Summary: Centuries ago, all was lost in the Last Battle when the Norse gods and goddesses went to war. The elves, the giants, and the gods and goddesses themselves were all destroyed, leaving the Valkyrie Mist one of the only survivors. Or so she thought.
When a snowy winter descends upon modern-day San Francisco in June, Mist’s quiet existence starts to feel all too familiar. In quick succession, Mist is attacked by a frost giant in a public park and runs into an elf disguised as a homeless person on the streets... and then the man Mist believed was her mortal boyfriend reveals himself to be the trickster god Loki, alive and well after all these years.
Loki has big plans for the modern world, and he’s been hanging around Mist to get access to a staff that once belonged to the great god Odin. Mist is certain of one thing: Loki must be stopped if there is to be any hope for Earth. But the fight is even bigger than she knows.
Because Loki wasn’t the only god to survive.
Hi guys!! I'm so excited to be participating in the blog tour for Mist by Susan Krinard! I recently read and reviewed the book and today I have the honour of having Susan Krinard herself here for an interview!
1. Tell us 5 (random) things about yourself that many people might not know about you
-I’m a big fan of superhero movies, especially the character Loki in the recent Thor movies and (pant pant) Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. This makes me a dirty old lady. (Well, not that old. 54 years young. How many 54-year-olds do you know who want to be Wolverine, not just wish you were about fifteen years younger and that he was still single? And that his abs are fab?)
-I was a huge tomboy as a kid and never, ever played with dolls. Dinosaurs and cowboys and superheroes were my thing.
-I stood on the ancient Hadrian’s Wall (what’s left of it) in Northumberland and imagined myself as a Roman soldier.
-I met my husband through our mutual love of the SF author C.J. Cherryh, and fell in love with him through old-fashioned letters. We met for the first time (physically) at LACon (Worldcon) many, many years ago. We have been married nearly 28 years, and he is a fellow nerd/geek.
-I wanted be a paleontologist when I was about six years old.
2.Have you always wanted to be a writer? Did you ever dream of doing something else?
Actually, I wanted to be a SF/Fantasy cover artist! I had always loved looking at cover art, so I went to what is now known as the California College of the Arts in Oakland, CA. However, looking back, I know I never really worked hard enough, so when I took my portfolio to NY, I didn’t get any jobs. Still, I always told stories to myself from a very young age, and wrote some fanfic before attempting a novel. It came very naturally to me, and I sold my first paranormal romance manuscript to the second publisher I sent it to. (I was actually afraid, in those days, to even try to sell straight SF/Fantasy, and it took until just a few years ago, after seventeen years as a pro novelist, before I felt up to it!)
3. When did you become interested in mythology? What draws you to Norse mythology?
For me—before I learned about SF/Fantasy—I was looking for other literary ways of escape, so as a young child mythology provided that kind of escape. In a lot of ways, mythology is SF/fantasy. Norse mythology attracts me because it gives me so much to work with: gods, elves, giants, monsters, valkyrie, etc. As with most pantheons, the gods are very “human.” And it’s a mythology that hasn’t been used much in urban fantasy.
4. Which part of Mist was your favourite part to write and which character? I found myself very much looking forward to seeing more of Dainn while reading Mist.
Favorite part? Hard to choose. I love the scene where Mist first meets Dainn under unusual circumstances, she doesn’t trust him, and they’re sparring on the way back to her loft. I enjoyed her first fight with Loki. And Dainn’s scenes with Loki near the end, especially the part where Loki is trying on clothes at the tailor’s.
Characters? That’s also very hard to choose. I’d have to say Dainn and Loki. While I loved Mist, I grew up relating to male protagonists (not as many good female ones in the ancient days) and I do have fun writing them. Dainn is a very complex character and full of angst (which I love), torn between his desire to overcome a part of himself he hates, his feelings for Mist, and the fate of earth (Midgard.) And Loki, being so completely uninhibited, is also fun. Mist is very straightforward, so her conflicts are more subtle. Still, she has a lot on her plate to deal with, and she is at the center of everything.
(Also, please keep in mind that I wrote “my” Loki in a novelette for a Tor anthology well before the movies came out, so any similarities are purely coincidental!)
5. If you could only name one myth that you love, which would it be and why?
“Loki’s Flyting” in the Lokasenna in the Prose Edda. He attends a feast given by the sea god Aegir and proceeds to behave very naughtily (he kills one of Aegir’s servants because he didn’t welcome Loki properly, in Loki’s no-so-humble opinion.) Loki gets kicked out of the hall, sneaks back in, and proceeds to insult all the gods and goddesses feasting there. Many of the insults are sexual in nature, and he and Odin are particularly nasty to each other. Still, the laws of hospitality won’t let them throw him out again, so he hangs around making everybody very, very angry. But when Thor shows up, he threatens to knock Loki’s head off, and Loki finally admits defeat.
The funny thing about Loki is that he often helped and even saved the gods, but then he’d turn around and do something like this. Eventually, they got sick of him and bound him in a cave with a serpent dripping venom into his face.
6. On your site, you mention your pets, what is the worst/funniest thing they ever did? Did any of them ever chew on your shoes?
Our eldest dog, Freya (in the human equivalent of her 80’s now) once chewed two very large holes in our fairly new couches when we left her alone to go out somewhere. We learned not to leave her alone again, at least not free to roam around the house!
7. What do you do for fun when you're not writing?
Read. Watch old movies (30’s-early 60’s). Sit outside in spring or summer and look at my garden and the open space behind it (all high desert.) Go out for dinner with friends. Create art of all kinds, which I have been far too busy to do for all too many years.
8. Tell us about the last book you loved
“Love” is a big word, and I reserve it for only a very few books. I have liked many books, but love? Where I thought I’d die before I could get my hands on the sequel? I’d have to go back over a year to a book that isn’t even SF: Rebecca Cantrell’s City of Broken Glass, part of a series of a woman German reporter who slowly watches her country fall apart under Hitler and has to stay alive while helping those suffering under the regime. (Alas, she didn’t write another book this year and hasn’t got any mention of a fifth one on her website, even though she left the last book with a cliffhanger ending!)
9. What/who is your all-time favourite book/author?
I can’t say which book, because I’ve been reading SF/fantasy, historical novels and historical mystery for too many years. But C.J. Cherryh has consistently been among my favorites, along with Lois McMaster Bujold.
10. You walk into a bar, there's a guy with gorgeous hair (maybe resembling Mr. Darcy slightly, he definitely has the English accent down) sitting there. What would you tell him to convince him to read Mist?
There’s a guy in the book who looks a lot like you.
Thank you so much for being here today Susan! I love your answers to my questions and totally laughed at the last one! :)
www.susankrinard.com
You thought we were done right? We're not! The nice people from Tor have kindly offered to let me give away a copy of Mist!
***GIVEAWAY***
-Open to US/Canada addresses only
-If under 13 you have to have approval from a parent/legal guardian
-Open from August 1st to August 8th 2013
-The winner will be contacted through e-mail
-The winner will have 48 hours to get back to me with their details, otherwise I will pick another winner
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My favorite hero is Odysseus.
ReplyDeleteI loved learning about Greek mythology when I was in school. The story of Narcissus and Echo was my favorite.
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