Genre: Young Adult, Fiction, Fantasy
Synopsis:
A captivating world of monsters and magic from the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Paper Magician Series.
As a human vessel for an ancient spirit, Sandis lives no ordinary life. At the command of her master, she can be transformed against her will into his weapon—a raging monster summoned to do his bidding. Unlike other vessels, Sandis can host extremely powerful spirits, but hosting such creatures can be fatal. To stay alive, she must run. And in a city fueled by smoke and corruption, she finds a surprising ally.
A cunning thief for hire, Rone owns a rare device that grants him immortality for one minute every day—a unique advantage that will come in handy in Sandis’s fight for freedom. But Sandis’s master knows how powerful she is. He’s determined to get her back, and he has the manpower to find her, wherever she runs.
Now, to outwit her pursuers, Sandis must put all her trust in Rone and his immortal device. For her master has summoned more than mere men to hunt her down…
Interview
Why play with immortality in Smoke and Summons?
It was one of the seed ideas. I was looking through my brainstorming folder for magic ideas for a new series, and I found one I’d written down about a year before: immortality switch. Immortality has been done over and over again, but what if you could turn it on and off? It was something I itched to write about, so it made the cut!
What was the idea that sparked the use of magic and human vessels?
Honestly, I used to play a lot of Final Fantasy. That game uses summons you can bring down to fight for you. I thought, What if they have to take over someone’s body in order to fight? And thus that side of the magic was born.
Did Smoke and Summons as a title come before, during, or after the first draft?
After, definitely. The working title was These Ethereal Chains. Which I still really like, but it’s harder to say out loud!
Do you have any writing quirks that you’ve noticed or someone pointed out to you?
Yep. First, I get my usage wrong a lot. I use a word that sounds like the right word, but isn’t. My alpha and beta readers have to point those out to me a lot. The other is that I use a lot of qualifiers that have to be edited out. Someone was almost this or a little bit that. Drives my agent crazy.
Where do your story ideas come from?
This is a loaded question. They come from everywhere! The Numina series came from frankensteining a lot of old ideas. But, for example, Followed by Frost came from my scraping off my windshield one winter and thinking, “Wouldn’t it suck if I felt like this all the time?” The Fifth Doll spawned from a magic workshop I was teaching for a conference. I was walking around my house, writing down random things people could make magic systems out of, and I passed my matryoshka dolls. Needless to say, I kept that one for myself.
About the Author
Born in Salt Lake City, Charlie N. Holmberg was raised a Trekkie alongside three sisters who also have boy names. She is a proud BYU alumna, plays the ukulele, owns too many pairs of glasses, and finally adopted a dog. Her fantasy Paper Magician series, which includes The Paper Magician, The Glass Magician, and The Master Magician, has been optioned by the Walt Disney Company. Her stand-alone novel, Followed by Frost, was nominated for a 2016 RITA Award for Best Young Adult Romance, and her novel The Fifth Doll won the 2018 Whitney for Speculative Fiction. She is a board member for Deep Magic Ezine and currently lives with her family in Utah. Visit her at
www.charlienholmberg.com.
Blog Tour Schedule Here.
Giveaway
Prize: Win a finished copy of SMOKE AND SUMMONS by Charlie N. Holmberg (US Only)
Start Date: 10th February 2019
End Date: 5th March 2019
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Blog Tour With Fantastic Flying Book Club
Born in Salt Lake City, Charlie N. Holmberg was raised a Trekkie alongside three sisters who also have boy names. She is a proud BYU alumna, plays the ukulele, owns too many pairs of glasses, and finally adopted a dog. Her fantasy Paper Magician series, which includes The Paper Magician, The Glass Magician, and The Master Magician, has been optioned by the Walt Disney Company. Her stand-alone novel, Followed by Frost, was nominated for a 2016 RITA Award for Best Young Adult Romance, and her novel The Fifth Doll won the 2018 Whitney for Speculative Fiction. She is a board member for Deep Magic Ezine and currently lives with her family in Utah. Visit her at www.charlienholmberg.com.
Raven C. Eckman 