The Penguin rustled up a special treat for you! Today, we have the honor of hosting an interview with the talented Addie J. King, author of The Wonderland Woes, The Anderson Ancestry, and The Grimm Legacy, to name a few of her works. She's absolutely fabulous, and I'm so pleased to have the chance to share her with some of the greatest readers and followers on the planet. (I'm talking about YOU here!)
This fabulous author let us interview her, so without wasting another minute with me blathering on, let's meet Addie J. King!
DSP: For starters, tell us a bit about
you, we like to get to know our authors as a person!
Addie King:
My name is Addie J. King. I’m a full time lawyer who also writes modern day
fantasy…although there seems to be some element of mystery or courtroom drama
that seems to work its way into just about everything I write, whether I mean
to or not. My stuff qualifies as New Adult. I’m somewhere north of thirty,
married, a stepmom, my favorite color is blue, and I have a cat that I refer to
on social media as my Fuzzy Minion. If you follow me on Facebook, you’ll also
see me sharing lots of recipes; I love to cook, I just don’t always have the
time, so I share things to save for later!
DSP: Nice to meet you! So tell us, where did you find the inspiration for your most recent book?
AK: My latest book is THE WONDERLAND
WOES, which is actually book three of a series. The first book was THE GRIMM
LEGACY and the second was THE ANDERSEN ANCESTRY. I’m writing book four at the
moment. The whole series came about when I was looking for new ideas, and I
watched the movieThe Brothers Grimm, with
Heath Ledger and Matt Damon. I liked parts of the movie, and parts of it left
me thinking about how I could tell a story with the Grimm Brothers better. Or at least, how would I tell it? I started doing research on
Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, and found out that they studied law prior to studying
folklore and linguistics, and I was off to the races with an idea. Luckily, my
publisher likes the idea, and has allowed me to flesh it out into a series.
DSP: So, do you have any kind of ritual for writing? Such as, you have to write with music on, or you can only write when you’re completely alone, etc.
AK: Ritual? I wouldn’t know what that
is. Generally my writing time is me ensconsed on the couch with the netbook on
my lap, with the cat trying to climb over the screen into my lap, typing away
while the television is blaring in the background, the stepson working on
homework or playing videogames and the husband talking and checking
facebook…all in the same room. I’ve tried to write in a quiet room by myself
and I just can’t do it…the quiet is too distracting! I write on my lunch break,
when I’ve got a few spare moments, and in evenings and on weekends. I’ve even
taken the netbook to the soccer field and typed while my stepson was off the
field when I was on deadline.
DSP: Do you foresee any more books to
continue this story? If so, do you think we can get a taste of what’s to come?
AK: Well, I sure hope so…I’m writing
THE BUNYON BARTER at the moment…and once the edits, etc., are done, I’ll be
embarking on the final book of the series, THE PERRAULT VOW. Yes, this series
will close at five books.
Book Four has American tall tales coming to life with the
same set of cast and characters…who have to help Paul Bunyon to retrieve his
cow-napped ox, Babe, as well as main characters who are starting their bar exam
applications and job searches in their last year of law school. Book Five will
involve a bar exam, a wedding (though I’m not saying WHOSE wedding that might
be!), a talking cat with boots, a magical gown and slippers as well as the
return of an evil stepmother and the story of Bert the irreverent talking frog.
DSP: Do you have any aspirations to be similar or comparable to another author? Why?
AK: That’s a hard question. I don’t
want to be derivative, or be just like someone else, but I’d say that my style
is a blend between Christopher Moore and Janet Evanovich. Cory Doctorow has
been an influence, as well as Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, and Douglas Adams.
I like to write fun, funny stuff, but I do want there to be a point to the
story other than just entertainment.
DSP: Do you believe in fate or destiny?
AK: Um, yes? Both? It’s hard not to
believe in either one. I signed a contract with a book that included a
stepmom…and two weeks later I met my husband…and later became one. Hard not to
believe there isn’t a bigger hand in things than we know…
DSP: What’s your favorite candy? Ice
cream?
AK: Sour Patch Kids. I love ‘em. Can’t
get enough of them. I have to be careful with them, though, because too many will
make the mouth sore from the citric acid in them. My other favorite candy would
be Peppermint Chews from a small local chocolate and candy store in my
hometown, called Marie’s Candies. Here’s a link… http://www.mariescandies.com/pech1lb.html
As for ice cream, the best is Mint Chocolate Moose Tracks.
With chocolate shell topping.
DSP Would the 8-year-old version of
yourself kick your ass or praise you for what you’ve done with your life?
AK: My inner 8 year old makes the squee
noise whenever I see my name on the spine of a book, or listed in a table of contents
in an anthology. I was the 8 year old who got in trouble for reading when I was
supposed to be vacuuming, reading when I was supposed to be mowing the yard,
reading when I was supposed to be doing chores…or well, anything really. My
poor mother…she was a school teacher, so how could she get after a kid for
reading? How could she not get after a kid for not doing her chores? I’m sure
there were plenty of moments that she felt really conflicted about this.
DSP: If you could meet one person (real
or fictional, alive or deceased), who would it be, and what one question would
you ask?
AK: One? You’re making me choose ONE?
GAH! I have a list. A big one. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul, Charlotte
Bronte, Baroness Orczy (who wrote THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL), Eleanor Roosevelt,
Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln…would be the ones deceased.
I keep meeting authors and writers at conventions, and
this still amazes me that I meet some of them and maintain a semblance of cool.
I met Patrick Rothfuss and was able to not only not make the Fangirl Squee
Noise (patent pending, by the way, lol, ;-), but be on a panel discussion and a
reading with him and sound coherent. I have had lunch with Debbie Macomber and
dinner with Jeffrey Deaver, and was able to be a normal human. The one I’d most
like to meet and the one I’m not sure I could hold it together for would be
Joss Whedon. I’d ask Joss for his best writing advice when dealing with
ensemble characters.
DSP: Imagine you’re the sole survivor of
a plane crash at sea, and you awake stranded on a deserted and uncharted island
in the Bermuda Triangle. Nobody knows you’re there, and you have nothing but
the clothes on your back. You’re all alone, and there’s terrifying sounds
coming from deep within the jungle. Late that night as you’re starving, a large
suitcase washes up on the shore. You open it up. What’s in the suitcase?
AK: Hopefully a still working satellite
phone with a good enough signal to call for help and get my butt off that
island! In the absence of such a thing, I’m hoping for a book on survival in
the tropics…’cause if I can look it up in a book, I might have an idea of what
to do next!
Make sure you check out more on Addie and her books!
How wonderful can Wonderland be if there's more danger than a visitor can see?
Allie’s got a secret that she hasn’t shared with her friends, Janie Grimm, and Mia Andersen. Someone from her past is after her, and she’s got to keep them safe. When she realizes her childhood in Wonderland is putting her friends at risk, she jumps through a rabbit hole to lead the danger away from them, but it lands her back in the same situation she’d tried to escape just a few years before.Janie, Mia, Bert, Aiden, and all the rest are getting more experienced with magical dangers, and they can’t let their friend sacrifice themself if they can help. They organize a trip to Wonderland to look for Allie, and meet the White Rabbit, the Queen, the Jabberwocky, the Caterpillar, the Mad Hatter and others along the way, as they find deadly nightslip mushrooms, magic gone awry, a magical realm trial for stolen tarts, and further relationship drama. But will they save their friend before it’s too late?
Didn't I tell you it was a special treat? I had the pleasure of meeting Addie at a local convention (yes, I'm a nerd, you should really know that by now!) called FandomFest. It was absolutely fabulous meeting her, even if the meeting was brief, because she left an impression. That's pretty awesome, coming from someone who can't remember her own birthday. (True story.)
If you wanna keep up with Addie, check out her stalker links below!
Twitter @addiejking
Facebook Addie J. King
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