This weeks YA Feature author is Rhiannon Paille author of The Ferryman and the Flame series. Enjoy the interview and don't forget to show it some comment love below!
Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you got into writing?
I got into writing because I got kicked out of english class in grade six because I was too smart. Every few years they do this government issues apititude test, and well I scored reading and writing levels of grade 10 and so my teacher basically kicked me and four other kids out of the class. We had to sit in the library and do "creative writing" while we waited for the next class to begin.
I'm bit of an odd one to explain. I'm psychic so a lot of the things I write about are things I can actually do or things I've actually seen other psychics do. Otherwise I'm a geek, book blogger, event organizer, business owner, author, and mom. I have a crazy life.
Flame of Surrender is an epic romantic fantasy about a girl who is a weapon falling for a boy that's destined to follow death. Kaliel is a Flame, one of nine apocalyptic weapons, and Krishani is a Ferryman from greek mythology. His destiny is to help ferry souls to the other side. It's pretty much sexy and dangerous.
Where did you get the idea for the series?
It's one of those things I have trouble explaining a lot of the time. The characters came to me in dreams and for years I saw bits and pieces of their story. I finally decided it was better on paper than in my head, and so I began writing it down and never looked back. Of course, the first draft was horrendous but soon I learned how to translate my dreams into fiction, and how to bridge the gaps for readers without damaging the characters or the story line.
Flame of Surrender is YA fanstasy/parnormal. Is the genre you prefer to write in? Would you like to try any other genres? I.E contempoary, historical etc
It was ironic. I wrote the first draft of Flame of Surrender then thought "I ought to read some epic fantasy books I haven't read before." I used to love Lord of the Rings as a teen but then as an adult, trying to get into The Silmarillion was like nails on a chalkboard for me. I tried several other epic fantasy authors and the only one I really liked was Terry Goodkind for his Sword of Truth series. Shortly after that I realized that I hate epic fantasy. During rewrites that made me VERY conscious of the choices I was making in dialogue, description and characterization. I didn't write my book like every other epic fantasy out there, so while there are obviously elements of it, it can stand away from epic fantasy very easily.
The other books in the series move from historical fantasy to urban and contemporary fantasy so I mean there's only one book that's really epic and the rest aren't. I prefer contemporary fantasy the most.
I really like the cover of Flame of Surrender. Who designed it and did you have much say in the desiging of the cover?
Rachel @ Parajunkee.com did the cover and I'm so glad you like it! She's a rockstar seriously! I didn't have much say. I gave her the picture of Sam that we had taken in 2010 (yep I know the girl on the cover personally, she comes to most of my events with me) and then Rachel worked magic and all I did was tell her to change the text color from blue to purple. (we actually kept the blue one and did an exclusive 100 copy print run.) So yeah I'm very happy with the cover.
Flame of Surrender is book one in a series. How many books will there be in the series?
There are 6 and a half books. I think of it as two trilogies and a novella. The first trilogy exists around 7000BCE Earth time (though they're on Avristar for part of that) and then the novella is from the First Era, and then the last 3 books are from the modern world, circa 2004. Yes I realize there's a nine thousand year gap between the third and fourth books, but there's a major purpose for that.
Why should we read Flame of Surrender in one sentence?
Read it because sometimes it lasts in love and sometimes it hurts instead. (That's from Someone Like You by Adele btw, in case you missed the reference. Feel free to post the song it's like my themesong for the books.)
Final word from the author...
Cupcakes! :)
Rhiannon Paille
Author of The Ferryman and The Flame Series
Flame of Justice release date: October 2012
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