🏰 Author Interview Featuring Christine Amsden, Author of 'Knot of Souls'

Christine Amsden is the author of nine award-winning fantasy and science fiction novels, including the Cassie Scot Series.

Speculative fiction is fun, magical, and imaginative but Christine believes great speculative fiction is about real people defining themselves through extraordinary situations. She writes primarily about people, and it is in this way that she strives to make science fiction and fantasy meaningful for everyone.

In addition to writing, Christine is a freelance editor and political activist. Disability advocacy is of particular interest to her; she has a rare genetic eye condition called Stargardt Macular Degeneration and has been legally blind since the age of eighteen. In her free time, she enjoys role playing, board games, and a good cup of tea. She lives in the Kansas City area with her husband and two kids.

Author Links

Website ➜https://christineamsden.com/wordpress/

X ➜ http://www.x.com/christineamsden 

Facebook ➜https://www.facebook.com/pages/Christine-Amsden-Author-Page/127673027288664?ref=hl

 

 

🏰Welcome to Book Bloggin’ Princess, Christine. Knot of Souls offers thrills, complex characters and magical moments. Which of these was the most fun for you to write?

Complex characters, always! I'm a proud character girl, and that's at the heart of everything I write. In this case, I've forced two very different characters to work together (by trapping them in the same body) ... one is powerful but doesn't know how to trust, the other is trusting but needs to claim power. Together, they work magic (literally and figuratively). 

🏰Which of the characters from Knot of Souls do you most closely identify with and why?

Joy (the human). At the beginning of the story, she's unassertive, which is something I've struggled with in my own life. Although Shade (the Fae) has trouble trusting, which is something I've also struggled with. 

🏰What do you think sets Knot of Souls apart from other books of the same genre?

I think the situation itself is unique ... body sharing isn't exactly a fantasy trope! Even when I asked around in various fan groups, we mostly came up with Dax from Star Trek and Venom. Plus a one-off episode of Babylon 5. But all of those are science fiction. 

Knot of Souls is urban/contemporary fantasy, with a creatively re-imagined race of Fae, plenty of mystery/thrills, magic, and of course, that beautiful relationship between the souls. 

🏰Surprise me. What is something that happens in the book that would make my mouth drop without giving too much away?

Penguins. 

"We don’t all get to be what we want, or I’d be a penguin." -- Shade, Chapter 28

I actually had a lot of fun with penguins in this book. They're more flavor than plot, making this an entirely spoiler-free thing to share, but I enjoyed David Tennant's narration of  "Penguins: Spy in the Huddle" so much that I watched it twice and used what I learned to add some great details into Knot of Souls.

🏰Who is your favorite contemporary fantasy author? 

Darynda Jones. I've read her Charley Davidson series several times. 

🏰Do you think writing a contemporary fantasy novel is more complex than writing books of other genres?

Honestly, no. I think every genre has its little complications, and at a guess, I'd say historical fiction is the most complex (or at least the genre that requires the most research), but I wouldn't say urban fantasy is more or less complex than most of the others. 

🏰What’s next for you?

I'm working on short stories for a while, but I hope to get back to a novel-length work in progress soon. It’s called The Spaces in Between (working title), and it’s my first attempt at a young adult book, although I confess to having chosen the young adult genre situationally. The thing is, I lost my central vision between the ages of sixteen and eighteen (especially when I was eighteen), and my main character is going through the same thing. Stargardts can affect children as young as ten, and it can take as long as the mid-thirties to culminate, but in my life, in my lived experience, it happened fairly rapidly and mostly over the course of a single year. The book is still fantasy, despite drawing on some real experiences. 

Thanks for having me!

 Knot of Souls is available at Amazon.