Waiting On Wednesday #169 - The Queen Of Blood

Waiting On Wednesday, where we put the spotlight on upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating, is hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

This week's choice is -

The Queen Of Blood - Sarah Beth Durst

ISBN - 9780062413345

Publisher - Harper Voyager

Release date - September 20 2016

Find - Goodreads | Book Depository 

An idealistic young student and a banished warrior become allies in a battle to save their realm in this first book of a mesmerizing epic fantasy series, filled with political intrigue, violent magic, malevolent spirits, and thrilling adventure.

Everything has a spirit: the willow tree with leaves that kiss the pond, the stream that feeds the river, the wind that exhales fresh snow...

But the spirits that reside within this land want to rid it of all humans. One woman stands between these malevolent spirits and the end of humankind: the queen. She alone has the magical power to prevent the spirits from destroying every man, woman, and child. But queens are still just human, and no matter how strong or good, the threat of danger always looms.

With the position so precarious, young women are chosen to train as heirs. Daleina, a seemingly quiet academy student, is under no illusions as to her claim to the throne, but simply wants to right the wrongs that have befallen the land. Ven, a disgraced champion, has spent his exile secretly fighting against the growing number of spirit attacks. Joining forces, these daring partners embark on a treacherous quest to find the source of the spirits’ restlessness - a journey that will test their courage and trust, and force them to stand against both enemies and friends to save their land... before it’s bathed in blood.

Every time Sarah Beth Durst releases a book I mean to read it, I add it to my wishlist and then never get round to it! This one though will be mine as soon as possible. The Queen Of Blood sounds fantastic, it has magic and I love the idea of everything having a spirit. Definitely one to look out for!

Guest Post: On Characterization - Gerrard Cowan

Today on Bookish I'm thrilled to welcome Gerrard Cowan, author of The Machinery! Gerrard was one of the fifteen authors chosen by Harper Voyager during their open submissions a couple of years back for his novel The Machinery. Look out for my review of The Machinery coming tomorrow but in the meantime happy book birthday Gerrard!

Don’t Forget The Grey Bits

One of the main challenges an author faces is characterisation. I have heard many different methods and techniques writers employ to create believable protagonists. You should pull together separate biographies for each of them. You should go down to the pub or the supermarket, and listen to the way people talk. You should base your characters on people you know, like your partner or your friends (not sure this one is very advisable).

For me, it was more a process of trial and error. I developed a rough idea of who each character was, but I didn’t write it down: it was just in my head. I then launched into writing, and over the course of several years and many drafts, my picture of each of them grew increasingly clear.

But that’s just the way it worked for me, and I certainly wouldn’t advise against preparing detailed sketches before you begin, or taking whatever other approach works for you. One thing I would say, however, is that you should remember to colour in the grey bits. 

In today’s fantasy genre, you rarely come across characters that are totally good or totally evil. George RR Martin’s books are the classic example, but the same applies to the other big names in the genre. I absolutely love Mark Lawrence’s Broken Empire Trilogy. The main character in these, Jorg Ancrath, is on paper a very dislikeable guy, but you end up rooting for him. At least I did.

Anyway, I am likely preaching to the converted. Fantasy readers demand nothing less than rounded, complex characters these days. But how do you go about doing this? How do you find the grey bits?

For me, the trick was to focus on the details. One of the main characters of The Machinery is Aranfal, who is a member of the Watchers: a kind of police service meets intelligence agency. It’s made clear early on that he is a torturer, whose particular technique to extract information from someone is to hurt his or her loved ones. Clearly he’s not the nicest guy in the world. However, at the same time, he isn’t a fire-breathing ghoul. He has been twisted by his membership of the Watchers, whose modus operandi is torture. He joined the organisation as a bright-eyed youth, confident that he could change its ways of working: in the end, it changed him.

Now, this is not to excuse his actions. But there is more to him than a cruel torturer. One day, when I was describing his living quarters, I suddenly found myself writing about his collection: rows of shelves in which he keeps ancient trinkets that he has found through his travels around the country. In essence, this ruthless, blood-stained man is also an antiques enthusiast. That little detail seemed to add such depth to him.

In a strange way, it’s actually harder finding the grey in your good guys, who can easily come across as boring and wooden if you’re not careful. The heroine of The Machinery is Katrina Paprissi, a young Apprentice Watcher who is struggling to establish herself as a full Watcher. It took me a while to find her voice: I really didn’t want her to come across as a vapid do-gooder. I eventually hit upon the idea of giving her a tired, world-weary viewpoint, which is a little jarring in a young person. She has witnessed some terrible things: she saw her brother being kidnapped when she was a child, and the subsequent breakdown of her family. It made sense that she should have a kind of jaded view of the world.

There’s no particular trick to finding the grey bits. One thing I do, however, is to imagine the opposite of what we might naturally expect from a character. So, if we have a man who is hard and cruel, imagine him being loving and caring. You can’t do this every time. However, you can then move along the spectrum, from the very opposite point, until you find something you can picture fitting with the character.

Finding the grey bits is a challenge, but it’s also a lot of fun. You would never use just one or two words to sum up the entire personality of a friend or family member: it should be the same with the characters in your book. 

 

About The Author

 

 

Gerrard Cowan is a writer and editor from Derry, in the North West of Ireland. His debut fantasy novel, The Machinery, will be published by HarperVoyager UK in September 2015. It is the first in a trilogy.

His first known work was a collection of poems on monsters, written for Halloween when he was eight; it is sadly lost to civilisation...

 

Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Facebook

 

Book Haul #112, Or The One Where I Bought All The Books... Again!

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly event hosted on Tynga's Reviews where we can share what new books we've picked up this past week be they bought, borrowed or downloaded. There are also lots of other 'book haul' memes out there for you to choose from!

So, since my last book haul post, I may have gone slightly mad... It's been 42 days and in those 42 days 30 new books have appeared in the house *looks round in shame at all the stacks* Of the books I bought a lot were finished copies of review books that I got signed at ComicCon & YALC and I knew I was going to go overboard there. Getting them home was another matter...

The rest are review titles and include some amazing books that I can't wait to read! I'm taking part in ARC August so I'm hoping some of them will get chosen from the Jar of Shame (my Netgalley version of a TBR jar!)

Bought

The Dead House | First Class Murder | Ink & Bone

The Accident Season

Black Cairn Point

Cloud 9

Darkhaven

Darkmere

Flesh & Blood 

Frozen Charlotte

The Potion Diaries

Sleepless 

Review

Fans of the Impossible Life | Illuminae | This Is Where It Ends

A Thousand Nights

Birdy 

The Bones of You

First One Missing

Hacked

The Kiss

The Loney

Monsters

Nest

One

The Ripper Gene

Robin Hood: Mark of the Black Arrow 

Swerve

The Unnoticeables

Zeroes

Book Haul #111, Or The One Where A Minor Miracle Happened...

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly event hosted on Tynga's Reviews where we can share what new books we've picked up this past week be they bought, borrowed or downloaded. There are also lots of other 'book haul' memes out there for you to choose from!

So... I haven't done a book haul post for nearly two months. It doesn't feel like it's been that long but blog posts don't lie! And, as the title suggests, I realized that in the last seven or so weeks I have only bought one book. That's it. It would appear that the way to stop me buying books is to be busy/tired/rundown/on holiday and not looking at the internet! But you know what this means? It's nearly ComicCon time so I can go mad without feeling guilty.

I may only have bought one book but I've received/downloaded some amazing review titles since the end of April. I'm not going to list them all (there's a lot!) but the books below are the ones I'm probably most looking forward to reading.

Bought

For Review

An Ember In The Ashes

Beneath London

Children of Time

House of Windows

If You Wrong Us

The Potion Diaries

Skin

Until We Meet Again

Updraft

After Alice

Catacomb

In Darkling Wood

Suicide Notes From Beautiful Girls

Time Salvager

The Wolf Wilder

Book Haul #73

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly event hosted on Tynga's Reviews where we can share what new books we've picked up this past week be they bought, borrowed or downloaded. There are also lots of other 'book haul' memes out there for you to choose from!

Another great week on the buying front, one pre-order which I've been waiting for what feels like forever and a special edition hardcover of one of my favorite books. I think my postman thinks I'm sick or something as he hasn't had to stagger up the path under the weight of a dozen parcels! To make up for the lack of buying books it was library week this week so a nice big stack of books appeared on Thursday, lots of great reading for Easter.

Bought

Dreams of Gods & Monsters | Fahrenheit 451

Borrowed

The Other Life | Daughter of the Blood | Black City

Dearly Beloved | Happy Ever After | Dreams & Shadows

Dark Hear Surrender | Exit Kingdom | Boy Snow Bird

The Ninth Circle | Jasmyn | Bird Box

Book Haul #56

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly event hosted on Tynga's Reviews and Letterbox Love is a UK edition hosted by Narratively Speaking. Here we can share what new books we've picked up this past week. There are also lots of other 'book haul' memes out there for you to choose from!

So, January 1st is just around the corner and my year of not buying books starts! I'm making the most of these last few days of buying and picking up books that I really want to read but know that my library won't get in. Unless I get books for Christmas - which I never do - this will probably be my last big book haul :( But on the bright side, I have Unhinged!!!

Bought

Witch Finder - Ruth Warburton

When the Sea is Rising Red - Cat Hellisen

Between the Devil & the Deep Blue Sea - April Genevieve Tucholke

A Darkness Strange & Lovely - Susan Dennard

All Our Pretty Songs - Sarah McCarry

Skarlet - Thomas Emson

Goth Girl & the Ghost of a Mouse - Chris Riddell

Unhinged - A G Howard

Kindle

Fae - C J Abedi

The Secret of Isobel Key - Jen McConnel

Doon - Carey Corp & Lorie Langdon

The Winter Witch - Paula Brackston

Kindle Freebies

Sunset Rising - S M McEachern

Descended - Debra Ann Miller

Library

Perfect Ruin - Lauren Destafano

The Wood Queen - Karen Mahoney

Dark Heart Rising - Lee Monroe

Monster High - Lisi Harrison

Black Ships - Jo Graham

Red Rock - Kate Kelly

The Silence of Ghosts - Jonathan Aycliffe

Night School: Fracture - C J Daugherty

The Shadow Year - Hannah Richell

Ice - Sarah Beth Durst

For review

Mistress of the Wind - Michelle Diener

Maybe One Day - Melissa Kantor

Book Haul #50

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly event hosted on Tynga's Reviews and Letterbox Love is a UK edition hosted by Narratively Speaking. Here we can share what new books we've picked up this past week. There are also lots of other 'book haul' memes out there for you to choose from!

I've had an amazing week, the obvious highlight being the signing I went to on Tuesday featuring Patrick Rothfuss and Scott Lynch... Totally worth the two hour wait in the queue and they were both such lovely chaps! Back at my dad's for two weeks, his phone is fixed but internet access remains spotty - on and off quicker than I can keep up with! I'm putting up with it though and trying to draft posts as and when it lets me.  Anyway, here's what I got this week - considering I was stood in amongst the shelves at Forbidden Planet for so long I'm surprised I didn't end up with more!

Bought

The Republic of Thieves - Scott Lynch

Mort - Terry Pratchett

Raising Steam - Terry Pratchett

Hide Me Among the Graves - Tim Powers

The Demon King - Cinda Williams Chima

Rags & Bones - Melissa Marr

Kindle

Tyger Tyger - Kersten Hamilton

The Iron Bells - Jeanette Battista

The Ghost House - Helen Phifer

Won

The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch

From Gollancz

Beauty - Sarah Pinborough

All in all, a great week for me - special thanks to Gollancz for sending me a copy of Beauty, looking forward to reading it once I've read Poison and Charm. And yay, new Terry Pratchett (Raising Steam) and old Terry Pratchett (Mort) re-released in hardcover with a luscious cover. To start with the first 21 books in the Discworld series are all being re-released in this special hardcover with new covers and being the fan that I am I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy most if not all of them!