K.T. Davies

I got tagged for this by the inestimable Ren Warom.

What is the working title of your book? Not telling. That’s a good start isn’t it? Not sure I’ve got the hang of these meme things. Having had a name clash with The Red Knight, which is the novel I’ve just had published, the title of the current project is staying under wraps for now.  It also doesn’t have a working title. It’s got a fully fledged, like-Athena-sprung-from-the-head-of-Zeus, final, final title, which was very nice as it’s one less thing to think about. It’s a rilly cracking title too.

Where did the idea for the book come from? Hmm. Again, I can’t talk about the current project as it’s super sekrit.

The idea for The Red Knight came from seeing an article on the news about a brilliant, young rugby player who had an accident and wham — just like that, his career was over. It got me thinking about what would happen if you were talented, had everything, bright future ahead etc, and then it was all taken away from you. What would you do? That was the seed that took root.

What genre does your book fall under? It’s fantasy.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? No idea.  So I suppose unknown actors.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book? It’s like Aliens with armour and magic, but no aliens.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? You forgot independent/small publishers, tsk, tsk. The Red Knight has been published by Anachron Press, a small, but perfectly formed publishing house.

As for the current, super-sekrit project, I’ll cross that publishing chasm when I come to it, I don’t rule anything out.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? The first draft for The Red Knight took about two years, off and on. And that was only the first draft. However, I knew the second I’d finished it that it would not take as long to write the next. BY finished I mean finally stopped re-writing it. I don’t think I’ll ever ‘finish’ anything I write, there’s always something more I could do.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? I wouldn’t, not only would that be presumptuous, but as far as the current, Sekrit project goes I don’t think there’s anything like it in genre land.

The Red Knight is pretty grim, low fantasy. I’ve been told it’s a bit like A Game of Thrones, but I haven’t read that book beyond the prologue so I can’t say.  I’ve also been told it’s a bit like something Robin Hobb would write only more violent and sweary. Accurate or not, I’ll take the comparisons as complimentary.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?  The Red Knight was inspired by a story on the news ( see above). But it’s actually not the story I wanted to write. The Red Knight is the back story of the novel I wanted to write, but it was just too darn big and had to have a novel of its own. This quite vexed me as I lack patience and wanted to crack on with the other story.  The best laid plans, and all that.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? I don’t know, I never know, not with anything I write. The Red Knight is about people, war, life, love, death, betrayal, redemption, and magic…there is also a dragon…sort of.  There are some reviews around on Amazon and various places, like here in fact. They might be worth reading to see what other people think as I’m biased. I’ve written a blog post about why you won’t like The Red Knight as I’m helpful like that.

Nominate five people to roll this onto

Ah. Now this is tricky, because I think everyone I know who writes has now been tagged. *sighs, rolls eyes* Yes, yes, I am a lonely shut-in who will probably be eaten by my dogs when I die, and your point is?

Oh, found one! E M Edwards AKA @E_M_Edwards on Twitter  and here’s his blog http://talesfromtheinvisiblecity.blogspot.com/