Guide to categories: Author Interview – an interview with an author, if there is no review from me, I have not read the book and cannot speak to its appropriateness for a school library

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About the Book

Book: Of Sea and Smoke

Author: Gillian Bronte Adams

Genre: YA Epic Fantasy

Release Date: November 21, 2023

He rides a seablood, a steed of salt and spray, born to challenge the tides.

Six years ago, the wrong brother survived, and nothing will ever convince Rafi Tetrani otherwise. But he is done running from his past, and from the truth. As civil war threatens Ceridwen’s tenuous rule in Soldonia, Rafi vows to fight the usurper sitting on the imperial throne of Nadaar, even if it means shouldering his brother’s responsibilities as the empire’s lost heir.

The stolen shipload of magical warhorses offers just the edge he needs. But the steeds have been demanded in ransom by the emperor’s ruthless assassin, and if Rafi hopes to raise a band of riders, he must first outwit his brother’s murderer.

Yet when his best efforts end in disaster, and an audacious raid sparks an empire-wide manhunt, even forging an unexpected alliance might not be enough to help Rafi turn the tides, let alone outrace the wave of destruction intent on sweeping them all away.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author – Gillian Bronte Adams

Gillian Bronte Adams writes epic fantasy novels, including the award- winning Of Fire and Ash and The Songkeeper Chronicles. She loves strong coffee, desert hikes, and trying out new soup recipes on crisp fall nights. Her favorite books are the ones that make your heart ache and soar in turn. When she’s not creating vibrant new worlds or dreaming up stories that ring with the echoes of eternity, she can be found off chasing sunsets with her horse, or her dog, Took.

Author Interview – Gillian Bronte Adams

Welcome, Gillian – I’m looking forward to this interview. When did you first know you wanted to be an author? 

I did a lot of creative writing growing up, but I think I viewed authors as some sort of mythical creatures who belonged to a different world, or at least, a different century. It wasn’t until I was in high school and discovered a fantasy author’s blog after reading his books that I realized that authors were just normal people who wrote books. Around that same time, a friend challenged me to participate in a NaNoWriMo type challenge, where we attempted to write 50,000 words in a month, and that was the moment that it struck me that I would love to do this forever. That led me down a thousand rabbit trails of research on how to become an author and what traditional publishing looks like. But I can definitely trace it back to discovering that one author online and that lightbulb moment of “maybe I could do this too.”

What is your favorite holiday? And why?

My favorite holiday is Christmas! It is just such a joyful, hopeful time for me as a Christian who can rejoice in the fact that here, during the darkest time of the year (literally, because of the short days and long nights), we pause to remember that Jesus, the Light of the World, has come! We are not without hope anymore. We break through the longing and the waiting and the anticipation of Advent to celebration and joy. Aside from that, I also just love how so many of the traditions of the Christmas season lead us to focus on fellowship and on bringing people to celebrate together and serve one another in love.

Which character did you enjoy writing most?

Oh, this is a hard one to answer. There are three main characters in The Fireborn Epic: Rafi, Ceridwen, and Jakim. I love writing each of them for different reasons. Rafi has a funny, quirky sense of humor that helps uplift all of his scenes. Ceridwen is a tad intense and driven, and though she would never admit it, she is one for big displays, so her action scenes in particular are always so much fun. Jakim offers a unique perspective in that he’s not a warrior or a leader, so he’s often working quietly and humbly behind the scenes, but his empathy and compassion always make him shine for me. All that said, one of my favorite side characters to write was Markham, who is a sort of mentor figure for Ceridwen. He’s gruff and sarcastic and a little bit acerbic, which means that I can never quite anticipate what’s going to come out of his mouth, but it always makes whatever scene he’s in more interesting!

Which character gave you the most grief?

Rafi gave me the most grief in Of Sea and Smoke. Ceridwen’s story was the main focus in the first book, Of Fire and Ash, but his story steps a little more to the forefront in the second. It took me a while to figure out exactly what his character journey needed to be, but once I did, it turned out that a lot of the pieces were so rooted in who he was and where he was at the moment that they were already in place, and I needed to just help spotlight them a bit. Even so, if anyone is going to break with the outline or with my plan for a particular scene, it’s probably going to be Rafi. He’ll do it with a smirk and a wry comment about “troublesome characters,” but he’ll do it all the same, and oftentimes, the story will be all the better for it!

What advice would you give to a child or teen who wants to be a writer?

Don’t give up! The journey to becoming a published author is long and hard, and for a lot of writers, it’s not a straight path. You’ll face a lot of twists and turns and setbacks along the way. But the more you write, the more you finish, the more you learn how to start over and try again, the more skills and tools you’ll have to take with you into the next project. And none of your writing is ever wasted. There are ideas that I loved and poured myself into years ago that I have shelved and have no intention of ever picking up again, and yet, I’m constantly surprised to discover that there are tiny pieces of one old idea or another that have worked their way into my current projects. They are rarely the same version of that idea, but I can still trace the elements back, and I find that so encouraging. Every idea, every word you write, every character you dream up, and novel you manage to finish, all of goes into building you as a writer, which makes it time well spent. 

Thank you so much for joining me – my readers and I enjoy learning more about authors.

Views expressed in this interview/guest post do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog host.

More from Gillian Bronte Adams

One of my favorite things about writing epic fantasy is not actually what you might expect. It’s not the fantastical elements, although I absolutely love creating worlds filled with magical warhorses, sosswyrm tangles, and stone-eye tigers who can paralyze their prey with a glance. It’s not the intensity of the action or the world altering stakes, although there’s nothing quite so thrilling as throwing your characters into a do-or-die situation, and the pulse-pounding, breathtaking, heart-aching battle sequences that follow.

Instead, one of my favorite things about writing such wild and epic stories is the opportunity to ground them in very real, very human characters, with very real, very human emotions, and in the complexity of those characters’ relationships with others. Mentor relationships, deeply loyal friendships, and especially sibling relationships.

I am the second-born of five siblings, and I love and admire each of my siblings. Each one encourages and inspires and awes me in his or her own unique way. But growing up, if you had told me that my older sister had hung the moon, I would have believed you. She was two and a half years older than me—and yes, that half year mattered to both of us, though for opposite reasons; she because it meant she was that much older, me because it meant we were that much closer. Somehow, everything she touched seemed golden, and I wanted to be a part of it too.

She was a force of nature—a foaming ocean tide—and I was caught up in her wake.

She took up horseback riding, and so did I. She picked up books, and I had to read them too, even if it meant sitting beside her in the car with my own book open on my lap, surreptitiously reading hers over her shoulder. (Needless to say, that drove her crazy, and older siblings everywhere can probably commiserate.)

She dove into creative writing, and out of nowhere, I developed a passion for the written word. But always, within her, there was this spark of imagination and creativity that I felt I could only ever aspire to. Whatever I did, she had done first and better.

And I could only hope to one day achieve her level of greatness.

Rafi, one of the main characters in Of Sea and Smoke, also has an older sibling, a brother he has always looked up to. While Rafi and his relationship with his brother is not based on my relationship with my older sister—we’re all four of us wildly different people—there were some aspects of my experience as a second-born that I was able to draw upon. Rafi admires his brother’s strength and confidence. His assurance and rightness. His nobility and leadership. By the time we enter the story, his older brother is no longer around, but Rafi has spent his whole life setting his brother up on a pedestal and then trying to measure up to that ideal.

Is it any wonder, then, that he has always found himself wanting?

Now, Rafi finds himself having to step into the role that should have been his brother’s, and the only way he can contemplate facing that challenge is by stamping out the things he looks down upon in himself—many of them, the things that make him himself—and trying to be his brother instead.

Growing up, I can’t tell you how many times I looked at my older sister and wished that I could be more like her and less like myself. More confident. More brilliant. More vibrant. More her. But it wasn’t until my older sister’s interests began to drift into new additional avenues, while mine stayed mostly the same (horses, books, writing), that I finally began to grow into myself. To recognize my strengths, my unique skills, the things that only I bring to the table, and to acknowledge that even when they are different from hers, they are still good.

These days, my older sister and I are best friends. She was the first person I trusted to read Of Sea and Smoke before it went out into the world. I still look up to her in so many ways, and yes, I think I’ll always feel a bit like she hung the moon. But I have grown to appreciate the beauty of what I can learn from my sister’s strengths, while also recognizing the value of my own. And without revealing any spoilers, I think I can safely say that part of Rafi’s journey in Of Sea and Smoke wraps around learning that too, all while he’s raising a band of rebel fighters, trying to outwit an infamous assassin, and plotting to overthrow the empire’s oppressive rule.

Wild, epic stories, grounded in real, human experiences, and honestly, can reading get any more fun than that?

I hope you enjoy the ride!

Gillian Bronte Adams

Blog Stops

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, December 2

Through the Fire Blogs, December 3 (Author Interview)

Labor Not in Vain, December 3

Texas Book-aholic, December 4

Artistic Nobody, December 5 (Author Interview)

Locks, Hooks and Books, December 6

Guild Master, December 7 (Author Interview)

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, December 8

Blossoms and Blessings, December 9 (Author Interview)

Blogging With Carol, December 10

Tell Tale Book Reviews, December 11 (Author Interview)

Simple Harvest Reads, December 12 (Guest Review from Mindy)

Library Lady’s Kid Lit, December 13 (Author Interview)

By The Book, December 14 (Author Interview)

The Lofty Pages, December 14

Fiction Book Lover, December 15 (Author Interview)

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Gillian is giving away the grand prize of a $25 Barnes & Noble Gift Card and hardcover copy of the book!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/2909e/of-sea-and-smoke-celebration-tour-giveaway

Read more Author Interview posts.