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March 28, 2024

Novel Lives

Book Publicity, Book Reviews, And Author Interviews

Storm Crow Author Kalyn Josephson Discusses the Multitude of Influences that Came Together in Her Debut Novel- And There's An International Give Away!!!! Details Inside!

Kalyn Josephson was gracious enough to take the time very last minute to sit down and answer a slew of  questions.  Sit back, relax and enjoy getting to know the woman behind The Storm Crow before it hits the shelves on July 9th! Don’t forget to pre-order for a limited time first edition!

Additionally, Kalyn is offering up a copy of The Storm Crow to one lucky winner- International Where Book Depository Ships!

Here is how you enter:

  1. Comment on the this post
  2. Follow Kalyn Josephson on twitter @KalynJosephson
  3. Follow me at @LiteracyBatman 
  4. Like and Retweet twitter post!

Entries begin today and run through Midnight Eastern Time Thursday, June 13th (the day I post The Storm Crow Review). 

  1. As  someone diagnosed with ADD that it is hard to hear how everyone thinks they have ADD and joke about it. Do you find this true with depression, if people sometimes talk about just being sad? How do you handle it (if you handle it at all), or do you just ignore it?

You know, I haven’t actually had much experience with this, though I know it does happen. What I find more often is people describing symptoms of depression without using the word, either because they’re unfamiliar with what it looks like or not ready to label it.

At which point I think it’s important to remember that everyone experiences and handles depression differently, to which my approach has been to listen and understand as best I can.

2. How specifically did you want to represent depression through Thia? What          were you trying to get across that you don’t think people really understand

Depression is a multi-faceted experience that hits people differently, but one of the main things I wanted to communicate was how outside of someone’s control depression is. We can’t make it disappear just because we want it to, and experiencing good news or happy moments doesn’t mean it’s over.

This is something that Thia really struggles with accepting. She keeps asking herself why she can’t just make it stop, and part of her journey is understanding that it doesn’t work like that.

3. I remember reading in Six of Crows that they crows remember faces. They remember who is kind to them and who isn’t. I believe you did a lot of research on crows. Did you come across research regarding this behavior? 

Yup! That’s totally true. They can also pass down that knowledge to their offspring or share it with other crows. So if you make one crow mad, you might end up with a bunch of them after you!

4.Is there any other part of yourself… a special hobby, expertise or something you feel you are good at that made its way into one of your characters?

My expert marksmanship in archery! (Not really, I wish.) But one thing that did show up in a character is my love of baking. There’s a focus on food throughout the novel, but there’s one character in particular who shares my joy of baking.

5. Crows seem to be a theme this summer. There is Merciful Crows, Storm Crows… Is there something you feel is specifically alluring about them?

I’ve loved crows for as far back as I can remember, so it’s no surprise to me that they’re often a focus in literature and art as a whole. For me, it’s their intelligence and cunning that I love, not to mention I think they’re utterly adorable.

But there’s also a lot of connections between crows, ravens, and other corvids to everything from ancient mythologies to current day superstitions. They’re fascinating birds!

6. How did you go from one side of the brain (tech/bio) to the otherside of the brain (fantasy? Do the two mix well? 

They do actually! Writing a fantasy book with an animal-based magic system allowed me to pull from my study of ecology and evolution and combine it with my love of creating new worlds.

I did struggle a bit with the balance between the science side of me wanting to explain everything and the creative side of me wanting to let magic be magic, but I think it worked out in the end.

7. If there is anything you ever wanted to express or say to anyone about anything but have yet to be asked the right question, or just haven’t had the chance, now is your time! The platform is yours. Have at it!

I’d just like to thank everyone who gives this book a chance. I’m so thankful for all my readers and I hope that this book can be the healing journey that it was for me for those of you that need it. Happy reading!

BIO

Kalyn Josephson currently works as a Technical Writer in the tech industry, which leaves room for too many bad puns about technically being a writer. Though she grew up in San Luis Obispo, California, she graduated from Santa Clara University with a degree in Biology and a degree in English (Creative Writing). Currently, she lives in the Bay Area with four awesome friends (because it’s the Bay Area and she’d like to be able to retire one day) and two black cats (who are more like a tiny dragon and an ever tinier owl). THE STORM CROW is her debut novel.

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