Heather Fawcett | blackplume

Today I’m super thrilled to welcome new author Kristen Ciccarelli on the blog as part of Celebrating Debutantes 2017 blog event. Kristen answered few questions for me about her upcoming debut fantasy novel, The Last Namsara. The book is the first installment of the planned series, Iskari, which features a strong heroine, dragons, dragons slayers and a lot more.

The Last Namsara will release in October but you can pre-order your copies now. There are signed copies available from Words Worth Books. So placed your order before copies runs out!

Following the author interview is Kristen Ciccarelli’s author bio along with places where to find her online. Then there’s also the book description and where to pre-order copies of The Last Namsara. And if you would like the chance to win a signed advance readers copy of The Last Namsara, Kristen is giving away one below. Just enter the rafflecopter form a bit further down in this post. I hope you guys enjoy the interview.

Interview with Kristen Ciccarelli

What’s your journey to writerhood been like?
I’ve been writing stories since I could first string sentences together. It was my favourite thing to do as a kid/teen, but then I stopped was when I went away to school. I had this idea that my stories were childish and silly and worthless, and therefore I needed to leave them behind in order to “grow up”. I stopped writing for 5 years … and was completely miserable. It was only when I found myself crying at my desk everyday that I realized something was really wrong and let myself start to write again.

That was eight years ago now and since then I’ve definitely seen my share of publishing failure (I had an agent previously, got really close to selling a different book, went back to the query trenches when my former agent left publishing, etc). I rewrote my debut fantasy, The Last Namsara, three times from scratch over the course of a decade and I actually almost gave up on it just 5 months before it sold to HarperCollins in a 3-book deal. (Moral of the story: don’t give up!)

What was the biggest change you made to the book before it reached an agent/editor/publisher?
I rewrote this book several times, and each time it changed pretty drastically. But the biggest change I made just before I started getting offers on it was probably fleshing out the old stories and pulling them out of the narrative, making them stand on their own in between chapters. Also, a significant character who died off the page previously now dies on the page (my editor sobbed when she read it). So consider yourself warned!

What inspired The Last Namsara?
A lot of things! 1. My love of dragons, badass girls, and romance. 2. My belief in the power and complexity of stories. 3. A desire to write a book that, at its heart, is about reclaiming yourself.

Please give us an insight into your main character, Asha. Aside from being a dragon slayer, what makes her special for you to tell her story?
I gave a lot of my own wounds to Asha. In particular, my shame. Asha is deeply ashamed of the old stories–which are the things she uses to lure dragons to her–because she told one as a child and it summoned a dragon named Kozu, who nearly destroyed her city and left her with a scar. So she hunts dragons to make amends for what she did, but she’s deeply ashamed of how she hunts them (telling these forbidden, deadly stories).

The Last Namsara is the first book in a planned series. Did you know this was going to be a series when you first wrote the story? Do you already have longer story arcs outlined?
I knew I wanted The Last Namsara to stand alone, but I also knew I wasn’t finished with the characters or the world. So when my agent offered, I told her I would really, really love to sell it as a 3-book series, with all three books being told from the perspective of different characters (Asha, Roa, and Safire). I had pitches for the 2nd and 3rd books ready to go when The Last Namsara went out on submission and, because my agent is fierce and amazing, that’s exactly how she sold it.

What are your ambitions for your writing career?
It would be a dream to be able to keep writing the books I love and have those books find readers who love them too. That’s all I want.

If you could pick one fantasy world to live in, which would it be and why?
Either the world of Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials (because hello daemons! And armoured bears! And Dust!) or the world of Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom (I want to use charter magic and fly in a paper wing and be one of the many girls carrying weapons like it’s totally no big deal).

And lastly before we end this interview, can you please share a snippet/teaser from The Last Namsara to intrigue and tantalize us before the book hit the shelves in few weeks.
Of course! Here’s an excerpt from the scene where Asha comes face to face with the dragon who burned her eight years previous:

A shadow fell across her. She looked up to see a dragon circling. Black as ink. Black as a still pool on a moonless night. Black as Asha’s eyes.
She drew the axe at her hip.
Kozu landed with a thud. The earth trembled beneath him. His shadow shot over her, cloaking her in darkness. His scales gleamed and his slitted yellow eye drank her in. Asha’s eyes did the same, fixing on his scar. A mirror image of hers, it ran down his serpentine face, cutting through his eye, marring those inky scales. Two horns twisted out of his head, perfect for goring prey; and on each foot were five talons, sharp as knives. As wide as a courtyard, his wings remained outspread—a show of just how large he was, how easily he could crush her.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kristen Ciccarelli hails from Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula where she grew up on her grandfather’s grape farm. She’s made her living as a baker, a bookseller, and a potter, but now writes books about bloodthirsty dragons, girls wielding really cool weapons, and the transformative power of stories. You can learn more at http://www.kristenciccarelli.com.

Find Kristen

Website | Facebook | Newsletter | Instagram | Goodreads

ABOUT THE BOOK

Book Details:

Title: The Last Namsara
Series: Iskari
Author: Kristen Ciccarelli
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: October 03, 2017
Pages: 432
Format: Hardcover, eBook, Audio

Kristen Ciccarelli’s debut fantasy explores an intricately woven world of deception, inner darkness, and dragons that fantasy fans won’t be able to resist.

In the beginning, there was the Namsara: the child of sky and spirit, who carried love and laughter wherever he went. But where there is light, there must be dark—and so there was also the Iskari. The child of blood and moonlight. The destroyer. The death bringer.

These are the legends that Asha, daughter of the king of Firgaard, has grown up hearing in hushed whispers, drawn to the forbidden figures of the past. But it isn’t until she becomes the fiercest, most feared dragon slayer in the land that she takes on the role of the next Iskari—a lonely destiny that leaves her feeling more like a weapon than a girl.

Asha conquers each dragon and brings its head to the king, but no kill can free her from the shackles that await at home: her betrothal to the cruel commandant, a man who holds the truth about her nature in his palm. When she’s offered the chance to gain her freedom in exchange for the life of the most powerful dragon in Firgaard, she finds that there may be more truth to the ancient stories than she ever could have expected. With the help of a secret friend—a slave boy from her betrothed’s household—Asha must shed the layers of her Iskari bondage and open her heart to love, light, and a truth that has been kept from her.

Book Links

Giveaway:

What’s up for Grab?

Signed ARC of The Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli

The Rules:

Open International
There will be one (1) winner
Winner will be chosen and announced by rafflecopter
Winner will be contacted thru email & should response within 48 hours
Ends September 12th, 2017
Prize will be sent by the author

To enter fill out the rafflecopter form

Good Luck!!!

Treat yourself to a complete #CelebratingDebutantes2017 experience. Click the image below for the full list of schedule and links to each feature post or check out twitter and facebook using #CelebratingDebutantes2017.

Today I’m featuring new author Heather Fawcett and her fantasy novel, Even the Darkest Stars as part of Celebrating Debutantes 2017 blog event.

Even the Darkest Stars releases in few weeks, don’t forget to pre-order your copies.

Following the author interview is Heather Fawcett’s author bio along with places where to find her online. Then there’s also the book description and where to pre-order copies of Even the Darkest Stars. And if you would like the chance to win a copy of the book and a signed bookplate, Heather is giving away below. Just enter the rafflecopter form a bit further down in this post to be enter on the giveaway.

Interview with Heather Fawcett

What’s your journey to writerhood been like? What inspired your debut novel, Even the Darkest Stars?
I’ve been writing since I was very young (5 or 6), almost exclusively fantasy. I also love rock climbing and hiking, and I’m fascinated by explorers.

You’ve written some short stories before, how did those prepare you in writing a full length fantasy novel?
Writing a novel is a much different experience from writing a short story. I would say that university was better at preparing me for the discipline necessary to write a novel–just that experience of setting daily word count targets to get a piece of writing done. Though meeting those targets is far harder when you’re working on an essay on medieval poetry…

What was the biggest change you’ve made to the story before it reached an agent, editor, or publisher?

I actually didn’t make any major changes to the story prior to finding an agent–I think that makes me fairly unusual! I certainly revised it, but structural changes were minimal.

Can you please give us an insight into your main character, Kamzin. What does she do that is so special?
Good question! I think what I like most about Kamzin is that she’s a very active person. She isn’t so much swept along by events as she is the driver of them. That’s something I admire in people both real and fictional.

If you could bring Kamzin to other fantasy world with you, where would you two live in and why?

I love so many fantasy worlds that it’s hard to pick just one! Perhaps Middle Earth–I have a feeling Kamzin could have scaled Mount Doom a lot more efficiently than Frodo and Sam 😉

What are your ambitions for your writing career?

To write more books! Seriously, though, I love YA, and would like to write more in that genre. I’d also love to try my hand at middle grade.

After the release of Even the Darkest Stars, what can we expect from you in the future? Anything you can tell about the sequel?

Oh, I wish I could share details about the sequel. I think the most I can say at the moment is that I’m very happy with it so far, and I hope readers will be too.

And lastly before we end this interview, can you please share a snippet from Even the Darkest Stars to intrigue and tantalize us before the book hit the shelves in few weeks.

Absolutely! Here’s a quote that I think may give readers a sense of Kamzin’s character. In this passage, she’s reflecting on her life in the small village where she grew up.

As much as I loved Azmiri, I didn’t fit there. I never had. Life in the village was small and quiet and contained, while I craved noise and excitement and wide-open spaces stretched out before me like a blank scroll upon which I could write my own stories.