Bruce Blake tagged me in the Next Big Thing Blog Hop, which originated on She Writes. If you haven’t checked out Bruce’s site or books, you should! He is a captivating writer and an inspiration for me (to move on from a full time job and find more time to write as well as his writing and marketing skills!).
Okay, enough with the admiration. I don’t want to contribute to an overblown ego! If you’ve seen other Blog Hop posts, you know the “rules” are a link to the very fine author who tagged me followed by answers to 10 questions about my current work in progress (below), with a tag of five other authors to answer the same questions next week about their work in progress (I have a feeling my “want to read” list is about to get A LOT longer).
So without further ado:
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1. What is the working title of your book?
Rule of Fire (Book 2 in the Rise of the Fifth Order Saga)
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2. Where did the idea come from for the book?
Well, obviously since it is book 2 in a series, it is a continuation of the story in Book 1: Born of Water. Born of Water itself came to me from a mishmash of ideas floating in my head. I loved the idea of a story with a naiad (water nymph for those who didn’t study Greek mythology) discovering a young woman with similar power or gifts. I didn’t like the “feel” of putting it in a real world setting, so I sort of put the idea aside until one stressful day I started wondering about what life was like in a Mediterranean style painting that hung in the bathroom of the office where I work. Born of Water grew from there!
Rule of Fire came about because the ending of Born of Water was just the end of one challenge. The overall problems uncovered by the events in Born of Water weren’t gone, so somehow they had to be tackled. I had a direction, because at the end of Book 1, the group of friends are going back to the land of the Kith and from there in a search for Kailal’s people. The characters and their decisions pretty much dictated how the book unravels as they face an enemy far more powerful than they are ready to take on.
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3. What genre does your book fall under?
Adventure Fantasy, otherwise known as Epic Fantasy. You could call it High Fantasy as it is in a completely different world and there is elemental power as well as magic.
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4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Ugh. First, let me say that I don’t think this question is fair because I don’t watch TV! I do watch movies though, but don’t really have any favorite actors. And I guess that is my point though, I wouldn’t want a well known actor to play any of these roles. I can’t see any well known actor in any of these roles! The main characters are mid-teens to early 20’s, so I’d like to see some fresh faces with all the innocence needed for young people suddenly thrust into roles they never envisioned. Just as long as they aren’t the same actors who played in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender (see 8 below).
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5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
The Curse is defeated but the Church of Four Orders still rules Myrrah and threatens all who would use the banned gift of Magic, including Ria and Kailal, a man whose memories and soul have been destroyed by an ancient war.
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6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Self-published. I’m going with the slogan that I’m a “green” writer – all of my books are electronic!
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7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I’m guessing 6 months. I have it pretty well laid out in my head, with just a few days of thinking things through as I switch chapters and POVs, but I’m also building a house . . . and have a full time job, and a blog. So . . . it is taking longer than I’d like!!
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8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I would say that Born of Water and Rule of Fire are pretty unique as even though they are epic fantasy, they don’t fit into the medieval theme so common of epic fantasy. There is a lot of sailing and visits to very different cultures. But then I saw The Last Airbender, which is based on the animated series Avatar: The Last Bender. Watching it made me VERY queasy. There are some strong similarities, from the use of elements, different cultures, to two of the main characters being brother and sister. My heart nearly stopped! I really thought most people who read Born of Water would think I was trying to rewrite The Last Airbender. But I put that aside and watched the movie anyway . . . and I saw a lot of things I disagreed with such as how elements were used. In the end, I simply said ‘screw it’. I like my book and I wrote it and thought of it long before seeing that movie. It isn’t a copy or fan fiction. But if you do happen to like Avatar: The Last Airbender, you might like my book!
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9. Who or What inspired you to write this book?
I had started it as an attempt at a short story, but just knew it wanted to be longer. So, I signed up for a Novel Writing course and chose developing the idea of Born of Water into a novel. I had so much fun writing Born of Water and developing the world, that I was quite excited to keep writing the sequel!
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10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
Well, if you are looking for an epic fantasy novel that is different from the traditional vein of swords and sorcery or set in a pseudo medieval time period and has no elves, ogres, dwarves, dragonriders, or vampires but does take you across a world set with challenges and peopled by unique cultures along with a group of main characters that need each other to survive even if they don’t necessarily like that fact or always realize it plus toss in a little romance, well, you might just really enjoy Born of Water and its sequel-in-the-works Rule of Fire!
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And here they are! The five writers I’m tagging are below. If you are one of the five, the rules say you should have your post up sometime around Nov 14. Don’t forget to tag me at the beginning, tag your five friends at the end, and make sure you title the whole thing “The Next Big Thing Blog Hop”.
Now here they are and please check out their posts because they are all awesome writers!
Emily Ann Ward
Rachel O’Laughlin
Chantal Boudreau
Scott Bury
Joshua K. Johnson