Welcome to our stop on An Inheritance of Ashes tour for Leah Bobet. This tour is hosted by Rockstar Book Tour.
An Inheritance of AshesAuthor: Leah Bobet
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Released: October 6th 2015
Publisher: Clarion Books
The strange war down south—with its rumors of gods and monsters—is over. And while sixteen-year-old Hallie and her sister wait to see who will return from the distant battlefield, they struggle to maintain their family farm.
When Hallie hires a veteran to help them, the war comes home in ways no one could have imagined, and soon Hallie is taking dangerous risks—and keeping desperate secrets. But even as she slowly learns more about the war and the men who fought it, ugly truths about Hallie’s own family are emerging. And while monsters and armies are converging on the small farm, the greatest threat to her home may be Hallie herself.
Interview
Tell us about An Inheritance of Ashes in 20 words or less.
An Inheritance of Ashes is dustbowl epic fantasy thrown into a YA thrown into weird fiction at very high speeds.
What was the most challenging, and the most enjoyable aspect of writing An Inheritance of Ashes, and why?
Ashes was a challenging book overall, but the part that needed the most attention was probably the voice. Hallie has a very plain-spoken voice, but there's a lot of emotion behind it, and balancing her tendencies—making sure readers could tell that this is where she is emotionally now, not where she's always been or will always be—with my own love of more poetic sentences made writing her a struggle for a long time. I threw out a lot of words trying to find this book's identity, and I won't pretend that wasn't a frustrating learning curve.
The most enjoyable, though? The sheer amount of absolutely weird stuff I got to throw in. Giant walking tree made out of deer horns? Yup. Lizards with fox ears? Go for it. An army trying to figure out how to fight a god that's basically a giant whirling sandstorm? Sure!
I like creatures. I love that I got to run wild a little with the Twisted Things and just make them flat-out messed up. And the part of me that's a China Mieville and Jeffrey Ford reader—and an occasional horror writer—really likes the kind of weird stuff that makes everything in a story feel a little tilted and uncanny. Going absolutely all-out on building a sense of the strange kept me in joy all the way through writing An Inheritance of Ashes.
Do you have a deleted scene from An Inheritance of Ashes that you could share with us? If not maybe you could share your favorite short teaser from An Inheritance of Ashes?
Here's a bit that ended up, unfortunately, on the cutting room floor:
"What do you need me to do?"
I rubbed my eyes. No one had milked the goats, or gathered the eggs. Chores, I thought. I was so tired, and there was still no time to sleep. "You don't have to do anything."
"I know," he said patiently. "The thing is, I want to."
"You should talk to your sister about that," I said.
His chin firmed up. "I did. We spent a few good hours on it this morning."
I stopped in the snow. Coolly, baldly, incredulously. "Then how can you be offering that? How can you be okay with what I did?"
Tyler planted the rake and wheeled on me. "I'm not okay. I'm terrified, and I'm furious," he said, clipped and short. "But I saw a god die once before, not six months back. I saw the desert drain into a hole, and the world un-end. This isn't over. I will not act like it's over until I'm dead on the ground."
I reached out for him, instinctively; he twined a hand through my cold-pruned fingers. "Keep walking for another day, huh?"
"That," he said, "yeah. And other things."
I felt, like a memory, the tingle of his mouth on mine. "Why?" I asked, stark.
"I told you—" he started.
"No," I said. "Me. This. Why?"
He paused—thinking, not stalling, I realized. "Because I don't think you'd hate me if I pushed you in the lake, and you don't tell my secrets. We respect each other. Because you're not okay, but you're smart enough to know that, and you're trying to be. Because you hold me up to my own standards," he said, with starkly vulnerable eyes. "Because you're gross. Because you're you."
My eyes blurred with sudden tears. He reached down and stroked my hair, soothing as a long sleep. "I really have to milk the goats now."
"Okay," he said quietly. "You should do that, then."
"How about a cup of tea?" I asked, unsteadily. "I could use a cup of tea."
He looked down at me, eyes steady and broken and careworn. "Then a cup of tea's what I'll make you."
The distance between people, I thought, is farther than the distance between stars. But there is such thing as a constellation.
--
If you could give one book to everyone (other than your own), which would it be?
That's tricky! I also work as a bookseller—at Bakka-Phoenix Books, which is Canada's oldest independent science fiction and fantasy store—and so it's pretty drummed into me that there's no such thing as one book that's going to be right for everyone. For me, it's more about finding the right book for that reader, that day—making a good match.
My own favourite book right now, though, is Erin Bow's The Scorpion Rules, which just came out at the end of September. By page 8 I was already floored: It's brilliant YA science fiction in which peace is enforced on the future world by an AI, Talis, who takes the heir to every nation as a hostage, medieval Europe-style. It is such a smart book, so clearly written and with so much to say for itself. It's just a masterpiece, and given the right readers, it's what I'm going to be handselling hard at the store this fall.
What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?
I think that I'm still growing; I'm still a work in progress. I can look back and see that I'm smarter, braver, kinder, happier, and more generous than I was five years ago, and five years ago I was smarter, braver, kinder, happier, and more generous than I was five years before that.
Growing is hard. We don't give it credit for being hard: Examining your assumptions, learning your worst tendencies without kicking yourself for them, and just working on becoming more the person you want to be.
So, yes: I think my greatest accomplishment is finding a good direction to walk in, however that happened. Because the consequences of that aren't something done and put away; they'll keep coming as long as I keep walking.
An Inheritance of Ashes is dustbowl epic fantasy thrown into a YA thrown into weird fiction at very high speeds.
What was the most challenging, and the most enjoyable aspect of writing An Inheritance of Ashes, and why?
Ashes was a challenging book overall, but the part that needed the most attention was probably the voice. Hallie has a very plain-spoken voice, but there's a lot of emotion behind it, and balancing her tendencies—making sure readers could tell that this is where she is emotionally now, not where she's always been or will always be—with my own love of more poetic sentences made writing her a struggle for a long time. I threw out a lot of words trying to find this book's identity, and I won't pretend that wasn't a frustrating learning curve.
The most enjoyable, though? The sheer amount of absolutely weird stuff I got to throw in. Giant walking tree made out of deer horns? Yup. Lizards with fox ears? Go for it. An army trying to figure out how to fight a god that's basically a giant whirling sandstorm? Sure!
I like creatures. I love that I got to run wild a little with the Twisted Things and just make them flat-out messed up. And the part of me that's a China Mieville and Jeffrey Ford reader—and an occasional horror writer—really likes the kind of weird stuff that makes everything in a story feel a little tilted and uncanny. Going absolutely all-out on building a sense of the strange kept me in joy all the way through writing An Inheritance of Ashes.
Do you have a deleted scene from An Inheritance of Ashes that you could share with us? If not maybe you could share your favorite short teaser from An Inheritance of Ashes?
Here's a bit that ended up, unfortunately, on the cutting room floor:
"What do you need me to do?"
I rubbed my eyes. No one had milked the goats, or gathered the eggs. Chores, I thought. I was so tired, and there was still no time to sleep. "You don't have to do anything."
"I know," he said patiently. "The thing is, I want to."
"You should talk to your sister about that," I said.
His chin firmed up. "I did. We spent a few good hours on it this morning."
I stopped in the snow. Coolly, baldly, incredulously. "Then how can you be offering that? How can you be okay with what I did?"
Tyler planted the rake and wheeled on me. "I'm not okay. I'm terrified, and I'm furious," he said, clipped and short. "But I saw a god die once before, not six months back. I saw the desert drain into a hole, and the world un-end. This isn't over. I will not act like it's over until I'm dead on the ground."
I reached out for him, instinctively; he twined a hand through my cold-pruned fingers. "Keep walking for another day, huh?"
"That," he said, "yeah. And other things."
I felt, like a memory, the tingle of his mouth on mine. "Why?" I asked, stark.
"I told you—" he started.
"No," I said. "Me. This. Why?"
He paused—thinking, not stalling, I realized. "Because I don't think you'd hate me if I pushed you in the lake, and you don't tell my secrets. We respect each other. Because you're not okay, but you're smart enough to know that, and you're trying to be. Because you hold me up to my own standards," he said, with starkly vulnerable eyes. "Because you're gross. Because you're you."
My eyes blurred with sudden tears. He reached down and stroked my hair, soothing as a long sleep. "I really have to milk the goats now."
"Okay," he said quietly. "You should do that, then."
"How about a cup of tea?" I asked, unsteadily. "I could use a cup of tea."
He looked down at me, eyes steady and broken and careworn. "Then a cup of tea's what I'll make you."
The distance between people, I thought, is farther than the distance between stars. But there is such thing as a constellation.
--
If you could give one book to everyone (other than your own), which would it be?
That's tricky! I also work as a bookseller—at Bakka-Phoenix Books, which is Canada's oldest independent science fiction and fantasy store—and so it's pretty drummed into me that there's no such thing as one book that's going to be right for everyone. For me, it's more about finding the right book for that reader, that day—making a good match.
My own favourite book right now, though, is Erin Bow's The Scorpion Rules, which just came out at the end of September. By page 8 I was already floored: It's brilliant YA science fiction in which peace is enforced on the future world by an AI, Talis, who takes the heir to every nation as a hostage, medieval Europe-style. It is such a smart book, so clearly written and with so much to say for itself. It's just a masterpiece, and given the right readers, it's what I'm going to be handselling hard at the store this fall.
What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?
I think that I'm still growing; I'm still a work in progress. I can look back and see that I'm smarter, braver, kinder, happier, and more generous than I was five years ago, and five years ago I was smarter, braver, kinder, happier, and more generous than I was five years before that.
Growing is hard. We don't give it credit for being hard: Examining your assumptions, learning your worst tendencies without kicking yourself for them, and just working on becoming more the person you want to be.
So, yes: I think my greatest accomplishment is finding a good direction to walk in, however that happened. Because the consequences of that aren't something done and put away; they'll keep coming as long as I keep walking.
Posts
This book has been on my TBR pile for a while!
ReplyDeletethanks for the chance to win.
ReplyDeleteThe book sounds really good, and I'd love to read it. Thanks for having the giveaway.
ReplyDelete