White
Heart of Justice
Noon
Onyx
Book
3
Jill
Archer
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Ace
Date of
Publication: May 27, 2014
Number of pages:
304
Word Count:
95,000
Cover Artist:
Jason Chan
Book
Description:
Since Lucifer
claimed victory at Armageddon, demons, angels, and humans have coexisted in
uneasy harmony. Those with waning magic are trained to maintain peace and
order. But hostilities are never far from erupting…
After years of
denying her abilities, Noon Onyx, the first woman in history to wield waning
magic, has embraced her power. She’s won the right to compete in the
prestigious Laurel Crown Race—an event that will not only earn her the respect
of her peers but also, if she wins, the right to control her future.
However, Noon’s
task is nearly impossible: retrieve the White Heart of Justice, a mythical
sword that disappeared hundreds of years ago. The sword is rumored to be hidden
in a dangerous region of Halja that she is unlikely to return from. But Noon’s
life isn’t the only thing hanging in the balance. The sword holds an awesome
power that, in the wrong hands, could reboot the apocalypse—and Noon is the
only one who can prevent Armageddon from starting again…
Book Links:
Author Interview
1.
Tell us a bit about your writing background. How did you get started writing
fantasy?
I’ve read fantasy all my life so it felt
natural to attempt a fantasy story when I first started writing. Like most
paranormal, fantasy, and speculative fiction writers, I’m drawn to “otherworlds”
– make-believe places full of sinister creatures, supernatural threats,
monsters and magic.
2.
Who/What were your earliest influences?
My very first favorite book was Bears in the Night by Stan and Jan
Berenstain. I loved the colors of the illustrations: midnight blue and inky
black interspersed with glowing bits of yellow. I loved that it was a nighttime
adventure story. I loved that it was a tiny bit scary. And I loved that
everyone ended up okay in the end.
Of course, once I learned to read, I
quickly moved on. Other favorites throughout the years have included: The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Watership Down, C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles
of Narnia, every single Anne McCaffrey book I could find. I went through a
horror phase and read a lot of Stephen King and John Saul. I started folding in
the work of authors in all sorts of genres: epic historical sagas (James
Michener, Colleen McCullough, Jean Auel, Isabel Allende, Ken Follett),
mysteries (Elizabeth George, Elizabeth Peters, Arturo Perez-Reverte), romance
(Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb, Diana Gabaldon), science fiction (Frank Herbert,
Ursula K. Le Guin, William Gibson), and fantasy (Lois McMaster Bujold, Jacqueline
Carey, Naomi Novik, Anne Rice).
3.
Did you face any early challenges to finding success in writing?
There are challenges every step of the way. But one of the biggest challenges I faced
early on in my path to publication was my main
character’s age. In the first book, Noon is a student trying to survive a
crushing course schedule. She has parents who don’t get along and boy troubles.
The book is also written in first person. So, initially, we pitched it to some
young adult editors.
But Noon’s twenty-one. She’s an
adult. And, though she struggles with some of the things that YA protagonists
often struggle with, many of the scenes and themes were written with an adult
audience in mind. So I was happy when we sold the rights to Ace, an adult sf/f imprint.
4.
What are some of the books you’ve read recently or are looking forward to
reading? What qualities in them appeal to you?
Books I’ve read recently: Robin
LaFevers’ Grave Mercy, Rachel
Neumeier’s House of Shadows, M.L.
Brennan’s Generation V, Elliott
James’ Charming, J. Kathleen Cheney’s
The Golden City, Emma Newman’s Between Two Thorns, K.B. Laugheed’s The Spirit Keeper, and Alethea Kontis’ Hero.
Looking at this list, a few things stand
out: I love dark magic, fairytale retellings, wonderfully crafted otherworlds,
adventure, romance… and vampires, so long as the character has a strong and entertaining
voice.
Books I’m looking forward to reading:
Ransom Riggs’ Hollow City (more
creepy vintage photographs!) and J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst’s S. (a story within a story full of the
neatest tangible extras: handwritten notes, newspaper clippings, telegrams,
pictures, postcards, maps drawn on the backs of napkins…)
Also worth mentioning: I’m currently
reading Marissa Meyer’s Cinder
(cyborg Cinderella, what’s not to like?!) and two “older” novels that I adored
are Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus
(worldbuilding so real, you will feel like the Night Circus might arrive in your
town tonight) and Maggie Stiefvater’s The
Scorpio Races (magical realism at its best).
5.
What do you do outside your writing life?
I love to read and watch movies. I also love
day tripping and outdoor adventuring. I hike, bike, and go boating with my
family. My husband’s passion is recreational aviation so I spend some of my weekends
flying around the Chesapeake Bay area and up and down the Atlantic coast.
6.
What encouragement and/or advice helped you along the way?
When my only goal was simply to finish a
novel, the best encouragement I ever received was this: YOU are the only one
standing in the way of your goal. YOU are the only one who can make it not
happen. Don’t quit!
7.
What advice do you have for beginning writers?
Read in the genre you want to write in – and outside of it. Read
non-fiction. Sign up for workshops, take classes, and get involved with a
writer’s group. Keep writing! Don’t be afraid to submit your work, but make
sure it’s truly ready to submit (or as ready as you can make it at the time). Explore
self-publishing as an option, but make sure you’re prepared to publish high
quality work. Don’t give up or get frustrated. Learn from constructive
criticism, mistakes, and rejection. Celebrate small accomplishments and enjoy
the process as much as the product.
8.
What's up next for your fans?
I
have a short story called “Dream, Interrupted” coming out in the Mammoth Book of Southern Gothic Romance
in the fall. The story features another singularly unique heroine, Corelei
Neverest. Set in Moonlight, Georgia or thereabouts, the story is full of all
the things I adore: dark, creepy hallways; bright, sunlit gardens; mysterious
happenings; stories-within-stories; supernatural threats; and swoon-worthy
kisses.
9.
What has been your biggest compliment?
I cherish each and every word of praise
I receive, especially if it’s from a reader who takes the time to contact me
after they’ve read a book of mine. There have been many complimentary comments
from readers and reviewers, such as Publishers
Weekly saying that Noon’s voice is “wry and genuine” and that White Heart of Justice is “an emotional
journey” with “excellent worldbuilding” and RT
Book Reviews giving me kudos “for creating such a compelling heroine and
mythos.”
But,
by far, the biggest compliment is when a reader says they can’t wait for the next
book. Because that means I’ve done my job. I’ve entertained and moved them enough for them to look
forward to whatever’s coming out next.
10.
Is there anything you'd like to say to your fans and readers?
For those of you who like to discuss
books after you’ve read them, there are discussion questions for each of the
books in the Noon Onyx series. (White
Heart of Justice’s questions will be available the week of June 9th):
http://jillarcherauthor.wordpress.com/book-clubs/
Thank you to CBY Book Club for
interviewing me today! I’m very grateful to all of the readers, reviewers, and
bloggers that support me, other authors, bookstores, and books in general.
Booklovers, keep up the great work! :-D
Excerpt from White Heart of Justice
Prologue
I
can’t be with you anymore. That’s what she’d said. Six words that had become
sixty then six hundred then six thousand . . . sixty thousand . . . six million
. . . reverberating in his head, bouncing around inside his brain, driving him
absolutely mad. There were no other words. No other memories. Only that last
one of her. Standing at the edge of the oozy stew of the destroyed keep’s moat,
flanked by two Angels, one preternaturally beautiful, the other full of
purpose. The same purpose he’d had until those six words stripped him of it.
Flying
out, he’d barely cleared the wreckage of the keep. His heart beat against the
walls of his massive chest, and his monstrous wings beat against the infinite,
empty sky, but the beats were slow and grew slower still. Slower. Until finally
. . .
Stop.
He
made it across the river and then dropped like a ten-ton stone, crashing into
the brush, breaking tree limbs and a wing. He lay there amongst the blackening
scrub refusing to shift back into human form.
Man’s
thoughts were unwelcome.
In
time, the rogares came. Water wraiths. He killed them all. And then sickened by
the smell of blood and meat he couldn’t—wouldn’t—consume, he left his nesting
place. By then, the wing had healed, but unnaturally, so that flying straight
was impossible. For days, he traveled in circles, never getting far. It wasn’t
just the wing. The yearning to return to her was nearly unbearable. The
emptiness inside of him an abyss.
Was
she still in the Shallows? If he could just . . .
But
then he remembered the Angels. And the look on her face when she’d said the six
words. And the feelings in her signature. She’d need more than mere weeks for
them to abate. She might need months. Hopefully, not years. Years meant nothing
to him, but they did to her. And then the reminder that her time was more
precious than his drove his yearning to a new level of ferocity. Ruthlessly, he
tamped it down. He realized then that it might be best to return to man’s
thoughts. After all, she was a woman.
And
he wanted her back.
Chapter 1
“Glashia
calls Noon the ballista.” Waldron Seknecus’ low voice rumbled through the
Gridiron, a deep, cavernous underground space used by the upper years at St.
Lucifer’s for sparring. “Because of how she fights now. Watch.”
He
was speaking to three other spectators: my father, Karanos Onyx, executive of
the Demon Council and the man who would ultimately employ all of the magic
users who trained here at St. Luck’s; Friedrich Vanderlin, an Archangel who was
the dean of Guardians over at the Joshua School, the Angel academy we shared a
campus with; and a woman who looked unsettlingly familiar to me, though I
couldn’t remember when we’d met or who she was. I cleared my mind and
concentrated on my opponent, Ludovicus Mischmetal, who preferred the moniker
“Vicious” for short. He was a second year Maegester-in-Training at Euryale University.
We were competing against one another in the New Babylon MIT rank matches,
which St. Luck’s was hosting this year.
All
second-year MITs were required to compete. The top-ranked MITs from each school
would then be eligible to compete in the Laurel Crown Race. The object of the
race was to bring back an assigned target. Targets were either rogare demons or
priceless artifacts that needed to be recovered. Participation in the Laurel
Crown Race was voluntary, but the MIT who returned to New Babylon with his (or
in my case, her) target before any of the others, won the coveted Laurel Crown.
Winning the Laurel Crown often set a future Maegester up for life because
winners could choose where they wanted to spend their fourth-semester
residency. And ofttimes, those residencies turned into permanent positions.
Everyone else would receive offers, but it would be the Council that decided
which of those residency positions they accepted.
Last
semester, we’d been given our first field assignment. It was an assignment that
had been full of rogare demon attacks and other lethal situations. That
assignment had lasted a mere three months and I’d barely survived it. My
residency would last for twice as long, so I was well aware of how important
the residency venue would be. Winning the right to choose where I spent next
semester, not to mention who I would be working for, would go far in preserving
not just my happiness, but also my life. The Maegester who was judging the
match, a middle-aged man with thinning, ginger-colored hair and a near
permanent frown, called out for us to begin.
I’d
watched Vicious spar with other MITs. He was smart. His infliction of pain
would be very calculated, very precise. There was nothing personal about his
desire to beat me. He just wanted to win the match so that he could retain his
current Primoris ranking at Euryale and compete for the Laurel Crown. Of
course, I was similarly motivated.
Vicious
gave me a curt bow, his long, black, razor-cut bangs briefly falling forward
before he shook them back and used his waning magic to fire up a weapon, a
flaming broadsword. It hissed and spit with fury in the damp air of the
Gridiron as Vicious raised it toward me in an opening invitation to spar.
As a
sparring partner, Vicious looked fairly intimidating. His front teeth were
shiny, silver, and sharply pointed (likely, his real ones had been knocked out
in fights) and he was much larger than me. He wore the usual black leather
training pants and vest, but he’d elected to go shirtless underneath the vest.
I guessed it was an intentional show of muscle, literally. He flexed his
forearms and grinned at me, his message clear: I might be a woman playing a
man’s game, but he wasn’t going to spare me any blows.
That
suited me fine. Sparing me blows wouldn’t win me the match.
About
the Author
Jill Archer
writes dark, genre-bending fantasy from rural Maryland. Her novels include Dark
Light of Day, Fiery Edge of Steel, and White Heart of Justice. She loves cats,
coffee, books, movies, day tripping, and outdoor adventuring.
Author Links:
***GIVEAWAY***
$50 Amazon eGift
Certificate (or bookseller of winner’s choice) (international).
5 copies of White Heart of Justice (or an earlier
book in the series, winner’s choice) (international so long as Book Depository
ships to your address).
Dark
Light of Day themed SWAG pack (incudes signed copy of book and
other awesome goodies) (US only).
Fiery
Edge of Steel themed SWAG pack (incudes signed copy of book and
other awesome goodies) (US only).
White
Heart of Justice themed SWAG pack (incudes signed copy of book and
other awesome goodies) (US only).
BONUS:
FUN PROMO TWEETS AND TWITTER CONTEST! :-D
Anyone
who tweets one of these will be entered to win ANY fantasy book of their choice
from Book Depository (so long as Book Depository ships to your address) (up to
$10.00). Contest ends on June 3, 2014. Feel free to share the list with your
followers!
Finally! I’m
looking forward to seeing Noon embrace her fiery magic. @archer_jill
#WHITEHEARTOFJUSTICE
Ari Carmine is
smokin’ hot. I wanna see if Noon can forgive him for that nasty surprise at the
end of B2. @archer_jill #WHITEHEARTOFJUSTICE
I heard a rumor
that Rafe Sinclair makes a wish and I wanna know if it’s granted. @archer_jill
#WHITEHEARTOFJUSTICE
Nocturo. Tall
dark handsome. Heard his scalpel’s put to good use. Is he gonna threaten Brunus
w it again? @archer_jill #WHITEHEARTOFJUSTICE
I love the
characters, but I’m really just in it for the monsters and magic. Bring on the
ice demons! @archer_jill #WHITEHEARTOFJUSTICE
Armageddon is
over. The demons won. But it’s not as dark as all that. Parts of it are
romantic and sweet. @archer_jill #WHITEHEARTOFJUSTICE
I
hope everyone enjoys the book! Thanks so much to all of the BBT bloggers,
hosts, and reviewers for helping to spread the word about the series!
Blog Tour Organised by:
The World Between The Woods
