Ohana Reads: Blog Tour: Children of the Bloodlands by S.M. Beiko

Hello and welcome to the Children of the Bloodlands blog tour! I'm super excited to introduce you to S.M. Beiko, a local author from where I live, and her latest release in her Realms of the Ancient series, Children of the Bloodlands!

Today I have for you an interview with the author, as well as a giveaway. I hope you enjoy!

Children of the Bloodlands by S.M. Beiko

Release Date: September 25th, 2018

Publisher: ECW Press

Series: The Realms of Ancient, #2

Description from GoodReads:

Three months after the battle of Zabor, the five friends that came together to defeat her have been separated. Burdened with the Calamity Stone she acquired in Scion of the Fox, Roan has gone to Scotland to retrace her grandmother’s steps in an attempt to stop further evil from entering the world.

Meanwhile, a wicked monster called Seela has risen from the ashy Bloodlands and is wreaking havoc on the world while children in Edinburgh are afflicted by a strange plague; Eli travels to Seoul to face judgment and is nearly murdered; Natti endures a taxing journey with two polar bears; Phae tries desperately to obtain the key to the Underworld; and Barton joins a Family-wide coalition as the last defense against an enemy that will stop at nothing to undo Ancient’s influence on Earth — before there is no longer an Earth to fight for.

Darkness, death, and the ancient powers that shape the world will collide as our heroes discover that some children collapse under their dark inheritance, and those that don’t are haunted by blood.

1. A lot of times when Canadian authors write teen books, they write them taking place in the US. What made you decide to set Scion of the Fox in Winnipeg?

I was born and raised in Winnipeg, and once I started traveling to other, much larger cities, I always felt that it was unfair that major films weren’t set in my beloved hometown! We have such an interesting history, and quirky architecture, and I found coming up with whacky action sequences there to be incredibly exciting. I’ve crossed the Osborne Bridge every day, but now a book exists where there’s a crazy battle on it, or there’s a secret society conducting business in the dome of the Legislature. It’s what readers have told me was the most gratifying thing to them—even readers from the US! I think a lot of people are looking not only for Canadian-based content these days, but stories that take place in ‘mundane’ settings. I’d originally had a couple of agents or publishers ask me to change the setting, or else completely fabricate the city, and I think that made me dig my heels in to add EVEN MORE Winnipeg references.

2. Scion of the Fox contains a lot of different stories from Japanese mythology, what inspired you to use Japanese mythology for the story?

My first exposure to the fantasy genre was through Anime as a pre-teen. I was so into Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, and anything from Studio Ghibli. I found I connected with these stories, as they were willing to go far beyond what was already considered ‘acceptable’ in modern-day fantasy canon. Because of that, I based a lot of the fox imagery on Japanese mythology, as well as a lot of the elemental power/demon-spirits. Japanese folklore is rich and dark and devastating and heartbreaking, and that was what I wanted to convey through the weird mythology of The Realms of Ancient, which also draws from Indigenous Canadian, African, Middle Eastern, and European folklore. Children of the Bloodlands introduces a new main character named Saskia, who is half Japanese.

3. Shaking things up a little bit in regards to questions, but if you could have a specific author read your book and give you feedback, who would you pick and why?

Two authors who I respect and love dearly have read my books—Kelley Armstrong and Julie Czerneda—and it was a very anxiety-inducing process to show them my work and see what they thought! Of course they said very kind things, which is incredibly humbling, and I’m forever grateful they took the time.

If any of the following did manuscript feedback reviews, and weren’t busy being global book megastars, I’d love to hear from Maggie Stiefvater or Francesca Lia Block. Neil Gaiman is up there, too, as well as Diana Gabaldon (major pipe dream.) All of these authors have had formative influence on me, but it’s always tough to muster up the courage to show your work to people in general. I greatly value ANY feedback I get from anyone, author or reader.

4. With people dying to get their hands on Children of the Bloodlands, what do they get to look forward to?

Haha that’s very flattering! I think there’s something for everyone in Bloodlands (at least I hope so, anyway): more crises, more battles, more character betrayals and story twists; maybe a tiny tiny microscopic hint at deeper connections (is it romance or friendship, WHO KNOWS??), more character diversity, LGBTQ characters in established relationships, and, of course, more of Death herself, the Moth Queen! Fewer crazy-moth-eyeball sequences, though.

Check out the book that started it all:

Scion of the Fox by S. M. Beiko

Release Date: October 17th, 2017

Publisher: ECW Press

Series: The Realms of Ancients, #1

Description from GoodReads:

As the winter ice begins to thaw, the fury of a demon builds — all because one girl couldn’t stay dead . . .

Roan Harken considers herself a typical high school student — dead parents, an infected eyeball, and living in the house of her estranged, currently comatose grandmother (well, maybe not so typical) — but she’s uncovering the depth of the secrets her family left behind. Saved from the grasp of Death itself by a powerful fox spirit named Sil, Roan must harness mysterious ancient power . . . and quickly. A snake-monster called Zabor lies in wait in the bed of the frozen Assiniboine River, hungry for the sacrifice of spirit-blood in exchange for keeping the flood waters at bay. Thrust onto an ancient battlefield, Roan soon realizes that to maintain the balance of the world, she will have to sacrifice more than her life in order to take her place as Scion of the Fox.

S.M. Beiko is an eclectic writer and artist based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She also works as a freelance editor, illustrator, graphic designer, and consultant in the trade book and comic publishing industries in Canada and the U.S. Her first novel, The Lake and the Library, was nominated for the Manitoba Book Award for Best First Book as well as the 2014 Aurora Award. Her fantasy trilogy, The Realms of Ancient, began with Scion of the Fox, followed by Children of the Bloodlands, and will be concluded with The Brilliant Dark (2019).