Today, I’m honored to partner with FFBC Tours for the Song of The Abyss Book Tour. In this post, I asked Makiia Lucier a few questions I was dying to know about this book and her writing process. The second book in the Tower of Winds series was released on August 27,
Learn more on this wonderful fantasy young adult novel. You’ll also find inside information on the book and on a
Makiia Lucier, Author of Song Of The Abyss – Interview
What did inspire your book?
Many different things! But most of all: mapmakers, Indiana Jones movies, old ships, medieval Japan, harpies, and the terra cotta soldiers of ancient China.
Did you have to do a lot to research for this book?
Definitely. On all the topics above, but also on the everyday things, like clothing, money, and food in the Middle Ages. Luckily, I have a library background and really enjoy research. No, really!
Can you tell us more about your writing career?
I didn’t plan on becoming a writer. I went to graduate school because I wanted to be a librarian. But after two years of studying literature for children and young adults, ideas started running through my brain in a never ending loop. A pretty girl driving a Ford. An angry exchange with a soldier. Mt. Hood in the background. A flu epidemic.
Finally, to quiet the voices in my head, I drove to Office Depot. I picked up some pencils, bought a few notebooks, and thought, How hard can it be?
What books/author influenced you growing up?
I loved the Anne of Green Gables books by L.M. Montgomery, as well as Jane Eyre
Tell us one thing you really love about writing fantasy?
I love being able to take stories deeply rooted in history (mapmakers in the Middle Ages, for example) and build a fantastical world around them. Sea monsters in the waters, ghosts in the forests. With fantasy, I’m limited only by my imagination.
How was writing the second book of this series? Is writing becoming easier?
Nope, definitely not easier.
Even though some of the setting and characters in Song of the Abyss overlap with its companion book, Isle of Blood and Stone, there are still many other characters I have to create from scratch, worlds I have to build from the ground up, and a brand new plot I have to puzzle through from beginning to end.
Which character do you relate the most with?
I relate to many of my characters in some small way or another. With Reyna and Levi, I understand very deeply what it feels like to lose a parent. Both parents. And Reyna’s friend, Blaise, wants nothing more than to leave her hometown and study at university, but there’s the problem of costs. How can she possibly afford it? I think many of us can relate to that.
Thank you so much, Makiia, for taking the time to answer these questions and Congratulations on this new book!
Synopsis
Ancient grievances, long-held grudges, and dangerous magic combine in this sweeping standalone fantasy perfect for fans of Tamora Pierce and Rachel Hartman.
They came in the night as she dreamt, in her berth, on a ship sailing home to del Mar. After, they would be all Reyna thought about: two carracks painted scorpion black. No emblem on either forecastle, no pennants flying above the mainmasts to hint at a kingdom of origin.
Never a good sign.
As the granddaughter of a famed navigator, seventeen-year-old Reyna has always lived life on her own terms, despite those who say a girl could never be an explorer for the royal house of St. John del Mar. She is determined to prove them wrong, and as she returns home after a year-long expedition, she knows her dream is within reach. No longer an apprentice, instead: Reyna, Master Explorer.
But when menacing raiders attack her ship, those dreams are pushed aside. Reyna’s escape is both desperate and dangerous, and when next she sees her ship, a mystery rises from the deep. The sailors–her captain, her countrymen–have vanished. To find them, Reyna must use every resource at her disposal . . . including placing her trust in a handsome prince from a rival kingdom.
Together they uncover a disturbing truth. The attack was no isolated incident. Troubling signs point to a shadowy kingdom in the north, and for once, the rulers of the Sea of Magdalen agree: something must be done. But can Reyna be brave enough to find a way?
- Author: Makiia Lucier
- Publisher: HMH Book for Young Readers
- Release Date: August 27, 2019
- Book Length: 352 pages
- Genre: Young Adult – Fantasy
About the Author
Makiia is the author of historical fiction and historical fantasy for young adults. She grew up on the Pacific Island of Guam (not too far from the equator), and has degrees in journalism and library science from the University of Oregon and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Her debut novel, A Death-Struck Year, was called a “powerful and disturbing reading experience” by Publishers Weekly, and was a finalist for Germany’s top book prize for children, the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis. Her second novel, Isle of Blood and Stone, was inspired by her love of Indiana Jones movies and old, old maps.
She lives with her family in North Carolina.
International Giveaway
Prize: Win (1) copy of 3 of Song of The Abyss by Makiia Lucier – US Giveaway
Starts: August 21, 2019 – Finishes: September 4, 2019
a Rafflecopter giveaway