Thursday 30 July 2015

An Interview with K.A. Krantz - Author of Larcout

As you might have noticed: I loved Larcout, the first book in the Fire Born, Blood Blessed series. So I did an interview with K.A. Krantz (aka KAK) to find out more about her and her books.



Welcome to Pearls Cast Before a McPig.
Could you tell a bit about yourself for those people who don’t know you yet?

KAK: I am a three-toed sloth. No? Fine. In truth, I do have five toes per hairy foot. The rest of the description is absolutely true.

What can you tell us about your books?
KAK: The Fire Born, Blood Blessed series begins in LARCOUT, a desert nation rife with political intrigue, the rumblings of civil war, and a long festering fear of the noble family Le Sri.

When the foreign-born daughter of the most reviled le Sri suddenly appears in Court as an acolyte to the ruling Lar, those who accused the family of treason scramble to stop the strange woman’s investigations into the national tragedy that led to her mother’s banishment.

They call her the Killer of the Kastra.
Vadrigyn os Harlo has eyes that see the dead. Strength to turn bones into powder. Fangs to rend her enemies asunder. Fire in her veins. Venom in her touch... And the magic to manipulate the minds of the masses.

She will be the salvation or the demise of the nation. Their future is her choice.

Have you ever used people you know as characters in your books?
KAK: I don’t. Perhaps it’s better said that I don’t do it consciously. I may use mannerisms, gestures, tics, or tells of someone I know, but I don’t intentionally construct fictional characters from real-life characters.

Where can you be found when you’re not at your desk writing?
KAK: I rarely write at a desk. I tend to play Goldilocks and All the Chairs when I write. As for where I am when I’m not auditioning chairs, I’m usually painting…something. Walls mostly, though, my clothes and hair far too often.

What did you do to celebrate the release of your first book?
KAK: I had a 5-Way. Seriously. In Cincinnati, we have our own style of chili—a thin meat sauce with the usual spices, except we include cinnamon and chocolate. It’s typically served between a bed of spaghetti noodles and a foot of shredded cheddar. That’s a 3-Way. Add onions and beans, and you have a 5-Way...and unkissable breath. It’s totally worth it.

What authors have been an influence to you?
KAK: My first and best love as a reader is historical fiction. Morgan Llywelyn, Nigel Tranter, and Bernard Cornwell. These authors snared me when I was young and are so prolific that I still have many of their books to read and re-read (even Tranter who passed away years ago). I love the notion of taking a nugget of fact and spinning an elaborate and compelling lie around it.

And have you read any books lately that you want to share with us or have you been too busy with writing to read?
KAK: I’m indulging in The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The Complete First Edition. The stories in the First Edition are the closest to the original oral tales, before Wilhelm extensively edited them for religious themes and narrative flow. In the US, we’re most familiar with stories from the Seventh Edition. It’s sort of like reading a Critique Partner’s final draft before it’s sent off to NYC publishers.

Are there zombies or pigs in any of your books or will there be any in future books?
KAK: Vadrigyn develops an alliance with a monster-hunting, shape-shifting boar in the next book, NIVURN (Spring 2016). The plethora of hyphens aside, Odosus finds that being Vadrigyn’s friend challenges personal definitions of faith, value, and glory.

As for Zombies (or bazombies as my wee nieces insist on calling them), Book Four in the Fire Born, Blood Blessed series takes place in Kethor, where the indigenous people don’t let the dead rest. That’s coming in early 2017.

Thank you for letting me stop by, Sullivan. It’s been a pleasure!

Thanks for dropping by, and for the exciting glimpse of the upcoming books. I'll be getting my trotters on NIVURN for sure!

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Larcout (Fire Born, Blood Blessed Book 1)
by K.A. Krantz


Blood-beings can be chattel or char.

Fire seethes through the veins of every Morsam, demanding domination and destruction. Combat is a hobby. Slaughtering the inferior blood-beings is entertainment. Life is a repetitious cycle in the prison fashioned by the gods. But mix-race abomination Vadrigyn os Harlo suspects the key to freedom lies with safeguarding the blood-beings; until her blood-born mother uses foreign magic to turn the Morsam against Vadrigyn. Betrayed, bound, and broken, Vadrigyn struggles against the dying of her essential fire. Yet the ebbing flames unleash the dormant magic of her mixed heritage…

The magic to destroy free will.

Seized by the gods and dumped in the desert nation of Larcout to stop history from repeating, Vadrigyn discovers her mother’s legacy of treason and slaughter still festers. To survive the intrigues of the royal court, the roiling undercurrents of civil war, and the gods themselves, Vadrigyn must unravel the conspiracy behind her mother’s banishment. But manipulating free will unleashes a torrent of consequences.

If she fails the gods, she will return to the Morsam prison, stripped of all magic and all hope.

If she succeeds, she can rule a nation.

Kasthu. Roborgu. Inarchma.
Live. Learn. Burn.


buy the book from The Book Depository, free delivery

Find Buy Links to the ebook here

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About K.A. Krantz:

Blessed with a childhood rife with ogres, dragons, and castles, K.A. Krantz revels in fantasies dark and epic. To her great horror, reality occasionally insists on domination. Attempts at a business degree sent her fleeing into the catharsis of a B.A. in Writing; however, aspirations for a steady income and an emerging shoe fetish turned her into a dot-com masochist, during which time a Master’s degree in International Commerce & Policy proved useful. However, the lure of creating alternate worlds proved irresistible, so she bid fond farewell to the online communities she had nurtured via chat rooms, message boards, and dating services.

These days, K.A. Krantz splits her time between Cincinnati and the DC 'burbs with her ever faithful hairy beast. When the voices of characters impatient for her undivided attention are temporary silent, she indulges in a shoe obsession, conducts a love/hate affair with paint brushes, and pretends she has enough upper body strength to wield power tools.

K.A. Krantz writes high fantasy, urban fantasy, and fantasy romance.


1 comment:

K.A. Krantz said...

Thanks for letting me hog the blog for a day!