Happy Monday to you, friend of the Warbler! We start of the week by featured Elayna Mae Darcy, whose book, They are the Last, is currently funding on Inkshares. I want to find a single piece of the summary to point out as awesome, but I can’t beat Elayna at her own game. Take a look at her fantastic synopsis and tell me, with a straight face, that you don’t want to read this book. You can find Elayna on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and read more about her book at theyarethelast.com.
About They are the Last:
Piper Anderson thinks she’s alone in the world: she is forgotten and left to lose herself at Edgemont, a juvenile detention center seeking to jolt the humanity from its children, leaving them as emotionless – but obedient – shades of their former selves. All hope seems lost.
Until Kath, her godmother who mysteriously disappeared years before, returns to free her. Piper then learns the unimaginable – she is a child of two worlds. With an Earthly father and an Alterian mother, she is capable of wielding the Light of her soul, an ancient gift that is sacred to the Raelarian people. It’s not long after discovering her interstellar origins that Piper is faced with the impossible.
Valos, a shadow which threatens to destroy all he touches, is breaking down the portals between worlds. If left unchecked his darkness will bleed out from Alteria, poisoning the cosmos, leaving Piper and her friends as the last hope to save it.
Q: Which part of your novel’s world excites you most?
A: Definitely would have to say how travel between worlds occurs. I don’t want to spoil too much, but in short, it has to do with the bridge featured on my current book cover. It’s really fun getting to place with time and space travel without needing a single space ship. That’s where the stories space fantasy elements really come into play.
Q: What (if any) are some novels (or films, games, etc.) that are similar to yours?
A: There’s definitely traces of stories that have most inspired me scattered through out. The other wordly quality will hopefully delight fans of things like Lord of the Rings. The wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey aspects will probably entertain the Doctor Who fans, and anyone who’s enjoyed something like The Force Awakens, The Hunger Games, or Divergent will enjoy the young female protagonist who takes no crap whatsoever from intergalactic bad guys.
Q: What was the most interesting bit of information you uncovered in your research?
A: Probably that my book isn’t actually as science fiction based as I’d first thought it was. It was recent that I first heard the term ‘space fantasy’ in relation to Star Wars and I was like, “Oh my god… this is my real genre….” It was a pretty hilarious existential crisis to be faced with.
Q: How much time is left in your campaign?
A: As it stands, the book has until November 1st of this year, which I picked because it’ll mark a year since I started the first draft of the book!
Q: Is this your first novel?
A: In more ways than one! If it reaches the Inkshares goal, it will be my first book to be published, but it is also the first story I ever started. I came up with the initial ideas, characters, and concepts for this novel when I was 13, so it feels so, so right to be coming back to it now that I’ve grown so much as an author.
Q: What else are you working on?
A: In terms of writing, I’m collaborating with some incredible individuals on Inkshares for a short story collection tentatively called Happily Whatever After which sprung up from the idea of writing ‘Princess Noir’ stories during a live stream I hosted called Women Slaying SciFi, something that I hope goes on to become an ongoing web series. But when not writing or YouTubing, I’m one of the producers of MuggleNet.com’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them podcast, SpeakBeasty. I take great pride in being a professional fangirl.
