Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Author Interview - Addie J. King


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!




Addie J. King spends her days as an attorney in Urbana, Ohio, and writes paranormal mystery and contemporary fantasy whenever she can. Her blog can be found at www.addiejking.com. Her short story, "Poltergeist on Aisle Fourteen" was published in the anthology, MYSTERY TIMES TEN 2011, and her novels, THE GRIMM LEGACY, THE ANDERSEN ANCESTRY, and THE WONDERLAND WOES are available from Musa Publishing. An essay entitled, "Building Believable Legal Systems in Science Fiction and Fantasy" appeared in EIGHTH DAY GENESIS: A WORLDBUILDING CODEX FOR WRITERS AND CREATIVES.





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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