Katherine Harbour's Blog, page 16

Nameless by Lili St. Crow

Nameless
The first in a contemporary fairy tale series, this story is based on Snow White. The setting is New Haven, in a future transformed by an apocalypse of magic--everything's essentially the same, except for touches of weirdness, schools that teach charm (magic) classes, terrifying creatures called twists, and old families practiced in magic. Camille is an adopted daughter of the vampiric Vultusino family, and was found as an injured child one night. Her adopted brother Nico is gorgeous and dangerous. Camille's friends, Ruby and Ellie, love her like sisters. But, when Camille has to face a horror from her past, tricked by a boy who has also been broken by that same horror, she must do it alone. A weird and dark and fabulous retelling of Snow White. Unfortunately, I only have one more book left to read in this series.

Thorn Jack Character Name Cheat Sheet

In Thorn Jack, some of the characters, mostly those wicked Fatas, have one or two names. Here's a guide to keeping them straight

ABSALOM ASKEW: Amadan

AMARANTHUS MOCKINGBIRD: Bleeding Heart

THE BLACK SCISSORS: Dubh Deamhais. William Harrow

CALIBAN ARIEL'PAN: crom cu. The crooked dog

COLLEEN OLIVE: Cailleach Oidche

DAVID RYDER: Damn Ridire. The stag knight

DEAD BIRD: Marbh ean

JACK FATA: Jack Hawthorn. Jack Daw

JILL SCARLET: Dearh Cota. Rose Govannon/ Sullivan

REIKO FATA: Ban Nathair. The white snake/serpent

Thorn Jack news

The film option for Thorn Jack has been sold (via the Sandra Dijkstra Agency) to Libby Mitchell, a producer who is now working on the screenplay!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2773687/bio

Oh, and there'll be a Nettle King arc giveaway in December, so stay-tuned. I'll also be giving away 3 of my fav YA books!

This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel

This Dark Endeavor
Frankenstein is one of my favorite books and this story is about Victor Frankenstein as a young man, when he still lived with his stern, wealthy parents and a twin brother, Conrad, who falls almost fatally ill. There's also Elizabeth, the girl who was adopted and has lived with them since they were children. Elizabeth serves as more than the love interest, as she has a fierce character of her own. Conrad is a perfect gentleman who treats his brother with love and kindness. Victor and Elizabeth--who loves Conrad as more than a brother--are soon on a quest to create an elixir that might cure Conrad forever, with the aid of the kindly alchemist Dr. Polidori. There are some serious misadventures, a gruesome sacrifice, surprises, and, told from Victor Frankenstein's point-of-view, it's definitely apparent that Victor--jealous of his brother and in love with Elizabeth--is a complicated antihero. There's an unexpected and sinister ending that may lead Victor into becoming the character of the Mary Shelley novel.

Ten YA Reads to Keep You up at Night

1) Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lukavics. Set in pioneer times and absolutely disturbing.


2) The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco. Asian ghost girl. Enough said.


3) Fiendish by Brenna Yovanoff. Appalachian contemporary. Are the creatures demons or fairies?


4) Dollhouse by Anya Allyn. In Australia, a group of friends find a house and become captives of a creepy society/cult.


5) Blood and Salt by Kim Liggett. A brother and sister infiltrate a corn cult in the modern Midwest. Horrible things happen.


6) Supervision by Alison Stine. A girl from New York City learns she's a ghost and must remember how it happened while dark things occur.


7) Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake. A young ghost hunter decides to help a bloody spirit instead of destroying her.


8) The Haunting of Sunshine Girl by Paige McKenzie. A mother and daughter move to a new house. Sinister events follow.


9) Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. The circus comes to town and it's just NOT RIGHT, as two boys come to discover.


10)Nameless by Lili St. Crow. A modern Snow White in world changed by magic. Not your typical vampire tale.

HALLOWEEN CONTEST

It's almost Halloween! In honor of one of my favorite holidays, I'm holding a contest!

To enter: Just write a paragraph using 5 specific words and an image.
Details here: http://katherineharbour.blogspot.com/...

I'll pick a winner on Halloween weekend.

The winner may choose 2 YA books of their choice from my list (Poison Princess by Kresley Cole, The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, Nameless by Lili St. Crow, Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake)






And they also receive a goodie bag full of treats (not edible, sorry)

Some Stuff about Thorn Jack

Thorn Jack: A Night and Nothing Novel
1) I sometimes wish Thorn Jack's subtitle could be Thorn Jack: It's Not Twilight (No offense to the lovely Stephanie Meyers, who also touched on the Beauty and the Beast trope)

2) HallowHeart College: The more eccentric classes were inspired by actual courses from colleges. (At least I didn't use the Buffy the Vampire Slayer course)Since the dean and a select group of professors know about the Fatas, some of the courses were designed to instruct the students on otherworldly subjects.
The characters are freshman, one summer removed from being high school seniors. There are mean girls and idiots in college. Some of them are in sororities and fraternities.

3) Moving to a New Town: Although it's a well-worn trope, I wanted a fish-out-of-water story. I love it when a character is discovering their surroundings and everything is new.

4) The Demon Lover: Jack begins as the elf knight, the fairy tale beast, the dangerous element. His first encounter with Finn is his attempting to enchant her, until the moth key snaps her out of it. As the story moves on, she becomes less intrigued by his otherworldliness and more in love with his humanity.

5) Thorn Jack, Briar Queen, and Nettle King are a story arc about losing a loved one. The first book is about the shock and depression. The second book is about magical thinking. The third book is ...well about acceptance of death.

6) 'Emory' is ivy. An autocorrect mistake (Not mine or my editor's!) made at the last minute when a character's last name was changed from ivy to Emory. It was fixed in the trade paperback and future ebook editions.


Nettle King
Finn and Jack's story ends in Nettle King, out April 2016. To learn future news about The Children of Night & Nothing series, you can sign up for my newsletter here:http://katherineharbour.com/contact.p...

Fiendish by Brenna Yovanoff

Fiendish
The setting for this contemporary dark fantasy is a vividly realized magic realism version of the Ozarks. Clementine falls asleep as a child, only to wake up years later in a cellar closet, tangled in roots. She is rescued by Fisher, a young man with secrets of his own. Clementine reconnects with her wary aunt and glamorous cousin Shiny, and learns that magic has gone haywire in the town. The townspeople fixed it by burning the homes of the old families believed to practice it. Meanwhile, creatures called fiends (spirits or fairy folk, it's wonderfully not clarified) haunt the fringes of a place called The Hollow.
The supernatural elements are southern Gothic, the characters interesting and original. The story itself leaves you wanting to read more about this universe.

Here's a great post to accompany this book:
http://appalachianink.net/2015/09/06/...

Thorn Jack Playlist

Here's a list of songs I listened to while writing Thorn Jack, in order:

1)I Go to Sleep (Sia)

2)Hypnotic (Zella Day)

3)Young Blood (Birdy)

4)A Man You Don't Meet Every Day(The Pogues)

5)Whispering (Alex Clare)

6)Tam Lin (Fairport Convention)

7)House on a Hill (The Pretty Reckless)

8)Lucky You (Deftones)

9)Back to Black (Beyonce & Andre 3000)

10)I Know Places (Lykke Li)

11)I'll Follow You into the Dark (Death Cab for Cutie)

12)Wide Awake (Katy Perry)

You can listen to some of them here: https://soundcloud.com/katharbour/sets

In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters

In the Shadow of Blackbirds
In the year 1918, World War I and an influenza epidemic are raging. Mary Shelley arrives in San Diego, California to live with her Aunt Eva because her father has been arrested for his anti-war opinions. Influenza is a horror, a cross between pneumonia and the Black Plague. Add to that Mary Shelley's loss of Stephen, the boy she loved, in the war, and you've got a damaged heroine, my favorite kind. Then Mary Shelly encounters Julius, Stephen's drug-addicted older brother, who fakes spirit photography. She realizes not all of spirituality is false, however, when Stephen contacts her from beyond the grave. Mary Shelley's courage in the face of the plague and learning how Stephen actually died is fantastic. The mystery of his death is what kept me speeding through the pages. A great historical/supernatural story.