Tag: Fantasy

And now for the review!

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I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s posts as much as I have (don’t forget to check out the deets for the Rafflecopter giveaway at the end of the post).  I’ve been a fan of A.F.E.’s since our Authonomy days, and I am beyond thrilled to see Darkhaven in print.  It’s a wonderful book, full of all the things that make a story great: fencing, fighting, chases, escapes, true love, steampunky goodness…The list goes on.

And the writing!  The writing is so beautiful.  For example:

“…the scents of a summer night caressed her with their familiarity…”

Scavenger_day06“She hesitated, her skin crawling with tiny spiders of unease.” -If that’s not evocative, I don’t know what is!

“As the sun rose higher in the sky, prying into the shade of her hood with bright inquisitive fingers, she had slipped into the narrow gap between a dueling room and a weaponry.”

“The books were mainly vast tomes with leather bindings, bearing such enticing titles as Upon the Principles and Ordinance of Government and An Assessment of Trade Relationships Between Mirrorvale and its Neighbors.”

That last line actually made me…

Pssst! Wanna sneak a peek?

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Great!  Because today I’ve got an excerpt from Darkhaven by A.F.E. Smith.  It’s a great scene, and I hope it hooks you as much as it hooked me. 🙂

Stay tuned afterward, because I’ve got all the deets on a great Rafflecopter giveaway at the end of the post!

As was fast becoming their habit, she and her father had started that evening by arguing. They’d always argued, of course, but not like this. Not as if each would rather kill the other than concede the fight. Ayla knew she couldn’t beat Florentyn in a real fight, either in human or in creature form, but she hoped this battle of words would be different. Her father probably wouldn’t go so far as to physically chastise his wayward daughter.

Probably.

She had to keep trying, anyway, for Myrren’s sake.

Scavenger_day05‘You can’t do that to him,’ she said for the tenth time in as many days. ‘He is your true heir, your pure-blood son. I’m only half a Nightshade.’

On the other side of the desk, her father sat motionless and in shadow; no need for light when only Changers were present in the room. Ayla resented the fact that he’d summoned her into the library as if he had every right to control her movements. That he’d made her stand in front of his desk like a stripling awaiting punishment, not a fully grown woman. She resented a lot of things. But she had to concentrate on the one that mattered.

‘You can Change.’ Florentyn’s face showed no more emotion than the ancestral busts adorning the bookcases to either side of him. ‘Myrren cannot. I have no choice but to disinherit him.’

‘I won’t take his birthright away from him, Father.’ She lifted her chin, but he was as impervious to her defiance as his Firedrake form was to steel.

‘You will start accompanying me on state visits. It’s time you began to learn what is required of Darkhaven’s overlord.’

Ayla bit her lip. Always he dangled that in front of her:

Darkhaven, the movie!

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Today I’ve got a real treat: A movie cast for Darkhaven, handpicked by the author herself!  This would book would make a wonderful movie, so I hope Hollywood is paying attention.  Also, if anyone knows where to get hold of a time machine, let us know – it would make casting so much easier! 😀

Stay tuned afterward, because I’ve got all the deets on a great Rafflecopter giveaway at the end of the post!

I always have difficulty with casting my characters, because no one in real life looks quite like the people in my head. I always say that if my books were going to be translated into visual media, I’d like them to be either anime or graphic novels. Nevertheless, I’ve given it a go.

Scavenger_day04Darkhaven is set in a capital city, Arkannen, into which people from many different countries have migrated over the years. Most people’s heritage is a mixture of cultures/influences; they tend to think of themselves as Arkannenites before anything else (much as Londoners are Londoners before they are British). So although Mirrorvale and its surrounding countries don’t have exact real-world analogues, I’ve chosen actors who have quite a diverse mixture of backgrounds…

And now, an interview!

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Today I’m interviewing A.F.E. Smith, author of Darkhaven and illustrious spymaster for the Alliance of Worldbuilders.  After all, no one ever suspects the robin…

Stay tuned afterward, because I’ve got all the deets on a great Rafflecopter giveaway at the end of the post!

KK: To take a page from your book, tell us a bit about yourself – any illogical fears, unusual birthmarks, whether you’d rather wrestle a bear or punch a shark, that kind of thing. 🙂

80115-afe_smith_author_photoA.F.E: I’m a professional editor, a whenever-I-can writer and a mother of two young children. I’m also an occasional robin.

Illogical fears I have aplenty, including moths, spiders and other assorted invertebrates. Then there’s drowning … I hate the idea of drowning … and blood and heights and being buried alive. Oh, and mould. I hate mould. But other than all that, I would make a perfectly good fantasy hero.

Rather than a lightning-shaped scar on my forehead, I have a large orbicular birthmark on my knee. In other words, I have a great big freckle. Still, that’s got to mean I have a Destiny, right?

I would never wrestle a bear, or punch a shark. I am a vegetarian and therefore coexist peacefully with all living creatures, except those that have a tendency to crawl around on my walls.

KK: What about Darkhaven? What’s it all about?

Cover_image_DARKHAVEN_AFE_SmithA.F.E.: The short answer: shapeshifters and murder.

The slightly longer answer?

Fantasy and murder: A guest post by A.F.E. Smith

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To kick off this fun-filled week of fantasy goodness, I’ve got a guest post for you about fantasy and murder from A.F.E. Smith.  Stay tuned afterward, because I’ve got all the deets on a great Rafflecopter giveaway at the end of the post!

Fantasy and murder: what’s the appeal?

It’s no secret that fantasy is, and always has been, my favourite genre. There are many reasons for that, but one very good one is that the sheer number of possibilities it opens up to a writer is breathtaking. Fantasy has no limitations except for your own imagination and your ability to convince your reader to suspend disbelief.

Yet for that reason, writing fantasy can feel like being handed a bottomless bucket, pointed in the direction of an infinitely wide pick’n’mix stand, and told to take as much as you want. And if you’re me, that might result in something like this.

I like birds. And unicorns. And shapeshifters. So let’s have a flying unicorn shapeshifter! Duels to the death, always good. Add them to the bloody murder and general mayhem. Airships, sure, why not? Bit of romance. Bit of mistaken identity. Swords, yes, gotta have plenty of swords … oooh, guns! Hmm, swords or guns … what? Swords AND guns? Don’t mind if I do. And a walled city. No, a double-walled city. No, a SEVEN-walled city.

Scavenger_day02 I’m not kidding…

Gearing up for a great week!

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So, how am I celebrating my return from the land of the pine forests?  By gearing up for a week full of fantastic fun with my friend A.F.E. Smith!  Her debut novel, Darkhaven, hits virtual bookshelves on July 2 (the paperback is due out January 14, 2016) and I’m ecstatic to be taking part in her blog tour to celebrate the event.

80115-afe_smith_author_photoA.F.E. Smith is an editor of academic texts by day and a fantasy writer by night. So far, she hasn’t mixed up the two. She lives with her husband and their two young children in a house that someone built to be as creaky as possible – getting to bed without waking the baby is like crossing a nightingale floor. Though she doesn’t have much spare time, she makes space for reading, mainly by not getting enough sleep (she’s powered by chocolate). Her physical bookshelves were stacked two deep long ago, so now she’s busy filling up her e-reader.

What A.F.E. stands for is a closely guarded secret, but you might get it out of her if you…

Review time!

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atrToday I’m reviewing After the Ruin by Harriet Goodchild.  If you missed the interview she was kind enough to submit to back in March, you can check it out here.  If you haven’t heard of After the Ruin before now, here’s the blurb:

What is the price of a man’s life? An apple? A sword? A kingdom? There are many ways to leave a life in ruins. But ruined lives go on, and so, after the ruin, there is love, sweet as roses on a summer’s evening. But love is such a little thing, no stronger than a candleflame at noontime. For, after the ruin, Averla, fire made flesh, is hiding in the light. She will use lover against lover, sister against brother, father against son, to build again her kingdom of everlasting fire. Love is not enough to set against her fierce desire. As well seek to turn back the tide with a wall of sand.

This book…This book!  I’m still thinking about it.  It’s a dense read, but a fantastic one, and I couldn’t get enough of it.  The writing reminded me of some of the classics that I’ve loved; no one specific novel, just classic works in general.  It has a timeless feel to it, and the prose is like reading music.  It was poetry, plain and simple and magical.  The worldbuilding was rock solid and the character development was amazing.

And the end…I still can’t believe the end.

This is a book you definitely don’t want to miss, and one I highly recommend.  You can pick up your copy at Amazon, Amazon UK, or Barnes & Noble.  I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did!

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