E.C. Blake's Blog, page 13

RT Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice Best Fantasy Novel nominee interviews

I was thrilled when Masks was named one of the finalists for the RT Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Fantasy Novel, alongside some tough competition (Paul Cornell, London Falling; Kate Elliott, Cold Steel; Mary Robinette Kowal, Without A Summer, and Stella Gemmell, The City. The RT Book Reviews blog posted the mini-interviews it did with all of the nominated writers, asking each of us the same two questions.

Read the whole thing here, but my segment is below.

E.C. Blake, Masks

How do you think the landscape of SFF fiction is changing? How do you hope to see it improve?

I think we’re seeing an explosion of new ideas and new approaches to old ideas that I find very exciting. Part of that is due to the ongoing development of indie publishing and Kickstarter-style funding campaigns: there’s nothing so quirky or off-beat but what you can find some audience for it. The downside to that is the splintering of the genre audience into smaller and smaller niches: zombie-elf romances set in steampunk space stations, for example. (Hey, I may have to write that one!) What I hope we see going forward is a blurring of lines and a willingness for those who gravitate to very specific types of stories to read outside their comfort zones, the better to enjoy the ever-increasing diversity the field has to offer.

What was your favorite fantasy novel of 2013?

I continue to be blown away by Scott Lynch’s Gentleman Bastard series, and this year’s long-awaited third book, The Republic of Thieves, would have to rate as the favorite thing I read in the field in 2013. Lynch’s characters are unforgettable, his worldbuilding first rate, and he mixes humor, terror, triumph and tragedy in just the right proportions to enthrall me every time.

First book in my other fantasy series now available for pre-order

It’s not a huge secret (see the link Other Novels–not to mention the Publishers Weekly review of Masks) that E.C. Blake is not the only name under which I write, and under that other name (Edward Willett)  I also have a fantasy series about to get underway.

The Shards of Excalibur is a five-book YA urban fantasy series about Ariane Forsythe, 15-year-old girl in Regina, Saskatchewan (my home town!), who discovers she is the heir to the powers of the Lady of the Lake of Arthurian legend, and with the help of her slightly younger friend Wally Knight must race to find all of the shards of the sword Excalibur scattered around the world before Merlin, in his modern-day guise as computer magnate Rex Major, can gather them, reforge them, and use the sword to launch a war between Earth and Faerie.

The series is being published by Coteau Books here in Regina. The first book, Song of the Sword, will be released in May (right in the middle of the long drought between Masks and Shadows!).

No cover art to share, though it’s coming soon (and it’s great!), but the book is already available for pre-order on Amazon.

I hope you’ll check it out when it’s released! The Masks of Aygrima books are coming out at eight-month intervals, but the Shards of Excalibur books are coming out at six-month intervals: two of those next year, plus Shadows, plus a science fiction novel for Bundoran Press (sequel to my novel Right to Know which came out last year), means that 2014 will be (at least!) a four-novel year for me.

Guess I’d better get writing…

“A good book that will appeal to fans of young adult fantasy”

Bookworm Blues says of Masks:

“The magic and world is rather fascinating and well done…There’s a hint of romance and the possibility of a love triangle in future books, which is all very young adult, but it’s balanced by the world and the magic, which have a very adult feel to them. This makes Masks, in my opinion, an interesting crossover novel that can appeal to a wide range of teenagers, and some adults as well.

“Masks is a good book that will appeal to fans of young adult fantasy…Masks will appeal to teens because it features a character just as tossed around and confused as they are.”

The reviewer also lauds Paul Young’s gorgeous cover:

These are the covers that I love. I get books that look like this and everything else falls to the side because I simply have to see what a beautiful cover like this is hiding. So, bravo to the cover artists, and bravo to the publisher for using it – it did its job.

Amen to that!

Interview with me at Fantasy Faction

There’s a great interview with me (under my other name) at Fantasy Faction, which begins with a discussion of Masks, part of which I’ve excerpted below:

Your protagonist, Mara, is an adolescent girl, which makes it seem like it should be aimed at the YA market, but much of the plot is definitely not for the young. How hard was it to strike this balance, and why did you write the story in such a way?

I certainly hope YA readers won’t be put off by the fact Masks isn’t being published as a YA book. I actually disagree with you about the plot definitely not being for the young: maybe not the very young, but anyone who is reading The Hunger Games or Divergent or some of the other many gritty YA books out there won’t be uncomfortable with what’s in this trilogy.

But at the same time, I wrote Masks as I would write one of my adult science fiction or fantasy novels, without making any attempt to make it more accessible to young readers by changing the language or plot, so I hope adult readers will also be engrossed in the tale I tell.

As to why I wrote the story this way…Masks was originally conceived as a single YA book, not necessarily intended for DAW. When DAW decided it wanted to take it on, it became longer and more complex, but the very nature of the central idea dictated that the main character would be a young person.

My hope is it will be a crossover book, one both teens and adults will enjoy equally.

Where did the idea of doing a magical variation on the Orwellian surveillance state come from?

Well, the idea of magical masks came from a decorative mask I picked up at some costume ball or other that’s hanging in my bedroom. As for the Orwellian aspect of it…there’s a theme I find running through a lot of my fiction about individuals fighting back against tyranny. Governments of every stripe are all about control, and all governments, unless checked (at the ballot box, in our system; with bullets in less fortunate places), drift toward seizing more and more control over the lives of their citizen, always for the very best of reasons, of course: security, safety, etc., etc. In Aygrima, the government, in the person of the Autarch, has found the perfect control system…or almost perfect: because individuals have a way of undermining even the most controlling states. All governments drift toward tyranny, but there are always those who fight back: and sometimes, they succeed.

How much of the supporting characters’ histories do you have mapped out?

I don’t do detailed character histories up front; I tend to figure out their histories as I go. But by the time the book is finished, I know a great deal about them!

What can we expect to see from Shadows when it comes out?

In Shadows, the plot is set in motion by the arrival of an unexpected visitor from beyond the sea. Mara learns more about her power, but at an awful personal cost. Many things are destroyed. And a new, powerful force takes the stage.

Is that sufficiently vague, yet satisfying?

Masks nominated for Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award

i’m thrilled to announce that Masks has been nominated in the category of Best Fantasy Novel for a Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award.

Other nominees in the same category are London Falling by Paul Cornell (Tor), Cold Steel by Kate Elliott (Orbit), The City by Stella Gemmell (Ace), and Without a Summer, by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor). All of these books received 4 1/2-star reviews from RT Book Reviews.

You can find the entire list of nominees in all categories here.

Did I mention I’m thrilled? Also gratified? And excited?

Yay!

 

Who are those Masked marketers?

Apparently the Penguin marketing people REALLY get into the books they promote…

Enjoy my guest post at My Shelf Confessions on the writing of Masks

Here’s my guest post for My Shelf Confessions on the writing of Masks . You can read it over there, or you can read it right here!

Hi, I’m E.C. Blake, author of Masks, and I have a confession to make: it isn’t at all the book I originally set out to write.

I thought it would be a stand-alone novel. Instead, it’s the first book in a series, which continues with Shadows next August and Faces in the spring of 2015. I also thought it would be a young adult novel. Instead, it’s being published by DAW Books, in the general fantasy market.

All of which presented me with some interesting challenges, because even though it’s not being published as a YA book, I’m still hoping YA readers will gravitate to it—because the main character is a 15 year old girl named Mara Holdfast..

So how do you write a book with a teenaged character that will also appeal to adults?

For that matter, how do you write a believable teenaged girl when you’ve never even been a teenaged girl, when, in fact, it’s been (mumble-mumble) years since you’ve even been a teenager?

To which my not entirely flippant answer is, “I used my imagination.”

I’ve never had much use for that old saying “write what you know.” If I wrote what I knew, I wouldn’t have written about a land where everyone at age 15 has to don a magical Mask that subjects them to constant surveillance by the ruler’s Watchers. I wouldn’t have written about a place where certain Gifted individuals can see magic, which they perceive as having colours that correspond to what can be done with that magic. I wouldn’t have had (spoiler alert!) an exploding horse in the prologue, because I’ve never seen a horse explode. (Honestly, there’s an exploding horse. I love being a writer.)

But I can imagine all those things, and I can imagine being a teenaged girl, too. After all, although I may not have been a girl, I’ve known lots of them. I’ll very soon have one as a daughter. And I’ve seen the world through the eyes of any number of teenaged girls through my own reading of YA fiction, much of which was written by people who were once teenaged girls.

And besides, I know people. I am a people. And as I once shocked my pre-pubescent friends by saying during their “I hate girls” phase, girls are people, too.

The fact is, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed inhabiting Mara’s head during the writing of Masks (and the ongoing writing of Shadows and Faces). Which is a good thing, because somewhat unusually, all of these books are told from a single viewpoint: Mara’s.  If I didn’t like viewing the world through Mara’s eyes and thoughts and emotions, I’d have found writing these books an onerous task indeed.

But you know what? I think the fact that I have had to work to make that connection to Mara, a character so unlike myself, bodes well for the other challenge of making the book appeal to both adult and young adult readers.

Young adult readers, I hope, will be drawn to the tale because Mara is as young as they are, and if the challenges she faces are unique, they’re still recognizably similar to the challenges faced by any young person beginning to make their way into the wider world of adult concerns and responsibilities.

And older readers, I hope, will be drawn to the tale because, although Mara is young, the world she inhabits is a fully realized fantasy world with all the wonders and dangers, beauties and horrors, fantasy readers expect.

There’s no doubt Masks has one foot in the adult fantasy world and one in the young adult fantasy world. But I believe Mara is appealing enough, and her world fascinating enough, that readers of any age will want to accompany her on her journey of discovery and danger.

 

The Bibliosanctum finds Masks “riveting from beginning to end”

“Masks is the very promising first novel of what’s shaping up to be a phenomenal series…I liked this book a lot; the story had me riveted from beginning to end, and there’s lots of potential for the main character and the series’ fantasy world.” – M. Mogsy, The Bibliosanctum

My Shelf Confessions lauds “amazing world-building”

“Tension building that will curl your toes and amazing world building!…I applaud the author for creating such a world and character that I am already aching to learn more about. Those that love reading about worlds other than our own and rich magical systems will surely want to give Masks a read.  I am most certainly looking forward to reading more.” – Tabitha the Pabkins, My Shelf Confessions

RT Book Reviews gives Masks 4 1/2 stars

“Masks grabs the reader’s attention on the first page and holds it until the last…The characters are complex and relatable and grow throughout the story, and the storyline itself is fresh and never predictable. Masks is simply impossible to put down and will leave readers begging for the last two books in the trilogy.” – Annalee Schuck, RT Book Reviews