1. What is the title of your newest book or short story? What’s it about? Where can readers find it?
The Siren’s Realm. It’s book two in The Tethering Series. The Siren’s Realm in a Young Adult Urban Fantasy about magic, danger, and the consequences of love.
Jacob loves Emilia Gray, but things aren’t always that simple in the world of Magickind…
The war has begun.
The Dragons are gaining power, and the Gray Clan stands alone. Desperate to find a way to stop the Pendragon, Emilia is forced to seek answers from someone who hasn’t been seen in seventeen years . . . Her mother. Embarking on a magical journey filled with witches, wizards, centaurs and a dangerous and powerful Siren, Jacob and Emilia must take a leap of faith to a land neither could have ever imagined . . . and hope they can then find their way home.
2. What’s your favorite part of writing a new book or story? What do you like the least?
The Siren’s Realm is my first sequel. My favorite part was getting to see my characters again. It was like visiting old friends. Delving deeper into their stories was amazing. I especially loved pushing the relationship between Jacob and Emilia even further.
My least favorite part was trying to find ways to reintroduce information from book one that is necessary for book two. I’m not a fan of info dumps, so trying to find creative ways to slip in the rules of the magical world was a challenge. In the end, it was fun. But it took a lot of tea to get there.
3. How do you research your stories?
For The Siren’s Realm I spent a lot of time researching different locations. What mountain something happens on. How to access it. How long a particular road is. I really wanted to make sure that, even though The Siren’s Realm is a fantasy novel, the bits that are based in the real world are believable. I put quite a bit of time into researching old legends and myths. I like to know what the purest form of a centaur is before I decide how I want to build mine. I also spent a lot of time on the spell language with the help of my lovely husband and chief linguist Christopher Russell.
4. Where can readers find you on social media? (Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Library T hing, Redd It, etc.)
Add The Tethering to your Goodreads list at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21480311-the-tethering?from_search=true
Add The Siren’s Realm to your Goodreads list at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23445448-the-siren-s-realm
Follow Megan O’Russell on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ORussellauthor
Twitter @MeganORussell
Or TSU https://www.tsu.co/MeganORussell
Visit the Silence in the Library website: https://www.silenceinthelibrarypublishing.com/
Megan’s blog and website can be found at MeganORussell.com
5. What do you read for fun?
Just about anything. Right now I’m reading a beach themed book to try and remind myself that summer will come again. I’m also on a big geography and cartography binge. One of my new projects involves cartography, and it’s become a bit of an obsession. If it’s about making maps, I want to read it.
Click here to listen to a reading of The Siren’s Realm on our sister site.