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Friday, November 9, 2012

CLOSED Days of Blood & Starlight Blog Tour & Giveaway!!



Hey, guys! I don't know if you've seen any of the great posts this last week for Laini Taylor's Days of Blood & Starlight blog tour (so if you haven't - I have a full list of them at the bottom, and you should.); basically, to celebrate the gorgeousness that is Laini's writing, and as a teaser for the just-released Days of Blood & Starlight, the participating blogs picked a page number, and Laini is stopping by to talk about a scene from that page, and some of the background and beautiful, lyrical magic that went into it.

I get to wrap up the tour today with my page number, 413 - a combination of my two favorite numbers, and no, I really couldn't tell you why that is... I know I probably put Laini in a bit of a pickle, choosing a page so near the end of the book, but I'm certainly pleased with the result.

But enough from me. I'll let Laini take it away. =)


p. 413
“It was magic. Not the magic that he had discovered for himself, cobbled together out of guesswork and pain. He may as well have lived his life scraping and scratching in the dirt, only now lifting his head to see the sky and its infinite horizons, its unguessable fathoms.”

All right. Well, this blog tour format is cool and unique, but the further we have progressed into the book, the more difficult it has become to find a way to talk about passages without spoilers! This one comes during the climax (Akiva is the “he”, by the way) and has to do with the magical systems of this world I have created. So I’ll talk about magic, and creating magical systems a little bit, and see how I can bring it around to this scene without giving too much away.

All of my books have contained magic (even if I tried to write realism, I am sure that magic would wriggle its way in), and none of the systems are quite alike. The first thing I discovered, while writing my first book, BLACKBRINGER, is that you have to be really careful when writing magic into existence, not to make any single character too powerful. If you do, it becomes very difficult to create believable conflict. Your powerful character, be it the protagonist or the villain, will simply dominate and win, and there will be no story. Oops.

A system of magic has to have checks and limits. In the case of BLACKBRINGER, the protagonist Magpie had the potential for extraordinary, unprecedented power, but had very much to learn before she could control it. It was going to take her years to grow into her power. That was the way I kept things in check there.

In LIPS TOUCH, each of the three tales contains its own magic, but I’ll mention Hatchling, the last and most involved, in which the cost of power was no less than one’s humanity, and turned out to be a devastating bargain. There was one quirk of magic that evolved in that story that I love: The Druj (race of immortal, unfeeling demons) achieve their magic through speaking it. Whispering it, in fact. They can shape-shift into animals, but the problem is, once they are animals, they lack the ability of speech to whisper themselves back, so they must trust to others to do it for them or risk being trapped in animal form forever. This idea—this difficulty—became a plot point and added much to the narrative. From small details like this arises the richness and texture of a story.

In DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE, for the entire first draft, magic was a hazy system. I didn’t know its cost, or how it was accomplished. It just was. It was in revisions, working with my editor (Alvina Ling) that I got down to fleshing it out with more depth and clarity. It was fairly late in the game that I came up with the idea of the pain tithe, which is explored in much greater detail in DAYS OF BLOOD & STARLIGHT. (Get ready for brass vises and lots of bruises). Also, in this series, the history is that a thousand years ago during a slave revolt, the archives of the seraph magi were burned, and the magi were slain, and ever since, basic knowledge of magic has been lost. Only a few have such a strong sympathy for it that they’re able to “cobble it together out of guesswork and pain,” as Akiva has done.

In the scene above, he has just glimpsed a depth of magic he has never even dreamed, and has realized, for the first time, the full extent of the unknown and what has been lost. He is on the verge of discovering something extreme and extraordinary, something catastrophic which he will not begin to understand until Book 3.

Also, he’s about to stab somebody.

So there’s that.



I'm currently reading this glorious little gem, so make sure you stop back by soon for my review.  Until then, how'd you like to get your greedy little mitts on a copy of your very own?


***GIVEAWAY***

Little, Brown has offered up one beautifulshinynew copy of  Days of Blood & Starlight to one lucky winner! This is US only, and all you have to do is fill out the Rafflecopter below! (It'd be great if you left some love for Laini, too. =D )

Full rules and regulations are located in the Rafflecopter.

Also, bear in mind, this is a sequel, so if you haven't read Daughter of Smoke & Bone, you'll want to grab a copy of that first. 
Good luck!! 


a Rafflecopter giveaway


Make sure to check out the other stops on the tour:
Page 44 – Forever Young Adult
Page 115 – YA Bibliophile
Page 245 – The Book Smugglers
Page 321 – Mundie Moms
Page 413 – The Book Rat - oh hey, you are HERE!

37 comments:

  1. So excited for this book! And it looks like you picked a great page for the author to talk about ;) Really interesting comments about the magic system.

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  2. I loved Daughter of Smoke and Bone. It is unlike any book I have ever read. The passage is amazing. I am so thrilled to get a chance to win this book. Can't wait to see where the story goes.

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  3. I love the passage she picked! I am dying to read this book. I loved the first book and I loved Lips Touch Three Times. Her writing is just so beautiful and vivid that it totally captures you.

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  4. I haven't read her other books yet, but I loved Daughter of Smoke & Bone. I especially like how dark & dangerous it is. So excited for Days of Blood & Starlight, especially after this tease!

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  5. I'm so desperate for this book!! I loved Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and I know I'm going to love Days of Blood and Starlight even MORE!! I'm so excited to read more of Taylor's beautifully crafted words! She writes so amazingly, like that passage. It's wonderful!! I don't know about the history, but I still like it!! Thanks for the giveaway!

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  6. I LOVED the first book - one of my favorites that I've read this year! Can't wait to read book 2. :D

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  7. Love this passage! Real defining moment for the character, a sort of moment of truth. I like that it hearkens back to the olden days when the magic was lost and had to be cobbled back together, that shows just how deep the emotions run. Can't wait to read!

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  8. It's a great passage. Very poetic.

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  9. I loved reading about Laini Taylor's thought processes on her world of magic. She has really incredible world building and such a unique way of writing.

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  10. The magic system in DoSaB is part of what I love about the book, b/c it felt so rich and different. Can't wait to learn more about it in DoBaS.

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  11. I am really interested in this series and the covers are gorgeous!

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  12. I love Laini Taylor! I've read all of her books and TDOSAB was definitely my favourite, I cannot wait to read this one!

    Awesome giveaway Misty! :)

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  13. I absolutely adore this ladies writing style. It is so bloody unique and entrancing. I cannot wait for book 2 :D

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  14. I like the passage. It's like he's discovering himself for the first time. I like it. :)

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  15. I loved Daughter of Smoke and Bone and can't wait to see what magic Akiva has discovered! Thanks for the excerpt and giveaway!

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  16. Omigoodness, I must read this book!!! I'm so excited for it!

    And I'm glad that Laini described the world-building for her other novels: I remember being really impressed with LIPS TOUCH and especially with that last story (and the Druj). Anyway, thank you for hosting such a cool giveaway and thanks to the publisher for giving us readers a chance to own Laini's new book!

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  17. Oh wow, excited to enter. Love this book. Second giveaway I've entered lets see how it goes. Oh and by the way, I love you channel. It has inspired me to booktube myself.

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  18. It's a little sad to be reading this because tonight Laini is as close as she'll get on this tour to this little town, just 3 hours away. Hope you had a great night at Changing Hands bookstore. Sorry I couldn't make it.

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  19. Just got to meet Laini yesterday and she was so funny and sweet! And who doesn't love her pink hair! She was awesome and I loved DOS&B :)

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  20. I want to read Daughter of Smoke and Bone, but I haven't gotten to it yet. I love the cover though.

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  21. This Passage is great but now I am full of questions. First off is who is he going to stab. Also, what is going to happen to them now. How will they fix things or can they even fix whats been broken. The first book was absolutely brilliant. I am on pins and needles waiting to find out what happens next. Laini is just an amazing story teller.

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  22. Haha... I definitely shouldn't have read that passage, b/c I haven't read DoS&B yet, and it's an end passage... BUT. I don't care. It made me happy, and now I feel like I REALLY need to get a move on and read the first! Maybe that's the motivation that I was missing!! :)

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  23. I have not read her other books yet, but I loved Daughter of Smoke & Bone.This passage hast just made me more excited for the sequel!

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  24. Reeeally can't wait to read this one, love love love their covers!

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  25. I feel more heartbreak coming on. T_T

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  26. I loved the first book soooo much! I cannot wait to read this book.

    - Stella

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  27. This is so fascinating; I love learning more from the authors about the worlds they created. You'd think it's commonly known that magic can't be all-encompassing, but there are so many different ways that fantasy authors approach it! And who will Akiva stab?? So excited to read this sequel! Thanks for the giveaway!

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  28. LAINI YOU ARE AWESOME!!! That passage has so much subtle imagery! I love the scraping and scratching effects. Thanks for talking about your books and having a giveaway!

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  29. I'm really excited to read this book. I've been looking forward to it forever!

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  30. Well, its another one of Laini's awesome lyrical quotes! :) I can't wait to read this!

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  31. i love karou and akiva! i hope i win!!

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  32. I adored the first book. Karou is so tough & loveable. Love her :) thanks for the chance!!

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  33. I love the way that passage speaks to the gut of what we all have felt about something at some point. That moment when we realize something beyond what we thought we knew. And i love how Laini talks about "writing into existence" because how it is done makes all the difference in the quality of everything--plot, character development, my ability to suspend my disbelief, etc. This is so on my to read list.

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  34. This book sounds awesome! I can't wait to get my hands on it.

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  35. I have not read the first book in the series but from the passage she wrote it is something I would love! I adore anything to do with magical powers and drama, and the passage had all of that wrapped up into one! Thanks for the giveaway :)

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  36. Sigh, I both love and hate excerpts. They make me want to read the book that much more! Thanks for the passage (you torturer you)!

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  37. I loved Daughter of Smoke and Bone and the quote makes me want to read Days of Blood and Starlight even more!

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