1. Thanks for letting me interview you, Berta and Michele! I really love your books and it means a lot. So first off I wanted to ask, I'm not sure if everyone who reads you has noticed but I did and that is for this seventh book in the Faire Folk Saga you guys did not seem to go with your regular publisher, Flux, but instead opted to self-publish via Amazon. Is that right and why is that?
We learned a big lesson when we sold the first three books. We were ready to sell just the first book, and were thrilled when Flux picked up all three, but we thought that would be the end of it. We were already writing another book, when our editor asked us to please submit our ideas for the next three books. We had to do a lot of planning to make sure the story continued in a way that made sense, and then went ahead and planned what would happen beyond that. Flux decided not to continue the series, but we heard from so many fans that after some thought, created Dark Woods Press to release them ourselves. Keelie’s story comes to a natural ending in these books.
2. Now let's get into the book details. With Queen of the Faire there were a lot of mentions of Herne, the nature god but no Herne appearance; does this mean we will see him in the future? Or is this wishful thinking on my part?
You will definitely see Herne, who is a major player in Book 8. I can’t say more without giving it away. He’ll be in the ninth book, too.
3. Finally while I personally think you guys will continue more of the Faire Folk Saga an official confirmation is still great. Can we expect more books or is this it?
Two more books are in the works for the Faire Folk Saga. We have an offshoot series that we’ve been talking about for a couple of years. The heroine is the younger sister of the tattoo artist who lives near the Dread Forest, and it takes place at the same time as the end of The Goblin Curse, when all the magic bursts free and is visible to the world, before it gets reined in again.
4. I know you guys are very active in book fairs thanks to your blog (https://magicalforest.wordpress.com/) especially in the Georgia area so how has that been going with your most recent one? Share the details. Anything funny or memorable?
Book festivals are always fun. Our favorite is the Decatur Book Festival, which (alas) takes place on Labor Day Weekend, the same weekend as Dragon*Con, which is our absolute favorite event to attend (except for Renaissance Fairs). At the last Decatur Book Festival we kept running into a girl, about thirteen or so, who’d bought a copy of Tree Shepherd’s Daughter at our book stall. Every time, she had her nose in the book. I wish I’d taken a picture of her, it was so cool! It’s always neat to see your book “in the wild.” About four other people came by to buy the book because of her. She never returned to our spot, or we would have given her a free copy of the next one for all the free advertisement!
5. Gillian Summers is a pseudonym for you the writing duo Berta Platas and Michele Roper but what are your separate writing projects right now? If any.
You bet we’re writing. We are compulsive scribblers! Michele’s been super busy. She has published a hilarious book about a Goth girl who is forced to spend a summer with her grandmother (she calls her Granola), helping at her beachside surf shop. She uses extreme SPF to keep her ghostly pallor, and eventually we find out why she hates the beach so much. Let’s just say she wasn’t always a Goth, and she runs into the hottie she liked the last time she had her toes in the sand. Whitney Wilbur Wipes Out is available for Kindle on Amazon.
Her latest book, Jessie’s Magical Ride, also on Amazon, is funny and romantic YA about Jessie Fairchilde, a girl who has the worst 16th birthday ever. She fails her driver's license, and instead of the empowering clean start she’s worked herself up to – breaking up with her boyfriend -- he dumps her. Back home, she expects to get a restored 1966 red Mustang for her birthday, but instead, her metal-working dad gives her a tank-sized 1955 Pontiac as a “project car”, and her mom goes out of town and leaves her to baby sit her little brothers. Things couldn’t get worse, right? Until she discovers that her family is cursed, and she’s brought the curse back to life.
Berta is working simultaneously on a funny romance and a post-apocalyptic mystery set in the north Georgia mountains. The funny romance will be published this year, so she’s spending most of her time working on that one. She’s also got plans for a sequel to her novel Lucky Chica, about a girl who wins the biggest lottery prize in US history – and how it does not solve all of her problems.
Buy Gillian Summer's Book Queen of the Faire!
About the blogger
A blogger at Book & Movie Dimension a Blog for years. I, Cassandra, pride myself on finding the next hottest thing in Entertainment wherever it may hide: books, movies, music, you name it. Huge reader, anime watcher, and huge appreciator of TK from Ling tosite sigure music and Ling tosite sigure music.
