Friday, February 20, 2015

The King’s Scrolls Blog Tour—Q&A Session #2

Time for round two! (You can see session 1 here.)

Q&A 2I walk in and stoke up the fire since it’s freezing out, and then let everyone inside. The characters all take their seats and Tyra lies down at Jace’s feet. I take my comfy interviewer (my characters prefer ‘interrogator’) chair.

“Welcome back everyone. So, today we’re having our second Q&A session for The King’s Scrolls blog tour. I’d say our first session went rather well. I’m afraid today will probably be a bit more unpleasant than yesterday.” I give everyone an apologetic look. “The Goodreads Girls, as Kaden so fondly referred to them yesterday, still have lots of questions they’re dying to have answered. So why don’t we just dive in? I’m sorry Jace, I’m going to have to start with you.”

He doesn’t respond.

“Let’s start with some questions from Stargazer. She asks, if you could erase one memory from your mind, what would it be?”

Jace breathes out slowly. “Just one?” He sits quietly for a long moment and then clears his throat. “The first time I killed someone.”

Kyrin takes his hand, and I stare at her. “You see, this is exactly the sort of stuff I talked about yesterday. You’re acting without my consent. You’re not supposed to being showing this much affection toward Jace in front of everyone yet. But I can’t be mad. After all, I know how hard this is for Jace.” I look at him. “Carry on.”

“Well, I can’t really say more than that. You said it’s something that comes up in the next book and don’t want too much said about it yet.”

“That’s true, so let’s move on since I know this is a difficult topic for you. Stargazer’s next question is, if you could only keep one memory, what would it be?”

“The day Kyrin and I first went hunting together.” He smiles slightly, and Kyrin grins. “It was really awkward, but my life changed that day. I didn’t know it for a while, but I don’t know where I’d be if she hadn’t done that.”

I glance down at my question cards and try to keep a straight face. “Okay, Jace, Stargazer asks, ‘Have you kissed Kyrin yet? If not could you please do so right now?’”

They both start to blush. Kaden laughs, and Kyrin elbows him in the ribs. Jace just stares down at Tyra, refusing to speak.

I try not to laugh myself. “Sorry Stargazer and everyone else. You’re going to have to wait a bit longer for the kiss. Now, I’ve got two more from Stargazer for you, Jace. First, what do you think of Kaden?”

Jace looks up, his face still red. “I have a lot of respect for Kaden. He’s one of the only people who has accepted me right away.”

“And finally, would you like to kill your author for making you answer all these questions, or are you just very annoyed with her?” I smile widely at Jace.

“It’s just uncomfortable, but I guess I’ve been through worse before. So no, I wouldn’t like to kill her.”

“Thank you, Jace. You know how much I love you, and so do all the girls asking these questions. I promise. Fangirls are odd like that. We like to make things tough for our beloved characters. I can’t explain it. All right, I’ll torture someone else for now. Trask.”

He grins. “Yes?”

“Stargazer has some questions for you now. First, why don’t you tell everyone how you met Lady Anne?”

“Well, there’s really not much to tell since I was barely a toddler and she was an infant when we first met. Our families were always close, so we grew up together. I do know I was six when I decided I was going marry her.”

“Aww, that’s adorable. I can just see you as a mischievous little six year old. I’m sure you caused her all kinds of grief too. Isn’t that how little boys often show their affection?”

Trask laughs. “Of course.”

“So, what do you think of Jace?”

“I’m very happy to have him as part of the resistance. He’s very valuable to the group.”

Jace stares down at his hands, embarrassed.

“It’s true, Jace,” I tell him. “All right, who’s next? . . . Aric. We haven’t gotten to you yet. Sarah wants to know how you came to know Elôm.”

Aric smiles (and you girls know that Richard Armitage smile). “Sam. I’d been working at the palace for about a year when I first met him. I’ve always been interested in history, so I started visiting the library in Tarvin Hall regularly for a while. That’s when we really started talking and became friends. About two years after that, he mentioned Elôm. I wouldn’t stand for it at first, but he was persistent, and the truth of it eventually sunk in.”

I find his answer fascinating since I didn’t even know some of that. “This isn’t a reader question, but I have to know, did you ever consider turning him in to Emperor Daican? I mean, he was a scholar at Tarvin Hall. That’s where children go to become firmly devoted to Daican and Aertus and Vilai.”

“Of course, duty demanded it of me, but whenever I considered it, I couldn’t go through with it. So I just kept quiet.”

“And how did you end up as head of security?”

“I started out in the army and ended up being recruited to join Auréa’s security force. After about fifteen years of service there, I uncovered a plot by one of the servants to assassinate the emperor. I was then promoted to head of security.”

“Here’s another question I have that isn’t from a reader. Do you ever feel any regret over stopping the assassination now that you’ve seen what Daican is capable of? If he had died then, Arcacia might not be what it is now. I mean, you were a believer at the time, right?”

Aric nods slowly. “There are times I wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t stopped it . . . but I can’t say I regret it. I don’t believe it would have been Elôm’s will for me to allow it to happen.”

“So considering your position at the palace, how are you dealing with the emperor’s orders that believers in Elôm be executed?”

He grimaces. “It’s difficult. You have to hold your emotions so deep down inside you and project an attitude of indifference or even agreement with the emperor. There have been many times I’ve wanted to give up on it, but I stay with the hope that Elôm will use me to make a difference and even save some lives.”

“My mom would like to know if you’re married.”

He smiles again. “No, I’ve never been married.”

“Has there ever been anyone special?”

“Once . . . a long time ago.”

I wait expectantly for a moment. “Care to expound on that? Someone’s liable to get upset if I don’t push for more details.”

“I should have known I wouldn’t escape such questions.” He sighs, but there’s a hint of a smile in his eyes. “I knew a girl when I was younger. We grew up in the same town. When I joined the army, I thought I’d get established and then ask her to marry me. We had talked some about it. But when I went home to tell her I had been promoted to the palace, I found she had gotten married while I was gone. I guess she didn’t want to be married to a soldier. There just hasn’t been anyone else since that.”

I offer him a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry. I’m sure that’s going to make a lot of people very sad. All right, one more question for you right now. What was your first impression of Kyrin?”

“I knew already from Sam that she was a believer. I was as surprised as anyone when she showed up at Auréa. Her father and I have been friends for a long time, and I could see a lot of him in her—the quiet strength I’ve always admired.”

Kyrin looks down at him. “Thanks, Aric.”

He smiles at her and continues. “That’s why I made sure Trev was assigned as her bodyguard. I wanted to make things as easy for her as I could. Trev and I both knew just how difficult it was to live secretly as believers and serve the emperor.”

“Speaking of Trev.” I set my eyes on the young man sitting next to Aric. “Micailah would like to know how you came to know Elôm.”

“Aric. He’s the one who took the risk to approach me about it.”

“I saw something different in him from the other recruits,” Aric says. “He was quiet and didn’t have the usual cockiness. So I started talking to him about things like Sam did, and eventually worked Elôm into the conversation.”

I look at Trev curiously. “And how did you take that?”

“I was certainly surprised. I didn’t know what to think at first. But the more we talked, the more it made sense.”

“And did you ever consider telling the emperor?”

“No. It wasn’t my place, and I respected him too much.”

“And that’s why I love you, Trev, and I’m sure others do too. I think we better leave it at that for today. Tomorrow we have a couple of new character guests who will be joining us that will make things very interesting.”

7 comments:

  1. Yay! I loved this session and getting to know Aric a little better (and all the other characters but especially Aric).

    I have a suspicion about who tomorrow's guests will be . . . O_o

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  2. Pooooooor Jace. I actually felt so bad for him here.

    Wait, are the villains coming tomorrow? How will you keep the peace????

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  3. That famous Armitage smile, I know just the one.

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  4. Love this one and my affection for Jace grew all the more (even though he was embarrassed)!

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  5. Poor Jace... At the same time, I liked this Q & A session even better than the first! *grins the famous fangirl grin*

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  6. Aric's story sounds suspiciously familiar... Mordechai?

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