My novels are geared toward people looking to escape into a fun world and come out the other side feeling energized by the happy ending.
Rebecca Chastain – 11 October 2015
The Back Flap
Madison Fox survived her first week as California’s newest illuminant enforcer, defending her region against imps, vervet, hounds, and one lascivious demon. If her grumpy boss, Mr. Pitt, was impressed, he hasn’t told Madison. In fact, there’s a lot her boss has been closemouthed about, including the dark secret haunting his past.
But Madison’s problems are just igniting. Neighboring regions report an uncharacteristic flare-up of evil, fire-breathing salamanders blaze unchecked across the city, and Black Friday looms. Trapped doing cleanup amid mobs of holiday shoppers, Madison watches from the sidelines as dubious allies insinuate themselves in her region.
As suspicions kindle and the mysterious evil gains strength, Madison must determine who she can trust—and whose rules to follow—before her region and career go up in flames.
About the book
What is the book about?
A Fistful of Fire is the second adventure for Madison Fox, California’s newest illuminant enforcer. She survived her first week on the job, including facing down a demon, but she’s still under-trained and inexperienced, and her boss is keeping secrets from her. Now, fire-breathing salamanders have invaded Madison’s region, unexplained evil is cropping up with alarming regularity, and Madison’s skills are needed to rescue the crowds at the mall on Black Friday from parasitic pests only she and her fellow enforcers can see and exterminate. It doesn’t take long for Madison to find herself facing off against more evil than she can shake a wand at—and this time, she doesn’t know who she can trust to have her back.
When did you start writing the book?
I started writing A Fistful of Fire in 2008 as my second NaNo WriMo novel (I wrote A Fistful of Evil, the first in the series, as my NaNo WriMo novel the year before).
How long did it take you to write it?
The first draft took about three months, but then I set it aside to work on a half-dozen other novels. When I returned to the book, I realized it had the same problem A Fistful of Evil had the first time around: it was completely missing the third act. I took eight months this year to re-outline the entire novel, which involved cutting and rewriting about 70 percent of the book. So depending on how you look at it, it took me either one year or seven to write this novel, because without those six years between the first and final draft, I wouldn’t have gained the skills needed to make A Fistful of Fire worthy of publishing.
Where did you get the idea from?
While writing of the first novel, I considered having some sort of fire-breathing nemesis camp out in Madison’s territory in a future book. However, when I wrote my first draft of A Fistful of Fire, the salamanders weren’t a part of it. In rewrites, I realized I needed more story, and with the ongoing drought in California (where the novel is set), it only seemed fitting to bring in a fire element now. Once I decided upon salamanders, the rest of the new story elements fell into place.
Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?
Yes! There’s something with third acts in this series that so far have eluded me during the first drafts. I hope I’ve figured out how to fix this, so I can avoid massive rewrites to book 3 in the series!
What came easily?
I’ve never written a sequel before, so getting to spend time with characters and the magic rules I already knew made diving into the story much easier than starting from scratch. Also, Madison Fox has always been a fun, easy character to write. It’s enjoyable to be in her head, and her reactions to people and situations feel organic to me, as if I’m watching them unfold rather than making them up.
Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?
Mr. Bond, Madison’s cat, is a literary translation of my cat, Mack Fu, in all his obese, cheese-ball glory, but all other characters are fictitious. I wish I could claim Madison was styled after me. She’s a lot braver than I think I would be, and she’s adaptable and not terribly introspective, which are good qualities for a woman whose life is in perpetual chaos. Life as an enforcer throws a lot of surprises her way, many deadly, and she’s as resilient as she is resourceful.
Do you have a target reader for this book?
I write books to delight and entertain. (I actually have a sticky note on my monitor that says as much.) My novels are geared toward people looking to escape into a fun world and come out the other side feeling energized by the happy ending.
How was writing this book different from what you’d experienced writing previous books?
The first novel in the series, A Fistful of Evil, outsold all my expectations, making it to the Top 100 Fantasy Bestseller list in the United States, Australia, and Canada. So for the first time in my life, I had readers waiting for my book to come out. I could easily have psyched myself out imagining those readers’ expectations and fearing I wouldn’t meet them, but I have the best fans, and I felt like they were rooting for me to write an amazing book. More than ever before, the readers were in the back of my head while I wrote, and I kept asking myself, “Is this something a reader would find fun/exciting/interesting?” It added a new level of clarity to my edits!
What new things did you learn about writing, publishing, and/or yourself while writing and preparing this book for publication?
Thanks to the success of the first book, I was able to quit my day job at the end of last year, so 2015 was my first year as a full-time author. I thought I’d bang out a book in three months, and since it was a rewrite of an original draft, it’d be easy. Ha! Every book has its challenges, and it took six months before the book was ready to go to the editor.
I’ve learned a lot about myself during this process, including that I can write for eight hours a day, but it’s not sustainable. And as a published author, there’s so much more to do than just write the next book. Marketing is a constant, and there’s always something to improve, especially on the website. Allocating time has become a fine art for me, and I’ve learned how to capitalize on my energy so that I get a full day’s work in every day, but I don’t necessarily spend all day writing or editing.
End of Interview:
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