Guest Interview: Liana Brooks, author of Decoherence

Welcome, Liana Brooks, author of the science fiction thrillers The Day Before, Convergence Point, (available now) and Decoherence (available in November 2016 from HarperVoyager) to It's All About Story.

You can find Liana at her blog: http://www.lianabrooks.com/
And her books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Liana-Brooks/e/B007S9DB2A

1) Describe Decoherence in one paragraph.

Decoherence is the final chapter in the Time & Shadows trilogy. It's where all the loose threads get tied up, and we finally see what happened to Jane Doe who was found in chapter one of book one (The Day Before.)

2) What inspired Decoherence?

Decoherence was never alone in the universe, I guess. It's the natural conclusion to the rest of the series and so I'm not sure it was inspired by anything outside that universe. It was influenced by things on the outside. I think little pieces of other stories snuck in. There might be a nod to Agent Carter in there.

3) Were The Day Before, Convergence Point, and Decoherence your first works of fiction?

Oh, no. The Day Before was my first published novel, but it was nowhere near the first one I wrote. That one is moldering under my bed somewhere. You do not want to see my first novel. I don't want you to see my first novel. It's embarrassing.

The Time & Shadows trilogy is the first series I've written and published completely. The reading order is: The Day Before, Convergence Point, Decoherence.


4) What song or music piece would you put on a soundtrack for Decoherence?

I put together a 30-song playlist for Decoherence. It is mostly from Two Steps From Hell's Battlecry album. If I had to pick a single song, it would be Canon in D Minor from that album. I love the energy and the mood. It really works with where Sam (the heroine) is at throughout the book. She is fighting so hard to hold on to reality and rescue Mac, she's fighting herself at every turn, but she won't quit fighting.

5) Which character in Decoherence was easy to write? Which was the most difficult?

The easiest scenes are always when Sam and Mac are together. I've been writing them as a pair since 2009, throughout many (far too many) drafts of The Day Before and Convergence Point. They're my sweet spot. They play off each other well and they're just fun to write.

The hardest part to write was anything where I had to juggle multiple Sams. Because there is time travel and the multiverse theory, I wound up with three (four?) Sams in Decoherence. Writing them each as a unique person with her own personality and style was a wonderful challenge.

6) What is your writing space like? Or can you write anywhere?

I can write anywhere (because I have a handy-dandy folding Bluetooth keyboard), but I prefer to write from my office. My family moved to Alaska in the middle of winter and I couldn't fly up to see the house we were renting, we just picked one that had enough bedrooms. And when we got there I found this odd little corner room that's too small for a bedroom, but works perfectly as an office. I have a view of the pine trees out my window (and snow during the winter), and it's a cozy nook for writing.

But, I wrote about half of Decoherence on the folding keyboard while my kids were at sports practice. I'd put in headphones, write a chapter in an email to myself, and edit the next day. You have to be flexible.

7) Any odd writing habits? Rituals?

You know, I think writing habits and rituals are a luxury you earn after you've written a few dozen books and have no small children at home. Maybe someone else has it figured out, but for me all I need is some headspace away from stress and a keyboard. If I waited for the perfect conditions to get a book done, it would never get done.

8) George R.R. Martin describes 2 kinds of outliners, the Gardener (let it grow) or the Architect (plan it.) Which are you?

I'm a Gardener by habit and an Architect because of training. There is no way to finish a series without a little bit of planning. You can write one while being as wild and free as the flowers, but pulling all the plot strings together and wrapping up the story in a satisfying way requires planning. Not a ton, but you do need to think a few steps ahead of where you're writing if you want to get to The End.

9) What are some of your favorite world myths or fairy/folk tales? Why?

Oh, that is a good one. I don't think I actually had a favorite fairy tale. I grew up on Tolkien, not the Brothers Grimm, so I'm at a bit of a disadvantage here. I suppose....1001 Arabian Nights, because a woman was able to save herself through the power of her storytelling. And anything with dragons or mermaids.

10) What is your favorite fictional world, one you'd want to visit?

I'd like to hang out with the crew of the Warhammer from The Price of the Stars/Mageworlds series. It was my favorite series in high school and their good advice got me though some rough days.

11) Who is your favorite fictional character?

Oh, that's a tough one. This is like asking me to pick a favorite child. Let's go with Harry Dresden. I like a person who fights losing battles just to save friends.

12) What is the best writing advice you've ever received?

Either quit whining and write, or quit writing.

That was the swift kick in the pants I needed to get The Day Before finished, polished, and published. It's always easier to complain about writing, while not writing. But, if you want to be a published author, eventually you have to shut your mouth and get writing. It's going to be hard, so suck it up and write anyways, or go find something that you love so you don't whine.

13) In Decoherence, are there any hidden acknowledgements to friends, places you've lived, favorite writers, etc;

Here's the short list...

Cannonvale, Australia--because my best friend and spiritual twin, Amy Laurens, lives in Australia.

New Smyrna Beach, Florida--because I lived not far south of there for four years and wanted to introduce the mangal swamps to everyone in Convergence Point.

Alabama--because that's where I lived when I started writing the series.

Donovan (the villain in Convergence Point)--is actually named after one of my beta readers

....and there's one more in the very last chapter that I think you'll be able to figure out all on your own.

14) Can you tell us anything else about your writing experiences?

When I started writing seriously back in 2007 or so, I had no big plans I was going to write my weird, little books and see what happened. By reading widely and writing regularly, I finally reached a point where I could not only tell a good story, but I had an inkling of an idea of what readers wanted. The sweet spot for a published author is where our interests and our fans' interests collide.

15) What do we have to look forward to after Decoherence?

I have five projects on my desk right now waiting for attention, including the long-awaited Even Villains 4. There's another novella series that I've been teasing on Twitter for a few months now, and that kicks off with Bodies in Motion next spring. And then, hopefully, one of these novels I'm pitching will find a home in the next few months and I'll be able to announce that series.

In the meantime, I publish monthly short stories on The Darkness and Good blog (http://www.lianabrooks.com/tag/darkness-and-good/ ) with Thea van Diepen and Amy Laurens, so you can always catch me there or on Twitter at @LianaBrooks.

Thank you, Liana!

10 Favorite Literary Witches

Okay, so most of them are women, (because I don't believe men can be witches.) Although there is one warlock. And not all of them are wicked. Here are my favorites and the reasons why.

1) ELPHABA Gregory Maguire's Wicked. Green-skinned and rebellious, Elphaba begins fighting for the rights of the sentient animals in her world. She doesn't start out wicked, only idealistic. A fantastic heroine.

2) JADIS The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. A terrifying and seductive snow queen, she's one of the best villains EVER.

3) MAGNUS BANE The City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. The High Warlock of Brooklyn is unpredictable, shady, brave, and a trickster.

4) SERAFINA PEKKALA The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman. The beautiful and valorous witch who rides a broom and leads an army of witches. Immortal and compelling.

5) HERMIONE GRANGER The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. She grows from an annoyingly precocious child into a brainy and courageous young woman with the fiercest wand around.

6) JENNY WAYNEST Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly. She's officially a wizard, but the wizards are an eccentric tribe, like scientists and creatives, only maligned. Middle-aged and daring, with a be-spectacled husband who killed a dragon, she's a force to be reckoned with.

7) MELANCTHE The Green Pearl by Jack Vance. Solitary, mysterious, and beautiful, she's a powerful enchantress in a magical world of kings and fairy creatures.

8) THE DUST WITCH Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. She's horrifying and elemental,a  feature of a sinister carnival.

9) LANGWIDERE The Oz books by L. Frank Baum. The princess who collects other girl's heads to wear as her own. Disturbing to say the least.

10) CIRCE The Odyssey by Homer. Another solitary sorceress on an island. She turns men into animals if they anger her and lures a hero into her home.

Halloween Story Contest

So this is how it works. Make up a brief story (between 50-100 words) about the picture below. Make this wholly your own and nothing to do with Thorn Jack. The story must contain these words to be eligible:

Poison
Scrawl
Virtuous
Knot
Skin

There will be one grand prize winner and 3 runners up.

The grand prize is the entire Thorn Jack trilogy in trade paperback, signed, as well as the printed out manuscript of a lost Thorn Jack chapter (short story titled TRIBUTE), a butterfly mask, a Fata flower wreath, a fortunetelling game, an original print of one of my paintings, & some lovely trinkets.


The following prizes will be rewarded to each of the three runners up.

1ST PRIZE: Day of the Dead  art book by Russ Thorne + some beautiful trinkets

2ND PRIZE: The Story of Pandora coloring book + a trinket

3RD PRIZE: Pop Manga Coloring Book by Camilla d'Errico + a trinket

Email your entry to katherine@katherineharbour.com. MAKE SURE TO PUT THE STORY IN THE BODY OF THE EMAIL. NO ATTACHMENTS.

THE CONTEST ENDS ON NOV. 20

The winner will be announced on this blog and on my Twitter (@katharbour) after Nov. 20, so keep posted!

This contest is available only to residents of the U.S. and Canada.

Happy Halloween!

10 YA Fantasy Books You should Read if You've Never Read YA

THE RAVEN BOYS by Maggie Stiefvater

Five young people in a contemporary rural town search for a legendary Welsh King. Even with bit parts, the adults are just as interesting as the young protagonists, who are beautifully rendered individuals. And there are some fabulous villains. Blue, the girl whose first kiss will lead to the death of the boy who kisses her, is a beguiling hero, and the four boys each have their own personal demons. The beginning of a four book series.

IN THE SERPENT'S COILS by Tiffany Trent

Set after the Civil War, this fantasy series is about a group of young women who have been targeted by the malevolent fairy folk. The fairy prince is seductive and terrifying, not the typical romantic villain. Each book in this series features a different heroine and her battle against some truly monstrous fairies.

SERVANTS OF THE STORM by Delilah Dawson

Truly creepy. Set in contemporary Savannah after a hurricane--which turns out to be a horrifying entity in itself. The heroine, Dovey, tries to save a dead friend's soul while discovering an original world of demons and otherworldly creatures. When she meets the seductive trickster Isaac, she's drawn even deeper into this world.

THE GOLDEN COMPASS by Phillip Pullman

A race of good witches, martial and intelligent polar bears, animal familiars, and a tough young heroine and hero make this an original fairy tale for all ages. It's got a steampunk flare and wonderful villains.

DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE by Laini Taylor

A romance between an angel and a demon, but not what you think. The angels are a warrior race who have tried to conquer what they feel is the inferior race--the monstrous looking Chimerae. Karou is a young woman living in Prague, raised by benevolent Chimerae. When she meets Akiva, a fierce, winged, young man, an ancient romance is revealed between them.

NAMELESS/WAYFARER/KIN by Lili St. Crow

Darker shades of 'Once' in this fantasy series about a friendship between a contemporary Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and Snow White, in a future that has been transformed by the arrival of magic. Detailed, original worldbuilding and the genuine way in which the three girls care about each other make this series highly enjoyable for fairy tale lovers.

THE WINTER PRINCE by Elizabeth E. Wein

A different and disturbing take on King Arthur, centering around Medraut, King Artos's eldest, bastard son. His half-brother Lleu is their father's favorite. Medraut both loves and hates him. Artos's sister--Medraut's mother--is horrifying and bewitching. Themes of abuse and twisted family dynamics make this myth poignant and suspenseful.

THE DARKANGEL by Meredith Ann Pierce

Set in an alternative world on the moon, this strange and beautiful fantasy is about a girl named Aeriel who is stolen away, with her friend Eoduin, by one of the feared darkangels--a heartless and lovely creature who wants Eoduin as one of his wives and Aeriel as his servant. His wives are all phantoms because he's a vampire, and captive of an evil witch.

THE WHITE CAT by Holly Black

Cassel is a young man who lives, gypsy-like, in a secret world of almost gangster-like magic. Curse workers are a distrusted minority in this not-too-distant future. When he's betrayed by people he trusts, he must run a con of his own on the best magic-using con artists he knows. An urban fantasy with a dash of noir.

THE SILVER KISS by Annette Curtis Klause

Zoe is losing her mother to cancer. She's targeted by a feral and strange young man named Simon--whose enemy, a creature pretending to be an innocent little boy, stalks him. It's an exquisite tale of defeating monsters and accepting death. 

The Mythology of Briars, Nettles, and Thorns

Natural and beautiful, sharp and serpentine, usually found in the wild and unwanted in most tamed gardens, these plants have been used in folklore and witchcraft for centuries.

In the story of 'Sleeping Beauty,' the slumbering princess is surrounded by a wall of briars and brambles. (Brambles are also blackberry bushes and notorious faery fruit.) Briar Rose is another name for Sleeping Beauty, suggesting that her beauty might conceal prickles.

The nettle is known for its healing properties, despite being a stinging plant. Blind nettles are called Lamium album (A lamia is a female demon who kills babies.) The nettle plant wards off ghosts. It's the plant of the Noridic storm god Thor. In the fairy tale 'The Wild Swans,' a girl releases her brothers from their enchanted swan forms by placing nettle shirts over them.

Blackthorn and hawthorn are traditionally faery trees. Infamous for crowning sacrificial kings, thorns also blind the prince in the original 'Rapunzel.' Thorns pierce, shed blood. In 'Sleeping Beauty,' the princess punctures her finger on a spindle and falls under the spell. Snow White's real mother pricks her finger on a needle and uses that drop of blood to wish for a child. In 'Little Red Riding Hood,' Red Riding Hood is offered a choice by the wolf; the Path of Needles or the Path of Pins.

The spindle and the needle, symbolic thorns, set a story on its path.

Briars, nettles, and thorns symbolize barriers, pain, enchantment, but they also keep the vulnerable from being breached. In storytelling, they signify that life has teeth. And, like most faery things, they are beautiful, and something to be wary of.

The Awesomeness of Home by Beth Cato

This week's 'The Awesomeness of . . .' post comes from Beth Cato, author of The Clockwork Dagger series from Harper Voyager, which includes her Nebula-nominated novella Wings of Sorrow and Bone. Her newest novel is Breath of Earth. She's a Hanford, California native transplanted to the Arizona desert, where she lives with her husband, son, and requisite cat. Follow her at BethCato.com and on Twitter at @BethCato.

THE AWESOMENESS OF HOME by Beth Cato

I grew up near a naval air station in the smack dab middle of California. My mom told me, "Never date a sailor. If you marry him, you'll end up living far away." As it so happens, I met a man when I was just shy of turning nineteen; we fell in love; my parents approved of him; THEN he joined the United States Navy.

My mom's early warning was apt. During my husband's Navy years, we lived in South Carolina and Washington state, and we have now been civilians in Arizona for nine years. I have been away from my hometown of Hanford, California, for sixteen years, but a deep sense of homesickness has not abated.

Sure, there is a lot to complain about when it comes to California, especially my part of the state. I'm from the Great San Joaquin Valley, hundreds of miles of some of the richest, most diverse agricultural land in the world. It also ranks among the worst in the world as far as air pollution; in the summer, smog smothers the valley in murky brown. Many people are poor, working class. The racial divides are clear and tragic. Unemployment remains at a steady high.

But it's still home. My home. If my husband could find a job there, I'd move back in a heartbeat. As it is now, I'm lucky to make the long drive back once or twice a year. I delight in the faint yet bold wall of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the distance. I smile as we drive past row after row of walnut trees, orange groves, and raisin grape vineyards. I delight at the sight of lush fields of corn, and even the fragrant clusters of dairies.

I can't go back often. I can't live there. So I do what any writer does: I live vicariously. I write myself back home.

My new novel Breath of Earth isn't set in the San Joaquin Valley, but it's close: San Francisco. My version of 1906 features not-so-mythological creatures, geomancers who harvest the overflowing energy of the earth, and airships that traverse the skies. My heroine, Ingrid Carmichael, doesn't look like me in the slightest. We have different skin tones, cultures, and histories, but we do have a major thing in common: a fierce love and longing for our homes.

Home is awesome. A shared home in California, even more so. We both have roots in the central part of the state. We appreciate the diversity of our neighbors. Our home cities are a few hundred miles apart, but that's not far at all in the scheme of things.

The beauty of being a writer is that I can imagine myself into far away realms. Sure, I would love to see castles and moonscapes and alien civilizations, but when it comes down to it, most of all, I want to be home.

My house, husband, son, and cat may be in Arizona, but the home of my heart is some 500 miles northwest. For all its flaws, Hanford is an awesome place. No matter how many years I live away, it remains part of me, and will continue to inspire my writing . . . and a lot of homesickness, too.


You can find Beth's books here: Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Beth-Cato/e/B006S84MNO

And here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/breath-of-earth-beth-cato/1122785052;jsessionid=890BB5DEF8138CDC71875B7AAF03D71E.prodny_store01-atgap02?ean=9780062422064

The Awesomeness of Steampunk in Film by Brooke Johnson

Today's 'The Awesomeness of . . . ' post comes from guest author Brooke Johnson, creator of the wonderfully imaginative The Brass Giant and The Guild Conspiracy (Harper Voyager). Brooke is a stay-at-home mom and tea-loving author. As the jack-of-all trades bard of the family, she journeys through life with her husband, daughter, and dog. She currently resides in Northwest Arkansas but hopes one day to live somewhere a bit more mountainous.

Brooke's blog: http://brooke-johnson.com/
Twitter: @brookenomicon

THE AWESOMENESS OF STEAMPUNK IN FILM

This might be blasphemy as a steampunk author and reader, but my favorite medium for the steampunk genre is film--hands down. There is nothing quite like seeing a beautiful mechanical sculpture come to life on the screen, whether it's the steam castle in Steamboy, or something as a close-up of the gear makeup within the Jaegers of Pacific Rim.

That ratchet and clank, the hiss of steam, the grungy aesthetic of greased up gears and tarnished boilers, paraded across the screen in gorgeous cinematic CG glory. In my opinion, nothing brings steampunk to life better than film.

But the absolute pinnacle of steampunk in film has to be the 1999 film version of Wild Wild West. That movie holds a very special place in my heart, whatever that may say about my taste in cinema.

I think that film was my first real glimpse at the steampunk genre, and I probably owe much of my fascination with the genre to it. I was ten years old when it came out and absolutely mesmerized by all the machines and inventions. And as absurd as many of the gadgets in the film are--the dead-man's-last-vision projector, the locomotive steam tank, the giant mechanical spider, the rocket-powered flying bicycle, and the mustache-twirling villain Dr. Loveless's multifunctional wheelchair--these weird and marvelous inventions embody such creativity, exploring every avenue of what if. It was that unabashed sense of "Why not?" with regard to the technology that made me love it so much. To this day, it's my favorite steampunk-inspired film (and yes, I even re-watched it recently to make sure. Its pinnacle status still stands. Haters keep hatin'. I don't care).

Other films have successfully incorporated steampunk elements as well, and many of them have offered varying levels of inspiration to my steampunk novels. The steam castle in Steamboy lends its enormous engine chamber, with its gargantuan gears and colossal pistons, to the subcity beneath Chroniker City, and the mechanical soldiers in both that film and movies like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Hellboy II, and even Sucker Punch had an impact on my automaton design in The Brass Giant, and the designs of the mechs and war machines I wrote into The Guild Conspiracy.

But Wild Wild West probably offered the most inspiration, with its widespread integration of all things mechanical into every possible gadget. It gave me the courage to delve deeper into my steampunk world, to think beyond the more obvious and exciting applications of mechanical technology and dare to build even the most mundane machine out of clockwork and steam engines.

Chroniker City has steam rickshaws instead of automobiles or carriages, automated venting systems along the city streets, a cross between a trolley and a vertical lift combined into one multidirectional mode of city transport, and a mechanical theater that employs an orchestra of musical automatons instead of musicians. These things are unimportant to the larger plot, but I feel like they bring the steampunk element to life, just as important to the steampunk aesthetic as the war machine the main character designs and builds over the course of the story.

I only hope that my words bring these machines to life with the same visual wonder and imaginative creativity as the best computer-generated graphics of the big screen. If not? Well . . . get on that, Hollywood. It's high time for a steampunk blockbuster.

You can find Brooke's novels here: https://www.amazon.com/Brooke-Johnson/e/B006OOGR9O