FF - THE IRON KING by Julie Kagawa

On the iPod - Use Somebody by Kings of Leon

Finally! It's Friday. My son has been counting down to this day for months. Today we're going to see The Lightning Thief. I really hope it lives up to the book. Meanwhile, I am pleased to welcome debut author Julie Kagawa to the blog! Julie's celebrating the recent release of her first YA novel, THE IRON KING. Yay, Julie!

The author:

I'm taking Julie's bio straight from her website because it made me smile: Julie Kagawa was born in Sacramento, California. But nothing exciting really happened to her there. So, at the age of nine she and her family moved to Hawaii, which she soon discovered was inhabited by large carnivorous insects, colonies of house geckos, and frequent hurricanes. She spent much of her time in the ocean, when she wasn’t getting chased out of it by reef sharks, jellyfish, and the odd eel.

When not swimming for her life, Julie immersed herself in books, often to the chagrin of her schoolteachers, who would find she hid novels behind her Math textbooks during class. Her love of reading led her to pen some very dark and gruesome stories, complete with colored illustrations, to shock her hapless teachers. The gory tales faded with time, but the passion for writing remained, long after she graduated and was supposed to get a real job.

To pay the rent, Julie worked in different bookstores over the years, but discovered the managers frowned upon her reading the books she was supposed to be shelving. So she turned to her other passion: training animals. She worked as a professional dogtrainer for several years, dodging Chihuahua bites and overly enthusiastic Labradors, until her first book sold and she stopped training to write full-time.

Julie now lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where the frequency of shark attacks are at an all time low. She lives with her husband, two obnoxious cats, one Australian Shepherd who is too smart for his own good, and the latest addition, a hyper-active Papillon puppy.

You can learn more about Julie and the Iron Fey series on her website, her blog, on facebook, and by following her on twitter.

The book:

The interview:

What inspired you to write The Iron King?

I wanted to write a faery story that was different than the other fey stories I’d read. So I thought: what are the fey afraid of? In myth, the answer was iron, so what if there was a type of faery that had evolved to be completely immune, and how would that impact the more traditional fey? Then I thought of all the “monsters” lurking in machines: gremlins, worms, bugs, ect. And from that thought, the Iron Fey were born.

Are any of your characters based on real people (or cats) that you know?

People, not so much. Meghan and I share the same loner status I had in high school, but a lot of my inspiration comes from books, video games, and anime. (For instance, my villain is a straight-up Sephiroth, and props to those who know who he is!) With Grimalkin, I took everything I knew about cats and rolled them all into one sarcastic, arrogant, exasperating feline.

What excites you?

I'm going to assume you mean in a book, lol! Good characters obviously, romance, danger, and action. I’m a sucker for a great battle scene, and I love it when a story has some kind of sacrifice at the end. I also love assassins for some reason (look at Poison Study’s Valek and tell me he’s not sexy)

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What turns you off?

Moopy goopy love scenes, mean-for-no-good-reason love interests, spineless heroines, fight scenes that make no sense or are completely illogical, and MARY SUES.

If you could invite anyone, living or dead, to hang out with you at a weekend retreat, who would it be and why?

Ooh, Neil Gaiman. He’s my hero. And he has a great voice. I could listen to him all day.

Does the Faery King look like David Bowie? :

AHAHA! That is awesome! “You remind me of the babe …” Yes, that reference has been brought up a few times, but strangely has encouraged people to read the book more. Would it be bad of me to say that David Bowie WOULD make a great Iron King, if he had longer hair? And got rid of those pants…

Do you have any special writing rituals or totems to connect with your
muse?

Does caffeine count? Or the army of Mt. Dew cans lined up along my desk? I can’t work without caffeine. Its impossible. Maybe I should make a totem of Mt. Dew cans.

What songs would make the playlist for The Iron King?
I actually have a playlist for The Iron King on my site if anyone is interested.

http://juliekagawa.com/books.html

What's one thing most people don't know about you?
That I lived in Hawaii for ten years and never learned to swim.

What's your favorite quote?

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” And: “Of course you don’t have wings. You’re a boy.”

What are you working on now?

At the moment I’m finishing up edits for the third and final book of the Iron Fey trilogy.

What is an interesting writing quirk of yours?

If I get stuck in the story, I automatically check email. I don’t know why this is. Maybe I expect to find the answer there, somehow?

If The Iron King were made into a movie, who would you like to see inthe role of Meghan?

Oh goodness. I don’t really know. I’m horrible at actor names and faces, so I’m not even going to attempt to embarrass myself. ;-)

The freebie: This week we'll have three winners. Each one gets a signed IRON KING bookmark. Because I love Julie's Princess Bride and Dark Crystal quotes above, to be entered to win, leave a omment below, telling us your favorite movie quote.

This drawing will remain open umtil Wednesday, February 16.

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