Written by Teralyn Mitchell
The Last Magician meets A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue in this thrilling tale filled with magic and set in the mysterious Carpathian Mountains where a girl must hunt down Vlad the Impaler’s cursed ring in order to save her father.
The Lady Rogue is an upcoming YA fantasy by Jenn Bennett that has such an intriguing premise! She was kind enough to answer some questions from our writer, Teralyn, discussing her new novel, writing, and more.
Hi Jenn! Can you tell our readers a little about yourself?
I’ve been a writing fiction for about ten years, both for adults and teens. THE LADY ROGUE is my twelfth published book. I currently live outside of Atlanta, but I’ve moved around quite a bit; my father was in the U.S. Army, and I’ve spent a lot of time in Europe and the Far East. My background is in art. I wanted to be an Egyptologist when I was a kid. I paint. I draw. I sew. I write.
If you had to describe The Lady Rogue in five words, which words would you choose?
Lively. Mysterious. Adventurous. Romantic. Fun.
The Lady Rogue has such an intriguing premise! Can you tell us a little about the book?
My heroine, Theodora, finds out that her father—a wealthy treasure hunter who has been searching for a legendary ring that once belonged to Vlad the Impaler—has gone missing. She sets out across Romania with someone from her past, a boy named Huck, who she grew up with…and for whom she also developed feelings. Huck’s been out of her life for a year, but he’s the last person to have seen her father. Together they follow a series of clues that leads them into the Carpathians, where they follow both the legendary ring and her father’s trail.
Are there any secrets from the book (that aren’t in the blurb), you can share with your readers?
Though the book is focused on the medieval warlord, Vlad the Impaler, otherwise known as Vlad Dracula, “son of the Dragon”—and more popularly seen as potential unproven inspiration for the fictional Count Dracula—there are no vampires with fangs and batwings flapping around in my book. However, my protagonists find themselves facing other unexplainable supernatural phenomena…
What was the inspiration for the story?
I’ve always been attracted to the 1920s and 30s, and I’m especially fond of films inspired by pulp fiction from that era, like Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and especially The Mummy (1999) with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. I wanted to write something that captured that same kind of pulp sensibility: travel adventure, a mystery with supernatural elements, a bantering couple…lots of atmosphere and action.
What kind of research did you do for The Lady Rogue?
History books, old maps, train schedules from the time period, travel guides. Historians who were willing to answer my questions about Romania.
Chasing Lucky is your next novel (releasing April 2020). Can you tell us a little bit more about it?
I’m still writing it, so I can’t say much. Except that it’s a different setting for me—small town in New England. But I hope that readers who liked ALEX, APPROXIMATELY will feel like this its spiritual East Coast cousin…and maybe a bookend to my contemporary romances from the past few years.
And one final question: do you have any book recommendations for us?
I’ve been on deadline for the last two weeks, writing for twelve, sometimes sixteen hours a day, and I can say in all honesty that the last thing I’ve had time for is reading. But when I’m finished writing this book, it will likely be the first thing I do. I have two books on my bedside table: THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE and THE MAD WOLF’S DAUGHTER. I look forward to reading both!
