Word Spelunking: The Warner Grimoire Book One: Bad Apple Blog Tour {Author Interview and Giveaway}

I'm thrilled to have The Warner Grimoire Blog Tour stopping by today! Clay Held, author of The Warner Grimoire series, is here today for a fun interview. Plus, there's an awesome giveaway...

The Warner Grimoire Book One: Bad Apple

by Clay Held

5/1/13

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Purchase: Amazon

Meet Simon Warner, a fourteen-year-old who drowned. Death was just the beginning. Dying awakens an angry and malevolent force inside Simon–magic, and before he can comprehend his mystical transformation his adopted father is kidnapped during a mysterious fire that destroys their home.

Within hours Simon is violently yanked into the supernatural world, where the real trouble starts: he is the descendent of an evil sorcerer, and the magical community isn't exactly welcoming of him. Making matters worse, Simon finds himself on a collision course with the forces of the deranged Silas Darrow, a charming yet xenophobic warlock who fears humanity will one day eradicate all magic. In order to protect "his" people, this false messiah intends to strike first.

Magic--it may have saved Simon's life, but it may have just doomed the world.

Does your heart go bump in the night?

14-year-old Simon Warner isn't having a very good October. To start with, he drowned, and then the real trouble started. Next thing he knows, he's back among the living, and face-to-face with a ghoulish-looking man who kidnaps his adopted father. Enter Nathan Tamerlane, a bonafide wizard, and soon Simon is deep in the hidden world of the supernatural, walking among the Freemancers: a secret society of wizards, and the stewards of all magic on Earth. Soon the truth is revealed: Simon's birth parents are wicked sorcerers who betrayed the Freemancers years ago before going into hiding. Making matters worse, a cruel and xenophobic warlock named Silas Darrow is gathering his followers (some would say worshipers) to lead an assault on the non-magical world. Now, if Simon ever wants to see his adopted father again, he's going to have to join Darrow's cult. Easier said than done. All it takes is one moment of weakness, and a powerful evil will infest Simon's soul forever.

Visit The Warner Grimoire Website and read a FREE sample

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What three words best describe THE WARNER GRIMOIRE BOOK ONE: BAD APPLE?

Fun, relatable adventure

Can you give us your best one sentence pitch to convince readers (especially reluctant readers) to give THE WARNER GRIMOIRE BOOK ONE: BAD APPLE a try?

A teenage boy must risk his soul and enter the world of monsters and magic in an effort to save the only family he has ever known.

Grab a copy of THE WARNER GRIMOIRE BOOK ONE: BAD APPLE and answer the following:
Favorite chapter?

The Door at the Bottom of the Lake

Favorite page?

Page 283 (from the original manuscript)

Favorite character?

Malkin

Flip to a random page and give us a 1-2 sentence teaser:

"In shock he let go of the vines, and then he was losing his footing. In an instant Simon went from imitating one of the numerous stone gargoyles that perched along the exterior into a free fall."

What inspired the idea behind this series? Did any specific books/movies/pop culture influence the story?

The first seed of the idea came to me the night I lost my job in 2009. It was a scary idea, but it was a scary time, so I figured why not? I'm glad I made that choice. One of the big ideas influencing the story was the idea of the apprentice/teacher relationship. I didn't want a magic school. I wanted something more personal than that. Apprenticeship just seemed natural.Another big influence, believe it or not, was Degrassi. I started watching this show several years ago, and a lot of the issues in the show aren't just kids' issues. In fact, the show is pretty mature with its material. You have kids in over their heads, dealing with situations that not even adults might handle well. Social pressures, identity, the choices you make, these are the real demons kids face these days.

Supernatural and fantasy elements play an important role in this series, can you tell us a bit about those elements? What is your favorite supernatural/mythical being or creature?

The world of Simon Warner obviously has a lot of magic to it. There are laws, rules, different types of magic, and more than one way to cast magic. The world's use of magic has a certain syncretic element to it, in that a lot of ideas over time have slowly melded together, so one wizard may be all about arcane incantations, where other have developed a more modern approach.Magic also works on a character level, which is how I think fantasy elements are best used.
You can find more about the magic in Bad Apple by visiting the Warnerpedia at http://warnerpedia.drupalgardens.com/, also.My favorite supernatural creature has to be the revenant.

If you could “borrow” any character from any book/movie/etc to write about, who would you choose? What would you do with them?

I'd love to borrow the character of Castiel from Supernatural. He's a fallen angel who is so out of his element on earth. I would send him grocery shopping at a big box retail store.

Which made-up world from any book/movie/tv show/etc, would you love to visit? What would you do there?

I'd love to slip into the world of Game of Thrones IF ONLY TO GET ARYA BACK TO HER FAMILY.

Fill in the blanks:
I'm really awesome at ___.

cooking

I'm really embarrassed to admit that___.

that I didn’t learn how to ride a bike until 15.

My comic book superhero alter-ego would be____.

Batman. Always Batman.

The coolest way to kill off a character is___

with a Heroic Sacrifice.

The last great book I read was___

Ready Player One.

If you were to create and bake a cupcake inspired by THE WARNER GRIMOIRE BOOK ONE: BAD APPLE, what would it taste and look like, and what would you call it?

Oh it would definitely be an Apple Crumble Cupcake. I'm picturing a simple apple cupcake with some pecans and walnuts on top with brown sugar. I'd probably call it a Warner Cake.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions, Clay! That cupcake sounds super yummy, and you being a Supernatural and Castiel fan pretty much means we're now BFF's!!!

Clay Held

Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook

I'm Clay Held, a refugee from wild world of video game testing, currently a project manager passing my days in the wild (and very flat) plains of Central Illinois. Once upon a time I was the editor for Grassroots Literary Magazine at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where I earned my Bachelors of Arts in Creative Writing. Today I help make sure software ships on time, and at night I'm busy making things up and writing them down.

In my spare time (what is that again?) I like to read and cook and play with my cats and maintain my blog at www.clayheld.com. When the weather is right, I go storm spotting. Illinois is good like that.