Comments on: Kaza Kingsley Blog Tour

By: Tarie

Tarie — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 12:02:55 +0000

LOL – these baby pictures of you along the blog tour are so cute! And I think you really should write a retelling of the Oz series!

By: Kaza Kingsley

Kaza Kingsley — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:18:47 +0000

Hi everyone!
2xKnight – thanks again for hosting me. It was fun – and enlightening too!

Brian – You have some great questions! Yes, there are definitely things that pop into my head for my series that I throw out immediately, if they seem too close to Harry Potter. I know I’m not the only author with this concern. But, the problem is – when you line up the seven Harry Potter books side by side, there are a lot of pages there, with a humongous variety of topics covered! It’s really hard for there to be absolutely zero overlap between her series and other fantasy books!

The way I’ve been looking at it is, if the feel is mine, it’s okay. For example, she has dragons in her series, but they are ferocious in character. My dragons have a completely different role, and are more like the Chinese Dragon concept, of highly intelligent, mystical animals. So, we both have dragons, but I don’t worry about that too much.

The only part in my series to date that I’ve had to consciously, word-by-word make different than a Harry Potter book is in the middle of The Dragon’s Eye. Erec is involved in one of the contests to be king. It is an underwater contest. I worked ridiculously hard to make it different in every way from HP Book 4 – when Harry has to do an underwater trial. I have none of the same things happen, and none of the same elements under water (I have fish, sirens, and sea sprites as the only things interacting with Erec.)

Honestly, if it wasn’t important to the series I wouldn’t have had an underwater part at all. But I wanted an introduction to Queen Posey’s world, Ashona, one of the three Kingdoms of the Keepers. Plus, each following book is based on one of those initial six contests – and (as you guessed) there will be a future book involving Queen Posey’s underwater kingdom. So I did it anyway.

Usually I can just write with abandon and not think about it. But every now and then a little “Uh, oh. An HP book mentioned this once” alarm will go off and I will redirect.

As far as making Erec in the end stronger than Harry Potter – no. I really never even compared them in my head until asked the excellent (and pretty funny!) question by 2xKnight. I prefer not to think of books from other characters when I write (unless I’m avoiding that little alarm, above.) But I like the concept – and I hope it happens!

Linda, Sue, and Lee – great to meet you! If you have any questions or want to send me a message after you read Erec Rex you can do so through my website. I try and answer everyone!

And Pat – that’s great. I look forward to hearing from you!
Kaza

By: Pat

Pat — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:07:16 +0000

Kaza,
Thanks for your candid observations. I’ll be sure to drop into your site when I’ve read the books! Again, I really enjoyed the interview.
Thanks to Jason, too, for providing this great space.

By: Lee

Lee — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 09:59:22 +0000

Thanks for the intro to what sounds like a very interesting read. I followed your link to the site and read the first two chapters of Dragon’s Eye. Would definitely be interested in reading more. Blog tour… great idea.

By: Sue

Sue — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 07:01:09 +0000

I enjoyed the interview very much. The line of questioning was well thought out and Kaza’s answers have intrigued me and I look forward to reading her series.

By: Linda

Linda — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 06:20:36 +0000

This was an interesting interview. As someone who has yet to read the Erec Rex books, I found it enlightening. I am a dyed in the wool Potter fan but I’m also a fan of other magic-based, fantasy type books. Your descriptions of the world of Erec Rex are intriguing and unique. Thanks for sharing with us. You’ve convinced me to check them out!

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 05:06:23 +0000

Hi Kaza! I read Erec Rex Book I, and I loved it! It was very entertaining and enjoyable to read. I also plan on reading books 2 & 3. Here are my questions. Have u ever come up with an idea for Erec Rex and then decided not to use it b/c you think people might compare it to something from Harry Potter? And, be honest, did u consciously (or subconsciously) decide to make Erec stronger than Harry (by the end of the series) to foreshadow (albeit it’s only a hope right now) that the Erec Rex series will eventually overtake the Harry Potter series in terms of popularity?

By: Kaza Kingsley

Kaza Kingsley — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 03:23:37 +0000

And I’ll keep checking back – if there are any other comments or questions I’ll be around to answer!
Kaza

By: 2xKnight

2xKnight — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 02:38:46 +0000

I tried to stay out of the way today. Kaza knows her way around a keyboard and can handle herself.

I wanted to pop in and say thanks. I’m really glad that FanaticSpace is a part of the blog tour. This is the sort of thing I was hoping for when I started the site.

By: Kaza Kingsley

Kaza Kingsley — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 02:13:10 +0000

These are great comments, guys! Thanks for the feedback.

Amie – I am going to be finished with Book Three soon, and I’m so revved about it! It should be out in September.

Pat – thanks for the feedback! I know about that review, and there are a lot of others that mention HP. Interestingly, it’s mostly the “professional” reviewers that do so – and I noticed they did it with a lot of other fantasy books, too. But when I see online reviews, by readers that are into fantasy, and kid readers, they don’t see Erec as similar.

You mentioned a parallel of wizardry. I guess you haven’t read Erec Rex, but there are no wizards in the series! There is magic, but it’s different than in HP, for sure.

I do worry about the art giving people a certain feel. My guess is most people aren’t reading the magazine reviews (they were nice, luckily!) but the art must have an influence one way or the other.

I’d love to ask folks out there in general if they think the cover art helps or hurts the Erec Rex series!

But, Pat, thanks for your kind comments and input! I have a request for you, now. If you read Erec Rex books, pop onto my website and send me a message after – I’d love to hear from you!

And Trey – You stay away from me with that chainsaw!! lol. Thank you so much for the comment – it makes me feel so good! There are so many references that are hidden in there (to mythology) that you may not have picked up the first time. One Very Smart Dude (ahem, Jason, ahem) noticed that Erec’s mother’s name is June O’Hara … like Juno Hera. (Don’t worry – this is NOT a giveaway of any hidden secret such as who is Erec’s mother.) I loved that name…

The new book should be done very, very soon! I hope you follow along with me on my blog tour!
Kaza