The River Against the Sea
by Z. Lindsey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: New Adult Fantasy
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BLURB:
Some heroes have swords. Essimore Darkenchyl
has a pen. But it’s a magic pen.
Some wizards have spellbooks. Essie has
Gossen’s Guide to Shipping Law. But it’s a current edition.
Some sailors have . . . experience. Essie has
a new diploma and a year-long contract, and her people have won wars with less.
And that’s good, because between stolen
weapons, a coup, and a strange disease creeping in around her and the crew, she
might need to win a war.
In a world that blends traditional fantasy
with the Age of Exploration, Essie knows a pen is mightier than a sword,
especially since hers sometimes shoots lightning.
But what she thinks is a routine political
dispute turns out to be something much, much more, and she may have finally met
the one problem she can’t talk her way out of.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT
“My cousin believes they’ll attack on One Wyrm.”
“One . . . Wyrm?” Essie asked as she tried to adjust the
ropes around her.
Bunts scoffed.
“Didn’t you read your briefing?”
Essie felt the blood rush to her cheeks.
“I read about the calendar, but it was confusing. It was
like math, but it had this religious undercurrent going on. Did not like.”
The captain squinted at her and raised his lip in distaste.
“Bunts, tell our bureaucrat what One Wyrm is.”
“Heh,” Bunts said. He cleared his throat, then shrugged.
The captain squinted at him, too.
“One Wyrm is New Year’s Day.”
“New Year’s Day, of course,” Bunts said. “Those jerks.”
“And what do you want me to do about it?”
“Nothing,” the captain said. “Report that the cargo got
handed over and let us go on our way.”
“And if I don’t agree, you’ll throw me off the ship,” she
said.
Bunts snorted.
“Seriously?”
The captain scratched his chin.
“To be honest, I was just hoping you’d agree. If you don’t .
. .” The captain puffed up his cheeks and stared at the ceiling in thought. “I
guess we’ll lock you in the brig until the weapons are safely delivered and
we’re back at sea. That’ll give me a good lead on any Agency cutters.”
She tried to adjust herself in her chair, but couldn’t do
much, so she frowned. Slowly she turned to Bunts and gave him her best
puppy-dog eyes.
“Can’t you undo these bonds?”
Bunts shook his head.
“Nuh-uh. I’m told you’re stronger than you look. And that
you eat people’s hearts.”
Essie frowned.
“Not raw.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author Interview
A book cover is your first piece of
marketing, and wow are they hard to get right! For my current work, The River Against the Sea, I wanted a
simple cover with a lot of blues and reds -- the color of magic in the story.
That's all I knew at the beginning.
I’m not a fan of covers that have
photorealistic images of the characters. I enjoy imagining characters as I
wish. Part of the pleasure of a book versus a film is ‘collaborating’ with the
author in a way, imagining the world as you please. I’m sure not every author
agrees, but I hope you add your own details to my work. I hope you see my world
as you want to see it, not exactly as I imagine it.
But I’ve heard that, when books have main
characters of color, it’s important to highlight this up front. Unfortunately,
readers are used to defaulting to White characters. On the other hand, Ursula
Le Guin had endless disputes with cover artists trying to make Ged White, and I
feared the same happening with commissioned covers. (My main character is a
magical devil so she’s not really a
person of color, but she’s based on my Latina wife.)
Not to name names, but I researched
popular cover designer websites and found few examples of covers with people of color. One website had 520
results for “blonde” characters but only six for “Latina,” and most had a
sultry vibe that doesn’t fit my character. As a Mexican resident, budget was an
issue for the project. I didn’t want to risk paying for an image of a spicy
Latina when my main character is a geek who hates to be touched.
In the end, I decided on something a bit
more cartoony, with the main character’s back to the viewer.
At first, I did a mockup using AI. This
had lots of fun stuff that didn’t make the final cover: an image of water and a
canoe highlighting the nautical themes of the early parts of the story as well
as some weird magic fungus, which implied the big bad of the book. But as AI,
it did some weird things, like making the main character disproportionately
short. (She is a shorty so I almost accepted this, to be honest.)
The actual product lost the fungus and
the water, but I added other personalized details. For example, the plants on
the cover all come from photographs I’ve taken of the community where I live in
the Yucatan Peninsula. The temple is based on the temple at Muyil. While the
culture in the book is not based on the Maya per sé, my environment influenced
my writing. The Muyil temple is a starting point for readers' imaginations to
run wild.
Finally, my favorite Easter egg is the
moon, which has a rabbit on it. In real life, many cultures have myths about
rabbits on the moon. I’ve always been able to see the rabbit on the moon better
than a man on the moon, so adding a rabbit to my moon makes sense. It also
makes sense for the story since one of the secondary pro/antagonists is Queen
Two Rabbit. There are even two dots above the rabbit.
I’m still not happy with my cover! But
everything’s got to stop eventually. The struggle with art is always the idea
that “art is never finished, just abandoned.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Zac Lindsey is an
anthropologist and a linguist who focuses on the Maya people of Quintana Roo.
Since childhood, he's had a not-so-secret love of weird, silly, and
well-structured fantasy. When other people's parents were reading them picture
books, his mom was reading him Terry Brooks. He typically writes hopeful and
character-driven fantasy.
Today, he lives
in Quintana Roo, Mexico with his wife, daughter, and various stray cats.
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/z.lindsey_fiction/
Face: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550498257222
Amazon preorders
(for ebook): https://www.amazon.com/River-Against-Sea-Z-Lindsey-ebook/dp/B0CH3TW3YD/
B&N preorders
(for paperback): https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-river-against-the-sea-z-lindsey/1144077772
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Z.
Lindsey will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly
drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Thank you for hosting this book today!
ReplyDeleteThat cover sold me even before reading the first page. One of my favorite books of 2023.
ReplyDeleteLove this book! Essie is a great character
ReplyDelete