ILONA ANDREWS

#1 New York Times Bestselling Author

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Fated Blades Answers

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December blog questions are here.

::gets tea::

Was there ever a short story in the Secare concept? I have this nagging memory of a woman who is having to prove her right for training as a Secare? Is that real?

No. We created secare this year.

Any updates on the Kinsmen Universe PODs?

February.

Were Matias’ parents a sync’ed pair? Is that why his mom checked out?

No. Matias’ mother wasn’t secare. She checked out because her husband died. Kinsmen don’t always live calm lives. Some people can handle it, and some just can’t. When her worst fears came to pass, she suffered an acute mental collapse and then refused treatment. She literally withdrew from her old life.

What happened to the Geniocracy?

It fractured and eventually collapsed. Very smart people will only stay together for so long. Being very smart, they, of course, believe that their way is the best way and given a chance, you will have a repeat of koo-ko debate, only on a much bigger scale.

Are there cut scenes from Fated Blades that you might share?

No. They were cut for a reason.

Now that the series is revived (thank you!), is there any possibility Kinsmen will become more of a full-length novel series, with new characters?

This is a weird question. We don’t view most series we write as dormant or dead. Nor do we look at the series as a whole when we write. It works like this: here is a story, it fits into this universe. There is no deeper meaning. A story coming out in a particular series doesn’t mean that we will write another one. There may never be another kinsmen work or there maybe five next year. ::shrug:: We’ll see what happens.

Is Matias inspired by Derek Hough, do they look alike? Does Derek Hough know a book was written about him?

Matias has brown skin, black hair, and hazel eyes. He is tall, broad shouldered, and muscular. This is in the narrative. Derek Hough is a pale, blond, blue-eyed man of average height and slender build. The character descriptions are in the book for a reason. Don’t skip them. They are important.

Does he look like Derek Hough to you?

And no, the “book” was not written about Derek Hough. The concept of fighting dances was inspired by that particular Paso Doble, but the story itself has absolutely nothing to do with people dancing it. Dear BDH, if you keep making stuff like this up, we won’t share the sources of our inspiration anymore.

Is Rada inspired by Italy/ Venice and warring families in Venice like the Medicis?

No, Rada is its own culture that draws inspiration from multiple sources, but the primary are India, Spain, and a bit of southern Russia. Mmm, passion cones. My grandmother’s dahlias were to die for.

Is Kinsmen related to the Innkeeper universe?

Hehehe. Nice try. No, there is no multiverse.

With the 2 families combining research, have they already developed the shield?

Heh. Mod R, could you please call the Addlers and see how their research is going? We need an update. Thank you.

The story ends where it ends.

Were all the vandals on the ship? How did the SFR react? Are there any Vandals remaining?

Mod R, also if it’s not too much trouble, could you check if there have been any press releases from SFR regarding the attempted military coup?

Can we get something that reunites all the previous cast please? Especially the Silver Shark couple, Venturo and Claire, can we get an extended Easter Egg to know what happened to them.

We do not take requests. That way lie dragons.

A little bit more on that: individual readers are reasonable, understanding people. BDH as a whole is a multiheaded ravenous hydra.

That’s why there is no Patreon, Kickstarter, etc., because all of that would grow the hydra until we would be rushing to write stories to make everyone happy instead of working on the stories we enjoy.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Hello, is this Adler, Inc?
    Karion? Oh, hi! So…do you come here often? Um, nevermind, big fan.
    I have come to ask two questions. You know that space shield project your families’ finances are dependent on, how’s that going? Have you heard anything about those pesky SFR boys these days? Why don’t we talk about it whilst you get out of these wet clothes and slip into a dry Martini…It’s Friday, after all ????

  6. I howled at asking ModR to check on updates from characters.
    The description of the climactic fight in Fated Blades evoked a Paso Doble. It was magnificent.
    All this discussion of Paso Doble reminds me of the one in Strictly Ballroom. I have to go watch that movie again.

    • I haven’t seen that one, but I saw Shall We Dance, (Japenese version) that was so amazing and funny!

      • I’m old enough to remember the 1984 Winter Olympics so the only Paso Doble for me is Torvil and Dean’s original set pattern in the ice dancing competition. He’s the matador, she’s the cape and really, that says it all. It’s amazing and all done while skating on quarter inch steel blades!

        • Yes! I also thought of the Rumba, they did which might be more inline with the Plaza dance.. 🙂 But my all time favorite was as I mentioned the Purple Butterfly Mating dance to Bolero! (Well its not called that.. its what I call it 🙂 )

  8. Thanks for answering what you can!

    BDH – book devoring horde sometimes hydra ????????????. It kind of works.

    • Nah I can see us all inemob mentality, the maths might look something like:

      Mob Mentality Devour mode= BDH+n.

      mostly polite gorging mode =BDH-H

  12. Thank you for writing stories you enjoy. It comes out in your work and makes it all the more enjoyable. (I’ve read some bot stories and most are garbage.) And thank you also for being the down to earth, lovely people you are. Merry Christmas.

  14. “BDH as a whole is a multiheaded ravenous hydra.”
    WELL, I NEV… wait. Um. That’s actually very accurate.
    I’m sure all of our many heads are very sorry. Most of them, anyway. Well at least half of us. Please don’t hate us, we’ll try to do better.
    Have a peaceful weekend!

  15. I understand (kind of) the obsession of BDH with the dancer Derek based on his choreography of the Pase Doble. His partner Haley is SO good. Based on their talents and partnership Derek created a truly couple based version of the dance. He’s strong, she’s flexible and the line of their bodies is precise. You can truly see it as a partners dance where he responds to her and she to him. I do more clearly picture the fight scenes now that I’ve seen this. Thanks!

  16. Derek Hough?! Matias?!? Did they read the book?????????
    I finished reading the book on Thanksgiving(Thanks SO much to Mod R and House Andrews for the email❤️), and I loved it sooo much. Even though Gabriel made me physically angry ????.
    Loved the little mention of the Escana family????

  17. I always wondered about the end of Silver Shark. Did the ambushers all survive? They didn’t deserve to, but I guess humiliation and financial damage was enough.

  20. I think I will mention to my kids that I am a part of a ravening hydra. I think they will laugh. And they will sympathize with the poor authors (being voracious readers like their parents)

  23. Are the passion cones real? I tried to google but didn’t find anything. I kind of thought of it as this kind of a pastry with passion fruit filling.

    • I think I found it, look up egg white cream egg cones.

      I absolutely loved the dance sequence, it really improved my mind’s screen play whilst reading that scene. Thank you so much for sharing your inspiration.

    • I could be wrong on my assumption, but passion cones reminded me of cream horns from an old cook book. Instead of cream filling, it had the equivalent of passion fruit filling inside.

  26. Keep writing whatever you want! You two are very good at it. Fated Blades is an example of not giving fans what they asked for but something way better.

  27. Thank you, Ilona Andrews for the post. Good luck, Mod R with your assignments. ????

    Personally I enjoy whatever ilona Andrews writes. I do agree that BDH is a multi headed hydra in many ways. Perhaps that is a measure of success and how much society has changed over time. Perhaps not.

    Thank you for the Q&A “transcript “.

    Looking forward to hearing about Kid’s lawn mowing mafia attached to HOA in regards to Christmas decorations. The local one has decreed that mail box flags can NOT be holiday themed, professional sports themed, military themed (semper fi flags), or USA flag. The protesters all have plain solid colored flags and others are Fall themed with colorful leaves. Real life can be entertaining when it’s not your reality.
    Have a great December.

    • I can see not holiday themed since not everyone celebrates the same holidays, and same for professional sports. I don’t get the reasoning against military themed ones, especially if you’re a veteran. If I was a veteran, I’d get a veteran license plate and antenna flag and then park my car right next to the mailbox. Hah!

      • I’d guess they mean the flags to not become contention points? I thought Military branches can also have some rivalry. Though it is surprising that political/campaign flags or LGBTQIA aren’t in the disallowed list as I think we’re realists enough to acknowledge those can fall into the contentious category.

        It is interesting that so many people want to have mail box flags. I don’t see many in my non-HOA suburban neighborhood and people generally put up whatever holiday decor they want… or don’t. Plenty of houses don’t decorate here and that’s ok, too.

  30. I’m wondering if bdh read the same book I did. Strange questions. Derek Hough… Hehe!
    It took me a minute, why does this sound familiar? First, I thought Derek and Hugh.. Lol! OK, the dancer.

      • You were definitely not the only one. I was briefly angry because I thought I had missed a whole character from Blood Heir!

  32. I didn’t really get the Derek Hough thing. When I read about the dance fighting among the secare I thought it was probably more like capoeira in inspiration.

  33. “ Is Rada inspired by Italy/ Venice and warring families in Venice like the Medicis?”

    Medicis in Venice? Which universe is that?

  34. “Mod R, also if it’s not too much trouble, could you check if there have been any press releases from SFR regarding the attempted military coup?”

    hahahahahahaha

  35. I sometimes (all the time) worry about the questions (demands) that my fellow readers (ravenous cookie monsters) ask in the blog posts.

    Please don’t make sneaky “give us more story” pleas crouched as “questions.”

    As Ilona said, that way lies dragons.

    • The BDH hydra thinks they’re so smooth :D. You should see the spoiler trap questions hehehehe. It’s all in good fun and taken as such, but there are dragon reasons why some things can’t happen 🙂

  36. Silver shark was good but my go to book is Silent Blade . I have read it so many times . It fills me with hope .
    Thank you house Andrews

  38. AUGUSTINE!! love the illustration & can basically hear the maniacal laughter of the horde while devouring your books!

  41. Thank you for the post! The questions are HILARIOUS ????. Ok, enough laughing. Back to business. THANK YOU ???? for the book. I really enjoyed it.

  43. Still laughing about the last picture. I would actually like more Roman but will very happily enjoy whatever is published next.

  44. My BDH gloat… Gov. chris Christie’s book sold a mere 2,289 copies during its first week on sale.

    He was on every news show this past week. I even watched clips of them.

    Ilona Andrews were on no national news shows the first week of Fated Blades yet it leaped to top ten sales lists everywhere.

    It has 3553 ratings just on good reads.

    Imagine if they had level of publicity!

  45. Hehe, on the hydras comment, I can visualize the aged parchment map now, with a hydra outline at one edge, labelled “here be BDH”

  46. Hi!
    Love all your books and I enjoy reading you bog. I was wondering if/when you will be selling Fated Blades on other books sellers ie Apple. I would love to be able to buy it without going to Amazon Kindle.

    Thank you for helping me get though some bad health issue with your wonderful stories.

  47. Thank goodness you only work on the stories you enjoy! That’s why we enjoy them so much. Writing to please all of the BDH Hydra! It would devour your soul.

  48. I’m good with the stories you enjoy writing. If I want to read my story I should write it myself.

  49. okay – does anyone have a good recipe for passion cones??? Are they real?? If yes please let me know! 🙂

  50. The space chickens strike again!! LOL!! (Dina has the patience of a saint!)
    Derek Hough is a phenomenally talented dancer, and the paso doble he danced with his fiancee Haley on the Halloween episode of DWTS this fall was spectacular. And he’s cute!
    However, Matias!!! (where IS my fan? very warm in here! ????) For so very many reasons!!!

  51. I loved Fated Blades! When I listened to it I was picturing Hrithik Roshan as Matias. My husband and I listened to the audio on our way to TN from MD for Thanksgiving. When the description of Matias was mentioned he said “oh so Hrithik Roshan basically” and then I couldn’t stop picturing him as Matias after that.

    • Yes Hrithik and Farhan dancing to the song Senorita from Zindagi Na Milengi Dobara feels very Dahlia province

  52. Well said! Never pander to the customer or they’ll (we’ll) start to think you owe them (us) things rather than them (me) paying for your stuff.

  55. We do not take requests. That way lie dragons.>/i>

    Nuthin’ wrong with dragons. Unless you’re a maiden chained to a post by your fellow villagers.

  57. I am an individual reader and a fan. I’ve met you both a few times when you lived in the PNW. See I’m reasonable. Thanks for setting boundaries and sharing your stories and some of your life. You both make a difference.

  61. Thank you for mentioning this, and hurrah for the power of YouTube. I would have never known about this otherwise. That was beautiful.

    • that was directed at the mention of Torvil & Dean “Paso Doble”. I think when I refreshed my comment, it stuck it at the bottom.

  64. I love the fact Rada is based on Indian and Spanish cultures – esp Indian. Reading about characters wearing saris is so nice and I didn’t realise how good it felt to be represented until suddenly I was. The Secare dance fits this so well as there’s a school of thought that flamenco roots are partially in kathak (an Indian classical dance). Having been briefly trained in both I can totally see this, although flamencos syncopation and off- beat rhythms are quite different.
    Also I see your DwTS Paso and raise you Strictly’s Argentine Tango from last week by John and Johannes (looks to borrow that fan)

  65. Liked “BDH as a whole is a multiheaded ravenous hydra.”

    If You didn’t do You, You wouldn’t be IA, and that would just be sad.

  66. Not the right place, but I don’t know where else to put this and it made me think of you and want you to see it. Check out Kirstie Macleod – “the red dress, embroidery.” As she says “12 years, 28 countries, 244 artisans, 1 dress.”

    Thank you for the, kinsman Q&A BTW, and the blog itself, so entertaining.

  69. Please ask about Rogan and Nevada’s baby it was stolen from the hospital in Catalina’s last book. I really hope they get the baby back early in the next book. Ilona and Gordon are my favorite writer’s. I have all of their books and read them over and over between reading other books. I absolutely love their books and I hope they keep art for a long time. Thank you!

    • who would be daft enough to steal a baby from Huracan and his wife Prime Truth Seeker? Not too mention the scary relatives and friends (Sharp shooter Grandma Penny, Tanker supreme Great-grandma, those aunties with secret prime powers, House Harrison, House Montgomery, House Etterson), lurking the background…..

  70. That makes sense. You write the stories, you need to be in control of the stories. I love reading a new book because I never know what’s going to happen, especially in yours. Can’t wait until the next whatever comes out.

  71. I am still so bummed about missing the Q&A. This was the first time I knew early enough to register, which I did, but then never received the email link.

    I have never managed to read/watch/hear the spoilers for any of HA’s work. Here’s hoping the people lucky enough to see it won’t drop hints in the blog comments without explanations.

  72. Oh dear I just can’t resist…

    “Wait did she say dragons??!! Does this mean there will be more dragons? or a story about dragons/dragon shifters…”

    LOL sorry… (sort of)

  73. Don’t know why had a sudden vision of a hydra being attacked by other of its heads, trying to tape some other heads months shuts with the help of the horde. Oh well.

    Thank you…hope you have a good holiday season

  74. Greetings,
    Is there a recipe for these passion cones somewhere???
    I tried looking them up and got waffle cone recipes.
    I loved reading this, thank you for the laughs. Happy Holidays!

  75. Ya Ya:
    Listen to the rhythm. Don’t be scared. – From Strictly Ballroom
    Now that you mention the Paso Doble, I totally see it. I also was to watch Strictly Ballroom again and see if it survived the test of time.

  76. Does anyone have an estimate of exactly how big the ravenous multi-headed hydra known as the BDH is?

    I’ve never participated with such generous authors before. So many thanks for both the books published, but also all the freebies and snippets that keep us going until the next release. Author goals indeed!

  78. ^_^ some of these questions crack me up. It’s true, feeding a hydra on demand is a terrible idea ????

  80. Thank you for whatever you write. I suspect if you wrote the yellow pages, it would be an exciting page turner that I would still be unable to put down.

  81. Mod R your make me laugh! I personally I’m slipping into a Mad Elf (hee hee)… its beer. Verrry Good, Excellent beer one might say.

  82. Regarding Patreon, since the beginning of lockdowns, I’ve been hooked to YouTube on variety of subjects. I also like to read the comments. I’ve read a few rare YouTuber’s Patreon supporter complaints about releasing the video publicly when it should remain in Patreon. Reading between the lines, they’re paying/supporting the YouTuber in Patreon… what is in Patreon, should remain in Patreon… So the Andrews are correct about what would happen if they do the Patreon route.

  83. “We don’t view most series we write as dormant or dead.”

    So there WILL be more Edge stories! Good to know! If I had my way (& I never have, so why start now? ????) there’s Hugh 2, Innkeeper Grande Finale (however long that takes), then more Edge. Don’t make me use your own words against you! ????

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