Guest Post: Author Janni Lee Simner

I recently spoke to author Janni Lee Simner about how much I loved reading Bones of Faerie and asked her if she would mind doing a guest post about what it was like returning to the world she created while writing Bones of Faerie.

She graciously accepted and it's here just in time for the release of the second book in the series, Faerie Winter - coming out April 5, 2011. I am really looking forward to reading this book and plan to start reading it next week! So watch out for my review shortly after the release date.

Without further ado...

Sometimes, the writer is the last to know.

When I finished writing Bones of Faerie, set in the post-apocalyptic aftermath of a War between humans and faeries--in a world thick with magic the War left behind, where trees seek human blood and bone and children are born touched by deadly magic--I thought I was done. I loved my protagonist Liza's world, and more than anything I hoped to return to it someday, but I thought I'd do so through the eyes of a secondary character. Liza, I told myself, had either banished or come to terms with all that haunted her, especially her father and her magic. I thought that meant her story was through.

I was wrong, and Faerie Winter, the sequel to Bones of Faerie, is told from Liza's point of view.

I think it was my editor who first saw the possibility of a sequel told through Liza's eyes. I'd told him I thought that by the end of Bones of Faerie Liza was too powerful for another story--the things that were hard for her in the first book wouldn't be hard for her in a second. He asked me in turn what things would look like if Liza weren't so powerful after all, if she discovered new problems that meant things were not as easy as they seemed to be.

That got me thinking. The more I thought--and the more I explored, as I wrote my first messy "let's just see what the possibilities might be" draft of Faerie Winter--the more it became clear to me that there were plenty of challenges still lurking in Liza's world: deadly magic and deadly individuals she hadn't met before. Even the ending of Bones of Faerie presented new challenges for Liza to deal with.

As I kept writing, I stopped worrying about whether Liza was too powerful for another book, and instead started worrying about whether she was powerful and smart enough to survive to the end of the new book I was writing. Because I don't know how my stories end when I start them, I worry about my characters when I write. I worried about Liza a lot writing Faerie Winter. I also realized Liza hadn't laid to rest all that troubled her after all, because of course nothing is ever that simple.

In the end, I discovered Liza had so much more story left to tell that, while Faerie Winter is a complete story in and of itself, I'm working on a third Faerie book now as well. I'm pretty sure that third book really will be the last one I write from Liza's point of view.

Of course, I've been wrong before. :-)

Anyway, Faerie Winter comes out April 5, and I'm thrilled that others can finally join Liza and me on  this new journey we've been on the past couple years.

I hope you enjoy returning to her world as much as I did!

Janni Lee Simner — janni@simner.com — www.simner.com
— Available April 5: FAERIE WINTER (sequel to BONES OF FAERIE)
— "Tell me, Liza, do you believe that spring will come?" 

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Thank you Janni for stopping by and sharing some insight into what it is like for an author to revisit the world they have created. I look forward to reading Faerie Winter and seeing what the title of the third book will be.

See my reviews for the rest of the series and guest posts with Janni:
-Bones of Faerie (Bones of Faerie #1)
-Faerie Winter (Bones of Faerie #2)
-Faerie After (Bones of Faerie #3) & Interview
-Janni Lee Simner: On Writing

About the Author:

Janni Lee Simner lives in the Arizona desert, where the plants know how to bite and the dandelions really do have thorns; in spite of these things--or maybe because of them--she's convinced she lives in one of the most stunning places on earth.

Janni has published three novels for young adults, Bones of Faerie, sequel Faerie Winter, and Thief Eyes. A third Bones of Faerie book, Faerie After, is due out in May 2013.

She's also published four books for younger readers, as well as more than 30 short stories, including appearances in Cricket magazine and the Welcome to Bordertown anthology.

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