THE NAVIGATOR’S TOUCH BY JULIA EMBER BLOG TOUR [Guest Post + Giveaway]
The Navigator's Touch (The Seafarer's Kiss #2) by Julia Ember
Publication Date: September 13, 2018
Publisher: Duet Books, the YA imprint of Interlude Press
After invaders destroyed her village, murdered her family, and took her prisoner, shield-maiden Ragna is hungry for revenge. A trained warrior, she is ready to fight for her home, but with only a mermaid and a crew of disloyal mercenaries to aid her, Ragna knows she needs new allies. Guided by the magical maps on her skin, battling storms and mutiny, Ragna sets sail across the Northern Sea.
She petitions the Jarl in Skjordal for aid, but despite Ragna’s rank and fighting ability, the Jarl sees only a young girl, too inexperienced to lead, unworthy of help. To prove herself to the Jarl and win her crew’s respect, Ragna undertakes a dangerous expedition. But when forced to decide between her own freedom and the fate of her crew, what will she sacrifice to save what’s left of her home?
Inspired by Norse mythology and J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, this companion novel to The Seafarer’s Kiss is a tale of vengeance, valor, honor, and redemption.
Guest Post
The world of … (World Building)
The world of The Navigator’s Touch and The Seafarer’s Kiss is a mashup of fairytale, Norse mythology and Viking history. It’s a place of inhospitable Arctic landscapes, vengeful gods and dangerous seas, where only the smartest survive.
I created the world, in part, from a desire to delve back into the texts I studied as a graduate student, from a different and more creative angle. I studied Medieval Literature at the University of St. Andrews from 2011-2014. During my study, I was fascinated by Old English and Old Norse works, as well as by a phenomenon called ‘medievalism’ – or how representations of the Medieval world appear today. One of my favorite poems is a haunting poem called The Seafarer, which tells the story of a sailor who has lost his crew and finds himself alone at sea. The tone of the poem, as well as the Old English use of kennings and alliteration have always stuck with me.
I started working on The Seafarer’s Kiss in 2015. It was a year after I’d made the decision to leave academia. At the time, I had lots of ideas in my head for what I wanted to write. Part of me wanted to write a Viking historical novel about Ragnar Lothbrok. Another part wanted to write something that captured the mood of The Seafarer poem. And another part was pulled in a totally different direction – toward the Hans Christian Andersen Little Mermaid, a tale I’d always loved.
The duology is a melting pot of all those ideas. When I sat down to create a plot with everything swirling in my head, the first thing that came to me was a single scene. I could so clearly picture the moment when a mermaid girl through a hole in the ice and came face to face with a Viking girl. That image became the cover for The Seafarer’s Kiss and was the foundation for the rest of the series.
The Navigator’s Touch is influenced heavily by J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan – another childhood favorite of mine! After I had written The Seafarer’s Kiss, I fell in love with retelling classics in a Viking-inspired world. Captain Hook is such a fascinating figure, and I wanted to give an alternative origin story.
While some of the world-building was based on Viking culture and history, I did take some liberties. In The Seafarer’s Kiss in particular, so much of the book takes place underwater in a Mer-Kingdom that is not found anywhere in Viking lore. In The Navigator’s Touch, I wanted to make the Viking world more inclusive, more open to women, non-binary people and POC in power than its historical reality. I also gave them a bit more of a horse culture because I couldn’t imagine myself writing a fantasy novel without sassy animal sidekicks!
Julia Ember is the author of The Seafarer's Kiss and The Navigator's Touch, as well as several novellas and short stories for young adults. Originally from Chicago, Julia now resides in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her hobbies include riding horses, starting far too many craft projects, and looking after her city-based menagerie of pets with names from Harry Potter. She regularly takes part in events for queer teens. A world traveler since childhood, she has now visited more than sixty countries.
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