Interview with Fantasy Author L. Blankenship

Today, I’m pleased to bring you an interview with L. Blankenship, who is one of my valued critique partners. A graduate of Viable Paradise, L. writes gritty hard fantasy and science fiction. She also blogs for both Unicorn Bell and Science in my Fiction.

She’s celebrating the release of her book Disciple, Part I, which she is self-publishing after a successful Kickstarter campaign.

The saints favor her, else-wise a peasant girl like Kate Carpenter would never be apprenticed to the kingdom’s master healer. But her patron saint also marks her ready for the duty of tending to a mission that must cross the ice-bound mountains. Their little kingdom faces invasion by a vast empire and desperately needs allies; across the snow-filled pass, through the deathly thin air, is a country that’s held off the empire and may be willing to lend an army.

Kate knows about frostbite and the everyday injuries of wilderness travel. She can heal those.

She’s not ready for the attentions of a ne’er-do-well knight and the kingdom’s only prince, though.

And she isn’t ready for the monsters that harry them night and day, picking off their archers first, wearing the party to exhaustion, pushing Kate beyond the limits her healing abilities.

She must keep them alive, or her blood will be on the snow too.

This is part one of a six-part series. Why does the series start here?

The secret mission across the mountains provided a way to introduce my main characters without dropping the readers directly into a very complicated situation. There's a simplicity to being out on the road and away from all the trappings of everyday life – which my characters have a lot of. Having met them in Part I, it's easier for readers to slide into all that information in Part II. There's also the simple and vital boy-meets-girl aspect of Part I, which is always a good place to start story.

What was the most difficult aspect of writing Disciple, Part I?

The romance elements have been difficult. There's a reason people have kept writing about romance for thousands of years. It's a heavily layered thing – everything from careful, left-brain logic to delicate right-brain emotions to bulldozer-subtle hormones. Readers have strong opinions about shoulds and shouldn'ts, and maintaining sympathy with the characters while they make mistakes and argue isn't easy.

Where did the idea for the Disciple series come from?

The idea for the romance in Disciple came from an online conversation about Titanic. Someone asserted that the romance only worked because Rose was upper-class and Jack was lower-class. They further asserted that if those were reversed, Rose would be a gold-digger and Jack would be an asshole slumming for tail. Neither would be a sympathetic character for the audience.

Naturally, I set about devising a romance where the poor girl was not a gold-digger and the rich guy was not an asshole. That's what I set out to write, at least. Along the way, things got more complicated than that because I wanted a very down-to-earth story about real and serious problems. So a war got thrown in the mix, and then magic, and it wasn't just a romance anymore.

What do you see as the advantages to self-publishing this series?

It's an eclectic combination of advantages. It's about having control over my product; I've been a graphic designer and prepress tech for 15 years and I've been involved in small press publishing, so on the technical end of self-publishing, I know what I want to do. I don't need to give a publisher a cut of the profits to do it for me.

It's also about keeping all the rights to this intellectual property I've sunk so much into – when did Titanic come out? 15 years ago? All writers put a vast amount of energy into their stories, and I'm not saying I've done more than anyone else. But the entertainment industry can be quite cutthroat, and there's a long history of starry-eyed artists being taken advantage of. I don't want to be one of those.

What advice do you have for other writers wanting to go the same route?

I wrote a series of posts about self-publishing on the Unicorn Bell blog, and I indexed them here. I'm sure to say more about self-publishing, so stay tuned to my blog.

What has been the most rewarding part of this process?

Fellow bloggers have been so kind getting the word out that I'm overwhelmed. When I was putting Disciple together, I was thrilled every time my artists sent me new sketches. This has been an exciting, yet nerve-wracking, six months since I decided to self-publish!

What’s next for Kate and her companions?

I'd like to take this chance to premiere the back cover blurb for Disciple, Part II: (Yay!)

The prince first kissed Kate Carpenter for fear of missing the chance if they didn’t survive the journey home through the monster-prowled mountains.

Now that kiss seems like a fever dream. It’s back to work for her, back to the fellow physicians jealous of her talents and the sneers of an infirmary director who wants her shipped off to some tiny village. Kate means to be on the front lines to save lives. She’s worked too hard to overcome her past to let them deny her the chance to serve her homeland when the enemy’s army reaches their kingdom.

The grand jousting tournament is a chance to prove she can manage combat wounded, and at the royal Solstice banquet Kate means to prove she isn’t an ignorant peasant girl anymore.

But the prince’s kiss still haunts her. Their paths cross at the joust, at the banquet, and the easy familiarity they earned on the journey home is a welcome escape from their duties. It’s a small slip from chatting to kisses.

Kate knows it’s foolish; he’s doomed to a political marriage. As a knight, he will be on the battleground this spring. The kingdom needs every defender, every physician, focused on the war. The vast and powerful empire is coming to slaughter anyone standing between them and the kingdom’s magical fount.

Kate ought to break both their hearts, for duty’s sake.

Thanks so much, L.!

Be sure to check out L.’s blog and follow her on twitter: @lblankenship_sf.

And remember! Disciple: Part I is available now in print from Amazon and CreateSpace as well as in a variety of ebook formats.

It's wonderful story, full of action and romance in a vividly imagined world. And the best part is, this is just the start of Kate's adventures!
 

Next Big Thing Meme

I was recently tagged by Fran Wilde, a fellow writer and friend I met at Taos Toolbox, to talk about my current Work-in-Progress. Be sure to learn more about her WIP Bone Arrow, Glass Tooth, which I had the privilege of reading part of at the workshop.

1. What is the title of your Work in Progress?

Fireproof

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

Well, for starters, it wasn’t always a book. It started out as a short story. My response to a particularly bad season of wildfires—one actually got very close to my house. I wondered what it would be like to live under threat of fires all the time, how that would define you as a person and shape your culture. And the idea evolved from there.

Around that time, Wily Writers announced their YA post-apocalyptic theme, and I wanted to submit Fireproof. But I soon realized that wasn’t possible—my short stories are often novels in disguise, and Fireproof was one of them. So I set it aside and wrote Chicken Feet (which was accepted by Wily Writers and later reprinted in The Shining Cities anthology). I then returned to Fireproof with the new goal of fleshing it out as a novel.

3. What genre does your book fall under?

YA Science Fiction

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Let’s see if it gets picked up first.

5. What is a one-sentence synopsis of the book?

I hate writing these. How about a paragraph?

Tanwen’s father trained her to be a survivor, but the colony will train her to be a spy. When a rogue collective takes aim at the colony’s water supply, she’s ordered to infiltrate enemy territory. Away from her family and friends, Tanwen must come to terms with all she thought she knew about her life. And when her mission objective changes from recon to sabotage, she’ll learn what’s really worth saving.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Representation, I hope. One day. Fingers crossed!

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

The idea was kicking around in my head Spring/Summer of 2011. Starting in Fall 2011, I started treating it as a novel and had a full draft by late Spring 2012. It’s complete and polished and I’m largely pleased with it, but still making the occasional tweak.

8. What other books would you compare this story to in your genre?

The dreaded comparables question? I think this meme hates me ;)

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

See Q2. I also wanted to explore a couple different themes:

• Sacrificing what you want for the good of the community
• How specialized education/skillsets can lock you into unwanted trajectories
• We don’t have to repeat the mistakes of our parents
• Grief and all the different shapes it takes
• And, of course, hope in the future

10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

The southwestern setting is a huge part of the story, despite its SF trappings. Many elements are rooted in the culture and the people who make the high desert their home—and some things were ripped straight from the headlines. Granted most readers won’t care about all that, but it was important for me to have that extra layer of authenticity.

I also wanted to present a possible, if not probable, apocalyptic scenario because so many other books gloss over what happens in the past. In Fireproof, the connections between what happened and its impact on the resulting society are tightly drawn, showing the messy transition from apocalyptic event to resulting post-apocalyptic society. One of my trusted readers called it a pre-post-apocalyptic story, which is awkward to say, but in some ways accurately captures my intention.

***

Thanks again to Fran Wilde for tagging me!

Cover Reveal and Giveaway for Disciple

Today, I'm happy to celebrate the cover reveal for L. Blankenship's Disciple Part 1- For Want of a Piglet!

A graduate of Viable Paradise, L. writes gritty hard fantasy and science fiction and blogs for both Unicorn Bell and Science in my Fiction.

I've had the good fortune of reading this story just over a year ago, and it's been an amazing to watch the journey from draft to book. And for a lucky entrant, you'll be able to get your hands on an early copy of the book before it releases on November 1, 2012. Just follow the Rafflecopter guidelines below.

About Disciple Part 1 - For Want of a Piglet:

The saints favor her, else-wise a peasant girl like Kate Carpenter would never be apprenticed to the kingdom’s master healer. But her patron saint also marks her ready for the duty of tending to a mission that must cross the ice-bound mountains. Their little kingdom faces invasion by a vast empire and desperately needs allies; across the snow-filled pass, through the deathly thin air, is a country that’s held off the empire and may be willing to lend an army.  

Kate knows about frostbite and the everyday injuries of wilderness travel. She can heal those.

She’s not ready for the attentions of a ne’er-do-well knight and the kingdom’s only prince, though. 

And she isn’t ready for the monsters that harry them night and day, picking off their archers first, wearing the party to exhaustion, pushing Kate beyond the limits her healing abilities. 

She must keep them alive, or her blood will be on the snow too.

***
To learn more about the Disciple series, check out Disciples of the Fount for updates and news about the other books in the series.

Follow the instructions below to enter the giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway  

Power of Story

I had a very productive writing session at the coffee shop yesterday. It was a nice day so I was able to ride my bike there—a good way to prime the mind. After settling in with my java, I wrote for about three hours. A new WIP. I’m still in the early this-story-is-awesome stage, where the words just pour forth. Always a great feeling.

Towards the middle of my session, after the noonday rush had emptied out and there were just a handful of people left in the café, a woman approached me and said, “Look at you! Still working so hard. What are you studying?”

I kinda blinked up at her in confusion and said I was writing. I was so in the zone I couldn’t come up with anything else. After some awkward chitchat (I write fiction, yes I’m published, no you won’t find my name on a book’s cover) she went back to her table where she was studying for some kind of exam, nursing I think. She was very sweet, but I was unprepared for her questions and felt like an idiot talking to her.

This incident taught me a few things.

1. I can apparently still pass for a college student.
2. People project themselves onto others all the time. Because she was a young woman at a coffee shop studying, I must be too.
3. Your average person equates writers to (printed) books. When I explained I had a couple short stories published, she got a confused look on her face then smiled politely and said “Oh.”
4. Writing could be seen as a study of the human condition, of ourselves and the world around us, negotiated on the page.

I still got another hour of work done after our talk. That’s the power of a good story, to help you forget the world around you. I could ignore the fact that she didn’t understand all the work that went into my short stories, all the work that still goes into them and my novel projects.

I could just focus on my words, my world, my story. And it was good.

Happy writing!