Interview with Hannah West for Palace of Silver

Palace of Silver (The Nissera Chronicles #3)

by Hannah West
Publisher: Holiday House
Release Date: April 28th 2020

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Retellings

Synopsis:

Return to the land of Nissera, home to spectacular magic. An uneasy peace reigns now that Valory has vanquished the Moth King and settled into her rightful place as queen of Calgoran. New leaders Glisette and Kadri hope to usher the neighboring kingdoms into an era of healing and prosperity. All should be well.

But there’s a fourth queen in charge: Ambrosine, banished overseas to Perispos. Driven by vanity, she vows to become the most powerful and beautiful ruler in the world, even if it means oppressing the mortal kingdom she is meant to protect. Meanwhile a dangerous uprising led by elicromancer-hating rebels gains momentum. Rot spreads through the Forest of the West Fringe. Valory goes missing. Facing enemies on all sides, Glisette and Kadri must reckon with the role of magic. How far will they go to defend their power—and can they build an uprising of their own?

West intertwines homages to Snow White and Bluebeard with her imaginative magical setting for an exhilarating installment in the acclaimed Nissera Chronicles. Stunning hardcover edition includes a two-page map and family tree.

Can you briefly describe THE NISSERA CHRONICLES, its characters and what’s going to happen in PALACE OF SILVER?

The Nissera Chronicles is an epic fantasy/fairytale retelling series about immortal beings called elicromancers. Kingdom of Ash and Briars is a standalone prequel that is a retelling of both Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and is told from the perspective of the fairy godmother, a shape-shifting elicromancer named Bristal. Realm of Ruins follows her descendant Valory, who must try to master her unruly and destructive power, and it pays homage to Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid. 

Lastly, Palace of SIlver is told in alternating points-of-view by Glisette and Kadri, two side characters from Realm of Ruins. They have to face off against Glisette’s vain and cruel sister Ambrosine, who possesses mirror magic and uses it to unite with an ancient, dark demon and oppress the mortals of her kingdom. Meanwhile, a group of elicromancer-hating rebels is gaining power. Contending with these threats from both sides, Glisette and Kadri have to reckon with the role of magic in their society and whether they deserve the right to rule. This installment pays homage to Snow White and Bluebeard. 

Who would you say is your favourite character from the story and why?

I love Glisette and Kadri equally and will protect them at all costs, but Glisette is one of the easiest characters I’ve ever written. In Realm of Ruins, she stormed onto the page and took me by surprise with her wit and imperious attitude and secret softness. I feel like she already existed and I’m just her documentarian rather than her creator. 

How did the story occur to you? Did you find inspiration anywhere?

Since this is the third book in a fairytale retelling series, the inspiration was based on a) what classic fairytales I hadn’t yet paid homage to in the first two books and b) which characters’ stories still needed to be told. Both Glisette and Kadri had layers and struggles and hopes that I wanted to explore, and once I positioned them as the main characters the plot came fairly naturally. Ambrosine, too, was a character who had unfinished business, and centering her as the villain to me was the most intriguing part. The Ambrosine POVs that I scattered throughout the book were some of my favorite parts to write. 

If you could choose one song to describe each book in the series, which one would it be?

Kingdom of Ash and Briars: Glass by Bat for Lashes

Realm of Ruins: Castle by Halsey

Palace of Silver: Live Like Legends by Ruelle 

If your book was going to be made into a movie, who would play your characters?

I don’t want to give too much away since one of the upcoming posts in the tour is about my dream cast, but Kathryn Newton is my pick for Glisette. Ayisha Hart is my pick for Kadri even though she’s a little old to play a teenager. I’d probably leave her up to the casting director! 

What drink and place do you think will go with your book to have a perfect book date?

A floral tea like lavender or jasmine would be perfect, enjoyed inside a cozy cabin during a snowstorm. 

Can you recommend your readers any other books in case they are left hungry for more once they finish PALACE OF SILVER?

I emphatically recommend The Empirium Trilogy by Claire Legrand and the Ravenspire series by C.J. Redwine!

What would you say is the most difficult part of writing a book?

The sloggy 25% mark. When I’m writing the opening of a book, my ideas are fresh and I’m excited by all the possibilities. But when that newness wears off and it’s time to really plunge into the story and make hard choices about the direction of the plot, I tend to lose steam. Even when I have a detailed outline, somehow I still encounter a roadblock and have to take time off to let my ideas stew.

What’s next for you?

I have a Southern gothic/contemporary fantasy called The Bitterwine Oath releasing on December 1. It’s set in a small Texas town where cult murders occur every fifty years in a church sanctuary. Suspects have been tried and acquitted due to lack of evidence, though rumors still abound. The story follows Natalie Colter, an 18-year-old girl whose ancestor is believed to have been the leader of the all-female cult. As the next massacre anniversary approaches, Nat begins to unravel her family history and learns that the women of the cult possess magic – and that they’re using it to protect the town from something even darker lurking in the woods.

This is definitely a departure from the Nissera series, and I’m excited to release something in a different genre and see what my readers think! There’s still magic and young women learning to embrace their powers, so I believe anyone who has enjoyed The Nissera Chronicles will enjoy The Bitterwine Oath, too.

I'm the author of young adult books including The Nissera Chronicles series and The Bitterwine Oath. ​I've been writing fantasy since kindergarten, when I penned my first tale about a princess who ran away and lived at the top of a flagpole with two loaves of bread. But it wasn't until I studied abroad in Orléans, France during college that the premise for my first novel materialized. The fairy tale castles, the snowy winter days, and a Disney princess pencil that arrived in a care package from my parents provided the inspiration that allowed me to wrangle all my untold and unfinished stories into a novel. 

I currently live in the Dallas area with my husband and our two rambunctious rescue dogs.

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Interview with L. Penelope for Whispers of Shadow & Flame

Whispers of Shadow & Flame (Earthsinger Chronicles #2)

by L. Penelope

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: October 1st 2019

Genre: Fantasy, Romance

Synopsis:

The Mantle that separates the kingdoms of Elsira and Lagrimar is about to fall. And life will drastically change for both kingdoms. 

Born with a deadly magic she cannot control, Kyara is forced to become an assassin. Known as the Poison Flame in the kingdom of Lagrimar, she is notorious and lethal, but secretly seeks freedom from both her untamed power and the blood spell that commands her. She is tasked with capturing the legendary rebel called the Shadowfox, but everything changes when she learns her target’s true identity.

Darvyn ol-Tahlyro may be the most powerful Earthsinger in generations, but guilt over those he couldn’t save tortures him daily. He isn’t sure he can trust the mysterious young woman who claims to need his help, but when he discovers Kyara can unlock the secrets of his past, he can’t stay away.

Kyara and Darvyn grapple with betrayal, old promises, and older prophecies—all while trying to stop a war. And when a new threat emerges, they must beat the odds to save both kingdoms.

Can you briefly describe the EARTHSINGER CHRONICLES and its characters and what’s going to happen in this second instalment, WHISPERS OF SHADOW AND FLAME?

In the Earthsinger Chronicles, two countries have been at war for five hundred years. One country’s people have magic, the others don’t, and the two sides struggle to end the long war and overcome centuries of hatred. Whispers of Shadow & Flame is a parallel story to the first book in the series, Song of Blood & Stone. They take place at the same time in different countries, and in Whispers, we follow an assassin who’s been sent to capture a notorious rebel. 

Kyara wields a very rare type of magic called Nethersong, which allows her to control the energy of death. As a child, she was forced to become an assassin and use her dangerous power for the benefit of the tyrant king called the True Father. Now, Kyara is known as the Poison Flame, famous and feared for her deadliness. 

She’s sent to capture the Shadowfox, a powerful Earthsinger whose power threatens the True Father. But both hunter and prey hold secrets, and when Kyara discovers the Shadowfox’s true identity, she realizes she can’t harm him. 

It’s a magic filled, adventurous, love story with consequences that will ripple through this world, leaving no one untouched. 

Who would you say is your favourite character from the story and why?

While I’m not sure I have a favorite character, Kyara, the Poison Flame, is very near to my heart. She struggles with the things she is forced to do; she never wanted to become an assassin and the guilt eats away at her. She’s afraid of herself and her power and is searching for an out. Writing her experiences and backstory were really emotional for me. To a certain extent, all of my main characters are struggling with their identities and places in the world, and none more than Kyara who’s been forced to kill and doesn’t believe she’s good for much else. Her entire story arc in this book and the books to come probably hits me the hardest and touches me the most.

How did the story occur to you? Did you find inspiration anywhere?

This story was inspired by a character who is only talked about, but not seen until the epilogue of the first book in the series. Though he’s barely on the page in Song of Blood & Stone, Darvyn—the Shadowfox—has a large impact on the story and on the future of the series. After I finished Song, I began loosely plotting the rest of the series and knew that Darvyn needed to have his story told. 

Another big inspiration came from an unusual place. I’m a fan of the Writing Excuses podcast, which is a fantasy and science fiction focused show on writing. On one episode about worldbuilding, they talked about how if you wrote about a city in the desert, you’d better have a good reason for it being there. I think it may even have been a “homework” assignment of the episode. The reason being that all too often writers include wild fantastical settings that make no sense. How does a city in the desert support itself? Where does the water come from? The food? 

I took that challenge to heart. I already knew that the land of Lagrimar is a desert wasteland, but it does have at least one large city. I wanted to explore different parts of the world in this book than were shown in the previous one, and so I created a couple of impossible places created and sustained with magic and made sure my characters went to visit them.

If you could choose one song to describe your book, which one would it be?

I discovered the song “Bad Dreams” by Faouzia a few months ago and the whole vibe and sound immediately made me think of Kyara. Her voice is amazing and there’s so much emotion in that song that just puts me back into the desert with my characters battling their demons. 

If your book was going to be made into a movie, who would play your characters?

Although Kyara doesn’t need a samurai sword to kick ass, I think that Shaina West, a.k.a. The Samurider would be perfect for her. Check out her sword wielding badassery on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/B1oR5n4FQ9H

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A post shared by Samurider (@thesamurider) on Sep 1, 2019 at 11:44am PDT

As for Darvyn, this may be a little bit of nepotism, but I think my brother, Paul James would be perfect. He’s a professional actor who’s starred on TV shows such as Greek, The Last Ship, and The Path among others and he was actually on the cover of Whispers when it was originally self-published (you can see this version of the cover on Goodreads). 

Can you recommend your readers any other books in case they are left hungry for more once they finish WHISPERS OF SHADOW AND FLAME?

If you’re looking for more of my writing, I have a contemporary paranormal series that starts with Angelborn about a half-angel searching for his soulmate on earth.

If you’re in the mood for more female assassins, Robin LaFevers’ His Fair Assassin series is wonderful. And The Wolf Queen by Cerece Rennie Murphy is a terrific epic fantasy set in a unique and multicultural world.

What’s next for you?

I’m currently hard at work on the fourth full-length book in the Earthsinger Chronicles, and the third novella in the series. There are novellas between each full-length release and they’ve been a ton of fun to write. After that’s all done, I’ll be looking forward to my next fantasy series which features dragons!

Leslye Penelope has been writing since she could hold a pen and loves getting lost in the worlds in her head. She is an award-winning author of fantasy and paranormal romance. 

She was born in the Bronx, just after the birth of hip hop, but left before she could acquire an accent. Equally left and right-brained, she studied Film at Howard University and minored in Computer Science. This led to a graduate degree in Multimedia and a career in website development. She's also an award-winning independent filmmaker, co-founded a literary magazine, and sometimes dreams in HTML. 

Leslye lives in Maryland with her husband and their furry dependents. Sign up for new release information and giveaways on her website: http://www.lpenelope.com.

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Interview with Mindee Arnett for Shadow & Flame

Shadow & Flame (Rime Chronicles #2)

by Mindee Arnett

Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release Date: June 4th 2019

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Synopsis:

From acclaimed author Mindee Arnett comes the thrilling conclusion of the stunningly epic, action-packed, and romantic fantasy adventure about a powerful girl possessed of strange magic, the outcast prince she loves, and the kingdom that has torn them apart.

Kate and Corwin are on the run, desperate for allies in a new world of war among the kingdoms of Rime. As the book opens, Kate suffers a massive loss, one that will shape the struggle for freedom of all wilders and magic folk—that is, if Kate can learn to control her own power.

Can you briefly describe SHADOW & FLAME and their main characters?

Absolutely. Shadow & Flame is the sequel and conclusion to Onyx & Ivory, a high fantasy set in a world divided by magic—who has it, who gets to use it, and who doesn’t. Specifically, there is magist magic, which is controlled and regulated by the government, and then there’s wilder magic which is outlawed. This division is the primary concern of book 1. In book 2, we add a new element to this existing conflict in the threat of the foreign nation of Seva. Seva doesn’t care much about the legality of magic. They simply want all magic for their own. The two main characters of the series are Kate and Corwin. Kate is a wilder and Corwin is the high prince. They’re in love but nothing about their relationship is easy, and the events of Shadow & Flame are sure to put them both to the test. 

Who would you say is your favourite character from the story and why?

Kate is my favorite. By default, the main character usually has to be the favorite since I spend the most time with them. I mean, it would be hard to write a whole novel about someone I didn’t like very much or didn’t find interesting. By definition, Corwin is a favorite as well. But aside from them, I absolutely adore Signe’s character. She’s sassy and tough and fun. Of the new characters in Shadow & Flame, my favorite is a magist named Harue. She’s sort of an absent-minded professor type. The kind of person who’s both really smart and really clueless at the same time. I have a lot of fun with her. 

How did the story occur to you? Did you find inspiration anywhere?

The core inspiration for Onyx & Ivory was “the Pony Express” meets “Pitch Black.” This sounds a bit strange but the inspiration for Shadow & Flame mostly came from the first book. The events of book 1 influenced the direction of book 2 quite a lot. For some external inspiration though, I drew from a couple of different, and seemingly random, sources such as the first season of Jessica Jones on Netflix, the adult fantasy book The Dragon Prince by Melanie Rawn, and the history of the city of Constantinople. 

If you could choose one song to describe your book, which one would it be?

Gosh, what a fun and ridiculously hard question! I do make playlists for all my books, and every one of those songs represents a theme or feeling or expression from the book. So I’m going to cheat and pick three of them that together represent the emotional arc of the book for me as the writer:

Miracle by Jon Bon Jovi

Beast by Nico Vega

Below My Feet by Mumford & Sons

Between SHADOW & FLAME & ONYX & IVORY:

Which book has your favourite cover?

Onyx & Ivory remains my favorite of the two covers. But then again, I haven’t seen the actual printed version of Shadow & Flame yet so that might change once I hold the real book in my hands. They’re both beautiful though. As an author, I’ve won the book cover lottery for sure.

Which one was more fun to write?

Overall, I would say Shadow & Flame was more fun to write, but only in the sense that it was less hard. In my experience sequels are always a little easier because you’ve laid a lot of framework for the story already. There are a lot of decisions you don’t have to make with the book since you already made them previously, such as the main characters, names of places and things, rules of magic and so on. Onyx & Ivory was a much harder book to write mostly because I had no idea what I was doing (I still don’t honestly, but I might be a little less clueless, I hope). Seriously, I’d never written multiple point of view and I hadn’t done high fantasy. There was a steep learning curve on that book. Fortunately, I did learn and Shadow & Flame was much less arduous. Also, I’m a huge fan of endings, so the last book usually wins by default.

If your book was going to be made into a movie, who would play your characters?

It’s funny, but on the one had I never image anyone actually portraying my characters, and honestly if they ever do get made I hope that someone new and fresh will be cast. But I do usually pick an actor to represent the character to me physically. I’ll take screenshots of the actor from whatever role I find most inspiring as far as aesthetics go and put it in my book bible. For Onyx & Ivory, I used Chris Evans as Captain America for the inspiration for Corwin. For Kate, I used a combination of Mila Kunis and Kirsten Maldonado from Pentatonix. Kirsten in particular inspired the “sideways” smile that Corwin often refers to when he’s thinking about Kate. She has the coolest way of curling her lips to one side when she’s performing that I find charming and attractive.

Summer is coming and we love to go out and enjoy the sun. What drink and place do you think will go with your book to have a perfect book date?

The opening half of Shadow & Flame takes place in what I imagine is a very Mediterranean climate. So I’m going to go with a bottle of red wine anywhere overlooking the sea. 

Can you recommend your readers any other books in case they are left hungry for more once they finish SHADOW & FLAME?

Well, I do have two previous series that are available—a science fiction thriller that starts with Avalon and a contemporary fantasy that starts with The Nightmare Affair. But the best fantasy book I’ve read recently is Spinning Silver by Naomi Novick. It’s a very different flare from Onyx & Ivory but I can’t recommend it enough. Probably my favorite YA fantasy series of all time though is the Lumatere Chronicles by Melina Marchetta, which starts with Finnikin of the Rock. 

What’s next for you?

I have standalone fantasy in the works as well as a co-authored paranormal. I’m equally excited about both but I don’t have any details I’m allowed to share yet. Hopefully soon though!

Thank you so much for hosting me and my book.

YA Author of THE NIGHTMARE AFFAIR, a contemporary fantasy coming March 5, 2013 from Tor Teen (Macmillan) and AVALON, a YA sci-fi thriller coming Winter 2014 from Balzer+Bray (HarperCollins). Represented by the fabulous Suzie Townsend of New Leaf Literary. Addicted to jumping horses and telling tales of magic, the macabre, and outer space.

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