Ink and Flame Episode #3
Abby Anne Korver: Author of The Mender's Curse.

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Transcription

Tina Koutras (00:00)
Welcome to Ink and Flame. And we are sitting down today with Abby Anne Korver. And we're going to be talking about Mender's Curse. Hi, Abby. How you doing?

Abby Anne Korver (00:11)
Doing great. How about you, Tina?

Tina Koutras (00:13)
I'm doing good as well. We're so thrilled to have you here. How's your day going and where are you joining us from?

Abby Anne Korver (00:20)
I am joining you from the lovely Colorado and my day has been great, busy, but this is a fun way to end it. So I've been looking forward to it all day.

Tina Koutras (00:28)
Awesome. Perfect.

That's exciting. So your story writing is kind of inspiring. Starting during a recovery from a surgery. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?

Abby Anne Korver (00:39)
Yeah, of course. So I was born with a congenital issue with both of my hips and in the past couple of years have really dealt with a lot of chronic pain and illness. I also have an autoimmune condition on top of that. And it all just kind of came to a head this summer. I basically lost all of my mobility and ended up

needing a pretty intense surgery and I was bedridden, completely unable to walk for about three months. And then I would say it took about four in total for me to completely be able to live my life outside of a bedroom. Yeah, it was very intense. And if you've ever had a difficult

Tina Koutras (01:18)
Wow, that's pretty intense.

Abby Anne Korver (01:25)
health journey or big surgery, you know that it can be very challenging mentally. And so a couple of weeks into recovery, I was in, to be very honest, a very bad place and was just feeling really depressed. It's very isolating. And I just happened to be on the phone with my older brother one day and

I was doing some beta reading for him. He's an author as well. His name is Ash. Shout out to Ash, Ash Remington. Yeah, and I was helping him with his second book and we were having so much fun just like talking about character arcs and plot and conflict. he said, hey, like you're just laying around. You really like this.

Tina Koutras (01:53)
Nice. And what's his name?

Okay.

Awesome.

Abby Anne Korver (02:16)
you have a degree in English, why don't you try writing? And I was like, oh man, like, I don't know. But then I started to really think about it a little bit more. And being that I was just like laying around 24 seven, having something to do and a goal was really, really enticing. And so I just,

started. I had some ideas and I was like, you know what, I'm just going to give this a shot. within like a day or two, I was completely immersed, like writing on my computer eight to 10 hours a day. I had nothing else to do. And suddenly I had a purpose.

Tina Koutras (03:04)
Wow, that is an incredibly powerful way to get started. And did you always dream about being an author or like it was literally just kind of it landed in your lap.

Abby Anne Korver (03:08)
Hahaha

It really did land in my lap. mean, I'm a lover of literature. I have a degree in English. I taught English for nine years. So I love reading and writing, but I just had never thought that I would ever, A, have the time to sit down and write a book, or it just kind of seemed like a daunting task when you don't know what goes all into publishing and all of that side of things.

So it never really crossed my mind. And then suddenly I had months on end that I knew I was going to be laying around doing nothing and an older brother to really mentor me and like walk me through the process and, you know, kind of hold my hand through it all. So.

Tina Koutras (03:55)
Mm-hmm.

So is your brother an indie writer as well?

Abby Anne Korver (04:09)
He is! Yes!

Tina Koutras (04:09)
Well, that's a fantastic

way to get some inside knowledge.

Abby Anne Korver (04:13)
Yes, yeah, he just

released his second book back in December, so yeah.

Tina Koutras (04:18)
awesome.

That's exciting for him as well. Did you tell him about today?

Abby Anne Korver (04:22)
Yeah.

I did, he was super excited for me. Yeah.

Tina Koutras (04:28)
That's awesome.

Okay, so what kind of a fantasy reader were you growing up?

Abby Anne Korver (04:35)
You know, I wasn't a huge fantasy reader until I was about 11. And I grew up in a household where like Star Wars and Star Trek are like on 24 seven. Like my parents are huge Trekkies. Like, so the sci-fi fantasy world was like definitely introduced to me early on. But I distinctly remember

Tina Koutras (04:58)
Mm-hmm.

Abby Anne Korver (05:03)
my parents taking me to the Fellowship of the Ring in theaters and my mind was blown. I was in love immediately. And I remember the next Monday when I went to school, I checked out all three books, all three Lord of the Rings from the library and they were done within a week. Like...

Tina Koutras (05:26)
So you were not interested in waiting the year that it took for the next movie to come out.

Abby Anne Korver (05:30)
No way, no way. And then, yeah, then it just kind of sparked this like, wow, I really love this, this world and this genre and just kind of took off from there.

Tina Koutras (05:41)
that's exciting. And so I guess that was kind of your your first book series. Where did it go from there?

Abby Anne Korver (05:47)
Oh, wow. mean, I definitely went into like the vampire world for a while. I loved like all the Twilight and everything. It came out when I was like 13. So it was like perfect timing. Yeah. And then as I grew older, I started to find other authors like Brandon Sanderson and George R.R. Martin and got really into the high fantasy.

Tina Koutras (05:59)
Good timing.

Yeah, so those were mine too. I really liked the High Fantasy. I read George R.R. Martin as well and Brandon Sanderson. My husband loves Brandon Sanderson. I have to finish it. I started it, but you know, they're big and there's so many books to read. so do you like the epic battles or?

Abby Anne Korver (06:27)
It's a commitment. It's a commitment.

Tina Koutras (06:36)
Do you kind of like the quests and things or the emotional journeys more?

Abby Anne Korver (06:41)
I definitely gravitate more towards, I would say, character driven plots. Everybody loves a big battle scene and that definitely makes for exciting reading. But I think that's what drew me into something like Lord of the Rings because, yes, it has these amazing scenes of battles and elves and dwarves and orcs and all these interesting creatures, but

Tina Koutras (06:46)
Mm-hmm.

Abby Anne Korver (07:07)
it really is more about those characters journey together. And yeah. Yeah.

Tina Koutras (07:12)
It for sure it is.

Okay,

so why don't you tell us a little about the Mender's Curse?

Abby Anne Korver (07:19)
I think it definitely played into why I decided to write this book and how I wrote it as well. I definitely wanted it to be a character-driven plot, especially this first book. The story is told from four different point of views, but we start off with the main character whose name is Liam.

And Liam lives in a world of menders and mages, so people that can heal and people that can perform magic. And he is a mender, but he has been cursed with immortality. And his viewpoint on this is what I really wanted to hone into on the first book. In a lot of fantasy worlds, immortality is considered something desirable, right?

something that characters chase. But in this case, this character has lived a very long time, lost every person he's loved, and he's very lonely. And so he embarks on this quest to try to find a cure for this immortality. And along the way, he acquires some traveling companions, and it's those relationships that are really the core of the story.

Tina Koutras (08:37)
That's fantastic. I remember reading the title of it and knowing that you were recovering from surgery and was thinking to myself, I wonder if the name of the book had anything to do with what you were going through.

Abby Anne Korver (08:51)
Hmm, a little bit. Yeah, you know, there's this kind of interesting dichotomy with Liam. He can live forever. Nothing can hurt him. He can feel physical pain. And he just happens to be a mender, the one thing that he really doesn't need because he doesn't need to heal himself. And so he kind of struggles with this idea, and

changes throughout the book. And of course, I was going through a lot of physical pain. And so writing about it was actually a very almost cathartic experience.

Tina Koutras (09:30)
I would imagine it would be incredible. I love that idea. It's amazing. So what inspired your universe in general? Like it's a very different take on magic, menders and magic. What inspired that?

Abby Anne Korver (09:32)
Yeah.

It is. You know, it really started with this idea of wanting to have an immortal character that can heal or can mend but doesn't need that. And as I started thinking about the potential of this world, I wanted it to be somewhat grounded. And so the characters aren't necessarily born with magic. It's more or less

can they wield with these stones? And these stones are very precious items. And that's where I started to really think about like the ruling government and how might the society work with these very precious objects. And they're not infallible. They run out of magic if you use them too much. So there has to be some grounding to this, know, to our characters that it's not gonna make them.

all powerful.

Tina Koutras (10:37)
Right, And I think that's a really important part of world building is to create those limitations.

Abby Anne Korver (10:44)
Yeah, and world building is, it is hard. Let me tell you, I really just kind of with book one, just like made it up as I was going, like, okay, you know, I'm just gonna start writing and then kind of see where this organically takes me. And then I've learned that that's my writing style, which is fine. It just means you have to hit the delete button a lot.

Tina Koutras (11:09)
So that's actually one of my usual questions is are you a plotter or a pantser Meaning flying by the seat of your pants. So I guess you answered that one.

Abby Anne Korver (11:18)
Yeah,

you know, and I've had to like, learn to be a little bit more of a plotter. The Mender's Curse is the first book in a four book series. So I have already started on book two, we're in the editing process right now, which is really exciting. And as the world gets bigger, I had this one moment where I just started to panic and

Tina Koutras (11:35)
Nice.

Abby Anne Korver (11:44)
My husband and I got out this giant whiteboard and had to make this like massive web because I was like, this is too confusing.

Tina Koutras (11:53)
That's

what I hear is that you need to make the web the crime board I think is what Jessica Leigh referred to it as That's awesome so You were talking about the fact that it was taking place during your surgery. How did you keep your momentum up?

Abby Anne Korver (11:59)
It literally looks like I'm solving a murder in my living room.

That was difficult at times. You know, obviously I was going through a lot of pain and having to do things like going to physical therapy, doing at home rehab, even just like daily tasks like taking a shower were just extremely exhausting. But what I found really motivational was honestly having

Tina Koutras (12:16)
Mm-hmm.

Abby Anne Korver (12:35)
a team of people just cheering me on. You know, as soon as my friends found out that I was writing this book, you know, they wanted to start being a part of the team, being alpha readers, beta readers, ARC readers, and like getting their feedback was incredible. You know, it's the best feeling ever.

Tina Koutras (12:57)
I've seen some of your reviews and we'll talk about that in a couple of minutes because I really liked a few of your reviews. you're an indie author, which is amazing and exciting. What made you decide to take the independent publishing route aside from the fact that your brother was giving you some pointers?

Abby Anne Korver (13:12)
Yeah, you know, trying to go traditionally, I, to be really honest, I just didn't want to wait. I know that it can take months to hear back from query letters. And I was ready to get this out there as soon as possible, you know? And so going the Indie route, you have a lot more autonomy, even with things like just making sure that my voice

wouldn't be taken out of the writing. I wanted to have a hand in all of that. And even though it's a lot of work, I've found it extremely rewarding.

Tina Koutras (13:49)
I would imagine. And I love that, especially it takes some courage and it's awesome that you had a tribe behind you to, you know, kind of help you through that process and to give you, it would definitely, I would think, help you with some confidence to have those peoples helping you through it. And it would be amazing for sure.

Abby Anne Korver (14:11)
Absolutely.

Tina Koutras (14:13)
So who in Mender's Curse do you think readers will connect to the most?

Abby Anne Korver (14:18)
Well, I have some data, I guess, to answer this question. Since it is a multi-point of view book, we get to be inside of the main characters' heads, which is unusual for some writing styles. And I think that most people are connecting with one of my characters whose name is Oz. Oz is disabled, or partially disabled, I should say.

I have a lot of personal feelings about Oz just because I wrote a lot of my own journey into his story. And he is the only person in our main group of main characters who doesn't have an extra ability. He's not a mender, he's not a mage, he can't wield runes. He's just a normie.

And he's along for this ride with these other very powerful folks. And so he has to kind of grapple with like, what is my purpose here? How can I contribute to this? And a lot of readers have found that very relatable because he, is a normal guy and he also has this physical ailment that holds him back in some aspects. And I think a lot of us deal with that, whether it's.

mental health, physical health, even just like stress can be debilitating. so finding that in a character in a fantasy novel is fairly rare, I would say. I definitely have not read a book with a disabled character as a main character, and that was very intentional writing Oz.

Tina Koutras (15:54)
Okay, very cool. So the book is described as having a fantastic found family. Would you want to expand a little on that? What did you feel you were going for?

Abby Anne Korver (16:06)
Yeah, I'm really glad that people have taken that from the book because that was one of my overarching themes. I think everybody in a way can relate to found family. I definitely have personally and you know, family doesn't have to be the definition of blood, but just people that you care about. And when I started writing Liam, he's definitely not.

the character in the beginning who wants a found family and that's what he ends up with.

Tina Koutras (16:38)
very cool. What inspired you to explore that dynamic?

Abby Anne Korver (16:41)
I think as I was writing, really found myself gravitating towards developing the characters' relationships, and that just kind of became the backbone of the book.

Tina Koutras (16:53)
Yeah, I imagine it would. And is there, a particular member of the group that you would adopt into your own life.

Abby Anne Korver (17:00)
wow. Well, I have to be totally honest. The main character, Liam, is quite literally inspired by my husband. All of his quirks, his characteristics, good and bad, are an inspiration from somebody very close to me. So.

Tina Koutras (17:11)
well.

Abby Anne Korver (17:22)
I would say I've already gotten to know Liam fairly well. I've been married, yes, I've been married to him for 13 years.

Tina Koutras (17:25)
And does he know this?

That's good. I'm glad he knows it. Otherwise he'd learn very soon.

Abby Anne Korver (17:35)
Yeah, he's actually,

he's doing his first read through of the book right now and like I'll hear him like turn over in bed in the morning or at night when he's reading and be like, hey!

It is.

Tina Koutras (17:45)
That's kind of hanging your laundry out to dry, isn't it? So if you had to explain the heart of Mender's curse in just one sentence, what would you say?

Abby Anne Korver (17:57)
I would say the heart of the Mender's Curse is finding family in the most unexpected places.

Tina Koutras (18:04)
Okay, very cool. Okay, so for new readers, can you give us a spoiler free peek into the Mender's Curse? We kind of talked a little bit about it, I guess, but if there's anything you wanted to add or elaborate on.

Abby Anne Korver (18:21)
Sure. So I've already talked about how Liam's going on this quest or this journey to find a cure for himself. And very early on, he finds out that this is going to take him to a extremely dangerous place. And so right away we get to meet our female character lead, whose name is Safira. And these two find each other in a very interesting way. I'll just leave it at that.

and she decides to join him in exchange for his mending stone when the quest is finished. And so as they start traveling, the country that they are in is called Amaria, and at the moment, nobody in Amaria knows that Liam has achieved immortality or that he's immortal.

And this is a big secret. And so they must try to remain as anonymous as possible. And they end up gathering two other members of their group to join them on this quest. And each person has their own reason for wanting to join Liam, not only just to help him and his curse, but also some sort of personal motivation.

Tina Koutras (19:34)
Okay, that sounds wicked. I'm actually quite excited to read it.

Liam, your immortal lead seems like he's a very layered character. How did his story come to life and how do you balance the cursed part of his immortality with the emotional side of his character?

Abby Anne Korver (19:49)
Yeah, Liam is definitely a very layered character and I feel like in this first book we just get to see the first little glimpse at truly who he is and everything that he's gone through and he carries a lot of grief. You can imagine anybody who's lived for a very long time and seen every person that you loved pass away and

you've almost lost everything. And so where we meet him at the beginning, he's kind of a lost soul. He he's very callous. He has no desire for relationships because he believes that that's just going to end in pain. And so he's trying to push every single person away from him. And what ends up happening is the exact opposite. He has people come into his life and

He really has to grapple with his decision. He's been wanting to die himself for years and years and years, and suddenly he has a reason to live. And I'm not gonna give away the ending, but.

Tina Koutras (20:57)
No, for sure. But that is,

that's quite the moment of realization when he would go through that, I imagine. So what did you consider the most fun and the most challenging parts of creating this fantasy in general?

Abby Anne Korver (21:11)
think the most fun is when you start to see the story come alive. You can plan all you want, you can make as many outlines as you want, but that first moment that you put it in somebody else's hands and they have the aha moment where they realize the plot twist or they just fall in love with this character that is

living inside of my brain rent free. That's why you write, right? For those moments when you get to share it with other people.

Tina Koutras (21:52)
Yeah, for sure. would like just having some of the reviews. We'll talk about those reviews. Some of those reviews that I was reading are very encouraging. Like they talk about how the dynamic of the characters is a really intrinsic part of the story. And I think that that kind of recognition, considering that's what you were going for, would be really valuable to you.

Abby Anne Korver (22:15)
Very, very, and of course, like, there's gonna be challenging moments in the writing process, you know, having to delete something that you've spent a long time working on and just accepting that you're making the story better by doing it. That's something I've actually grown to, I don't wanna say love, but I'm...

I'm definitely more capable of looking at it from a non-personal angle now and going, okay, I'm going to have to delete this part, but I'm going to write something even better instead of this. So.

Tina Koutras (22:52)
Do you

save it somewhere? Yeah. Because you never know, there might be another idea lingering there.

Abby Anne Korver (22:55)
I do. I do. There's like.

yeah, there's

like a million different versions of book one floating around my Google Drive.

Tina Koutras (23:06)
So what role does magic play in this world? You touched on it a little bit with the rune stones. Do you want to, in a spoiler-free way, if you can, give us a little bit more information on your magic system.

Abby Anne Korver (23:20)
Absolutely. So our stones are very old. They were discovered like thousands of years ago in Amaria and there is two different kinds. There are mending stones and mage stones. They both come from a rock called amaryte. And most of the stones are embedded in some sort of object or something that the user can wear.

Maybe it's a necklace, maybe it's a dagger, maybe it's an earring, maybe it's something they've adorned on their head or they have hidden inside their boot or something. And it just needs to be in contact with the user in order for them to wield. And for our menders particularly, they must also use potions. And those are made with

various combinations of herbs, serums, anything you can find naturally. It could be from animals, it could be from trees, and there's a science behind creating these potions and a purpose for each. One might be for healing a burn or a cut or for a fever, et cetera. And they all have these fantastical names and whatnot. And then the third magical item we have

in this arena is obsidian. Obsidian coins in which the user can carve runes onto them. And runes are like the antithesis to the mage stones. Any type of magic, there is also a rune to protect somebody against that. So, yes. Yes.

Tina Koutras (24:58)
Very cool. That's very interesting.

Can you share a moment from your character's journey?

Abby Anne Korver (25:05)
that's a personal favorite. I do have a chapter in the Mender's Curse that is my favorite and it's very early on and it's actually when Liam and Saphira have a, what we would call a forced proximity moment. There is a romance subplot to this story. It is not at the forefront, but it definitely exists.

Tina Koutras (25:06)
Yes.

Abby Anne Korver (25:32)
And there's this moment where they have their first time where they actually have to sit down together for a meal. And we really get to see some little pieces behind what makes these characters these characters.

Tina Koutras (25:49)
Nice. So I have to ask if Liam is your husband, are there any elements of Sophia that are you? Just had to know.

Abby Anne Korver (25:56)
Absolutely.

It's really quite funny. Even things like I've been working on the second book in the series right now and there's a moment of conflict between Liam and Sefirah and I had to really put myself into my own shoes and go, okay, how do I handle this conflict when something like this arises between me and my Liam?

Tina Koutras (26:24)
You

Abby Anne Korver (26:25)
And then the

same thing in his shoes. There's times where they're interacting and I have to go, okay, what does he say when I do this?

Tina Koutras (26:36)
That's fun. I love that. I'll be interested to know how he responds to having finished reading it all. So fantasy can't survive without tropes. So you mentioned the forced proximity. Do you have a favorite one that you love to play with in your book?

Abby Anne Korver (26:38)
It's an interesting exercise.

Definitely.

I would say the found family is the overarching theme or trope that we could say. But I don't know if I'm going to call this a trope, but my characters are all. They're in their 30s and 40s. Oz is a little bit younger, but our other main characters are adults, and that is something that I found that readers are really drawn to.

Tina Koutras (27:00)
Mm-hmm.

Abby Anne Korver (27:21)
having characters that are mature, they know themselves. We have more adult themes woven throughout the book. And so I would say that has been the most fun to write because it's something that I would want to read. I'm in my 30s. I want to read about characters that are older as well. Don't get me wrong, I love the teenage.

heroes of the world and books that follow that, but I want something more relatable.

Tina Koutras (27:54)
you're right, most of them kind of start at that young age. So I think I would probably love to read something a little bit older. So are there any tropes that you try to avoid?

Abby Anne Korver (28:07)
I...

Tina Koutras (28:07)
Hahaha

Abby Anne Korver (28:08)
I am not a fan of insta love. That I just...

Tina Koutras (28:14)
I don't think you're alone there. think that one's one that a lot of people kind of find a little tedious.

Abby Anne Korver (28:20)
It definitely has its place in time. But for older characters and characters that are dealing with backgrounds of trauma, I really wanted this to seem more realistic. if you've been abused before, you're not going to just jump into somebody's arms right away and give them all your trust and love. So it's something that's earned.

Tina Koutras (28:44)
tend to be a little bit more guarded at that stage of life.

Abby Anne Korver (28:47)
Yes.

Tina Koutras (28:49)
So what were surprising bits of inspiration that snuck into your story that you found?

Abby Anne Korver (28:55)
I definitely, there is. I'll be very interested to see if like, after this, if anybody like picks up on this. I love to add like nods to my favorite films, books, movies, whatever, just kind of like snuck in there. I have a Star Wars reference in the Mender's Curse.

Tina Koutras (28:55)
I like the laugh that tells me that there's at least one in there.

Abby Anne Korver (29:22)
There's also a reference to gladiator. In my second book, we have a reference to Harry Potter and Braveheart.

Tina Koutras (29:32)
That's so

fun. Now I can't wait to see if I can find them.

Abby Anne Korver (29:35)
So if

you can find it, you're definitely a hardcore fan.

Tina Koutras (29:41)
So world building can get incredibly detailed. Did you have any nerd out moments where you'd stop writing just to build a part of the world? I know you said you were a bit of a pantser, but did you have any moments where you're like, okay, I need to write this down because this is wicked?

Abby Anne Korver (29:57)
Yeah, definitely. A major part of Mender's Curse is this journal that Liam is reading along the way. so he's constantly reading these journal entries and the reader is reading them as well. And it got to a point where I couldn't recall if I had put everything in that I needed to or not. And so there is a document of like all the journal entries.

together and I ended up having to just like compose the journal first before I decided what bits and pieces needed to be added to the story and when and where that had to happen.

Tina Koutras (30:35)
So you wrote the journal. That would definitely make it easier to keep track of for sure. That was a smart move. So if Mender's curse got turned into an audio book, who would your dream cast be for Liam? Do you have somebody who you would love to hear the voice of?

Abby Anne Korver (30:37)
Yes.

Yes.

You know, the first person that comes to mind is Henry Cavill.

I mean, obviously he's beautiful in front of a screen, but his voice as well, if you've heard him do Geralt, I feel like if like Liam had a voice, it would be kind of similar to Geralt. But my husband says that if anybody's doing an audio book or for some reason, like Netflix picks this up, he gets to pick Liam.

Tina Koutras (31:04)
the way that she's like, yep.

And who do you think, because I think that is one of the questions, who do you think would play Liam from your standpoint and from your husband's? Would that be a fight?

Abby Anne Korver (31:29)
man. He

would probably be like, well, this one, he would want someone very good looking to play himself, you know. But Liam is not technically written as like an he's not like an overly gorgeous person. And so I would maybe want somebody who looks a little bit more realistic to the book. But we'll see, I guess.

Tina Koutras (31:52)
That's awesome. So are you a plot anything and everything kind of planner or are your characters completely in charge? Like do you, you said that they kind of take up residence in your head free of rent. So what does that mean for you?

Abby Anne Korver (32:10)
Yeah, I mean, honestly, sometimes it's those moments when I stop writing and I take a little break for a couple of days, even a couple of weeks at a time, and that I really get a chance to like, let the story sit in my head with those characters, that things start to make sense. And that's when the ideas come. And it might just be like,

randomly eating breakfast and then I'm like, wait no Oz has to do xyz, you know and then I go add it to the whiteboard.

Tina Koutras (32:47)
Awesome.

So when you first started writing, you were bedbound and this was all you could do. So now that you're mobile and moving, what does your writing process look like now?

Abby Anne Korver (33:00)
You know, I definitely do still have to spend some time in bed, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It just means that I already know how to operate in that area. I deal with an autoimmune condition, which means a lot of fatigue and chronic illness. so I really just write when I feel up to it.

And it can be very unpredictable at times, but I feel like having already written Mender's Curse in a somewhat unpredictable and unideal circumstance has given me a lot of abilities into trying to continue right even as I deal with different health conditions.

Tina Koutras (33:47)
Yeah, it kind of cancels out your objections to yourself when you've already achieved something so absolutely admirable. I think anyway, you'd be looking at how far you've come so far and knowing what you got ahead of you and all these people that you have to talk about, tell everybody else about.

Abby Anne Korver (33:54)
Yeah.

Yes.

Tina Koutras (34:04)
So what's one piece of advice you would give to someone thinking about jumping in and writing their first fantasy novel?

Abby Anne Korver (34:10)
Do it. Just do it. Don't think, just do it. And that like literally anybody can do this. You just got to devote some time and some energy. If you have an idea, just go for it and find some people who can mentor you, who can walk you through this process, especially if you want to self-publish, you know,

Get on Instagram, find some other indie authors, connect with people. The book community is amazing. I've met the most beautiful people that I probably will never see face to face and they feel like my greatest supporters. So just go for it.

Tina Koutras (34:54)
I can definitely agree with that. I have found some very incredible friends on Instagram. So I very much agree with you there.

Abby Anne Korver (35:02)
Yeah.

Yeah,

it's amazing.

Tina Koutras (35:06)
So if you could live anywhere in your fictional universe for one day, where would it be and who would you be with?

I mean, I think

since he's based off of your husband, I think we might be able to guess this one.

Abby Anne Korver (35:22)
I love it. Yeah, I definitely took some personal experience into the setting. As the characters go on this journey, they go through like four main different climates or changes of scenery, and it's all places that I have lived. I grew up in Iowa, so at one point we run through a cornfield, of course.

And I'm currently in Colorado, so they spend some time in the mountains. But I think I would definitely want to live where our characters start out, which comes from my inspiration and my experience living in California on the Redwood Coast. It is beautiful.

Tina Koutras (36:00)
beautiful.

I imagine. I am very far away from that. I'm on the East Coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, so I'm a long way away from there. But I have my beautiful scenery, that's for sure. So your readers love the emotional depth of your world and characters. Do you find yourself very attached to all of them? And are there any tough times? Like, do you have any difficulty letting go of some of the aspects of your story?

Abby Anne Korver (36:08)
Hahaha!

Mm-hmm. I am, yeah, I am definitely, I have a lot of personal connection to the characters. I've put a lot of myself, my personal experiences, even inspiration from the people around me into these people. I will say that everybody for now has fairly good plot armor.

Tina Koutras (36:27)
No spoilers.

Abby Anne Korver (36:53)
But just beware, readers. Beware for what is to come.

Tina Koutras (36:57)
You

So

you did say that Liam is an immortal. So do you go back at all into his history or do you pretty much let his immortality exist in the present day with his own kind of feelings?

Abby Anne Korver (37:18)
I don't know if this is like so much of a spoiler, but we do have one flashback chapter for Liam in which we get to see kind of where this all started and that gives the reader a lot of insight into why he is the way he is.

Tina Koutras (37:26)
Cool.

so looking ahead at fun extras, The Mentor's Curse is the first in the Amaria Chronicles. Can you give us any clues about what's next for the series and for the characters?

Abby Anne Korver (37:48)
Yes, absolutely. Book two is titled The Mage's Stone. The Mender's Curse is the first in a series of four books. Each character is going to get a book that focuses maybe a little bit more on their personal conflict. So book one was largely about Liam and book two is mostly about our female character, Saphira, who is the mage.

Book three is titled The Bard's Song in which Oz gets to shine. And then the last book is called The Rune's Power, and that is featuring Asa, our fourth character. I am planning on a late fall release, hopefully, for book two. I'm in a big stage of editing right now and hoping to have

the next books finished within the next two years.

Tina Koutras (38:41)
Wow, that's some speed writing. What do you consider a successful amount of time to spend writing in a day?

Abby Anne Korver (38:42)
Yes.

You know, I really don't try to put a time limit on it just because, you know, physically, yeah, physically I'm sometimes just not able to. And, you know, I, I also don't ever force myself to sit down to write something that I'm not feeling inspired about. So sometimes I sit down and I'm, I'm going at it for eight, 10 hours a day and I.

Tina Koutras (38:52)
of challenges.

Abby Anne Korver (39:14)
I've written two chapters and I feel great about it. And other days it's maybe like 20 minutes and that's all I can muster. And so it really just depends on the day.

Tina Koutras (39:27)
I think those questions are important for people who really don't know what type of time, because I think that's a limitation. Some people think that they have to place on themselves and I really don't feel that it is the case. I mean, if you're inspired to do something and you just every little bit counts, right?

Abby Anne Korver (39:47)
Yeah, absolutely. And sometimes even it's like taking a step back and right now I'm on a break. My second book is with a few beta readers at the moment and so I'm just taking some time to like read personally and doing some beta reading for some other authors and doing some editing for another author and that kind of even gives me a little inspiration when I'm reading other people's work too. So that's helpful.

Tina Koutras (40:14)
I love this dynamic. I find that a lot of the authors that I've been talking to and a lot of the people and like there's quite a few people on Instagram who because of the arc reading that people do and everybody seems very involved. it's not just reading or writing. It's kind of just a mix of everything. And I love that.

Abby Anne Korver (40:38)
It really is. And you you find so many people that want to help you out just because because they like building a relationship with an author. And I found that I find great joy helping other authors, especially who are just getting started out, even if it's, you know, doing beta reading or arc reading. Editing is really fun because you get to help them with that process. And so

Yeah, it's a wonderful community online. Yeah.

Tina Koutras (41:06)
Intermingled, yeah, for sure.

So we love hearing about dream projects. Are there any other genres or types of styles of writing that you would like to explore in the future?

Abby Anne Korver (41:19)
Yes. So once the Amaria Chronicles is finished, I have plans. I would really like to get into the realm of writing fan fiction. And I know this sounds like really silly for somebody who's like already published, like, why would you go and write fan fiction? Like you can't publish that. But I read my first fanfic last year and I was so skeptical.

and it was the best book I read all year. And I suddenly went, this is incredible. I also love this space of like people who are into this and like just sharing their work for free. And so I have some ideas in the works for some fanfics.

Tina Koutras (41:45)
really?

That's awesome.

So we already asked about the Netflix who's going to be Liam, but obviously you'd be all over the opportunity, would assume, judging by our Henry Cavill idea. I think if Henry started paying attention to my podcast, he would start asking for the amount of times he gets mentioned, he could, you know, maybe earn a coin or two.

Abby Anne Korver (42:15)
Hahaha

Yeah, for sure.

Well, I've, I've like, kind of had a third party conversation with Henry and he's the most lovely person ever. So shout out to him.

Tina Koutras (42:30)
Hey

that's cool.

That's awesome. So what's coming up next for you?

Abby Anne Korver (42:44)
I have a lot of irons in the fire right now, which is very exciting. Can be overwhelming at times, but I'm in the midst of working on book two. So that's with some beta readers at the moment while I am doing some things like on the side. I also do some painting of

book edges, I'm developing a sprayed edge for the Mender's Curse. So I've been, yes, yes, which is really fun. So I've been working on that and I have like a very small editing business on the side as well. So I'm into everything in the bookish community.

Tina Koutras (43:10)
Beautiful. That's exciting.

that's fantastic. Okay, so time for some rapid fire questions. Magic wands or magic swords? Favorite fantasy story of all time.

Abby Anne Korver (43:32)
swords.

Lord of the Rings.

Tina Koutras (43:38)
Would you rather fight an army of goblins or outwit a scheming sorcerer?

Abby Anne Korver (43:44)
Definitely goblins.

Tina Koutras (43:45)
And what's your go-to way to unwind after writing battle scenes?

Abby Anne Korver (43:50)
I definitely put on some music from Game of Thrones. That's what I wrote to like the whole entire first book. And maybe like go for a walk and just let it, you know, let it simmer in my head.

Tina Koutras (44:00)
Nice!

so do you have any kind of ritual when you're writing, like scented candles, you just said the music, any other kinds of rituals that you enjoy when you're writing?

Abby Anne Korver (44:22)
I do enjoy a nice candle nearby that is definitely like adding to the ambiance. I have my favorite places to write, obviously my bed being one that like I'm very used to and I have my nice little setup here. I do like it to be very do not disturb so when I have the headphones in I cannot hear anything else except for

Tina Koutras (44:38)
Mm-hmm.

Abby Anne Korver (44:50)
Hans Zimmer or Game of Thrones. And that's about it.

Tina Koutras (44:53)
Perfect. So this is a fun little question. Have you, because I did in one of your reviews read a reference to it. Have you ever played Dungeons and Dragons?

Abby Anne Korver (45:03)
You know, so many people have commented that it feels like D &D, which is awesome, first of all. And I'm honestly really curious. I have never played it before, but I feel like I would love it. So I think that's gonna have to be a hobby that I take up.

Tina Koutras (45:07)
you

I feel like you might.

Did you say your

husband's a gamer or he likes to play video games? Does he stay in the fantasy world too or does he play all kinds of different ones?

Abby Anne Korver (45:29)
He does, yeah.

I mean, he definitely gravitates more towards fantasy like Skyrim, The Witcher, you know, that kind of thing.

Tina Koutras (45:43)
Right, And I guess the next part is, know Mender's Curse is coming out on the 17th of this month. So would you like to show us what to look for, what it looks like and talk a little bit about how people can find you, website, social media?

Abby Anne Korver (45:57)
Yeah.

Yes,

yes, so I am publishing exclusively through Amazon. There is a paperback or an ebook available. If you have Kindle Unlimited, it will be on KU as well. This is a cover. Now this is an author copy that I received just a couple weeks ago, so it says not for resale, so obviously that won't be there, but

This is a cover, obviously we have Liam on the front and I don't know, I haven't debuted the sprayed edge yet, so I feel like I shouldn't show that. It's really cool.

Tina Koutras (46:32)
Nice.

You don't have to know can't steal that post from you.

It's exciting that you can do that for yourself.

Abby Anne Korver (46:46)
yeah, yeah. It's like another entrepreneur idea I have about like offering for other indie authors like, hey, if you want a straight edge for your book, you know, like partner with me and you know, I can help you design it and whatever. Cause yeah, who doesn't want the pretty edges, you know?

Tina Koutras (47:03)
Perfect.

Exactly. I've

only just recently become a little bit more obsessed with them. Originally, was like, yeah, it's okay. I don't need to have fancy edges. But then I have a friend on the West Coast that did a book for my sister for Christmas. And that was just the beginning. I'm bound for more. I know I am. Once you start, yeah. Okay. So where can people find you?

Abby Anne Korver (47:26)
yes, once you start.

People can find me on Instagram at AbbyAnneBooks or on Facebook. And I also have a website that is called abbyannebooks.com That is not so much developed. I'm most active on Instagram, I would say.

Tina Koutras (47:49)
I'm so excited that we got to talk about the Mender's Curse because I think it's such a unique idea. And I love the magic system. think that having something so unique to be able to, like most of the time it's kind of following the same patterns. And I really love that you created something so unique. It's beautiful. And I can't wait to read it.

Abby Anne Korver (48:12)
Thank you.

Thank you. This was so fun.

Tina Koutras (48:16)
Thank you so much.

Abby Anne Korver (48:18)
Yes.