Worth of a King: Interview with the Author

Kendra E. Ardnek has released a new book! 

Princess Obsidia’s father was killed the night she was born. Since there was no male heir, the crown went to the man who killed him, by Dialcian law. This never bothered her, growing up, and when it comes time for Obsidia to choose her husband, she chooses Prince Delaney, the son of that man, with little hesitation. Only then does her life start crumbling around her.

Adrian expected to live a normal life, taking his father’s place at the print shop when his father retired. But, on his eighteenth birthday, when the princess’ engagement is announced, his world is ripped out from under him when he learns that his life was a ruse, and he is the twin brother to the princess – and expected to take back his father’s throne.

Delaney knows that his country is hovering on the brink of war – and that his father may harbor murderous intentions towards his intended bride due to her Zovordian blood. He wants nothing more than to protect Obsidia and his people, but as merely prince, he has little power against his father.

The ancient war between the Dragons and the Immortal King and Queen is nearing its climax, and the three are already caught in it.

Snippet: 

“Well, it’d still be more fun,” Nadilynn pouted. “As it is – how long have we been cooped up in here already? How much longer will it be before we reach the first village?”

Delaney sighed. “We should be there soon,” he answered. “And we’ll spend the night there before we leave for the second village in the morning.”

“You didn’t have to come with us if you didn’t want to, Nadi,” Obsidia pointed out. “We’re just visiting twelve villages and collecting a girl from each one. Hardly exciting.”

“Oh, but I really had no choice in the matter,” Nadilynn countered, shaking her head. “Tradition demands that Obsidia has a proper female companion. If I hadn’t volunteered, your mother would have had to come instead, and since she is still convinced that you marrying Del is the worst idea ever, I don’t know that the three of you could have survived this whole excursion. I’m sure that you both much prefer me.”

“Ah yes, you’re quite correct,” said Delaney. “With you, we only need to survive endless meaningless chatter, not murderous glares.”

“My conversation isn’t meaningless!” Nadilynn protested. “At least I don’t spend three hours discussing the nuances of a law about chickens, or four about whether some king’s death was natural or due to poison.”

“No,” said Obsidia, dryly. “You spend five hours talking about how sashes are so in style.”

“They are so not!” Nadilynn exclaimed. Then she lowered her voice “Not thick ones, anyway. Ribbons used as sashes are acceptable, belts, especially beaded belts, are best…”

“And there we go,” Delaney groaned. “You did have to get her started.”

Obsidia just shrugged and mouthed a “sorry.”

If you enjoyed that, read the opening chapter here: https://knittedbygodsplan.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-worth-of-king-chapter-1.html

Add the book on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32739875-the-worth-of-a-king

I had the pleasure of interviewing Kendra about The Worth of a King, so please enjoy (and watch out for dragons):

1. What first gave you and Jack the idea to write this book?

A blog post that she wrote, talking about how she couldn't write female character. See, at the time, I wasn't great with male characters, so I commented saying as much, along with the joking aside that we should write a book together - an idea which she LOVED. We then began a rapid-fire email back and forth as we hashed out the plot for the book - and it turned out that we almost initially had a very similar vision for it. We didn't want any chance of romance between our characters, both had a twin obsession (at the time), and both agreed that we needed to start the book with our characters in different places, so a pair of twins that had been separated at birth was the obvious choice. 

2. Did the book change when you took over as a single author? How so?

It did, but not a huge lot. I, of course, immediately rewrote all of her chapters (as well as my own) to put them into my voice, but there were really only two or three chapters that had significant changes - and that was because there were continuity issues with them. Delaney did become a POV character after I became the solo author, and I did insert Amber and Granite and make the book backstory for Rizkaland. 

3. Can you introduce us to some of the major characters and tell us which one is your favorite and which one was the easiest to write?

Let's see, there were the three POV characters - Obsidia, Adrian, and Delaney. Obsidia was my character from the start, and she's a quiet thing who just wanted a nice, safe life; then there was Adrian, who had been Jack's character, and, like his sister, just wanted a nice, safe life; and Delaney ... Del was just fun to write 'cause he's so different from the twins, so driven to protect the people he cares about...
But my favorite character to write was Del's little sister, Nadilynn, who was the brightest ray of sunshine to ever waltz onto the page - but who uses that optimism and cheerfulness to cover a lot of pain and frustration. Like, she tried very hard to get me to make her a POV. VERY hard. And I certainly plan to be writing some follow-up for her on my Ardnek Afterthoughts blog. 

4. Does this book have any connection to your previous books?

Well, I just said that I made it backstory to Rizkaland, so ... yes. 

5. Can you tell us about one of the scenes that you had the most fun writing?

I'm going to go with next-to-last chapter of part one, where everything is falling apart - and it was actually the last chapter I wrote before Jack dropped out. 

6. Do you agree that there should be a dragon in every book? Is there a dragon in your book? 

No, I just had my cover designer put one on the cover for #asthetic.

7. Did you learn anything through writing this book that you didn't know before?

Well, somewhere along the way I figured out how to write guys!

8. What's next on your authoress plate?

Here's a hint.

Kendra E. Ardnek loves fairytales and twisting them in new and exciting ways. She's been or acting them on her dozen plus cousins and siblings for years. "Finish your story, Kendra," is frequently heard at family gatherings. Her sole life goal has always been to grow up and be an author of fantasy and children's tales that glorify God and His Word.
Find her online at: Website || Blog || Goodreads || Facebook || Twitter || Amazon 

Definitely check out Kendra's blog and her other books. They are well worth a read.

And if you'd like to check out the other stops on Kendra's blog tour, follow this link.