Author Interview + Giveaway: The Falconer by Elizabeth May

My readers know I'm not exactly a fan of faerie books, so it's a good thing I didn't realize THE FALCONER was a faerie book going in (I really thought she was a warrior who had a falcon. Nope.) or I might never have picked it up. And that would have been a shame. Because THE FALCONER was kick-ass.

Aileana kills faeries (yay!) for practice in order to toughen up to defeat her real target - the fae who murdered her mother. But she also teams up with a MLDF (mysterious loner dude faerie) and a pixie sidekick (Derrick, who I actually liked. I know. Stop the presses.) to thwart a whole army of fairies from destroying Edinburgh. In between all that, Aileana banters with her best friend and attends high society balls. It's all quite FUN, and an intriguing start to a new must-read series.

The official summary:

Edinburgh, 1844. Beautiful Aileana Kameron only looks the part of an aristocratic young lady. In fact, she’s spent the year since her mother died developing her ability to sense the presence of Sithichean, a faery race bent on slaughtering humans. She has a secret mission: to destroy the faery who murdered her mother. But when she learns she’s a Falconer, the last in a line of female warriors and the sole hope of preventing a powerful faery population from massacring all of humanity, her quest for revenge gets a whole lot more complicated. The first volume of a trilogy from an exciting new voice in young adult fantasy, this electrifying thriller blends romance and action with steampunk technology and Scottish lore in a deliciously addictive read.

Find out more about The Falconer and read an excerpt! See the trailer. Download the discussion guide.

The interview:

Which one of the inventions in THE FALCONER would you most like to be real?

Definitely Aileana’s ornithopter. The 1800s is full of different inventions and attempts at sustained flight. For a small blip in time, we had large passenger dirigibles circling New York and the pictures seem like something from a completely different world. Then the modern airplane became a staple in our skies, and new aircraft ideas are primarily based on that design. So it makes me sad that the single or double passenger ornithopter, which is such a lovely design, will probably not exist on the open market as it does in my book.

I might choose the stitcher spiders! Did you have any "darlings" that you had to kill in the editing process?

Surprisingly, a lot of scenes from the manuscript I went on submission with remained intact. I mean, they are completely different and I rewrote a great deal of them, but the scenes themselves are still there. I added a great deal of other snippets as well, but didn’t remove whole scenes (except the original ending, which is now the beginning of the second book). There were certain lines and turns of phrase that I loved and was asked to remove for pacing, so I did. But there wasn’t much I feel terribly heartbroken over removing.

If I were to come to Edinburgh as a tourist for one day, where would you take me?

Holyrood Park and St Margaret’s Loch – which has a lot of swans, and the picturesque ruins of St Anthony’s Chapel in the background – are absolutely beautiful. I think a lot of people come visit and miss seeing them, which is a shame because they’re so close to the Old Town. If you were feeling particularly sprightly, Arthur’s Seat is worth climbing for the views of the city and the Firth in the distance. I also highly recommend Calton Hill for views of the New Town, and Princes Street Gardens for a lovely cliff angle of Edinburgh Castle. And, of course, pubs! Edinburgh has excellent pubs.

6 Charlotte Square, where Aileana lives

Why did you decide to end THE FALCONER the way you did (on a very evil cliffhanger!)?

I know, it is evil – sorry! I’ll confess: The draft of The Falconer that I went on submission with was about 30 pages longer. It also ended on a cliffhanger, because I arced the books in such a way that it’s three parts of a single story.

But my editor looked at the original ending of the book and suggested I make it the beginning of the second book instead. Her reasoning (which I agreed with) was that it felt too much like the start of a new leg of Aileana’s story. The scenes I took out involved more faery world building – and a new character – that both my editor and I felt weren’t as fleshed out they could be because I was wrapping up the book.

So I had two choices: keep my original ending and risk throwing in too much new information at the end (which also runs the risk of those scenes, and that new character, losing their impact), or end it on the cliffhanger I did and spend the extra time fleshing that stuff out for the second book. It was an incredibly hard decision because I know how frustrating cliffie endings can be, but I chose the latter. I wanted to spend the extra time on those scenes for book 2.

What other YA faerie books do you recommend, if any, for readers who can't get enough?

I really adore the Modern Faerie Tales series by Holly Black, starting with the book Tithe (though Ironside is my favourite and I reread it often!). They’re an incredible example of just how vicious and manipulative faeries can be.

Lisa Mantchev’s Théâtre Illuminata books is a unique look at faeries with a mix of theatre, and it’s a criminally underrated series that I highly recommend.

I also love Charles de Lint’s books, which have a lot of faery lore in them. They were a great influence to me as a young writer and he is one of the pioneers of urban fantasy. His work is tremendously influential and beautiful.

In addition to being a writer, you're also a photographer. What would be your dream location to photograph?

Honestly, my dream location has always been Scotland. I love travelling the countryside and taking pictures of the Highlands and Isles. They look so different at various points in the year that it’s never tiring and it never feels the same. I have a goal to travel to all of the Scottish isles and photograph each one, and I haven’t even been to the northernmost tip of the mainland, so . . . still so much to see! :)

But if I were to choose anywhere outside the country, I’d say Iceland. I have an obsession with landscape formed from glacial erosion and volcanic activity; together, they create some incredible features that are unique to this part of the world. I really, really want to see Jökulsárlón, which is a glacial lake in Iceland. It’s notable for the icebergs settled on its beaches. The pictures of it are just breathtaking!

I love Iceland! Thank you Elizabeth.

About Elizabeth May

Elizabeth May hails from California and is a PhD student in social anthropology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. An accomplished commercial photographer who counts many book publishers among her clients, she has also spent time in front of the camera as a model for book jackets, including those for young adults. The Falconer is her first novel.

GIVEAWAY!

I have one hardcover of THE FALCONER to give away to a reader in the US and Canada. Simply fill out this form by Friday May 16 at 11:59 pm CST for your chance to win! Prize provided and shipped by the publisher. 

Check out the rest of the tour:

Tuesday            5/6/2014            Chronicle Books.com    

Wednesday       5/7/2014            Girls in the Stacks         

Thursday           5/8/2014            The Book Cellar             

Saturday           5/10/2014          Mundie Moms               

Sunday             5/11/2014          Literary Rambles           

Monday            5/12/2014          Page Tuners                  

Tuesday            5/13/2014          Forever Young Adult     

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Book Review: Nearly Gone by Elle Cosimano

Nearly has a rough life. Her mother is a stripper, they barely have enough money to eat, and her father is gone. She spends her days studying hard to have a chance at a scholarship which will allow her to improve her future. Once a week she buys a paper to read the personals section, hoping for a message from her dad. 

Her life is about to get rougher. Someone starts knocking off the kids that Nearly tutors and leaving cryptic messages for her in the personals. Nearly becomes the main suspect and she must solve the killer's clues and pair up with a CI who is undercover at her school in order to clear her name. Of course, she might be next on the chopping block ...

There is so much to unpack in this novel, so bear with me. This is going to be a long review.

The Mystery

Nearly's best subjects are math and science, and the puzzles that the killer leaves for her via the personals take advantage of her skills. The puzzles are clever (and I'm clever, too, because I figured out the mystery 70 pages before Nearly did) and a unique frame for the story. However, it requires a pretty big suspension of belief to swallow that the police would be so bumbling and make such a mess of the investigation. Also, I find it extraordinarily difficult to imagine that national media wouldn't be all over a school beset by so many homicides in such a short period of time. 

If you really think hard about it, the killer is pretty easy to narrow down. It has to be someone with a motive to frame Nearly, with the smarts to pull off complicated puzzles, and with close access to Nearly. That's a very short list. That said, I suspect most casual readers will be surprised by the killer's identity as there are numerous plausible red herrings embedded throughout. 

Nearly's Paranormal Power

Nearly is an empath who can "taste" others emotions when she touches them. Unexpectedly perhaps, her paranormal ability mostly serves to inform her character rather than the plot. (There is one showy scene during a rave where Nearly is knocked out due to touching drugged dancers that has a slight bearing on the plot, but that's about it) What I found so fascinating about Nearly is that despite being an empath, she is very cut off from her own emotions. She hates touching people, and goes out of her way to be a loner.  I also think this dissociation is what makes her so reckless. She doesn't have much of a reaction when acquaintances are killed because she doesn't allow herself to feel. She does however start to open up to Reece. And that brings us to: 

The Romance

Nearly and Reece don't get off to a great start. Rumor is that he's dangerous and she overhears a detective at the police station assigning Reece to get close to her in order to spy on her. 

And then there's a uncomfortable scene that I've seen some reviewers label as victim blaming, though I read it a different way. Nearly comes to school to confront Reece. She shouts that she knows what he is and is about to reveal that he's a CI (which would put Reece in mortal danger). Desperate to silence her, Reece pushes her up against a locker and kisses her.  Nearly freaks out (remember - she hates being touched) and ends up biting and slapping him, which attracts the attention of the school staff and results in Reece being expelled. Nearly feels bad  then, going to the principal and saying:

“It wasn’t his fault. I was the one responsible.” I couldn’t let Reece go back to jail for something that was my fault. He’d only reacted because I’d provoked him. My behavior hadn’t left him any choice.

Is Nearly the victim of a sexual assault? I agree that you could argue that she is and that Reece should definitely learn that there are better ways to shut someone up than to kiss them without their permission. BUT. The reason she felt guilty? Not because he kissed her and she reacted badly to it. It was because she was about to reveal information that could get Reece killed. 

In any case, Reece awakens feelings in Nearly that she pretty much thought were dead. Once she learns more about him as a person (that he's essentially a kind person pushed to extremes), she decides to confide in him in a heartbreaking scene. She confesses that she doesn’t want to touch him because then she’ll know for sure how much he hates her. Reese counters with: 

“You think you know how I feel about you? Then touch me.” He took my sleeve and drew my hand to his chest. Slowly, I slid my hand up his collar, and spread my fingers over his bare skin. His pulse thrummed hard. My heart raced with his fear and the rush of his desire.

Empath abilities FTW!

In Summary

NEARLY GONE is the rare mystery that is both character and plot driven. Definitely worth a look, especially if you like puzzles.

NEARLY GONE is available in hardcover now. Find out more about it at the author's website.

FTC disclosure: NetGalley

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57 Lives of Alex Wayfare by MG Buehrlen Blog Tour: Use of Flashbacks

Once in awhile a book comes along that I just fall in love with from page one. The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare hits so many of my sweet spots: time travel, afterlife, a treasure hunt, twists, and a romance across time. It's a ridiculously good read and definitely a 2014 favorite.

So I'm especially excited to have MG on the blog today for a guest post. Enjoy!

Let’s Talk About Flashbacks, Baby

Today I’m hijacking Lenore’s fabulous blog to talk about flashbacks. Lenore wrote a great post last year about her top ten books featuring flashbacks, and two of those books, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, were direct influences on whether or not I would include flashbacks in my novel, The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare.

Some readers might lament finding a flashback in a novel, almost as if it’s a no-no or a sign of lackluster talent, but when flashbacks are done well, they can add immense depth to a story, not to mention the characters.

In The Book Thief, Death narrates his story by recalling each time he came in contact with Liesel (the book thief) over the years. Death’s narrative is straightforward from the beginning. At times, the author even goes so far as to tell us exactly what we’re in for at the beginning of each section:

 

I adored Zusak’s use of flashbacks as well as flash forwards in the novel. I don’t want to spoil anything, but his flash forwards concerning Rudy’s fate didn’t ruin the suspense for me. On the contrary, knowing Rudy’s fate beforehand made me keep turning the page, wanting to find out exactly how Rudy’s destiny manifests. I didn’t lose interest. My interest skyrocketed.

Same for the flashbacks. Death’s memories of Liesel are poignant and poetic. Zusak puts the reader into those memories and gives them intense and exciting life. You never feel bogged down by them -- they push the story forward in the most heartbreaking ways.

In Code Name Verity, the narrator of the first half of the book has been captured by the Nazis. As they interrogate and torture her, she recounts all the memories that got her to that point by documenting them on paper as though she’s writing a story. Some of the memories aren’t even her own, they belong to her friend Maddie, but she does her best to embellish and make each flashback just as exciting as if it were happening in real time. I devoured each one.

Those are the kinds of flashbacks I love to read, and those were the types of flashbacks I wanted to include in The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare.

While there are only a handful of flashbacks at the beginning of the book, they were necessary in establishing my main character’s core dilemma. Alex had been suffering from crazy visions of the past that were affecting her school work and her family life. She wanted to get to the bottom of them (or just get rid of them by popping some pills). The book opens with Alex relaying these visions to a psychiatrist. This was the first time Alex ever divulged her secret of the “visions” to anyone. 

Soon after, the reader discovers that Alex’s “visions” were actually moments when she traveled back in time to her reincarnated past lives. From then on out, there are no more flashbacks in the novel. Even when Alex learns to travel back in time and does so willingly, she lives those scenes out in real time instead of simply remembering them like she would in a flashback. Her modern day self actually slips into her past life’s body, and she is able to walk around in the past, perhaps changing history bit by bit in the process... Eeep!

So, as you can see, I certainly love a good flashback novel (so much so that I wrote one). I also enjoy flashbacks in television and film. In my experience, most people don’t seem to mind flashbacks in TV and film as much as they do in literature. It could be that flashbacks lend themselves more naturally to the visual format than the written. With the use of different camera angles or filter colors, it’s easier to know when we’re watching a scene from the past, and therefore we’re less confused.

I love the use of flashbacks in the TV version of The Vampire Diaries, especially those with The Originals and how they became vampires all those centuries ago. I also loved seeing flashbacks of Steffan when he was The Ripper. Those flashbacks helped solidify the characters for me, giving them more depth. I could understand their present-day choices much better knowing where they came from.

Another great example is the BBC’s Sherlock. That series uses so many flashbacks that it’s become an integral part of the show’s storytelling. If you’ve seen the wedding episode from Season 3, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

The entire episode was a montage of flashbacks based on Sherlock’s and John’s cases -- cases we didn’t get to see play out in full episode format. Judging from the episode’s success, viewers certainly didn’t mind the use of flashbacks. Just like in The Book Thief and Code Name Verity, the flashbacks were entertaining and helped push the story forward.

What are some of your favorite novels, TV shows, or films that use flashbacks? Let us know in the comments!

Thanks so much for having me on the blog today, Lenore!

***********************************

Official book summary:

One girl. Fifty-seven lives. Endless ways to die.

For as long as 17-year-old Alex Wayfare can remember, she has had visions of the past. Visions that make her feel like she’s really on a ship bound for America, living in Jamestown during the Starving Time, or riding the original Ferris wheel at the World’s Fair.

But these brushes with history pull her from her daily life without warning, sometimes leaving her with strange lasting effects and wounds she can’t explain. Trying to excuse away the aftereffects has booked her more time in the principal’s office than in any of her classes and a permanent place at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Alex is desperate to find out what her visions mean and get rid of them.

It isn’t until she meets Porter, a stranger who knows more than should be possible about her, that she learns the truth: Her visions aren’t really visions. Alex is a Descender – capable of traveling back in time by accessing Limbo, the space between Life and Afterlife. Alex is one soul with fifty-six past lives, fifty-six histories.

Fifty-six lifetimes to explore: the prospect is irresistible to Alex, especially when the same mysterious boy with soulful blue eyes keeps showing up in each of them. But the more she descends, the more it becomes apparent that someone doesn’t want Alex to travel again. Ever.

And will stop at nothing to make this life her last.

Author bio:

When she’s not writing, M.G. moonlights as a web designer and social media/creative director.

She’s the current web ninja lurking behind the hugely popular website YABooksCentral.com,

a social network for YA (and kids!) book lovers. The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare is her debut novel. M.G. lives nestled away in Michigan pines, surrounded by good coffee and good books, with her husband and son and three furbabies. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr.

Order links:

Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million | Amazon | Indiebound | The Book Depository | Waterstones

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The Debut Author Challenge 2014

This will be my fourth year doing the Debut Author Challenge (unofficially). In 2013, I read 22 2013 debuts, which was down from 52 2012 debuts I read in 2012. This year I'm aiming for 15.

I've already read 3 2014 debuts (and can highly recommend all three):

Burn Out by Kristi Helvig
Loop by Karen Akins
Fake ID by Lamar Giles

Already in my TBR pile:

Landry Park by Bethany Hagen
Alienated by Melissa Landers

The Fifty-Seven Lives of Alex Wayfare by MG Buehrlen 

Liv, Forever by Amy Talkington 

Here are some others I have my eye on:

The Falconer by Elizabeth May

Gilded by Christina Farley

Stitching Snow by RC Lewis
Nearly Gone by Elle Cosimano

Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis

Extraction by Stephanie Diaz
Pointe by Brandy Colbert

Let’s Get Lost by Adi Alsaid

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

Check out this list for more suggestions!

Any others I should be on the lookout for?

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Book Review: Fake ID by Lamar Giles

On his first day at a new school, Nick already catches the attention of the biggest bullies, the hottest girl (Reya) and the editor of the school paper (Eli) - which is not good when you're meant to keep a low profile. See, Nick's family is in the Witness Protection Program, and Nick isn't really his name.

Eli convinces Nick to work on the paper with him, confides in him that he's working on a HUGE story, and then winds up dead. Meanwhile, Nick starts to suspect that his father, a former accountant for the mob, is somehow involved.

This is just the kind of thriller I like - a juicy central mystery, lots of great twists, and characters that feel real. There's a palpable sense of danger throughout, but also bits of comic relief and a side of sizzling romance.

Nick isn't someone who trusts easily and he's never had many friends, so it's both rewarding and heartbreaking to follow the developing relationships between him and his classmates. It was also fascinating to see Nick's inner turmoil as he tries to come to terms with his father's past and what that means for his future.

FAKE ID is available now! Find out more about it at the author's website.

FTC disclosure: Edelweiss

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