Month of Guests 2013: Alyxandra Harvey

The lovely Alyxandra Harvey is here today - and today is a special day because Amazon is making the entire Drake Chronicles Kindle Daily Deal today!!  Go check it out - ASAP!! :D

Oh, but read the interview first.  ;)

Q&A With Alyxandra Harvey

So your Drake Chronicles just ended this year (my heart breaks a little more even as I write that!).  What's next for you?

I have a new series coming out in January called the Lovegrove Legacy, about three cousins in 1814 London who discover they are witches.

I also have an Enovella called The Longest Night, set in the Drake Chronicles world out in December…I admit I missed the Drakes and wasn’t ready to completely say goodbye!

My Mental Rambling: Yay!!!  More Drakes!!!  *happy dance all over the place*  And witches + Alyxandra Harvey = ecstatic blogger!!

I'm probably a bit biased (your Drake Chronicles was one of the first books I was sent to review) but I must say: your vampire mythology is one of the coolest I've come across.  How did you come up with it all?!

Thank you! The recent vampire book craze was at its peak when I started writing the Drake Chronicles…but I’ve always loved vampire stories so I wanted to tell my story anyway.

My favourite part of vampires is the fact that they can live for hundreds of years…they could have lived in a medieval castle, met Jane Austen or Mary Frankenstein, or watched Stonehenge being built. It’s that love of history that informs my own vampire mythos.

And because I love fairy tales and young adult fiction, I threw in some Snow White and a sweet sixteen that’s anything but sweet!

You write so many absolutely amazing kickbutt lead girls.  Do you have a favourite and are any like you?

Thank you! I don’t have favourite, but I admit Lucy is one of the easiest characters to write. She just pours onto the page.

Now this question is utterly evil on my part: Do you have a favourite male character?  This is such an evil question - sorry! - but I really want to know!!

I have lots of favourites! Mr. Darcy, always. As for my own characters, I have soft spots for some (Nicholas, Colin from Haunting Violet, Eldric from Stolen Away), but no crushes. It’s kinda like crushing on your imaginary friend and it feels weird. ;)

My Mental Rambling: Nicholas is my favourite - and I have a big crush on him... *le sigh*

You write lots of brilliant fantasy books - but is fantasy your favourite genre to read?

Thank you again :)    I adore reading fantasy novels. My favourite genres are paranormal YA, historical fiction, and fantasy.  I also love poetry and history non-fiction.

One of my favourite things about your Drake books is the split POVs.  Is it tricky to get all those utterly unique voices?  Is it harder to write boys than it is girls?  And is there one perspective you liked writing from most and one who was more difficult?

Logan was my first POV in a teen guy’s head…and I found that more difficult than writing a four hundred year old villain like Montmartre. I made some of my guy friends read Logan to make sure I wasn’t totally off!

Ok, fun questions time!  You've written about vampires, faeries and psychics, but if you could be any mythical being yourself, what would you be?

I rather like werewolves…but the actual wolves not the gooey monsters of horror movies.  I’d like to be a time traveler too...preferably with the Tenth Doctor!

The Drake series is based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves: do any of the Drake boys resemble any of the dwarves and is this fairy tale your favourite?  Are you planning any more awesome fairy tale twists?

I adore fairy tales so they are always in the back of my head. I wrote a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood a couple of years back that I hope will find its merry way to the bookstores. And my poetry collection Briar Rose, is all fairy tale retellings.  I’m not sure that I have a favourite, but I do tend to write about Snow White, Little Red ad Rapunzel a lot!

And those Drake brothers! I never assigned them particular dwarves a la Disney…but I’d love to hear what the readers think.  Snarky, Anti-Social, Gothic…. we could start a new dwarf collective!

My Mental Rambling: Ooh, that could be fun!!  Note to self: sad fanpic coming up of Drake brothers as dwarves... ;)

And finally: If the Book Fairy could arrange a tea party with any fictional characters of your choice, who would you pick and why?

I love fictional tea party time! I’d like to nibble a scone with Mr. Darcy, and drink tea with Elizabeth Bennet. She’s just so witty and cheerful. And now that the new Sleepy Hollow is making Ichabod Crane so much more interesting, he’s welcome to the tea party too!

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Thank yuos o much for this interview, Alyx!!  It's been great having you!! I'm super excited about all your upcoming books!! :D

Hope you all enjoyed the interview! And don't forget to follow Alyx's Site, follow her on Twitter and Facebook, and check out her books on Goodreads! :D

And keep up to date with MonthOfGuests on Twitter using #MonthOfGuests2013! And stop by tomorrow for a brilliant post by the amazing Katie Dale!!

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Alyxandra Harvey lives in a stone Victorian house in Ontario, Canada with a few resident ghosts who are allowed to stay as long as they keep company manners. She loves medieval dresses, used to be able to recite all of The Lady of Shalott by Tennyson, and has been accused, more than once, of being born in the wrong century. She believes this to be mostly true except for the fact that she really likes running water, women’s rights, and ice cream.

Among her favourite books are ‘The Wood Wife’ by Terri Windling, ‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Bronte, and of course, ‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Jane Austen. Elizabeth Bennet is her hero because she’s smart and sassy, and Mr. Darcy is, well, yum.

Aside from the ghosts, she also lives with husband and their dogs. She likes cinnamon lattes, tattoos and books.