Book Tour ~ DAUGHTER OF THE DRACKAN

Daughter of the Drackan
by Kathrin Hutson

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GENRE: Fantasy

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BLURB:

Keelin is the only human fledgling, weaned by the drackans of the High Hills and given their instincts, ferocious strength, and fierce hatred for humankind. But even the drackans closest to her cannot explain why she has violent blackouts from which she wakens covered in blood.

A desperate, reckless search for the source of this secret brings her face to face with the human world and memories from a locked-away past, long forgotten. Keelin becomes a terrifying legend among human assassins while she hunts for answers, and the human realm’s High King is murdered.

While a sickly steward hides within crumbling walls, commanding her every move with a magic he should not possess, Keelin’s journey to track him down threatens her loyalty to the drackans who raised her. The rogue who crosses her path hides familiar secrets, echoing her own terrifying bloodlust and forcing her to consider that there may be something human about her, after all.

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BOOK EXCERPT

Igetheyr stood unmoving, and E’Kahlyn gently unfurled her red-brown wings. The child sat atop the drackan’s scaly back, legs huddled up to her chest. She too stared at Igetheyr, eyes glowing from beneath the shock of tangled hair.

The others snorted and growled at the human, their hatred and bloodlust already thick in the air. The drackans’ centuries-old feud with the scale-less race ran deep within their blood. Seeing one now in their home stirred timeless memories of the war, so long ago, that had started their hatred in the first place, and memories of the last human fledgling who had turned astray.

Igetheyr shifted his eyes toward the child, expressionless until he chose to speak. E’Kahlyn shot her mind-voice in a direct, shielded stream to the child, hoping to reach it before Igetheyr did. ‘Have you heard our discussion?’

A light, purple-gray blotch found its way slowly to her mind with the feeble words, ‘I did.’

‘Then go to him, young one.’

The child slid to the ground, gazing at the drackan with pleading eyes. E’Kahlyn nudged her forward with her snout. The child stumbled toward Igetheyr’s great figure and placed her hands behind her back. Her narrow chest stuck out vulnerably, head held high, and she met eyes with the black drackan. Fear did not exist in the child, as if it never had. She was part of the new world around her now and still so disconnected.

Igetheyr snorted, seemingly entrapped by her boldness. E’Kahlyn opened her mind to just the two of them, eagerly awaiting the important exchange, the final word.

 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Kathrin Hutson has been writing fiction for fifteen years, editing for five, and plunging in and out of reality since she first became aware of the concept. Kathrin specializes in Dark Fantasy and Sci-fi, and the second novel in this series, Mother of the Drackan, will be released this February.

Kathrin runs her own independent editing company, KLH CreateWorks, for Indie Authors of all genres. She also serves as Story Coordinator and Chief Editor for Collaborative Writing Challenge, and Editing Director for Rambunctious Rambling Publications, Inc. Needless to say, she doesn’t have time to do anything she doesn’t enjoy.

You can grab your copy of Daughter of the Drackan, in print or as an ebook, on Amazon here: mybook.to/daughterdrackan

www.kathrinhutsonfiction.com
www.facebook.com/kathrinhutsonfiction
www.klhcreateworks.com
www.facebook.com/klhcreateworks
https://twitter.com/klhcreateworks

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RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY

Kathrin Hutson will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Enter to win a $25 Amazon/BN GC – a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here: http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2015/12/vbt-daughter-of-drackan-by-kathrin.html

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INTERVIEW

Kathrin, thanks for being my guest today. Tell us about you.
Here we go—I’m a super wacky person. I get some weird looks, but most people love me for it. I talk with my hands in wide, exaggerated gestures (and am completely unaware of it). I write a heck of a lot better than I speak. I get really angry when people don’t use their turn signals. Things that completely don’t match, ugly things, and old things make me really warm and fuzzy inside. Raisins make me gag. I went barefoot with flowers in my hair when I married my husband. I won’t get a new anything if it still works in some capacity (got that from my dad). I’ve never punched a person in anger, but I’ve always wanted to know what it feels like. I would like to try living in a yurt someday.

If you could hang out with one famous person for one day, who would it be and why?
Bob Ross. Totally. I don’t care that he’s not alive anymore. I feel like a day with Bob Ross would fill me up with enough happiness and calm that stress and tension would cease to exist altogether. Plus, I’d love to see how he interacted with my husband 😉

What’s the story behind your latest book?
The story behind this book? It came from a lot of things, but mostly my desire to explore something really gritty and dark, to delve into a character who has known nothing but rejection, pain, loss, and lacked a sense of self. Of course, I gave Keelin awesome powers, inhuman abilities, and one hell of a strong will. I also gave her the ability to rise beyond everything human about her (which isn’t much)—she becomes an assassin among humans, the best there ever was, but it’s balanced by her drackan bloodlust and hatred for humans, making her disgusted by the fact that humans have essentially given her the crown of deadly superiority. I wanted a character whose internal struggles no one else seems to see, and whose external struggles have all but been forgotten by those they affect the most.

What is your writing process?
I must have a clean writing space, and I must have my music playing on shuffle. I listen to just about everything but Modern Country, and listening to the same artist or genre in a row really sticks a wad of cotton in my brain. It also helps if I start the day out with some yoga or a brisk walk, and especially when I don’t have any other pressing deadlines for my other jobs.

Tell us about your main character:
Keelin is like one of those electric bug zappers you hang on your porch, and everyone else is a bug. They can’t help but be attracted to her—they see her, want her, adore the strange quality about her they can’t quite place, and have to investigate further. But the closer you get to her, the more you risk your own destruction.

She starts out relatively innocent in comparison. Keelin has no idea why she blacks out, why she always returns to the same lake of her home covered in blood but never injured, and she dreads more than anything the possibility of the other drackans (who shun her for her human form) finding out what happens to her and that she isn’t strong enough to withstand these blackouts. She’s made up of one part obedience, one part fear, and two parts stubborn curiosity.

When she finds out that humans actually exist (after being kept from them her entire life by her own drackan guardian), it’s inevitable that she questions everything she’s ever been taught. Then she immerses herself in the human world, curious about them and consequently disgusted by their society, but drawn to them nevertheless because the secrets to her blackouts lie within the human world.

Then she turns everything on its head. She exposes the human world as worthless and petty, using it only for her own means. The drackans have their own secrets, too, and she dauntlessly throws the fear of their own history into their faces when she defies all drackan law to stop what’s being done to her.

Of course, through the whole story (which continues in ‘Mother of the Drackan’), Keelin comes to realize that she isn’t in control of what really matters, and that she’s been played as a pawn in the whole scheme of human-drackan history herself. At that point, she becomes one part defiant, two parts unstoppable, and all parts deadly.

If your book was to be turned into a movie, who would play the lead role and why.
When I saw the TV series ‘Penny Dreadful’ for the first time, I knew—Eva Green would absolutely play Keelin. If you haven’t seen the creepiness of that woman in her character Vanessa Ives, I seriously recommend it. She’s gorgeous, irresistible, dark, and her stare could cut glass.

What are you working on next?
The sequel, ‘Mother of the Drackan’, is in its finishing stages and will be out February or March. I’m super excited for this book, because it takes Keelin’s story to a whole new level.

I’m also pumping away at my adult Dystopian Sci-Fi, ‘Sleepwater Beat’. This novel’s a monster, and is going to be so much fun. Government and pharmaceutical conspiracy, Social Media control, human trafficking and experimentation, guerilla warfare, black market dealings, all with a bit of speech-induced superpowers and some sex, drugs, and violence. The protagonist, Leo, is someone I identify with a lot more than Keelin. She’s dark, too, but in a much more pathetic way. Her journey lies in learning how to let people in, not in how to control and/or save them.

What advice do you have for other writers who want to get the word out about their book?
Talk to as many other authors as you can. Networking is such a huge boon for you in your writing career. Every author loves to talk about fiction—that’s what made us writers in the first place. And not every writer only likes to talk about their own work. When you connect with others who completely understand the ins and outs of your fears, frustrations, struggles, successes, joys, and everything in between, the world opens up to you. Share your work with them, let them share their own, support, encourage, and motivate to your heart’s content. It all comes back around to you in the end.

What is your favorite book on your shelf right now?
I can’t pick a favorite. It’s just impossible. Favorite series, for sure, is Stephen King’s ‘The Dark Tower’. I’ve read all seven books five times, and will continue to reread them throughout my life. That’s the most epic story I’ve ever seen, and it never ceases to amaze me.

I’m also a huge fan of anything by John Irving and Christopher Moore, admittedly love the ‘Outlander’ series and ‘Game of Thrones’ (the books), and absolutely love ‘Metallic Dreams’ by Mark Rice. Not for the faint of heart, I warn you, but if absolutely nothing in the whole world bothers or offends you, give that book a shot.

Do you have any special/extraordinary talents?
I’ve played piano for the last twenty years, the first twelve of which I was classically trained, and the last eight of which I’ve spent writing my own music and lyrics as a singer/songwriter. I type 110 words per minute (no joke. I’ve tested multiple times, and it got me a great job at a Law Firm before I was able to write and edit professionally full-time). My ability to juggle insane amounts of projects at once astounds my husband and those who know me, though I have to admit it’s what keeps me going at such an effective rate.

You are given the choice of one super power. What super power would you have and why?
I would totally have Mystique’s powers, from ‘X-Men’. How cool would it be to turn yourself into any person imaginable, clothes, voice, and all? Don’t get me wrong, I’d probably get into a lot of trouble using it, but I’d definitely take that power if given the option.

List 5 things on your bucket list:

1. Travel to Greece.
2. Build my own house (with my husband).
3. Spend some time within a stone circle (I’ve been to Stonehenge, but it was roped off at the time) or any major ley line.
4. Have a velvet portrait made of my husband and I with our two dogs (come on, velvet painting? Totally tacky and awesome, and my husband and I have joked for so long about doing this and hanging it over our fireplace for maybe a year…maybe taking a picture of it and using it as a Christmas card one day).
5. Visit a Tibetan monastery.

Where can readers find you on the web?

You can check out my author’s site at www.kathrinhutsonfiction.com, and my author’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/kathrinhutsonfiction

I use one Twitter profile: www.twitter.com/klhcreateworks

My business site for editing and Indie Author consultation through KLH CreateWorks (where I post tips for authors on writing and editing their own work) can be found at www.klhcreateworks.com. KLH CreateWorks and its Facebook is www.facebook.com/klhcreateworks

Of course, you can pick up my book from amazon at http://mybook.to/daughterdrackan, and during this tour until February 5^th, it’s discounted at $0.99!

Any final thoughts?
Thank you so much, C. A. Milson, for hosting this tour stop on your blog today. And thank you, readers, for taking the time to check it out. I hope you found this interview sufficiently weird and entertaining.