A queen of a divided land must unite her people, even if they hate her, even if it means stopping a ruin that she helped create. A debut epic fantasy from an exciting new voice.
“I murdered a man and made my husband leave the night before they crowned me.”
Born under the crumbling towers of Oren-yaro, Queen Talyien was the shining jewel and legacy of the bloody War of the Wolves that nearly tore her nation apart. Her upcoming marriage to the son of her father’s rival heralds peaceful days to come.
But his sudden departure before their reign begins fractures the kingdom beyond repair.
Years later, Talyien receives a message, urging her to attend a meeting across the sea. It’s meant to be an effort at reconciliation, but an assassination attempt leaves the queen stranded and desperate to survive in a dangerous land. With no idea who she can trust, she’s on her own as she struggles to fight her way home.
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Pronunciation
Do not smash your forehead on the keyboard, stick vowels in, and call it a day. Do not make names up when drunk. Do not let your cat tap-dance on your keyboard and then keep the results. Audiobooks are a thing now, and they’ll make you pronounce everything first. Xyyxthththth’lllagonddir might seem really cool on paper, but you’re going to hate yourself once you realize you have to say it out loud for real people to hear.
Profanity
When you title a series CHRONICLES OF THE BITCH QUEEN you’re going to run into some very interesting problems. I originally self-published the first two books, and trying to run a promotion for it was next to impossible. Ads were constantly denied. I found myself arguing with Amazon employees for weeks on end. “Look,” I’d say, posting screenshots from Merriam-Webster.com. “The first entry says that it’s the term for a female dog and other members of some carnivorous mammals. Seriously, guys, I am not making this up. You guys—you’re discriminating against wolves, dogs, and otters. You wouldn’t flag THE MARE QUEEN, would you? Or the COW PRINCESS?” One employee will often give in and allow it, only for another to flag it a few days later, which means I’ll have to start all over again.
Reviewers have also contacted me about Amazon flagging and holding their reviews, probably out of confusion over why this particular book is attracting so much profanity. Some people turned to creative ways to bypass the filter: “For a complex, nuanced woman character with a very deep, profound, serious character arc, check out the Biatch Queen!” The worst part is that I haven’t actually cursed that much in this book. The main character is royalty. She usually lets her sword talk first.
Do I regret this? Let me get back to you after my mom’s Bible study group is done with it.
Love Interests
Could you have too many? Probably, although I’ve been told this doesn’t count if most of them suck…
Difficult Women
Some people are so used to seeing two-dimensional women in fiction that when one is presented as many male characters are—with not only a character arc, but fully realized problems, challenges, relationships, and desires—it is suddenly too much.
Queen Talyien is not playing second fiddle to anyone’s story. This story is completely hers—and her story is multi-faceted for the very reason that all of us are. Multiple desires, multiple challenges. Complexity not for the sake of, but because humans are complex.
I came across the analogy that writing women characters is like walking on a tightrope. Fictional women are judged as harshly as women in real life. There are acceptable standards of behaviour, and anything past that is scrutinized to the highest degree. A woman can’t be ruthless, but also can’t give in to her emotions; she must be calculated, but not too cold. Often it feels as if she must be able to bend her personality on a whim, depending on what people want from her at any given time. She must be able to read minds.
In many ways, I learned that writing fictional women has a way of breaking the fourth wall, especially when these women are dealing with the consequences of the same sort of harsh judgment readers bestowed on them. It has the interesting side effect of extended conversation beyond the pages.
Gaze
What many people see as “diverse” is my default. This took a while to get my head around. There are so many problems about this, the least of which is that whether I like it or not, my existence is suddenly deemed political. There is also the sense that many people seek diversity in ways that don’t match what I do. Perhaps they are looking for more of the same, just dressed up a little differently. Or they are looking for something different, but easy-to-understand, palatable—a guided tour over a trip into the unknown.
We are all the heroes of our own stories. The world may not always see it that way, though, and redefining your narrative requires care and thought. The struggles we share and relate with may not match the dominant culture—what one sees as heroic, the other sees as weak. Bridging your culture and the dominant culture requires a thorough understanding of both. Sometimes you have to make a decision: play that interpretative tour guide, or decide not to give a fuck altogether and throw the readers into a whole new world that little resembles what they know and understand, with only the promise that it will all be worth it?
I chose the latter; I decided that telling my stories unapologetically is my way of asserting that the struggles of people like me are just as valid and belong in this world. I’m here, doing what I do, and I’m not going away anytime soon.
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K.S. Villoso writes speculative fiction with a focus on deeply personal themes and character-driven narratives. Much of her work is inspired by her childhood in the slums of Taguig, Philippines. She is now living amidst the forest and mountains with her husband, children, and dogs in Anmore, BC.
The Wolf of Oren-Yaro: Indiebound | Amazon | B&N
In the last year or so, I’ve gotten an increasing number of blurb requests for books that are not yet sold to a publisher. They’re “done,” in that the author has completed a draft of some iteration, and gotten an agent with that draft. But the book ain’t really done.
It is no surprise that I like apples.
Toast them in a toaster oven, or just your… regular oven. Or hold them underneath a tiny dragon’s mouth. I don’t care how you do it. Just toast them, you’re an adult, you can figure this shit out. Again, you don’t want them burned, for fuck’s sake. If they get burned, throw them out and start again, because now I’m judging you.
