In true villainous style, I award myself five stars.
Hey, I didn't survive cancer to give myself three...
In all honesty, I know not everyone will like my weird, wild, campy book. It's got a musical, for the dark lord's sake (cringe!). It's got one thousand million references to fantasy novels and myths and legends and movies and TV shows and internet jokes I have known (unoriginal!). It's about loving tropes and stories and fantasy, and loving shaking up all those things.
A dying woman walks into the world of her favourite fantasy novel and meets her favourite character - who wants her executed for her crimes. So she gathers together all the villains of the story in an evil ensemble, and the vipers are driving this narrative like they stole it.
Meet Rae, insufferable know-it-all and wild (wild! stop! she won't stop!) schemer suddenly in a vixen's hourglass figure and dealing with the body horror and euphoria of it all (is she bad or is she just drawn that way...). The Golden Cobra, blackmailer, spymaster, shady amasser of riches, and floozy of the group. Key, assassin from the gutters with no morals and too many knives, will kill again, will probably make a tasteless joke even as he's doing it. Emer, grimly unamused by antics and determined to to keep secrets that will ruin your life. Not to mention the deceptive one and the berserker one... It's a villain origin story, so they're only going to get worse.
I really believe you can't write a book some people will love without writing a book others will hate. I let myself take the biggest risks and the wildest swings with this one. This book is the one I didn't think I'd live to write. I think it will always be the one that means the most.
And I wanted it to be fun, too.
I think those who have had the worst time might be ready to have the best time - to forget all their own troubles in a romp, to recognise themselves in characters who make huge mistakes and feel horribly unlovable - and then sometimes, get horribly and hugely loved.
Hey, I didn't survive cancer to give myself three...
In all honesty, I know not everyone will like my weird, wild, campy book. It's got a musical, for the dark lord's sake (cringe!). It's got one thousand million references to fantasy novels and myths and legends and movies and TV shows and internet jokes I have known (unoriginal!). It's about loving tropes and stories and fantasy, and loving shaking up all those things.
A dying woman walks into the world of her favourite fantasy novel and meets her favourite character - who wants her executed for her crimes. So she gathers together all the villains of the story in an evil ensemble, and the vipers are driving this narrative like they stole it.
Meet Rae, insufferable know-it-all and wild (wild! stop! she won't stop!) schemer suddenly in a vixen's hourglass figure and dealing with the body horror and euphoria of it all (is she bad or is she just drawn that way...). The Golden Cobra, blackmailer, spymaster, shady amasser of riches, and floozy of the group. Key, assassin from the gutters with no morals and too many knives, will kill again, will probably make a tasteless joke even as he's doing it. Emer, grimly unamused by antics and determined to to keep secrets that will ruin your life. Not to mention the deceptive one and the berserker one... It's a villain origin story, so they're only going to get worse.
I really believe you can't write a book some people will love without writing a book others will hate. I let myself take the biggest risks and the wildest swings with this one. This book is the one I didn't think I'd live to write. I think it will always be the one that means the most.
And I wanted it to be fun, too.
I think those who have had the worst time might be ready to have the best time - to forget all their own troubles in a romp, to recognise themselves in characters who make huge mistakes and feel horribly unlovable - and then sometimes, get horribly and hugely loved.
I hope you escape with me.