Exclusive Author Interview: Lana Krumwiede

Lana Krumwiede joins SciFiChick.com today for a Q&A to discuss her upcoming dystopian debut Freakling. (Reviewed here).

Can you tell us a bit about Freakling in your own words?

Freakling is a story about power– how it brings unexpected consequences and responsibility. Human nature seems to include a desire for more power, but in the end, you still have to choose between right and wrong. More power only increases the stakes. In fact, the first title that I chose for this book was Power Struggle, which sums up these ideas nicely, but it was much too generic for a book title. The word “freakling” was already in the manuscript I’d written, an insulting name I had invented for people with weak psi, and my editor thought that would make a much more intriguing title. She was right!

How much time did you spend in world-building this fascinating world of psi with all of the rules and limitations?

This story began with world-building. I had this idea about a place where everyone had telekinetic powers. How might that happen? What would that be like? There would have to be some inherent limitations, but what would they be and how would that work? How would telekinetic powers influence education, politics, technology, communication, transportation, industry? And on and on. All of that was swirling around in my head before I had a character or a plot in mind. I knew from the beginning that the main character would not have psi, but I didn’t know who he was or what he wanted until much later.

The hero of your story has what others believe is a crippling disability. But when we see how those without psi powers live, those with psi seem like the ones to pity. Was this a part of your initial story idea?

Yes, exactly. I liked the idea of a reverse super hero story– a story where everyone else has the super powers, but not this one kid. I think everyone feels that way sometimes, especially during adolescence. I also liked the idea of a person who would be perfectly normal in our world, but in a different context, this person is seen as inferior. Most of us worry way too much about how we compare to others. Taemon has a lot going for him, but he can’t see it because of all the expectations that surround him.

Is this world set in the future, or is it just a separate fantasy world?

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Exclusive Author Interview with Sarah Beth Durst

SciFiChick.com recently had the opportunity to interview author Sarah Beth to talk about her latest release Vessel. Her novels Ice and Enchanted Ivy are two of my top favorite young adult novels that I always recommend. And last year’s Drink, Slay, Love was a fantastic vampire romance novel.

Reviews:
Ice: https://scifichick.com/2009/11/11/book-review-ice/
Enchanted Ivy: https://scifichick.com/2010/10/07/book-review-enchanted-ivy/
Drink, Slay, Love: https://scifichick.com/2011/09/20/book-review-drink-slay-love/

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Can you tell us a bit about VESSEL in your own words?

VESSEL is about a girl who lives in a harsh desert land and is destined to sacrifice herself so her clan’s goddess can inhabit her body… but her goddess never comes.

Can you talk about Liyana’s character and the reason for her sacrifice?

Once a century, the goddess of the Goat Clan claims a human body and uses it to work the magic that fills the wells, revitalizes the oases, and increases the herds. Without this infusion of magic, the clan will wither and die.

Liyana has been chosen to give her body to the goddess. She doesn’t want to die, but she is willing to sacrifice herself for the sake of her clan and especially for the sake of her four-year-old brother. She is both brave and extremely practical as she faces her own death.

The creatures in VESSEL seem very unique. Where did the idea for the wolves of sand and serpents of glass come from?

I use the Rule of Awesome to develop my ideas. (Okay, yeah, I made up that term just now.) It goes something like this:

Me: I want to write about a desert.
My brain: Okay. But is it awesome?
Me: Deserts have sand storms. And wolves.
My brain: Okay. But is it awesome?
Me: The wolves are made out of sand.
My brain: Okay. But is it…
Me: And there are dragons made of sand… no, sky serpents made of GLASS. Unbreakable glass! And monstrous worms. And gods and goddesses that displace human souls when they…
My brain: Okay, okay! Write that.

This seems to be your first novel not set in world similar to present day Earth. Was that a natural progression that your fantasy world-building has taken?

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Exclusive Author Interview: Alex Bledsoe

SciFiChick.com was recently able to interview author Alex Bledsoe to discuss his Eddie LaCrosse series and recent release, Wake of the Bloody Angel. (Reviewed here.)

Can you tell us a bit about Wake of the Bloody Angel in your own words?

Like all the prior Eddie LaCrosse novels, this one is a mystery at heart. Eddie is hired by his landlord, the enigmatic Angelina, to discover what happened to the great love of her life, the pirate Black Edward Tew. He vanished twenty years earlier on his way back to her with the richest pirate treasure ever recorded. To follow this very cold trail, Eddie enlists the help of Jane Argo, another sword jockey who was once a pirate captain herself. They charter a pirate hunting ship, crewed by former buccaneers now barely on the right of side of the law. There are battles, horrors and surprises before the final revelations about the fate of Black Edward.

What is a sword jockey? How did you come up with this idea?

In my secondary-fantasy world, he’s the equivalent of a private detective. People hire him to find things out, to discover if other people are doing bad things, and to resolve problems. I invented the designation because there wasn’t an equivalent accepted term in fantasy. The closest would be “mercenary,” I suppose, but that doesn’t include solving mysteries or locating missing persons. I wanted something that had the same slang feel as “private eye” or “shamus,” but was particular to a faux-medieval world. “Sword jockey” seemed to fit.

The Eddie LaCrosse series has the feel of a detective novel or an urban fantasy but is set in a more traditional fantasy world. Was there a reason you went this unconventional route?

For years–and we’re talking at least twenty of them–I tried to write the story that became the first novel, THE SWORD-EDGED BLONDE, as a more traditional fantasy. It never worked, or rather, it never came to life. It was a compendium of tropes, all done better by other fantasy authors, and all failing to create the effect I was after. Finally I realized that, since I adored reading hard-boiled detective novels as much as I did fantasy, that perhaps combining the detective-style narrative voice with the accoutrements of fantasy would create something interesting. And it did. I just wish I’d thought of it sooner.

How do you see Eddie’s relationship with Liz progressing?

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