Olivia Atwater | |
---|---|
Occupation | Author |
Period | 2020–present |
Genre | |
Subject | Writing |
Spouse | Nicholas Atwater |
Website | |
oliviaatwater |
Olivia Atwater is an author based in Canada. She is best known for her Regency Faerie Tales trilogy, which comprises Half a Soul (2020), Ten Thousand Stitches (2020), and Longshadow (2021). She has also written the fantasy novel Small Miracles (2022), a novella with her husband, and non-fiction works about writing.
Atwater started writing at a young age after being inspired by a Dungeons & Dragons campaign led by her father. [1] She submitted her first novel to a publishing company at the age of twelve, but later decided to pursue different careers and continue writing in her spare time. [2] She worked as a web developer, historical re-enactor, repairperson, and salesperson. [3] [4] After researching self-publishing, Atwater followed a friend's advice and published her debut novel, Half a Soul , on her own in 2020. [3] [2] Inspired by British folklore, [1] the Regency fantasy romance novel follows Theodora "Dora" Ettings, a girl who believes she was cursed after a faerie stole half of her soul. [5] [6] Atwater subsequently published Ten Thousand Stitches and Longshadow, which along with Half a Soul comprise the Regency Faerie Tales trilogy. [7] The novels received positive reviews from Publishers Weekly , [5] [8] [9] The British Fantasy Society, [10] [11] [12] Tor.com , [6] Booklist , [13] [14] [15] and Library Journal . [16] She wrote the novella A Matter of Execution with her husband Nicholas as a prequel to the fantasy novel Echoes of the Imperium. [17]
Atwater sold the English rights of the Regency Faerie Tales to Orbit Books, who re-released all three novels in 2022. [7] That same year, she published Small Miracles, [2] an homage to Good Omens (1990) by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. [18] Writing for The New York Times , Olivia Waite recommended the novel, likening it to Pratchett's work. [19] Small Miracles won the eighth edition of the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off. [20]
Atwater usually develops her novels starting from a singular scene and sticks to the original outline of the plot. [3] Atwater said that she used to write stories centered around "human heroism in the face of otherworldly adversity", but after meeting people less fortunate than her she began exploring themes of "human heroism in the face of human cruelty and absurdity". [4]
Atwater likes Terry Pratchett, in particular his novels Small Gods (1992) and The Wee Free Men (2003). [3] Reading Pratchett convinced her that her "love of fantasy wasn't lesser in any way" and inspired her to write young adult fiction. [4] As a child, she enjoyed the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. [3] She said her writing was influenced by Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers (2007), in particular her understanding of the structure of the hero's journey and the classic fairy tale. [4]
Atwater has a degree in technical writing and editing. [3] She lives in Montreal, Quebec with her husband Nicholas and her two cats. [3]
Companion novellas
Sir Terence David John Pratchett was an English author, humorist, and satirist, best known for his 41 comic fantasy novels set on the Discworld, and for the apocalyptic comedy novel Good Omens (1990) which he wrote with Neil Gaiman.
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch is a 1990 novel written as a collaboration between the English authors Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, who in turn were dubbed "Double Trouble" by the British press.
A Hat Full of Sky is a comic fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld and written with younger readers in mind. It is labelled a "Story of Discworld" to indicate its status as children's or young adult fiction, unlike most of the books in the Discworld series. First published in 2004, the book is set two years after The Wee Free Men, and features an 11-year-old Tiffany Aching.
Shannon Hale is an American author primarily of young adult fantasy, including the Newbery Honor book Princess Academy and The Goose Girl. Her first novel for adults, Austenland, was adapted into a film in 2013. She is a graduate of the University of Utah and the University of Montana. She has also co-written with her husband, Dean.
Rhianna Pratchett is an English video game writer and journalist. She has worked on Heavenly Sword (2007), Overlord (2007), Mirror's Edge (2008) and Tomb Raider (2013) and its follow up, Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015), among others. She is the daughter of fantasy writer Terry Pratchett.
The fantasy of manners is a subgenre of fantasy literature that also partakes of the nature of a comedy of manners. Such works generally take place in an urban setting and within the confines of a fairly elaborate, and almost always hierarchical, social structure. The term was first used in print by science fiction critic Donald G. Keller in an article, The Manner of Fantasy, in the April 1991 issue of The New York Review of Science Fiction.
Patricia Briggs is an American writer of fantasy since 1993, and author of the Mercy Thompson urban fantasy series.
Holly Black is an American writer and editor best known for her children's and young adult fiction. Her most recent work is the New York Times bestselling young adult Folk of the Air series. She is also well known for The Spiderwick Chronicles, a series of children's fantasy books she created with writer and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, and her debut trilogy of young adult novels officially called the Modern Faerie Tales. Black has won an Eisner Award, a Lodestar Award, a Nebula Award, and a Newbery Honor.
Suzanne Enoch is an American author of best-selling contemporary and historical Regency romance novels.
Briar Rose is a young adult novel written by American author Jane Yolen, published in 1992. Incorporating elements of Sleeping Beauty, it was published as part of the Fairy Tale Series of novels compiled by Terri Windling. The novel won the annual Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature in 1993. It was also nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel.
The Mortal Instruments is a series of six young adult fantasy novels written by American author Cassandra Clare, the last of which was published on May 27, 2014. The Mortal Instruments is chronologically the third series of a planned six in The Shadowhunter Chronicles but was the first one published. It follows Clary Fray, who interacts with a group of Nephilim known as Shadowhunters while also discovering her own heritage and her family history. The Shadowhunters protect the world of mundane/human people, who are also called mundanes or "mundies", from dark forces beyond their world. The book series falls under the young adult genre, specifically that of the paranormal romance/urban fantasy and supernatural genres.
Margaret Stiefvater is an American writer of young adult fiction. She is best known for her fantasy series The Wolves of Mercy Falls and The Raven Cycle.
Discworld is a comic fantasy book series written by the English author Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat planet balanced on the backs of four elephants which in turn stand on the back of a giant turtle. The series began in 1983 with The Colour of Magic and continued until the final novel The Shepherd's Crown, which was published in 2015, following Pratchett's death. The books frequently parody or take inspiration from classic works, usually fantasy or science fiction, as well as mythology, folklore and fairy tales, and often use them for satirical parallels with cultural, political and scientific issues.
Ash is a young adult fantasy lesbian novel by Malinda Lo first published in 2009. It is a reworking of the Cinderella fairy tale that reimagines the title character, Ash, as a lesbian teenager. The novel centers around the familiar story of Cinderella, her father recently remarried, and lamenting the misery of her new life with stepsisters and a stepmother. The twist arrives when Ash falls in love with the King's respected huntress Kaisa, after she has made a commitment to dark fairy prince Sidhean.
Susanna Mary Clarke is an English author known for her debut novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004), a Hugo Award-winning alternative history. Clarke began Jonathan Strange in 1993 and worked on it during her spare time. For the next decade, she published short stories from the Strange universe, but it was not until 2003 that Bloomsbury bought her manuscript and began work on its publication. The novel became a best-seller.
Faery Rebels, also known as No Ordinary Fairy Tale, is a three-book fantasy series by Canadian author R. J. Anderson. Each book of the series centers around a faery who must venture out of their island to save the faery race.
Amie Kaufman is an Australian author. She has authored New York Times bestselling and internationally bestselling science fiction and fantasy for young adults. She is known for the Starbound Trilogy and Unearthed, which she co-authored with Meagan Spooner; for her series The Illuminae Files, co-authored with Jay Kristoff; and for her solo series, Elementals. Her books have been published in over 35 countries.
The Hate U Give is a 2017 young adult novel by Angie Thomas. It is Thomas's debut novel, expanded from a short story she wrote in college in reaction to the police shooting of Oscar Grant. The book is narrated by Starr Carter, a 16-year-old African-American girl from a poor neighborhood who attends an elite private school in a predominantly white, affluent part of the city. Starr becomes entangled in a national news story after she witnesses a white police officer shoot and kill her childhood friend, Khalil. She speaks up about the shooting in increasingly public ways, and social tensions culminate in a riot after a grand jury decides not to indict the police officer for the shooting.
Angie Thomas is an American young adult author, best known for writing The Hate U Give (2017). Her second young adult novel, On the Come Up, was released on February 25, 2019.
Half a Soul is a Regency fantasy romance novel written by Olivia Atwater. It is the first installment in her Regency Faerie Tales trilogy. The novel follows Theodora "Dora" Ettings, a girl unable to feel and express her emotions since the faerie Lord Hollowvale stole half of her soul. After moving to London, Dora meets the royal magician Elias Wilder, who promises to help her find a cure. However, he is busy investigating a mysterious sleeping plague that is spreading among children in the workhouses. Dora joins the investigation, which will lead her to confront Lord Hollowvale once again.