Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Faey Bonne is a collaborative pseudonym used by affianced authors John Riley and Felicity Partington. We wanted to branch out and explore a more magical world together and so decided to begin our Twisted Tales series. Letting our imaginations delve to the darkest of places and spinning popular stories into unrecognisable adult stories.
Beautiful Temptations, the first Twisted Tale was released in April and Red Velvet, the second, is out in September.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Red Velvet.
It is inspired by Little Red Riding Hood. The story of a girl alone in the woods, at the whims of the predators around her. Except we wanted her to evolve, to have the book end with her being the most dangerous predator of all. Flip the entire notion of women needing rescuing on its head.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Only for first drafts really. Felicity takes on the initial plan and draft, – sort of like word vomit, everything gushes out – but honestly, until it’s been brutally edited and shaped by both of us, you wouldn’t recognise it! John takes the second edit, clearing up the mess and carving something legible out of the story. Then we both polish it.
Our brainstorming before the book always seems to happen at the worst times too! One of us will have an idea when the other is out/almost asleep/in the bath. It’s almost like inspiration likes to come at the worst moments.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Fairytales mostly. They’re something we all grew up with. But we wanted to explore what happens when real people are thrown in. Characters with flaws, problems, undesirable traits end up mixed with magic? Can ‘happily ever after’ really be the end? And surely, happily ever after is subjective? One woman’s happily ever is another’s nightmare. What happens to the villains? If the good guys are perfectly good and the bad guys are perfectly evil it’s clean cut. What happens when the good guys have flaws, make bad choices? When the bad guys do bad things for good reasons?
We don’t want to read about perfect people getting a perfect ending. We want to read about genuine characters coming head first with emotions, fears, magic, and monsters and reacting accordingly. We want to read about things going wrong, about bad decisions. And since we couldn’t find them, we wrote them.
What are you working on now?
The next Twisted Tale in the series; Ashes. Points if you can guess which tale is getting the Faey Bonne treatment first!
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
When we find one, we’ll let you know! Generally, Facebook is where we’re most active. But Amazon is where we usually advertise.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Lose yourself in the writing part. That’s the amazing bit, where the magic is. If you can write a book, then you’re doing something incredible. Write it. Love it. Everything else is just the ever after.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t say ‘one day’, say ‘today’ – because one days run out.
What are you reading now?
Felicity is currently well and truly stuck into Alison Weir’s Six Tudor Queens series. She’s a little bit obsessed with Tudor history.
John is reading Influence by Robert B. Cialdini. It’s all about human nature.
What’s next for you as a writer?
More books of course!
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Phantom by Susan Kay, always. One of Felicity’s favourite books of all time and I could read it over and over again.
Chris Bunch’s Dragonmaster, it’s a trilogy but since it’s available in omnibus form it’s not technically cheating.
Faith of the Fallen by Terry Goodkind, John’s favourite book ever.
And something heavy and hardbacked, for tropical-spider murdering purposes.
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