3 is a Magic Number (Giveaway)

Three represents the holy trinity in a number of religions, considered by some to be the perfect number. It's also the standard number of wishes one gets in a fairytale. Or the number of chances you get, if you're Little Bunny Foo Foo, to stop scooping up field mice and bopping them on their heads before you're turned into a goon by the Good Fairy. Fairies, genies, witches...they like doing things in threes.

Three is also a magic number in the construction of fiction. Trilogies are a staple of the SF/F world, especially in epic fantasy. Why do we tell epic stories in threes? It's the basis of the three-act play, dating back to the epics of ancient Greece. It's also the logical extension of the modern story arc: Beginning, Middle, End. And it certainly makes a convenient framework for an author who wants tell a long, complex story without overwhelming readers with one truly epic tome. Plus, it gets the reader to come back for more. And three also makes for a lovely multiple: the trilogy of trilogies, such as the original intent for the Star Wars saga. (Hopefully, soon to be realized. I'm looking at you, J.J. Abrams.)

But the End part is what I'm particularly concerned with today.

It's release day for The Armies of Heaven, the third book in my House of Arkhangel'sk trilogy. I'm excited to finally have the whole story out there, and yet sad to have come to an end of this particular story. One of the reasons I write in threes is that I have difficulty letting go, and it gives me a chance to hold on to the characters I love—whether I'm writing them or reading someone else's—without going on so long that it starts to lose its glow.

So today I say goodbye to Anazakia's journey. Begun in The Fallen Queen, and continued in The Midnight Court, The Armies of Heaven is where her journey ends. Because three is a magic number. Don't believe me? Listen to Schoolhouse Rock:

(Awesomely, it is exactly 3 minutes long.)

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The giveaway

In celebration of my book release day, I'm also giving away a trilogy of prizes: three winners will be chosen at random to receive one of three prizes: a $50 gift certificate to Amazon or Barnes & Noble, a set of three signed paperback copies of The House of Arkhangel'sk trilogy, and a copy of one of my favorite books and the inspiration for this story, Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, gorgeously depicted by Ukrainian illustrator Vladyslav Yerko. Enter using the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.

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In Heaven, all hell has broken loose…

Full-scale war has broken out in Heaven, and Anazakia must embrace her destiny, leading an army of Virtues into battle against a Host of enemies to restore the House of Arkhangel’sk.

Furious with her for putting her trust in the angel who has done them all irreparable harm, Vasily tries to ignore his growing resentment, while Belphagor returns to the world of Man with a cadre of beautiful androgynous Virtues to restore the sundered alliance between the Fallen and the gypsy underground. Without their help in enlisting the terrestrial forces of Grigori and Nephilim, Anazakia’s Virtues are hopelessly outnumbered.

But there are more things in Heaven and Earth than any of them have dreamt of, and those they cannot see will mean the difference between victory and losing everything.

The Armies of Heaven is available now at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and more.
 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Unseen World

Last weekend at World Fantasy Convention 2011 in San Diego, I attended a panel on "The Not-So-Fair Folk," in which the dark side of fae folklore was explored. The importance of keeping mum about the fae was mentioned more than once, making the panel itself feel just a bit dangerous, as if talking about it just might land us all in trouble.

Like the fae themselves, the darker tales are often hidden among the seeming light. In Disney's Sleeping Beauty, the fairies are portrayed as benign and somewhat daft—except for Maleficent, who appears uninvited at the christening of newborn Princess Aurora to "gift" her with a curse after being denied the proper respect. As a child, I was always much more interested in Maleficent than anyone else in the story. Why was she so different? Why didn't they invite her? What was her history?

Another favorite of mine was the Snow Queen. She swept in with the north wind and stole away pretty boys to keep for herself. I was instantly intrigued.

When I was a little older, I discovered the White Witch in C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and recognized her as the same figure, as she turned the world to eternal winter and brought Edmund under her thrall from her sparkling sleigh. And then again in The Silver Chair, the Lady of the Green Kirtle came along and stole away and enchanted Prince Rilian of Narnia.

These mysterious, powerful women are all nods to the Queen of the Fae, who was prone to stealing human children and replacing them with changelings, or captivating the hearts of mortal men who followed her into the unseen kingdom of the fairies. The fear of a powerful woman seems to infuse men's psyches in the oldest of folklore of many traditions. From sirens and mermaids to veela and rusalki, all of them lure men to their hidden realms. (Which I guess pretty much speaks for itself.)

As much as I love my protagonists, I can never quite resist a strong and dangerous woman. When I started my current series, The House of Arkhangel'sk, I had no intention of writing about dark fae. It's a story about angels and demons, and the Russian imperial family. But somehow as I was developing the villainess of the story, I ended up with none other than the Fairy Queen herself. She was the perfect enchantress to lead my fallen angel astray.



I took some liberties, of course. My Fairy Queen comes from a Celtic tradition (the same that inspired C.S. Lewis—the ballad of Tam Lin; as well as Irish poet Brian Merriman's The Midnight Court), but I moved her to the icy Russian north and gave her the qualities of a Slavic veela. Her origins, however, are something I haven't explained. Queen Aeval remains a bit of a mystery. Somehow, it didn't seem appropriate to talk about where she came from. Maybe subconsciously, I, too, was afraid to delve too deeply into her realm, or at least to speak of it. You never know what she might do.

If you dare to speak of the unseen, feel free to leave me a comment about your favorite fae. I'll give away a signed ARC of Book One of The House of Arkhangel'sk, The Fallen Queen, to a commenter chosen at random.

Jane Kindred

www.janekindred.com