Author Interview + Giveaway: The Falconer by Elizabeth May

My readers know I'm not exactly a fan of faerie books, so it's a good thing I didn't realize THE FALCONER was a faerie book going in (I really thought she was a warrior who had a falcon. Nope.) or I might never have picked it up. And that would have been a shame. Because THE FALCONER was kick-ass.

Aileana kills faeries (yay!) for practice in order to toughen up to defeat her real target - the fae who murdered her mother. But she also teams up with a MLDF (mysterious loner dude faerie) and a pixie sidekick (Derrick, who I actually liked. I know. Stop the presses.) to thwart a whole army of fairies from destroying Edinburgh. In between all that, Aileana banters with her best friend and attends high society balls. It's all quite FUN, and an intriguing start to a new must-read series.

The official summary:

Edinburgh, 1844. Beautiful Aileana Kameron only looks the part of an aristocratic young lady. In fact, she’s spent the year since her mother died developing her ability to sense the presence of Sithichean, a faery race bent on slaughtering humans. She has a secret mission: to destroy the faery who murdered her mother. But when she learns she’s a Falconer, the last in a line of female warriors and the sole hope of preventing a powerful faery population from massacring all of humanity, her quest for revenge gets a whole lot more complicated. The first volume of a trilogy from an exciting new voice in young adult fantasy, this electrifying thriller blends romance and action with steampunk technology and Scottish lore in a deliciously addictive read.

Find out more about The Falconer and read an excerpt! See the trailer. Download the discussion guide.

The interview:

Which one of the inventions in THE FALCONER would you most like to be real?

Definitely Aileana’s ornithopter. The 1800s is full of different inventions and attempts at sustained flight. For a small blip in time, we had large passenger dirigibles circling New York and the pictures seem like something from a completely different world. Then the modern airplane became a staple in our skies, and new aircraft ideas are primarily based on that design. So it makes me sad that the single or double passenger ornithopter, which is such a lovely design, will probably not exist on the open market as it does in my book.

I might choose the stitcher spiders! Did you have any "darlings" that you had to kill in the editing process?

Surprisingly, a lot of scenes from the manuscript I went on submission with remained intact. I mean, they are completely different and I rewrote a great deal of them, but the scenes themselves are still there. I added a great deal of other snippets as well, but didn’t remove whole scenes (except the original ending, which is now the beginning of the second book). There were certain lines and turns of phrase that I loved and was asked to remove for pacing, so I did. But there wasn’t much I feel terribly heartbroken over removing.

If I were to come to Edinburgh as a tourist for one day, where would you take me?

Holyrood Park and St Margaret’s Loch – which has a lot of swans, and the picturesque ruins of St Anthony’s Chapel in the background – are absolutely beautiful. I think a lot of people come visit and miss seeing them, which is a shame because they’re so close to the Old Town. If you were feeling particularly sprightly, Arthur’s Seat is worth climbing for the views of the city and the Firth in the distance. I also highly recommend Calton Hill for views of the New Town, and Princes Street Gardens for a lovely cliff angle of Edinburgh Castle. And, of course, pubs! Edinburgh has excellent pubs.

6 Charlotte Square, where Aileana lives

Why did you decide to end THE FALCONER the way you did (on a very evil cliffhanger!)?

I know, it is evil – sorry! I’ll confess: The draft of The Falconer that I went on submission with was about 30 pages longer. It also ended on a cliffhanger, because I arced the books in such a way that it’s three parts of a single story.

But my editor looked at the original ending of the book and suggested I make it the beginning of the second book instead. Her reasoning (which I agreed with) was that it felt too much like the start of a new leg of Aileana’s story. The scenes I took out involved more faery world building – and a new character – that both my editor and I felt weren’t as fleshed out they could be because I was wrapping up the book.

So I had two choices: keep my original ending and risk throwing in too much new information at the end (which also runs the risk of those scenes, and that new character, losing their impact), or end it on the cliffhanger I did and spend the extra time fleshing that stuff out for the second book. It was an incredibly hard decision because I know how frustrating cliffie endings can be, but I chose the latter. I wanted to spend the extra time on those scenes for book 2.

What other YA faerie books do you recommend, if any, for readers who can't get enough?

I really adore the Modern Faerie Tales series by Holly Black, starting with the book Tithe (though Ironside is my favourite and I reread it often!). They’re an incredible example of just how vicious and manipulative faeries can be.

Lisa Mantchev’s Théâtre Illuminata books is a unique look at faeries with a mix of theatre, and it’s a criminally underrated series that I highly recommend.

I also love Charles de Lint’s books, which have a lot of faery lore in them. They were a great influence to me as a young writer and he is one of the pioneers of urban fantasy. His work is tremendously influential and beautiful.

In addition to being a writer, you're also a photographer. What would be your dream location to photograph?

Honestly, my dream location has always been Scotland. I love travelling the countryside and taking pictures of the Highlands and Isles. They look so different at various points in the year that it’s never tiring and it never feels the same. I have a goal to travel to all of the Scottish isles and photograph each one, and I haven’t even been to the northernmost tip of the mainland, so . . . still so much to see! :)

But if I were to choose anywhere outside the country, I’d say Iceland. I have an obsession with landscape formed from glacial erosion and volcanic activity; together, they create some incredible features that are unique to this part of the world. I really, really want to see Jökulsárlón, which is a glacial lake in Iceland. It’s notable for the icebergs settled on its beaches. The pictures of it are just breathtaking!

I love Iceland! Thank you Elizabeth.

About Elizabeth May

Elizabeth May hails from California and is a PhD student in social anthropology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. An accomplished commercial photographer who counts many book publishers among her clients, she has also spent time in front of the camera as a model for book jackets, including those for young adults. The Falconer is her first novel.

GIVEAWAY!

I have one hardcover of THE FALCONER to give away to a reader in the US and Canada. Simply fill out this form by Friday May 16 at 11:59 pm CST for your chance to win! Prize provided and shipped by the publisher. 

Check out the rest of the tour:

Tuesday            5/6/2014            Chronicle Books.com    

Wednesday       5/7/2014            Girls in the Stacks         

Thursday           5/8/2014            The Book Cellar             

Saturday           5/10/2014          Mundie Moms               

Sunday             5/11/2014          Literary Rambles           

Monday            5/12/2014          Page Tuners                  

Tuesday            5/13/2014          Forever Young Adult     

Weekend Cooking: Time for Dinner by Pilar Guzman

I'm not sure anymore where I first saw this cookbook, but it promised easy, fast, and yummy meals so I ordered it.  The rest of the book's title is: Strategies, Inspiration, and Recipes for Family Meals Every Night of the Week.  It was put together by the editors of Cookie Magazine and has a very clean magazine design look and feel. I love it!

Now even though the target group for this cookbook is busy mothers with children, I found it practically perfect for me, a busy professional cooking for two (no children).  First off, it starts with the strategies, which includes having a pantry, fridge and freezer stocked with some basics (and these basics are used over and over in the following recipes).  It also recommends a variety of tools and kitchen items that will make your life easier, especially if you have young children that want "to help" you cook.

After that the book is divided into sections:

• Weekly meal plans
• Hard to screw up meals
• Family dinners where everyone eats the same thing (even if our plates look different)
• Sandwiches
• Use what you already have
• Playdate/Party menus

This weekend, I made two dishes from the hard to screw up meals section.

The first was avgolemono, a very simple and delicious Greek soup.

You need:
4 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup uncooked orzo (you can substitute rice)
salt and pepper
3 eggs
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Bring broth to a boil. Add orzo and cook for 7 minutes (20 min if using rice). Season with salt and pepper and reduce heat to low. Let simmer.

In medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and lemon juice until smooth.

Ladle about 1 cup of the hot broth into the egg and lemon mixture, whisking to combine.

Add mixture back into the simmering saucepan. Stir 1-2 minutes until the soup becomes opaque.  Serve.

You can also add shredded chicken if you wish.

I followed the recipe except for adding double the orzo (and Daniel said he still wanted more orzo, so I might do 3/4 of a cup next time).  I loved the tang of the lemon in this filling soup.  I gave it an A and Daniel gave it a B.

Next I made rigatoni casserole with tofu, spinich and mozzarella.  This made a HUGE casserole which is lighter than our typical casseroles because of the lack of meat.  Daniel found it a bit bland, but hot sauce did the trick.  We both give it a B.  I am sure we will be eating on it for days!

I'm really excited about trying out tons of other recipes in this cookbook, and that doesn't happen often.  I especially like the section "Use what you already have" which gives different staples (like potatoes, canned tomatoes, lentils, eggs, tofu, rotisserie chicken and many others) and then three ways to make it depending on what other ingredients you have on hand.

I highly recommend this one!

Weekend Cooking is a feature at Beth Fish Reads that is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.

This is my second time participating - but not my last!  Daniel and I have vowed to cook more at home, so you should be seeing more cookbook reviews from me in the coming year.

Book Review: The Space Between Trees by Katie Williams

Evie is a friendless teen obsessed with a college age boy who clears dead animals from the woods behind the housing development where she delivers newspapers. When the boy finds the body of Evie’s childhood friend Zabet, Evie tells a lie at Zabet’s funeral that begins a tumultuous friendship with the local “bad girl” Hadley.


When I picked up this novel, I had the impression that it would be a mystery/thriller. But in reality, this is much more of a character study of a girl most people would overlook – a self proclaimed “space between trees”. Of course, the reason most people overlook girls like Evie is because she is basically bland and unremarkable. The most interesting thing about her is that she makes up lies to make her life sound more exciting/less pathetic to her mother and “The whisperers” - a group of good girls Evie eats lunch with at school (LOVED the whisperers - I want a whole novel about them, stat!).

One of these lies leads her to be reluctantly “adopted” by Hadley, Zabet’s real best friend. Hadley acts out (probably because her parents completely ignore her) and engages in destructive behavior, that Evie merely reacts to. The most “thrilling” parts of the narrative have to do with Hadley and Evie looking for Zabet’s killer, a search that amounts to a chain of coincidences, innocuous by themselves, but dangerous enough together to result in tragedy.

There is beautiful, lyrical writing throughout and the author’s insight into wallflowers and grieving communities is impressive, but I spent most of my reading time wondering where exactly the author was going and if I really wanted to keep following. I'm glad I stuck with it, but I am sure I would have enjoyed the journey more if I had gone into it thinking “literary fiction” rather than “mystery/thriller”.

THE SPACE BETWEEN TREES is out now in (gorgeous!!!) hardcover. Find out more about it at the author’s website.

Book Review: Boyology by Sarah Burningham

Where do teens get their dating advice these days? Friends, parents, magazines, surfing the internet? I’m not sure. Would they like to get it from this book? I’m not sure about that either.

BOYOLOGY is billed as a teen girl’s crash course in all things boy, but it’s really a crash course in dating. The tone and format is not unlike that of a teen magazine, with the advantage that it is able to go more in depth, but with the disadvantage that it is dated (especially in its references to pop culture) pretty much immediately.

Chronicle always has great art direction and the book is fun to browse through. There are quizzes and graphics, song lists for romancing your boy (point being: don’t play him girly music), and a list of movies to watch when you break up. Some of the content seems flippant (like a section that stereotypes boys into 8 “breeds”) but other content, like the chapter on setting sexual boundaries and preventing rape, is very, very serious (and important).

BOYOLOGY is out in paperback now. Find out more about it on the author’s website.

Just Because

Today I talked to one of my best friends for the first time in a long time. It's hard keeping up with friends when you are so far away and you have so many that are scattered all over the globe. This particular friend is one that I've made an effort to visit at least once a year. Doesn't sound like a lot, but it takes a lot of effort to coordinate our busy scheldules, and though it's never enough, it's something. So today, when thinking about the book drive for Beth Kephart's new book NOTHING BUT GHOSTS, I thought of my friend and how she enjoys lyrical writing and women's stories and I decided to buy her NBG and another of my favorites NO ONE YOU KNOW by Michelle Richmond (which Beth won in my contest incidentally). There's no special occasion. Just because.

Speaking of book drives, I wanted to mention that Sarah Dessen's new book ALONG FOR THE RIDE debuted at the top of the New York Times best seller list. I haven't read it yet. I actually haven't read any of Sarah Dessen (I know - for shame). But I did feature it in one of my Penguin Prize Packs so I like to think I had the tiniest of parts in its' success. I'll also direct you to a contest going on over at SarahLand (until July 1st) where you can win 2 copies of ALONG FOR THE RIDE (one for you and one for your friend). Just because.

I was also thinking today how restless and unfulfilled I'd be if I didn't have access to books or the ability to read them. I look at my cats as they stare off into space and wonder how they can stand to laze around all day. They aren't even impressed by Taro Gomi's very colorful board book BUS STOPS (C'mon Finn, can't you find the dog?!) I know that's random, but I wanted to share. Just because.