» Kit Grindstaff

First Friday-Five Favorite Things: The Flame in the Mist

by Kit Grindstaff

This past Friday, August 2, Marcy and I posted our answers to Kit’s debut novel, The Flame in the Mist. Today, you get to read Kit’s favorite’s. It’s always fun to see how different and similar our answers are with that of the authors. Kit has given great answers that will make the reader longing to read more.

1) What is your favorite line or paragraph from the novel as it relates to the main character’s development and/or growth?

Ooh, this is hard to choose without spoilers! One I love relates to Jemma’s change of heart toward Drudge, the decrepit servant at Agromond Castle. Blinded by appearances, Jemma, 13, has always found him revolting. But as she’s about to escape, she discovers he has wonderful qualities and is not as she believed. Mortified by her prejudice, and how rude and careless she’s always been toward him, she has to say goodbye to him only moments later. (Noodle and Pie, for readers who don’t know, are her two magical golden-pelted rat friends.)

Jemma turned and squeezed through the gap, arms first, then head, shoulders, and torso. Noodle and Pie hopped in after her. She took one last look across the tiny dungeon. Drudge waved, then was gone. A fragment of her heart tore off and followed the old man up the dark corridor as he shuffled back to his lonely alcove.

Like Jemma, I hated leaving him at that point. But what I knew, and she didn’t, is that she will in fact see him again…

2) What is your favorite chapter ending or cliffhanger?

One that I found really exciting to write is at the end of Chapter 29. Jemma has been through a grueling escape from Nox and Nocturna Agromond, who abducted her as a baby, and a harrowing journey to find her real parents (with plenty of cliffhangers on the way). She’s just met her mother for the first time. Emotions are running high. They’re in the town square, with the townsfolk gathered to cheer her return—and now she’s about to meet her father.

Their cheers dulled in Jemma’s head. The prospect of meeting her father suddenly seized her with the strangest mix of emotions: excitement, curiosity . . . and then a sense of foreboding, creeping up from her toes. She pulled up the hood of her cloak, as if it could hide her. The minutes ticked by: six thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine, and still the cheers droned on, thick and distant, as if through a lake of syrupwater.

Every face, every tree, and every building in the square was still crystal clear. As crystal clear as the electric sense of someone approaching from behind her. Crystal clear as she turned around. And crystal clear as she saw the unmistakable dark hair and determined stride of Nox Agromond, exiting the inn and heading straight toward her.

3) Who is your favorite secondary character and why?

I’m going to cheat here and say two characters, because it has to be Jemma’s telepathic golden rats, Noodle and Pie, and you can’t have one without the other. They provide light relief, and I love their loyalty to her, their calm levity, and their simple wisdom. But I also love the fact that they’re still rats, and do ratty things like eating dead bugs, squeezing into small spaces, gnawing through ropes, and generally scampering around (including all over Jemma).

4) What is your favorite line or paragraph of description?

En route to finding her real parents, Jemma performs her first healing on a woman, Alyss, who is gravely ill. Jemma realizes Alyss has been cursed. She places two magical crystals in Alyss’s hands, begins her work. In Alyss’s aura, she sees images of a series of tragedies that Alyss has suffered, which are released in the healing process. At the end,

Each image burst like a bubble, scattering fragments that turned into gold light and drifted back into Alyss as though she were transparent, filling the spaces that the darkness had occupied. And all the while, the crystals sparkled with luminous blue, like lightning across two miniature night skies.

5) What is your favorite line of dialogue?

Since there’s a lot of darkness in The Flame in the Mist, I’m going to choose something more lighthearted. While still at Agromond Castle, Jemma and her erstwhile nurse, Marsh, realize they’re being overheard, so slip into a banter they’ve developed to fool the Agromonds into thinking they despise one another. Marsh has just told Jemma, “Be off with you. Or did a harpy eat your legs?” Jemma retorts:

“What makes you think I’d want to stay around you, anyway? You’re fat, and barely bigger than a troll!”

There’s several things I like about it. First, it tells the reader more of Marsh’s appearance; second, the fact that Jemma could say this to Marsh at all demonstrates Marsh’s toughness (Jemma knows it won’t hurt her); and third, it shows the warmth and trust between them. (Later in the same conversation Jemma calls her “Lard-woman”, which I also particularly liked.)

So there are my Five Favorites, Dave! Thanks so much to you and Marcy for hosting me.

We appreciate you sharing your current favorites for The Flame in the Mist and encourage our readers to pick up a copy!

You can find Kit at:

Website: http://www.kitgrindstaff.com/

Blog: http://kitgrindstaff.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KitGrindstaff

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kitgrindstaff (@kitgrindstaff)

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Flame-Mist-Kit-Grindstaff/dp/0385742908/

First Friday – Five Favorite Things – Debut Novel Day

by Dave Amaditz &

Marcy Collier

Welcome to August’s version of – First Friday – Five Favorite Things – Debut Novel Day. In this monthly series, we ask five simple questions about a debut novel that will hopefully entice anyone reading this post to pick up the novel and read it themselves, and/or give them at a glance some insight into the author’s writing style and voice as well as how some of the characters might think or act. We do this by presenting, first, answers to our Five Favorite Things, followed by the author’s answers in a follow-up post.

This month we’re pleased to highlight debut novelist, Kit Grindstaff, and her novel, The Flame in the Mist. I had the privilege to meet Kit at 2009 Rutgers One-On-One Plus Conference, where she was busy working on her novel. Fortunately, I ran across her again this past June at the New Jersey SCBWI conference where she was able to share good news of publication, and more importantly, where she agreed to participate in this month’s Five Favorites.

1) What is your favorite line or paragraph from the novel as it relates to the main character’s development and/or growth?

Dave – There were so many to choose from, but in the end, without revealing some of the plots inner secrets, I chose this paragraph because it shows the perils that Jemma, the main character, must face, as well as illustrates one snippet of the fantastic writing found throughout the novel.

Jemma closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The Prophecy. Despite everything, it still burned inside her, driving her. She’d been drawn inexorably to this destiny from the moment she first started having doubts about the Agromonds, and had set it in motion with their first step toward escape. How she would ever bring back the sun, she had no idea, but rescuing the triplets was vital. They couldn’t wait.

Marcy – Jemma has lived her entire life in the castle with the Agromond family. She always knew that she was different – not like them. She finally finds the courage to escape from them with the help of Drudge. In this scene, her brave behavior and change of heart for Drudge is the beginning of how her character greatly changes throughout the novel.

“A big cave. Then another tunnel, which will lead away from the castle, where there’s no alarm. I understand.” Jemma squeezed his hands. “I wish I wasn’t leaving you here! But—”

“Go!” Drudge pulled his hands away. “Mussst, now! G’bye, Jmmmaaah.”

“Goodbye. And please say goodbye to Digby for me, will you? Tell him…tell him I’ll look for him in Hazebury, when I get there.”

Drudge nodded, wiping one eye with the back of his sleeve. “Trussst,” he said again, softly.

2) What is your favorite chapter ending or cliffhanger?

Dave – Again, without giving too much away, I picked this chapter ending because I didn’t see it coming and needed to immediately turn the page to find out what came next. To set the scene a little, Jemma is feeling pretty good about herself because she has gotten away from the castle, and the likes of Nox Agromond… only to see… well, you read for yourself.

Marcy – This chapter ending gave me chills. In the last 24 hours, Jemma has discovered that her entire life has been a lie. Jemma is reading the back of a newspaper clipping and recognizes the picture of her mother.

She turned the picture over.

Tiny writing was scrawled with obvious effort across the back.

My darling child. We are waiting.

Jemma felt her destination sharpen in her mind as clearly as etching on glass. For somehow, something in her knew that her mother, at least, was still in Oakstead – and alive.

3) Who is your favorite secondary character and why?

Dave – Nocturna is my favorite secondary character. She is the epitome of evil, one hundred percent committed to her cause and only willing to waver with feelings or actions that resemble kindness if, and only if, the end result will benefit her. Who else would say the following to their daughter?

“Yes, you will, Mord take you,” Nocturna said, gripping her harder, “if I have to kill you to get it.”

Marcy – My favorite secondary character was hard to choose because there were so many characters I adored. Jemma meets a young girl named Talon during her travels to escape. The reader expects Talon to turn Jemma in to the Chief Inquisitor who is also happens to be Talon’s father. But boy, does Talon surprise Jemma and the reader.

Talon frowned, then broke into a grin. “I know – come to my house! It’s the last place anyone’ll think of lookin’. Pa’s never home, an’ it’d never occur to ‘im you’d be hidin’ under our roof. Don’t worry, Ma can’t stand ‘im any more’n I can. We both felt ‘is fist a bit too often. ‘Sides, she’d be dead chuffed to meet yer. So come on, let’s be off!”

4) What is your favorite line or paragraph of description?

Dave – This was not easy! So I picked two in order to give you a sense of the fantastic writing as well as of the evil Jemma faces in her quest.

First - Everyone dozed. Only Grandmama Mallentent seemed to be awake, her crazed paint-cracked eyes staring from her portrait as if they saw into Jemma’s duplicity. Jemma fixed her gaze on the fire, and on the family motto glaring at her from the mantelpiece: Mordus Aderit. She tried re-ordering the letters to make pleasant words, but it only yielded ones that seemed to taunt her: Ruse. Dare. Dread. Dread. The word slithered into Jemma’s head, then wormed into her bones, where it curled up and tightened like a noose.

Jemma mopped her mouth with a napkin, her stomach in revolt. The stew had been vile. The silkiness of the pancreas made her retch, and how could she have ever liked the bitter taste of spleen, with its crumbly texture? Even the crunch of the bees-in-syrupwater dessert was disgusting to her now.

Second - What met her eyes was more horrific than she could have imagined. Countless small human skeletons were grouped together in twos and threes, some whose arm bones embraced another; others with finger bones entwined. Several behind the door looked as though they’d been trying to claw their way out.

Marcy – Jemma has never guided a horse before – this is her first time trying to ride Pepper under strained circumstances. I felt like I was right in the scene with the fantastic imagery and action.

“Easy, girl – easy!’ Terrified, Jemma gripped with her legs as she lay over Pepper’s withers, her arms wrapped around the mare’s outstretched neck. The ground rushed by. She could feel her cloak streaming behind her like wings. Wings that had saved her, breaking her fall from Mordwin’s Crag…She began to feel as though she was flying, and melted into Pepper’s thundering gallop, remembering the thrill of speed she’d felt earlier with Digby’s arm around her. All fear vanished. Her mind merged with the mare’s, envisioning where to go: Over there, to the right – Yes! That’s it…

5) What is your favorite line of dialogue?

Dave – Even with all the scary scenes I’ve picked for my favorites, I think this line proves, that in the darkest hours, there can be hope.

“Nobody is evil through and through, Jemma,” said Lumo, “or good, for that matter. Each of us has the capacity for both, and for most of us, one wicked act, or even several, does not make us a wicked person. That depends on how we choose to commit our lives. Yet even good people have the capacity for cruelty, just as evil ones have the capacity for kindness.”

Marcy – Digby made Jemma die her flaming red hair with a muck of berries and mud, then sheared her hair off like a boy’s so people wouldn’t recognize her. Jemma is not happy about this transformation until Digby gives her a compliment – sort of.

“’S’alright, Jem. I understand. Your hair is kind of your crownin’ glory. But you still look pretty good without it.”

Jemma smiled, her stomach flipping.

“Does stink a bit, though,” he added.