Today, I’m excited to interview fellow YA fantasy author Jean Lee. Jean’s debut, Fallen Princeborn: Stolen, releases on Halloween (Wednesday!), appropriate for a darker fantasy filled with shifters and fae living alongside our world… on the other side of the wall!
Fallen Princeborn: Stolen. Coming Halloween 2018
In rural Wisconsin, an old stone wall is all that separates the world of magic from the world of man—a wall that keeps the shifters inside. When something gets out, people disappear. Completely.
Escaping from an abusive uncle, eighteen-year-old Charlotte is running away with her younger sister Anna. Together they board a bus. Little do they know that they’re bound for River Vine—a shrouded hinterland where dark magic devours and ancient shapeshifters feed, and where the seed of love sets root among the ashes of the dying.
Fallen Princeborn: Stolen is the first in a series of young-adult dark-fantasy novels by Jean Lee. Watch for book 2 in March 2019. Read Tales of the River Vine, a collection of FREE short stories based on the characters in the Fallen Princeborn omnibus.
River Vine, the fantasy shifter world you created, is located across a stone wall. Two of my favorite fantasies also feature an ‘other side of the wall’ world—Neil Gaiman’s Stardustand Garth Nix’s Sabriel. How did you come to set Fallen Princeborn: Stolenwithin reach of a ‘normal’ human world, and what was your worldbuilding process to create—and name—River Vine? (I love the name!)
Excellent questions! Let’s take them backwards. J
The name River Vine is inspired partly by the Mississippi. While I myself have never lived along it, I crossed it often when visiting family in the Dakotas and attending graduate school. Many of Wisconsin’s rivers channel back in some fashion to the Mississippi like the flowering tendrils of a vine. One such river is the Rock River, along which my grandparents lived for years. So I grew up with this sense of connection to the faraway, that a found trickle flows into something bigger, and bigger, and bigger…there’s a magic to that, I think.
And I carried that magic, one river stone at a time, into my novel.
The setting is very much a mix of elements from my childhood. Growing up in a countryside of scattered farms and railroad villages, the idea of a broken road and an isolated farm were a part of my normal. The forestlands of River Vine are rooted in the summer camp my family attended for years. My parents worked in the kitchen and chapel, while we young ones were let loose among the sandy paths and wildflowers. I loved getting lost in the trees, transporting myself to Narnia and beyond while the “proper” campers were herded from games to crafts to sing-alongs and so on. Towns, cars, technology—they weren’t real. The adventures whispering among the tall grasses, fluttering on fairy wings—thosewere real.
And now that I think about it—honestly, this epiphany just came to me—the Wall to divide River Vine from the rest of the world is a piece of my childhood, too. My grandparents lived alongside an old, vast cemetery. A wall much too big for a child to climb prevented me from going on adventures among the stone Virgins and German obelisks. Something drew me to that wall every visit, and every visit, I was denied a chance to go on the other side. That Forbidden Something Beyond The Wall…it’s still there, in me.
Your heroine, Charlotte, is running from an abusive uncle at the start of the story. She shows great determination in facing demons in River Vine. Will that determination carry over to her life on the non-magical side of the stone wall?
Ah, now that I cannot tell, as that would be spoiling things further on in the series… J
We share a love of creating shifters! How did you choose individual animals to link with specific characters? Did you stick to Wisconsin wildlife throughout the story?
It did begin with usage of Wisconsin wildlife, to be sure—the raven, for instance, and the squirrel. That which is common place and can easily blend in. Then there are those animals that are normal for the land, but not among people—bears, badgers, and such. The animals helped me with some facets of the character traits. The squirrel Campion has a very playful—albeit nasty—nature, whereas the wolf Dorjan is fiercely protective of his family, or “pack,” you could say.
When I first began drafting Fallen Princeborn, I did stick strictly with Wisconsin wildlife, but as I plan out the series, I have a feeling a few non-Midwestern creatures are going to make an appearance. J
You have said on your blog that you’re worried—terrified, was actually the word, lol!—about your debut release. However, to me, it looks like you’re doing a great job pulling all the author pieces together and connecting with readers. In addition to Stolen‘s upcoming release, you have a free short story collection set in River Vine and a very active and engaging blog. Would you detail for other writers when you first realized you wanted to write for publication, and the steps you’ve taken along the way to build to your exciting release of Stolen?
I had started drafting Stolen during the 2010 National Novel Writing Month. I was a new mom and a college adjunct, so time was hardly my own. After pounding the initial draft during the “Thirty Days of Literary Abandon,” I spent the next few years fleshing out characters, setting, history, etc. By 2015, I decided it was now or never. Time for agent queries!
Nuthin’. Not a sausage. Bugger all.
So I packed it up. Stolen was fated to be the novel that got me into the writing groove, but would never see the light of day. A common fate of many first novels, I hear.
That same year I set up my website Jean Lee’s World, figuring if I couldn’t get published, I could at least work on this platform doohickey writing experts natter on about. And you know what? The challenge of blog writing made a HUGE difference in my craft. I had to develop a regimen to write weekly. I put favorite writing music to use, sharing what made certain composers inspirational for storytelling. I started rereading favorite books and working out why on earth I loved them in the first place—lessons which others in the bloggersphere came to appreciate. In turn I was exposed to the glorious wonderland that is indie writing, with all its unique voices and views one just doesn’t see in the “traditional” book world.
I also connected to creative souls who struggled with parenting and depression, just like me. I was able to share the broken shards of my past, and find understanding with others. I was able to find the cracks in my faith, and seal them as only a writer’s soul can: with words.
Writing online turned me from a “teller with a story” into a “storyteller.” I didn’t just have ideas. I found language and rhythm inside the dank corners of me that could only find their harmony on the page.
So.
Fastforward a couple years.
The site is coming along well, and I’m gaining confidence in trying fiction again. Indie fantasy writer Michael Dellert challenged me to create a Young Adult fantasy story based on a character from his universe, and I took up the challenge. The end result was Middler’s Pride, a story about a girl who thinks she’s legend material without having to actually do anything. Meredydd has to learn some tough lessons about friendship and teamwork in the Shield Maidens in order to take down a serious threat to the kingdom, or die trying.
I originally posted the story on Wattpad, a free publication database where writers can upload stories, poems, etc. and readers can comment on favorite chapters and passages. Honestly, if you’re looking for a place that’s free and built for narrative—fiction or non, poetry or prose—utilize Wattpad. While I had a steadily growing audience on my website, those readers were coming to me for craft stuff, or parenting stuff—people didn’t visit Jean Lee’s World to read stories. By building a little corner on Wattpad for myself, I could reach fantasy readers and get their thoughts on my work.
This is also how I caught the attention of one Gerri Santiago of Aionios Books. She contacted me on Twitter one November day: “Have you signed on with a publisher yet ? I love Meredydd’s tough vulnerability in Middler’s Pride.” She then asks me to send her a complete manuscript of Middler’s Pride.
“Sure!” I start to type. Freeze. I was nowhere near done adapting the new universe for Middler’s Pride and the series I hoped to write for it. But I can’t afford to lose this opportunity! If I say it’s not ready, she may say thanks and move on. Then who knows how long it’ll be before I get someone’s attention like this again?
Bo gets home from work and listens to my breathless, teary telling of the Twitter tale. He gets me some cocoa and sits me down. “Can you send her something else to buy you some time?” he asks.
“No. Well maybe. There’s my Fallen Princeborn story. But that’s not totally revised, either.”
Bo considers this. “True, but it’d probably keep her attention long enough so you can get that Middler thing done, right?”
And that’s how Fallen Princeborn: Stolen came into the hands of Aionios Books, and why we’re talking about Fallen Princeborn and not Middler’s Pride. Oh, don’t worry—Meredydd found her home on Channillo, a subscription hub full of all sorts of indie writers and their tales.
Now the tough stuff starts.
Reaching out to more readers.
How do we intrigue readers with River Vine and its characters and build excitement for a novel?
Well…well I suck at this whole “marketing” thing. I grew up in a church that required endless service without commendation. Hell, the choir could sing the whole Hallelujah Chorus and be met with complete silence because you NEVER clap in church. Clapping distracts us from Jesus for…reasons. You do your duty, you move on.
Kinda don’t work with marketing a novel.
Well a year or so ago I had tried writing a short story with one of my characters from Fallen Princeborn, and Gerri loved it so much she proposed I write a collection of stories featuring different characters. Intrigued, I did a little brainstorming, aaaaand tada! Tales of the River Vine was born. We’ve been releasing them one at a time since June, sending ripples through the readers so that Fallen Princeborn is never totally off the shelves, and to have plenty of content to recommend if readers like a story. We’ve also made the short stories free, so that they’re no-risk to readers. If they like it? Great! If they don’t, they lost nothing. What matters is that the stories are reaching others, and they are being enjoyed. That, I think, is the most any writer can hope for: that her stories take hold of readers and guide them to wonders strange and beautiful.
Fallen Princeborn: Stolen’s release date is “Halloween 2018.” Pretty memorable day for the release of a dark fantasy. If it’s not a spoiler, is there a connection in the story to Halloween, or another for you that caused you to choose October 31st?
There’s no direct connection between Halloween and Stolen, I’m afraid, but I think Halloween itself connects readers to all those stories in the shadows, where the beautiful can terrify as much as the grotesque. We all expect a fright or two, but sometimes there is no preparation for nightmare that grabs us.
Fallen Princeborn: Stolen. Coming Halloween 2018
The FREE Tales of the River Vine available
Amazon | Nook | Other Outlets
About the Author
Jean Lee is a Wisconsin born and bred writer excited to share her young adult fiction with those who love to find other worlds hidden in the humdrum of everyday life. Lee’s short story collection Tales of the River Vine is currently available for free download on Amazon, Nook, and other markets. Her serialized fantasy Middler’s Pride is available via the Indie E-magazine Channillo. She currently lives in the Madison area with her husband and three children.
Find Jean Lee:
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon Author Page | Website | Aionios Books
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