Blog Tour – Spark to Shadow

Hello hello, and welcome or welcome back to my little corner of the internet. Today is my spot on the blog tour for Spark to Shadow by Atima Kim. I’m bringing you an interview with the author today, which is just one in a selection of avalible posts throughout this tour, which you can find the schedule for here. I’m right at the end of the tour today, but with the schedule you can find links to all the different blog posts that have come ahead of me.

Synopsis
Witch. Warrior. Dragon Rider.

Long ago, the covens of the East made a pact to bring peace to the continent. To unite the clans and create a new era of witches, starting with the next generation of matrons. Fang is the first witch of her generation to reach her debut, as the next matron of her coven she has the unique honor of being the first one to fulfill the pact. For the first time in centuries, a Miangese witch will take a foreign consort. Luckily, Fang already has someone in mind. Taken in by the Sun coven in the mountain kingdom of Anda, Fang is more than happy to entertain the alluring young lords of the Ruby clan as they compete to win her affections, not knowing her choice has already been made.

Or so she thought.

Until a chance encounter brings to light the existence of something Fang previously thought to be quite rare, a male witch. The meeting of this young shadow witch— a boy who Fang now owes a debt— starts a chain of events that will make Fang question everything she thought she knew about her Andan allies. In an effort to help him escape his oppressors, Fang and the shadow witch discover a dark presence that is slowly poisoning the innocent citizens of mortal Anda, and a dangerous weapon that could threaten the very peace of the pact that Fang is bound to uphold. As she, her friends, and her new shadow witch companion work to fight against these looming forces, Fang’s feelings towards her own choices slowly start to shift. She must decide what is more important to her, who she wants by her side, and most of all: what she’s willing to give up in order to be the leader her people need.

Now you’ve had the exciting synopsis, let me lead you into the interview with Atima!

Hello! Thanks for taking the time to talk to me about your new release, “Spark To Shadow”. How are you feeling now your book is out in the wide world?
Hello, its quite a bit of relief honestly and great deal of pride. The feeling of seeing the finished product, of a story you created become real and in the hands of others is really something I’ll never get tired of.

What was your motivation behind this work? Did anything in particular inspire you?
I had a lot of inspirations, but mostly it was born of a desire to see books that centered around East and Southeast Asian culture and to make that a reality. I also love elemental magic in books and I knew I wanted that to be a major part of the story, so fusing the two things and bringing in more things that I love really made this a project of the heart.

Was writing fantasy always the plan?
Not at all. I actually started writing mostly contemporary romance, and then I really wanted to write a historical romance. I thought I should read some more romance books to help with inspiration and stumbled upon fantasy romance. I had this idea in my head that fantasy= fairytales, or that it was all dungeons and dragons or Lord of the Rings, which isn’t really my thing. Then when I dived into the genre I realized all of a sudden that this was it, this was my genre. I think the combination of writing about the magic of falling in love and actual magic is my favorite thing.

What is your writing process like? Do you have a set routine? 
I come up with the main concept first, then the characters, and then what I want the central conflict to be. Then I sit down and write a rough outline and fill in the details later. My routine is really once my outline is done, to sit down and just write, I’ll write for like a week, two weeks straight through and knock out an entire manuscript like that. It’s just one really long sprint and then I polish it in pieces later.

Who was your favourite character to write?
Sanha. Actually I think the main male characters are always more fun for me to write, but in Sanha’s case giving him this complicated past and really giving his character depth and the way that his relationship with Fang forms and changes was really exciting to me.

How do you spend your time when you’re not writing?
Chasing my toddler around. And reading, my TBR is actually quite frightening at this point. I have a lot of pets that keep me busy as well and need their own attention, there’s really never a quiet moment.

What has been your personal favourite read of the past year?
Do I have to choose one? I don’t have a neutral ground when it comes to books. I either love them, or I didn’t finish because I got bored. If I had to specify I would say that like a good majority of the book community I am obsessed with Jennifer L Armentrout’s From Blood and Ash series, like obsessed. And I can blame my recent historical romance kick on the Bridgerton books, which have been a nice change from my usual high stakes fantasy series.

Finally, how would you describe “Spark to Shadow” in three words?
It’s Witches, Romance, Dragons. That’s really all you need to know.

Book Links
Good Reads
Amazon US / Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble
Book Depository
IndieBound

About The Author
Atima has been coming up with stories for as long as she can remember. As soon as she learned how to read and write she was putting pen to paper and dreaming up new worlds and adventure. Her life  

has always been on the page and as she grew up and her interests changed so did her writing. She loves creating places to escape, and more than anything she loves writing about love. She was born in the Midwestern US, to a Thai mother and American father. Her home has always been a mix of languages and cultures, and remains so today. She likee to draw on the places and people and culture that influence her life as inspiration in her writing and she hopes to join the ranks of other Asian American authors representing diverse cultures and voices in the writing community through her books.

Author Links
Website
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Good Reads
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