Yeah I’m still alive…just.

Hey Everyone

I’m trying to finish off a bunch of work at the moment so I’m not around on social media or the blog much. I have about 100 pages left of my final edit of Rise of the Firebird (book three of The Firebird Fairytales). It’s epic – like 150k words epic- so it’s taking me a lot longer to get the way I want it. It’s the final book where everything needs to tie up and make sense (oh the spoilers I could tell you) so the editing process has been a lot more timely and intense.

I’m also studying two units of Uni this semester instead of one so I’m on the hop to get assignments completed and in.

Oh yeah and I’ve had an epiphany half way though writing the current WIP BLAISE so I’m having to go through and structurally rearrange things.

In summary, I’m busy but I’m still thinking of you.

Here is stag to make you feel better.

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Ohh what a magnificent beast.

And a beautiful fairytale picture to let you know where my head is at right now.

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Love Amy the Great

akuivalainen

Free Stories- Bookstore Baker

This month I’m going to do things a little differently and put two short stories up under my Free Stories page.

This is the first and it’s a mock fairytale called Book Store Baker.

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I have a thing with liking book stores to be quiet so I’m really not impressed when parents let their kids run about and terrorise the place.

This story was born out of a particularly bad trip to a bookstore. At the time I was reading a lot of fairy tales about Baba Yaga and her penchant for eating children. I started to see why she would find the idea appealing when I watched a child have a tantrum and destroy a bunch of books much to the dismay of the poor staff. Then I started to wonder how Baba could get away with it now….and this story was born.

I hope you enjoy it. Find it here:  Bookstore Baker

akuivalainen

Ashes of the Firebird

Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000447_00014]One more sleep til my Book Birthday!

Okay now that I got that out of my system I can tell you a little bit about the next instalment of The Firebird Fairytales. 

Second books are strange beasts. You know you’re in the middle of something but don’t quite know what and foreshadowing for the next book can be vital. In saying that I tried to have it as a separate sort of story where things happen. Some stuff gets resolved and other stuff becomes worse. There is new cities, new faces, new secrets and all sorts of monsters and good stuff.

When I was writing this beast of a book I had so many plans and ideas for how it was going to turn out…by the end of the second rewrite none of these things eventuated or were even left in which is pretty typical.  Trust me they weren’t needed. I was pretty close to setting it on fire more than once. I’m pretty sure it would have died in a blaze if it wasn’t for my partners in crime Fox and Anna hiding the vodka and matches and sharp objects.

Also this book and all of its subsequent drafts were written to Amanda Fucking Palmer’s albums. Who Killed Amanda Palmer was the soundtrack to my life at the time of the first draft, a spooky coincidence that I fed into my art and dealing with the shit going down at the time. Thank you Fox for giving me the gloriously inspirational Amanda. She’s an incredible artist who will speak wild things into your dark and dreaming heart…you can find her work here where you can download her albums for as little as a dollar. Better yet, go support her Patreon.

If Ashes had a theme song it would be this song, ‘Runs in the Family.’ 

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This book, and series, deals a lot with family and with what’s inside our blood and dealing and fighting the inherited monsters and problems. It’s a theme that’s pretty prevalent in my own life. Anya’s ability to pick up strays (and in turn be adopted) is inspired by own. I never had much family around growing up so I was adopted my a whole manner of people. The concept of  “Family” has very little to do with blood at all and its reinforced in the rag tag tribe of misfits that gather about Anya and Yvan.

To keep track of the ever growing cast I have put a character list in the back of the book and kept it as spoiler free as possible. I’ve had some pretty mixed reactions from my ARC readers about this one, but don’t worry there is definitely a third book where all shall be revealed. I hope you enjoy it, I hope you listen to it with Amanda Fucking Palmer on full volume.

akuivalainen

Defending YA: My Recommendations Round 1

Recently I stumbled across an article (one of many out there on the topic) about YA Fiction and why, as an adult I should be embarrassed about reading it. I’m not going to lie, I got rather ranty about it on my Facebook page. Maybe it’s because recently I decided to rewrite the first book I ever wrote, Eastern Gods and Western Wars. I started it when I was about 1 6 and finished by 19. I was a young adult when I wrote it and so I’ve tried to keep that voice but clean it up so it’s readable. I was surprised to find I still love the story and the characters. I also wrote it because YA wasn’t what it is now when I was a teenager (late 90’s, early 00’s) and while I know books out there had to exist in the genre, I couldn’t find them. So I wrote my own.

  1. I believe in reading whatever the fuck you like whether its YA, literature, fiction or fantasy tenticle porn- I don’t care- as long as you’re reading something it counts, and you shouldn’t listen to any loud mouth who wishes to push their opinions and shame you out on your choices.
  2. I’ve read some amazing YA in the last year, stuff I desperately wish was around when I was a teen, and so I’m ready to step up and defend the genre.

Instead of Hulking out and picking the article, and that opinion in general, to pieces and peeing on the remains, I’ve decided to meet the negative with a positive and offer up the best YA I’ve read in the last year or so in a series of blogs over the next few weeks. I’ll try and keep it spoiler free but be warned, I’m talking about series’ in whole as well as stand alones.

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Laini Taylor – Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy

‘Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well.’

BAM! How’s that for an opening?

Okay, first off is Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy. To give you a bit of back ground I hadnt read any YA in a while when I picked this one up. I had looked at the first book on and off until I caved in and bought it and damn, aren’t I glad I did.

This series is about Karou, a beautiful blue haired girl that is raised by creatures from another land, Elsewhere, who deal in teeth and magic. At the beginning of the series she balances art school in Prague and working for Brimstone. Enter a pissed off angel Akiva and Karou’s life gets turned upside down with repressed memories, intense love and bloody action thrown into the mix.

Ancient battles between Angels and Chimaera, other worlds, resurrection magic. Hell, this series has everything I love going for it. It spans across two worlds as Akiva and Karou try to honour their own people, each other, and try and bring about an impossible peace. It’s Romeo and Juliet but in a fresh, unconventional and non-sappy sort of way. If you’re looking for Twilight, this isn’t for you.

The thing I loved the most about this series is the relationships and the chemistry of the characters. Karou is raised as a human and her interactions between her  and her human best friend Zuzanna as well as the object of her affection Mik (first date recorded beautiful, hilariously, in short story Night of Cake and Puppets). Their conversations are so real, funny and warm, its no surprise most of the reviews you read comment on them.

The series goes through some big themes and if you are a fan of urban- fairytales/ Pans Labyrinth/ epic fantasy seriously give it a go. It is ‘older’ YA, the flashy genre name New Adult would be appropriate here, with characters out of high school. Laini Taylor is an amazing writer, I was often stunned by the beauty of some of her sentences, perfectly executed. My particular favourite paragraph from Book 1 reads as follows:

“It wasn’t like in the story books. No witches lurked at crossroads disguised as crones, waiting to reward travellers who shared their bread. Genies didn’t burst from lamps, and talking fish didn’t bargain for their lives. In all the world, there was only one place humans could get wishes: Brimstone’s shop.”

Laini sets scenes with a strong voice imbuing magic in around you in a fairy tale of angels and monsters. It’s something I wish I had written because its so damn good. I went though this series one after the other, I couldn’t stop myself. It’s complex story telling, things aren’t magically neatened up and she’s not afraid to pull her characters through some serious shit.

If it sounds like your thing, give it a go, you won’t regret it. Find her here

DOSAB

akuivalainen

Keys, Rogues and Faerie

On Wednesday the 10th of October 2012 I started writing a story that would  become “The Eagle Key.” I wrote the story in a 6 week blur, churning out thousands of words a day in an unexpected flow. If there was ever any doubt that writing could heal, could save, than “The Eagle Key” is living proof that it can.

Earlier in the year I suffered a rather horrendous break up. I was lucky I had good people around me but looking back on it I did have a breakdown. The relationship wasn’t a healthy one and it had taken me a long time to end it. On top of this I was re-writing the first two Firebird books and I hadn’t produced ‘new’ words as such for months.PB2

The only things keeping me sane during this time were my very understanding flatmates and a non-stop flow of vodka, fairytales, Smallville, Disney and Doctor Who. I really wanted to write a fairytale for adults; something that could fit in the same categories as “Howls Moving Castle” or “The Princess Bride.” Something with True Love and magic.  Something to make me believe in both again even if it was only on the page.HowlsMovingCastle5

With all of this churning about in my brain I was driving home from the dentists, a little stoned I think on whatever they stick in their numbing needles, and suddenly I had a voice in my head not just talking to me (a common writers affliction) but SHOUTING at me. He was so loud that I jumped in my seat. I pulled the car over thinking I had finally cracked and I really was hearing ‘the voices’. Instead of telling me to burn things, this jerk that invaded my thoughts, started  laughing at me. “If you have made me up your mind must be dirtier than I thought,” the voice said with a male smugness, “Write about me, I am fascinating I swear.”  This is how I met Greyfeather; by the side of busy highway writing on the back of shopping dockets.

The next six weeks were a crazy blur, on one of the days I wrote nearly ten thousand words. I went to New Zealand for three of the weeks and while I fed the Hobbit within I wrote “The Eagle Key” at night. I had the idea that this story was for me only, that it would never see the light of day. That this goofy little tale would be the thing that made me laugh with a loveable rogue thrown into the mix.

amykuivalainen_theeglekey_ebook_finalI wrote it and cherished it. Then I gave it to a friend and I made her cry. Mostly I think because my books, while there are romantic aspects, aren’t really obviously about love so it caught her off guard. She loved it. As the years have passed I have handed it off to people and all have really enjoyed it.

These people are the reason why I am finally caving and releasing it out into the world. It was meant to be released as an ebook- a nice buffer between the first and second Firebird Fairytales. But then these people all cornered me and demanded it be released as a paperback too. I caved in again (cos I’m a sucker) and it will be available shortly after the E-book.

The ebook will be released on the 6th of June. For those who are interested it is my anniversary, because if you are going to release a book about love than that is the day to do it.

“The Eagle Key” at it’s heart is about True Love and magic.  It is a small tale and a simple one but aren’t they the best ones?

akuivalainen

Kalevala Dreaming

“I am driven by my longing,

And my understanding urges

That I should commence my singing;

And begin my recitation.

I will sing the people’s legends,

And the ballads of the nation.”

Excerpt From: “Kalevala, Volume I (of 2) / The Land of the Heroes.”

So begins “The Kalevala”, the heroic epic of Finland. In the 1830’s Elias Lönnrot was a doctor and like the Brothers Grimm he began to collect and record the folk stories and songs he encountered in his time travelling through remote Finland and Russian-Karelia. In 1849 he published “The Kalevala”, the culminating result of all of his research. Like Beowulf, the Illiad and The Edda’s it is rich in folklore, mythology, epic battles and powerful magic.

My third book in the ‘Firebird Fairytales’ series is the most Finnish of the three but you definitely get a taste in the others. When Anya is working word magic I tried to keep the rhythm and stanza’s a similar shape as those used in “The Kalevala”, for all magic is wrought by the power of words. I fear some of it is lost in translation with the English version, the version I use, from the original Finnish but one day like Tolkien I will have to teach myself Finn in order to understand the epic stories better. Recently on a trip to Finland I strolled through the streets of Helsinki and I freaked out with excitement every time I saw something Kalevala related, such as this statue of Väinämöinen outside the old Helsinki University house. When I saw the roof of the National Gallery I almost burst into tears. IMG_1611

These stories resonate on a primal level with readers and lovers of  myth. These are old stories and they are unique to the landscape and people that they are based on. After Finland regained its independence from Russia in 1917 there was a massive cultural revolution, a focus on what it meant to be Finnish. “The Kalevala” was an intrinsic component in Finland regaining its cultural heritage. Sibelius wrote operas and symphonies inspired by it, Akseli Gallen-Kallela painted works of incredible beauty just to name a few artists that had it as a focus of their works. Gallen_Kallela_Lemminkainens_Mother

The inspiration flows on today with writers drawing on it and not just Finnish writers either. I discovered Väinämöinen written in “Hammered” by Kevin Hearne and after doing a few fan girl squeals I messaged him on Facebook about it…and then squealed a bit more when he replied back. I thought long and hard about writing Väinämöinen in as a character but he decided he wanted to appear in another story of mine separate from the “Firebird Fairytales.” Other characters will appear however, Tuoni for example is the Lord of Tuonela, the Finnish Underworld and is the one that gives Anya the firebird egg. He stays around, with plans of his own, and others will start to come out of the wood works. It is my aim, in my small way, to contribute to this heritage of story telling and hopefully open it up to readers that never knew it existed.

akuivalainen