Reader Question Day #44 – all about Ghost in the Stone & Ghost in the Forge

This week for Reader Question Day we have a number of questions about GHOST IN THE STONE, and the forthcoming sixth book in THE GHOSTS series, GHOST IN THE FORGE. Note that this post will have all kinds of spoilers for GHOST IN THE STONE, so read on at your own risk.

Stefanie asks:

Hi I just finished Ghost in the Stone and I’m kind of a romance fanatic when it comes to Caina. Kylon seemed somewhat interested in Caina in Ghost in the Storm, will it lead to something else? 

Kylon and Caina were definitely attracted to each other on some level. Some of it was simply because they were both young, in excellent physical condition, and lonely. Part of it was because Caina admired Kylon’s dogged loyalty, and Kylon admired Caina’s cleverness.

That said, Caina hates sorcery, and Kylon uses sorcery to enhance his battle skills.  Additionally, Kylon is a little afraid of Caina – one woman without sorcerous power should not be able to outwit a powerful stormdancer and the strongest stormsinger in New Kyre, but Caina did. Caina is also a Ghost of the Emperor, and Kylon regards it as his solemn duty to defeat the Empire and bring victory to New Kyre.

So when they meet again in GHOST IN THE FORGE, it will be interesting.  🙂

(Kylon wasn’t in GHOST IN THE STONE because he was busy destroying the Empire’s western fleet at the time – more on that below.)

Also how did you come up with the idea for Corvalis and Caina’s relationship?

For the first four books in the series, the most common reader question was “when will Caina get a romantic break?”

So when I started plotting out GHOST IN THE STONE, I decided it was time to add a romantic interest for Caina. It was easy to justify in terms of the plot. By the time of GHOST IN THE STONE, Caina had become very unhappy with her life. She had been running on vengeance and rage for almost ten years, had seen all kinds of horrible things, and it was starting to catch up with her. So after her talk with Theodosia a third of the way through the book, she was ready to take a risk and make a change.

The idea for Corvalis’s character came directly from the idea for Nicasia and the Defender. The fact that Corvalis had labored so hard to save his sister is exactly the sort of thing that would appeal to Caina. I thought about making him a former magus of the Magisterium, but Caina could not tolerate that (she had a hard time being civil with Claudia Aberon and Nadirah), so I made him into a former Kindred assassin instead. Since the Kindred were major villains in GHOST IN THE STONE, that worked out.

One last question (sorry I am a Ghosts series maniac) how did you come up with the idea for this series and all its characters?

It’s an amusing story – I wrote up a summary of it here for a previous Reader Question Day.

Toni asks:

When will Ghost in the Forge be coming out?

April/May of 2013, I think. I’m almost done with my two current projects – THE BURNING CHILD and a short book about Windows 8. (I like writing fiction, but a quarter of all the books I’ve ever sold have been computer books.) By the middle of this month, I want to be going full blast on SOUL OF SKULLS, and have that done by January/February of 2013.

So if all goes well, April or May of 2013. Unless the Mayans were right, of course. 🙂

Can you tell us anything about it?

Here’s the premise for GHOST IN THE FORGE:

The Empire has forced Istarinmul to withdraw from the war, but the war between the Empire and New Kyre has ground to a stalemate. The Kyracians cannot defeat the Empire on land…but the Empire cannot defeat the Kyracians on sea, and New Kyre is on an island. So they’re stuck, and no one of importance on either side wants the war to continue, especially since Andromache essentially engineered the war for her personal benefit.

So both sides want to find a face-saving way out of the war…but then the announcement comes.

The neutral city of Catecharon is home to the Masked Ones, a college of sorcerers considered to be the best artificers of enspelled objects in the world. Additionally, the Masked Ones are known to be sorcerers of tremendous potency, and could probably destroy the Empire, New Kyre, Anshan, and Istarinmul if they felt like it…but they are uninterested in political power, and prefer to spend their time honing their arcane sciences and exploring the netherworld.

But now the Masked Ones have an announcement – they’ve constructed a weapon of fearsome sorcerous power, a weapon that will allow its wielder to conquer the world.

And the weapon is for sale to the highest bidder. So the various nations all send embassies to Catecharon to find out what is going on – and Caina comes with the Imperial embassy, and Kylon heads up the Kyracian one.

The point-of-view in GHOST IN THE FORGE will rotate between Caina, Corvalis, and Kylon.

-JM