my cart |

Penguin.com (usa)

(To view entire post, click on the "Read more" link under each post)

Penguin Imprint Focus: Ace/Roc Author Sharon Shinn Touches Base, by Sharon Shinn

Thu, 12/13/2007

(View entire post here)

I always planned the Twelve Houses series to be one long, overarching storyline contained in four books. But while I was writing the fourth installment, Reader and Raelynx, I had an idea for a fifth book that would take place in the same world but revolve around a different set of characters. I wanted to set the story a few years after the war that would be centerpiece of Reader and Raelynx, and I wanted to follow a King's Rider who felt the need to seek personal redemption. My automatic first thought was that this Rider would be a man, but in previous books I had often mentioned that there were a handful of women among the Riders. When I considered this story from a woman's point of view, many of the other details fell in place.

So I created the character of Wen, a scrappy, stoic Rider who nurses an unrequited affection for the Rider Justin. I gave her a few minor scenes within Reader and Raelynx-and a reason to ride away from the royal city as R&R closes. When the new book opens, Wen is riding aimlessly around Gillengaria, trying to atone for her past failings by randomly performing good deeds, such as rescuing abducted serramarra and protecting orphaned children. I confess I was thinking a little about the movie "Shane" when I was developing her story.

Somewhat reluctantly, Wen finds herself in service to the House of Fortunalt, training a personal guard for the young serramarra, Karryn, and feeling a deepening attraction for Karryn's guardian. Jasper Paladar is like no one Wen has ever encountered before. He's never held a weapon in his life, never relied on skill or brute force to defeat his enemies. Instead, he's a scholar who writes historical texts and quotes poetry and loves nothing so much as reading. He's alien to Wen-but fascinating. They have to learn to work together to keep Karryn safe.

As with so many of my books, I've created a main character who has to come to terms with her past before she has any hope of happiness in the future. I've also created a hero and heroine who are as different from each other as I can make them, so that they have to navigate personal prejudices and inequities of class to be able to forge a relationship. And then I've added swordfights, kidnappings, assassination attempts, and charismatic scoundrels just to keep it interesting. But at its heart, this book is about one woman figuring out who she is and where she belongs. It's tentatively titled Fortune and Fate and will be on sale in late fall of 2008.

View some more information on Sharon Shinn's Reader and Raelynx