Janni Lee Simner lives in the Arizona desert, where the plants really do know how to bite. She’s the author of three young adult fantasy novels: Bones of Faerie, Faerie Winter, and Thief Eyes. She’s also published four books for younger readers and more than more than 30 short stories, including one in the recent Welcome to Bordertown anthology.

1.  Your first YA offering, the dark and twisted post-apocalyptic “Bones of Faerie” had me completely intoxicated and entranced by the world. “Faerie Winter” left me even more addicted. You’ve said one of the reasons you continue to write is to visit all the places haven’t got to in person –or haven’t figured out yet to get to, especially the magic ones. Has the idea of magic and mythical lands something you have always felt drawn to?

Thanks so much for the good words about Bones of Faerie and Faerie Winter! I really have always been drawn to magic. As a kid, I spent a lot of time looking for that doorway through the mist to someplace else–some other, more magical world than my own. It was a journey I took seriously enough that once I found fellow seekers-after-magic, we vowed to each other that if we ever found our way through to one of those places, we’d be sure to let each other know before we left this world, so that we could all get there. The desire to call back that feeling of magic that’s almost real enough and near enough to touch is one of the reasons I write.

2. You also have a third YA novel released, the contemporary fantasy “Thief Eyes” set in Iceland and teeming with magic and mystery. Can you tell us a little about what we can expect when we enter Haley’s world?

When I first visited Iceland, I became fascinated with the Icelandic sagas, especially as I walked through some of the same places their characters had walked a thousand years ago–something that gave me the shivery feeling that the past just might be breathing over my shoulder. Hallgerd from Njal’s Saga was especially intriguing to me. When she was a child, her uncle said she had the eyes of a thief; as an adult, she became infamous for refusing her husband two locks of her hair to restring his bow in battle. I wanted to understand Hallgerd better, so I wove her story into the present-day story of one of her descendants, Haley, who gets caught up in a spell Hallgerd casts.

Along the way there are shape-shifting polar bear boys, companionable arctic foxes, and dangerous ravens. (Well, okay, only one of each.) There’s also Iceland’s own moss-covered volcanic landscape, which is pretty magical to me all by itself, and which in Thief Eyes is in danger of pulling apart as the result of Hallgerd’s spell. Haley struggles to save both herself and that land as she tries to get free of the spell and find her way home again.

3. Not only do you write for the YA market, you’re also an accomplished Children’s author. Do you find that your style and process change significantly along with the intended audience?

I don’t, really. The ages of my protagonists change, and because of that their concerns change, but the process of writing the stories doesn’t. Mostly, I’m just telling the stories I most want to tell and writing them as well as I can, and while the audience changes, the storytelling and writing craft doesn’t.

4. Which of your fictional characters Burns Brightest in your mind and why?

Liza from the Faerie books, with her fears and her courage, her practical matter-of-factness in what to us would be an impractical world, her longing to protect those she cares for and her unwillingness to ever give up. I just turned in the third and final Faerie book from Liza’s point of view (working title, Faerie After), and I know that once I finish my editorial revisions, it’s going to be strange to let her go. I sold Bones of Faerie five years ago, but I started writing fragments if Liza’s story a decade before that. We’ve been through a lot together, and I’m going to miss her.

Janni Lee Simner’s website

Helloooo? Is anyone out there?!

Oh there you are!

Welcome to another Life with Lisa! This week’s post isn’t going to be too long (well I hope not), it’s going to more informative than usual. Burn Bright is always looking for ways to branch out, doesn’t matter if it’s with the[intlink id=”7224″ type=”page”] Book Club[/intlink] (which you should check out; we’re reading Angel Arias this month!), Twitter, Facebook, or Youtube. But we’re always looking for new, fun and exciting things!

Drum roll please!

Tumblr! We made a Tumblr! If you don’t know what a Tumblr is, it’s just another blogging website where you can post pictures, videos, re-post others’ posts, and so much more! Of course we’re going to continue using Burn Bright, that’s never going to stop. But Tumlbr is just another chance for us to branch out.

Want to see what I’ve been slaving over (with the help of some others, thanks guys!) for the past week, trying to get everything done, looking nice, and ready to go for our GRAND OPENING on MONDAY!

Here’s a sneak peak of the the layout!

Again, don’t forget the GRAND OPENING is on MONDAY, so make sure to stop by, leave a nice comment or two, and have fun browsing Night Creatures 🙂

Lisa

***We’d really like to thanks Tracey Lea for designing the graphic and background for us.Thanks Tracey! We couldn’t have done it without you!***

Cover: Laying hands upon the injured and dying, Avry of Kazan assumes their wounds and diseases into herself. But rather than being honored for her skills, she is hunted. Healers like Avry are accused of spreading the plague that has decimated the Territories, leaving the survivors in a state of chaos.

Stressed and tired from hiding, Avry is abducted by a band of rogues who, shockingly, value her gift above the golden bounty offered for her capture. Their leader, an enigmatic captor-protector with powers of his own, is unequivocal in his demands: Avry must heal a plague-stricken prince—leader of a campaign against her people. As they traverse the daunting Nine Mountains, beset by mercenaries and magical dangers, Avry must decide who is worth healing and what is worth dying for. Because the price of peace may well be her life….

This new series takes place in the same world as Mara V Snyder’s Poison Study series, The Fifteen Realms. The Fifteen Realms has been ravaged by plague and the rulers have deemed the healers responsible. Healers are on the verge of extinction because the rulers have ordered them to be killed.

A group of bandits have saved Avry from being hung and in return she must heal Prince Ryne. The trip they take to reach the Prince is not easy and there are many stops along the way. Each of her decisions becomes a matter of life or death (and for those who helped her). Avery and Kerrick’s interactions with each other are both stressful and apprehensive at the same time. He is the leader of the group and they must learn how to travel together and keep each other alive. He also becomes a love interest later on in the book. There are 5 members of the group and all have great personalities and hopefully we continue see them all throughout the whole series.

Romance is on the back burner in this story and it’s focused more on the building of trusting relationships. As Avry is believed to be the last healer alive, she is in a very tricky position of not knowing who to trust.  We get to see many different characters come in and out of the story during their travels. Avery must lay low, but finds her need to heal those who are sick are constantly pulling at her to help, and she cannot refuse. Each time she heals somebody she takes their illness into herself, she then has to heal herself before they can travel again.

All of the characters are very entertaining. Each has a purpose and a memorable role in the story. The reader will learn to love and hate personality traits in each of them. Avery is very kind hearted, sympathetic and a strong person. I like to think that her life as a healer has made her that way, and at the age of 20 in a time of castles, kingdoms and magical powers she seems wise beyond her years. It is noticeable in this story that more a more modern day language is used. It made it easier to read and understand, but some may miss the historical aspect.

The world-building is so well written, you will be drawn into it immediately. The concepts and ideas of the world were explained flawlessly and easy to understand. Several elements come into play and the way it seems to all revolve around magic, leads to an overall very entertaining read.

It’s fast paced with a lot of adventure, great characters and new challenges every step they take. The book also comes with a map so you can track their travels as they go.

I think that overall Maria V Snyder is known for her world building and well rounded, likeable characters. If you have read and liked her previous works and like fantasy novels, I don’t think you will be disappointed in this new series.

Favorite Quote “…things happen that are out of your control.’
Kerrick gave him a tight smile. ‘You mean I’m not omnipotent?’
‘You’re not even semi-potent.’
‘Is that even a word?’ Kerrick asked.
‘He probably means you’re impotent,’ I offered.”

Paperback, 400 pages

Expected publication: December 20th 2011 by Mira

ISBN0778313077 (ISBN13: 9780778313076)

Thanks to the Inkberry Diaries you can now grab your own Night Creatures buttons for you website. Get the html from the [intlink id=”7541″ type=”page”]Buttons page.[/intlink]. And while we’re mentioning the button, have you browsed the[intlink id=”2192″ type=”page”] Extras[/intlink]? There are fabulous wallpapers, bookmarks, banners and badges.

Aren’t they brilliant!

And don’t forget to check out Marianne’s interview about the Night Creatures series with with Holly Harper from Readings Booksellers. And her exclusive interview with Yunyu about the new song and their collaboration with The Spotlight Report.

Speculative fiction has been inundated with the undead element for decades; we’ve all seen our fair share of evil zombies, vampires, werewolves, ghouls, ghasts and ghosts. Even a few mummies have risen from the crypt in the last decade or so to try and scare the pants off us.

But what about the good guys who just happen to be mortally challenged? And by good guys I don’t mean the Anne Rice kind of undead who are generally naughty boys until they meet the right girl/guy/werewolf. I mean the kind of lurching characters who just try to get along in their un-life without meaning harm to anyone; the Friendly Dead.

Thankfully I’m not alone in thinking that just because you lose your pulse you don’t lose your humanity. Over the last decade or so there have been several pretty well known authors trying to bring the dearly departed back into the fold. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be scared of the majority of the undead, just that we should look at them on a case-by-case basis.

I’ll start with a personal favourite; Terry Pratchett. Yes, I know, I go on about him often but when you are a prolific as famous as he, you get a few perks.

In 1989 Pratchett broke ground for the pro-undead movement with Pyramids; a novel parodying Egyptian culture by asking the big question: “What would our ancestors say if they were alive today?”.  This story humanises the mummy community far better than the 1999 Brendan Fraser movie The Mummy ever did.

Since then the friendly dead are a constant element in Pratchett’s works; the most notable of these being theCity Watch series where the undead comprise a large part of the city’s police force, including a ghoul cafeteria lady.

Moving forward to the year of 2007 saw the emergence of the young adult supernatural novel series Skulduggery Pleasant; an ongoing work about the adventures of the skeleton detective and his mostly human counterpart Valkyrie Cain in their attempt to stop the world being destroyed again and again.

Skip another couple of years and we get Nekropolis by Tim Waggoner; a beautiful example of film noir style writing in a modern context. The main character, a private investigator and self-confessed zombie named Richter, attempts to locate an artefact of unimaginable power in full Maltese Parrot style.

What do all these stories have in common? Besides the fact that they are all fantastically written stories full of plot, action and humour? The main characters are not just undead but members of my Friendly Dead category.

They all have emotion, they all act like everyday people –for the most part – doing everyday things, and they are all believable. They don’t just lurch around the place eating people or burying them under the floorboards for later.

Context is everything; the undead are no exception. So next time you meet a zombie or skeleton don’t just run away or try to club their head off; try getting to know them first.