Category Archives: Court of Fives

Five SFF Stories Complicated by Intact Family Relationships

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In Kate Elliott’s first Young Adult novel, COURT OF FIVES, protagonist Jessamy comes from a family with a complicated background. Elliott describes the novel as “Little Women  meets American Ninja Warrior in a setting inspired by Greco-Roman Egypt,” hinting at important familial relationships amidst all the action.

For Tor.Com, Elliott has compiled a list of Five SFF Stories Complicated by Intact Family Relationships. In it, she says:

[W]ith Court of Fives I specifically wanted to write a story in which the main character’s family is intact and present, and therefore plays a part as one of the complicating factors in her journey. What happens when a choice we need to make will hurt someone we care about? How much will we risk for those we love?

See which five families she picked at the link!

Remember: COURT OF FIVES releases in five days on 18 Aug. 2015! You can pre-order online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Indiebound (USA and Canada only)

The Book Wars Guest Post – The Writing Process: How One Writer Works

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Be sure to check out Kate Elliott’s recent guest post for The Book Wars, in which she discusses her drafting and writing process, world-building, and her experiences writing her debut Young Adult novel, COURT OF FIVES (out 18 August 2015!).

“Frankly, working through my first YA novel has taught me a great deal about delineating a world with fewer words, and I think I was able to put some of the lessons learned about pacing and incisive worldbuilding details into good use in my forthcoming adult epic fantasy Black Wolves (coming this November from Orbit Books). Overall I would say writing YA has helped me in writing adult fiction because it has enhanced my ability to judge how well images and emotions in my head are coming across on the page. Clarity is hard, but clarity is vital: Where the reader’s vision connects with mine is where the magic happens.”

Read more…

Stay tuned for more guest posts and interviews by and with Kate Elliott as we ramp up to the release of COURT OF FIVES!

 

 

COURT OF FIVES Giveaway

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Can Brenda Wollard and Li please email me?

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In celebration of Kate Elliott’s upcoming YA debut novel, COURT OF FIVES, we are giving away TWO (2) free copies of the hardcover just in time for its release on 18 Aug. 2015!

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Little, Brown Books for Young Reader says: “In this imaginative escape into an enthralling new world, World Fantasy Award finalist Kate Elliott’s first young adult novel weaves an epic story of a girl struggling to do what she loves in a society suffocated by rules of class and privilege.”

Inspired by Little Women, Sasuke/American Ninja Warrior, the Count of Monte Cristo, and Greco-Roman Egypt, the novel is also Elliott’s love letter to girls who play sports. (Read more about the book’s description and current reviews here.)

Here are the rules:

1. To enter: Comment below with either a favorite sport & why OR if you don’t like sports, a favorite hobby/activity. Winners will be chosen by random draw.

2. The giveaway will run from 5 August to 11 August, ending at 10 PM Hawaii Time.

3. Domestic USA and International entries welcome. (Please let us know which you are in your comments!) Winners’ copies will be mailed out as soon as we confirm addresses.

P.S. You can also pre-order your copy of COURT OF FIVES on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Indiebound!

Court of Fives – Coming Soon!

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Kate Elliott’s debut Young Adult release, COURT OF FIVES, will be released on 18 AUGUST 2015. from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. You can pre-order your copy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Indiebound (USA and Canada only!).

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Description:
“In this imaginative escape into an enthralling new world, World Fantasy Award finalist Kate Elliott begins a new trilogy with her debut young adult novel, weaving an epic story of a girl struggling to do what she loves in a society suffocated by rules of class and privilege.

Jessamy’s life is a balance between acting like an upper class Patron and dreaming of the freedom of the Commoners. But at night she can be whomever she wants when she sneaks out to train for The Fives, an intricate, multi-level athletic competition that offers a chance for glory to the kingdom’s best competitors. Then Jes meets Kalliarkos, and an unlikely friendship between a girl of mixed race and a Patron boy causes heads to turn. When a scheming lord tears Jes’s family apart, she’ll have to test Kal’s loyalty and risk the vengeance of a powerful clan to save her mother and sisters from certain death.”

Or, as Elliott says: “Little Women meets American Ninja Warrior in a fantasy setting inspired by ancient Egypt.”

Here’s are some of the reviews so far:

Booklist, starred review:
“Jes will remind readers of fearless Katniss with her skill and strategy for games. But it’s the fascinating descriptions of traditions, royal interactions, and, of course, the intensities of the Fives that will enthrall readers most of all. Let the games continue!”

Publishers Weekly:
“An imaginative journey…. Elliott creates an intricate and intriguing story, conjuring a world of mysticism and centuries-old customs. Jessamy’s boldness and impulsiveness make her a striking heroine in a male-dominated land.”

Ann Aguirre, New York Times bestselling author of the Razorland trilogy:
“Haunting. Epic. Impassioned. Layered. Breathtaking. This isn’t just a novel; it is a coup d’état of the soul. Prepare to be ravished by Kate Elliott’s Court of Fives.”

School Library Journal:
“Set in an ancient civilization reminiscent of the Egyptians and the Mayans, this is a high fantasy novel that explores race, class, and gender struggles in a patriarchal society….a world of warring kingdoms where the victors have built their civilization on the backs of the conquered. Jessamy is loyal and strong female protagonist who fights against injustice. This trilogy opener will be a hit with readers who love action-packed fantasy adventures.”

Marie Lu, New York Times bestselling author of the Legend series and the Young Elites series:
“Kate Elliott’s magic and mastery is better than ever. Court of Fives enchanted me from start to finish, with characters and worlds that lingered long after I turned the final page.”

Tamora Pierce, author of the Tortall series and the Circle of Magic series:
“Fast-paced, tense, and riveting. I couldn’t put it down, and you won’t be able to either!”

Gail Carriger, New York Times bestselling author of the Parasol Protectorate series and the Finishing School series:
“This book is amazing. Kate Elliott combines everything I love best in a YA novel. Jes is a killer protagonist, tough and capable, but also lost in her upbringing and faced with impossible choices that test her character and her beliefs…. This book will not fail you.”

 

Stay tuned for how you can win a FREE copy of Court of Fives in a blog giveaway!

Kirkus Reviews on COURT OF FIVES

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A rendition of the library at Alexandria (although I have my doubts about the terrain).

 

A very positive review for COURT OF FIVES (August 2015) at Kirkus Reviews.

If you don’t like spoilers of any kind, don’t read it as most of the review synopsizes the plot. (Why? WHY???)  I hasten to add there is nothing wrong with how the synopsis is written; it just reveals much of the plot, which perhaps is part of the point of a review journal aimed toward people buying books for schools, libraries, and stores who don’t have time to read everything new.

The last two lines are gold, and I’m very chuffed indeed:

This series opener, the auspicious teen debut of a seasoned author of adult fantasy and World Fantasy Award finalist, features a gripping, original plot; vivid, complicated characters; and layered, convincingly detailed worldbuilding.

A compelling look at racial and social identity wrapped in a page-turning adventure.

COURT OF FIVES giveaway

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It’s that time. The long wait has been whittled down to a mere 4 months (okay, that still seems like a long time to me, but less than 12 months, all right?)

SO: I am giving away TWO COPIES of the ARC for COURT OF FIVES (publication date 18 August 2015). (ETA TWO copies)

 

Elliott_CourtOfFives_web

 

Little, Brown Books for Young Reader says: “In this imaginative escape into an enthralling new world, World Fantasy Award finalist Kate Elliott’s first young adult novel weaves an epic story of a girl struggling to do what she loves in a society suffocated by rules of class and privilege.”

I say: This book was inspired by Little Women, Sasuke/American Ninja Warrior, the Count of Monte Cristo, and Greco-Roman Egypt, and is also my love letter to girls who play sports.

But don’t take my word for it:

“Kate Elliott’s magic and mastery is better than ever. Court of Fives enchanted me from start to finish, with characters and worlds that lingered long after I turned the final page.” —Marie Lu, New York Times bestselling author of the Legend series and the Young Elites series

“Haunting. Epic. Impassioned. Layered. Breathtaking. This isn’t just a novel; it is a coup d’état of the soul. Prepare to be ravished by Kate Elliott’s Court of Fives.”—Ann Aguirre, New York Times bestselling author of the Razorland trilogy

“Fast-paced, tense, and riveting. I couldn’t put it down, and you won’t be able to either!”—Tamora Pierce, author of the Tortall series and the Circle of Magic series

“This book is amazing. Kate Elliott combines everything I love best in a YA novel. Jes is a killer protagonist, tough and capable, but also lost in her upbringing and faced with impossible choices that test her character and her beliefs…. This book will not fail you.”—Gail Carriger, New York Times bestselling author of the Parasol Protectorate series and the Finishing School series

 

To ENTER:

1. Tell me (in comments) why I should pick you to read it! Your answer can be short, long, funny, serious, both, neither, can include a gif or be a gif or art or music or merely text. “I’m so looking forward to it!” is just as acceptable as a 1000 word discussion of whether Cat Barahal prefers pie or cake. I’m drawing the winner randomly regardless. I just need to make you work for it.

2. Domestic USA and International entries welcome. World-wide, because I love and appreciate all my readers and I know you are everywhere.

ETA: LET ME KNOW IF YOU ARE USA or INT’L, please (some of the early comments haven’t see this ETA–let me know if you see this later, thanks!)

3. Contest open from 15 April to 25 April, midnight USA Pacific Time (using that instead of Hawaii time because I don’t stay up until midnight)

 

As of April 20 you can also bid on an ARC at Con or Bust, a fundraiser to help fans of color attend sff conventions.

 

 

ETA: A copy is going out to winner Barbara M today (international!). The second winner hasn’t yet replied to my email so . . . I’m giving it two more days.

The Month Ahead (March 2015)

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That it is March already does not thrill me, given the volume of work I have to do. At this point I am not trying to get ahead or even get caught up; I’m just trying not to fall any farther behind.

On Fridays I will continue to post chapters of my father’s post-World War II memoir, Remembering Japan: 1945 -1946.

Each Thursday I hope to post a short “enthusiasm” for a novel, short fiction collection, or other media, but that will depend on how each week shakes out.

In February I did some publicity (posts and interviews) for the publication of my short fiction collection, THE VERY BEST OF KATE ELLIOTT (Tachyon Publications). The collection also got a number of gratifyingly positive reviews. It’s not too late to buy and read it!

I also completed and turned in the copy-edited ms of Black Wolves (Orbit Books). The novel now goes to typesetting and I will next see it in page proofs. Publication date remains 3 November 2015.

I continue to work on a draft of the sequel to my YA debut Court of Fives (Little,Brown Young Readers). Having sorted out a plot tangle (with the patient aid of one of my editors) I have what looks to me like a clear shot to the end.

An essay on Writing Women Characters will go up some time this month on Tor.com. It’s long and meant not as an “opinion piece” but as more of a workshop style essay.

I am still working on The Beatriceid, which is now my most overdue item.

The three projects mentioned above are my focus for March. I have other posts, essays, interviews, short stories, and novels awaiting my attention but for the moment they have to stand in line. I’m not complaining; far from it.

I am at that stage of my workload where I am having to say No to things I would like to say Yes to because I have too many outstanding projects and commitments (often small ones, but the small ones pile up into monstrously intimidating mountains). I like saying Yes to things but when I have too much unfinished work, especially of multiple diverse types, I often end up becoming exhausted by the mere thought of the overload and don’t get anything done at all.

So: March is for finding the space to breathe.

COURT OF FIVES: 18 August 2015!

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My YA debut arrives on 18 August 2015. Do not be fooled by my calm and reserved demeanor: I’m wildly excited about this novel and about working with Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

I know, it’s a long way away. I think so too.

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There are a lot of things I love about this cover, including the way the light flares and especially the way the design incorporates elements from the book (which become clear after you have read the book).

Here’s a bonus! I found this short post by the design firm M80 DESIGN about making this cover. I love insights into design and illustration, in part because the visuals make a big impact on me and in part because it’s not a skill-set I have.

Here’s the publisher’s description:

In this imaginative escape into an enthralling new world, World Fantasy Award finalist Kate Elliott begins a new trilogy with her debut young adult novel, weaving an epic story of a girl struggling to do what she loves in a society suffocated by rules of class and privilege.

Jessamy’s life is a balance between acting like an upper class Patron and dreaming of the freedom of the Commoners. But at night she can be whomever she wants when she sneaks out to train for The Fives, an intricate, multi-level athletic competition that offers a chance for glory to the kingdom’s best competitors. Then Jes meets Kalliarkos, and an unlikely friendship between a girl of mixed race and a Patron boy causes heads to turn. When a scheming lord tears Jes’s family apart, she’ll have to test Kal’s loyalty and risk the vengeance of a powerful clan to save her mother and sisters from certain death.

I have myself called it “Little Women meets epic fantasy in a setting inspired by Greco-Roman Egypt.”

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Pre-orders help new books: They highlight reader enthusiasm and also publishers make decisions about how many copies to print in part based on pre-order numbers (as well as many other factors), so if you are so inclined (and if you are not, that is completely fine too, of course!) here is some USA pre-order information.

Amazon.

Barnes & Noble

No pre-order information is up yet for Indiebound or Powells (that I could find).

You can also pre-order from your local bookstore (I’m a big believer in supporting local bookstores when possible).

Currently Court of Fives is only available in the USA market. I’ll keep you posted when/if availability in other markets comes through.

2014 in Retrospective. 2015 Prospective.

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For me 2014 proved to be one of those years more endured than enjoyed, with some memorable exceptions. For those interested in what I wrote over the course of the year, here is a retrospective.

FICTION

I published a single piece of fiction in 2014, a story (novelette) that I wrote as a valentine for my readers: The Courtship. I call it a coda to the Spiritwalker Trilogy because it takes place a few days after the end of Cold Steel.

No novel in 2014, alas. Which always makes me feel as if I have been unproductive. So here is what I did accomplish:

As I’ve mentioned, I fell behind writing Black Wolves because of my father’s final illness and death in 2013, so although Black Wolves was originally scheduled for November 2014 it was not even finished by the end of 2013.

I completed a first draft of Black Wolves, and subsequently two revisions, for Orbit Books.

I also completed a final line edit and copy edits and page proofs on Court of Fives, my YA debut with Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, coming August 2015.

In addition I completed copy edits and page proofs for my forthcoming short fiction collection, The Very Best of Kate Elliott (Tachyon Publications), forthcoming in February 2015.

I started (and have not yet finished) a piece of short fiction called The Beatriceid, in the style of the Aeneid, but told from the perspective of Beatrice (one of the heroines of the Spiritwalker Trilogy). I also have written about half a short story, “When I Grow Up,” told from the point of view of [spoiler]. I plan to finish these ASAP.

NON-FICTION/PODCASTS/SOCIAL MEDIA

Justine Larbalestier and I launched a monthly book club for Bestselling Women’s Fiction (of the 20th century). We read a novel each month, chatted about it in email and compiled that chat into a post, and invited discussion. I thought this was pretty great, and you can read our posts and the discussion. Unfortunately the press of our schedules overcame us in the second half of the year and we had to put the project on hiatus but we hope to start it up again here in 2015.

This RocketTalk podcast hosted by Justin Landon in which N.K. Jemisin and I discuss bias in the science fiction and fantasy field went really well, and frankly I’m proud of how the discussion unfolded on a difficult and controversial topic.

In honor of NaNoWriMo I managed to write a blog post a day about writing for the first 14 days. You can find a list of these posts at the NaNoWriMo tag/category on this blog.

I wrote up a long squee post about Martha Wells’ The Fall of Ile-Rien Trilogy which generated a lot of wonderful discussion both here and on my Live Journal mirror site.

Another squee post: Over at A Dribble of Ink I highlighted the illustrations drawn by Hugo-award-winning artist Julie Dillon for my illustrated short story “The Secret Journal of Beatrice Hassi Barahal” Because I will never get tired of talking about what a great artist she is!

In December I again participated in Smugglivus, the annual festival of posts at the home of the marvelous Book Smugglers. This year I discussed the presence of women relating to women in narratives (with a focus on television).

AND YET

If you asked me what I accomplished this year, I would say: Not enough.

Funny how harshly we can judge ourselves.

CONVENTIONS AND APPEARANCES

I don’t get out much because it is expensive to fly from Hawaii to anywhere. (Why is no one crying for me?)

BUT I did have an absolutely fabulous trip to England and France in August and September of 2014. I visited dear friends, went to a nurturing writer’s retreat in Brittany, and in general soaked up hanging out with writers and sff community people and cramming in a year’s worth of shop talk in one month.

I attended Loncon (Worldcon) in London, which was huge, wonderful, diverse, exciting, and exhausting (in the right way), the best Worldcon I have attended.

I was honored to be one of the Guests of Honor (with Larry Rostant, Charlaine Harris, & Toby Whithouse) at Fantasycon, ably run by Lee Harris. This small literary convention proved to be a really fabulous weekend in York, England.

2015:

I’ll be writing. The aforementioned two short pieces need to be finished (I have other Spiritwalker short fiction that is partially written too; in a perfect world I would finish them all by June and bring them out as a short collection, but I’m skeptical I can manage that with my current novel writing schedule).

My novel writing schedule? A YA novel and an epic fantasy novel. I will also try to find time to eat and sleep and exercise and, if I’m lucky, to read.

The rest of this week I will be posting about my forthcoming projects and when you can expect them and where you can pre-order. It looks to be a busy year. I say that as a good thing.

As always, my thanks to my readers. You make this all possible.