She looks badass, right?!
Me: Gargoyles and elementals together? Yes, please. What else
can you tell me about your Gargoyle Guardian Chronicles series?
Rebecca: If you took the United States in the early 1900s, added in a
population who can all wield varying levels of earth, water, air, fire, and
wood elemental magic, and topped it off with multifarious mythical creatures,
you’d have the world of the Gargoyle Guardian Chronicles. Within this magic-saturated
setting, I built my story around an ordinary woman, because I’ve always felt
that no matter how fantastical the world, the best stories involve relatable
characters making tough decisions.
Mika is a midlevel earth elemental who has worked a lot of
late nights as a freelancer to hone her skills with delicate quartz projects.
Her goal is to leave her dead-end quarry job and open her own artisan shop.
Unfortunately, her carefully constructed five-year plan—and years of hard work—are
jeopardized when a baby gargoyle bursts into her studio and begs for her help
on a desperate mission.
As you can probably guess, she can’t say no to a baby
gargoyle. Could you?
When you built the world for Magic of the Gargoyles, how did you start?
I start every story by opening up a fresh Word document and typing
everything that comes to mind in a non-stop brainstorming session. A lot
of…we’ll call it “fluff” comes out in these session, but there’s nothing like
that moment when a spark of an idea ignites into an entire story. With Magic, it was baby gargoyles. The moment
I pictured a housecat-sized gargoyle, I knew I had to write the story. After
that, I researched quartz and mythical creatures, but mostly I focused on
building a magical world that would be fun to romp around in for a few novels.
If you could manifest the magical traits of one of your
characters, what would it be?
Mika’s elemental abilities, definitely. She can alter the
structure of quartz with her magic, shaping it into incredible masterpieces.
Plus, she’s the one that gets to help baby gargoyles…
Have you ever traveled (or have plans to) in the name of
research, and where?
I don’t know if this counts, but my Madison Fox series is
set in my hometown. In essence, every errand run around town could be construed
as research.
What are your reading habits these days? Do you have
rules about what you read while you’re writing?
I do have rules! While writing the Gargoyle Guardian
Chronicles, I refused to read anything with gargoyles in it. In general, I try
not to read anything in the genre I’m writing, and when I’m deep into a writing
project, I often skip fiction entirely and focus on nonfiction. I have an idea
for an alternate history fantasy that may or may not ever happen, so for the
last two years, I’ve been reading tons about the world around 1492. I’m now a
font of weird facts. For instance, did you know there were no earthworms in the
United States before colonists started carting in soil from England? They’d
been killed off in an earlier ice age, and those in warmer climates farther
south had never burrowed back up this way.
And here's a synopsis of Magic of
the Gargoyles:
To help a baby
gargoyle, Mika will risk everything.
Mika
Stillwater is a midlevel earth elemental with ambitions of becoming a quartz
artisan, and her hard work is starting to get noticed. But when a panicked baby
gargoyle bursts into her studio, insisting Mika is the only person she’ll trust
with her desperate mission, Mika’s carefully constructed five-year plan is
shattered.
Swept
into the gritty criminal underworld of Terra Haven, Mika jeopardizes everything
she’s work so hard for as she attempts to save the baby gargoyle from the
machinations of a monster—and to stay alive…
From
the imaginative mind of international bestselling fantasy author Rebecca
Chastain, Magic of the Gargoyles is a
spellbinding adventure set in a world full of elemental magic and adorable
gargoyles that is sure to enchant young adult and adult readers alike.
Want to pick up a copy? (sure you do - 99 cents!)
Rebecca's official bio:
Rebecca Chastain is the internationally bestselling
author of the Madison Fox, Illuminant Enforcer series and the Gargoyle Guardian
Chronicles, among others works. She has found
seven four-leaf clovers to date, won a purebred Arabian horse in a drawing, and
once tamed a blackbird for a day. Writing stories designed to amuse and
entertain has been her passion since she was eleven years old. She lives in
Northern California with her wonderful husband and three bossy cats.
Hit her up on the Internet!