Today it gives the Speculative Fiction Showcase great pleasure to interview Amy Rosenfeldt, author of Aster's Coda: Exposure.
Curses play a significant part in this series and its world, and a Coda is a curse ender. It’s typically someone in the line of the cursed family who does it. In the case of this series, it is the Aster family. In short, this series is about someone who will end their family’s curse.
The main character, Abby Tacker, is in her penultimate year of High School when things change for her. Who is Abby and what starts her on her journey?
I’ve nicknamed Abby Tacker my little emotional wrecking ball. She’s a history buff and soccer player who is grieving her mother’s untimely death. To make matters worse, she’s been facing an unprompted bullying problem for the past year. And days into her second to last year of high school a blood feud is thrown into the mix! It becomes a matter of finding who in her ranks she can trust to send her on the right path to survive - and yes, new otherworldly powers are included.
Abby meets new friends - and enemies - tell us something about them.
Abby finds new allies in the Sub Rosa, an organisation of otherworldly defenders which Abby soon finds out people in her family have been a part of. These guys deal with any conflicts and issues that regard multiple worlds, which are more often than not Telekinetic raids from the Merus Imperium. They are sworn enemies to the Sub Rosa, trained in the Mystic arts to master the mind, body and soul of themselves and others.
The blurb for the book begins “This world isn’t alone.” What other worlds will Abby encounter?
In the Aster’s Coda series there are Three Worlds that she ventures through: Faetos, Corryn and Earth. A power called Myst, pure energy, links them together. Faetos is very set in stone with a bunch of sorcerers of all different races hailing from there, Corryn serves as the inter-world hub as they have taken technological improvements from both worlds to strengthen their own, and Earth is ever oblivious to the situations going on.
On your web-site, you share the Spotify playlist for the book. Talk us through some of the tunes and what they mean to you.
I was trained as a dancer growing up, so music has been a big part of my life. It was only right to include that in my books. I feel like it has been really helpful to add emotional tension to scenes - especially fight scenes. The final fight scene in this book was written to Shatter Me by Lindsey Sterling, and it perfectly sums up Abby’s character arc in that moment. Twenty One Pilots and AViVA have been a couple of other musical influences for my series.
What books have influenced you, whether from SF&F or other genres?
My earliest draft of this series directly copied Rick Riordan’s writing style if that’s any hint. I loved Percy Jackson’s take on urban fantasy. The Book Thief is also a huge favourite mine for that narrative voice too. I’d like to think my own book balances both.
What do you enjoy reading now?
Dystopian fiction, fantasy books in unique settings and World War II historical fiction.
You review books for your blog. How does that affect the way you read and what you choose to read?
My blog has encouraged me to read more in genres I wouldn’t pick up as often like contemporary books. But I think once I got into reviewing it helped me out more with my reading and staying engaged with the books I read. It does mean that I stick out with mediocre books more often than I’d like to, but it’s all for the learning experience now!
You are working on the next book in the series, Aster’s Coda: Semblance. What can you tell us about the story?
Don’t want to spoil too much about the sequel to Exposure yet, but I can say this. Now that Abby’s found her place in the Three Worlds, it’s time for her to shape herself. This is gonna be the book where she officially comes of age.
You are particularly interested in what makes your characters tick. How important is character-driven writing to you?
It’s huge for me. Especially with books written in first person, I want to go deep into a character’s mind when I write them. If I wasn’t a writer I may have studied psychology.
In your spare time, you love Dungeons & Dragons and Community Theatre. Tell us more. Does playing D&D influence your writing or vice versa?
D&D has helped me a lot with writing fights. The way that fighting works in a mechanical sense in the game is that different classes become types of fighters and magic users, and thus they each have different ways they fight. Like a Rogue will wait for one killer shot while a Barbarian will get as many strong hits in as possible. This made me better think about how my own characters fight in a battle-focussed series like Aster’s Coda.
What next for Aster’s Coda - and you?
Semblance is only one of 20 books I have in my head waiting to be written. I better finish that one quick to save room for more stories!
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About Amy Rosenfeldt:
Amy Rosenfeldt is a New Zealand based professional daydreamer and the author of the Aster’s Coda series. Her lifelong passion for storytelling won her the Creative Writing award at her high school and a scholarship to study communications at AUT. She loves to dive deep into her character’s minds and discover what makes people tick, continuing to do so in community theatre and playing Dungeons and Dragons. When not crafting her next story, Amy can be found tap dancing her heart away or draining the energy out of her cat, Maxie.
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