I got a chance to be on Brevard Notes again for my books. I was interviewed by Joe Crews regarding the third book in my Zaria Fierce Trilogy. We talked about the folklore in the series, the artwork, the narration, and more. I hope you enjoy. Thanks for watching!
ICYMI: Unboxing Author Copies and Midnight Book Release Pajama Party
Hi everyone! In case you missed it here are the videos from when I did a few live videos this past week leading up to the release of Zaria Fierce and the Dragon Keeper’s Golden Shoes, the third book in the Zaria Fierce Trilogy. Oskar pie steals the show I think in both cases. xoxo
Unboxing Zaria Fierce and the Dragon Keeper’s Golden Shoes:
The necklace I’m wearing in the above video can be purchased here.
Midnight Book Release Pajama Party:
#teamstaglord #teamhart #teamellefolken LOL
Thanks for watching!
In other news the print and ebook versions are available at Amazon. The audio book version is coming soon. Michele is hard at work putting on the finishing touches.
Lots of great reviews are starting to come in for the third book. Check them out!
Brenda’s at Log Cabin Library:
Zaria is able to fall on her friends for support and their continual encouragement give her just the confidence she needs to keep trying, to persevere. They never hold her mistakes against her and won’t allow Zaria to take the blame for being tricked. For me, it’s one of my favorite parts in reading this series, well that and the unique qualities that each character brings to the story.
Ner’s at Cup of Coffee and Book:
As always, I’m completely mesmerised by how much the Norwegian folklore is present in these books. There were a few new “beasts” such as the banshees and the mares (which scared the living hell out of me to be honest) but the same old creatures made a cameo. We had the trolls, witches, the dwarves, the ellefolken, dragons, the lot. The fantasy in these books is strong and so beautifully explore and described I almost felt like I could wander through Norway and stumble upon these eerie creatures and realms.
Recommended for middle grade collections where fantasy is popular. I’d book talk this with other hero’s journey tales like CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia and Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson/Magnus Chase series; they’ll have a firmer frame of reference when you present the series with these popular fantasy tales. Talk up Zaria as a strong female character who overcomes her fears and self-doubts to outwit monsters, and save herself and her friends!
Q: What/who do you think you will miss most when the Zaria Fierce story is done?
A: All of them. I’ll miss Zaria for her sweetness, Filip for his protectiveness, Hector for his guidance, Merry for her motherliness, Aleks for his navigational abilities, Geirr for his good-natured pessimism, Christoffer for his wonder, and Olaf for his pirate speech. Mostly, when it’s over I will be proud of them and myself because together we accomplished much and shared a great story. What are you going to miss?
Book Reading: Zaria Fierce and the Dragon Keeper’s Golden Shoes on July 13, 2016
Q: Did you have any specific people in mind when creating your characters?
A: Not particularly, but that said I do base some of the conversations, situations, and reactions characters get into or say on my family. I think that’s why they ring so true to readers. We’ve all had at least one of these experiences.
Oh wait, just as I was about to wrap this question up it occurred to me that yes, it’s been suggested by beta readers who know me in real life that my puppy, Oskar was inspiration for Vingar, a character from the third book. I see a lot of him in parts of Vingar’s character, so you could say Vingar was based on my puppy. The beta reader also said because she saw the connection to Oskar that it was hard for her to see Vingar as a creature you wouldn’t want to be near, to touch, or have brush up against you. Then I showed her Eoghan’s illustration of Vingar. Once she saw that she totally understood. LOL Eoghan’s great at bringing the fantasy creatures in the series alive.
Q: Have you always known how the Zaria Fierce Trilogy would end or has it changed since you first started the trilogy?
A: I’ve always known.
Before Zaria’s story could be written I had to find out what her adventures would be, but I always knew her character arc would be the journey from timidity to bravery.
When the story came I knew how book one of the trilogy would end, and how the last book would end. Everything in between was a vague blank white space. I let the story and characters tell me what would happen as I wrote.
Events in book two clued me in on new scenes that would happen in the final book, but the final showdown and its outcome and fallout have always been known.
Book Signing and Author Reading Event: New York City, April 11, 2016
Great news! I’m scheduled to appear on April 11, 2016 at the Queens Library/Corona Community Library, where I’ll be doing an author reading and book signing event. Please join me at 3:30 PM for an hour of fantasy-filled fun. I’m told parking can be tough so plan ahead.
You can click on the flyer image to print out a copy for your fridge and to color. If you do, bring it to the event. I’d love to see your finished masterpieces. There should also be some additional coloring pages available at the library. You can find these same coloring pages on my website if you would like to print at home.
I will be reading from Zaria Fierce and the Secret of Gloomwood Forest, the first book in the Zaria Fierce Trilogy. After the reading there will be time for a Q&A session where you can ask me questions about the book, writing, publishing, and more. Copies of both books will be on hand for purchase. I hope to see you there!
Details for Book Signing and Author Reading Event:
When: Monday, April 11, 2016
Time: 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM
Where: Queens Library/Corona Community Library
Library website: http://www.queenslibrary.org/corona
Address:
38-23 104th Street
Corona, NY 11368
Phone: (718) 426-2844
Hours of Operation:
Monday | 12:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Cost of Books: $15 ea. Limited supply available. If you can, consider purchasing a copy beforehand to bring with you. Details for purchasing can be found here.
Autographing: Free
Conquering Stage Fright at an Open Mic
As my name was closer to being called, butterflies erupted in my tummy, dancing and fluttering and twisting round and round. Why was I nervous? I’d read my book in front of strangers before, hadn’t I? What makes this any different?
The difference I believe is the situation. At a book reading, the audience had come to listen to me specifically. They wanted to learn more about me and my work. At this semi-informal stand-up mic event held in a friend-of-a-friend’s home it was different. I really only knew three people there and the event was a gathering of other friends sharing their poetry and songs. Would they really want to hear me, an interloper on the scene?
Then my name was called. I got up. I brought my book to the front. I said hello. I introduced the book and I started reading. I was reading aloud a scene I hadn’t practiced having realized in the middle of the event that my fifteen minute selection was too long for the program. So here I was, sitting on a chair, in front of a mic, holding a flashlight over my book and reading.
Luckily for me it was a scene I’d heard many times over as this was the scene I’d given as an audition piece for prospective narrators. I knew what I needed to do when – laugh, pant, shout. My shaking hands steadied, my heart rate returned to normal, and the story flowed. My friend recorded me at this event, and although I look a bit like a floating head that would fit right in at Hogwarts, I assure you I was fully present.
Lessons I Learned:
- Nerves come from thinking you’re unprepared. When you realize that the words you’re sharing are your own and that you do know them, everything falls into place as easily as breathing.
- Strangers are patient and interested. There’s no need to be nervous, because whether they’re at your book reading or open mic event, everyone is there to hear something they hadn’t heard before.
- These strangers are also amazingly talented and you’ll hear things you hadn’t before, too! There were singers, poets, and even another author at the event. Mingle and talk to everyone and you’ll make new friends and have a good time.
Overall, it was exhilarating and it was fun. I look forward to the next coffee house and poetry night where I may find myself.
Blog Tour Stop: Author Interview at Mom Read It
Hi everyone! I’m over at Mom Read It with Rosemary doing a fun author interview. We talk about fantasy books, Norwegian mythology, and folklore. Please join us!
Rosemary also had a chance to review the first two Zaria Fierce books. Here’s a sneak peek of what she said:
The stories are written and illustrated in a manner that recalls fantasy and adventure stories I read as a kid. The black and white fantasy sketches are beautiful and creepy – I love the white stag and the deliciously creepy Olaf – and brings a lot of imagination to the page.
Blog Tour Stop: Author Q&A at The Booklandia
Join me at Danissa’s blog, The Booklandia, for an author Q&A with yours truly. We talk about reading, writing, and Zaria Fierce – three of my favorite subjects! 🙂
Recap: Video, Audio, and Pictures from the Book Signing at the Suntree Viera Public Library
Thanks everyone who came and joined me at the Suntree Viera Public Library last Saturday! What a blast it was to read for you from the second Zaria Fierce book. I had a lot of fun sharing my book and talking to you all.
Here are the highlights from the author talk:
Watch Again
Below is the video of the reading:
Here’s a video of the Q&A portion of the event. You had so many good questions!
Listen Again
Below is the audio (includes Q&A) from the reading:
If you loved hearing the book read, you should check out Michele Carpenter’s narration of theZaria Fierce books on Audible. She does an amazing job. She even gave me some tips for my reading today. I love her voices and you will too!
Transcript of the the Q&A Session
Q: What is the game called?
A: The game is called kettupeli. It’s a Finnish word that combines two Finnish words actually. They combine the words fox and game, where kettu is fox and peli is game, and when you write a Finnish word it gets smooshed together. The reason I know that is because growing up, just before I really remember, my mom and dad had some exchange students come from Finland. I’m friends with them now as they’re all grown up and myself, too, on Facebook. I would posed questions here and there as I was trying to come up with words for things. So they were able to help me out with that. That was pretty cool.
Q: Why did you pick Norway?
A: I picked Norway as the setting for Zaria Fierce because everywhere else that I tried in the north just wasn’t working. Russia seemed too harsh, and Canada seemed too friendly. (Laughter) And I didn’t really want to do it on an off-world version like Game of Thrones or something where it’s a made-up world. I wanted it to feel like it could happen here and now, with anybody being able to walk into Norway. They have such a rich folklore that goes hand-in-hand with their mythology. The same with just Europe in general. They have a very big fantasy, folklore environment that you can take things from and use, so that’s what I did. I really liked it once I set it in Norway. It worked out really well. That’s when Olaf came to me, too, the bad guy. He showed up and appeared fully formed out from underneath his bridge the minute Zaria had to go to school in Norway, which was perfect, because until then I didn’t have a bad guy. No story without a bad guy.
Q: Have you visited Scandinavia?
A: I have gone to Finland. I haven’t been to Norway, yet, or Sweden. Both are places that I would love to visit. I’m hopeful to get there in the next year or two. I guess, I’ve also been to Russia and St. Petersburg so that kinda counts – it’s in the same general area.
Q: Are you working on the third book or are you already finished with it?
A: I’m working on the third book. If I meet my word count I’ll be done by the end of the year in time to start prepping it with Eoghan and Michele, so they can do their narration and illustration. If I don’t meet the word count it’ll be just after the new year starts. Right now I’m about halfway to two-thirds done.
Q: Are you keeping it a trilogy or are you going to be like Lucy Jordan and instead of a trilogy, I’ll make 14 books, or however many?
A: Currently the plans are to keep it a trilogy, but there are different scenarios that could open up with either Zaria still being the main character or another character taking over as the main character for the narrative. So, we’ll see how that goes.
Q: Why did you want to create the books? Did you just want to create it or did you want to create it for a reason?
A: I’m going to go with a bit of both. I grew up reading lots and lots and lots of books. I fell in love with Harry Potter, and Percy Jackson, and Artemis Fowl, and my mom would come to school and would read Half Magic to me and my fellow classmates. It’s the magic of falling into a world. I knew I had one in me, and so did Zaria. She kept coming to me for about a year, but like I said, until Olaf came on the page the story didn’t really start happening, because I didn’t have the bad guy. So sometimes you need both the hero and the villain in order to know where you’re going. Good question. Are there any more?
Q: It’s available on Kindle?
A: Yes, the books are available on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. I also brought a couple of physical books with me if anybody would like to pick up a set and get them autographed while I’m here. They make great Christmas presents, there’s my plug. (Laughter)
Q: The illustrations are fantastic. (They’re Caldecott quality.) Yes. Has he illustrated other books?
A: No, this is the first book and book series that [Eoghan Kerrigan’s] illustrated as far as I know.
I found him on Deviant Art. I was searching the internet for John Bauer’s work. He’s a famous Swedish illustrator. He did a whole bunch of illustrations of trolls and things for different folklore books and collections. He has a very specific style. When you see them, it’s otherworldly and you can’t help but fall in love with them.
As I was searching for his work to get a feel of things, a copycat had appeared in the search from Deviant Art. By the time I went back to see the copycat I couldn’t find it, so I started searching Deviant Art people who did troll art, because I thought where there’s one there’s probably others and that’s when I found Eoghan.
His profile there said he wasn’t doing commissions, so I followed him to his website where he said he wasn’t doing commissions, and I followed him to Facebook with he posted that he was doing commissions. So I was like, we should get together I have an idea, and it worked out really well.
Q: Have you met him?
A: I have not met him, but that would be fun to do. And, I haven’t met Michele either, she’s the narrator. She lives in Tennessee.
Q: How did you come up with the name of the heroine? It sounds Middle-Eastern.
A: It does come from that area of the world, and Africa. It means Princess, actually. And because Zaria is in fact a princess I thought it was quite fitting. (A fierce princess.) Yes! In terms of her last name, she’s an adopted little girl, and her father’s name – her adoptive parents names are Mr. and Mrs. – Colonel and Meredith Fierce.
Q: You keep mentioning a narrator, and I haven’t read the books yet, so this probably shows in this question, but does that mean there is a narrator in the book or do you have a narrated or voice version of the books?
A: I do have a voice version – audio book version – of the books. Michele Carpenter does a brilliant job. She’s quite entertaining and has a huge range of voices. You haven’t really fallen in love with Olaf as a bad guy till you’ve heard her as Olaf, he’s pretty scary.
Q: You can hear a sample on Amazon?
A: Yes. You can hear a sample online, and you can also go to my website where I have the samples a little bit closer together, so you don’t have to do as much searching.
Q: So presumably, you taught her how to say all the names correctly?
A: Yes. We worked together on that. Kettupeli is just one of those words because it’s Finnish. So I started by asking my Finnish friends, and they gave me a written pronunciation of it. She read it one way and I read it another way, and we’re like okay this where we go from here. We have a list of how the names break down and we just add to it.
Q: We should have that list too. You should publish that as a little side work or something.
A: If you go to my blog, which is part of my website, so if you go to keiragillett.com, the website has a blog section and I did a blog tour online where I gave that list for the first book. It’s not a phonetic breakdown by any means. I put an “E” down when I wanted you to make the “E” sound and “er” when I wanted you to say “er”. It’s American sounds, here’s how I broke it down. Go!
Q: We got Zaria and Olaf okay, but the rest of them… I wasn’t sure if it was Christopher, but it’s spelled differently. (And for Geirr we said, Gerrr.) Daddy said, Geh-rr.
A: Geirr is one of those funny ones. There was six different ways to pronounce it. So we just picked one be both liked. I’m just glad you guys didn’t go with Gear, because sometimes people were doing that, like clockwork gears. But it would’ve worked. When you read you read it to yourself it’s however you pronounce it.
Q: When did you start your first book?
A: I started my first book last year, sometime around January. Then I put it down around May because I wasn’t making any progress. I had started and stopped, and trashed different plot lines. Some of the original ones, were where Zaria went to a school with other kids with magical talents. It sounded a little bit too much like Harry Potter to me so I kind of (makes a sweeping gesture) went with that. Then there was a Beauty and the Beast remake, but then I thought Zaria was too old and she was kind of fighting that story too. I fully believe Zaria helped form her story. She was like Goldilocks and the Three Bears. This isn’t quite right, and this isn’t quite right, but here we go! This is just right. Let’s go! As soon as Olaf came the book started writing itself. That was about late September of last year and I finished it just before Thanksgiving and I got it published March of this year. So it was whirlwind, fun times!
Q: How did you manage to get it published?
A: I self-published. I’ve been in the book blogging community for several years now, so I’ve known that self-publishing a little less sneered at and a little bit more lifted up. There was people who just went from being nothing but self-published to getting huge deals with publishers, and people who went from huge publishers wanting to do self-publishing. And I thought, I can do that. I can read up on how to format and do all that stuff. I taught myself what to do and where to do it and how to do it. Little by little the books came together. That was what I was doing while Eoghan was illustrating and Michele was narrating. I was teaching myself how to get the book up on the different websites for sale.
Q: What company did you use?
A: I used Amazon’s Kindle Publishing, Create Space for physical book format, and ACX for audio book, where you can upload an audition script and choose a narrator.
Q: What does self-publishing mean? Does that mean you published it yourself?
A: That’s exactly what it means. I wanted to ensure that the story got out as fast as possible to the people who would be interested in it.
Q: Did you use Scrivener?
A: I did not. I used Word.
Q: Have you had a good response?
A: I have. It’s been pretty good. There’s hasn’t been a negative review yet, which is nice. Although I’ve heard from some authors you’re not really published and you don’t feel published until you get a really nasty one. I feel published getting the really nice ones. I love hearing that kids love the books, and that it’s their favorite story. A certain grandma has come back and bought three different sets because her grandkids are talking to each other about the books and say, we want a set too! That’s really great. That makes me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. It’s why I wrote the books, I wanted to share my love of reading with everybody because it was such a huge part of my life growing up. Even now I’ve read like seventy something books this year. It always hurts me when a kid says they don’t like to read. I say it’s just because you haven’t found the books for you yet.
Q: What’s nice is that it crosses over to adults. Adults like it too. You can’t read a book that bores you.
A: Yes.
Q: Well, your language, too, it isn’t just as simple as possible. I think it’s important that children see hard words and have to look it up to see what they mean. For this group of kids that’s appropriate for them, for these little group of adventurers.
A: I’m glad you feel that way. I think the same too. You don’t learn the new words until you see them for the first time. I figured with Amazon being my main source that if people bought it as an e-book then you just tap the word on the screen and it tells you what it means right there as you’re reading. It’s different obviously with a print book and an audio book. With an audio book you hear the words pronounced correctly so that also helps with vocab.
SPOILERS…below
Q: One of the downsides with an audio book when you’re listening to it, is that when you read the first book the differences in the spelling of the words is huge, like with heart. If you don’t have that visual then you’re not going to grasp that you’re not talking about that. Oops. Sorry, daddy. (I listen to a lot of audio books, that sort of thing actually resolves itself pretty well. You’d be surprised by how that works out. You’d be amazed what you can pick up on because you’re listening.)
A: One of my favorite things someone said to me as they were reading it (and they didn’t leave this in a review)… Keira, I think you’re spelling heart wrong half the time. You need to fix that. I said, you just need to keep reading. What chapter are you in? They said I’m here, and I said you got two more chapters to go, just keep reading. Then the next response from them was, Oh, I get it.
Q: I listened to Harry Potter, and when it got to the chapter title of Mirror of Erised. I said, oh, let me have that and I could tell it was the line backwards. When you listen to it as well you get things, too.
A: That, I hope is the result of a good writer. I would love to be in J.K. Rowling’s shoes someday. That would be wonderful.
End Spoilers…
Q: Is that your goal to be with a big publisher someday or do you like self-publishing?
A: I like self-publishing because I really get to control everything. It’d be nice if one of them wanted to seek me out, that would be great. It would make me feel like I was going in the right direction with things, but I really get that from the readers. I feel that if Zaria Fierce had been with a publisher then Eoghan wouldn’t have been the illustrator. They might never have found him, and Michele might never have been the narrator. There’s nobody else who I would’ve picked to be either one of the people to help make this story what it is.
Q: Is it expensive to self-publish?
A: It depends. It depends on who you hire, it depends how many rounds of edits you go through, and it depends what you feel you’re not able to do. Because I’m comfortable with computers and Word, I saved a lot of money by not hiring interior formatters or people who I didn’t need to hire because I was able to do it. I was able to do the cover design myself. I took Eoghan’s illustration, I found the fonts I wanted and purchased them so I had commercial rights to them, and laid everything out and kept working on it. This particular cover (book two’s) took quite a bit of time because of these two elements right here (ISBN and QCR code) at the bottom did not want to play well with each other. If I designed it on Create Space looking at it, constantly uploading, and would say okay it looks perfect, and print out a copy to send to me. Then when it came they would be off from each other by quarter of an inch and it was just bad. So I had to take everything that Create Space would do for you for free and take it all off and tell them not to do it. I had to do it myself and put everything in place. If you don’t have the patience to figure that stuff out then there’s people to hire which changes the costs.
Your Pictures – Thanks for sharing with me!
Author Reading and Book Signing at the Suntree Viera Library
Join me at the Suntree Viera Library for an author reading from Zaria Fierce and the Enchanted Drakeland Sword on December 19, 2015. The event starts on 2:30 PM. Following the reading there will be a Q&A session and book signing. It’s a perfect gift for young readers!
Zaria Fierce is amazing! My mom finished in one day I finished in two days. It was so good we couldn’t stop reading it! – Katie, age 9
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