The Next Big Thing Post

I have been tapped to do The Next Big Thing by George Ivanoff, quite late in the piece, which means that nearly everyone I have tapped myself has already done it or is busy. It's meant to be a chain, so if any writer reading this would like to do it, get in touch. You do have to have a web site, because effectively it's like doing an interview on your own site. However, if you'd rather do it on my site I would be happy to host you.

Below are the questions George sent me.

1) What is the [working] title of your next book?

The working title is The Sword And The Wolf, but I'm not good at titles. That said, when I did a writers' workshop with it, the publisher from Tor thought the title was fine!

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

It's a prequel to Wolfborn. I felt that the story of Etienne and his friends, Armand, Sylvie, Jeanne and the werewolf knight, Geraint, was told, but there were some lesser characters in the novel whose stories I believed needed expanding. I fell in love with King Luiz, who mostly appears as a sort of deus ex machina near the end of Wolfborn, but turned out to be a likeable person and I wondered about his teenage years. And there was a lesser baddie who also took my interest, so he is worked in too. The universe is the same, but it's set during an interregnum when the king had been killed in battle and his heir had gone missing. Yes, there's an Arthurian flavour to it.

3) What genre does your book fall under?

YA fantasy. It has werewolves in it, but it's a mediaeval fantasy, not the standard urban fantasy.

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

I'm still thinking about it. Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark in Game Of Thrones, would be about the right age now for the role of my heroine, Lysette, and has the right style. Her mentor Amrys, the former court wizard who got locked in a tree by his last apprentice and missed the young prince's growing up, needs to be someone fortyish, as he was frozen in time. He's not an ancient man with a long beard, he's more like Mary Stewart's Merlin. Maybe Hugo Weaving.:-)

5) What's the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Teen werewolf girl lets a wizard out of a tree and finds herself caught up in the search for a lost prince - a very cute lost prince! :-)

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

I don't do self-published. Agents? Over the years I have had to represent myself, because any agent I approached either had full books or didn't bother to reply, even to an inquiry letter( I never sent them a manuscript unsolicited). Publishers know me now, so usually at least read the MS, even if they say no. That said, any agent reading this is welcome to contact me! ;-). Otherwise I will first offer it to publishers I have dealt with before. Then, if no luck, I will try others.

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

My first draft is not finished. And it's taken ages! Still, I'm around 60,000 words in.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I don't think it's exactly like anything I've read. The closest, though, would be a cross between Tamora Pierce's Wolf-Speaker and Mary Stewart's The Hollow Hills.

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

My previous novel was full of aristocrats, even if they did have to live wild. I thought I'd see what life might be like for a peasant werewolf who managed to avoid being lynched.

10) What else might pique the reader's interest?

Oh, lots of adventure, a little romance, prehistoric animals, humour. There's not enough humour in YA fantasy novels in my opinion. If you're curious, check this out: She Bursztynski Reads Her Fiction - it's me reading from the manuscript. And if you're curious about my published novel, there's a sample chapter on this site, just look at the side, or wander over to YouTube, where I'm reading from the book here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5izWm0i33s

And I have also done a Current Big Thing post about Wolfborn here.

Thanks, George, for inviting me!