The War Queen
by J.M.
Robison
GENRE: Fantasy
BLURB:
Altarn, believing Kaelin is trying to take her land, rides to an
ally to ask for help in the coming war against him. But war launches in her
absence, though it’s not Kaelin’s and she, in fact, needs his help instead.
Kaelin is wounded in battle, but if she lets him die, can she fight the enemy
on her own? Or if she saves his life, will he try claiming her kingdom like he
planned, or her heart?
Excerpt:
Again,
that unreadable expression he’d perfected. “You had to call me out in your
speech, didn’t you?”
A
surge of panic heated her spine as Kaelin’s threat to publicly hang her pushed
her forward to make her face it. She almost wanted to push the blame
on Ratavia, since Ratavia had written the speech.
“I
was speaking of the Foreigners. Blindvarns are particular about
people wanting to enslave them.”
“What
makes you think I want to enslave your people?”
His
tone compelled her to look at him. Firelight sliced orange beams over his
polished armor. Shadows from below both cut and softened the planes
on his face while morphing his blue eyes into either hard ice or soft skies—all
dependent on her minute-to-minute opinion of him.
“Because the last
king did.”
1. What inspired you to write The War Queen?
I had just finished writing a massive 5 book series and was craving for something else to write. I lived in Pocatello, ID a block away from the campus. The mood strikes me sometimes to walk in the dark, so about midnight or so I walked up to the 4 Grecian pillars on a hill overlooking the campus. Three of the four pillars are connected at the top, where the 4th one stands alone. In my mind, I considered these pillars “broken” because of it, and I started thinking up a story about how they became broken. I reasoned a god fell on them, which was a good enough story prompt to get me writing it down.
I’ve written a 5 books epic fantasy series called The Lost Gods and a 2 part YA historical fantasy romance series based on Victorian England called The Last Wizard. The Last Wizard is in the hands of a literary agent now for consideration. I plan to traditionally publish all the books I’ve written and still have more in mind to write.
3. Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in The War Queen?
Altarn is the female political head for Blindvar. She’s the first female to hold that position so she’s meet with bias and presumed incompetence, though, she tries very hard to change that way of thinking toward females.
I don’t have a favorite author. I have favorite books. I say that because I’ve read 2 books by the same author and liked one but not the other. What I do have are a few authors who inspire me, and they are: Margert Weis and Tracy Hickman, Megan Spooner and Amie Kaufman, Susan D. Kalior, Alison Goodman, Robin LaFevers, and Cinda Williams Chima.
5. If you could time-travel would you travel to the future or the past? Where would you like to go and why would you like to visit this particular time period?
I’d travel to the Middle Ages. Technology is nice, but I sure miss the days where we had to draw water from a well, hunt and gather, home pigeons to deliver messages, where women raised the children and men fought for valor in battle. I feel today with technology we are losing a sense of what we are as humans. Our personalities were not meant to be fabricated by how many likes we get on facebook. Our personalities were meant to be created by how we conduct ourselves in society, in the home, the skills we choose to learn and the jobs we choose to pursue. No honor or respect anymore today, and I miss it.
3 cats. One of them was rescued as a kitten. My husband found her by the
mail boxes with a dead kitten nearby and momma nowhere in sight.
Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit with us today.
Interview
with J.M. Robison
1. What inspired you to write The War Queen?
I had just finished writing a massive 5 book series and was craving for something else to write. I lived in Pocatello, ID a block away from the campus. The mood strikes me sometimes to walk in the dark, so about midnight or so I walked up to the 4 Grecian pillars on a hill overlooking the campus. Three of the four pillars are connected at the top, where the 4th one stands alone. In my mind, I considered these pillars “broken” because of it, and I started thinking up a story about how they became broken. I reasoned a god fell on them, which was a good enough story prompt to get me writing it down.
I’m
a pansters (I write by the seat of my pants without a clear outline), so as
long as I have a shady beginning, a questionable middle, and uncertain end, I
dive in and begin writing. I had a beginning for The War Queen, but no middle
or end. Since I’d only written 15 pages, I wasn’t fully vested in the story
and, lacking a middle and careless to come up with one, I put the notebook on a
shelf where it sat for 7 years.
I
was browsing online contests one day, and decided to choose a short story
prompt given. I remembered my nearly-forgotten beginning of a story and decided
to re-hash that into a short story. But while thinking up how to make it into a
short story, I was assaulted with idea after idea about how to make it a
full-sized novel, to include the middle and end that so escaped me 7 years ago.
I never did enter that contest.
2. Can you tell us a little bit about or what you have planned for the future?
2. Can you tell us a little bit about or what you have planned for the future?
I’ve written a 5 books epic fantasy series called The Lost Gods and a 2 part YA historical fantasy romance series based on Victorian England called The Last Wizard. The Last Wizard is in the hands of a literary agent now for consideration. I plan to traditionally publish all the books I’ve written and still have more in mind to write.
3. Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in The War Queen?
Altarn is the female political head for Blindvar. She’s the first female to hold that position so she’s meet with bias and presumed incompetence, though, she tries very hard to change that way of thinking toward females.
Kaelin
is the male political head for Ruidenthall and wrote Altarn a correspondence
offering a small chunk of his land in exchange for a small chunk of hers –
their people get along so well that they might as well be one state, he says.
Altarn
has reason to believe this mild request is a front for Kaelin’s true
intentions, which is to steal all of Blindvar for himself to make himself king.
4. You know I think we all have a favorite author. Who is your favorite author and why?
4. You know I think we all have a favorite author. Who is your favorite author and why?
I don’t have a favorite author. I have favorite books. I say that because I’ve read 2 books by the same author and liked one but not the other. What I do have are a few authors who inspire me, and they are: Margert Weis and Tracy Hickman, Megan Spooner and Amie Kaufman, Susan D. Kalior, Alison Goodman, Robin LaFevers, and Cinda Williams Chima.
5. If you could time-travel would you travel to the future or the past? Where would you like to go and why would you like to visit this particular time period?
I’d travel to the Middle Ages. Technology is nice, but I sure miss the days where we had to draw water from a well, hunt and gather, home pigeons to deliver messages, where women raised the children and men fought for valor in battle. I feel today with technology we are losing a sense of what we are as humans. Our personalities were not meant to be fabricated by how many likes we get on facebook. Our personalities were meant to be created by how we conduct ourselves in society, in the home, the skills we choose to learn and the jobs we choose to pursue. No honor or respect anymore today, and I miss it.
6. Do you have any
little fuzzy friends? Like a dog or a cat? Or any pets?
Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit with us today.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
J.M.
Robison has been writing the histories of fantasy worlds for 16 years
and authored 7 novels. The War Queen is her debut book – more books
on the way, to include The Last Wizard and The Lost Gods (see her “Books” tab
above to read more about them) - and she has no other claim to fame; growing up
in Bennington, ID (Good luck finding that on a paper map), she didn’t know what
wireless internet was until she was 21. Having joined the U.S.
Army at 17 with a deployment to Afghanistan and Romania, and working
as a Deputy Sheriff, she’s seen a lot of people and been to a lot of places;
the evidence of which frequently bleeds into her writing. She loves and uses
essential oils. She makes her own shampoo, lotions, laundry soap, face wash,
and toothpaste.
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~ KOBO ~ SMASHWORDS
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War Queen t-shirt (man or woman sizes)
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1 comments:
Thank you for hosting me on your blog. I'll be available today if readers have questions about me or my book.
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