Interview with Roseanne A. Brown for A Song of Wraiths and Ruin

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin (A Song of Wraiths and Ruin #1)

by Roseanne A. Brown
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release Date: June 2nd 2020

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Synopsis:

The first in an fantasy duology inspired by West African folklore in which a grieving crown princess and a desperate refugee find themselves on a collision course to murder each other despite their growing attraction.

For Malik, the Solstasia festival is a chance to escape his war-stricken home and start a new life with his sisters in the prosperous desert city of Ziran. But when a vengeful spirit abducts Malik’s younger sister, Nadia, as payment into the city, Malik strikes a fatal deal—kill Karina, Crown Princess of Ziran, for Nadia’s freedom.

But Karina has deadly aspirations of her own. Her mother, the Sultana, has been assassinated; her court threatens mutiny; and Solstasia looms like a knife over her neck. Grief-stricken, Karina decides to resurrect her mother through ancient magic . . . requiring the beating heart of a king. And she knows just how to obtain one: by offering her hand in marriage to the victor of the Solstasia competition.

When Malik rigs his way into the contest, they are set on a course to destroy each other. But as attraction flares between them and ancient evils stir, will they be able to see their tasks to the death?

Can you briefly describe A SONG OF WRAITHS AND RUIN and its characters?

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin is a YA fantasy novel set in a fantasy world inspired by West African folklore. It follows two protagonists, a refugee named Malik and a princess named Karina. When Malik’s sister is kidnapped by a vengeful spirit, he makes a deal to win her freedom by killing the crown princess. To do this, he enters a competition to win the princess’s hand in marriage. However, Malik doesn’t know that Karina is planning the winner of the competition for a spell that will bring her dead mother back to life. Sparks fly when they finally meet and realize they have far more in common than they thought….

Or the TL;DR version, it’s what would happen if Aladdin and Jasmine had to kill each other but in a West African-inspired world. There is lots of court intrigue, lots of dark magic, and maybe a talking hyena as well. 

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

I’d say Karina is probably my favorite character, but Malik is the one I relate to the most. Karina is the kind of Black girl I’ve always wanted to see in books. She is fierce and powerful and loving, but she is also hurt and constantly making mistakes and learning from them. Because I grew up with Black girl character who were rarely more than stereotypes or the sassy sidekick, getting to write Karina as a three-dimensional person with so many emotions and layers who still gets to love and be loved meant the world to me. But temperament wise, I’m definitely more of a Karina than a Malik!

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

I got the idea for A Song of Wraiths and Ruin back in 2016. I was coming back to a therapy session thinking a lot about the ways mental illness had impacted my own life and I thought to myself “If a ghost tried to take over my mind right now, it would be like ‘There is a lot going on in here. You can have this back.’” Then an idea came to me for a boy who dealt with both mental illness and the supernatural, and that character became Malik! 

From there, the idea grew as I incorporated more story elements that I loved. Oral storytelling is super important to Ghanaian culture, so I wove that into the magic system, and I’m a huge sucker for romance, so I made the main romance trope enemies-to-lovers. Bit by bit, A Song of Wraiths and Ruin was born! 

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

One song I listened to on repeat over and over again was I See Fire by Ed Sheeran, HEAR ME OUT HERE, I’m not a huge Ed Sheeran fan OR Lord of the Rings fan, but that song perfectly captures the essence of heartbreak, tragedy, and epic scale of A Song of Wraiths and Ruin. (That sounds extremely depressing; I promise this isn’t a sad book!) 

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

Justice Smith for Malik 100%. He is so funny, and perfectly exudes that mix of strength and compassion that is integral to Malik’s character. I just adored him in Detective Pikachu. And she’s a little older than an ideal Karina actress would be, but I would love Danielle Brooks in the role. She is an amazing actress, plus Karina would absolutely need to be played by a dark-skinned, plus-sized Black actress. 

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

I think the book would go best with a cup of mint tea, seated by a campfire as a storyteller weaves you a tale of epic proportions that whisks you off to a far away world. 

Can you recommend your readers any other books in case they are left hungry for more once they finish A SONG OF WRAITHS AND RUIN?

Sure! For people who find themselves with a massive book hangover after ASOWAR, they should definitely check out THE TIGER AT MIDNIGHT by Swati Teerdhala, which is an enemies-to-lovers, Hindu mythology inspired fantasy cat and mouse game between a soldier and the rebel who killed his general.

Another book they’d devour is A SONG BELOW WATER by Bethany C. Morrow. It follows two sister friends in a magical version of Portland, and it features sirens, magic, and a realistic and timely portrayal of the kinds of injustices Black women face when trying to find their voice.

These ones aren’t out yet, but WHERE DREAMS DESCEND by Janella Angeles, RAYBEARER by Jordan Ifueko, and CINDERELLA IS DEAD by Kalynn Bayron are some of my most highly anticipated YA Fantasy books for this year!

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

I think the most difficult part of writing a book is accepting that what you see in your head and what you get on the page aren’t going to match for a long, long time. That gap between what a book could be and what it is disheartens so many people, and it’s the biggest reason why I never finished a book before A Song of Wraiths and Ruin. But I’ve learned since that I need to accept the ugly writing for what it is, because without it in all its hideous glory, I won’t have anything to polish into the beautiful stories hiding inside. 

What’s next for you?

ASOWAR 2 is due back to my editor only a few weeks after ASOWAR comes out, so right now my life is a steady diet of Gatorade and furious typing. Outside of the realm of ASOWAR, I have another project in the works. I can’t say much now, but I will say fans of vampires, Sailor Moon-style team ups, and spooky settings are going to love it. Follow my Twitter and IG @rosiesrambles for more updates as I’m allowed to share them!

Click on the image to submit your pre-order info!

Roseanne “Rosie” A. Brown was born in Kumasi, Ghana and immigrated to the wild jungles of central Maryland as a child. Writing was her first love, and she knew from a young age that she wanted to use the power of writing—creative and otherwise—to connect the different cultures she called home. She graduated from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor’s in Journalism and was also a teaching assistant for the school’s Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House program. Her journalistic work has been featured by Voice of America among other outlets.

On the publishing side of things, she has worked as an editorial intern at Entangled Publishing. Rosie was a 2017 Pitch Wars mentee and 2018 Pitch Wars mentor. Never content to stay in any one place for too long, Rosie currently teaches in Japan, where in her free time she can usually be found exploring the local mountains, explaining memes to her students, or thinking about Star Wars.

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Interview with E. Latimer for Witches Of Ash & Ruin

Witches of Ash and Ruin

by E. Latimer
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: March 3rd 2020

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, LGBT, Queer

Synopsis:

Modern witchcraft blends with ancient Celtic mythology in an epic clash of witches and gods, perfect for fans of V.E. Schwab's Shades of Magic trilogy and A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES.

Seventeen-year-old Dayna Walsh is struggling to cope with her somatic OCD; the aftermath of being outed as bisexual in her conservative Irish town; and the return of her long-absent mother, who barely seems like a parent. But all that really matters to her is ascending and finally, finally becoming a full witch-plans that are complicated when another coven, rumored to have a sordid history with black magic, arrives in town with premonitions of death. Dayna immediately finds herself at odds with the bewitchingly frustrating Meiner King, the granddaughter of their coven leader.

And then a witch turns up murdered at a local sacred site, along with the blood symbol of the Butcher of Manchester-an infamous serial killer whose trail has long gone cold. The killer's motives are enmeshed in a complex web of witches and gods, and Dayna and Meiner soon find themselves at the center of it all. If they don't stop the Butcher, one of them will be next.

With razor-sharp prose and achingly real characters, E. Latimer crafts a sweeping, mesmerizing story of dark magic and brutal mythology set against a backdrop of contemporary Ireland that's impossible to put down.

Can you briefly describe WITCHES OF ASH AND RUIN and its characters?

Witches of Ash and Ruin is the story of two rival covens who must come together in spite of past grudges and a history of black magic, in order to defeat a serial killer who has resurfaced after ten years in order to target witches.

Alternating POVs tell the story of Dayna and Meiner, two witches from enemy covens who start to fall for one another in the midst of tracking down a supernatural serial killer. 

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

I really enjoyed writing Cora’s POV. She’s delightfully Slytherin, and very morally grey, and those are my favourite things.

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

I definitely took inspiration from several sources, Maggie Stiefvator’s Raven Cycle series was one. I love Blue and her house full of magical women. Practical Magic too of course. And the kitchen that Dayna’s coven spends most of their time in is directly from the house of a childhood friend, so that’s straight out of my head.

And Celtic mythology has always fascinated me, because honestly it’s sort of patchy. We only have the written records of a bunch of old Christian monks who definitely put their own spin on it. And occasionally Julias Ceasar got into the act and wrote his own accounts of the gods, but he got it wrong a lot.

So what we have isn’t totally reliable, which means there are a lot of holes to fill. It’s not as well established as Greek mythology, or even Norse, but I kind of think it makes it even more fun to play with. 

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

That’s a hard one, I had a lot of great songs for inspiration while I was writing this book. But I think if I have to pick just one, it would be In the Woods Somewhere, by Hozier. It just has the eeriest feeling to it, and it touches on death and grief and fear and the setting is a dark forest, and it’s kind of just perfect.

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

I’ve always pictured Dayna as looking a bit like Raffey Cassidy. Also, I picture Dayna’s mother as basically being Fiona Dourif, which is hilarious because I didn’t intentionally name her Fiona. It just sort of happened.

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

I think it’s almost a rule you have to drink a strong black tea with it, Yemi would insist. Also, curled up by a fire is nice, or at the kitchen table while you’re waiting for a pie to bake.

Can you recommend your readers any other books in case they are left hungry for more once they finish WITCHES OF ASH AND RUIN?

Well, the Raven Cycle if you haven’t already read it (I’m sure most have). There are also a number of fabulous books out this year, many of them with queer characters. These Witches Don’t Burn, and the sequel, This Coven Won’t Break by Isabel Sterling. When we Were Magic, by Sarah Gailey. The Winter Duke, by Claire Eliza Barlette, and All Your Twisted Secrets, by Diana Urban.

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

I cannot tell a lie, I am not someone who enjoys the editing process. I find I often create a tangled mess while I’m enthusiastically drafting, and then after I’ve got to try to figure out what the heck I was attempting to do in the first place and fix it so it at least resembles something like it.

As a reader, what is the “one thing” that a mind-blowing story must have, in your opinion?

Realistic, compelling characters. I can take a lot of flaws in a story as long as the characters and their relationships with one another pull me in. Give me all the drama!

What’s next for you?

I am set to release another MG in 2021, and this one is about witches (no big surprise there).

I am also working on a manuscript I’m calling, “Bisexual Plant Druids and Sexy-but-Murderous Demon Kings”. It’s a working title.

E. Latimer is a fantasy writer from Victoria, BC. Her middle grade novel, The Strange and Deadly Portraits of Bryony Gray was published by Tundra Books, and was recently nominated for the Red Maple Fiction Award.

In her spare time, she writes books, makes silly vlogs with the Word Nerds about writing, and reads excessively.

Her latest novel, Witches of Ash and Ruin, will be released Spring/Summer 2020 from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

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Release Day Blitz: He Will Be My Ruin by K.A. Tucker

We are so excited to bring you the Release Week Blitz for K.A. Tucker’s HE WILL BE MY RUIN! HE WILL BE MY RUIN is a Suspense novel, published by Atria books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, being released on February 2, 2016! Grab your copy of this suspenseful read today and see what everyone is talking about!

He Will Be My Ruin
by K.A. Tucker
Publisher: Atria Books
Release Date: February 2nd 2016

Sinopsis:

On the surface, Celine Gonzalez had everything a twenty-eight-year-old woman could want: a one-bedroom apartment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, a job that (mostly) paid the bills, and an acceptance letter to the prestigious Hollingsworth Institute of Art, where she would finally live out her dream of becoming an antiques appraiser for a major auction house. All she had worked so hard to achieve was finally within her reach. So why would she kill herself?

A man who was supposed to be her salvation . . .

Maggie Sparkes arrives in New York City to pack up what’s left of her best friend’s belongings after a suicide that has left everyone stunned. The police have deemed the evidence conclusive: Celine got into bed, downed a lethal cocktail of pills and vodka, and never woke up. But when Maggie discovers a scandalous photograph in a lock box hidden in Celine’s apartment, she begins asking questions. Questions about the man Celine fell in love with. The man she never told anyone about, not even Maggie. The man Celine believed would change her life.

Until he became her ruin. 

On the hunt for evidence that will force the police to reopen the case, Maggie uncovers more than she bargained for about Celine’s private life—and inadvertently puts herself on the radar of a killer. A killer who will stop at nothing to keep his crimes undiscovered.

Maggie 

December 23, 2015 

My wrists burn. 

Hours of trying to break free of the rope that binds my hands behind my back have left them raw, the rough cord scrubbing away my skin and cutting into my flesh. I’m sure I’ll have unsightly scars.

Not that it will matter when I’m dead. 

I resigned myself to that reality around the time that I finally let go of my bladder. Now I simply lie here, in a pool of urine and vomit, my teeth numb from knocking with each bump in the road, my body frozen by the cold. 

Trying to ignore the darkness as I fight against the panic that consumes me. I could suffocate from the anxiety alone. 

He knows that. 

Now he’s exploiting it. That must be what he does—he uncovers your secrets, your fears, your flaws—and he uses them against you. He did it to Celine. 

And now he’s doing it to me. 

That’s why I’m in a cramped trunk, my lungs working overtime against a limited supply of oxygen while my imagination runs wild with what may be waiting for me at the end of this ride. 

My racing heart ready to explode. 

The car hits an especially deep pothole, rattling my bones. I’ve been trapped in here for so long. Hours. Days. I have no idea. Long enough to run through every mistake that I made. 

How I trusted him, how I fell for his charm, how I believed his lies. How I made it so easy for him to do this to me. 

How Celine made it so easy for him, by letting him get close. 

Before he killed her. 

Just like he’s going to kill me.

Born in small-town Ontario, Kathleen published her first book at the age of six with the help of her elementary school librarian and a box of crayons. She is a voracious reader and the farthest thing from a genre-snob, loving everything from High Fantasy to Chick Lit. Kathleen currently resides in a quaint small town outside of Toronto with her husband, two beautiful girls, and an exhausting brood of four-legged creatures.

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