Alec Hutson’s The Silver Sorceress is out today! This is the highly-anticipated sequel to The Crimson Queen, which I really enjoyed. I enjoyed it so much, that I actually did an interview with Alec a few months ago for my newsletter. In honor of Silver Sorceress coming out, I thought I’d post that interview. My favorite part, SS had the working title of The Shadow King? Does the title give anything away? You’ll have to read the book to find out…
Check out the interview and scroll to the bottom to see the cover. If you don’t need no stinkin’ interview to buy the book, the you can grab The Silver Sorceress HERE.
AC: What fantasy books and worlds have inspired you?
AH: When I was very young, I lost myself in The Wizard of Eathsea, The Chronciles of Prydain, and the old Forgotten Realms novels. I read Game of Thrones when it was released in 1996, and it completely changed my sense of what fantasy could be. Later, New Weird authors like China Mieville, KJ Bishop, and M. John Harrison were hugely influential. For worlds, Westeros, certainly. Faerun. Krynn. Bas Lag.
AC: After finishing Crimson Queen, I couldn’t wait to dive into the next book and learn more about the world. Can you give us a sneak peek of where the story will go and when to expect it?
AH: The next book will be Shadow King, and I expect to have it ready to go sometime this Spring. Most of it is already written, but I’m going to make sure I’m completely happy with everything before I usher it out into the world. The story will follow three main POV threads – Keilan, Demian / Alyanna, and Cho Lin. The first three characters will be familiar to readers of Queen, and Cho Lin was introduced in a story in my short story collection The Manticore’s Soiree. She’s the daughter of the Shan demon hunter who was tasked with recapturing the Chosen in The Crimson Queen. That duty now falls to her.
I have the story arc for the three books in The Raveling trilogy all set. Readers will get to wander around fairly widely, with extended stops in The Empire of Swords and Flowers and the Frostlands. I may write further books in Araen, as I do enjoy the world and I think there’s plenty more to explore.
AC: How did you get into writing?
AH: My aunt owns a very large and excellent independent bookstore in Newburyport, Massachusetts. I grew up among the shelves and worked there when I was younger. I read voraciously as a child and my lifelong dream has been to instill the same sense of wonder in others that I enjoyed.
Bonus Material: Alec Hutson lives in Shanghai China, loves ultimate Frisbee, and the first chapter of CQ was written after exploring the ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
