As I mentioned in last week's post, my second author interview was also my first. I did a two-part interview with my friend, Camille Griep. Since we talked about her first book, Letters to Zell in last week's post, I'll be talking about her second book, New Charity Blues, today.
First, though, a bit of back story. Camille and I met in 1997 when we both worked at the same summer camp in the middle-of-nowhere Montana. I'm not exaggerating. It was 50 miles past the end of the paved road, and the camp sits somewhere around 6,000 feet in elevation. There are amazingly beautiful mountains all around. We worked together 2 summers, working together the 2nd summer as head cook (Cami) and assistant cook (me), and she has been a life-long friend ever since. I could tell you a million or so camp stories from those summers, but I think I'll leave them in the vault for now.
Back to the book talk.
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New Charity Blues was published on April 12, 2016. As I mentioned before, Cami has a real gift for taking stories we already know and reexamining them from a new angle.
After a devastating plague, two communities emerge as bastions of survival. One is called the City, and its people scrabble for scraps in the wasteland. The other, New Charity, enjoys the bounty of its hydroelectric dam and refuses City denizens so much as a drop of precious water. When City-dweller Cressyda inherits her father’s ranch within New Charity, she becomes intent on opening the dam to all—no matter the cost.
But when Syd reunites with her old best friend, Casandra, a born seer and religious acolyte, she realizes that her plans could destroy the fragile lives they’ve built in order to survive. What’s more, the strange magic securing the dam’s operations could prove deadly if disturbed. Yet when Syd discovers evidence that her father might have been murdered, she is more determined than ever to exact revenge on New Charity’s corrupt.
Pitted against Cas, as well as her own family, Syd must decide how to secure the survival of both settlements without tipping them over the brink to utter annihilation. (Source)
Syd and Cas are actually reimagining of 2 minor characters from Shakespeare's play about the Trojan war. Neither woman is portrayed in a very good light, and Cressida is often touted as a whore because the man who supposedly loves her sees another man flirting with her. Cami said she wanted to explore the story of these 2 friends and their backgrounds to see why they might have acted in the way that they did. Rather than setting the story during the Trojan War, New Charity Blues is set in a post-apocalyptic world of the not-so-distant future.
Genres:
- Fantasy
- Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopian
- Women's Literature
What I loved:
- The way the book gives Cas and Syd backstories, making them real people with feelings and motivations rather than the way they have been perceived in other stories.
- The post-apocalyptic setting, which gives the story the urgency of the Trojan War, but enables to reader to enter into a somewhat more familiar world of a future.
- The complexity of the relationship between Cas and Syd and how that continues to evolve throughout the book.
Who should read Letters to Zell:
- Fans of post-apocalyptic stories.
- Fans of Science Fiction and Fantasy.
- Anyone who loves books that revolve around strong, female friendships.
- Anyone who has ever read a story and wondered about the portrayal of some of the minor characters and wondered what was their backstory?
Great quotes:
- "I will remember to marvel at the small things, too. Streelamps on the corner. Dim, yet ever-present stars. The road to redemption. Simple Gifts of friendship" -Syd
- "I don't care if it's dangerous. Life is dangerous. Love is dangerous." -Cas
Where you can find Camille online:
Website: http://camillegriep.wpengine.com
Twitter: @CamilleTheGriep
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To hear the interview with Cami about New Charity Blues please click here.
