VBT: Of The Divine

BLURB:

Henna is one of the most powerful sorcerers in the Order of Napthol, and her runes ’s runes tell her that the future of Kavet is balanced on the edge of the knife. The treaties between Kavet and the dragon-like race known as the Osei have become intolerable. The time has come for the royal house to magically challenge Osei dominion. Prince Verte, Henna' lover, is to serve as the nexus for the powerful but dangerous spell, with Naples--an untested young sorcerer from the Order of Napthol--a volatile but critical support to its creation.

Amid these plans, Dahlia Indathrone’s arrival in the city shouldn’t matter. She has no magic and no royal lineage, and yet, Henna immediately knows Dahlia is important. She just can’t see why. 

As their lives intertwine, the four will learn that they are pawns in a larger game, one played by the forces of the Abyss and of the Numen—the infernal and the divine. 

A game no mortal can ever hope to win.

An Excerpt 

The ocean that covered most of the Numen’s first level was clear and sweet. It lapped against diamond sand where tiny long-legged birds spread wings the color of honey as they raced back and forth, plucking drifting seeds from the air. The Numini—those perfect, beautiful sentinels who ruled the divine realm by might and decree—watched the birds’ antics with gentle amusement.

One Numini looked past the white sands and crystal waters below to a realm where the ocean was cold and tasted of salt, where verdant green cascaded across rich earth, and where the mortal creatures lived.

Soon, she thought. She was one of the three arbiters who ruled the Numen, second only to the high justice of her kind.

“I am concerned about the Abyssi,” remarked one of her brothers, a lesser judge. “We have worked for generations to nurture these lines of power, and now they could all be—”

“Have faith,” she assured him. “Abyssi scrabble at the mortal realm like dogs at a closed door. They always have. They lack the wisdom or discipline to do more than that.”

“But do the mortals have the wisdom to keep the door closed?” he challenged.

“Faith,” the arbiter said again. This time it was a clear chastisement.

She knew their children in the mortal world were defenseless. Humans had minds barely capable of comprehending their own existence, and as a consequence lived short and brutal lives. They needed their divine guardians to guide and nurture them. The Abyssi—vicious, mindless beasts of the infernal realm—could fight for sovereignty all they wanted. In the end, it wouldn’t matter.

In the mortal realm, all things served the divine.

Buy Link
https://www.amazon.com/Divine-Mancer-Book-Two-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B01N2JHW9X

About the Author

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes wrote her first novel, In the Forests of the Night, when she was 13 years old. Other books in the Den of Shadows series are Demon in My View, Shattered Mirror, Midnight Predator, all ALA Quick Picks for Young Adults. She has also published the five-volume series The Kiesha’ra: Hawksong, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and VOYA Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror List Selection; Snakecharm; Falcondance; Wolfcry; and Wyvernhail.

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The Interview

* Did you use any of your own experience as inspiration?

I often use my own experiences as inspiration, sometimes in obvious and direct ways, and sometimes more generally.

One example of an experience that translated directly to a story was when I spent several hours in the hospital with a friend of mine (yes, I have his permission to tell the story). His insurance company had recently dropped coverage for a key medication he took, and as a result, he was having severe hallucinations. As we waited in that small hospital room, him trying to stay chill and calm and me trying to keep him distracted, I kept watching his eyes dart around the room-- behind me, the ceiling, the floor, the door. At one point he interrupted our conversation and just asked in this absolutely deadpan voice, “You don’t see them, do you?”

Of course I said no. Logically, I knew what was happening, and I knew it was important for me to stay calm and be his touchstone in that moment. On the other hand, I grew up with paranormal horror stories. The moment made my skin crawl. So I put it into a book-- specifically, Promises to Keep. Many of Erin’s lines in that book (and things that are said to Erin) come directly from conversations I had with that friend.

* On average, how long does the writing process take?

I’m not sure there is an “average.” I gather I’m different from most authors, in that I do not like to propose a book or sign a contract until I have a complete first draft (better yet, revised draft) of the book in question. I never realized this was unusual until I was talking to my publisher about deadlines for the Mancer trilogy, and they were surprised to realize I had written the entire thing already.

That being said, I don’t have a neat calendar of propose idea -> contract -> draft -> revise -> publish. I may play with an idea for months or years before I get around to writing it, or I may start a book, set it aside, and finish it years later. All Just Glass and Persistence of Memory, two of the books in my YA Den of Shadows series, are examples of books where I tinkered on the idea for many years before finishing a draft and considering publication.

In the case of Mancer, the idea and first draft came very quickly; I started the first words of Mancer 1 on November 1, 2006, and I finished the last words in the summer of 2007. I then experimented with other areas of the world, shared with friends, got a lot of beta-reading feedback, discussed the possibility of publishing with my agent in 2010, went back to the drawing board and reconsidered the main themes and genre of the stories, started and stopped rewriting Mancer 1 about a dozen times as other works too precedence-- and only decided to actually publish in 2015, almost a decade after the first drafts were written. After that, it took a little under a year to finish revisions and bring the book to print.

In other cases, such as Hawksong (the first book of the YA Kiesha’ra Series), the first draft took about half a year (around 2000-2001). I remember I was actively revising it around the time of 9/11, which affected the themes (war, inherited hatred) of the story a great deal. That book was released in 2003, which meant the final, revised version was submitted to my publisher in 2002.

*  When did you realize you wanted a career in writing?

I decided in seventh grade that I wanted to publish a novel, but at the time, I never considered it “a career.” In fact, I was determined (and still am) to have another career. I never wanted writing to be my one and only focus, partly because I need other things in my life in order to keep the writing flowing, and partly because I never wanted to reach the point where I felt I needed to keep writing just for the money if I decided I didn’t want to any more.

Of course, over time I needed to admit that it was a career-- just not my only career.

* If you weren't an author, what other career paths would you have taken?

In addition to my writing, I am also a full time teacher. I teach mostly English (and some biology and computers) and mostly high school seniors at a school for students with language-based learning disabilities.

If it hadn’t been for my writing career, though, I probably wouldn’t have realized how much I loved teaching. Writing put me in touch with other aspiring writers and both struggling and proficient readers; the conversations I had with them and the work we did together are among the influences that pushed me toward teaching. Without the writing or the teaching…

I considered for a while becoming a Constitutional Lawyer, like my grandfather. Civics and civil rights are passions of mine still today, and I love to debate, but I decided I didn’t have the temperament to make it through law school. Other pet interests of mine are marketing and industrial/organizational psychology, which I probably would have pursued if my heart hadn’t already been taken by teaching. I would have enjoyed working in advertising or company organization-- you know, those fields that tend to be completely hated by everyone!  

* Out of the characters that you created, who is your favorite?

* What advice would you give to someone looking to be a writer?

That depends where you are in the process. If you haven’t written a book yet, my advice is: write the book first! That makes you a writer. Don’t even think about publishing until you have written your book, handed it to several people, received feedback, and done revisions. That’s how you can tell if you are just writing for the love of writing (a perfectly valid thing to do!) or if you really have the stomach for publishing. If you’re not ready to handle the gritty details of publishing, trying to jump into it took quickly is the fastest way to ruin your love of writing.

True story: I had a friend was querying agents and publishers, and finally received a response asking for the manuscript! I was so happy for him-- some people try for YEARS and never receive a request. The problem? He hadn’t finished it yet! In fact, he wasn’t able to finish it in time to meet the publisher’s request, which meant he finally got the call most authors wish for, only to waste it. Write the book. Edit it. Then think about publishing.

If you have already done all that, then my biggest advice is not to rush. Take your time to do real research. Don’t let a vanity publishing house take advantage of you because you either don’t know the difference, or because you’re too impatient to handle the long process of submission and (usually) rejection.

* What kind of research (if any) was required for any of your books?

The research required for my books and the research I do don’t entirely line up, because I love doing research. Sometimes what I need is to spend five minutes checking on a quick fact, and what ends up happening is six hours of in-depth study of the topic.

That said, I do a lot of research. Much of it is historical-- do you have any idea how many things weren’t invented before the 1850s? Toilet paper and window screens are among them. When I wrote a book set in 1804, this mattered a lot.

Mancer is a fantasy series, so it doesn’t rely on real-world history, but I do draw on the real world as a basis. When I write sea travel or trade, it is roughly analogous to mid-1700s. Agriculture and seasons in Kavet are more or less based on Maine (mostly coastal, since Kavet is an island). Where it gets more complex is where I need to synthesize multiple sources to account for an essential different between the worlds. For example, iron is scarce in the Mancer world, unlike in our own. I had to consider how this would affect trade, technology, agriculture, and weaponry.

Other research I’ve done ranges far and wide. How does low gravity affect the development of chickens? What fruit trees could be grown in a small-space aquaponics environment? How do riots start, and what it is like to be in one? What was the earth like in the pre-cambrian age? How could you kill a vampire (aka, completely destroy the heart) using only your bare hands? What are the largest species of migratory fish that one would find in a tropical ocean environment, and what are their patterns? How do you prevent scurvy? Each and every one of these has been a truly essential question, and that’s only scratching the surface.

*How long after you finish a book do you start another one?

As I mentioned before, my process isn’t entirely linear; I am usually working on a couple books at the same time, most often with one primary book and a few that I play around with. When I start a new book therefore has very little to do with scheduling or logic or even common sense. There’s nothing so inspiring as the busiest time of the year to want to start something new!

The Givaway

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes will be awarding a limited edition print copy of the book *U.S. only* to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f2434/