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Witches of Ash and Ruin by E. Latimer
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: March 3rd 2020
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, LGBT, Queer
Synopsis:
Modern witchcraft blends with ancient Celtic mythology in an epic clash of witches and gods, perfect for fans of V.E. Schwab's Shades of Magic trilogy and A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES.
Seventeen-year-old Dayna Walsh is struggling to cope with her somatic OCD; the aftermath of being outed as bisexual in her conservative Irish town; and the return of her long-absent mother, who barely seems like a parent. But all that really matters to her is ascending and finally, finally becoming a full witch-plans that are complicated when another coven, rumored to have a sordid history with black magic, arrives in town with premonitions of death. Dayna immediately finds herself at odds with the bewitchingly frustrating Meiner King, the granddaughter of their coven leader.
And then a witch turns up murdered at a local sacred site, along with the blood symbol of the Butcher of Manchester-an infamous serial killer whose trail has long gone cold. The killer's motives are enmeshed in a complex web of witches and gods, andDayna and Meiner soon find themselves at the center of it all. If they don't stop the Butcher, one of them will be next.
With razor-sharp prose and achingly real characters, E. Latimer crafts a sweeping, mesmerizing story of dark magic and brutal mythology set against a backdrop of contemporary Ireland that's impossible to put down.
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How
did you come up with the idea for Witches
of Ash and Ruin?
I
have always been drawn to witchy women. There’s something
inherently magical about women in general, I think, and when you add
an element of sisterhood, like a coven, it only seems natural they
should be involved in something fantastical.
In
fact, I often sit around in coffee shops with my friends and wonder
when the adventure is going to begin. We are magic, after all.
I’ve
always loved Celtic mythology too, so it seemed perfectly natural to
put together my love of witches and women, with ancient Irish gods.
And ancient gods do tend to complicate things, so the story really
began to come together after that.
Did
you do any research for Witches
of Ash and Ruin?
I
did mean to take a trip to Ireland the year I was editing it, but
travel plans were complicated by being very pregnant at the time. I
did do a lot of research into the Celtic mythology, which was
fascinating because what we know about it is completely filtered
through Christian monks and very skewed by their biases at the time,
so we really don’t have a complete record of the myths and legends,
not the way we do with Greek or Norse mythology.
It
was a challenge.
Do
you have a favourite character in Witches
of Ash and Ruin?
I
love morally grey characters, so it was a lot of fun writing Cora.
She’s clearly Slytherin and a very Sick of Your Bullshit type
person, which I always appreciate in a character.
Do
you have any advice for new writers?
Learn
patience. Patience with yourself (your first drafts are allowed to
suck). Patience with the industry (yes, a month to hear back on a
query is standard). Patience with your fellow writers (let them rant
as much as they’d like, you’ll need them to return the favour
eventually).
What's
your favourite book/series?
Anything by
Maggie Stiefvator, Neil Gaiman or VE Schwab. I especially love The
Raven Cycle series, it’s one I return to whenever I’m in a
writing slump. There’s something about it that makes it feel like
magic is probably real after all, it’s just something you need to
look for a little harder. Like, you just catch it out of the corner
of your eye every once in a while. It might be faeries, or witches or
dead Welsh kings but you can’t be sure, because it’s gone when
you look right at it. Maybe it was just a trick of the light?
About the Author
E. Latimer is a fantasy writer from Victoria, BC. Her middle grade novel, The Strange and Deadly Portraits of Bryony Gray was published by Tundra Books, and was recently nominated for the Red Maple Fiction Award.
In her spare time, she writes books, makes silly vlogs with the Word Nerds about writing, and reads excessively.
Her latest novel, Witches of Ash and Ruin, will be released Spring/Summer 2020 from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
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