Please support your answer. 😉

EJ: The Beatles, of course! Elvis’s stuff just sounds the same over and over. But the Beatles have TRUE MUSIC.

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About Elana: Elana’s work including POSSESSION, REGRET, and SURRENDER is available from Simon & Schuster wherever books are sold. She is the author of From the Query to the Call, an ebook that every writer needs to read before they query, which can be downloaded for free on her website. She runs a personal blog on publishing and is a founding author of the QueryTracker blog. She blogs regularly at The League of Extraordinary Writers, co-organizes WriteOnCon, and can be found on Twitter and Facebook.

She wishes she could experience her first kiss again, tell the mean girl where to shove it, and have cool superpowers like reading minds and controlling fire. To fulfill her desires, she writes young adult science fiction and fantasy.

About SURRENDER: Raine has always been a good girl. She lives by the rules in Freedom. After all, they are her father’s rules: He’s the Director. It’s because of him that Raine is willing to use her talent—a power so dangerous, no one else is allowed to know about it. Not even her roommate, Vi.

All of that changes when Raine falls for Gunner. Raine’s got every reason in the world to stay away from Gunn, but she just can’t. Especially when she discovers his connection to Vi’s boyfriend, Zenn.

Raine has never known anyone as heavily brainwashed as Vi. Raine’s father expects her to spy on Vi and report back to him. But Raine is beginning to wonder what Vi knows that her father is so anxious to keep hidden, and what might happen if she helps Vi remember it. She’s even starting to suspect Vi’s secrets might involve Freedom’s newest prisoner, the rebel Jag Barque….

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