Interview with Poisoned Blade author Kate Elliott

As the first stop on Kate Elliott’s Poisoned Blade blog tour we’re delighted to talk to Kate about the new book.

Welcome to SFFWorld, Kate. Many thanks for giving us some time here. I’ll start with a rather big question. In your own words, who is Kate Elliott?

That’s a hard question to answer!

I make up worlds. I write epic stories. I keep working to improve at my craft. I’m stubborn, and my goal is to remain a person who learns and stays curious for my entire life. Few things scare me as much as the idea of no longer wanting to ask questions, see new places and try new things, and meet new people and ways of life. If I were an archetype I would be The Seeker, always ready to set out on a new journey, always looking over the next hill and around the next bend in the path.

Kate Elliott is also a pen name. In my real life I’m a fairly reserved person who doesn’t talk that much about myself except about my writing, which is my public “face.” However I will talk endlessly about living in Hawaii and competitive outrigger canoe paddling, so ask at your own risk. If you want a glimpse of outrigger canoe paddling, here’s a 2 minute video (randomly chosen from YouTube because it has video of a women’s long distance race out in some fairly challenging ocean conditions, and because it is short). At about 1:20 you can see how racers do water changes, rotating some paddlers out for a rest and rested paddlers back in.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wh0FmmtmzQ]

Here is one of my all time favorite short (1:44 minute) long distance race videos: https://vimeo.com/37405658

Here’s the same club, with a 3 minute video, doing the Molokai to Oahu race that is considered the “world championship” of long distance outrigger racing: https://vimeo.com/37405282

And, if you want to see a huli happen in real time (when wave and wind action causes the canoe to flip over mid-race and the paddlers have to flip it back upright and keep going) you can’t beat this cam view (I was in this race although not in this canoe). It’s less than a minute and super great:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-jy_3TyFDA]

So, yeah, that is what I do for relaxing fun.

For those not familiar with your Court of Fives series can you tell us a bit about it?

I’ll start by quoting from Rob Bedford’s Tor.com review of Court of Fives because he offers a good synopsis of the initial situation:

Jessamy, the protagonist of Kate Elliott’s first young adult novel Court of Fives, is very much in the middle of everything. She and her twin have both an older sister and a younger sister, so they share the traditional middle child role. Jes is a child of two different races and classes: Her mother, Kiya, is a Commoner, while her father, Esladas, is a Patron who has elevated himself above his low-born station to a military Captain. Jes is caught between her desire to compete in the Court of Fives—an intricate, labyrinthine, obstacle race (think something like the course on American Ninja Warrior)—and what society dictates the daughter of a Patron should do, torn between her duty and desire to save her family once her father’s sponsor Lord Ottonor dies.

Court of Fives is a trilogy; I’m revising the third book now (for 2017 publication) so I can confirm the story will be complete with the third book. No fourth, fifth, or sixth book extensions!

My spouse’s archaeological work at a Greco-Roman town in the Delta region of Egypt inspired me to write a story about a mixed race girl in a land conquered and ruled by outside invaders. Jes and her sisters have been raised by both parents, who have stayed together for twenty years even though they are not allowed to marry. I wanted to explore the dynamic of what it might be like to live in a city ruled by a Patron class whose manners and language you can learn but whose ranks you will really never be accepted into. My experience living in Hawaii has also led me to reflect on how conquered cultures can so easily die out, and how they keep themselves alive despite their languages and cultural traditions being suppressed by the conquering culture.

Those speculations created the foundation for the worldbuilding and Jes’s situation.

For Jes herself I really wanted to write about a competitive girl who wants to be an athlete, and what it takes be good. I can enjoy a “chosen one” narrative too, in which a person is born with spectacular innate magical gifts (etc), but sometimes I just want to read about people who work HARD to achieve their high skill level in whatever field of attainment.

I also wanted to write about giant mechanical spiders, dirty royal politics (because the Ptolemies who ruled Egypt for 300 years were about the worst people you can imagine), and a heroine who will not give up when she realizes her beloved mother and sisters are in danger and she is the only one who has a chance to rescue them. Determination, love, and treachery: your three narrative food groups.

Poisoned Blade is the second book in the series and the world expands from the Fives court to a larger world. What can your fans expect?

I strive to get the reader emotionally involved with the characters’ journey, to understand what drives each character and why they make the choices they do. If readers cascade through the full gamut of emotions then I feel I have done my job right.

As for plot and world, in search of her missing sister, Jes travels to places she never dreamed she would ever have a chance to see: the dangerous confines of the royal palace, for one, and the desert frontier where her father was stationed for much of his early career. Readers can expect action, betrayal, a brief digression into advanced surgical techniques, and more about the giant metal spiders.

What new goals did you set for yourself with the second book?

With each new book I write I set myself a challenge. With the Court of Fives series my overall challenge has been to write an epic fantasy that has a faster paced plot and more streamlined world-building without (I hope) losing the richness of culture and character that I enjoy painting on the page. In Poisoned Blade I specifically set out to make sure that the plot advances in important and dramatic ways. Middle books of trilogies are notoriously hard: they don’t have the “newness” of the first book or the sense of completion that the final book naturally offers. They provide a bridge, but that can’t be all they are. Done right, a middle book amplifies the initial set up, sets the stage for the final showdown, and throws in a few stunning twists along the way. That was my goal.

What are your plans for the series?

Court of Fives is a trilogy. Book three will complete the story. One series-related prequel novella, Night Flower, has been published, and I plan to write one more series-related novella after book three is done. Then I will be on to another project.

When you work on a new idea, do you tend to work from one key idea that you then refine, or do you spend a long time maturing ideas and mixing them together until you find something that works?

I’m not a “nifty concept” writer. That is, a nifty concept/pitch idea doesn’t spring fully formed into my brain, after which I expand and refine it. I think I’m more of a flotsam and jetsam writer, if you will: most of my projects begin with an image, usually of a person, and a culture or situation that person is embedded in. From there I let it sit like a magnet, attracting more and more material until the shape of a story forms that I can work with.

For example, the Crown of Stars series began with the image of a youth walking across a seaside ridge path as a storm comes in from the sea, bringing in its clouds and winds the supernatural presence of an armed warrior who offers a bargain to the lad. All of the rest of the series grew from that visual image. Court of Fives got its start (as I mention above) with my interest in writing a fantasy version of a conquered land reminiscent of Greco-Roman Egypt. My initial image of Cold Magic was of two young women sitting in a windowseat as a carriage drives up outside their home.

In all of these cases the initial image/idea was followed by me slowly figuring out what interested me most in the situation and the setting and what I could do with it. Characters get added and the setting gets fleshed out. I research background material, and a basic plot coheres. I have to let a potential project sit, often for years, before I can start writing it. It needs to simmer in my backbrain.

When I do finally start writing the act of writing causes twists and turns and new revelations and ideas to pop up as I work. So when people ask if I am a plotter or a pantser, I’m really neither and both. I use the Hawaiian Islands method: I know my beginning point, my end point, and a certain number of major and minor plot points along the way. Imagine these represent the parts  of the islands we can see above the ocean. What’s underwater I discover as I write the first draft.

What is your favorite and least favorite part of the writing process, and why?

For years I preferred the exhilaration of writing first draft and dreaded the slog of revision, in large part because I wasn’t very good at revision. In those days it was hard for me to see what was wrong, much less how to fix it. Now that I am much better at revision I find writing first draft to be exhausting because I can see what’s wrong as I write.

I don’t do an extensive outline before I draft because part of the process, for me, is literally the way the story twists and turns as I am writing it. Plotting every detail ahead of time would not give me the same mental process. I am a kinesthetic learner; the flow of words from my thoughts through my hands onto the keyboard has become part of the way the story takes shape. So when I am writing first draft, even though I know I will do multiple revision passes to fix all of the problems in that first draft, all the parts that don’t work nag at me and bog me down. I really have to push through to complete an initial draft. When I have finally completed a rough draft it is such a relief. Revising now gives me much more pleasure as I sort out what isn’t working and analyze out how to fix it. Because I have gained revision skills, the revision process has become a cool challenge, like solving a puzzle. Watching the story take shape to become the narrative I want it to be is thrilling and satisfying.

This interview is one of the stops on a big blog tour for the release. Have you done blog tours like this before? What is your experiences / expectations?

I have done several blog tours before this one. I very much appreciate all the work bloggers do to write reviews and keep their sites up to date. It is a lot of work and in almost all cases is done purely for love of reading and books. In this information-rich world the biggest obstacle for writers is visibility; no one can read your book if they don’t know it exists. Before the rise of the world wide web, Amazon, and book blogs there were many fewer review opportunities: Back in the day (1988) my first published novel got five reviews. Five. Total. There weren’t many outlets for review, and print outlets had limited space so didn’t attempt to review everything. You had to hope your cover would attract readers browsing the bookstore shelf. This is why blogging has become such a hugely influential way in which books and readers can connect. I’m grateful for this shift, frankly.

My expectations for a blog tour are small in scale: I assume a few people who haven’t heard of me, or who haven’t yet read me, may become interested enough by the content in a post, interview, or review to decide it’s worth their while to check out one of my books. Word of mouth is still the most effective sales tool, whether on a monumental or a modest scale. So while I don’t expect earth-shaking results with a blog tour, I am always ecstatic to pick up new readers however they reach me. Honestly – my readers are why I can do this writing gig at all and I treasure every one.

On the topic of marketing. How do you go about the marketing aspect and especially related to your online presence? Anything you’ve seen work better than other things?

I’m not a naturally outgoing person and generally I feel a bit awkward talking about myself and my work. At the same time I genuinely enjoy interacting with people. I’ve made many wonderful book acquaintances and friends via online.

So my rule of thumb is that I don’t try to be something I’m not. I’ve found a way of “presenting myself” on social media that I’m comfortable with and that, to a fair extent, reflects my personality: I try to be welcoming, interested, interactive, and positive.

What’s next? What projects are you working on at the moment?

I’m currently revising the third book of the Court of Fives trilogy. I’m also revising a novelette for an anthology—I don’t write much short fiction because my “natural length” tends toward trilogies; that’s how my brain seems to come up with plotting and character arcs. The second volume of the Black Wolves trilogy is underway as well, still plowing through the first draft. And I have several new projects in the works, including a space opera.

Once again, thank you very much for your time.

Thank you for having me!

*****

Interview by Dag Rambraut – SFFWorld.com © 2016

About Kate:

Kate Elliott has been writing stories since she was nine years old, which has led her to believe that writing, like breathing, keeps her alive. As a child in rural Oregon, she made up stories because she longed to escape to a world of lurid adventure fiction. She now writes fantasy, steampunk, science fiction, and YA, including recent works Black Wolves, Court of Fives, and Cold Magic.

It should come as no surprise that she met her future husband in a sword fight. When he gave up police work to study archaeology, they and their three children fell into an entirely new set of adventures amid dusty Mexican ruins and mouthwatering European pastry shops. Eventually her spouse’s work forced them to move to Hawaii, where she took up outrigger canoe paddling. With the three children out of the house, they now spoil the schnauzer.

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Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive a finished copy of POISONED BLADE, US Only.

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