Describe Memories of Ash in 3 words.
Walk with courage.
What compelled you to write your first book?
I always wanted to write a novel, so my senior year of university I
decided I’d better buckle down and try. I chose a fairy tale (The Goose
Girl) to give me an over-arching plot and narrative structure, and then
went to town with it. I really wrote it as an exercise to test myself,
not intending to do anything with it when I finished. But, by the time I
finished, I loved my characters so much that I ended up working through
over a dozen revisions to take it from “writing exercise” to my debut
novel, Thorn.
If you could live in one of your books, which one would you choose?
Definitely the world of the Sunbolt Chronicles. Sunbolt follows
Hitomi, a street thief with a propensity to play hero when people need
saving, and her nemesis, the dark mage who killed her father. Although
there is a lot of darkness in Sunbolt, there’s also a lot of light. It’s
a real world, in its way, and I love the diversity and vibrancy of the
cultures and creatures that populate it. I’d have my choice of living in
a tropical island sultanate reminiscent of historic Zanzibar, or among
the nomadic desert tribes that eke out an existence alongside the cursed
Burnt Lands, to name my two favorite options. Then again, in Memories of Ash,
there’s the decaying grandeur of the capitol of a fallen empire that
feels a lot like an Istanbul of old, right at the heart of the Eleven
Kingdoms. Plus, I wouldn’t mind having shape-shifting friends and charms
to keep my bread from burning.
What authors, or books, have influenced you?
As a young duckling, I imprinted on Tamora Pierce and Robin
McKinley’s earlier works. I read pretty widely, but those are the
authors I kept coming back to, especially McKinley’s Damar books. I am
also an incorrigible Jane Austen fan, but my books don’t reflect that
very much!
What are you reading now?
I just finished “Kingdom of Ruses” by Kate Stradling. In a kingdom
where the eternal prince who rules is just a ruse kept up by the prime
minister’s family (and most recently, Viola, our heroine), keeping the
peace is a delicate thing. Enter a stranger who manages to take the
place of the doppelganger the family uses, and Viola has her hands full.
Your first reaction to the cover in GIF format.
You were pretty blown away by the cover, weren’t you?
Yes, yes, I was.
This gorgeous cover was designed by Jenny of Seedlings Design Studio, who also designed the covers for Sunbolt and Thorn. Isn’t she amazing?
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