Hi everyone!

This may be some kind of record…I’ve completed two time-sensitive author-type tasks today. About a week ago, I was tagged for a Next Big Thing blog by author and beard aficionado Christopher Golden, and since I’m trying to blog semi-regularly again I jumped at the chance.

Chris’s post is here, and how this works is, I answer some questions and then “tag” several more authors to continue posting this madness. Thus it spreads and spreads, much like ebola, or a viral video of Justin Bieber being mauled by ocelots.

I decided to talk about The Mirrored Shard, which is my next upcoming release and the conclusion of the Iron Codex trilogy.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

I cannot express how much I hate trying to answer this question, but I’ll give it a try. The Iron Codex books as a whole were conceived as steampunk fantasies with a heavy dose of Lovecraftian mythos. The Mirrored Shard in particular was partly inspired by the story of Orpheus, as seen through a steampunk lens. It’s also the third book in the trilogy, so I had to make sure I wrapped up all of the major threads from the first two books. I ended the second, The Nightmare Garden, on a fairly stiff cliffhanger, and I knew I wanted to show readers a new part of the Iron Codex world. I also wanted to write a unique Underworld, a place that wasn’t based in an existing folklore or religion, so with those parameters in mind, it all came together pretty easily.

What genre does your book fall under?

The Mirrored Shardis fantasy, and the subgenre or co-genre is steampunk.* A lot of steampunk is technically science fiction, but the Iron Codex is fantasy-based. If you like Scott Westerfeld’s steampunk novels or Gail Carriger’s books, or enjoy dark fantasy overall, you’ll probably like the Iron Codex books. If you don’t, well, you’ll never catch me! Bwahaha!

*The Iron Codex books are also young adult novels, shelved in the YA section of most bookstores.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Oddly enough, the Iron Codex books are the only ones I’ve written that I haven’t done a fantasy cast list for. The only character I could pick an actor for without thinking about it is Grey Draven, the villain of the first book and a…complex character for the second two. For him I’d pick Ian Somerhalder, Damon on The Vampire Diaries. He’s got the suave evil thing down pat, and Draven is supposed to be handsome. Evil, but handsome.

[image error]

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

“Aoife Grayson must travel to the Underworld to save the soul of her beloved, but before she can do it she must face the fearsome king of the dead, who is determined to trap Aoife forever…”

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

All of my young adult novels so far are published by Delacorte Press, a division of Random House.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

It took about two months to write a very rough draft. My editor and I took another three months or so to revise.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

As I said up there, Scott Westerfeld’s steampunk novels are great, and Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate novels have a similar meshing of fantasy creatures and steampunk worldbuilding. I was also inspired by Cherie Priest’s Clockwork Century novels, which are brilliant alternate history romps, and darker fairy tale novels, such as Holly Black’s fairie books and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

It’s a dark, lyrical novel that has a different sort of worldbuilding from the usual folklore and/or mythology based stuff you find in YA fantasy novels. It’s also an alternate history story, so if that’s up your alley, we have plenty of juicy what-if timelines for you.

Tagging:

If you’ve got a project coming out, consider yourself tagged! If you wouldn’t mind linking back to this post, I’d be terribly grateful and give you big non-creepy internet hugs.

The Mirrored Shard will be released on February 12th, 2013, and all three Iron Codex books are available in all brick and mortar bookstores that are awesome, as well as in print and e-book editions (Kindle, Nook, etc) at these fine online retailers:

IndieBound, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Book Depository (for international orders)