“The Childless Ones” will be released November 12, but you can preorder your copy now on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
The Childless Ones
by
Book description:
TWO WORLDS...TWO ALTERNATING NARRATIVES...A REALIST RELATIONSHIP DRAMA...AN EPIC FANTASY...
In the "real world," we open with Jack Ampong just leaving a prostitute when he receives a phone call that his wife Sarah has been assaulted. With this incident as a jumping off point, we watch as Jack and Sarah deal with past guilt and regrets as well as their own ongoing struggles with relationships, infertility and parenthood.
In the "real world," we open with Jack Ampong just leaving a prostitute when he receives a phone call that his wife Sarah has been assaulted. With this incident as a jumping off point, we watch as Jack and Sarah deal with past guilt and regrets as well as their own ongoing struggles with relationships, infertility and parenthood.
In the "fantasy world"—ostensibly written by Jack—a bureaucratic Empire rules with an iron fist...an ancient sect of sorcerers have extraordinary powers but are cursed with the inability to have children... and a race of beings called the Mandrakar live lives one quarter the length of normal people, but have memories that are passed on to future generations through the last of an ancient breed of tree. Along the way, we meet a crotchety governor who just wants to do right by his granddaughter, a hardboiled, lesbian, dwarf detective who just wants another drink, and a villainous sorcerer whose motives form one of the central mysteries of the story.
Throughout the book, the two narratives echo off one another—often in surprising ways—ultimately commenting on the very nature of storytelling itself.
ebook £2.27
Published November 2018 by Gowanus Press
pre-order your copy:
Praise:
"impressively creates two vivid worlds, each with its own history and compelling characters, while also offering a meditation on the relationship between creativity, fertility, and shared memory. A stunning fantasy debut." -- Kirkus Reviews
Question One: What inspired you to write this book?
As a reader, I’ve always been interested in both literary, realist fiction as well as genre fiction (particularly epic fantasy). With The Childless Ones, I was really inspired to try and meld these two genres in a way that I’d never seen before. Certainly there have been literary fantasies before but, as far as I’m aware, there aren’t really any books that use the two genres in a dual narrative in particularly this way. Aside from thinking about genre, the other thing that really excited me about writing this book was thinking of all the ways I could subtly tie the two narratives together. I’ve always loved narratives--be they books or movies or TV shows--that have mystery or puzzle elements to them. And so, throughout The Childless Ones, I tried to plant a bunch of little mysteries that reveal themselves during the course of the book, often in surprising ways.
Question Two: Who is your favourite character and why?
It would probably be Serafina Nicoletto, who is a character in the fantasy half of the book and who is introduced about a third of the way through the novel. Imagine if Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones was a woman, but instead of being nobility she was actually a private detective in the vein of Philip Marlowe of Lew Archer (only a lot sassier and more foul mouthed). That’s Serafina in a nutshell. In fact, I loved her as a character so much, that after I wrote the first draft of The Childless Ones, I wrote several additional stories of her adventures as a detective, one of which can be read here.
Question Three: Your book is written in both the real and fantasy world. What made you choose to write in this way?
As I kind of alluded to before, as a reader I love reading both genres of books (realist and fantasy). And so, as a writer, I was really interested with how these two genres could intersect in a way that was different than anything I’d seen before. I think Toni Morrison said “If there’s a book you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must write it.” This is the book that I wanted to read and I couldn’t find it anywhere in bookstores.
Question Four: Is this a standalone story or will you be writing more in the series?
Both. The characters in this book have complete story arcs so there definitely won’t be any direct sequels to The Childless Ones. At the same time, I do think that there are lot of different and interesting stories left to tell in the fantasy world I created. Already I’ve written a bunch of additional short stories set in that world and have a novel project or two that could take place in the world as well.
Question Five: Do you have anything else in the pipeline? Any projects?
Yes! I have too many things in the pipeline! As I mentioned, I’ve written a bunch of short stories set in the fantasy world of The Childless Ones, which I’m thinking about collecting into a book. I also have two novel projects I’m working on simultaneously. One of them is also set in the fantasy world of The Childless Ones, but takes place roughly a hundred years earlier. It’s the story of one of the characters only mentioned in passing in The Childless Ones and is a much more traditional, linear fantasy novel. The other novel project is in its early stages and is a kind of “weird town” mystery in the vein of Twin Peaks.
Cam Rhys Lay received his Bachelors Degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his MFA from the University of Kansas. For five years, he worked as an Associate Publisher at The Easton Press in Connecticut. Currently, he lives in Brooklyn, New York where he runs marketing for Skillshare, an online learning community for creators. The Childless Ones is his first book. To learn more about Cam and his writing, please visit him at camrhyslay.com.
This blog tour was put together by Larissa at The Howling Turtle
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