About The Book

Book: Of Sea and Smoke

Author: Gillian Bronte Adams

Genre: YA Epic Fantasy

Release Date: November 21, 2023

He rides a seablood, a steed of salt and spray, born to challenge the tides. 

Six years ago, the wrong brother survived, and nothing will ever convince Rafi Tetrani otherwise. But he is done running from his past, and from the truth. As civil war threatens Ceridwen’s tenuous rule in Soldonia, Rafi vows to fight the usurper sitting on the imperial throne of Nadaar, even if it means shouldering his brother’s responsibilities as the empire’s lost heir.

The stolen shipload of magical warhorses offers just the edge he needs. But the steeds have been demanded in ransom by the emperor’s ruthless assassin, and if Rafi hopes to raise a band of riders, he must first outwit his brother’s murderer.

Yet when his best efforts end in disaster, and an audacious raid sparks an empire-wide manhunt, even forging an unexpected alliance might not be enough to help Rafi turn the tides, let alone outrace the wave of destruction intent on sweeping them all away.Click here to get your copy!

About The Author

Gillian Bronte Adams writes epic fantasy novels, including the award- winning Of Fire and Ash and The Songkeeper Chronicles. She loves strong coffee, desert hikes, and trying out new soup recipes on crisp fall nights. Her favorite books are the ones that make your heart ache and soar in turn. When she’s not creating vibrant new worlds or dreaming up stories that ring with the echoes of eternity, she can be found off chasing sunsets with her horse, or her dog, Took.

More from Gillian

One of my favorite things about writing epic fantasy is not actually what you might expect. It’s not the fantastical elements, although I absolutely love creating worlds filled with magical warhorses, sosswyrm tangles, and stone-eye tigers who can paralyze their prey with a glance. It’s not the intensity of the action or the world altering stakes, although there’s nothing quite so thrilling as throwing your characters into a do-or-die situation, and the pulse-pounding, breathtaking, heart-aching battle sequences that follow.

Instead, one of my favorite things about writing such wild and epic stories is the opportunity to ground them in very real, very human characters, with very real, very human emotions, and in the complexity of those characters’ relationships with others. Mentor relationships, deeply loyal friendships, and especially sibling relationships.

I am the second-born of five siblings, and I love and admire each of my siblings. Each one encourages and inspires and awes me in his or her own unique way. But growing up, if you had told me that my older sister had hung the moon, I would have believed you. She was two and a half years older than me—and yes, that half year mattered to both of us, though for opposite reasons; she because it meant she was that much older, me because it meant we were that much closer. Somehow, everything she touched seemed golden, and I wanted to be a part of it too.

She was a force of nature—a foaming ocean tide—and I was caught up in her wake.

She took up horseback riding, and so did I. She picked up books, and I had to read them too, even if it meant sitting beside her in the car with my own book open on my lap, surreptitiously reading hers over her shoulder. (Needless to say, that drove her crazy, and older siblings everywhere can probably commiserate.)

She dove into creative writing, and out of nowhere, I developed a passion for the written word. But always, within her, there was this spark of imagination and creativity that I felt I could only ever aspire to. Whatever I did, she had done first and better.

And I could only hope to one day achieve her level of greatness.

Rafi, one of the main characters in Of Sea and Smoke, also has an older sibling, a brother he has always looked up to. While Rafi and his relationship with his brother is not based on my relationship with my older sister—we’re all four of us wildly different people—there were some aspects of my experience as a second-born that I was able to draw upon. Rafi admires his brother’s strength and confidence. His assurance and rightness. His nobility and leadership. By the time we enter the story, his older brother is no longer around, but Rafi has spent his whole life setting his brother up on a pedestal and then trying to measure up to that ideal.

Is it any wonder, then, that he has always found himself wanting?

Now, Rafi finds himself having to step into the role that should have been his brother’s, and the only way he can contemplate facing that challenge is by stamping out the things he looks down upon in himself—many of them, the things that make him himself—and trying to be his brother instead.

Growing up, I can’t tell you how many times I looked at my older sister and wished that I could be more like her and less like myself. More confident. More brilliant. More vibrant. More her. But it wasn’t until my older sister’s interests began to drift into new additional avenues, while mine stayed mostly the same (horses, books, writing), that I finally began to grow into myself. To recognize my strengths, my unique skills, the things that only I bring to the table, and to acknowledge that even when they are different from hers, they are still good.

These days, my older sister and I are best friends. She was the first person I trusted to read Of Sea and Smoke before it went out into the world. I still look up to her in so many ways, and yes, I think I’ll always feel a bit like she hung the moon. But I have grown to appreciate the beauty of what I can learn from my sister’s strengths, while also recognizing the value of my own. And without revealing any spoilers, I think I can safely say that part of Rafi’s journey in Of Sea and Smoke wraps around learning that too, all while he’s raising a band of rebel fighters, trying to outwit an infamous assassin, and plotting to overthrow the empire’s oppressive rule.

Wild, epic stories, grounded in real, human experiences, and honestly, can reading get any more fun than that?

I hope you enjoy the ride!

Gillian Bronte Adams

Q & A with Gillian Bronte Adams

Many authors say that they have always been a writer — making up stories as a child. When did you first become a writer?

I completed my first work of fiction at the ripe old age of five. My dad had just finished reading The Hobbit aloud, and I was not okay with the character deaths at the end of the book (Thorin, Fili, Kili), so I rewrote the story in my head so no one died. (Sorry, J.R.R. Tolkien!) I rewrote it so convincingly, apparently, that when I picked the book up to read it for myself as a preteen, I was shocked to find out that the ending was not what I expected! In all seriousness though, I did do a lot of creative writing growing up and of and on throughout middle school, but it wasn’t until high school that I start pursuing writing more intentionally, with the idea of one day becoming a published author as a secret dream.

Why did you choose the YA epic fantasy genre?

Epic fantasy has always been my favorite genre to read, ever since my dad introduced me to Tolkien’s work. To this day, it takes up the majority of my bookshelf space, and not just because the books tend to be on the thick side. They say to write what you love, and my favorite stories have always been the ones with vivid, fantastic worlds, imperfect heroes and heroines standing against overwhelming odds, and pulse-pounding action that keeps you turning pages long into the night. Stories about relationships of all kinds—siblings, mentors, loyal to the death friends, and rivals who maybe shouldn’t actually be enemies. Stories that make your heart ache and soar in turn, with the depth and hope and beauty of it all! Epic fantasy has always been the place I found my fictional “homes away from home,” and I love getting to create that for someone else.

What types of research do you pursue? Books, on-site visits, etc. 

I love research, whether it’s paging through stacks of books or chasing rabbit trails on Wikipedia. Because I write epic fantasy, that often looks like doing research on historical battles, ways of life, weaponry, cultures, etc., and I particularly love when I can discover historical treatises or manuals on the thing I’m researching, like an ancient Greek treatise on horsemanship or an old Byzantine manual on warfare. But researching for fantasy also means thinking outside the box and looking for inspiration in somewhat unusual, or surprising, places, like the research I did on WWII era warfare for Of Sea and Smoke, because my magical warhorses could be used tactically like some of the advanced weaponry from that time period.

Whenever possible I love doing hands-on research too. Anytime you can see or smell or touch something, whether it’s hiking through a specific setting or trying to swing a sword, it allows you to write with a level of authenticity that can be hard to fake. But looking beyond the books or the hands-on opportunities, for me, research also means cultivating a mindset where you intentionally pay attention to the overlooked things around you, collecting experiences and observations about the everyday that you can draw from when you write. Oftentimes, I think, it’s those little overlooked observations that truly enhance your writing and help it come alive.

Can you tell us a little about what inspired your latest novel.

Of Sea and Smoke is the second book in The Fireborn Epic, a YA epic fantasy series where warriors ride to battle on magical breeds of horses. The idea struck me over ten years ago now while I was working as the Head Wrangler at a youth camp. Spending all day in the saddle, working with horses, introducing kids to the riding experience for the first time in their lives all felt very magical. I was also serving on a rural volunteer fire department that summer, putting out the occasional grassfire, and the combination of fire, horses, and imagination all came together one night in the back of the camp office while I was waiting for a staff meeting. Suddenly, I was scribbling down ideas for horses with magical abilities, like firebreathing horses, or horses who could vanish into shadows or cause earthquakes with their hooves. Before I knew it, I had an epic world I couldn’t wait to explore.

What do you want your readers to take away with them after finishing one of your novels?

My hope is always that readers will find a sort of home away from home in my novels, that the storyworld will be a place they’ll want to revisit time and again, and that the characters will come to feel like friends. But when they step away from the page, I hope they leave encouraged to press on with bravery and perseverance in their own lives and to recognize their own worth and see the value of their unique strengths. That’s the journey that Rafi, one of the main characters in Of Sea and Smoke, goes on, and I think it’s one that can be particularly applicable in a time when social media floods us with opportunities to compare ourselves to others and feel like we’re always somehow lacking. Interestingly enough, I didn’t intentionally set out to write his story that way, but as I dug into how he would grow as a character through the events of the story, that theme wound up emerging, and I hope it’s encouraging to readers.

Blog Stops

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, December 2

Through the Fire Blogs, December 3 (Author Interview)

Labor Not in Vain, December 3

Texas Book-aholic, December 4

Artistic Nobody, December 5 (Author Interview)

Locks, Hooks and Books, December 6

Guild Master, December 7 (Author Interview)

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, December 8

Blossoms and Blessings, December 9 (Author Interview)

Blogging With Carol, December 10

Tell Tale Book Reviews, December 11 (Author Interview)

Simple Harvest Reads, December 12 (Guest Review from Mindy)

Library Lady’s Kid Lit, December 13 (Author Interview)

By The Book, December 14 (Author Interview)

The Lofty Pages, December 14

Fiction Book Lover, December 15 (Author Interview)

Tour Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Gillian is giving away the grand prize of a $25 Barnes & Noble Gift Card and hardcover copy of the book!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/2909e/of-sea-and-smoke-celebration-tour-giveaway

Tags: Gillian Bronte Adams, YA Fantasy