Happy Wednesday, Everyone! Today I’m excited to have debut author Amanda Connolly here to share about her YA fantasy, The Lure of Wolves and Whispers. It sounds like it’s got fantastic worldbuilding and political intrigue. I’m looking forward to reading it.
Here’s a blurb from Goodreads:
A
darkly addictive romantasy debut about a girl who sacrifices everything to buy
the dangerous magic that could save her sister—the first in a trilogy perfect
for fans of Powerless and Throne of Glass.
On the mist-shrouded Isle of Eireann, buying
magic comes with a price.
But when her beloved older sister is gravely
injured, Maeve risks everything to buy the forbidden magic that might save her.
In exchange, Maeve trades her life to a ruthless and dangerously alluring rebel
leader. Bound to do his bidding, Maeve finds herself thrown into a deadly
competition to become the next queen and stand beside a prince rumored to be
more brutal than his tyrannical father.
With the isle on the brink of war, trust and
survival come at a terrible cost—one that will tear Maeve’s world, and her
heart, in two.
What would you sacrifice to survive?
Before
I get to my interview with Dana, I have my post for the Insecure Writers
Support Group.
Posting: The
first Wednesday is officially Insecure
Writer's Support Group Day.
Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!
The
awesome co-hosts this month are: Rebecca Douglass, Ronel Janse van
Vuuren, Cathrina
Constantine, and Jacqui Murray!
Optional Question: Is there anything you'd like to see changed, added, and/or rearranged about the book publishing industry?
I’m sure we all have tons of things we’d like to have changed. Here are some top ones for me:
·
Pay everyone a decent
wage. Authors, editors, and agents need
to be paid a fair wage for their work. Everyone is underpaid in this industry,
and even literary agents can’t quit their day jobs until they become
established.
·
Create a better system
to evaluate an author’s option books. Some authors will have
the option of a second book when they sell a manuscript. However, many write an
entire manuscript, only to have the publisher reject it for various reasons. It
seems like they could create a better system so that an author doesn’t have to
write an entire book before the decision is made.
· Provide more publicity support. All authors should have a publicist who helps them promote
their book—not just popular authors—and for longer after its release.
· Support self-published and hybrid authors. Self-published and hybrid authors should have access to affordable editorial, cover design, and publicity resources to help them pursue these options.
Protect against Al. This is an obvious concern that has to be addressed to protect authors.
Hi
Amanda! Thanks so much for joining us.
1. Tell us about yourself and how you became a writer.
Hello! Thanks for having me, I’m so excited to chat about The Lure of Wolves and Whispers J This is my debut novel, but I’ve been writing with the dream of publication for 13 years before now and had five manuscripts go nowhere before now. I’ve always been a writer and a storyteller – it’s what drew me into journalism, and I’ve been a bookworm since even before I could hold a book myself. My parents are both huge readers, and I grew up surrounded by books … writing is always what I’ve wanted to do with my life, and I feel incredibly lucky to be getting to share this story that feels so close to my heart with readers around the world.
2. Where did you get the idea for The Lure of Wolves and Whispers?
So, like I mentioned, I had written five manuscripts before The Lure of Wolves and Whispers. None of them went anywhere and in 2023 I went almost a full year without writing anything at all while I grappled with intense professional burnout, freak injuries that made all of my usual forms of stress relief impossible without excruciating pain, and back-to-back bereavements all within the span of six months. I didn’t know if I had it in me to keep trying for this dream that seemed so far out of reach – but I decided to give it one more try and if it still didn’t work, then it was a sign from the universe that this dream just wasn’t for me. I poured everything I love most about fantasy (including all of my favourite tropes) and romance and politics into that story, and it poured out of me in two and a half months – and then sold around the world roughly eight months later!
3. I’ve interviewed other authors who said they decided to give writing one more shot when they got their publishing contract. Reviewers mention how much they enjoy the world-building and political intrigue in your story. What was your world-building process like? Did your job as an award-winning journalist focusing on international politics help shape how you created the Isle of Eireann?
Thank you! I love fantasy worlds that feel really textured and deep and gritty, and I knew that was something I wanted to infuse throughout this world while I was writing it. So much of it just came naturally – I’ve found I gravitate towards the darker elements of fantasy and the darker facets of what drives people to do the things they do, especially in brutal circumstances, both in writing and in journalism. I see stories visually like a movie while I write, and as soon as I saw the opening scene in my head of the Black Quay and heard the opening lines, I knew that this world was inherently brutal and from there, it was a matter of figuring out who Maeve is and how she fits into that reality. The political webs of this world were so much fun for me as well – I drew a lot from my own experience as a political journalist covering international affairs and national security to imagine how these conflicting and competing interests would weave together, and also from histories of sectarian strife including from Ireland as well as the annexation threats that were being made in 2025 (during post-sale edits of the book) against my own home of Canada by the United States. Pouring that anger and fury into the story was deeply cathartic, and a lens to explore my own rage as well as my struggle to find hope out of everything I was grappling with when I first wrote the draft of this story.
4. Share about your main character, Maeve. Do you and she share any characteristics?
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Maeve is our point of view character into this dark and gritty world. She is a survivor, but when we first meet her she is also someone who believes, through brutal past experience, that making herself small can help keep the people she loves safe. She’s fiercely loyal to the people she loves most, especially her sister Finn, and that’s a trait I definitely share with her. My circle of friends is small but we are true ride-or-dies – I will have those girls’ backs no matter what, and I know they would say the same about me. Maeve quickly learns that safety is an illusion in this world, and that the only way to protect herself and those she loves is to find the courage to stand up and fight for what is right, even if it could cost her everything. She’s deeply driven by what is right morally, not what is right under the laws of a tyrant. And I wanted this to be a story that challenges readers to think about what they are willing to stand up and fight to defend.
5. The Lure of Wolves and Whispers is book one in a trilogy. How much of books 2 and 3 did you plot out before or while writing this story? What advice do you have for other writers writing a series?
I knew when I queried my literary agent that this was a series. Originally, I had envisioned it as four books, but Maddy (wisely) advised that four books are very unusual for a debut author and so I sat down and condensed everything I envisioned happening into three books. We sold the series as a trilogy complete with outlines for each book (about five pages total, though my deeper notes on dialogue, scenes, plot points for the series to come are about 80 pages long), and I started writing Book 2 as soon as we had the deal finalized. I’m in developmental edits on that now, and I cannot wait to be able to share more with readers soon. I would definitely encourage writers to know where your story is going and WHY it needs to be a series if that’s what you are thinking about. This was always an expansive and enormously deep world in my head, and the scope of the story demands Book 2 and Book 3 to ultimately (I hope) bring it to a satisfying and meaningful conclusion.
6. It’s awesome that you sold your book as a trilogy. How do you fit in time to write with your demanding job as a journalist?
I won’t lie – it’s really freaking hard! I’m the managing editor of one of the biggest news websites in Canada, and that means I am very often jumping onto work in the evenings and on weekends, which are usually my writing time. It means that when I do get time to write, I have to seize it and shut off everything else. Balancing both demands discipline and a certain ruthlessness about protecting writing time – I say no to trips, parties, hangouts when I have to in order to get the words down. But at the same time, being a journalist has shaped me as a writer so fundamentally, and I love that influence and how it plays out stylistically in my writing. I’ve met people I never would have outside of this job, I’ve had a front row seat to history in the making, and I’ve changed government policy in a way that betters the lives of real people – I always follow the ethos that we do journalism because relationships based on understanding are always more productive than those based on prejudice, and that is a worldview that infuses my writing and my characters are well. They have to find a way to work together and overcome their differences, just like we do in our world if we want any hope of saving it from fascism and tyranny.
7. Your agent is Maddie Belton. How did she become your agent, and what was your road to getting your publishing contract like?
Maddy was my absolute dream agent. Being in Canada, I knew I wanted an agent who had global vision and global reach, and who also shares my deep and enduring love of fantasy, speculative and romantic fiction. I had been agented previously and while she was so lovely, our tastes in what we were drawn to work on just weren’t a match and it was critical to me that when I found my next agent, it was someone I could picture working with to build a career, not just a couple of books. Maddy is a true fantasy genius and it is still deeply surreal to me that she picked my dark, gritty, twisty little story out of her slush pile and proceeded to change my life. It happened so quickly – I queried her and because she is in the UK, the agency asks to be notified if you get other full manuscript requests. I had several come in and let her know, and Maddy speed-read the book and emailed me at like 11PM her time on a Friday night literally right before she was about to leave for the Bologna Book Fair. We squeezed in a Zoom call and she offered representation right afterwards, which I was over the moon to accept. She immediately understood and shared my vision for who these characters are and how to make this story sing. I queried her at the end of March and by mid-April, if I recall, she had brought me on. We did about five rounds of edits and then went on submission in September – our first offer came within 24 hours, and we went on to sell in multiple lifechanging pre-empts and an auction. It has truly been a dream come true.
8. What a wonderful submission experience! How are you planning to promote The Lure of Wolves and Whispers? How do you plan to reach out to readers in the United States when you live in Canada?
Social media has been a huge part of promotion – seeing the reaction and excitement for this story has been incredible, and it means the world to see the deeply kind and wonderful things readers are saying about Maeve and Wolf and Cash, our core trio here. I would love to do virtual book clubs and as many podcasts and other virtual events as I can, and I’ve been incredibly lucky that my publisher Sarah Barley Books and Simon & Schuster have been so wonderful at reaching out to readers on the ground across the U.S. J
9. What are you working on now?
Right now, I am deep in developmental edits on Book 2. It has a title, it’s drafted, and now we are making it the best it can possibly be! I have an outline for Book 3 that’s about six pages long right now, and I actually just found the perfect song that I can’t wait to write the opening scene in Book 3 to – I’m hugely influenced by music. I wrote The Lure of Wolves and Whispers with Taylor Swift’s Willow and Don’t Blame Me on repeat. Book 2 has been heavy on Ruelle’s The Other Side, Charlie Puth’s Dangerously and Imagine Dragons’ Warriors. Beyond this series, I also drafted a separate book while on submission with The Lure of Wolves and Whispers that I am hesitant to say too much about just yet, but it has utterly bewitched me and reflects my love of the Rocky Mountains, Taylor Swift’s song Ivy and Olivia Rodrigo’s You Can’t Catch Me Now, and shows like The 100.
Thanks
for all your advice, Amanda. You can find Amanda at @amandaconn on Instagram
and Spotify, as well as Amandaconnolly.substack.com.
https://www.instagram.com/amandacconn/
https://open.spotify.com/user/amandacconn
https://amandaconnolly.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chips
Giveaway Details
Amanda’s publisher is generously offering a paperback
of The Lure of Wolves and Whispers for a giveaway. To enter,
all you need to do is be a follower of my blog (via the follower gadget,
email, or bloglovin’ on the right sidebar) and leave a comment by July
11th. If I do not have your email (I can no longer get it from your Google
Profile), you must leave it in the comments to enter the contest. Please be
sure I have your email address.
If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or
other social media sites and/or follow me on Twitter or Bluesky or follow Amanda
on her social media sites, mention this in the comments, and I'll give you an
extra entry for each. You must be 13 years old or older to enter. This book giveaway
is US.
Upcoming Interviews, Guest Posts, and Blog Hops
Monday, July 9th, I have an agent spotlight interview with Justina Ireland Handspun and query critique giveaway
Monday, July 13th, I have an interview with Amy Tern and a giveaway of her MG Sneaks
Thursday, July 16th, I’m participating in the Sip Sip Hooray Giveaway Hop
Monday, July 20th, I have an interview with Emma Otherguy and a giveaway of her MG Adventure in the City of Stories
Wednesday, July 22nd, I have an agent spotlight interview with Sam Farkas and a query critique giveaway
Saturday, August 1st, I’m participating in the Apple a Day Giveaway Hop
Wednesday, August 5th, I have an interview with Lindsey Olsson and a giveaway of her YA To Drown a Witch and my IWSG post
Monday, August 10th, I have an agent spotlight interview with Riley Jay Davis and a query critique giveaway
Sunday, August 16th, I’m participating in the Old School Giveaway Hop
I hope to see you on Monday!
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