Now available from Harper Voyager Impluse is the novel Of the Divine, the second book in the Mancer Trilogy, by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes.
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Henna is one of the most powerful sorcerers in the Order of Napthol, and her runes ’s runes tell her that the future of Kavet is balanced on the edge of the knife. The treaties between Kavet and the dragon-like race known as the Osei have become intolerable. The time has come for the royal house to magically challenge Osei dominion. Prince Verte, Henna' lover, is to serve as the nexus for the powerful but dangerous spell, with Naples--an untested young sorcerer from the Order of Napthol--a volatile but critical support to its creation.
Amid these plans, Dahlia Indathrone’s arrival in the city shouldn’t matter. She has no magic and no royal lineage, and yet, Henna immediately knows Dahlia is important. She just can’t see why.
As their lives intertwine, the four will learn that they are pawns in a larger game, one played by the forces of the Abyss and of the Numen—the infernal and the divine.
A game no mortal can ever hope to win.
The author has taken time out of her busy schedule for a quick Q&A about her newest book.
When did you become interested in storytelling?
I have always been a storyteller, from the time of my earliest memories (and before). When I was five, I ran through a glass door and cut myself pretty badly. When we got me to the hospital, they separated me from my parents to ask what had happened. My mother describes waiting in terror, worried that THIS was when my storytelling would come out...
As I grew up, I learned more about how to tell a story well, and it was in seventh grade that I first decided I would try to publish a novel, but the desire to tell stories has always been there.
What was your first book/story published?
The first novel I published was titled In the Forests of the Night. It was a young adult urban fantasy about a vampire named Risika who needs to face an old enemy in order to finally come to terms with her own identity. Forests, which became the first of my Den of Shadows series (nine books in total), was released in May, 1999, when I was a freshman in high school.
What inspired you to write Of the Divine?
My most recent novel, Of the Divine, is the second book in the Mancer Trilogy. It was inspired by a vast collection of things, ranging from writing block and anxiety to political advocacy.
In 2006, I was under contract for the fourth book in the Kiesha’ra Series, and was struggling to put it together. It was the first book I had ever signed a contract for without having a completed rough draft. It was also the first book I had ever published with an explicitly gay protagonist, and it explored some very personal issues to me— which meant I was terrified of getting it wrong.
I needed to get away from the young adult realm of Nyeusigrube, so I decided to participate for the first time in National Novel Writing Month, and I started Mancer. The book was supposed to be a silly throw-away, but as I often joke, I got “distracted” by silly things like plot and characterization. Because it wasn’t under contract, I felt more free to explore the topics that had me so intimidated in Wolfcry, such as sexuality and the pressures to conform to societal expectations despite one’s own true needs and desires.
In the end, instead of a 50k throw-away experiment, I had a 300,000 word trilogy with a complex world, interesting characters, and a conflict I wanted to further explore— and share.
What character in Of the Divine is the most/least like you, and in what ways?
There’s a little of me in many of these characters, but there’s no one of them that I look at and say, “That’s me, right there.”
Naples includes a lot of my teenage angst and the poor relationship luck (due mostly to my own poor decisions) I had at his age. Terre Verte has some of my arrogance (yes, I know I can be at times) but also my desire to try to help people when I can. Henna has my other-ness; I spend a lot of time being the only queer and the only Jew in a room. Maddy is the mother and teacher in me, though strangely, her 2-year-old son was written eight years before my daughter (who was 2.5 when the book came out) was born. Hello has my tendency to jump ahead in a conversation.
So, they are all a little me, but none othem are me.
What is your favorite part in Of the Divine?
