One Year Later - Nathalie Mallet

Yes, Nathalie Mallet was my not-so-mysterious mystery author. Her first novel, The Princes of the Golden Cage, was great fun. It was the first in a series of standalone fantasy mystery novels--the perfect blend of my favorite genres. The second book is called The King's Daughters, where Prince Amir moves from the cage to the outside world. She has a third book in the series as well, which she'll tell you about below.

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First, I must say thank you to Tia for inviting me to post on her blog again. So Thanks, Tia!

Alright, Tia asked me to talk about several subjects, and I chose three: how my life has changed since becoming a published author, my biggest surprise, and what am I up to now. 

How my life has changed since becoming a published author? Well, I must confess that my life hasn’t changed that much. The only real change since becoming published is that I am much busier than before—mainly with the promotion side of things.  It proved far more demanding that I expected it to be. (Promoting your book is extremely important, and that’s particularly true for debut authors.) I think this quote from William Randolph Hearst hits the nail on the head for me. “Putting out a newspaper without promotion is like winking at a girl in the dark—well-intentioned, but ineffective.” Okay, he’s talking about a newspaper, but the same can be said about books. But this said, every once in a while I feel the need to unplug in order to fully concentrate on writing.  

Tia wanted to know what my biggest surprise was.  Believe it or not, it is that a number of people liked the book enough to want to talk about it. So I was shocked, and rather thrilled, to receive emails from readers almost immediately after the book’s release. And when later I read that the charming and immensely talented L.E. Modesitt jr. mentioned having enjoyed my book in an interview, well, I was so surprised I nearly fell off my chair. Although the initial shock has now passed, I’m still thrilled to get emails from readers and answer each one diligently. I also had the chance to thank Mr. Modesitt in person at the WFC in Calgary. Yeah, I gushed like some blabbing groupie, but I’m sure that he didn’t hold it against me.

Tia asked me to talk a little bit about what I am doing now, which is very exciting for me because I am presently working on a new project. With The King’s Daughters, the second book in the Prince Amir series, scheduled for release soon, the third—titled Death in the Traveling City—fully completed and the fourth well on its way, I thought it was time for me to start something new.  It’s still fantasy, but not historically inspired like the books in the Prince Amir Series. A thriller rather than a mystery, this one is an urban fantasy set in modern-day LA where magic does exist, but is only wielded by very few and kept secret from everybody else. (Apparently a great number of wizards work in the movie industry.) Also, it’s written in the third person, with multiple points of view—which is new to me. Wish me luck! 

By the way, the electronic version of The Princes of the Golden Cage is now available through Baen Books’ e-publishing site, webscription.net.