First Draft Pod!

This summer, the fabulous Sarah Enni was in Paris and asked me and Amy Plum to be guests on her podcast series called First Draft in which she interviews writers about books and life. The episode is now live (we discuss travel and how writing letters and blogging got us into publishing) and I'm excited to go back and listen to the other 59 episodes.

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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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Author Interview: Audrey Vernick discusses Screaming at the Ump

I don't read a ton of middle grade (or books about sports for that matter), but I was intrigued by the journalism angle in SCREAMING AT THE UMP and would definitely recommend this to budding reporters. Casey has grown up surrounded by baseball because his father runs a school for umpires. But he himself doesn't want to be an ump, or even a player. He wants to write about baseball, and now that he's starting middle school, he'll finally have the chance to be on a newspaper staff. 

Only when he gets there, he finds out that 6th graders never get to write -- they have to pay their dues by selling ad space. But what if the story of the century just happens to fall in his lap? What if a disgraced former major league player just happens to be at his father's ump school? In the course of pursuing his big break, Casey learns a lot about being objective and the importance of second chances.

 

I have the pleasure of having Author Audrey Vernick on the blog today to answer some questions about her book and baseball. My readers might know Audrey as the fabulous writer behind the Buffalo picture books that Daniel had the honor of illustrating. Welcome Audrey!

You tackle a lot of subjects in SCREAMING AT THE UMP: divorce, umpiring, journalism. Which aspects of the story came first and how did you manage to make all the threads come together in such a meaningful way?

Umpiring came first. I struggle with plot, so thought it would be wise to come up with a hooky something that set my book apart before I started writing it. I stumbled upon the idea of umpire school one night when watching baseball playoffs on TV. The umps were making lots of bad calls and I realized that I considered myself a big baseball fan but had no idea how one became a professional umpire. One google search later, I learned about the two umpire schools in Florida. I decided to create a third and put it in New Jersey, where I live. I started writing the book with that setting and characters other than the ones now in it. Before long, I realized those folks didn't belong anywhere near an umpire school and that's when Casey and Zeke emerged.

Journalism was a very minor part of earlier drafts of this book but as the parallels between it and umpiring kept showing up--impartiality being key among them--I had to take notice. Also, in early drafts, Casey didn't have any real drive and while I know many, many real-world children who do not have grand ambitions, I don't know of many book-world children who don't. It's not my favorite part of writing novels, the whole "what does the character want" part. In the books I love, the answer would often be "for things to stay exactly as they are." That was surely what it was for Marley, the main character in my first novel. But editors really like driven characters.

As for divorce...I've had lots of kids in the past month ask me why both of my novels feature divorced families and I hope that the next time I'm asked, I will do better than stammer. The answer, at least in part, is that interesting upper middle grade characters need a fair amount of independence to be able to do things interesting enough to be worthy of a book. I didn't want to orphan my characters, so I did the next best thing. My, that sounds awful.

Also, it's a reality so many kids deal with, nothing exotic. The sadness that comes with it isn't always given its due. My characters have both felt that sadness very deeply, in ways that I hope seem authentic to readers.

As for the threads coming together, all I have to say about that is: THEY DID?

Ha! Well, I thought so! I loved the whole idea of "You suck, Ump!" day. Does such a thing exist in real life? Is there any group other than umps that you wish there was a "You suck!" day for?

I don't think such a thing does exist. And yes, there are many, many, many groups other than umps that I wish there was a "you suck" day for. If forced to choose one, I would choose the people I call the my son Jordan people. I promise you: You know these people. Let's say you're at back-to-school night and the speaker has given a general introduction and asks if there any questions, stressing that all questions should be of a general nature, not questions specific to any family. The my son Jordan people are always called upon and begin with, "My son Jordan is gifted in math has been reading four grades above his level since preschool. My older son, too. What can you offer to challenge someone as supremely gifted as my son Jordan?"

Sadly, the realm of the my son Jordan people extends far beyond parental bragging at local schools to self-aggrandizement as audience member. I attend a fabulous event every October--The New Yorker Festival in NYC--and the my son Jordan people, also warned (most hilariously by Andy Borowitz when he's the moderator) that questions should not be opportunities to share the wonders of oneself with the audience but opportunities to ask actual questions of the speakers. But the my son Jordan people cannot help themselves. They give a three-paragraph introduction about their own unique wonderfulness, and then tack on a semi-question at the end.

So please, townsfolk. Gather with me and let's let them hear it loud and clear:

YOU SUCK, MY SON JORDAN PEOPLE!

Oh gosh, yes. Those people do need a you suck day. You're well known for your love of baseball. What are your go-to books about the sport?

There are so many fantastic baseball picture books! I love Phil Bildner's The Unforgettable Season. and every baseball book by Matt Tavares and Jonah Winter. Though I reserve the right to not love Matt's forthcoming book about Pedro Martinez. (You do not grab an old man's head and shove him to the ground: words to live by, Pedro.) And Teammates by Peter Golenbock is the book that my son needed to hear every night for a long period of time, so that has a place in my heart. As for adult reading, The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach was a great read.

Thanks Audrey!

Find out more about Audrey and her books at her website. Add SCREAMING AT THE UMP to Goodreads.

FTC disclosure: Bought

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