Part fugitive, part hero, fifteen-year-old Nya is barely staying ahead of the Duke of Baseer’s trackers. Wanted for a crime she didn’t mean to commit, she risks capture to protect every Taker she can find, determined to prevent the Duke from using them in his fiendish experiments. But resolve isn’t enough to protect any of them, and Nya soon realizes that the only way to keep them all out of the Duke’s clutches is to flee Geveg. Unfortunately, the Duke’s best tracker has other ideas.
Nya finds herself trapped in the last place she ever wanted to be, forced to trust the last people she ever thought she could. More is at stake than just the people of Geveg, and the closer she gets to uncovering the Duke’s plan, the more she discovers how critical she is to his victory. To save Geveg, she just might have to save Baseer—if she doesn’t destroy it first.
Interview
Q:I thought the idea of buying and selling pain is so unique and ingenious. How did that idea come about?
A: I was playing around with ways to make healing something that could be used for evil. Pain was the most obvious "bad" thing associated with healing, so I started thinking about how it might be used. I'm actually not sure how buying a selling it came to be, just one of those bolts of inspiration I think, but I really liked the idea of pain as a commodity. The more I thought about how that would function within a society, the more I saw the potential for some cool problems. And cool problems lead to interesting plots, so I kept running with it.
Q:Who is your favorite character to write?
A: The bad guys. Zertanik from The Shifter, and Vyand from Blue Fire. I've always loved villains, and they're both practical and businesslike in their badness. They come across so reasonable, but what they're asking for or doing is really horrible. And they have weird senses of humor, which is always fun to write.
Q:What are you currently working on?
A:Waiting on my revision letter for book three, then I'll be diving into edits and whatever revision might be needed. I'm also letting the idea for my next book percolate in my mind so I'll be ready to go on that as soon as Shifter 3 is done. That will be a YA fantasy, and I hope to start that one in January.
Q:Ooh would you like to give us any details?
A: I've been wanting to do some genre mixing, so this one is a bit of a fantasy spy novel. It'll be a solid fantasy, but with elements of espionage. Can't say more than that yet, though.
Q:If you could have dinner with any three fictional characters who would it be and why?
A:Hmmm...1) The interviewer from Max Brooks's "World War Z." He must have heard even more stories from the zombie war and I'd love to hear those. 2) Lord Akeldama from Gail Carriger's "Parasol Protectorate" series. He just cracks me up every scene he's in and I think he'd be so much fun to hang out with for an evening. 3) And Faithful from Tamora Piece's Alanna series. That cat has seen a lot more than he lets on.
Q:And lastly what can we look forward to in future healing wars books?
A: In the new one, Blue Fire, Nya gets to tangle head on with quite a few Baseeri and finds out things are not as black and white as she always thought. You also get to learn more about the enchanting side of the magic of this world. That was a lot of fun to explore. Then in book three, there's the war in The Healing Wars title, and I got to pull out all the stops for that one.
Thanks so much Janice!
Most welcome!
More on Janice Hardy
A long-time fantasy reader, Janice Hardy always wondered about the darker side of healing. For her fantasy trilogy THE HEALING WARS, she tapped into her own dark side to create a world where healing was dangerous, and those with the best intentions often made the worst choices. Her books include THE SHIFTER, and BLUE FIRE from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. She lives in Georgia with her husband, three cats and one very nervous freshwater eel.
A BIG thank you to Janice Hardy for coming over!
