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Q&A with Fantasy Author Gail Z. Martin

Q:  For readers who haven’t met you, tell us a little about your books.

A:  I write the Chronicles of the Necromancer series for Solaris Books and the Fallen Kings Cycle and Ascendant Kingdoms Saga for Orbit Books.  I’ve also been in a variety of US and UK anthologies, and I publish two series of short stories on Kindle, Kobo and Nook—the Jonmarc Vahanian Adventures and the Deadly Curiosities Adventure.  My most recent book is Ice Forged, the first book in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, and the next book, Reign of Ash, will come out in April, 2014.

Q:  Ice Forged started a new series for you, with a different world and all-new characters from what you’ve written before.  What made you decide to write a different series instead of continuing with your other characters?

A:  I still have plans to write more stories in the Chronicles world, but I had reached a good place to take a break and do something different for a while.  There’s a natural break in the plot line after The Dread that makes a logical resting point.  So while my characters are taking a much-deserved vacation, I had the opportunity to write some new stories that had been banging around in my head.

Q:  In Ice Forged, the plot hinges on a war going terribly wrong and mages on both sides launching a doomsday strike that not only rains down fire from the sky but also cause magic to stop working. Why is the failure of magic so important?

A: In Blaine McFadden’s world, magic is the convenient short-cut.  It’s like our power grid.  Sure, you can wash clothes without electric appliances, but it takes more work and nowadays, does anyone remember how?  It’s the same way in Blaine’s world.  The old ways of doing things without magic have been forgotten, and people have come to rely on magic for as a quick fix.  Imagine what a shoddy workman could do with a little bit of magic, things like propping up a poorly built wall or shoring up a sagging fence.  When the magic fails, so do those fixes, and things literally begin to fall apart.  Then there are the bigger magics, like keeping the sea from flooding the shoreline or using magic to heal.  When magic doesn’t work anymore, how do you heal the sick or keep back the tide?  Donderath has a really big problem on its hands.

Q:  Where did the genesis of the Ice Forged’s main character, Blaine “Mick” McFadden, begin?

I really started with the idea of exile, and what would it have been like if England had sent its prisoners north to somewhere like Iceland or Greenland instead of to Australia.  (Obviously Russia had Siberia, but that’s different, in part because there was no sea voyage.)  Then I started to think about why a character would be exiled, and murder was a good reason.  But it had to be a murder the reader would agree with (so many readers have commented that Ian McFadden “had it coming”).  Where Tris, in my first series, was accused of a crime he didn’t commit, I wanted Blaine to be unrepentant about a crime he did commit.

Q: The setting of Velant is a really interesting place, because you’ve combined elements of post-apocalyptic with the classical idea of northern wastes we often see in fantasy, but this setting really affects the characters, doesn’t it?

A: Being sent into exile in an arctic prison colony is bad enough, but having the magic fail is like losing the power grid—it takes away an important factor for survival.  I had focused on really big magic in my first books, and in Ice Forged, I wanted to look at what it would mean to lose the little magics that people used in their everyday lives.  Food spoils, herds die, crops fail, magical repairs to buildings and ships fall apart, and things people used magic to do as a short cut now needed to be done the old fashioned way, which few remember.

Velant is the same distance as a sea journey from Donderath that Australia was from England, in good weather.  The weather is dramatically different, harsh and inhospitable.  It gets the arctic 6-months of day and night.  The prison itself is run by a commander who was a “useful monster” during a war, but too feral to bring home, so they exiled him by putting him in command of a prison no one else wanted to run.  The guards are likewise exiled because they were unsuitable for normal military life and civilized society.  While many of the convicts were exiled for real crimes, many more were sent away for petty infractions, political reasons, or just being poor.

It’s not the kind of place anyone wants to live in, but it’s amazing what the human spirit will endure!  Prisoners who earn their “ticket of leave” become colonists, and manage to make Edgeland their home.

Q:  What’s next for you?

A:  Good question!  I’ve just signed on with Orbit for another two books in the Ascendant Kingdoms world, so I’m working on the sequel to Reign of Ashes (it’s weird how you’re working two books out from what anyone else has read).  I’m also committed to bringing out a new short story every month, so that’s actually turning out to be a lot of fun.  And I’ve got some different directions I’d like to explore in addition to epic fantasy, so I might just surprise you and turn up with something completely different one of these days!

The Hawthorn Moon Sneak Peek Event includes book giveaways, free excerpts and readings, all-new guest blog posts and author Q&A on 21 awesome partner sites around the globe.  For a full list of where to go to get the goodies, visit www.AscendantKingdoms.com.

Gail Z. Martin is the author of Ice Forged in her new The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga (Orbit Books), plus The Chronicles of The Necromancer series (The Summoner, The Blood King, Dark Haven & Dark Lady’s Chosen ) and The Fallen Kings Cycle (The Sworn  and The Dread).  She is also the author of two series on ebook short stories: The Jonmarc Vahanian Adventures and the Deadly Curiosities Series.  Her books are available in bookstores worldwide and on Kindle, Kobo and Nook. Find her online at www.AscendantKingdoms.com.

 

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A Hero for the End of the World

By Gail Z. Martin

Who do you want to have your back when the world ends?

When I first came up with the concept for my Ascendant Kingdoms Saga and its first book, Ice Forged, I envisioned a post-apocalyptic medieval world, one in which not only the land and buildings had been devastated by war, but also one in which the magic upon which people depended no longer worked.

With the death of the king and nobles, the kingdom of Donderath is in chaos.  The war that raged with neighboring Meroven led to a disastrous doomsday magic strike by mages on both sides.  Fire rains from the sky, and magic fails.

Heroes, I believe, are made not born.  Blaine McFadden was born the eldest son of Lord Ian McFadden.  Ian is violently abusive, a man who beats his sons and forces himself on his daughter.  Ice Forged begins when Blaine decides someone has to do something about Ian and takes matters into his own hands, killing Ian when he discovers what his father has done to Blaine’s sister, Mari.  Blaine fully expects to die for his crime, and accepts his fate.  But when the king shows mercy and sends Blaine into exile, Blaine has to survive a brutal prison colony at the top of the world.

By the time the Great Fire destroys Donderath, Blaine has served his time and been released from the prison as a “colonist”—still a prisoner in Edgeland, but no longer within prison walls.  He’s created a new life for himself, married and been widowed, and created a “family” of close friends who protect each other.  Then the ships stop coming from home and magic fails.  Several plot twists and turns later, Blaine realizes that he may be the only one who can restore the magic, and he has to choose whether to stay in the new home he has made for himself, or go back to the kingdom that exiled him.

What would you do?  I liked the idea of working with a not-perfect hero, someone who is unrepentant about his crime.  Yet at every step, Blaine’s actions develop the skills you’d want in a hero for the end of the world.  His abusive childhood prepared him to survive the prison’s brutality.  Prison also honed his fighting skills.  Among the dispossessed, Blaine’s education and well-to-do upbringing enabled him to emerge as a leader of the colonists.  His ability to draw a team together and inspire loyalty serves him well when he makes the decision to return. Living a bare-necessities existence in a harsh environment toughened him up for a post-apocalyptic environment.  And the deep loyalty that drove Blaine to commit murder compels him to do what he can to restore his ruined homeland.

Creating the world of the Ascendant Kingdoms has been a lot of fun.  But it’s been even more fun to allow the world to shape the character and supply just the right man for the job when the end of the world is nigh.

The Hawthorn Moon Sneak Peek Event includes book giveaways, free excerpts and readings, all-new guest blog posts and author Q&A on 21 awesome partner sites around the globe.  For a full list of where to go to get the goodies, visit www.AscendantKingdoms.com.

Gail Z. Martin is the author of Ice Forged in her new The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga (Orbit Books), plus The Chronicles of The Necromancer series (The Summoner, The Blood King, Dark Haven & Dark Lady’s Chosen ) and The Fallen Kings Cycle (The Sworn  and The Dread).  She is also the author of two series on ebook short stories: The Jonmarc Vahanian Adventures and the Deadly Curiosities Series.  Her books are available in bookstores worldwide and on Kindle, Kobo and Nook. Find her online at www.AscendantKingdoms.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Beginning of The End (Of The World)

by Gail Z. Martin

BookLifeNow asked me about the story behind the first chapter of Ice Forged, so here we go!

Ice Forged begins with a murder. Blaine McFadden murders his father for molesting his sister. Ian McFadden has had it coming for a long time. He’s an abusive bully who beat his sons, killed their mother, and believes he’s entitled to anything he wants from anyone. After years of enduring his father’s abuse, Blaine is finally pushed too far. Ian McFadden dies.

We step into the middle of this family drama at its climax. Blaine expects to die for his crime. He figures his death is a small price to pay for his sister’s safety and for an end to his father’s abuse. He doesn’t count on mercy from the king, who decrees exile instead of execution. Now, instead of a quick death, Blaine is shipped out to a notorious prison colony in an arctic wasteland, where death isn’t to be feared—it’s to be courted.

I chose to begin the book at this point because it shows us who Blaine McFadden is. We see what he’s willing to give up, what he values above all else, and just what he’s made of. By stepping into Blaine’s story at this point, we also see his homeland, creating a contrast between the world from which he came and the world into which he is being thrust. And when the world that sent Blaine into exile comes crashing down as a result of a devastating war and a doomsday magical strike, the fate of civilization depends a man it threw away.

Gail Z. Martin’s newest book, Ice Forged: Book One in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga (Orbit Books), launched in January 2013. Gail is also the author of the Chronicles of the Necromancer series (Solaris Books) and The Fallen Kings Cycle (Orbit Books). For more about Gail’s books and short stories, visit www.AscendantKingdoms.com. Be sure to “like” Gail’s Winter Kingdoms Facebook page, follow her on Twitter @GailZMartin, and join her for frequent discussions on Goodreads.

Read an excerpt from Ice Forged here: https://a.pgtb.me/JvGzTt

 

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Breaking In A New Pair of Boots—Or a New Fictional World, As The Case May Be

by Gail Z. Martin

Ever buy a pair of boots—or shoes or jeans—and while they fit, they don’t really “fit.” Not yet. They haven’t molded to your contours. You haven’t broken them in.

As a writer, there’s a “breaking in” period when you leave one fictional world that you’ve painstakingly developed and nurtured to begin a new fictional world. And I know that, as a reader, there’s a little bit of adjustment that also goes along with following a favorite author from one series into another, new set of books. It takes some getting used to.

I spent many years and six books developing my Chronicles Of The Necromancer/Fallen Kings Cycle world of the Winter Kingdoms, and writing in that world was as comfortable as slipping into a favorite pair of jeans or a well-worn pair of boots. I knew the neighborhood. I understood the culture like a native. I knew the characters well enough that I would sometimes dream in their voices. It was home.

Then those stories came to a natural resting point and I decided to create a new series in a totally new world with very different characters, which begins with Ice Forged. And the process of breaking in the new boots began again.

This time around, however, I knew what to expect. I knew it would take a while to hit my stride, to feel at home. I gave myself time to get to know the characters and their world. I sat with the story, explored the culture, and questioned the characters in my mind, and they became real to me. It’s a gradual process, like learning to feel at home in a new city. For a while after you move, everything seems strange. Then one day, like magic, you know where you’re going without thinking about it. And you realize that you’re home.

Just as I went through an adjustment moving from one series to another, I know readers of my first six books will also feel a little displaced. The worlds, characters, and cultures are very different, but I believe they are each intriguing in their own way. Yes, there’s a pang when you miss a favorite character, but my hope is that the concept of Ice Forged and the new series will intrigue readers enough to get past the “new kid on the block blues” and that they will move into the new neighborhood with me and share the adventure.

There are lots of stories I still hope to tell in my world of the Winter Kingdoms, but the plot line takes a natural break for a while, and as readers of my books can attest, I’ve put my characters through an awful lot—they deserve a chance to put their feet up and have a few beers. Duty will call them back to action soon enough.

In the meantime, c’mon over to my other world and explore the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, beginning with Ice Forged. It’s full of new favorite characters you haven’t met yet, a whole new world to explore, and an impossible quest (or two). Their story begins with the end of the world. Come join the adventure!

Gail Z. Martin’s newest book, Ice Forged: Book One in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga (Orbit Books), launched in January 2013. Gail is also the author of the Chronicles of the Necromancer series (Solaris Books) and The Fallen Kings Cycle (Orbit Books). For more about Gail’s books and short stories, visit www.AscendantKingdoms.com. Be sure to “like” Gail’s Winter Kingdoms Facebook page, follow her on Twitter @GailZMartin, and join her for frequent discussions on Goodreads.

Read an excerpt from Ice Forged here: https://a.pgtb.me/JvGzTt

 

 

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It’s the End of the World as We Know It (Again)

by Gail Z. Martin

What is it about an impending apocalypse that captures the imagination?

Having just survived the “Mayan Calendar” apocalypse, the idea is pretty fresh in everyone’s mind. Thanks to the Internet, warnings of immanent doom seem to crop up fairly often, so much so that most of us roll our eyes, mutter “another one” and go about our daily business.

Until the time it turns out to be true.

In my new book, Ice Forged, I look at an end of the world scenario in a medieval setting, through the eyes of the survivors. The magic on which they have come to depend—in much the way we are dependent on our power grid—has vanished. With it goes the monarchies it upheld, the conveniences and necessities it had provided, and the control over the natural world it imposed. Amid the chaos and anarchy, the survivors are faced with the challenge to survive long enough to see if there is truth to ancient legends about a way to restore the magic.

I set my apocalyptic story in a medieval setting for several reasons. First off, most modern-day end of the world stories don’t capture my attention. I’m jaded, and they sound too much like overhyped headlines. That wasn’t the setting in which I wanted to immerse my imagination for the better part of a year.

Secondly, I wanted to explore the magic-instead-of-technology angle, as well as the idea that when we have a simple shortcut to do vital tasks, we are at risk of forgetting how to do things the old way. If the technology (or magic) fails, how do individuals or communities survive if the low-tech ways have been lost?

And the third element that intrigued me was the idea of who a society values and who it throws away. In Ice Forged, the man who may be able to restore the magic is a disgraced lord who has been exiled to a prison colony in the arctic. When social norms and civilized culture collapse, the skills and characteristics that made a person an exile—or even a criminal—just might be what it takes to survive.

It’s especially interesting to me because Western Europe did experience an apocalyptic scenario in the Black Plague. The sheer magnitude of casualties, the swiftness of the disease’s spread and the fear that accompanied it changed the economic, cultural, political and religious fabric of a continent. Most of the time, we read the 30,000-foot overview and see the Plague years through the lens of time. But to those who endured it, I’m certain it felt like the end of the world was upon them.

Books and stories are interesting things. They germinate from the odd bits and pieces in a writer’s memory, shaped by the question, “what if?” I’m looking forward to further exploring my medieval post-apocalyptic world, and I hope you’ll join me!

Gail Z. Martin’s newest book, Ice Forged: Book One in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga (Orbit Books), launched in January 2013. Gail is also the author of the Chronicles of the Necromancer series (Solaris Books) and The Fallen Kings Cycle (Orbit Books). For more about Gail’s books and short stories, visit www.AscendantKingdoms.com. Be sure to “like” Gail’s Winter Kingdoms Facebook page, follow her on Twitter @GailZMartin, and join her for frequent discussions on Goodreads.

Read an excerpt from Ice Forged here: https://a.pgtb.me/JvGzTt

 

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Well Begun is Half Done (Especially with Writing!)

by Gail Z. Martin

How do you know where your story begins?

Doesn’t it begin at, well, the beginning?

Not necessarily—at least, not that the reader needs to know.

My new book, Ice Forged, begins with a murder.  It’s important for readers to see the murder occur so that they understand my main character, who commits the murder and is sent into exile.  Chapter two picks up six years later.

Why?  Because nothing else relevant happens to the plot happens until then.

Couldn’t I have just begun the book with Chapter 2 and done a flashback?  Perhaps.  But by beginning the book where I did, the reader gains an understanding of the main character that I don’t think would have been as strong had it been recounted through a flashback or a dream or by having someone just tell about it.

I faced a similar challenge in another book, where the action in the first chapter occurs immediately after the end of the previous book.  My hero is pinned down in a battle.  On my first draft, I had them take cover in a barn.  When I re-read the draft, I realized that having the book open with my hero hiding in a barn didn’t seem very, well, heroic.  So I jumped the action ahead to a few moments later, when he actively engages in the fight.

What’s the right place to begin a story?  That depends.  It depends on the reaction you want your reader to have as they read the beginning.  It also depends on where the meat of your story arc takes place.

Here’s the most important thing: Your beginning absolutely MUST grab the reader so hard with the first sentence, first paragraph and first page and he or she cannot set the book aside.

Agents and editors reading over a manuscript will only go on to page two if your first page has grabbed them.  Readers flipping through your book in a store or on line are just as particular.  You don’t have time to take dozens of pages setting the scene.  You’ve got to score a knock-out punch on page one.

I’ve done a lot of manuscript analysis for a book shepherd in California, and one of the most frequent issues I find in not-yet-published books is a slow beginning.  One book took more than 30 pages for the main character just to get out of bed!  If you find yourself with a slow beginning, ask yourself where the real action begins and try starting the book there.

Yes, you the author need to know all the other details.  But you don’t have to share them with the reader.  Remember, you’ve only got one sentence, one paragraph, one page to turn a browser into a buyer.  Grab ‘em by the lapels and give them a good shake so that they can’t stop turning the pages!

Gail Z. Martin’s newest book, Ice Forged: Book One in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga (Orbit Books), launched in January 2013.  Gail is also the author of the Chronicles of the Necromancer series (Solaris Books) and The Fallen Kings Cycle (Orbit Books).  For more about Gail’s books and short stories, visit www.AscendantKingdoms.com. Be sure to “like” Gail’s Winter Kingdoms Facebook page, follow her on Twitter @GailZMartin, and join her for frequent discussions on Goodreads.

Read an excerpt from Ice Forged here: https://a.pgtb.me/JvGzTt

 

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Dreaming Up the End of the World

by Gail Z. Martin

A blank page is always daunting, no matter how much opportunity it presents.

I don’t know if it ever stops being scary when you start writing a brand new book in a new world with new characters, but if it does, I haven’t gotten to that point yet.

I had gotten very comfortable in my world of the Winter Kingdoms, the setting for my previous six books in the  Chronicles of the Necromancer series and the Fallen Kings Cycle.  I knew the characters.  I had the lay of the land clearly in mind, and I had spent a lot of time creating the culture, religion and history.

But there were stories I wanted to tell that didn’t fit in that world, so for Ice Forged, I had to dream up a whole world–and bring it to its knees.

I’m not a big fan of modern apocalyptic fiction, perhaps a side effect of having grown up during the Cold War.   But the idea of an apocalypse in a medieval setting intrigued me, especially if magic was involved.  I liked the idea of having a culture that was dependent upon magic come apart at the seams when magic goes “off the grid” (so to speak) at the same time as a devastating war.  And I liked the idea that the people whom that culture had thrown away–exiled to a far-off prison colony–might be the only ones who could put the pieces back together.

So with a germ of a plot idea, I started thinking about the characters who could bring the plot to life, and the type of culture that would create the best setting for the story.  The weather in Edgeland, where the prison colony is located, plays a big role in the story, so I needed to think through what impact the weather would have on the colony and how it contrasted with what the colonists were used to.  I thought about the technology of a medieval culture that has acquired its stability and prosperity relying on magic for essential parts of its infrastructure, and what would happen when that infrastructure failed.  I asked myself questions about how magic works in this world (quite differently from how it functioned in my prior world), and how magic factored into the history of this continent.

As I pulled the pieces together, I kept circling back to the characters asking, “How would that affect a person from that culture?”  Doing that helps me to shape the customs, beliefs, holidays, cultural norms, socio-economic divisions and texture of the world, because all those elements arise from a confluence of geography, history, and technology.

So consider this an invitation to come and visit the world of Ice Forged!  I hope you’ll have as much fun exploring as I have had creating this world.

Gail Z. Martin’s newest book, Ice Forged: Book One in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga (Orbit Books), launched in January 2013.  Gail is also the author of the Chronicles of the Necromancer series (Solaris Books) and The Fallen Kings Cycle (Orbit Books).  For more about Gail’s books and short stories, visit www.AscendantKingdoms.com. Be sure to “like” Gail’s Winter Kingdoms Facebook page, follow her on Twitter @GailZMartin, and join her for frequent discussions on Goodreads.

Read an excerpt from Ice Forged here: https://a.pgtb.me/JvGzTt

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Dark Fantasy vs. Horror—Where’s the Line?

by Gail Z. Martin

Several years ago, there was a commercial for a chocolate/peanut butter product where a man eating peanut butter out of a jar bumped into a man eating a chocolate bar. “You got peanut butter on my chocolate!” exclaimed one man.  “You got chocolate in my peanut butter!” said the other.

Every time I end up on a panel at a convention about the line between dark fantasy and horror, I think of that commercial.  “You got horror in my fantasy!  You got fantasy in my horror!”

I write dark epic fantasy.  At least, that’s what I’m told.  Everyone puts their lines in slightly different places.  “High” fantasy, so some say, has to have dwarves and elves, while “epic” just has to play out on a big scale with kings and queens and big, world war action.  “Dark” seems to apply to the size of the body count and how much of the mayhem occurs “on screen” vs. “off screen.”  If we read descriptions of blood flowing and heads rolling, as opposed to just being told “lots of people died,” that seems to be the threshold.

So with all that blood, what’s the difference between horror and dark fantasy?  I’m going to go out on a limb here (no pun intended) and give you where I draw my line, for what it’s worth.  I think it depends on whether the adventure is primary and the blood and horrific elements are secondary, or whether the focus is on suspense and fear, and no small amount of blood.

In other words, “You got blood on my adventure!” vs. “Your adventure is detracting from my sense of pervasive fear!”

There are definitely horrific elements in my books. There’s a fair amount of realistic battle violence with eviscerations, beheadings, impalements and severed limbs.  People get burned alive, trampled by horses, bled dry by vampires, ripped limb from limb, and get savaged by beasts.  Supernatural elements include nasty vampires and hungry shapeshifters, sadistic warlords and bloodthirsty necromancers, ghosts and barrow wights and ghouls that eat the dead, vengeful goddesses from the underworld with a taste for blood, animated corpses, menacing shadows and magicked monsters with rows of razor-sharp teeth.  Stolen souls and possession by spirits of the dead….I could go on, but you get the picture.  In Ice Forged, you get a look at what MWMD (Magical Weapons of Mass Destruction) can do, in a Doomsday weapon scenario played out on multi-continental level of cataclysm.

BUT, and for me, this is the issue, the adventure is always the focus.  All of the aforementioned horrific elements happen in service to the adventure.  Evoking fear and suspense are not the end goal.  There’s more at stake (again, pardon the pun) than seeing who gets out alive.

For example, in my new book Ice Forged, there is plenty of murder and mayhem, blood and death, and dark supernatural elements.  But for me, the adventure is always the primary focus.

Now doubtless others will have differing ideas on where the line is drawn, and I’d welcome comments.  But for me, as I think through my books, that’s how I see it.

Most importantly, I want readers to have a thrilling ride.  I want my books to be the roller coaster you get off, pale and shaky but grinning from ear to ear, the one that makes you say, “That was fun—let’s do it again!”

Gail Z. Martin’s newest book, Ice Forged: Book One in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga (Orbit Books), launched in January 2013.  Gail is also the author of the Chronicles of the Necromancer series (Solaris Books) and The Fallen Kings Cycle (Orbit Books).  For more about Gail’s books and short stories, visit www.AscendantKingdoms.com. Be sure to “like” Gail’s Winter Kingdoms Facebook page, follow her on Twitter @GailZMartin, and join her for frequent discussions on Goodreads.

Read an excerpt from Ice Forged here: https://a.pgtb.me/JvGzTt

 

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The View from Outside the YA Fence

by Gail Z. Martin

At book signings, I frequently am asked, “What age reader is your book right for?”

That’s a hard one.  It depends on the reader.   So I ask, “What age is the reader you have in mind?”

Sometimes, the person is concerned that my books might be too adult for a teen or tween.  Sometimes, they’re concerned that my books might be too juvenile for an adult.

How do I answer?  It depends.

I wrote my Chronicles of the Necromancer and Fallen Kings Cycle series for adults, as I did with my new book, Ice Forged.  But frankly, although my mother lived to be 89 years old, I would never have suggested that she read them.  They’d have given her nightmares, and she would have feared for the welfare of my soul.  They were too dark for her.

On the other hand, I’ve got three teenage children.  Each of them was ready for different stuff at different ages.  My oldest daughter had a teacher who decreed, in eighth grade, that she could only read college-level books for class credit.  While that might have been great to challenge her vocabulary, the teacher seemed to have forgotten that many of those college-level books dealt with themes and world views that were over the head of even a very precocious 13 year-old.  We spent that year having a number of “teachable moments”, and still found that there is no way to fully impart understanding to someone who just hasn’t lived long enough to understand certain perspectives. (That teacher remains on my “naughty” list for sheer cluelessness.)

My middle daughter listened in on all those teachable moments, and picked different books that led to different long car discussions.  My son wasn’t interested in reading anything too edgy, although we’ve had those “teachable moment” discussions on video games.

As I head back into stores with Ice Forged, a novel where the adventure begins when the world ends, I’m sure I’ll get more people asking, “Who did you write this for?”

So here’s my personal set of questions that I ask of parents when deciding whether or not my books are right for their teen or tween:

–Has he/she read fantasy books with some detailed battles, scary elements and character deaths? (Like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter?)

–Do they like supernatural elements?

–Are they comfortable with more mature themes like death and betrayal?

–Are they OK with some cursing? (Swear words and vulgarities appropriate to the language style of particular characters.)

As I said in the beginning, I wrote my books for adults, and that’s the target market.  At the same time, I’ve picked up readers age 13 and up who had the maturity and the reading experience to enjoy the books.  I get letters from readers of all ages who loved the books and the characters. Did my youngest readers pick up on everything I put in the books?  Maybe not (but then again, there were probably some adult readers who missed things, too).  What matters is that they had a good roller coaster ride of an experience and hopefully left still hungry for more of the genre.

Likewise, well-written YA books rightfully attract large adult readers because they have depth and yet retain their sense of wonder.  I’m a big fan of Harry Potter, the Percy Jackson books and other books that I read right along with my kids and loved.   And I’ve also questioned and challenged the unrelenting darkness of some YA (and adult) books, because I don’t believe that being “real” is the same as being depressed, cynical and bitter.

So that’s my two-cents.  Personally, I think that categories like “YA” are arbitrary designations used mostly to help booksellers and libraries determine where to shelve books.  I know that when I was a teen, long before the “YA” designation, I was chomping through some books that would have turned my mom’s hair white had she but known.  At the same time, there were a few books I picked up and put back down again because I found them to be too much.  (I’ll admit that it was probably a mistake to read “Deliverance” when I was 10.)

Ultimately, we find those boundaries for ourselves.  We delight in sneaking a peek at the “forbidden” books that mom thinks are too much for us (but that we’re actually ready for), and hate some of the books our teachers think are developmental but are just plain despondent.  But that’s part of the joy of reading, as we discover uncharted territory and find what speaks to us.

So don’t get too tangled up with categories.  Read the books that speak to you, regardless of genre.  Don’t worry what other people think about what someone “your age” should be reading.  Read what you love, and don’t let people pressure you into reading books that detract from your love of reading.  At the same time, stretch yourself occasionally to read something uncomfortable, even upsetting, if the story is worthwhile.  A good book can change your life.

Gail Z. Martin’s newest book, Ice Forged: Book One in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga (Orbit Books), launched in January 2013.  Gail is also the author of the Chronicles of the Necromancer series (Solaris Books) and The Fallen Kings Cycle (Orbit Books).  For more about Gail’s books and short stories, visit www.AscendantKingdoms.com. Be sure to “like” Gail’s Winter Kingdoms Facebook page, follow her on Twitter @GailZMartin, and join her for frequent discussions on Goodreads.

Read an excerpt from Ice Forged here: https://a.pgtb.me/JvGzTt

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Q&A With Toni V. Sweeney

By Toni V Sweeney

1.     What is the title of your newest book or short story? What’s it about?  Where can readers find it?
I’ve two novels coming out this month from Class ACT BOOKS….YAHOO! DOUBLE FEATURE!

One is a little fantasy called That Demon in Blue Jeans. It’s about a girl who asks the Devil to send her a “Bad Boy” and what happens when he does. It’s being re-issued by Class Act Books on April 15.  The original was a short story. This one is re-edited, re-furbished, and a much longer version.

The other is another entry in the Lovers of Leonesse series called The Seventh Mothman. It’s a bit of steampunk,  rolled up in a romance, about a group of soldiers who use flying machines to fight, a girl disguised as a boy who infiltrates their ranks, and the mix-ups that causes.

2. How did you choose to become a writer?

I didn’t “choose” to be a writer, I was born one.  I just had to recognize that fact and do something with it.

3. What’s your favorite part of writing a new book or story?  What do you like the least?

I like to get a story going with a good beginning, catch the reader with the first line, if possible…something that’s make him blink, say, “I’ve got to find out more,” and keep on reading.

There are always some parts I have trouble writing.  I really hate death scenes or scenes where someone leaves someone else.  Once I took the coward’s way out and had someone die between one chapter and the next and had the characters simply say he’d died.

4. What inspired your new book or story?

That Demon in Blue Jeans was inspired by the 1980’s country/Western song “Somebody’s knockin’ sung by Terri Gibbs…about a young woman who answers a knock at the door and finds a blue-eyed, blue jean-wearing devil there.  I took it from that point and showed just what happened to her and the blue-eyed devil.  It was a fun story to write.

The Seventh Mothman had a very odd origin, though I suppose all books have odd origins if you think about it.  I wanted to write another in the Leonesse series but was stalled as to what it would be.  I’d heard about the”Mothman” legend and was intrigued by that word but I didn’t want a paranormal story, so I got to thinking of what else a moth man could be and I came up with someone who flew a plane in a time when airplanes weren’t exactly common vehicles.

5. How do you research your stories? 

No matter era I’m writing or even if it’s a fantasy set on another world, there’s always some research to be done. I do a lot of delving into lives and history to be as accurate as possible, whether it’s a certain gemstone that’s supposed to aid memory or whether or not a man in 1812 would be smoking a cigarette he’d just lit with a match. A lot of the names and “foreign” words I use are actually the original forms of words and names we use today.

6. Where can readers find you on social media? (Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Library Thing, Redd It, etc.)

URL: https://www.tonivsweeney.com/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/tvsweeney

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Adventures-of-Sinbad/248540951861742

 

AMAZON CENTRAL: https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/profile

GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/author/dashboard

MYSPACE: https://www.myspace.com/tvsweeney

TWITTER: @tonivsweeney

 

7. Who are your favorite fictional characters—your own, and from other books, TV shows and movies?

Mine:  Sinbad (The Adventures of Sinbad) and Aric kan Ingan (The kan Ingan Archives)

Other books:  Harry Dresden (The Dresden Files); Eve Dallas and Roarke (The In Death series)

TV:  Richard Castle  (Castle)

8. What do you read for fun?

I like Regency romances, mysteries, and paranormal novels.

9. Was there a book you read in your childhood or teen years that changed your world? Tell us which book and how it made a difference for you.

When I was seven, my mother got me a library card and I’ve been a first class patron ever since.  With the advent of ebooks, I’ve now read so many novels, etc., it’d be impossible for me to select just one.

10. What advice would you give to an aspiring writer?

If you’ve been wanting to write a novel…do it!  Get it out of your head and into the computer or on paper or somewhere tangible. If you don’t have a computer or a typewriter, write it in long hand, but get it written, and take it from there.

The Renaissance…Romance…and a Bit of  Steampunk…

THE SEVENTH MOTHMAN, The second offering in the LOVERS OF LEONESSE series…available soon from Class Act Books.

When Andre duCleau’s Will leaves his entire estate to his runaway son, François, daughter Antoinette is forced to make a drastic choice:  Find her brother or live in poverty.   She chooses the later and travels to Leonesse disguised as a young nobleman.  Antoinette doesn’t find François, but she does find a home with the city’s flying squadron, the Mothmen.

Once the guardians of Leonesse, these brash young men took to the air in flying machines created by King Georges’ Venitani inventor, but now, they and their brave deeds have been almost forgotten…until war again arises.

Secure in her disguise, Antoinette is ready to fight…until her feelings for Etienne, a fellow flyer, get in the way.  What will happen if Etienne and the others discover her secret?  Will they denounce her or will they accept as The Seventh Mothman?

“There is humor, suspense, love, romance, and a strong array of characters.”

–Linda Tonis, Parasnormal Romance Guild reviewer.

 

 

That Demon in Blue Jeans, available soon from Class Act Books.

Kate Carter has always considered herself a good girl, but she’s also a very lonely one because of that fact.  One night, she does something rash…she asks the Devil to send her his baddest Bad Boy, all for her own.

What Kate gets however is Zel, an underachieving incubus, who’s in line for evaluation.  Zek’s failed every review he’s had for the last ten thousand years, and Kate’s his last hope for promotion.  This assignment is one he’s desperate to pass.

What follows is a night of passion neither mortal nor demon can forget and that leads to complications…as Kate and Zel realize they’ve fallen in love…and that the Devil had plans for both of them…

“Fantasy or not, a good story is a good story and Demon in Blue Jeans is that in triplicate. If the chill of loneliness prevails and a spicy romance is desired, then Toni V. Sweeney has just what you need with Demon in Blue Jeans.”

–C.B. Smith, author of Still Life with Psychotic Squirrel and Diary of a Teenage Faërie Princess.

“…suspend your belief and get carried away with a total fantasy. And Toni V. Sweeney definitely delivers with Demon in Blue Jeans.”

 

–Margaret Marr. Nights and Weekends

 

 

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