This book was originally being marketed as cyberpunk, but the publishers, Angry Robot, switched over to calling it solarpunk just a couple of weeks before release. It is definitely both: it has the cyberpunk technology of the neural implant, which is sort of like an instant messenger in your brain, controlled by eye movements, that also allows you to feel the emotions of the people you're connected to. It also has the fast-paced race-against-the-clock feel of cyberpunk, and the focus on information and data as the ultimate key to power. To keep sensitive data from being hacked, they encrypt it into a courier's blood cells. So, yeah, it's totally cyberpunk.

But Implanted doesn't take place in the same dark, polluted, brutalist type of setting usually featured in cyberpunk. New Worth is a domed city—one of many that people have retreated into to survive a massive climate crash. The city itself is stratified, based on the anatomy of a forest: the rich live up in the Canopy or the Echelon, the middle class in the Understory, etc. Many of the descriptions we get of the city show it as green, beautiful, with plants and fountains and attempts to simulate the nature they're yearning to get back to. Much of the plot revolves around the idea of Emergence from the dome—when it will happen, who does the work, who gets to benefit. New Worth is certainly not a utopia, but it's not a straightforward dystopia either, and our narrator learns there's a lot more going on than she realized at both the highest and lowest levels of this complex society. It's ultimately very optimistic and "punk" in unexpected ways. So, yeah, it's totally solarpunk.

Here's the official description:

Lauren C. Teffeau is a fellow New Mexico writer, and I read pieces of this book in a much earlier draft. I loved it back then, but I was blown away with how tight and exciting the story became in this final version. I asked Lauren to chat with me about her path to publication and her approach to worldbuilding.

Sarena Ulibarri: In a nutshell, what was the path from manuscript to publication for IMPLANTED?

Lauren C. Teffeau: Some of my projects have longer gestation periods than others. I was building the world IMPLANTED is set in well before I had an agent or a professional sale under my belt, so we’re talking many years here. I like to think that time was crucial in thinking through all the moving pieces and bringing it to life in vivid detail. We’ll see! I went through many drafts with my crit groups until I felt like I had a strong enough project to bring to my agent. I revised it again based on her feedback, and the manuscript sold to Angry Robot after approximately six months on submission.
 
SU: The early drafts of IMPLANTED were written as Young Adult, but it’s being published now as Adult. What changes did you need to make to “age it up” in the final version?

LCT: This is an issue I have run into before with my novel projects. I’m drawn to that time in characters’ lives when they face their “first test” in the real world. While that’s often part and parcel of coming-of-age stories which we often see in YA, I seem to always come up with scenarios where it’s harder to justify how these young teens are doing all these amazing things to save the world on such a grand scale, when it’s far more realistic for someone a bit older to have the life experience and, more importantly, the access necessary to drive the plot. Plus as a recovering romance writer, I sometimes include adult themes in my stories that are more appropriate for Adult books. As far as IMPLANTED goes, when my agent and I decided to treat it as an Adult project, it actually made some of the setup a lot easier to pull off because I didn’t have to explain all the reasons why my teenaged main character had the skills/background needed to make her role in the story more convincing. Instead of being a high school student, she’s now a recent college grad and has four more years under her belt to contribute to suspending readers’ disbelief.
 
SU: Could you talk a little about the worldbuilding of New Worth? What tools did you use to imagine and create this fascinating domed city?

LCT: I wanted to explore what happens after the coming climate apocalypse, a time where people have had to retreat from the natural world. The traumatic upheaval would be felt for generations and affect the city’s design and development as living memory fades and approximations and reinterpretations become all that’s left over. In a domed city where people are kept at far remove from nature, I figured access to the sun would become a new commodity of sorts. That led me to modeling my city’s structure off of the rainforest: canopy, understory, and ground level, each distinct ecosystem defined in part by the amount of sunlight they receive. And in my domed city of New Worth, those sections roughly correspond to different socio-economic groups, with the rich and well-connected living in the upper levels with the most access to sunlight. Population ecology, survivor bias, even fractals all contributed in some way to the city’s design as well.                  
 
SU: What books, authors, or films influenced you while writing IMPLANTED?

LCT: When I’m drafting, I try to keep my mind uncluttered of other media until the story I’m trying to write has firmed up and can stand on its own. That said, I’ve always loved espionage-tinged media—James Bond, Jason Bourne, even Sterling Archer—romance, YA, and most action/adventure properties, and those interests often come out in my work in both subconscious and conscious ways. At some point I was descripting IMPLANTED thusly: Take Johnny Mnemonic, add a dash of Person of Interest, mix with Logan’s Run, and wrap it all up in a Blade Runner-meets-solarpunk aesthetic.
 
SU: What advice do you have for beginning writers who are struggling through the first draft of a science fiction novel?

LCT: Finish your shit. And it will feel like shit. It will feel like you’re a fool for wanting to write and for wanting to share your stories with the world. But you have to push through all that to get to THE END. Then, take a break. When you return to your project, you’ll discover that maybe it isn’t as bad as you thought it was. Or that you are in a better position to see the story’s flaws and how to fix them. Either way, you cannot submit something that is incomplete. And it is only once a draft is complete that you can get a sense for how to revise. If nothing else, remember there are no shortcuts and try to enjoy the journey along the way.
 
SU: Do you have any readings or signings coming up? Where can readers find you?

LCT:
August 3-5          ArmadilloCon in Austin, Texas
August 10            Reading and Q&A at the Albuquerque Science Fiction Society
August 16-19      Worldcon in San Jose, California
August 24-26      Bubonicon in Albuquerque, New Mexico
September 6      Reddit/Fantasy Ask Me Anything
September 8      Reading and Signing at the Denver Science Fiction and Fantasy Series
September 15     Reading and Signing at Page1 Books Albuquerque, New Mexico
October 7            Reading and Signing at Bookworks Albuquerque, New Mexico
October 19-21     MileHiCon in Denver, Colorado
 
My website laurencteffeau.com is the best way to stay up-to-date with what’s going on with me.

Lauren C. Teffeau was born and raised on the East Coast, educated in the South, employed in the Midwest, and now lives and dreams in the Southwest. When she was younger, she poked around in the back of wardrobes, tried to walk through mirrors, and always kept an eye out for secret passages, fairy rings, and messages from aliens. She was disappointed. Now, she writes to cope with her ordinary existence. Follow her on Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon.com, and Pinterest.

Blood Rose Rebellion is the debut novel by Rosalyn Eves, and it landed on shelves March 28, 2017. The first in a new YA trilogy, Blood Rose Rebellion is historical fantasy set "in a world where social prestige derives from a trifecta of blood, money, and magic, one girl has the ability to break the spell that holds the social order in place."

Rosalyn Eves is another of the amazing writers I met through PitchWars, along with others such as Hayley Stone and S.D. Grimm, whom I interviewed last year. I asked Rosalyn to join me on my blog today to talk about her road to publication and the challenges of writing historical fantasy.

Sarena Ulibarri: In a nutshell, what was the path from manuscript to publication for BLOOD ROSE REBELLION?

Rosalyn Eves: I started writing the book that would become Blood Rose Rebellion in the fall of 2012 (wow—so long ago!). It took me about 9 months to write, and another 9 months to revise. I started querying just before I got into Pitch Wars, so I stopped querying and hunkered down for an intense revision (I cut 27k from the book and added another 24k or so). Pitch Wars really jump started the agent hunt though—I wound up with 16 or 17 requests, plus a few agents from prior contests were waiting for the Pitch Wars revision. I got my first offer about two weeks after sending out my PW novel, and signed with Josh Adams the first part of December. (He wasn't one of the PW agents, but I'd met him at a conference that spring and he requested the full when I'd finished revising). BRR went on submission in mid January, and sold mid February.

Laid out like that, the process (once I finished writing) seems pretty speedy and smooth—but there were plenty of trunked novels before this one!
 
SU: What kind of things did you learn from your PitchWars mentor when you were getting your PitchWars manuscript ready to query?

RE: I learned that I can be long-winded, and sometimes I need to sacrifice historical accuracy for the sake of the story. For example, the middle was dragging because I was trying to keep the Hungarian revolution on the actual date (3/15/48), but those winter months before the revolution were taking too long to get to the point, so I had to move the rebellion forward a few months. (The opening date, around the start of the London season, was less negotiable). Though I'd been hearing this from other readers, my mentor (Virginia Boecker)'s feedback is what really motivated me to cut and rewrite the middle section.
 
SU: BLOOD ROSE REBELLION is historical fantasy that takes place at the height of the Austro-Hungarian empire. What was it about this place and time period that made you want to write about it?

RE: I've always been fascinated by the nineteenth-century, so I was automatically drawn to that time period. I'd lived in Hungary for about 16 months in my 20s, and fell in love with the language and culture. When I decided to set the story in Hungary, that automatically narrowed the time frame for the story, because the revolutionary era was so dynamic.
 
SU: How much research did you have to do to get the historical details right, and what gaps did you have to just fill in for yourself?

RE: I did a lot of research for this book—as much as possible, I tried to rely on real historical details for the world (though obviously, the magic is invented). Food, dress, social customs--I got all those from books. I read history books to get a general feel for the revolution and other historical context, but I also read lots of novels, especially English translations of Jokai Mor, a Hungarian writer who had a fantastic eye for detail, lived through the revolution (and was friends with many of its leaders) and wrote multiple novels about his contemporaries. I also read several travel narratives written by British travelers to Hungary mid-century, who helped me understand how a British transplant might see her new homeland. And of course, I have Hungarian friends who helped me with some of the translations and answered my questions. The hardest research involved Romani culture, as most nineteenth-century records were written by outsiders, not the Romanies themselves. I read as much historical research as I could, talked with experts, and extrapolated some from 20th century ethnographies and first-person narratives by Romanies.

SU: What advice do you have for writers struggling through the first draft of a new fantasy novel?

RE: Keep going. One of my favorite bits of writing advice is that first drafts just have to be finished to be perfect.

The other thing I'd suggest is to read nonfiction--history and culture and economics and anything that can help you flesh out your world. You probably won't be able to lift any details directly (doing so runs the risk of cultural appropriation), but understanding how economics affects government, etc., can help you build a more believable world.
 
SU: Do you have any readings or signings coming up? Where can readers find you?

RE: I just got done with a short book tour and some local signings, but I will be at Salt Lake Comic Con in September. Readers can always reach me on social media: @rosalyneves (Twitter and Instagram), and https://www.facebook.com/rosalyneveswriter/

Rosalyn Eves grew up in the Rocky Mountains, dividing her time between reading books and bossing her siblings into performing her dramatic scripts. As an adult, the telling and reading of stories is still one of her favorite things to do. When she’s not reading or writing, she enjoys spending time with her chemistry professor husband and three children, watching British period pieces, or hiking through the splendid landscape of southern Utah, where she lives. She dislikes housework on principle.

She has a PhD in English from Penn State, which means she also endeavors to inspire college students with a love for the English language. Sometimes it even works.

Website * Facebook * Twitter

S.D. Grimm is another of the amazing writers I know from PitchWars, a mentorship and agent-pitching program I participated in a couple of years ago. She managed to snag a publishing deal with Gilead Publishing for her young adult fantasy novel Scarlet Moon, which was just released. She's stopping by my blog today to talk about her book and her path to publication.

Sarena Ulibarri: What was your inspiration for writing Scarlet Moon?
S.D. Grimm: I love animals. The novel I wrote prior to this one (which sits in a proverbial dark, secret drawer) was about animals. All the characters were animals. And one day I decided to get serious about publishing. Then I decided I was going to write about people. I still wanted animals to be a big part of the story so I chose to write about a race of people who can commune with nature. These people basically get certain talents or abilities from animals—and they reciprocate, giving animals certain abilities too. Then I researched some really cool animals, including mythological ones, and the story world really grew from there.

SU: What has your journey to finding an agent and the road to publication been like? 
SDG: Hard. Crazy. The thing about this business is it’s not for the faint of heart. You better your craft all the time. You build your social media presence. You try to send the right work at the right time to the right people. You attempt to stay ahead of the curve without knowing where the curve is. You survive getting your heart broken again and again and again. You don’t give up. You make connections. Friends. Partners in writing who help and encourage you. You have fun. You learn a lot about writing and about yourself. And when something good happens and you take another step forward down this path, all those people celebrate with you. You find community. You work your heart out and wear it on the pages of your work. People will crumple it up, step on it, and some will even use it wipe the snot off their own faces. And then there will be those who feel what you’re trying to say. They’ll cherish it, and they’ll recommend that others read it. Some will misunderstand it. Others will get it. And still that journey—probably on the road less traveled—is just beginning.

SU: How many books did you write before being published?
SDG: Three. They’re each part of a trilogy I started when I was in middle school. It’s about a dog of magical heritage who’s supposed to save the world, except he got hit by a car and now has amnesia. They live in a proverbial drawer and who knows, maybe someday they’ll see the light of day, but I’m not holding my breath.

SU: What kind of things did you learn from your PitchWars mentor when you were getting your PitchWars manuscript ready to query?
SDG: So much. Molly Lee was my awesome mentor, and she was amazing with big-picture edits. She took knowledge from her critiques with agency sibling writers and applied those tips to my story so I could see what was working and what wasn't. She was fabulous at brainstorming and always let me bounce ideas off of her. I loved that not only was she willing to help me fix what wasn't working, she was also quick to tell me what was working and why. The why part was invaluable. I actually learned a lot about my strengths as a writer from her. 

I would say the most helpful thing I took away from her advice will be applied to all my future stories is don't try to force something into the story that's not working. I had this relationship planned between these two characters and it just ended up being uncomfortable. On paper, for my plot outline, it worked. But once those characters actually had personality and were interacting, it flopped. So be flexible and willing to change what's not working in the story instead of trying to force it because it looks good on paper.

SU: I loved seeing the video by your cover artist about all the work that went into creating the cover art! Did you have any input on the cover design, or did you just see it in its beautiful final form?
SDG: It was amazing wasn't it? My cover artist, the amazing Kirk DouPonce, actually read the story so he could get a feel for the cover and characters. He then talked with me about the idea he had. I was over-the-scarlet-moon excited because I wanted Jayden (my main character) to be in the woods with daggers and a wolf. And that was exactly his vision. And then he said he was going to make the dagger glow with the blue mist and I was jumping up and down, because it was so perfect. So he asked me what Jayden looked like and I sent him some awesome photos (taken by my dad) of my sister wearing a costume my mom made that portrayed my character. He loved the costume and asked me to mail it to him for a photo shoot! So the costume the girl on my cover is wearing? Yeah, my awesome mom made it. Cool right? I was really excited to have that much brainstorming input into the cover. And guys, I've seen the cover for book two already. And can I just say SQUEAL! That is all.

S. D. Grimm’s first love in writing is young adult speculative fiction. She is represented by Julie Gwinn of the Seymour Agency and her debut novel, Scarlet Moon, is slated to be published in October 2016. When she’s not writing or editing, Sarah enjoys reading (of course!), making clay dragons for her Grimmlies store on Etsy, practicing kickboxing and Brazilian jiu jitsu, training dogs, and doing anything outdoorsy with the family. Her office is anywhere she can curl up with her laptop and at least one large-sized dog.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

I've been pining for this book ever since I first heard it announced, and I was lucky enough to win an advance copy. It definitely lived up to all the hype! A Shadow Bright and Burning is like a Lovecraftian Harry Potter, with some shades of a not-as-graphic version of Penny Dreadful (it is YA, after all). It's dark and beautiful, with characters who will haunt your thoughts long after you set the book down.

Jessica Cluess was a year ahead of me in the Clarion Workshop; she attended in 2013 and I attended in 2014. Clarion has a history of turning out amazing and successful writers, and it's always exciting to see writers from recent classes making a name for themselves.

Jessica was nice enough to talk with me today about her novel, her influences, and her favorite Clarion experiences.

Sarena Ulibarri: In a nutshell, what was the path from manuscript to publication for A SHADOW BRIGHT AND BURNING?

Jessica Cluess: After I finished editing, I queried the book for five months. One week after sending my query to him, the man who became my agent offered me representation. After that, we polished the manuscript for several months before finally putting it on submission. That was nerve-wracking, but I’m glad we worked on it for so long, because it hugely paid off. We had an offer after less than two weeks on sub, and went to auction after that. All told, it was nearly two years from the first day I sat down to write the book to the day we got the offer to publish. It seemed long at the time, but now it feels like a whirlwind.

SU: What advice do you have for young writers who are struggling through the first draft of a fantasy novel?

JC: Beyond anything else, especially when it’s fantasy, I say this: it’s better to write a galumphing, messy, weird draft that has something passionate and exciting on every page than it is to write a clean, perfectly constructed draft that you don’t feel anything for. It’s actually easier to edit the weird one, because at least you know the feelings you want to evoke. Bottom line: just get it done. You can’t edit until you’ve written.

SU: What books, authors, or films most influenced you when writing A SHADOW BRIGHT AND BURNING?

JC: My biggest influence was Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. I describe it as Jane Austen’s Lord of the Rings, and it really is that. If you love a comedy of manners mixed with an outrageously interesting magical system, you’ll dig it.

SU: What’s your favorite memory from the Clarion Workshop?

JC: The water gun fight we had with Robert Crais and Kim Stanley Robinson. There is a picture of me shooting Stan in the back while he runs away that is among my top five favorite pictures of anything.

SU: How many stories did you write at Clarion, and what became of them?

JC: I wrote five stories, because during week one we reviewed one of my submission stories. The truth is, nothing much has yet come from those stories, largely because I’m not really a natural short fiction writer. A lot of the people in the program were already masters of the short story, so I had a lot of catching up to do. One of them has already won a Nebula for her short fiction! I may see if I can get a novel out of some of them; my stories always ran on the long side.

SU: Do you have any readings or signings coming up? Where can readers find you?

JC: Yes! I’ll be on tour the last week of October, in San Francisco, Denver, Salt Lake City and Austin. It’s going to be a whirlwind week!

Jessica Cluess is a writer, a graduate of Northwestern University, and an unapologetic nerd. After college, she moved to Los Angeles, where she served coffee to the rich and famous while working on her first novel. When she’s not writing books, she’s an instructor at Writopia Lab, helping kids and teens tell their own stories.

Website * Twitter * Goodreads

I first met Dianna Sanchez through the extended network of the Clarion Workshop, and was thrilled to learn her novel was coming out soon from Dreaming Robot Press, a small press located in New Mexico (where I live and where I run my small press). I had the chance to chat with both Dianna and her editor last month at Bubonicon, Albuquerque's local science fiction convention.

If you're unfamiliar with the Clarion Workshop, it's a six-week intensive writing boot camp taught by some of the finest writers and editors in the field of science fiction and fantasy. It's a grueling experience of non-stop writing and critiquing, bad food, watergun fights, making lifelong friends, and questioning everything you ever thought you knew. I recommend it wholeheartedly. Dianna attended in 1995; I attended in 2014.

Dianna was nice enough to talk with me today about her new novel A WITCH'S KITCHEN, her path to publication, and her Clarion workshop experience.

Sarena Ulibarri: It was great to meet you this year at Bubonicon! How was your Bubonicon experience? Had you attended it in the past?

Dianna Sanchez: Despite having grown up in Albuquerque, I had never been to Bubonicon before. I didn't find out about the existence of science fiction conventions until I'd gone off to college in Boston, and even then, I didn't attend one until after I'd graduated. It seems downright absurd that I waited this long. Bubonicon is a pleasant, small, well-run con, with some good panels. I love that the gaming room is right in the thick of things, instead of shoved into a distant corner somewhere. I could just wander in and grab a pick-up game between panels.
 
SU: In a nutshell, what was the path from manuscript to publication for A WITCH’S KITCHEN?

DS: Nov. 2013 - Started writing what I thought would be a 10-page story as a Christmas present
Dec. 2013 - Three chapters later, realized it was a novel
Jan. - Feb. 2014 - Took an Odyssey Online course, Powerful Dialogue in Fantastic Fiction with Jeanne Cavelos
Mar. 2014 - Completed first draft
Summer 2014 - Joined Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators
Jan. 2015 - Attended Arisia in Boston, did a pitch session with N.K. Jemison
Apr. 2015 - Attended the New England SCBWI conference in Springfield, MA. Won the Pitchapalooza.
May 2015 - Started up a critique group of folks I met at the conference
June 2015 - Started querying the novel, exchanging manuscripts with other SCBWI authors
Aug. 2015 - Dreaming Robot Press expressed serious interest. Called in my Pitchapalooza prize, an agent consult.
Sept. 2015 - Began revising per DRP's developmental editor's request
Fall 2015 - Took Writing MG/YA Novels with Holly Thompson, learned plot structure
Nov. 2015 - Committed to completed revision by January 31st
Jan. -Feb. 2016 - Took Odyssey Online course Getting the Big Picture (novel revision) with Barbara Ashford
Jan. 31, 2016 - Turned in the revision
Feb. 2016 - Met with Corie and Sean Weaver of Dreaming Robot Press in Albuquerque and negotiated contract. Signed a week later.
Mar. 2016 - Completed final revision (v.11.5)
April 2016 - DRP launched Kickstarter campaign for A Witch's Kitchen and The Demon Girl's Song by Susan Jane Bigelow. We funded the same day, in the middle of our Facebook author party.
June 2016 - Got the ARCs, started pushing for reviews, readings
Sept. 25, 2016 - Launch day!

SU: If you could go back in time and give young-Dianna one piece of writing advice, what would it be?
 
DS: Writing is not just a hobby. Writing is not less important than physics. Writing is what you love to do, and it's what you do best. Stop apologizing, to everyone else and to yourself, for spending so much time writing. Just write.

SU: What’s your favorite memory from the Clarion Workshop?

DS: Oh, man, that is so hard. It was such a blast from beginning to end. Was it playing Assumption (the card game from instructor Tim Powers' novel Last Call)? Watching Bruce Glassco playtest an early version of his board game Betrayal at House on the Hill? Boffer weapon battles with Lucy Snyder? Making an enchilada casserole in Chip Delany's oven? Congratulating Kelly Link on her first sale to Asimov's? Hmm... okay. I think it was shouting in the hall. We'd be up in our (totally not air conditioned) dorm rooms, pounding away on our stories, and someone would open their door and yell something like, "Hey, anyone know how long the day is on Mars?" Because it was 1995, and Google did not yet exist. AND SOMEONE WOULD KNOW. Every single time. I miss that so much, the collective gestalt of it, the marvelous feeling of being in my tribe.
 
SU: How many stories did you write at Clarion, and what became of them?

DS: I have it in my head (though my head is often wrong) that I wrote nine stories, and that this was a record at the time, promptly broken the following year. I think, though, that they were counting my submission stories, and I really only wrote seven during Clarion. And I also think that I may have actually written more and not submitted them all. I'm a quick writer; I can churn out 1000 words per hour. I learned at Clarion that some people just don't write that quickly, and we wouldn't always have three stories to critique the next day. So I took to just writing stories on the fly and then, if we didn't have enough stories, I'd pull one out. Mind you, most of them were complete and utter crap. I think that by the end of the workshop, people were ready to strangle me if I pulled out one more horrible story. Guys, I hope you've forgiven me by now. Alas, all the stories are in the Clarion archives. Only one, "A Recipe for Martian Enchiladas," eventually turned into a saleable story, "Weeds," which is appearing in the 2017 Young Explorers' Adventure Guide.
 
SU: Do you have any readings or signings coming up? Where can readers find you?

DS: I have two book launch parties coming up:

Sunday, September 25, 2-3pm
Remember Salem
127 Essex St., Salem MA

A kid-friendly event with a costume contest, bad joke contest, and raffle! I will read from A WITCH'S KITCHEN and answer questions from the audience. THERE WILL BE COOKIES.

Saturday, October 1, 7-9pm
Pandemonium Books and Games
4 Pleasant St., Cambridge MA

Together with my Kickstarter buddy Susan Jane Bigelow. We will read from our novels, A WITCH'S KITCHEN and her YA fantasy THE DEMON GIRL'S SONG. No word yet on whether I can bring cookies. ; )

Readers can check my web site, diannasanchez.com for more appearances, subscribe to my newsletter, and contact me on Facebook or Twitter.

Dianna Sanchez is the not-so-secret identity of Jenise Aminoff, whose superpower is cooking with small children. She is an MIT alumna, graduate of the 1995 Clarion Workshop and Odyssey Online, active member of SCBWI, and former editor at New Myths magazine. Aside from 18 years as a technical and science writer, she has taught science in Boston Public Schools, developed curricula for STEM education, and taught Preschool Chef, a cooking class for children ages 3-5. A Latina geek originally from New Mexico, she now lives in the Boston area with her husband and two daughters.

Today, I'm excited to participate in the cover reveal for Julia Ember's new YA Fantasy TIGER'S WATCH, coming August 2017 from Harmony Ink Press. I'm totally bummed that this is a full year away from being on my shelf, because it sounds amazing. Julia Ember is one of the amazing authors who has really heeded the call of "We Need Diverse Books" by writing compelling and beautiful fantasy with LGBT+ characters in settings that draw from cultural sources other than Medieval Europe. If you haven't picked up her first novel UNICORN TRACKS yet, I highly recommend it.

Originally from the Windy City, Julia Ember now resides in Sunny Scotland where she learned to enjoy both haggis and black pudding. She spends her days working as a professional Book Nerd for a large book distribution firm, and her nights writing YA Romantic Fantasy novels. 

A world traveler since childhood, Julia has now visited over 60 countries. Her travels inspire the fictional worlds she writes about and she populates those worlds with magic and monsters.

Find her online at julia-ember.com or @jules_chronicle.