Alexandra Monir
Author Interview - Alexandra Monir
Author of BLACK CANARY: BREAKING SILENCE
“Dinah Lance was eight years old when she overheard the impossible: the sound of a girl singing. It was something she was never meant to hear--not in her lifetime and not in Gotham City, taken over by the vicious, patriarchal Court of Owls. The sinister organization rules Gotham City as a dictatorship and has stripped women of everything--their right to work, to make music, to learn, to be free. Now seventeen, Dinah can't forget that haunting sound, and she's beginning to discover that her own voice is just as powerful. But singing is forbidden--a one-way route to Arkham Asylum. Fighting to balance her father's desire to keep her safe, a blossoming romance with mysterious new student Oliver Queen, and her own need to help other women and girls rise up, Dinah wonders if her song will finally be heard. And will her voice be powerful enough to destroy the Court of Owls once and for all?”
Author Interview - Alexandra Monir
Author I draw inspiration from: Sarah J. Maas and Dhonielle Clayton for YA, Edith Wharton for classic lit
Author Interview - Alexandra Monir
Favorite place to read a book: At my dining table, accompanied by a delicious meal!
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: One of my absolute favorite feel-good books is TWENTIES GIRL by Sophie Kinsella- I've read it a bunch of times over the years and it's like returning to an old friend. The 1920s ghost character, Sadie, is the most fabulous delight, and I would be thrilled to be stuck in an elevator with her!
Author Interview - Alexandra Monir
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: I feel like I must have been born wanting this! I started scribbling stories into notebooks at age six, and never stopped.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: First choice is hardcover, paperback second, and eBook third. I hardly ever listen to audiobooks, for some reason- but I got to narrate two of mine!
The last book I read: The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, which was such a page-turner!
Author Interview - Alexandra Monir
Pen & paper or computer: Computer all the way!
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: I absolutely love Manu from Romina Russell's LOBIZONA, and as the daughter of immigrants myself, I feel we could relate to each other on a best-friends level.
Author Interview - Alexandra Monir
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: Singer/songwriter/performer! That's actually how my career began- I was a teen pop singer who also LOVED writing, so when I came up with my first book, I already had agency representation as a performer and was able to have their books department submit my work to what became my first publisher, Random House. I still write and record music, but I much prefer making music as part of a larger story, like the music I wrote and recorded for BLACK CANARY.
Favorite decade in fashion history: Ooh, so many, but I'd have to choose the fabulous flapper fashions of the 1920s!
Place I’d most like to travel: Maui is my happy place, and Paris and New York are my favorite cities, so I'm dying to return to all three after the pandemic. I've never been to Japan, so that's at the top of my list!
My signature drink: Prosecco!
Favorite artist: There's a recording artist I listen to whenever I write, whose voice and songs just get me in the soul, and that's Cesaria Evora. She passed away in 2011, but she was just an icon of world music, and I was lucky enough to see her perform live at Carnegie Hall a couple of years before she passed. Her most famous song was "Sodade," and it is just gorgeous.
Number one on my bucket list: A book tour that sends me all around the world!
Anything else you'd like to add: Getting to write the Black Canary's YA origin story was such a dream come true, and I would love for you to check it out! If you're a fan of dystopian thrillers, action/adventure, and romance, this read is for you. :)
Find more from the author:
Twitter: @TimelessAlex
Instagram: @alexandramonir
Facebook: @AlexandraMonirAuthor
Author Bio: Iranian-American author and recording artist ALEXANDRA MONIR has published seven popular young adult novels to date, beginning with her internationally-bestselling debut, TIMELESS (a Barnes & Noble Bestseller and Amazon.com “Best Books of the Month”). She published the hit sci-fi novel THE FINAL SIX with HarperCollins in 2018, with Sony Pictures optioning the film rights in a major pre-empt deal. A sequel, THE LIFE BELOW, followed in 2020. Most recently, Alexandra was selected to write the first-ever YA novel about DC Comics superhero, Black Canary. She joined global bestsellers Leigh Bardugo, Marie Lu, Sarah J. Maas and Matt de la Pena as the fifth author chosen to write for the New York Times-bestselling DC ICONS series with her book, BLACK CANARY: BREAKING SILENCE, publishing with Penguin Random House on December 29th, 2020.
Alexandra is additionally a screenwriter, recording artist and composer, with both screenplay and musical adaptations of her own work in development. Her musical roots run deep, as she is the granddaughter of the late Monir Vakili, Iran’s foremost opera singer. She resides in Los Angeles, California with her husband, 3-year-old son, and fluffy Shih Tzu, where she is at work on her next novel, which will be another iconic origin story: a historical fantasy about Princess Jasmine, publishing in Fall 2022 with Disney-Hyperion.
