Omega
Post by beth on Aug 21, 2013 16:12:16 GMT -5
I'm not sure when Rowling became the standard bearer for successful writers, but have to assume it's all to do with earnings. I may put this new writer on my list, just for rec reading.
Novelist Samantha Shannon has been heralded by book insiders as "the next J.K. Rowling," and her debut, "The Bone Season," compared with "Harry Potter." But the unassuming 21-year-old, who recently graduated from Oxford, would rather you didn't compare her to one of her favorite authors.
"Every writer wants to be as beloved as J.K.," Shannon said. "But we don't need a 'new J.K.' because she is still writing and still amazing."
The publishing deal is the biggest similarity between the two writers: Six figures for seven books with Bloomsbury. But Shannon's adult novel, weaving in elements of fantasy and dystopia, is entirely different from the world of wizards and spells inhabited by Harry and his schoolmates.
In "The Bone Season," out this week, Shannon has built a stark world in 2059 London. The city is controlled by a security force named Scion. It has caused clairvoyants, like 19-year-old dreamwalker Paige Mahoney, to work in the criminal underworld because their talents are considered treasonous.
After being captured, Paige wakes up in an even more powerful city controlled by Rephaim, humanoid creatures who kidnap the different kinds of voyants and train them for their army.
Writing the novel between classes and a publishing internship, Shannon might sound like a tireless overachiever, and she is.
Shannon had written two books by age 19, inked a multi-book deal at 20 and is now published at age 21. But her journey wasn't an overnight success story.
Writer in the making
At 15 years old, Shannon was a precocious writer, putting down words before and after school for a "romantic sci-fi epic" called "Aurora."
/snip
more ...
www.cnn.com/2013/08/21/living/samantha-shannon-bone-season/index.html?hpt=hp_c4
Novelist Samantha Shannon has been heralded by book insiders as "the next J.K. Rowling," and her debut, "The Bone Season," compared with "Harry Potter." But the unassuming 21-year-old, who recently graduated from Oxford, would rather you didn't compare her to one of her favorite authors.
"Every writer wants to be as beloved as J.K.," Shannon said. "But we don't need a 'new J.K.' because she is still writing and still amazing."
The publishing deal is the biggest similarity between the two writers: Six figures for seven books with Bloomsbury. But Shannon's adult novel, weaving in elements of fantasy and dystopia, is entirely different from the world of wizards and spells inhabited by Harry and his schoolmates.
In "The Bone Season," out this week, Shannon has built a stark world in 2059 London. The city is controlled by a security force named Scion. It has caused clairvoyants, like 19-year-old dreamwalker Paige Mahoney, to work in the criminal underworld because their talents are considered treasonous.
After being captured, Paige wakes up in an even more powerful city controlled by Rephaim, humanoid creatures who kidnap the different kinds of voyants and train them for their army.
Writing the novel between classes and a publishing internship, Shannon might sound like a tireless overachiever, and she is.
Shannon had written two books by age 19, inked a multi-book deal at 20 and is now published at age 21. But her journey wasn't an overnight success story.
Writer in the making
At 15 years old, Shannon was a precocious writer, putting down words before and after school for a "romantic sci-fi epic" called "Aurora."
/snip
more ...
www.cnn.com/2013/08/21/living/samantha-shannon-bone-season/index.html?hpt=hp_c4