Hello Everyone,
Let's please welcome AshleyRose Sullivan to the blog today talking about her new release Silver Tongue with Seventh Star Press
In the last ten years or so YA fiction has seen a lot of supernatural elements. Some
people might say too much. The thing is, when I was a teenager, I really
couldn’t get enough of this stuff. Tough chicks with superpowers, a dangerous,
magical world, bad guys with worse agendas—I loved these elements when I was in
high school and I still love them today. But, between that time and this, I
read a lot. And that stuff seriously affected my interests and influenced what
I wanted to write about. So Silver Tongue
is sort like I put some of my favorite stuff in a blender. Or, maybe more
accurately, I made a sandwich.
The Bread:
Silver Tongue’s
story couldn’t exist without a setting in which to take place. The foundation
of the novel is the crazy alternate history version of the American Colonies
where Claire and her friends live. In this timeline, George Washington drowned
in the Delaware instead of crossing it and now, fifty years later, Claire and
her friends are still dealing with the repercussions. They live in New France
and, in the course of their dangerous journey, have to cross the Mississippi
into New Britannia.
The Condiments:
Silver Tongue is
flavored with elements of Gothic literature. Actually—you can still see the
influence of classic gothic lit running through a lot of YA. Dark mysteries.
Eerie lands. Secret histories. Men who turn into monsters. Monsters who turn
into men. Unconventional young women. Brooding Byronic hero types. The list goes on. It’s just a little more
overt in Silver Tongue. Claire
actually meets William Frankenstein.
The Meat:
I love the common themes in YA lit. I’ve never grown out of
them and, in writing Silver Tongue, I
was determined to stick to the themes that always spoke to me. Friendship,
self-discovery, sexuality, racial identity, and, of course, love. The
Post-Revolutionary War Colonies aren’t really ready for Claire and her friends
and they struggle to make their way in this strange, dangerous world.
The Extras:
I have a lot of weird interests and those things always seem
to work their way into my books. I love to eat so Claire loves to eat and
dreaming up French Indian or American English menus was a blast. And,
petticoats! Oh man, I love researching period fashion. Of course, with Silver Tongue taking place in The
Colonies, fashion wouldn’t move west as fast. So, Claire is a little behind the
times—as she finds out when she leaves her small town.
And medicine/science/technology! I love thinking about how tech might have evolved differently if
history had taken a slightly altered course. How did history influence tech?
How did tech influence history? Silver
Tongue sees the very beginnings of a steam punk-like era and Claire’s
mother is a healer with both western and traditional medicinal techniques at
her disposal. It’s this kind of stuff that I think really adds flavor to the
overall narrative and helps to make it special.
So anyway, I went about making this sandwich—mostly for my
teenage self—and I ended up with something unique. I think it’s pretty tasty. I
hope you do too!
About the Author: Born and raised in Appalachia, AshleyRose Sullivan now lives, writes,
and paints in Los Angeles. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding
University and her first novel, Awesome Jones: A Superhero Fairy Tale is
available from Seventh Star Press. She can be found at her website or her blog,
My Year Of Star Trek.
Book Synopsis for Silver Tongue: The Colonies lost the Revolutionary War. Now it's 1839 and
the North American continent is divided into three territories: New Britannia,
Nueva Espana, and Nouvelle France where seventeen-year-old Claire Poissant
lives. Claire has a magical way with words-literally. But a mystical power of
persuasion isn't the only thing that makes her different. Half-French and
half-Indian, Claire doesn't feel at home in either world. Maybe that's why
she's bonded so tightly with her fellow outcasts and best friends: Phileas, a
young man whose towering intellect and sexuality have always made him the
target of bullies, and Sam, a descendant of George Washington who shares the
disgraced general's terrible, secret curse. But when Sam's family is murdered,
these bonds are tested and Claire's special ability is strained to its limits
as the three hunt the men responsible into dangerous lands. Along the way they
cross paths with P.T. Barnum, William Frankenstein and other characters from
both history and fantasy as they learn the hard way that man is often the most
horrific monster and that growing up sometimes means learning to let go of the
things you hold most dear.
Author Links:
website: http://www.ashleyrosesullivan.com
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ashleyrosesullivan
GoodReads page: https://www.goodreads.com/AshleyRose
Twitter: @MyYearOStarTrek
Barnes and Noble Link: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/silver-tongue-ashleyrose-sullivan/1121775443?ean=9781941706800
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