Author: Kate Sparkes
Title: Into Elurien
Skeleton Key Book Series
One Skeleton Key. Endless Adventures.
https://skeletonkeybookseries.com
When Hazel Walsh discovers a strange key in the attic of the Old Brook Inn, she doesn’t imagine the door it unlocks will lead anywhere special. Though superstitious, she’s never bought into the local stories of fairies, ghosts, and demons. But when she opens the door, she discovers just how wrong she was.
Hazel is dropped into a world in the midst of a revoloution, where monsters have overthrown the humans who once enslaved them. All of the humans, that is, except for Verelle, the cruel sorceress who vanished at the moment of Hazel’s arrival. If Hazel wants any chance of surviving and making it back to her own world, she’ll have to join forces with the amalgus Zinian—horned, winged, and monstrously attractive—to unravel the mystery of Verelle’s disappearance. If they can’t, the fates of two worlds will be at stake.
This book is one part Narnia, one part Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and two parts Where the Wild Things Are, if those were written for adults with a social justice bent. You’ll have to trust me when I say that’s a good thing.
Whatever it was I expected when I picked this up, it was flung out the window as soon as I turned the first page. The set-up takes a bit, but it’s worth it for drawing out the sinister and mysterious atmosphere. I kept wondering when Hazel might disappear into the other dimension. I loved the way all throughout, the tension builds to the violent apex of the showdown with Verelle.
Of late, a number of excellent books and movies have taken a crack at themes such as racism, classism, and other forms of societal oppression. Add this book to the list. The turbulence between the Monsters and the Humans is central to the plot, particularly how Verelle has manipulated the humans’ holy texts to her own ends and led them to commit unspeakable acts against the monsters. Hazel’s journey from defensive (“not all humans”) to understanding to actively taking part in the revolution will feel familiar to anyone who has worked in real-world activism as an ally.
There is also an underlying tone of faith and spirituality, especially with regard to the sacred text Hazel discovers. What I like is that it never feels preachy or as though it’s trying too hard to be an allegory. This paints a vivid word picture of what happens when holy writings fall into hands with the power to use them to do great harm. Although the story reaches different conclusions from what some readers might, it’s at least a call for us to examine our own beliefs and how they might affect the people around us.
I loved the characters. As much as I appreciated Hazel, and as good a narrator I felt she was, I liked many of the other characters as much or more. Of course I loved Zinian, but Auphel was my favorite. There were a number of others I liked as well, but I can’t say too much because I’m afraid it might be spoilers. I’ll leave it that these characters are fully formed—they are not props for Hazel’s transformation from hateful to helpful. Hazel already is who she is, and her journey is about finding the power to use it for good. Nor is it about the monsters learning that some humans are good. Their fight is about finding and vanquishing Verelle. It’s not a light, sweet, feel-good story about acceptance or tolerance; this is a tale about taking an entire community to bring down the real beast.
The writing is superb, flawless from start to finish. I was drawn in, and I admit to reverting to my childhood book-under-the-covers and staying up far too late reading so I could find out what happened next. What an incredible journey.
For brilliant writing, a cast of memorable characters, and a serving of social justice, this gets 10/10 fountain pens.
Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FPGX0SW
iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1114393489
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/into-elurien
Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1123806245
This is a horrible joke. It had to be. I glanced at the faces that made up the crowd, all standing too close for me to get a real handle on where I might be. I had fallen into a room of monsters. The ogre was the largest, but the others were no less fearsome. A man with the head of a bull. A centaur, dressed only in the blood that dripped over her shoulders and breasts. Things I didn’t have words for and couldn’t wrap my mind around.
The cat woman stepped closer, and the knives strapped to her belt clinked together. “I said finish it! This is one of Verelle’s tricks. Hold her.”
“Please,” I begged, feeling half stupid for being so terrified when I knew none of this was real. But it all felt real, from the stone floor to the chill of the air, from the animal smells of sweat and fur to the suffocating tightness in my chest. I fought down panic that was as real as any I’d ever felt. “I don’t know what a Verelle is, and I—”
“Shut up,” the cat ordered, and grabbed my hair to force my head down. “You won’t fool us. We know all of your tricks.”
My body trembled. “I swear, I just opened a door, and I was here…”
Her low growl silenced me.
“Stop.”
A lower voice, more human. I only shook harder. With my head down, I couldn’t see anything but the crowd of feet in front of me parting. I closed my eyes. Something cold touched my chin. Metallic. A blade. I pictured the cat’s great, curved sword, and felt like vomiting as it lifted my chin.
“Look at me,” the human voice ordered.
I forced my eyes open and was confronted by the strangest feet I’d ever seen. Human…ish. Longer toes than normal, with curved claws instead of toenails, and skin covered in tough blue scales to the knees. I didn’t want to look higher, but the sword beneath my chin insisted. My gaze continued up the legs, which I was glad to find were covered by ragged pants from the knees up. Above that, a chest that would have looked comfortingly human if not for the faint blue patina that shaded parts of the bronze skin, or the extra set of muscles under the otherwise highly acceptable pectorals. Spots of blood had dried on his skin. The fingers of the smooth hand that gripped the straight-bladed sword ended in sharp black claws. I let myself look up to the creature’s shoulders, where massive, bat-like black wings arched high behind him. Dark scales dotted their bony parts in patches.
“Look at my eyes,” he ordered, “or die now.” The blade tilted sideways, a reminder of how easily he could follow through on the threat.
I swallowed hard, and the tip of the blade pricked again at my throat. Another deep breath, and I looked up.
I met his eyes, and they were enough to keep me from noticing anything else for several moments. Bright green, and blessedly normal. Not snake eyes, not feline slits for pupils. The thick black eyebrows that topped them furrowed, but seemed more intensely observant than angry.
“Please,” I said again. “I don’t know why I’m here.”
His mouth twisted into a snarl, revealing long, white canine teeth. He turned toward the cat person, and I noted the deep scars that marred his right cheek. “It’s not her.”
When he returned his attention to me, his roughly cut black hair fell over his face. At least, the parts of it that weren’t held behind the thick horns that spiralled back like bony corkscrews from his hairline.
Devil. That name came to me as easily as centaur had, but seemed not entirely right. As he glared down at me, I thought that it might be close enough.
Kate Sparkes lives on the magical island of Newfoundland, where she’s always checking wardrobes, locked doors, and interesting caves to see whether they lead to new worlds. She passes the rest of her time hanging out with her family, reading, walking her dogs, and writing fiction that lets her come very close to escaping reality.
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Today I’m chatting with Kate Sparkes about writing, life, and their current project. It’s no secret Kate is one of my favorite authors humans, and I’m ridiculously excited to have her here again. The last time she visited was for a guest post a year and a half ago! I think I should’ve had her ’round for tea sooner. Anyway, welcome! Let’s talk a little about Into Elurien.
What inspired you to write this story?
Into Elurien is part of a multi-author series, so I guess my initial inspiration was the “Hey, would you be interested in writing a 30-50K word fantasy romance for this project?” message I got in December. Which, obviously, I was. Every story in the series has a similar element at the beginning that connects them, but then each author was free to create our worlds and characters. So what inspired me to write about monsters and magic and a villain who twisted a religion to suit her?
The monsters were something I hadn’t worked with before, and I liked the idea of exploring a romance with someone who’s not entirely human. I wanted to look at ideas about beauty, and about how myths and stories often hold more truth than the real world seems to. And the bad guy… I have a lot of questions about the development of religions and who gets to say what we’re taught, so that just kind of fell into place as I built the world.
And setting the “our world” part of the story in Newfoundland just felt right. This place is magical.
I sure would love to see it someday. Ah, all the places I need to visit.
Is there a character you feel especially connected to? Why?
I feel connected to a few of them, but Hazel more than most. While she’s unlike me in a lot of ways, I do know what it’s like to feel adrift after having to leave college, to struggle with feeling less than beautiful because of body issues and acne scars, to not feel good enough. And I know what it’s like to push through all of that and grow.
And we share an affinity for f-bombs.
You, Hazel, and me. And my almost-13-year-old. But don’t tell anyone.
What was the hardest part of writing this?
Definitely the time and word count restrictions. I had a very tight deadline on this, barely enough time to go through my full process (including critique partners, professional editing, etc), which I’d never had to deal with before. And I tend to write big books, so keeping it to (around) 50,000 words was a huge challenge. It’s a wonderful story, better than I ever expected it to be, but I wish I’d had a little more room to explore the world and the story’s themes.
Hey, that’s what sequels are for, right?
Choose a favorite line or short passage. What do you like about it?
Hmm. It’s so hard to pick something that’s not a spoiler! But here’s a quiet little moment I like a lot. Much as I love romance, and as huge a part as it plays in all of my stories, I think that friendships and family love are just as important. This particular relationship, between a young woman from our world and a young ogress from another, is one of my favourites I’ve written.
We left the kitchen to visit the orchard, and Auphel gleefully hacked apart far more apples than I needed. I mixed them with butter and something that smelled like cinnamon, then wrapped the mess inside a flat slab of dough.
“That looks horrid,” Auphel noted, though not without great interest. “Humans have such strange tastes.”
“It will probably taste horrid, too. I’ve never been much of a cook. More of a takeout girl.”
Auphel’s confused look led to a discussion about my world that carried us through the time it took the makeshift apple flip to bake… or rather, through the time it took to burn on the outside while remaining raw in the middle, and then through the process of trying again.
Explaining the use of telephones and computers to order food was nearly impossible.
“So it’s like I said. You do know magic.”
“No, we really don’t have it in my world. It’s technology. Research and experimentation and… physics.” I shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know how it all works, exactly.”
“But you can talk to another human on the other side of the world. Even see them.”
“Right.”
“Because of the electri-thingy. And machines with tiny parts that remember things without them being written down. They’re just… there.”
I laughed. “There are people in my world who could explain it. I’m just not one of them.”
She gave me a look that said I must be pulling her leg about the whole thing.
I have to agree. I’m a big fan of friendship and family stories as much as romance. I loved the relationship which built between Hazel and Auphel.
Tell us a little about any upcoming projects.
My next project is a mythological dystopian story involving human sacrifice, vengeful gods, a sadistic man who governs a near-perfect society, and a case of mistaken identity. After that I’ll be working on my urban fantasy under a pen name, and then I’ve got all kinds of things planned. A superhero novel, something with a steampunk feel that’s not steampunk, and the next series that’s set in the world of the Bound trilogy. So much to do, so little time to do it!
That’ll keep me in books to read for a while…
How has your life changed since becoming a published author?
My life looks completely different now. I’m contributing financially to the household, which has taken some stress and pressure away from that aspect of my life. I finally feel like I have permission/justification for doing what I love, rather than feeling like I’m stealing time from other things I SHOULD be doing. I’m meeting people I never would have otherwise. And I feel like I’m a better role model for my kids now that they see me doing what I love and following my dreams.
Those are some big, but good, changes!
If you could take a time machine back 10 years, what would you tell your past self?
WRITE MORE CRAP. My biggest regret is not writing for so many years because I felt like I wasn’t good enough for it to be published. Which was true. But the only way you get better is by doing the work, finishing what you start, and doing it again. I lost a lot of years of development because I didn’t understand that hard work is worth far more than talent.
This is something I hear a lot from many authors.
What do you hope people say about you after you’re gone?
That I loved hard, lived the life I felt passionate about, gave what I could, and had an impressive sock collection. And I hope they’ll wonder what my next story would have been, because I aim to grow as a writer with every project.
I’m jealous of your sock collection. And your last thought sums it up perfectly, I think.
Word Sprints!
- Plotter or pantser? Plotter! Former pantser.
- What’s your favorite of your published works? Sworn. Maybe. I think that series got better as it went along.
- What genre (other than your own) do you like to read? I like some literary and historical fiction, but I’m VERY picky! Nothing pretentious, please.
- What’s on your playlist? A bit of everything. A lot of My Chemical Romance right now, as I tend to like things 10 years after they’re popular.
- What superpower do you wish you had? Shapeshifting into anything I want.
Thanks, Kate! I promise I won’t take so long to have you back next time.
Thanks for the incredible review, Amy! And I had fun chatting with you. We will have to do it again some time!
For sure! You are always welcome on my blog, whether it’s for a new book or just to chat. 🙂