My Thoughts Literally!: Obsidian and Stars Blog Tour: Guest Post with Julie Eshbaugh and Giveaway

Hi Everyone,

I am so excited to be on the blog tour for this book. I really like Ivory and Bone. I thought it was a super creative concept and a thrilling read. I love me some historical fiction and the fact that this series is set during prehistory (more on that later) makes it so unique and I loved that. So when I saw that Fantastic Flying Book Tours was doing this one I knew I had to be a part of it. But enough about me, let's get to the good stuff.

Obsidian and Stars

(Ivory and Bone #2)
byJulie Eshbaugh
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: June 13, 2017
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Synopsis:

After surviving the chaotic battle that erupted after Lo and the Bosha clan attacked, now Mya is looking ahead toher future with Kol. All the things that once felt so uncertain are finally falling into place. But the same night as Kol and Mya’s betrothal announcement, Mya’s brother Chev reveals his plan to marry his youngest sister Lees to his friend Morsk. The only way to avoid this terrible turn of events, Morsk informs Mya when hecorners her later, is for Mya to take Lees’ place and marry him herself. 

 Refusing to marry anyone other than her beloved, and inaneffort to protect her sister, Mya runs away to a secret island with Lees. And though it seems like the safest place to hide until things back home blow over, Mya soon realizes she’s been followed. Lurking deep inthe recesses of this dangerous place are rivals from Mya’s past whose thirst for revenge exceeds all reason.

 With the lives of her loved ones on the line, Mya must make a move before the enemies of her past become the undoing of her future.

Hi Julie, thanks so much for being on the blog today. I'm so excited to ask you about Obsidian and Stars. I loved Ivory and Bone, and one of my favorite things about it was the setting.What inspired you to set a book during the prehistoric time period?

Thank for having me on the blog today, Cassi!

I love this question. The truth is, the idea to set a story in prehistory didn’t come tome all at once. There was no big “ ah-ha!” moment. Instead, it came to me in little pieces, over a long period of time.

It all started at the Museum of London. I was visiting London for the first time, and I found myself standing in front of an animated display of the city as if I were looking down on it from above. The view started in the present day, with all the city of London’s streets and neighborhoods laid out below, and rolled back through time—through the Victorian era, through the Middle Ages, until we were looking down on that same spot of land along the Thames thousands of years ago. It showed a forest with herds moving through the trees. Then, smoke began to rise from the ground—the smoke of hearth fires. The thought of people living in that wilderness tens of thousands of years ago fascinated me. How did they live? Who did they love? What did they aspire to? These questions would not leave my mind.

I went home and sketched out some ideas for a story and tucked them away.

A few years later, I read an article about recent archaeological discoveries, and how new information was changing the way scientists thought about the first Americans. The article talked about the latest theories—that the earliest people to come to North America traveled along the coast from Eastern Asia, using boats. I dug into some nonfiction, most notably First Peoples in a New World: Colonizing Ice Age America by David J. Meltzer. This book talked about the struggles and obstacles that these first Americans would have faced, including a specific threat that this vast, open wilderness would have presented to small, far-flung clans—the threat of dying out if they failed to connect with other clans and find spouses.

These ideas turned in my mind and led to the plot and characters of IVORY AND BONE and OBSIDIAN AND STARS. But it took a long time! I just found myself thinking about these people and daydreaming about their lives, until I knew I had to write their story.

Thanks again for having me on the blog today! This was such a fun question to answer!

Thanks so much for being here, Julie! That is totally fascinating. I also think about what a location was like when it was first inhabited so this is totally up my alley. And I don't think I've heard about that article. I remember seeing something about how Early Americas traveled here but I had always heard it was from a land bridge from Asia but the boats along the coast makes a lot of sense. Now I want to look into it more. Thanks again!

Julie Eshbaugh is the author of Ivory and Bone (HarperCollins, 2016). She used to have trouble staying in one spot, having lived in places as varied as Utah, France, and New York City. Julie eventually returned home to the Philadelphia area, where she now lives with her husband, son, cat and dog. Her favorite moments are when the unexpected happens and she cheers loudest when the pitcher gets a hit.