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Read Fantasy Book Critic’s review of Fortune’s Fool

Today we have the pleasure of hosting Angela Boord. Angela won the silver medal in the 2019 edition of SPFBO and got one of the highest scores in the competition ever. While she’s close to finishing the sequel to Fortune’s Fool. She’s also releasing a novella that will serve as a prequel as well a good entry point for folks who haven’t been introduced to Angela’s amazing writing.

Q] Hi Angela, welcome back to Fantasy Book Critic and thank you for this cover reveal. How are things with you in 2020?

AB: Thanks for having me! Considering it’s 2020, I think things are going about as well as they can. We’re quarantining a bit more because of my youngest daughter who has Down Syndrome, but since we homeschool, we haven’t had to make big adjustments to everyone being at home. Although it probably has been an adjustment for my husband, who is now working out of the pink bedroom.

Q] Firstly thank you for continuing on with the team of John Anthony De Giovanni & Shawn T. King. Secondly what an incredible cover this is? Can you tell us about it?

AB: I absolutely love the cover! The only thing I told John was, “There’s a big, mysterious cabinet in the story, and I think that should go on the cover.” Then he did the rest, and Shawn worked his magic with the typography. (I really love the typography Shawn chose for the series; I feel like it captures that sort of Renaissance fantasy feel so well.) What I find amazing about working with John is that he reads as much of the story as he can, and so this cover really contains a lot of elements from the novella. My favorite part is seeing Razi there with his two swords, and Kyrra in silhouette on the other side. There’s just something incredible about actually seeing these people who have only lived in your head; it’s like suddenly they’re real, and now it’s an actual book. 

Q] You had posted some interesting news about a portal fantasy that you recently finished? I recall from your previous interview it had a working title of “Storm Clouds”. How long is this draft and can you give your fans a teaser about this new world and potential series?

AB: I just sent Storm Clouds off to my first readers at 220,000 words—the same length as Fortune’s Fool. The word count of my books tends to bounce around a bit with revision as I cut and add, though, so we’ll see how it ends up. (I actually cut a very long draft in two to get the core of this book, which is another one I pulled out of my closet.) The story is kind of like an urban fantasy stuffed inside an epic fantasy; it starts out in the 80’s with a Cold War espionage feeling to it, and then adds a magic system I based on quantum physics and an alternate world with a North American setting. So, there are mammoths and swords and spirits and gods that used to rule an empire, and warring cultures in a very precarious stand-off with each other.  

But at its heart, it’s a book about family and friendship. Sergei, my main character, sets everything in motion because he doesn’t believe his mother is dead and won’t stop trying to find out what’s really happened to her, and the most important relationship in the book is Sergei’s friendship with his roommate Cam. In many ways, it’s a gritty, dark, emotional book, but I also wanted to make it about love and humor and devotion, and loyalty and forgiveness. Sergei and Cam banter back and forth a lot, but there’s also a strong core to their friendship that has been fascinating to explore. I’m hoping to release it later in 2021.

Q] Have you been reading anything good lately? Any particular titles or authors that you would like to give a shout out to?

AB: I have actually been doing a lot of beta reading lately, and two books I’m really excited about are Bjorn Larssen’s dark literary fantasy retelling of Norse myth, Children, out October 3, and Krystle Matar’s Legacy of the Brightwash, which is basically a Victorian crime drama crossed with a gritty romantic fantasy, planned for release in February 2021. Both of these books are so good—character-driven, emotional fantasy, dark and brutal in places, but with humor and a lot of heart, and masterfully written. I feel really fortunate that I’ve gotten to read these books before everybody else!

Q] Thank you for taking the time to answer all the questions. In closing, do you have any parting thoughts or comments you would like to share with our readers?

AB: Thank you for having me on FBC! I’d just really like to thank everyone who’s read Fortune’s Fool and is waiting patiently for more books in the series. Y’all are the ones that make it possible for me to do this, and your support means a lot to me.

Official Book Blurb: I’d been ridiculed, rejected, robbed, and almost dismembered, and I’d only been in Liera a week.

Mercenary Kyrra d’Aliente’s homecoming is not as triumphant as she hoped. Her family is dead, her pockets empty, the man she loves missing, and a bunch of out-of-work sellswords want to steal her metal arm. So, when an encounter with an old friend leads to a smuggling job, she’s more than willing to hop on board in exchange for a bag of coins and a little revenge.

But will this mysterious cargo be worth the firestorm it ignites?