I met Tina LeCount Myers at a convention — I’m not sure if it was a FogCon last year, at WorldCon in San Jose, or if it was even farther back than that. I was fascinated by her work, but I didn’t get a chance to sit down with her one on one until this past FogCon, when we spent an hour chatting about the pleasures and difficulties of writing a trilogy. Of course, I wanted to ask her to stop by my blog to answer my 5 Questions.

Tina LeCount Myers is a writer, surfer, and gluestick artist. Born in Mexico to expat-bohemian parents, she grew up on Southern California tennis courts with a prophecy hanging over her head; her parents hoped she’d one day be an author. Tina is the author of The Song of All and Dreams of the Dark Sky (Books 1 and 2 of The Legacy of the Heavens series). Her work has also appeared in Literary Hub and Tor.com. Tina lives in San Francisco with her adventurer husband and demanding Siamese cat.

Her newest book is Dreams of the Dark Sky:

The war between men and immortals that raged across the frozen Northland of Davvieana has ended. For men, the balance of power between Believer and Brethren, between honoring the gods and honoring the sword, has shifted to favor priests over Hunters. But it is the legacy of one man’s love for his son that shapes the lives of all who survived. While Irjan, the once-legendary immortal hunter, has saved his son’s life, he cannot save Marnej from the men who will make him a killer, nor can he save the immortal girl he’d promised to protect from the secret of her birth.

Raised by Irjan among the immortals, Dárja has been trained to fight by a man who once hunted her kind. Prisoner among the humans, her hatred for them is challenged by the chance to give Irjan what he has always wanted—his son, Marnej, returned to him. Together, Marnej and Dárja, human and immortal, must find a way to trust one another if they are to live long enough to learn the truth behind the secrets and lies that have forged their lives.

Did something in the real world inspire Dreams of the Dark Sky?

Like The Song of All, the first book in in The Legacy of the Heavens trilogy, Dreams of the Dark Sky is set in the arctic tundra of Scandinavia and is inspired by the Sami peoples of the region. The fairytales that my Finnish grandfather told me about Samiland captured my imagination as a child and those stories stayed with me into adulthood.

What is your favorite scene in the book?

One of my favorite scenes is a quiet one where a group of female friends are gathered, eating breakfast, and talking. It is an everyday moment, familiar. You can see the connection and also the differences among the friends. I like the contrast of this intimate scene in a plot that is heavy on action and sword fights.

What was your writing process like as you wrote Dreams of the Dark Sky?

The first draft was written in 2013 in two sessions of Camp NaNoWriMo and then November’s NaNoWriMo. I wrote 50,000-word chunks in April, July, and November. Then the novel sat in a drawer until 2016 when I revised it while my agent shopped my trilogy to publishers. The major editing work happened between November 2017-June 2018. I think I did five complete revisions of the book in total. Each time I found something new that I wanted to expand upon. The resting periods were helpful for me to get perspective on the story.

What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of the book?

I had the great privilege to write a piece for John Scalzi’s blog about The Big Idea behind Dreams of the Dark Sky. It gave me the opportunity to discuss the tension between my conscious and unconscious mind in my writing. I am a fangirl of Scalzi, so it was an honor to be a part of his blog.

What do you have planned next?

I am currently working on the third book in the series. It’s called Breath of Gods. It has been a stop and start journey with this one. I originally wrote the rough draft in 2015. Since then, the story has grown, as have the characters. I feel like I am starting from scratch, but it’s been so interesting to see what new voices and ideas are popping up and demanding attention as I wind down the story. Breath of Gods is Rogue One meets Marco Polo and is the most quest-oriented of the three books. Plotting it out has taken me to the boards, but I think it’s worth it.

You can check out Tina’s books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2XOTGhj

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