Set in the universe of Rory Thorne, this new sci-fi mystery follows an unlikely duo who must discover the motive behind an unusual murder. We chat with author K. Eason about her latest book release, Nightwatch on the Hinterlands, along with writing, book recommendations, and more!
Hi! With the year gradually coming to a close, how has 2021 been for you?
Better than 2020! I’ve gone a little feral since the pandemic. Shoes? What are shoes? What is time? Days? They are different? Preposterous!
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
First book(s): The Cat in the Hat, maybe? Or one of the Frog and Toad books.
The book that made me want to be a writer: I was 4, 5? My parents had this set of graphic novel adaptations of the classics, and the bright blue one had dogs so I read it (the others were just people and, like ships, and I did not care). It was White Fang. (I was so happy to later discover it was a novel because it had so many more words and so much more story, even if it had no cool pictures). That book inspired me to make up stories for my stuffed dogs, and then write those stories down.
A book I can’t stop thinking about: The Devourers, by Indra Das.
Your new novel, Nightwatch on the Hinterlands, is out October 19th 2021! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Murder, monsters, politics, math-magic, battle-rigs.
What can readers expect?
The plot deals with solving a mystery, but the story is about relationships–past histories and old prejudices, and how people do–or don’t–get past that baggage, or learn to work with it, or in spite of it. How heroism comes down to small acts of courage and loyalty and friendship.
Where did the inspiration for Nightwatch on the Hinterlands come from?
A Dungeons and Dragons game my best friend ran for me and my husband years ago–as really good games do, it stuck with me. I called her one day and said hey…how do you think we could turn your very cool fantasy setting into something with power-armor and math-magic? What appealed to me about that game, that I wanted to get into Nightwatch, was a sense of fighting a losing battle against forces unleashed by decisions made generations ago. The damage is done. There is no reversing it. There’s only going forward, and figuring out how that looks.
Can you tell us about any challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
The first draft of this story–which looked nothing like this one–died about 93K words in. I trashed the whole thing and started over. SInce I wasn’t writing on a deadline, that was…I can’t say it wasn’t distressing, because it was, but I wasn’t completely freaked out.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I love Gaer. He’s the easiest voice to write.
What do you love about the sci-fi genre? Does your interest stem from certain works?
I love the possibilities in speculative fiction of all kinds. I love complex world-building, and seeing some new, other place unfold on a page, and in the characters. I can point to early SF that I read–William Gibson, CJ Cherryh–as the starting of my love for the genre, but also to Star Trek on TV when I was a kid. Now, The Expanse is my SF TV favorite. And because I’m a gamer, too…I think the Mass Effect video game franchise does just about everything I love about SF as a genre.
What’s next for you?
Nightwatch has a sequel coming next year, but after that? I don’t know. Fantasy-horror? More space opera? I’ve got a couple ideas kicking around; we’ll see what one gets traction first.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
If you haven’t read the Murderbot Diaries, go do that. All of them. Right now. Also NK Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy and Tamsin Muir’s Locked Tomb books.
