Hi Eleanor! First I want to say welcome back to Two Chicks on Books! I
loved LEGACY OF KINGS and EMPIRE OF DUST and can’t wait to read what’s next! I
am so happy that you could stop by for a visit!
For the readers: can you give us a little recap of LEGACY
OF KINGS and the characters? Do you have any actors that come to mind? (For each of the actors Eleanor has for her dream cast I will link to their IMDB page)
Alexander: Macedon’s sixteen-year-old heir needs to
prove himself worthy of the Crown. In his first major battle, he will face the
best warriors in the world. He finds himself strangely attracted to a peasant
girl, Katerina, who helps him quite unexpectedly in the battle, shifting the
tides of war. Actor: Daniel Sharman.
Katerina: Comes to Alexander’s palace with a secret
mission: kill the queen who killed Kat’s mother. She can’t marry Jacob, the boy
she loves, until she has wreaked her revenge. Kat’s plans take a strange twist,
and in the kingdom of Halicarnassus she learns about the powerful magic that
has always been percolating in her blood. Actress: Emma Watson.
Hephaestion: Alexander’s best friend, Heph
is fiercely loyal but finds that his pride and passion often stand
in his way. Will the prince forgive him for his betrayal on the battlefield?
Actor: Jack Falahee.
Jacob: Wants to make Kat proud of him so she will
become his wife. But the path he chooses to do this makes him an enemy of
Macedon, rendering his one goal in life impossible. Actor: Matt Lanter.
Cynane: Alexander’s warrior half-sister will do anything to
rule and lead armies. Anything. Actress: Caitlin Stasey.
Zofia: Alexander’s Persian fiancée, the runaway
princess makes a long journey east to find the Spirit Eaters and change her
fate. Actress: Shay Mitchell.
Queen Olympias: Alexander’s manipulative mother
wants one thing only: for her lover, trapped in snake form, to come back to her
as a man. Actress: Charlize Theron.
What about book 3? Do we have a title yet?
Yes! Book 3 is called Reign of Serpents, and on the last page of Empire
of Dust you will understand why.
Who was your favorite
character to write (mine was Heph lol)? What about your least favorite?
I love writing all of them. They are, of course, different aspects of
myself in concentrated form. It was hard developing each one as a different
person at first, but much easier for Book 2. Now I’m halfway through Book 3 and
I’ve completely got them down! I like how Alex’s mind works—sort of like an
ancient Greek computer, searching for the logical answers. He lives very much
in his head. Heph is more human, living in his heart and consequently making
mistakes as we all do. I adore Kat’s bravery and spunk, and Jacob’s loyalty and
cleverness. I love Zo’s journey because it’s not just the miles she puts in on
the Royal Road, it’s a journey of learning who she really is and what she can
be. And I adore writing the bad girls—Cynane, so
fiercely ambitious for power in a man’s world, and Olympias, especially now
that karma is catching up to her.
What is your favorite passage/scene in EMPIRE OF DUST?
I love writing battle scenes so the fight in the tunnel was a load of
fun. For this battle I read several ancient books written on warfare and
borrowed some of their strategies. I also love the Egyptian scenes where Kat
and Heph are sliding down the Nile, amazed at what they are seeing. I enjoyed
creating the accursed city of Sharuna and the creepy Ushabti warriors.
What kind of research did you have to do for the story?
I read several books about Egypt in this time period. It wasn’t the
heyday of the pharaohs; they had built the Pyramids two thousand years earlier
and by the time of Empire of Dust the Persians had conquered
Egypt. But it was a timeless land still steeped in ancient traditions. I really
want the reader to feel a marked contrast between the vastly different cultures
of Macedon, Persia, and Egypt.
What are you reading right now? Or what do you have on your TBR that you’re
dying to read?
I just finished read Amy Lukavic’s Daughters Unto Devils, a
story, as one reviewer wrote, that blends Stephen King with Little
House on the Prairie. I was on the treadmill and couldn’t put it down and
when I finished after two hours I could hardly step down from the treadmill my
legs were so sore. Before that, I read Cait Reynold’s Angel Hands, a
historical romance about what happens to the Phantom of the Opera after the
opera burns. I fell in love with the phantom, despite whatever was going on
under that mask. Next on my list is Julie Kagawa’s Talon series.
Who is your ultimate Book Boyfriend?
I so loved Augustus Waters from The Fault in Our Stars. He
was supportive, funny, smart and amazing, even though he had lost a leg to
cancer, even when the cancer came back. I was so sad thinking about the man he
would have become, a great husband, father, employee, boss, community activist,
etc. There was this hole in the world for me when he died. What a loss. What a
waste. I know he was a fictional character but I still think I will never get
over him dying. My eyes are stinging just typing this.
If you were to write another YA series from a different time in history what
would you write and why?
I think ancient Egypt now that I have done so much research about it,
and not just for Empire of Dust, but for Queen of Ashes,
the novella of the immortal Princess Laila of Sharuna, whom Kat and Heph travel
down the Nile to meet. Queen of Ashes is available to download
free on August 1.
Thanks so much Eleanor for answering my questions! I can’t wait to read
book 3!
