Frostborn Cover Analysis & Author Interview, by Matthew MacNish

Before we begin, here is the jacket copy, from Goodreads:

Meet Karn. He is destined to take over the family farm in Norrøngard. His only problem? He’d rather be playing the board game Thrones and Bones.

Enter Thianna. Half human, half frost giantess. She’s too tall to blend in with other humans but too short to be taken seriously as a giant.

When family intrigues force Karn and Thianna to flee into the wilderness, they have to keep their sense of humor and their wits about them. But survival can be challenging when you’re being chased by a 1,500-year-old dragon, Helltoppr the undead warrior and his undead minions, an evil uncle, wyverns, and an assortment of trolls and giants.

FROSTBORN is the first volume in the series THRONES & BONES, a new MG Fantasy by debut author Lou Anders. Lou is the former Editorial Director at Pyr Books, the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Prometheus Books. He was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Editor (Long Form) 7 years in a row, and won the award in 2011. He has also been nominated for many other awards, such as the World Fantasy Award, Nebula Award, Philip K. Dick Award, Locus Award, and the Chesley Award, among others.

Before I get into my personal reaction to the cover of this exciting new book, you can find out more about Lou, and the THRONES & BONES series, if you're curious, at:

His Blog | Twitter | His Website | Thrones & Bones | Facebook

So, let me just say how much I love this cover! One of my favorite things about Middle Grade books (and especially by comparison to YA) is how often they end up with gorgeous illustrated covers. Photos are fine, and I'm sure the models need work, but there's just something magical about a hand drawn cover.

And this one certainly does not disappoint. It begins with the design, which starts with a lovely font, whose blade-shaped serifs seem to fit the world perfectly, that is complimented by kind of hand-carved looking jeweled encrusted stone brackets. The attention to detail, especially in the little skeleton and warrior carvings, is phenomenal.

And things only get better from there. We have a dragon, which is always a good thing, and not only is his snout and pair of glowing eyes perfectly menacing, but we have an interesting look at his body or tail, where it curls through the broken columns of these ancient ruins. Are those scales? They almost look like fur or even feathers.

From there, we can move on to the highlight: our main characters. I love that we see them small enough to give the setting and the dragon room to shine, but that we also can see them well enough to get a good sense of who they are, and especially that Thianna, being half-giantess, is so obviously and adorably much taller than young Karn.

The cover illustration and design is by Justin Gerard.

Moving on, here's Lou with the Hugo he finally won:

I had originally planned on analyzing the first page of the novel, along with the cover, which I have done in the past, and is always fun, but Lou, in his infinite peparedness to be available to anyone and everyone with any modicum of love for SF/F, agreed at the last minute to a mini-interview, so instead, I offer you a tiny 3 question peek into the mind of Lou Anders, and how one of SF/F's most well known editors decided to delve into the netherrealm of the debut novelist:

1) Personally, I love writing middle grade fiction, and especially middle grade fantasy, because I feel middle grade readers are at that age where their imaginations are really beginning to come alive. Having worked in adult and young adult fiction for some time now, was there anything in particular that led you to write the THRONES & BONES series first as you transitioned into becoming an author yourself?

Well, it wasn’t first. I had two unsold manuscripts getting to this point. The first was a YA. The second was a YA that was turned into a middle grade at the behest of an editor. And then there was Frostborn—the classic case of setting out to write not what was expected but what I most wanted to write myself. I grew up on fantasy fiction—it’s my first love—and Frostborn was my attempt to write epic fantasy and swords & sorcery fiction for kids, to get across that sense of amazement you get the first time you visit an imaginary land. I built a world I’d want to visit and then I did.

2) Tolkien famously drew on the Prose Edda in his THE LORD OF THE RINGS books. FROSTBORN is somewhat inspired by Viking culture and Norse mythology, correct? What does drawing on a subject that is so rich in history, style, and aesthetic do for storytelling? Have you found that it makes world-building, for example, easier, harder, or simply different?

It’s just the way I do it. To create the countries of Norrøngard, Ymiria, and all the lands on the continent of Katernia, I researched numerous cultures. I worked out time lines to five thousand years. I invented cosmologies and religions. I have an entire book’s worth of notes that isn’t in the book. It’s all “tip of the iceberg” stuff, only the tiniest portion of which peeks its head above water. But because I know it, the bits that do show seem more authentic, more real. It’s a ton of work—I world built for three months before I wrote a line of plot—but I don’t know any other way that works for me.

3) How has the transition from working as an editor informed your process of becoming an author? Are there any aspects of writing a book that seem like they might be easier for a former editor? Any that seem like they might be more difficult?

Fourteen years of being knee deep in other writers’ prose worlds has certainly made me a better writer. In some ways, having to fix what was broken was more instructive than studying what was perfect to begin with. And all the manuscripts that fell short taught me so much about what not to do. I’ve said before, you can often learn more from a bad book - or a just “okay” one - than you can from a great one by studying what didn’t work and why. As to the hardships of changing hats—switching sides of the desk might involve changes in thinking. But I also try to have everything my publisher is going to ask for before they ask for it, since I know what it’s like to wait.

Thanks so much for stopping by, Lou!

Yes, You Have to Use Punctuation

That's no April Fools' Day prank—it’s the brand-spanking-new cover of Ivy and the Meanstalk, which I got to see for the first time a little over a week-and-a-half ago. I love it and just had to share! I especially love that Ivy looks a little older on this cover. Perhaps, in spite of all her efforts, she's starting to grow up, just a little :)

Now on to my blog post…

I've being hearing a lot of stories like these recently:

For many years, a friend of mine worked at a local high school. One day, an English teacher came up to her and wanted her to look at a student’s essay. “It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” she said. My friend thought so, too. A ninth-grade student had typed the essay entirely in lower case letters and hadn’t used any punctuation—none whatsoever. Not a single period, comma, or quotation mark in the whole paper. When the teacher asked the student about this, he gave a very self-assured answer. “I’m going to be a writer,” he said, “so I don’t have to bother with punctuation. Someday I’m going to have an editor to handle all that for me.”

Another friend of mine was recently talking to a woman in her writing group. My friend was excited because she had just launched a snazzy new website to promote herself as a writer, complete with gorgeous artwork by a graphic designer pal. When she asked if the other woman had ever considered creating a website for herself, the woman replied, “Oh, that won’t be necessary. When I have an agent, they’ll take care of that for me.”

As writers, we often encounter individuals like these. Aspiring authors who, while I'm sure they're perfectly nice people, have some pretty big misconceptions about how the publishing industry works. Often these misconceptions center around the belief that writers have loads of people just waiting around to do things for them. Your sentences need punctuation? No problem—an editor will take care of that. Need a website? Bam! An agent will make one magically appear for you.

Don't get me wrong, I think my agent, editor, and publisher are pretty magical, too, but no one has yet to volunteer to pick through my manuscripts and insert periods at the end of my sentences for me :)

I'm always a little amused by aspiring authors who think that because agents and editors work hard, writers don't have to. I remember back when I worked for a small publisher specializing in non-fiction titles. One of our editors suggested to an author that a chapter would make more sense if he added a little background information at the beginning. "That's a great idea!" the (first-time) author was quick to reply via e-mail. "Let's do that." Of course, what he didn't do was actually send a revised chapter or supply any of the requested background information—he had just assumed the editor would "handle" this, even though he was the author and this was his book!

I know no followers of Project Mayhem would fall prey to this line of thinking. They understand that writing is hard work, and while there will be many wonderful, invaluable people who help on their journey to publication, much of the work falls squarely on the shoulders of the author. There are no shortcuts. So polish that manuscript carefully. Put in the time necessary to hone your skills. Want a website? Get one up there! No one is going to do it for you. Agents, editors, and publishers appreciate authors who are willing to put forth an effort.

Yes, this means you have to use punctuation.

-Dawn Lairamore

Of Editing and Editors



Gratuitous picture of my new puppy,
Noodle.  Isn't he adorable?

 As I prepare to embark upon editing my second novel—I’ll be getting really cozy with Ivy and the Meanstalk over the next couple of months—I thought I’d reflect a bit about working with editors. As a new author, this was the part of the publication process I dreaded the most. Prior to being published, I attended a writers’ conference where a literary agent stated that the changes requested by an editor were typically “mandatory.” As in required. As in non-negotiable. As in what-I-say-goes-and-if-you-don’t-like-it-tough-cookies.

For the longest time, this statement colored my perception of what the editorial process would be like. I pictured it as a horrible, heart-wrenching dictatorship where I’d be obligated to do whatever the editor wanted, even if it meant dismantling much of a story into which I had poured so much of my time and spirit.

Perhaps some of the other authors here can weigh in with their own experiences, but mine wasn’t like that at all. It probably helped that I had a fantastically brilliant editor with an incredible sense of story, but I really ended up enjoying the editorial process. I found I had much more freedom than I had anticipated. I did end up making most of the changes suggested by my editor—because her suggestions were just that fabulous—but I didn’t feel pressured to make a particular change if I felt it just wasn’t quite right for my vision of the book. In the end, Ivy still felt like my own.

That being said, I think it’s very important for an author to at least consider every suggestion an editor makes. Remember—editors edit for a living. They’re very good at it, and if they’ve suggested a change, they’ve done so for a reason. It’s also the respectful thing to do. An editor is someone who has signed on to work on your book because they believe in it. They believe in it so much that they’ve committed themselves to working on it often for a year or more. They’re giving it tons of their time and attention, and they’ll read it over and over and over again. They’re putting a lot of hard work into this endeavor; it’s only respectful to take the time to consider what they have to say.

At another writers’ conference, this time after the first Ivy was released, I worked up the nerve to ask an editor, “How important is it that an author make every change you suggest?” How her answer would have eased my mind if I had heard it before being published. “It’s not that crucial,” she said with a shrug. At the end of the day, she pointed out, it’s the author’s name on the cover of the book, so it’s important that the author be comfortable with what’s inside.

Horrible, heart-wrenching dictatorship? Not even close.

-Dawn Lairamore