I plant little Easter eggs throughout the Remnant Chronicles, and continue to do so in Dance of Thieves, about the real origins of this world. There is a map of the kingdoms on the inside of the book, but there is also something recognizable about this world. Now new settlements have grown up because of those treaties, which is where Dance of Thieves begins, and where the clash of this book begins. At the end of the Remnant Chronicles, new treaties are drawn because some people got the short end of the stick. A whole new civilization blooms from these devastated beginnings, and since the kingdoms are so spread out they each develop their own traditions. In this world, there was some cataclysmic event centuries ago and it erased one civilization. I wanted to play with how people are raised in different kingdoms-how they believe one history because of where they grew up, but then when they step out of their kingdom they realize, “This history is just my point of view.”

I am fascinated with history and how we keep repeating history, and how history keeps being revised. The Remnant Chronicles is set in a world that has 12 kingdoms. Can you tell us about this world-and whether it’s all fantasy or has a connection to reality? You now have two fantasy series set in the world of the Remnant Chronicles.

I had so many requests for sequels to Scribbler of Dreams, and I knew that what readers really wanted was more of a love story, and that’s what’s at the heart of my new series. But I always knew that one day I would return to stories that have a strong love story element in them. The first time somebody told me it was sci-fi I said, “No, it’s not.” To me, it was a family story and I didn’t even realize I’d written science fiction.īasically I just write whatever comes to me, and I’m very fortunate that my publisher supports me hopping around like this. The Adoration of Jenna Fox is science fiction, because it takes place in the near future and there’s medical and computer technology that doesn’t exist in our world-but I would call it soft science fiction, because it’s only 50 years into the future.

I’ve done gritty contemporary with A Room on Lorelei Street, magical realism with The Miles Between (Holt, 2009), and I’ve written romance with Scribbler of Dreams (Harcourt, 2001). Well, if you look at my career and all the books I’ve done, they are all very different. Did you always want to write high fantasy?

Mary e pearson dance of thieves