Hi Rhiannon! First I want to say welcome back to Two Chicks on
Books! I loved KINGDOM OF ASHES and I’m so happy that you could stop back by
for a visit!
Thank you so much! I’m so happy to be here again :)
For the
readers: can you tell us a little bit about the A WICKED THING series and the
characters?
A Wicked Thing is the story of what happens after Sleeping
Beauty wakes up.
In our “previously on…”, Aurora was cursed by the witch
Celestine to sleep for a hundred years, before being awoken by the kiss of the
awkward but well-meaning Prince Rodric. While she slept, all the magic in her
kingdom faded away. Legend says that once Aurora awakens, she’s going to marry
the prince, return magic to the kingdom, and save them all.
Except, of course, that she has no idea how to do that. She
wants to help, but everything she ever knew is gone, and she can’t know who she
can trust and what she can believe. Rodric is nice enough, but she doesn’t love
him, as everyone expects. His mother, Queen Iris, seems cruel and controlling,
and Aurora’s attempts to explore on her own just get her tangled up in a group
of rebels who also want to use her for their own ends. There’s a foreign prince
at court too, Finnegan, but he’s a master manipulator, and she can’t figure out
what the price of accepting his help might be.
When Aurora discovers that Celestine is very much alive and
wants Aurora to join her, she begins to experiment with her own magical powers,
to explore just what she’s capable of, and to find out what exactly her
“destiny” is really supposed to be.
Is it
really over now I could see the possibility for a book 3? And what are you
currently working on?
There’s no plans for a third book right now, although I’d love
to write one!
I’m currently finishing a different book, Long May She Reign,
which is a fantasy YA novel about a socially-awkward scientist girl who ends up
as queen when everyone ahead of her in line is murdered.
I know I
asked this last time but things can change…Who was your favorite character to
write? What about your least favorite?
I think my answer to both questions is the same – Celestine!
It’s so interesting to write a villain character and try to see things from her
perspective, to explore why she might think that she’s right and that all the
other people in the story are the true villains. But her voice was also really
challenging at times. I wanted her to have an ethereal brutality to her, and
that’s not something that came easily.
What is
your favorite passage/scene in KINGDOM OF ASHES?
Most of my favorites are too spoilerly to share, but one of my
favorite moments is fairly early in the book, when Aurora sees a dragon for the
first time;
She paused
beside the entrance for a moment, her toes clinging to the earth, and then
there was a sound like a roar, like a crowd bearing down, filling her ears,
echoing through the ground.
A dragon
emerged from the cave. Its head appeared first, gleaming with red scales. Its
deep-set eyes were red too, like the necklace, full of hunger and vengeance and
rage. Black lines ran from its eyes down to its crocodile-like nose. Each tooth
was the size of Aurora’s hands. Before Aurora could react, the head snapped
past her, revealing a long neck, and then a body that went on and on, red and
terrible and burning with heat that would have made her flinch, if only she
could move. The dragon unfurled its wings, so close that Aurora could see the
webbing between the bones, delicate and strong as a spider’s web, so large that
for a moment they were all she could see. Her world turned red.
It was the
most terrifying and beautiful thing she had ever seen. Heat pulsed off its
skin, heat that settled within her, surging with her blood. The tail flicked
past her, covered in black spikes, ending in a narrow point, so thin that she
could have caught it in one hand.
Nothing
existed except the dragon. She could almost taste its fire. And she knew what
Finnegan meant, why his careful smile turned into genuine excitement when he
spoke of these creatures. They were magnificent, uncontainable, bursting from
the earth itself and refusing to sleep again.
The dragon
twisted. It snapped its jaws and looked at her for no longer than a heartbeat.
She looked back, her mouth slightly open, unable to breathe. Then the dragon
gave its wings one powerful sweep and shot off over the top of the ridge.
Aurora turned to follow its progress. A trail of fire burst into the sky, and
then the creature was gone.
What kind
of research did you have to do for the story?
I did a lot of research of details that probably don’t really
matter that much, in the end. I wanted Vanhelm to have a turn-of-the-century
feel, and that meant checking things like, when were trams invented? How did
they work before electricity? How tall could buildings be before the invention
of concrete? How DO skyscrapers work? How quickly can messages travel over long
distances?
I also researched dragon legends. Not really because I needed
to, but because it was a fun way to procrastinate while pretending to work.
What are
you reading right now? Or what do you have on your TBR that you’re dying to
read?
I’m currently reading Into the Dim by Janet B Taylor. Time
travelling adventure! And I can’t wait for Sharon Biggs Waller’s new book, The
Forbidden Orchid, in March. I absolutely adored her debut, A Mad, Wicked Folly
(artists! Suffragettes! What’s not to love?), and I’m dying to get my hands on
this new story from her.
Who is
your ultimate Book Boyfriend?
Ahh this is a hard question. Is it cheating to pick Bellamy,
from The 100? He sort of exists in a book.
What
inspired you to write YA?
Libba Bray. I was very unhappy during my first year of college,
and then I stumbled across Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle series. Her writing was so
perfect. The characters and the themes and the imagery… it just spoke to me, so
completely, and helped to make things make more sense. I wanted to be able to
write a book like that one day.
And YA is so perfect for writing those sorts of stories. The
whole genre really is about girls finding themselves, figuring out who they
are, seeing the darkness in the world and still realizing how powerful they can
be. Who wouldn’t want to play with that, as a writer, and as a feminist too?
Last time
we did some lightening round questions so this time we’ll do some “would you
rather’s”
Would you
rather have a dragon or be a dragon?
THIS IS TOO HARD. I think I’d have a dragon, assuming it didn’t
set me on fire. Maybe a cute shoulder dragon?
Would you
rather get up early or stay up late?
Stay up late. Please don’t make me get up early.
Would you rather
speak every language in the world or play every instrument?
Speak every language. You could watch EVERY TV show in the
world, and read every book without having to rely on translations. And talk to
people, although that’s a little scarier than the book and the TV thing. Maybe
I’d wish for the ability to speak confidently to people in English first.
Would you
rather always have the same song stuck in your head or always have the same
dream at night?
Depends… is it a good dream or a bad dream? Do I like the song?
I once had the Wombles theme song stuck in my head for about three weeks
(thanks, supposed BFF, for causing that in the first place), and it was a
nightmare, so I think I’ll pick the dream.
Would you
rather live in space or under the sea?
Space! Have you seen anglerfish??
Would you
rather take a vacation on an exotic island or in a romantic city?
Romantic city! Exotic island probably = big spiders, and I’m so
not about that.
Would you
rather live without a telephone or a television?
…am I allowed to watch TV on my laptop? If so, I don’t actually
own a TV now. Otherwise, I’d do without the telephone. I hate phone calls, and
I can’t miss the next episode of Jane the Virgin.
Would you
rather live in the city or the country?
The city. I need to be able to get ridiculously flavored coffee
at a moment’s notice.
Would you
rather live by the ocean or by the mountains?
By the ocean.
Would you
rather be stuck in a house with someone you hate or be stuck in a house alone?
For how long?? Can I bring my cat? I think I’d pick alone,
though, as long as it wasn’t forever.
Thanks so much Rhiannon for answering my questions!
Thanks so much for having me!
