Take Five with Janni Lee Simner, Author, ‘Faerie Winter’

Janni Lee Simner is the contributor for this week’s Take Five, a regular series where we ask authors and editors to share five facts about their latest books. Simner is the author of Faerie Winter, available now in paperback from your favorite book retailer:

Liza is a summoner. She can draw life to herself, even from beyond the grave. And because magic works both ways, she can drive life away. Months ago, she used her powers to banish her dangerous father and to rescue her mother, lost in dreams, from the ruined land of Faerie.Born in the wake of the war between humanity and Faerie, Liza lived in a world where green things never slept, where trees sought to root in living flesh and bone. But now the forests have fallen silent. Even the evergreens’ branches are bare. Winter crops won’t grow, and the threat of starvation looms. And deep in the forest a dark, malevolent will is at work. To face it, Liza will have to find within herself something more powerful than magic alone.Here at last is the sequel to Bones of Faerie, for all those fans of dark fantasy and dystopian adventure who thrilled to Janni Lee Simner’s unique vision of a postapocalyptic world infused with magic.

Janni Lee Simner:

1. Faerie Winter is a sequel to my first post-apocalyptic fantasy, Bones of Faerie. When I first finished Bones of Faerie, I thought the protagonist, Liza, had become such a powerful summoner that nothing could threaten her ever again. I was wrong.

2. Faerie Winter has more kissing in it than Bones of Faerie.

3. It also has fewer trees that are trying to eat people. That’s only because it’s winter and the trees are sleeping, though, not because they’ve had a deciduous change of heart or know better now. And it turns out trees that sleep are as big a problem as trees that eat people, anyway, because when trees sleep, food crops sleep, too.

4. There’s an animal speaker in Faerie Winter who uses his magic to talk to ants and worms (among other things). Once I realized animal speaking could be used to talk to all animals, and not just the fuzzy and four-legged ones, I totally wanted to be an animal speaker, too.

5. Faerie’s queen wasn’t supposed to show up in Faerie Winter, because I was sure she’d died in the War between faeries and humans. I should have known better. The Lady of Air and Darkness cannot be felled by something so simple as the end of the world.