GUEST BLOG: Pati Nagle on "What's Next?"

Pati Nagle was born and raised in the mountains of northern New Mexico. An avid student of music, history, and humans in general, she has a special love of the outdoors, particularly New Mexico’s wilds, which inspire many of her stories. Her fiction has appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Cricket, Cicada, and in anthologies honoring New Mexico writers Jack Williamson and Roger Zelazny. Her fantasy short story ”Coyote Ugly“ was honored as a finalist for the Theodore Sturgeon Award. She has also written a series of historical novels as P.G. Nagle. She is a founding member of Book View Café.

 

Q: What is the working title of your book? 
A: CURSE OF THE FALLEN or CURSE OF THE ALBEN, not sure which.  What do you think?  Is CURSE OF THE ALBEN confusing?

Q: Where did the idea come from for the book?
A: Short answer: This is book 4 of my Blood of the Kindred series, inspired by my short story, "Kind Hunter" (which you can read at Book View Café - it's the free sample from the anthology DRAGON LORDS AND WARRIOR WOMEN).

Q: What genre does your book fall under?
A: Fantasy

Q: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
A: Well, Orlando Bloom is the quintessential elf in my eyes, so I'd cast him as Turisan.  For Eliani - yanno, Zooey Deschanel might work!  For Shalár, I think Kaley Cuoco would do a very good job.  And for Luruthin, perhaps Matthew Gray Gubler.
Q: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A: As war with the alben intensifies in Fireshore, Eliani and Turisan return to Highstone, where the Ælven Council must decide the future of the Lost: will they be exiled like the alben, or will they become allies whose aid might tip the balance in the war?

Q: Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
A: Well, kind of neither.  Since the series was dropped after book 2 by the original publisher, I have elected to continue publishing it with the help of the wonderful publishing cooperative Book View Café.  Book 3, Swords Over Fireshore, came out in 2012.  Oh, and this book should be out in spring of 2013.

Q: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
A: About a year.

Q: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
A: It's my take on a Lord of the Rings type of fantasy.

Q: Who or What inspired you to write this book?
A: Tolkein, of course.  I've been a fan of LotR since I was around 12, I guess, when I first read it.  I especially love elves, so my own stories are about the Ælven.  Also, see question 2.

Q: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
A: The Blood of the Kindred series is my exploration of the question posed in "Kind Hunter," namely:  what if elves and vampires were originally the same race?

Book 1: The Betrayal
Book 2: Heart of the Exiled
Book 3: Swords Over Fireshore