Wicked Saints Blog Tour: Q & A with Emily A. Duncan

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I am so excited to be sharing a Q&A with Emily A. Duncan, author of the highly anticipated Wicked Saints, in collaboration with Wednesday Books!

 About the Book: 


Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan
Publisher: Wednesday Books (Macmillan)
Pub Date: April 2, 2019
Buy Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

 A girl who can speak to gods must save her people without destroying herself.

A prince in danger must decide who to trust.

A boy with a monstrous secret waits in the wings.

Together, they must assassinate the king and stop the war.

In a centuries-long war where beauty and brutality meet, their three paths entwine in a shadowy world of spilled blood and mysterious saints, where a forbidden romance threatens to tip the scales between dark and light. Wicked Saints is the thrilling start to Emily A. Duncan’s devastatingly Gothic Something Dark and Holy trilogy.


About the Author:

 EMILY A. DUNCAN works as a youth services librarian. She received a Master’s degree in library science from Kent State University, which mostly taught her how to find obscure Slavic folklore texts through interlibrary loan systems. When not reading or writing, she enjoys playing copious amounts of video games and dungeons and dragons. Wicked Saints is her first book. She lives in Ohio.

 Q&A:

What countries and eras/historical events served as inspiration for Wicked Saints?

 Wicked Saints is set in a very much fantasy version of Russia and Poland. I don’t like nailing down a time period because it’s high fantasy and I like to be anachronistic with some things -- I’m not writing historical fantasy for a reason! I like to say vaguely medieval with some aesthetic touches that come from time periods much later than medieval, especially in regards to Tranavia.
Wicked Saints is compared to Joan of Arc. In what ways is Wicked Saints similar to Joan of Arc’s
story?

 Ah, well, only in a girl with a destiny and divine involvement. I didn’t write WS with Joan of Arc in mind at all! The comp came later, from my agent. It works well but any similarity ends up being on the superficial side because I didn’t go into the book with the intent to tell an analogue of her story.

 As a fantasy writer, which fantasy books and authors have influenced your writing?

 The original Dragonlance trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman made me who I am today and you don’t have to look particularly hard to see their characters’ influences in my books. I grew up on old 80s and 90s fantasy, weird and grand and dramatic. In more recent terms, I wouldn’t be here if not for The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo--it was the first time I saw in a book a girl who was allowed a villain romance and not immediately demonized for it, as other fantasy books prior were wont to do.

 XOXO,

 Isabella


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