Blog Tour: The Fever King – Victoria Lee

I want to begin by thanking the Fantastic Flying Book Club for organizing this tour. I really love being a part of Fantastic Flying Book Club tours, they do a fantastic job organizing everything and are a joy to work with. Obviously, I am not the only stop on this tour so be sure to follow the other posts by clicking the image below.

 

 

I have been excited about this book for a while now. I participated in the cover reveal but when I was given the chance to participate in the blog tour I was beyond happy and knew I had to. I thought about a review but instead, decided I wanted to ask Victoria a few questions. So find it here only…an exclusive interview with Victoria. Before we being though, let’s have a look at the book in more detail!

 

The Fever King (Feverwake #1) 

Author: Victoria Lee

Publisher: March 1st, 2019

Publisher: Skyscape

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, LGBT

 

Buy the Book: Amazon, Barne & Noble, Book Depository (Use my referral ID: TheBibliophagist)

 

 

I was sucked in after the first sentence…viral magic that made someone a technopath, how cool is that?! The reviews for this have been so good too…so many great ones. This is for sure a book nobody wants to miss (I know I say that a lot but there are so many fantastic authors who write amazing stories). Before we get too carried away talking about how good this book is, let’s learn a little about the mastermind behind the cover.

 

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About the Author

 

 

 

Victoria Lee grew up in Durham, North Carolina, where she spent twelve ascetic years as a vegetarian before discovering spicy chicken wings are, in fact, a delicacy. She’s been a state finalist competitive pianist, a hitchhiker, a pizza connoisseur, an EMT, an expat in China and Sweden, and a science doctoral student. She’s also a bit of a snob about fancy whiskey.

 

Victoria writes early in the morning, then spends the rest of the day trying to impress her border collie puppy and make her experiments work.

 

She is represented by Holly Root and Taylor Haggerty at Root Literary.

 

 

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Interview

The Fever King is now in the hands of readers. Congrats, it must be both scary and exciting. What inspired you to write this story? What were your inspirations?

 

Thanks so much! It’s definitely terrifying and thrilling in equal measure.

 

I actually wrote like six different initial drafts of this book trying to figure out what story I was actually trying to tell. I wanted to write about how intergenerational and personal trauma intersect to inform identity and behavior. A lot of the content in the book is drawn from my experiences both as a Jewish American and as a survivor.

 

I’m also a moral psychologist by trade, so I wanted to write about people doing bad things for the right reasons, and how the world can’t just be divided up into good and evil—or into utilitarian and moral and immoral. Bad people can do good things, and good people can do bad things, and so on.

I think that is such an important message to send, especially these days. I think your book entwines a deep and powerful message with the fantasy that many love. That takes a large amount of skill, a skill that you have shown your readers.

 

 

 

Everyone knows how difficult writing a novel is and that there are many different ways to write one. So, are you more of a planner or pantser? Can you give us an idea of your writing process?

 

I’m a weird hybrid, I think! I like to be sure I know all the main plot points of a book before I start, but I don’t like to over-outline. I need to have a balance, where I have a clear path forward but I also have the opportunity to keep up the suspense and surprise myself. That’s what makes writing so much fun for me.

I am the same! I think having the main plot points set is crucial for having direction for your novel but not overplanning leaves room to let your story grow and characters to make their own choices.

 

 

 

What scene was the most difficult for you to write and why? 

 

There’s this dinner party scene that involves multiple murder plots, betrayals, hidden agendas, a lot of sexual tension and unhealthy use of substances…. It’s really the moment in the book when all the subplots start to crash together and the characters’ hidden anxieties start to surface. It’s also full of foreshadowing, so I really hope people decide to go reread that scene after they finish the book, knowing what they know now.

Those scenes full of tension when the plots all fall together…those are the best. I hope readers reread as well, it clarifies everything to reread complex scenes.

 

 

 

Lastly, there is always advice floating around the writing world. Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

 

Writing is rewriting! I say this every time someone asks me for writing advice because it’s TRUE. It’s tempting to see your first draft as a final draft. I used to think I wrote “clean drafts.” But…I don’t know anyone who writes a perfect first draft. Revising is a fundamental part of the writing process—both alone but also with the help of critique partners and agents and editors. The revision process can get pretty intense and structural, involving plot changes and shifting character arcs and sometimes even the deletion of entire POV narratives or total rewriting from the ground-up. To me, in some ways that’s comforting because you don’t feel the same pressure to write a perfect book right off the bat. You have permission to experiment and mess up and reassure yourself that you’ll fix it later.

That makes complete sense and I love that. The purpose of the first draft is to get the story out…it is just the beginning.

 

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Giveaway

Now that we are all super excited about Victoria’s novel, how about entering to win a copy of your own?! The giveaway began March 18th and runs until March 31st. All US participants are welcome to enter, so what are you waiting for? Get those entries in.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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