Featured on Friday: Julie Kagawa

Julie Kagawa lives in Kentucky with her husband, two cats and two dogs. The Iron King, the first book in The Iron Fey series, is her first novel.

1. Is there a specific time or place that you do your best writing in?
I write everyday starting at 10am and usually going till 5pm. This is my job, so I treat it as such. Of course, there are definite perks, like not getting out of your PJs until 2pm.

2. Who were your favourite authors as a teenager? Are they different to your current favourites?
My favorite author as a teen was Terry Brooks and the Shannara series. We didn't exactly have a YA section when I was a teenager (there's an age joke in there somewhere), but in most of his books, the characters were teens. I don't think my tastes have changed all that much.

3. If you were only allowed to take three books to a desert island, what would they be?
"The Idiot's guide to surviving on a desert island," "how to build your own canoe," and a writing notebook. ;-)

4. Can you tell us a bit about your road to publication?
I met my agent at a writer's workshop, and she liked my novel enough to represent me. But, after a year of trying to sell that novel with no success, she suggested I start on something else. I told her about an idea I had for a YA urban fantasy with faeries, and she told me to definitely write that. So I did. I wrote The Iron King in a little under two months, and it sold to Harlequin Teen just weeks after I finished.

5. How did you come up with the mythology for Faeryland?
I did a lot of research on faeries when I was writing The Iron King. Most of the faeries in the book already have myths and legends about them, with the exception of The Iron Fey. Oberon, Titania, Mab and Puck have all been done before (as many reviewers have said), but that's kind of the point in The Iron King. That they are so powerful because they are well-known and remembered. I wanted to mix the familiar with the new and strange, which is where Machina and the Iron Fey came in.

6. Out of all of your characters, who is your favourite? (Mine are Grimalkin and Ash!)
I will have to agree with you on Grimalkin and Ash. I have a weakness for bad boys with swords, and Grim was a lot of fun to write.

7. Are you working on anything at the moment? Can you tell us anything about it?
I have just been contracted for a brand new series with Harlequin TEEN. Not sure how much I can reveal, but I will leave you with one hint: Vampires.

Thanks so much for the interview!

Thank you very much, Julie! You can visit Julie at her website and read my review of The Iron King here.

Sophie