Author: Kathy MacMillan
Published On: 1/19/16 (AKA My 21st Birthday!!!!)
Page Count: 384
Cover: 5/5 (Only part I can currently rate)
Synopsis: (Found on
Goodreads)
Raisa was just a child when she was sold to work as a slave in the kingdom of Qilara. Despite her young age, her father was teaching her to read and write, grooming her to take his place as a Learned One. In Qilara, the Arnathim, like Raisa, are the lowest class, and literacy is a capital offense. What’s more, only the king, prince, tutor, and tutor-in-training are allowed to learn the very highest order language, the language of the gods. So when the tutor-in-training is executed for teaching slaves this sacred language, and Raisa is selected to replace her, Raisa knows any slipup on her part could mean death.
About Kathy:
Kathy MacMillan is a writer, American Sign Language interpreter, librarian, and avowed
Hufflepuff. Her debut young adult novel, Sword and Verse, explores questions of power and
prejudice in an epic fantasy setting, and has been called “fascinating and unique” by National
Book Award finalist Franny Billingsley. Find her here: Website
1) From someone who
knows ASL as well do you think more schools should offer it as a class?
Absolutely! More
and more U.S. states are accepting American Sign Language for high school and
college foreign language credit (link: http://www.ncssfl.org/links/ASL.pdf )
It's a beautiful and practical language, and I definitely think everyone
should learn ASL!
2) Since Sword and
Verse is your 5th manuscript written do you have any plans on getting the other
published?
I fervently hope
so! I am currently working on a companion novel to Sword and
Verse which picks up about a month after the first book ends and is
written from Soraya's point of view. But I have lots of other projects
lined up after that, some of which involve revising earlier manuscripts.
3) Did you keep the
letters you wrote with your cousin?
I do actually have
some of them in a trunk somewhere, but I haven't looked at them in a long
time. I should dig them out! I often think that it was lucky that
we didn't have email back then - we never would have gotten so wildly creative
with our alternate realities if it had been easy to text or email each other.
4) Where did you come
up with the names Raisa, Qilara and Mati? They are all so interesting for both
location and people.
I wish I had a
wonderful story for you, but the truth is, I have been working on this book for
so very long that I don't exactly remember. (The first draft was written
before my now-fifth-grader was born!) I can tell you that
original idea came up while I was doing research for an article on
book-burning, and I came across a reference to libraries made up entirely of
letters. I thought, "What if they were letters to the gods?"
The names of the gods and goddesses came first. There was originally a
character named "Qilar" - named because I enjoyed how it sounded like
"killer", which should tell you something about his personality! -
and the country, Qilara, was named after him. Raisa and Mati, as far as I
can remember, just came from listing different name options until I found names
that felt right for their characters and the culture I was
creating.
5) What is your brain
writing food of choice?
I don't actually have
a specific writing food, but I do drink pots and pots of tea while I am
writing. My favorite is Blueberry Black Tea from the Spice and Tea
Exchange (https://www.spiceandtea.com/blueberry-black-tea-p-742.html).
Yum!
6) Are you a plotter
or a write as it comes type author?
A little of each, I
guess. I always start out with loads of research and notes and planning,
and I usually know at least what the major emotional beats will be before I go
into a first draft, but then the characters take over and take me down paths I
didn't expect. A great example of this is a moment between Raisa and
Soraya near the end of Sword and Verse - Raisa says something
that shocks everyone in that scene, and I was just as shocked as they were when
it happened!
For me, the first
draft is all about figuring out the characters and their relationships to each
other, and plot is something to be sorted out in later drafts. I do a LOT
of side-writing too - when I get stuck, I go back and write scenes from another
character's point of view, and it always clarifies the main story for me.
It's a time-intensive way to work, but it's the only way I know how. And,
on the plus side, it gives me lots of extras to share on my website!
__________________________________________________________________________________________
TTFN,
Ashley
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