An Interview with Author AK Nevermore
This month AK Nevermore joins me to discuss her 2024 release, Breaker (AK Nevermore, July 11, 2024)
Meet the Author
AK Nevermore writes a lot. An award-winning author of spicy dystopian science fiction, urban fantasy, and paranormal romance, she’s been traditionally, digitally, and indie published. She enjoys operating heavy machinery, freebases coffee, and gives up sarcasm for Lent every year.
Unable to ignore the voices in her head, and unwilling to become medicated, she writes full time around a nest full of ravens. Her books explore dark worlds, perversely irreverent and profound, and always entertaining.
AK belongs to a bunch of industry associations, volunteers for far too many committees, teaches creative writing, has been featured in Blush Magazine, made the BookBub blog roundup, has spoken on NPR, and on the rare occasion, sleeps.
Welcome to the blog, AK and thanks for stopping by.
Let's start with a question about the bio on your website. It states that you're “A Jane-of-all-trades...certified chef, restores antiques, and dabbles in beekeeping...” Do any of these influence your writing?
Yeah, I think that any interest you have helps to shape your work. Beekeeping is definitely a thing in Breaker, even if it's just in passing. The little details you pick up help to add depth, especially sensory input. It's one thing to research but totally different standing in an apiary feeling bees buzz past you and smelling the pheromones coming off the hives. It's just something you have to experience. That kind of stuff definitely makes me appreciate the little things, which is crucial to world building.
For fun: If you could visit a fictional setting from any of your novels, where would this be?
I would definitely go barhopping in Glynfyls. There’s a bunch of cool venues that would be really cool to get lost in.
Could you give us an overview of your worldbuilding process?
When I'm world building, I try to envision myself in that space and what senses are being engaged. The world tends to grow scene by scene, and I'm constantly coming back to previous scenes to sprinkle details in that tie the world together.
What characteristics did you include from our world when you were creating your novel Breaker’s alternative earth?
Physical ones mostly. There are roads I know well, the terrain. The weather, unfortunately. But most of civilization is gone, so it’s alluded to with the titles of books, some odd phrases. Nothing overt.
For fun: What songs are (or would be) the top three songs included on the playlist for Breaker? How do these three songs capture the essence of the story?
Seether's "Fine Again", Flyleaf's "I'm So Sick", and Godsmack's "I Stand Alone." I think they're a good representation of what Kara and Flynn are going through at the beginning and the end of the book and definitely have the gritty feel of the book.
Inspire us: Do you believe in the concept of a Muse? If so, what is yours like?
Yes, actually. I always envisioned mine as Professor McGonagall. Pretty sure she's not particularly impressed with me, but she does like to glare.
What are some of your biggest writing influences and what have you learned from them?
I read really widely. So, off the top of my head? Jane Austen, Poe, Edith Wharton, Raymond Chandler, Roger Zelazny, Anthony Burgess, Andre Norton, Brandon Sanderson, Ilona Andrews…there's too many to name. All of that prose just kind of ferments and composts in your psyche and helps you to develop your voice.
What’s next: Can you give a sneak peek on what follows Breaker in “The Price of Talent Series?”
Yes! There's going to be a total of five books. Binder, Split, and Overlord are out, and I'm currently working on the final volume in the series, Exile, along with its accompanying novella I haven't named yet. There's three more of those, Breeder, Destroyer, and Conspirator, sprinkled throughout the series that give character backstory which is cool to explore.
What’s next: Can you share what you’re working on next, and what can readers expect from your future books?
I think when I'm done with Exile I'm going to write the third book in the "Dae Diaries" as a palate cleanser. Those are really fun with a lot of silly snark.
About Breaker
Beware the Coming Storm…
On an alternate earth, a cataclysm has altered a subset of the population. Talents are persecuted for their psychic and physical mutations, giving rise to two conflicting societies based upon maintaining genetic purity. And the Source, a shadowy corporate entity dependent upon the exploitation of captive Talents, is hunting them…
Self-exiled to the Outside, Flynn Scot is oath-bound to a life of strict penance.
Cursed with a vicious temper and haunted by the blood-stained debauchery of his past, Flynn’s sworn off women, whiskey, and violence, and doesn’t give a damn about whispers of the coming war. He sure as hell isn’t in the mood to make good on a debt when it’s called in, especially when playing white knight outs him as a Talent, and the damsel in distress as his soulmate.
On the run from her future as a broodmare for the Source, escaped Talent Kara Jester is no distressed damsel.
And the last thing she wants is to be trapped in a blizzard with a surly—and frustratingly captivating—thug. Without the suppression meds holding her libido in check, her biology’s primed to procreate, and Flynn’s growled assurances that he won’t touch her doesn’t match the hunger in his eyes.
It doesn’t align with what fate has in store for them, either.
With elite troops hot on their heels and the border set to close, it’s a race to the North, away from Kara’s horrific future and towards the dark past Flynn wants to keep buried. Clinging to the shreds of his oath, he’s forced to choose between protecting the woman he’s afraid to love and letting out the animal he swore he’d never be again. Either may destroy him, if Kara’s secrets don’t get them killed first.
Until next time,
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About the Author
Award-winning author, Joie Lesin is a life-long fiction writer and poet. She is most recently the author of The Passenger. She has long been fascinated by anything otherworldly including mermaids and ghosts. Joie writes character-driven, emotional, atmospheric tales about heartache and hope.