We’re happy to bring you the brand new cover of Charade by Alice Sabo. Charade is the second book in her Transmutation series and we’ve chatted a bit with her to learn more about the series and the new cover.
Charade is the second book on your Transmutation series, can you tell us a bit about the series?
The series centers around the discovery of a mysterious species that has been hiding in plain sight. They are enslaved on their distant home world because of their special abilities. Those that have escaped have been hiding in the United Congress of Free Sentients, a group of planets with a galactic government. Because they have been enslaved for centuries, they have lost their own culture. Once exposed, they have to decide what culture suits their species, and how much they want to assimilate into the UCFS.
The cover of the first book in the series had elements both representing space and fantasy while this cover is more neutral and Fantasy-ish. What made you fall for this new cover by artist Alex Storer?
I love Alex’s work. He always does a wonderful job. This book is about giving a little bit of information away to disguise a greater truth. And also about decisions and discoveries and getting lost along the way. I liked the idea of endless corridors in a great old edifice. The light at the end is a cliché for higher knowledge, so I asked Alex for something different. The woman is turning to the side, investigating an alternate route. That felt like the right tone for this story.
What new goals did you set for yourself with the second book, Charade?
This series was initially a great blundering mess. It was the first fantasy I had ever written, and I took on more than I could handle. It’s taken years and many different books to finally have the skills to tackle it again. There are multiple layers to this story, all which originally went off on their own tangent. I’ve had to go through the old story and pull apart some of the plot lines, discarding the random ones and strengthening the core. Unraveling some of the intertwining plots left me with dead ends. I had to go back to the basic story and figure out where the new story should go.
I guess we see more and more blending of genres and your Transmutation series is another example. Why did you want to do something in this Space-Fantasy type of setting?
I grew up with Star Trek and Star Wars, and I love that kind of rich world with weird aliens and mysterious cultures, except I’ve always been more interested in the societies than the space battles. I loved Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover series. I think that was a big inspiration for my series.
How is it to market something that blends genres like this, does it cause any problems?
Yes, it is a bit of a headache. I’m still trying to figure out how to market this series. For the first book, I asked around for suggestions on categories for it. Space Travel? Check. Aliens? Check. People insisted it should be Space Opera. But if you look at that category on Amazon, you’ll see a lot of covers with space ships and space battles. I don’t think it belongs there. But if I put it in fantasy, it doesn’t fit with elves or werewolves or wizards, either.
Then the age-old question that just has to be asked. What’s next?
I’m presently working on a rough draft for the 4th book in my post-apocalyptic series, A Changed World. I hope to have that out by the end of the year. And I have a pure fantasy novel (wizards magical beasts and such) on the back burner that needs some work. If I can get that sorted out, it will be available in early spring. And then of course the third and perhaps final book to the Transmutation series.
* * * * * * *
Interview by Dag Rambraut – SFFWorld.com © 2017
