Interview with Hemant Nayak, author of A Magic Fierce and Bright

About this book: A young technomancer teams up with a handsome thief to save her sister in this propulsive, magic-filled young adult fantasy that is perfect for fans of Gearbreakers and Iron Widow.

Adya wants nothing more than to be left alone. Content to be loyal to no one but herself in the isolated jungles of South India, she dreams only of finding her lost sister, Priya, and making enough money to take care of their family. It’s too bad that her rare ability to wake electric machines—using the magic that wiped them out five centuries ago—also makes her a coveted political pawn. Everyone seems to believe that her technomancy can help them win the endless war for control over the magic’s supernatural source.

These senseless power struggles mean little to Adya. But when her enemies dangle news of her sister before her, she’s all too quick to leap at the chance to bring Priya home—even if it means teaming up with a rakish, disreputable thief in order to do it. With the threat of invasion looming ever larger on the horizon, Adya must reconcile the kind of person she is with the kind of person she wants to be and untangle the web of intrigue, conspiracy, and deceit that threatens to take all of India down with it.

About this author:

Hemant Nayak is a writer of fantasy stories with a bit of heart and joy and a lot of the strange. He lives with his family in the Pacific Northwest. In his free time, he runs around the deep woods with his dogs, strums guitar in a garage band, and even plays Dungeons & Dragons with friends. When he’s not writing, he shifts to his alternate life as an ER doctor. Find out more about him at HemantNayak.com.

Interview with Hemant Nayak

1. Tell us a little more about technomancy and how this has played a role in your book. How did you come up with it?

Well, I first thought about an Earth where technology no longer worked and where magic of each country's home culture had emerged. What would that be like?

There would obviously be a lot of old junk from the past era leftover that no longer worked. Wouldn't it be interesting if the main character's magical power was the rare ability to make that old technology work again? Wouldn't it be even more interesting if the piece of machinery drew on the technomancer as a conduit and shared their memories and emotions and bonded with them in the process? More and more possibilities kept appearing as I thought about it this way.

2. I love the setting of the book in India, the descriptions and importance of different tribes (Vayu, Deva, and Atavi), and the wars against the British. How much of this is based in Indian geography, culture, and history (I admit I did a small Wikipedia search and was fascinated but want your take)?

The setting is based on southern India where the city of Mysore currently stands and there are plenty of surrounding jungles. My dad is from the state of Karnataka where everything takes place. India is a great mix of cultures, religions, and languages as you may know. I wanted to make the groups in the story more based on geography and proximity to the infinity wells and therefore more multicultural. For example, the Vayu are all people who live in cities close to the infinity wells and have a variety of religions and backgrounds but are all “people of the wind” who can draw the most power from the wells. I was cognizant of not wanting to repeat the same old thing of religions in conflict or caste systems in this future

3. Your characters are the heart of your novel. How did you decide to use Adya as your main character? Who is your favorite character and why? Which character was most unexpected for you and why?

 Adya is my favorite, though I love them all, and the motorcycle is a close second. I personally feel like I understand her deeply along with her inability to adequately express herself or express emotion or all she feels inside. She’s straightforward and deeply good though she’s not naïve and knows there are bad people in the world who will hurt you if given the chance. The motorcycle is by far the most unexpected character who came out of the pure magical blue. I realized while writing that the machines that came to life might have their own personalities and then realized that HOLD IT WAIT…the motorcycle is a possible main character…OMG it IS one of the main characters!  And then I realized the motorcycle is a VEHICLE for Adya’s character arc that takes her not only on a physical journey but also on the emotional journey in the novel. And it’s just such a fun, raw, emotional character! 

 4. Adya finds herself in more than one major scrape causing severe physical damage. know you are an ER doctor in your other life. How did your knowledge of that world play into this novel?  

 Yes, being an ER doctor does play a subconscious role whenever I describe an injury. I always know what limitations an injury will give her and how the heck are we going to be able to fix this ? is in the back of my mind. 

5. You have written a few novels prior to this one. How was this journey different and if you have any tips for young writers, what would they be? 

 This is my first traditionally published novel, but I do have a couple other books readers may enjoy including THE TOOLS OF THE GHOST which I am quite proud of. My journey was different in that I first wrote A MAGIC FIERCE AND BRIGHT which is in the traditional world and then wrote TOOLS which is self-published. My advice to young writers is perseverance and keep trying to get better. One of the best ways to do this is read current best sellers and try to learn from them and match or beat their quality. 

6. Anything else you would like to tell my readers about yourself or your books?

Even as a little kid, I wrote stories for my buddies on the school bus where they were main characters, so it’s always been a dream of mine to write. If YOU love reading and want to write one day, don’t give up the dream.  And I’d love to hear from readers and know what they think and what they loved. 

 

SPOILER QUESTION! SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT!!! Do not read below until after you read this book!

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YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. Also, I wanted to say that I LOVED the twist about the drongo bird, which I discovered on a quick search is a real bird. Can you tell me a little about how the drongo framed your writing and why (I actually went back to the beginning and sure enough, the drongo is literally the first thing you talk about, which was wonderful to see)?

ALL ABOUT THE DRONGO TWIST – I’m so glad you asked. That was not planned in the beginning or outlined in any way. Whenever I write I find I almost always put a bird in the story. If you read Tools of the Ghost you will see crows play a major part and once again there is a totally different twist involving them, just as dramatic, but completely different. The drongo came about because I was reading the beginning of The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu and in the first pages there’s a bird who soars over the country and you get the lay of the land from the bird’s perspective. I thought, how very beautiful and I want to do that too. Then, of course I thought this drongo is going to follow them around and become a character. Finally I was taking a long walk and it hit me suddenly and I stopped in my tracks – the drongo IS PRIYA! – and it was an absolutely perfect gift from the muse and there you have it! The lesson for writers here is write and keep thinking about it and taking walks and as you write even better ideas you could never outline will come to you and you adjust.