Skies of Olympus
Eliza Raine
(Skies of Olympus, #1)
Publication date: May 11th 2019
Genres: Fantasy, Mythology, Young Adult
Twelve deadly Trials. A race for immortality. Her last chance for revenge.
Olympus is a beautiful but dangerous place, controlled by twelve Gods wielding unlimited power. Now they have devised the ultimate entertainment; a chance for their favourites to compete in twelve trials to win the ultimate prize – immortality.
Lyssa didn’t think the Gods knew who she was, until she was chosen to try out for the Trials with the crew of her old but beloved smugglers ship, the Alastor. For her the Trials are about much more than an eternal life. They’re about stopping the monster from her past gaining the one thing that would put her revenge out of reach forever. Can she face her murderous father and stop him from becoming immortal?
Join Lyssa and her crew alongside giants, centaurs, satyrs and Gods in the first of twelve episodes of this brand new YA Fantasy retelling. This is Greek mythology like you’ve never read before.
Interview with Eliza Raine
As a
writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon.
He’s hard as nails and cute as a cat. Perfect!!
How
many hours a day do you put into your writing?
I work as an IT consultant part
time so it depends on the day! 8 hours on a writing day, 2 hours on an IT day.
Do you read your book reviews? If yes, do they affect
what you write in the future?
It’s impossible not to!
Constructive feedback is always helpful and the writing hours go much quicker
when you’ve just read positive feedback but the same goes for the bad ones –
they can kill your motivation completely. My first 1 star review on a rom-com
under a different pen name killed my writing for a week.
Do you
leave hidden messages in your books that only a few people will find?
I will now!! As I am writing a lot
of different character’s stories within one world (Olympus) I do leave hints
and info lying about that may not be relevant in this series but will be in
another. I’m working on a trilogy of stand-alone Greek mythology romance
retellings and there will be appearances from lots of smaller characters from
the Immortality Trials.
Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in Skies of Olympus?
Sure – there’s a lot of them! The
twelve Olympian gods are letting the crews of four ships compete for
immortality and there’s a POV character for each ship (two on Hercules’s ship).
Hercules – He’s definitely not the
hero we’re used to seeing! Hercules is power hungry, cruel and just a little
bit scary. He’s based on all the bad but true aspects of the original myth –
like going mad and killing his family.
Lyssa – Lyssa is Hercules’s
surviving daughter and the main character. She inherited some of Hercules’s
strength but she can only use it when she’s angry. Which is quite often as
she’s hot-headed! She’s stubborn and a little stroppy but fiercely loyal.
Evadne – She’s Hercules’s
blue-haired gunner. She’s really smart and will do anything to win immortality.
Hedone – The demigoddess of
pleasure is a member of Theseus’s crew and she’s soft, kind and desperate for
love.
Eryx – He’s a half-giant on a crew
of giants. He’s in the Trials for glory and to follow the orders of his beloved
captain, Antaeus.
Lyssa’s crew also includes a satyr
medic called Len, a wheelchair-bound navigator called Abderos and her huge best
friend Epizon, and she picks up a few new members along the way – including a
gorgeous but arrogant stowaway and a female centaur warrior.
Can you tell us a little bit about your next books or what you have
planned for the future?
Skies of Olympus is the first three
of twelve Trials. Each novel contains three Trials and the next one, Tides of
Olympus, has just been released! Storms of Olympus, and finally Fires of
Olympus will be released over summer.
I am also working on a trilogy of
three romance Greek mythology retellings also set in Olympus (Hades and
Persephone will feature in one of them).
Do you allow yourself a certain number of hours to write or do you
write as long as the words come?
Some days I write in 50 minute
sprints but most days I just write and hope the word count goes well!
Do you have a certain number of words or pages you write per day?
I try to write 4000-5000 words a day, but I re-read as I go so
it doesn’t always work out like that!
What inspires you to write?
Greek mythology! There are so many crazy stories that have
been kicking around for thousands of years – it’s amazing. I’m also really
visually inspired so I spend a lot of time on deviant art and pinterest looking
at the work of amazing artists.
Skies of Olympus specifically was inspired by my classical
studies, Cinder by Marrisa Meyer (if Cinderella can be a cyborg, Hercules can
be an evil captain of a flying ship, right?!?) and the TV series Firefly.
Would you rather
Read fiction or
non-fiction?
Fiction
Read series or
stand-alone?
Series
Read Science fiction
or horror?
Sci-fi (secret trekkie…)
Read Stephen King or Dean
Koontz
Stephen King
Read the book or
watch the movie?
Book most of the time, but some movies are so good!
Read an ebook or
paperback?
eBook but I have paperbacks of all my favourites
Be trapped alone for
one month in a library with no computer or a room with a computer and Wi-Fi
only?
It’s got to be computer. Have you seen Lore Olympus? You
can’t get that in a library. Hang on, are there audiobooks in the library?
Do a cross-country
book store tour or blog tour online?
Blog tour!! I live in the UK and there’s a lot of traffic so
cross-country would be sloooow!
Author Bio:
Eliza Raine lives near Reading in England with her husband, three cats and outrageously cute puppy. She has a BA Hons in History and has a deep-rooted passion for all types of mythology and stories about women who don’t need rescuing.
She can usually be found reading fairytale retellings, playing board games or binge-watching Netflix shows.
3 comments:
Best of luck with the book and book tour! I saw this post in the Thursday, Jun. 06, 2019 edition of The BookTube Your Shelf Daily Reader.
Good luck with your book tour ^^ Thank you for the interview, it was fun to read. Can't wait for the end of the word day today so that I can start since I always love to read books based on our Mythology!!!
@Mayor Sonni, thank you so much!
@Teenyluvkins, oh thank you so much, I hope you enjoyed the book!
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