Today starts off a week of interviews with authors from Egmont USA! I am so excited and proud to be part of this wonderful family of authors, and can’t wait to introduce you to several talented authors over the next five days.
Today’s feature is the lovely Alexandra Bracken! Alexandra wrote Brightly Woven as a birthday present for a friend, and the story grew and flourished during a year of unpredictable, wild weather. A native of Arizona, she is a recent graduate of the College of William and Mary, where she majored in History and English. She now lives in New York City.
KM: Tell us a little bit about your teenage self.
AB: I was a total angst monkey when I was in high school, and a bit of a loner. It took me until about Junior year to really come out of my shell, and then I went completely overboard—by senior year I was involved in Student Government, a yearbook editor, and even gave a graduation speech.
KM: If you could spend a day with a character from your novel, who would you choose and why? How would the two of you spend your day together?
AB: I would totally hang out with Owain for the day—a big cheerful dude who’s not opposed to adventuring? What he might lack in magic and brainpower, he makes up for in heart (and appetite).
KM: Confession time. What quirky writer things do you indulge in? Do you have any superstitions? Is there anything you need to have while writing? Or something specific that will kill your momentum?
AB: This is pretty lame of me, but I’ve taken to using iPod’s shuffle feature as a magic 8 ball—I’ll ask it a question about a story’s future and depending on the song title that pops up…. Er, I can’t write without caffeine? That’s a little less crazy town than the magic iPod shuffle…
The Book:
And here is the intriguing cover for Alexandra’s novel, Brightly Woven.
Summary:
(from Goodreads) Sydelle Mirabil is living proof that, with a single drop of rain, a life can be changed forever. Tucked away in the farthest reaches of the kingdom, her dusty village has suffered under the weight of a strangely persistent drought. That is, of course, until a wizard wanders into town and brings the rain with him.
In return for this gift, Wayland North is offered any reward he desires—and no one is more surprised than Sydelle when, without any explanation, he chooses her. Taken from her home, Sydelle hardly needs encouragement to find reasons to dislike North. He drinks too much and bathes too little, and if that isn’t enough to drive her to madness, North rarely even uses the magic he takes such pride in possessing. Yet, it’s not long before she realizes there’s something strange about the wizard, who is as fiercely protective of her as he is secretive about a curse that turns his limbs a sinister shade of black and leaves him breathless with agony. Unfortunately, there is never a chance for her to seek answers.
Along with the strangely powerful quakes and storms that trace their path across the kingdom, other wizards begin to take an inexplicable interest in her as well, resulting in a series of deadly duels. Against a backdrop of war and uncertainty, Sydelle is faced with the growing awareness that these events aren’t as random as she had believed—that no curse, not even that of Wayland North, is quite as terrible as the one she herself may carry.
To learn more, go to Alexandra’s website.
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