K. Eason Interview - How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse ~ JeanBookNerd

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K. Eason is a lecturer at the University of California, Irvine, where she and her composition students tackle important topics such as the zombie apocalypse, the humanity of cyborgs, and whether or not Beowulf is a good guy. Her previous publications include the On the Bones of Gods fantasy duology with 47North, and she has had short fiction published in Cabinet-des-Fées, Jabberwocky 4, Crossed Genres, and Kaleidotrope. When she’s not teaching or writing, Eason picks up new life skills, ranging from martial arts (including a black belt in kung fu!), to Viking sword and shield work, to yoga and knitting.

When/how did you realize you had a creative dream or calling to fulfill?
To me, it's not really a calling. It was a certainty. I just always liked making up stories, from the time it was just me and a stuffed animal. I declared I wanted to be a writer sometime in elementary school, and just started writing.

What was the single worst distraction that kept you from writing this book?
This book was written mostly over a summer, so there were not a lot of distractions. When I'm trying to write during the teaching year, though (or revise: RORY was revised during a spring semester/winter quarter), my students and their writing are my biggest distraction.

Has reading a book ever changed your life? Which one and why, if yes?
Oh yes. The hard part is picking one of them. When I was young... A Wrinkle in Time, because Meg wore glasses and was smart and nerdy and not pretty, and she saved her brother and father (and, arguably) the world because of qualities I'd only really seen in boy heroes up to that point.

Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.
Holding my book in my actual hands. I wrote this thing, and here it is, made physical.

In your new book; HOW RORY THORNE DESTROYED THE MULTIVERSE, can you tell my Book Nerd community a little about it.
RORY is about a princess who has been blessed (and cursed) by fairies. Then her father is assassinated, her mother marries the Regent of a rival kingdom/space station to keep the political peace, and Rory finds herself betrothed to that kingdom's prince. When Rory gets there, however, she finds out the prince is missing. She decides to find him, rescue him, and restore him to his rightful place. And then, well. Things don't go to plan. --And, you know, the whole thing is set in space with alternative science, and the magic is mathematics.

What was the most surprising thing you learned in creating Rory?
How much fun it was to take on the patriarchy and the princess tropes from fairy tales head on. I didn't even try to hide what I was doing.

If you could introduce one of your characters to any character from another book, who would it be and why?
Rory Thorne and Hermione Granger. They'd solve the multiverse (no specific problems. Just all of it).

What are some of your current and future projects that you can share with us?
Well, the sequel to RORY is coming out next year, and that's in the editorial phase now. I'm wrapping up another book set in a far-future version of that same world, with entirely different characters, which half space opera-fantasy and half murder-mystery/procedural.

TEN FAVORITE READS EVER - K. EASON
A couple of these are series, but I read them in a block every time

1. Cyteen, C.J. Cherryh
2. Neuromancer, William Gibson
3. The Last Light of the Sun, Guy Gavriel Kay
4. The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
5. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
6. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
7. A Wrinkle in Time/A Wind in the Door/A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Madeleine L'Engle
8. The Prydain Chronicles, Lloyd Alexander
9. IT, Stephen King
10. Watership Down, Richard Adams

Best date you've ever had?
Every week my husband and I have a date night at the local brew-pub. Those are the best dates: good beer, good company, sharing a meal. ...then coming home and co-op playing a video game.

Choose a unique item from your wallet and explain why you carry it around.
I have one of those credit-card sized utility tools, because you never know when you will need a compass or a knife. Right?

If you could go back in time to one point in your life, where would you go?
I'd go back to Iceland, where we went for a vacation a couple years ago. Just that week, repeated, because it was so awesome. (But not the flights, because trans Atlantic flights are not fun)

What decade during the last century would you have chosen to be a teenager?
I am pretty OK with the decade I had--mid-80s to mid-90s. It was before internet and cell phones, and after D&D had gone into AD&D second edition. All good.

Which incident in your life that totally changed the way you think today?
Let's redefine incident as "senior year in high school." My German teacher, who was young and fabulous and we all thought she was great, was talking to us about politics. She was what my conservative family would've called liberal with that knowing side-eye, and I knew I was supposed to think that wasn't so great, but she was great, so anyway--she was talking about politics, and I was probably saying some talking point I'd heard at home and hadn't bothered digesting, I don't even remember what--the Berlin Wall came down that year, so maybe that was the occasion--and she said to me, "You will change your mind about a lot of these things when you get to college." And she was right. That was also the year I met my best friend, who's a lesbian, and talked to another friend about what we'd do if she was pregnant, and suddenly all that simple black-white social conservatism I'd grown up with wasn't simple. It didn't match my experience of people I loved, and so... I started paying attention.

Which would you choose, true love with a guarantee of a heart break or have never loved before?
Love, always.

First in a duology that reimagines fairy tale tropes within a space opera—The Princess Bride meets Princess Leia.

Rory Thorne is a princess with thirteen fairy blessings, the most important of which is to see through flattery and platitudes. As the eldest daughter, she always imagined she’d inherit her father’s throne and govern the interplanetary Thorne Consortium.

Then her father is assassinated, her mother gives birth to a son, and Rory is betrothed to the prince of a distant world.

When Rory arrives in her new home, she uncovers a treacherous plot to unseat her newly betrothed and usurp his throne. An unscrupulous minister has conspired to name himself Regent to the minor (and somewhat foolish) prince. With only her wits and a small team of allies, Rory must outmaneuver the Regent and rescue the prince.

How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse is a feminist reimagining of familiar fairytale tropes and a story of resistance and self-determination—how small acts of rebellion can lead a princess to not just save herself, but change the course of history.

Praise for HOW RORY THORNE DESTROYED THE MULTIVERSE

“Fun and feminist, unique and stylish, with a heroine who'll steal your heart. If fairy tales and space opera had a clever baby with a big vocabulary and a rebellious streak, this would be it.” —Delilah S. Dawson, New York Times-bestselling author of Galaxy's Edge: Black Spire

"This is big, imaginative space opera at it's best. Filled with complex characters and twisty politics, Rory Thorne is an awesome ride." —Michael Mammay, author of Planetside

"Rory Thorne raises the bar for self-rescuing princesses everywhere. This clever fusion of unforgiving fairy tale and fanciful space opera destroyed me emotionally in all the best ways." —Curtis C. Chen, author of Waypoint Kangaroo

"Readers will be clamoring for the second installment before Chapter One is over. Told with just enough editorializing from a Dickensian narrator, this story delights from cover to cover. The political intrigue never fails to surprise, each character is layered and compelling, and there’s a perfect balance between science-fiction action and fairy-tale fantasy. Do not, under any circumstances, miss out on this." —Kirkus (starred review)

"Eason adds a feminist modern twist to fairy tale and sf tropes while presenting an intergalactic adventure that enthralls in its own right, striking that ideal balance between original and familiar.... A delightful start to what promises to be a smart, unique series." —Booklist (starred review)

"Beautifully layered, endlessly entertaining.... Using a mixture of hacking skills and hexes, political maneuvering, martial arts, and flirting, Rory manages to destroy the multiverse and control her own fate. How she gets there is a journey well worth the read. Exquisitely written with complex characters, sardonic wit, and immersive worldbuilding. Highly recommended." —Library Journal (starred review)

"Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and picture outer space plus fairy tales plus political intrigue plus magic. Whatever you’re thinking of, How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse is all those things, but better." —Hey Alma

"Joyfully, delightfully amazing.... Definitely one of my favorite books of the year thus far." —Roarbot

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