Me: Tell us about Shadows on the Moon.
ZM: Firstly, thank you so much for inviting me to take part in the MCBC! I'm very excited about it!
Shadows on the Moon is a retelling - or maybe it's more accurate to say reimagining - of the classic fairytale Cinderella, set in my version of a fairytale Japan. It's mostly based on the answers I came up with when I asked myself how anyone human *could* be as passive, sweet, patient and apparently without ambition or anger as Cinderella is supposed to be, after everything the character is put through. And I decided that no one human could, which made me wonder just what was going on under that sweet, passive facade. The book deals with revenge, and betrayal, and love, and most of all illusions, both the ones other people have about us, and the ones we have about ourselves. Shadows is also a sort of love letter from me to Japanese culture.
Me: Shadows on the Moon is such a wonderfully written and beautiful story. Where did you get the idea for it?
ZM: Thank you! I'm so glad you liked it. The idea for Shadows on the Moon came to me in three parts, actually. That's the way most story ideas work for me - they're made up of a bunch of different inspirations that come together to form something greater than the sum of the parts.
The first was a result of doing creative workshops in schools with young people. My first book, The Swan Kingdom, is based primarily on the Hans Christian Anderson story The Wild Swans, and so one of the exercises I did with the kids was to show them how to 'retell' fairytales themselves by deconstructing and digging down to find the interesting, hidden parts. I'd ask for suggestions as to which fairytale I should use as an example, and when the hands shot up the first one was always Cinderella. It drove me slightly mad, because I've long thought of Cinderella as a wimp - and what's more, a heroine who is rewarded for her passivity and wimpiness. So for my own satisfaction I'd turn the story on its head for my young writers, saying 'what if Cinderella isn't a romance story? What if it's about Cinderella using the Prince? Maybe there's something else she wants from him?'
This idea stuck in my head and eventually I began to wonder if what Cinderella wanted might not be revenge, because after all, the story starts with the death of her father. And that made me think about the Count of Monte Cristo and all the transformations the character has to undergo for his revenge, and the toll they take on him. This seemed a perfect sort of story for Cinderella, which is after all a fairytale about transformations and illusions, and the way people see each other.
All this was rolling around my head when one Sunday I was re-watching one of my favourite films, 'Memoirs of Geisha' and everything came together in my head with a bit of a thunderclap of inspiration. Just as Cinderella and revenge felt like a natural match, so Cinderella and historical Japanese culture, with its deep reverence for beauty and the proper way of doing things, and its quite rigid social structure, seemed to slot together as if they'd always been meant to be.
Me: I’m a character driven reader so I always ask authors about characters in their books. Where did you get the inspiration for the characters? Which character from Shadows on the Moon is your favorite?
ZM: Suzume grew up very naturally from the sorts of questions I was asking myself about the original fairytale. If all the things about Cinderella that we traditionally know - her sweet, uncomplaining nature, inability to act on her own behalf, patience and lack of anger - were fake, then that meant my character had to be bitter and full of regret, highly active, naturally impatient and raging. Traditional Cinderella skims over the surface of emotion and only really gets upset when she's denied the chance to wear a pretty dress and dance with the Prince. My Cinderella would be full of dark and vulnerable emotions that she was forced to hide, and wouldn't care less about prettiness or dancing for their own sake. Traditional Cinderella shines with natural beauty that is unmarked by the abuse heaped on her others. My Cinderella would be scarred and broken, and her beauty a carefully constructed illusion. She really couldn't be any other way, in order for the story to have emotional truth.
Then, because I wanted my Cinderella to find - and reject - love, I had to ask myself, what sort of person would value and come to care for a girl like this? What sort of person would she be forced to value and care for in return? And the answer, of course, was someone who was in many ways her opposite. A sweet natured and patient person, full of natural happiness and with a unique beauty of their own that only the heroine would see - a person unafraid of scars because he wore his own proudly and openly. Otieno formed in my mind as Suzume's perfect match. Someone outside her own culture, who would have the vision to perceive her as she really was without misconceptions, and change her perception of herself in the process.
I must confess though, that my absolute favourite character in the book is Akira. She appeared in the story on cue and just took over, one of those characters who warp every scene around themselves with the strength of their personality. Believe it or not, she was originally supposed to have a fairly small role - as a bitter, cold, emotionally unavailable woman who would serve to the heroine as a warning about living in the past. Her humour, warmth and vitality took me completely by surprise, and I fell in love with her!
Me: Shadows on the Moon is set in a fantasy version of ancient Japan and I see that your new series, The Katana Trilogy, will feature characters from ancient Japan as well. Why do you feel drawn to this culture and time period? How familiar were you with this culture and time period before writing the books? Was a lot of research required?
ZM: I've been fascinated with Japan since I was quite a young child, and I happened to see Hayao Miyazaki's 'Laputa: Castle in the Sky' on TV one rainy Sunday afternoon. I should say that I love Japanese culture in general, not just ancient Japan - but being a fantasy writer means that I tend to draw on myth and folklore from Japan, and things and people from history, because they fit so easily within my genre.
Shadows on the Moon did take a huge amount of research. Soon after I realised that I just had to set my story in a fantasy version of Japan I began to realise that being a manga and anime addict and reading books or watching films made by Japanese writers and directors wasn't really the same thing as actually being Japanese (bummer, right?) and I was likely to make some truly offensive mistakes if I didn't knuckle down and do the work. I applied to the Society of Authors here in the UK for a work-in-progress grant to help with buying reference books, and I was incredibly lucky to be selected to receive the Sasakawa Prize, which meant I could afford to do crazy things like import an authentic Kimono and paraphernalia and learn to dress as a traditional Japanese woman might have, walk and move as she might have. I bought a Japanese tea set and ingredients online - I bought Japanese music - I built up a small but extremely expensive reference library. It was wonderful, and gave me the opportunity to make the book much better, much more real, than it could otherwise have been.
With Katana, the inspiration for the story came from a poem called The Bedpost by Robert Graves. But I decided straight away that instead of being trapped in a bedpost (not exactly glamorous or active!) my hero should be trapped in a sword; and what kind of sword is more magical than a Katana, a Japanese longsword? Urban fantasy and paranormal stories have had an explosion in popularity in recent years and we've seen every variation on Western mythology that there is - everything from Greek Gods to angels and demons to werewolves to fairies and pixies to vampires. I think there's been sense lately that it's all been done, that no one wants to see another vampire or another angel (although people still come up with new takes now and again that can surprise us). But one of the most wonderful things about Japan is that, because their culture was so isolated from the Western world for so long, there's this amazing wealth of truly unique, unknown stuff to discover. Stories and archetypes and myths and monsters which just have no equivalent in the stories we all know so well - but still have that amazing sense of depth and history. Researching Japanese monsters, myths, fairytales and Gods for this series was pure fun and still is!
Me: Why do you think it’s important to write young adult novels featuring multi-cultural and multi-ethnic characters?
ZM: Because young people are multi-cultural and multi-ethnic. They live in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, diverse world. That's just the reality. And that is a wonderful thing! Yet mainstream mass media presents it as some kind of a problem, a dirty secret that needs to be whitewashed away by sterile casts of skinny, homogeneous white characters - who are nearly all always straight, able-boded and cisgendered too - in books, films, advertising campaigns. That sad, colourless version of 'reality' has nothing to do with reality at all. It not only excludes the vast majority of young people, but it deprives even the ones who fit that into that vision of the chance to see people as the beautiful, difficult, flawed, complex and above all unique creatures they are. It tells young people: 'Conform. Fit in. Be what we want you to be - or be written out of history'. How devastating for young adults to look at the world and see that they have already been judged and found unworthy due to ethnicity, gender-identification, religion, sexuality or physical status! How sickening to realise that you will be silently but irrevocably IGNORED, probably all your life. I hate it. If any one of my books can make even one young person feel less alone, more included, or one young person think 'Maybe being different is cool...' then I will die a happy author.
Me: Do you read the same genre as you write? What are you currently reading?
ZM: Oh yes! Ravenously! I love YA - it's daring and colourful and vibrant in a way that few other publishing categories are, and fantasy is my favourite thing of all. At the moment I've got an eARC of Tessa Gratton's The Blood Keeper (sequel to Blood Magic) and I'm dying to start that. I've also got Unravelling by Elizabeth Norris which I've just started and am loving, and I've also stared Bryony Pearce's Angel's Fury, which is great - I'm switching backward and forward between those when they get too intense. These are all on my eReader. The physical book on my nightstand right now is The Sharing Knife: Horizon, an adult fantasy by Lois McMaster Bujold, one of my all-time favourite writers. I'm trying to make it last because it is ssssoooo good.
Me: What other projects are you working on at this time?
ZM: Well, I'm about halfway through the second book in the Katana Trilogy right now. The Katana Trilogy will be launched in 2013 with the first book The Night Itself. It's about Mio Yamato, an average British-Japanese teenager who decides to steal her family's priceless katana from the attic of her parent's house to spice up her costume for a Christmas party. Not a great decision in the first place - but unknown to her, the katana is far more than just an antique sword. She only figures this out when monsters from her grandfather's bedtime stories about Japan begin turning up and trying to take it from her, and the point is underscored when a mysterious warrior boy appears just in time to save her. The sword's mysterious powers begin to change her almost at once, and her family and friends all get sucked into her quest to discover just what the katana is and how to save London from the consequences of her reckless actions.
The next project I'll be looking at after this will also have a Japanese twist. I intend to revisit the setting of Shadows on the Moon - Tsuki no Hikari no Kuni - in order to retell another fairystory; Beauty and the Beast this time. Once again I'm doing a pretty radical reimagining, sending a tough young peasant girl hunting the legendary Beast through the deep dark forests of her mountain home. Hopefully that will be out some time in 2015. You can see inspiration boards for all my current and future projects here on Pinterest.
Me: Thank you, Zoë!
ZM: Phew! Thanks again for inviting me to be part of this, Novia :)
About the book:
Release Date: April 24, 2012
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Pages: 464 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Buy: Amazon, B&N, The Book Depository
Contact the author: Website - Twitter - Pinterest
Goodreads Summary: A powerful tale of magic, love, and revenge set in fairy-tale Japan.
Trained in the magical art of shadow-weaving, sixteen-year-old Suzume is able to re-create herself in any form - a fabulous gift for a girl desperate to escape her past. But who is she really? Is she a girl of noble birth living under the tyranny of her mother's new husband, Lord Terayama? Or a lowly drudge scraping a living in the ashes of Terayama's kitchens? Or is she Yue, the most beautiful courtesan in the Moonlit Lands? Whatever her true identity, Suzume is destined to use her skills to steal the heart of a prince in a revenge plot to destroy Terayama. And nothing will stop her, not even the one true aspect of her life- her love for a fellow shadow-weaver.
And now for the giveaway. As a part of the 2012 Muti-Cultural Book Challenge, Candlewick was wonderful enough to offer a finished copy of Shadows on the Moon for giveaway. If you take part in the challenge, you will have more entries in the giveaway. You can sign up for the challenge here. Just fill out the Rafflecopter form below and good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Born in Manhattan and raised in Hong Kong, Andrew Fukuda is half-Chinese, half-Japanese. After earning a bachelor's degree in history from Cornell University, Fukuda worked in Manhattan's Chinatown with the immigrant teen community. That experience led to the writing of Crossing, his debut novel that was selected by ALA Booklist as an Editor's Choice, Top Ten First Novel, and Top Ten Crime Novel in 2010. Before becoming a full time writer, Fukuda was a criminal prosecutor for seven years. He currently resides on Long Island, New York, with his family.
Goodreads Summary: Don’t Sweat. Don’t Laugh. Don’t draw attention to yourself. And most of all, whatever you do, do not fall in love with one of them.
Gene is different from everyone else around him. He can’t run with lightning speed, sunlight doesn’t hurt him and he doesn’t have an unquenchable lust for blood. Gene is a human, and he knows the rules. Keep the truth a secret. It’s the only way to stay alive in a world of night—a world where humans are considered a delicacy and hunted for their blood.
When he’s chosen for a once in a lifetime opportunity to hunt the last remaining humans, Gene’s carefully constructed life begins to crumble around him. He’s thrust into the path of a girl who makes him feel things he never thought possible—and into a ruthless pack of hunters whose suspicions about his true nature are growing. Now that Gene has finally found something worth fighting for, his need to survive is stronger than ever—but is it worth the cost of his humanity?
Goodreads Summary: Girl I’ve loved, girl I’m falling for. Now that they’re both in view, the problem is clear.
After losing Sarah, the friend he’s loved, to some other guy, Jameson meets Sky. Her Native American roots, fluid movements, and need for brutal honesty become addictive fast. This is good. Jameson needs distraction – his dad leaves for another woman, his mom’s walking around like a zombie, and Sarah’s new boyfriend can’t keep his hands off of her.
As he spends time with Sky and learns about her village, her totems, and her friends with drums - she's way more than distraction. Jameson's falling for her fast.
But Sky’s need for honesty somehow doesn’t extend to her life story – and Jameson just may need more than his new girl to keep him distracted from the disaster of his senior year.
Goodreads Summary: In a future world, vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity.
Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.
Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die… or become one of the monsters.
Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.
Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.
But it isn't easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for.
Goodreads Summary: Humanity is all but extinguished after a war with partials—engineered organic beings identical to humans—has decimated the world’s population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island. The threat of the partials is still imminent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to the disease in over a decade. Humanity’s time is running out.
When sixteen-year-old Kira learns of her best friend’s pregnancy, she’s determined to find a solution. Then one rash decision forces Kira to flee her community with the unlikeliest of allies. As she tries desperately to save what is left of her race, she discovers that the survival of both humans and partials rests in her attempts to answer questions of the war’s origin that she never knew to ask.
Combining the fast-paced action of The Hunger Games with the provocative themes of Battlestar Galactica, Partials is a pulse-pounding journey into a world where the very concept of what it means to be human is in question—one where our sense of humanity is both our greatest liability, and our only hope for survival.
My bloggy friend Lisa at Read. Breathe. Relax is celebrating her one year blogiversary by giving away four copies of Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver! 
Nikki Carter has been a book-lover since she was in elementary school. Her favorite stories are fun, fresh, and full of drama. When she's not writing, Nikki enjoys reading, shopping, and hanging out by the pool. Nikki lives and loves in Dallas, Texas.
Summary: Sunday Tolliver has a mega-smash album up for major awards—and her first few months as a college freshman are everything she hoped for. But juggling all this and her long-distance romance with boyfriend Sam is taking drama to mad-crazy levels. Hot up-and-coming video star DeShawn isn’t letting Sunday’s relationship keep him from getting close. And relentless online gossip is seriously shaking Sunday’s trust in Sam. The only way Sunday can stop the madness and get back on track is to trust her instincts--and get a little help from her friends.
For this hop, I am giving away a copy of Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep and a cool matching bookmark! This book is really good (read my review here), you should definitely read it before the sequel comes out later this month. Follow the Rafflecopter instructions for the form below and good luck!
Welcome to the official Dark Eden blog tour! Halloween is just around the corner and to celebrate the publication of Dark Eden, available everywhere November 1st, this month author Patrick Carman will be visiting blogs to share spooky guest posts and sneak peeks from his brand new book and app. I reviewed this book and loved it, you can check out my review here. When Will Besting approaches Fort Eden for the first time, he knows something isn't right. With more terrifying secrets at every turn he discovers a hidden fear deep inside himself, a dark mystery a thousand years in the making, and the unexpected girl of his dreams. But can he save everyone from the dangers of Fort Eden before it's too late?
I am pleased to welcome Leanna Renee Hieber, award winning, bestselling Gothic Victorian Fantasy author of The Strangely Beautiful series (now available) and Darker Still, A Novel of Magic Most Foul.
Title: Darker Still: A Novel of Magic Most FoulThe Picture of Dorian Gray meets Pride and Prejudice, with a dash of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. -- New York City, 1880. Seventeen-year-old Natalie Stewart's latest obsession is a painting of the handsome British Lord Denbury. Something in his striking blue eyes calls to her. As his incredibly life-like gaze seems to follow her, Natalie gets the uneasy feeling that details of the painting keep changing... Lord Denbury's soul is trapped in the gilded painting by dark magic while his possessed body commits unspeakable crimes in the city slums. He must lure Natalie into the painting, for only together can they reverse the curse and free his damaged soul.How did you come up with the idea for the story?
Ready for the giveaway? I’ve read (and love) this book and trust me, you want this one! As a part of the Halloween Queens Book Giveaway hosted by KM from One Page at A Time and myself, I will be giving away a copy of this awesome book! To enter, just click on the read more prompt (if you are on the main page) and follow the Rafflecopter instructions. Don't forget to stop by One Page at A Time to win an autographed copy of Anna Dressed In Blood.
Title: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake Goodreads Summary: Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead. So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.Are you in the mood for a really, really creepy book? Then Anna Dressed in Blood may be the book for you. I started reading this expecting a standard ghost story but Anna is nothing like I expected. Filled with ghosts, witches, demons, possessions, voodoo and the occult, Anna Dressed in Blood seriously shocked me and creeped me out. The descriptions of the various specters that Cas encounters and Anna’s crazy house are terrifyingly vivid. Be warned, if you are a visual person like I am, you may keep seeing some of the more bloody scenes play out in your head even after you are done reading the book.
When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home. But she, for whatever reason, spares Cas's life.
I was lucky enough to win the ARC of Supernaturally from Goodreads so I thought I would pay it forward and give someone else a chance to read this awesome book (read my review here). Just fill out the form below to enter the giveaway. Following the blog is not required to enter but you will get an extra entry if you do and another for Tweeting the giveaway. Good luck and thanks for entering!
Goodreads Summary: Ebenezer Scrooge has never been known for the greatness of his heart. A miser, a leech, a penny-pinching old coot... Say what you will about him, though—he’s never actually sucked someone’s blood. That dubious honor belongs to the vampires who surround him, preying on the weak and laying traps for the strong. They’ve dogged his footsteps since he was born, driving him from the love of his friends, family, and faithful fiancée.Since I have two ARCs of A Vampire Christmas Carol, I thought I would give someone an opportunity to read it by doing a giveaway, plus I will inclucle some swag. Please fill out the form and while you don’t have to be a follower to enter, you will get an extra entry if you are and another for tweeting the about the giveaway. Good luck and thanks for participating!
Now, on Christmas Eve, Scrooge’s old friend Jacob Marley rises from the grave to warn him about the evil gathering around him. With three mysterious spirits to guide him, he rediscovers his lost love Belle, toiling fearlessly as a seamstress by day and vampire hunter by night. He sees the secrets of his nephew Fred and his clerk Bob Cratchit, who risk their lives as Belle’s loyal soldiers. And he learns of the plot mounting to attack all of them, starting with the innocent sacrifice of Bob’s son Tiny Tim…
Scrooge has only one night to save himself and all that he once treasured—but if he can vanquish the vampires, he might finally earn back the love he cast away...
