WIP Character Blog Hop! Read All About It!

Hey, Internearthlings. I've been tagged in a blog hop. It's like being tagged in a game of Freeze Tag except instead of answering seven questions about character, you freeze. Wait, that might be wrong. (OK, maybe just to be safe, after you read this post you should freeze until someone untags you.)

I was tagged by Kurt D. Springs. His impressive deets are as follows:

Kurt D. Springs is presently an adjunct professor of anthropology and archaeology in New Hampshire. He holds a PhD. in anthropology from the State University of New York at Buffalo, as well as a Master of Literature in archaeology from the National University of Ireland, Galway, and a Master of Liberal Arts in anthropology and archaeology from the Harvard University Extension School. His main area of interest is megalithic landscapes in prehistoric Ireland.

Kurt writes reviews on Kurt's Frontier for Invincible Love of Reading. He also has an author blog, Amazon Author Page, and is on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Goodreads, and LinkedIn. Price of Vengeance has its own Facebook page as well.

Professor Springs currently lives in Manchester, New Hampshire.

I did not go to Harvard. But this one time I was in a small chorus singing a gala for mucky-mucks and I was chatting with the woman next to me and she was super nice and funny. It happened that Henry Kissinger was there and I asked my new friend if she knew the Henry Kissinger song (she did not) and I was kind of singing it for her amusement. Then she's like, "So what do you do?" and I'm like, "I'm unemployed. How about you?" and she says, "I'm the Grand Inquisitor* at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard." And my first thought was, "Then how do you not know the Henry Kissinger song?" but then my second thought was, "I am the biggest ass ever."

*My memory may be failing me here. Or not.

Anyway, thanks to Kurt for tossing me the ball! Here's some new info on my upcoming novel, Redwing.

Please note: I don't have any more images for this post, so I'm just going to stick in random ones from my computer. If you don't say anything, maybe no one will notice.

What is the name of your character? Is she a fictional or historic person?

The protag of Redwing is nameless, although the few people who know of her existence call her by what she is, Redwing. I certainly hope she's fictional, and you should too.

When and where is the story set?

The where is a city of hissing pipes, curving temples, boiling water, and birds of burden, all perched on the side of Mol, the great volcano. The when is just before the Deep Dark, one sunless year out of every thousand.

What should we know about her?

It's a bit inconceivable that she exists, and she's certainly not supposed to be alive. Those who believe in redwings know they must be drowned as infants. The problem in real life, as Redwing's father found out, is that they just look so much like real babies.

What is the main conflict? What messes up her life?

The approaching Deep Dark stirs memories of the previous year of night, when an ugly battle shaped the country for the next thousand years. Old grudges have been simmering, plans whispered in secret places. The unique characteristics of a redwing may, in fact, be necessary to prevent the fiery death of Mol's peaceful city. Or maybe redwings, as many people believe, exist only in mythology.

What is the personal goal of the character?

Amid her countrymen's conflicting purposes and beliefs, between myth and history, Redwing must discover -- or establish -- her own identity. And, you know, prevent large-scale lava death if at all possible.

Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?

The working title is Redwing, and there's a tiny excerpt on my website.

When can we expect the book to be published?

I never expect anything to be published -- I just know I will screw it up somehow, like by accidentally burning down the warehouse -- but the plan right now is for Redwing to come out in 2015 from my phenomenally awesome publisher, St. Martin's Press.

Who are you tagging?

I'm throwing the ball to the following amazeballs writers:

Stephen Bramucci, writer of travel, adventure and food, will be guest-posting at Quirk & Quill. Ronald Zupan and the Pirates of Borneo! (Bloomsbury) is coming in 2016!

Lisa Doan, author of the middle grade adventure series The Berenson Schemes (Darby Creek Publishing) and one of the funniest people I know. Visit her blog here.

Lyn Miller-Lachmann, author of Rogue (Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin) and Gringolandia (Northwestern University Press), and LEGO book launcher extraordinaire! (Don't know what a LEGO book launch is? Check out some of Lyn's work here!) Visit her blog here.

Even SSS got the LEGO treatment!