A Bond Of Thread A Bond Of Thread by Allegra & JP

TITLE : A Bond Of Thread (The Mountain Fell #1)

AUTHOR : Allegra Pescatore & JP Burnison

GENRE : Fantasy Romance

INTENTED AGE GROUP : New Adult – Adult

Pages: 384

DATE OF PUBLISHING : June 21, 2021

PUBLISHER : AO Collective

Welcome to my tour stop for A Bond Of Thread (The Mountain Fell #1) by Allegra Pescatore & JP Burnison, hosted by Escapist Book Tours. I am so grateful to be part of The Escapist Book Tours and for getting the chance to do a Q & A with the authors. Make sure to check The Escapist Book Tours out because they do an awesome job of introducing a lot of new titles mainly self pub and indie published SFF books.

If you are interested in checking out the official page for the book tour – CLICK HERE

Content/Trigger Warnings :

Shown on page :

Mentions of rape, sexual abuse, torture, realistic representation of PTSD, violence, one romantic sex scene

Alluded to :

A brief mention of self harm where a character considers killing themselves in a memory

SYNOPSIS

Enter the Nine Lands of the Mountain Fell.

Skye has only ever known pain and solitude since waking up with neither memories or magic. Hunted for being a Ruler in a time when they are scarce, she has survived in the wilds near the Rim, always on the run from the rest of her kind. Only starvation could draw her close to a village, but when a chance encounter and a bit of bad luck launch her into the arms of a man whose soul is bonded to hers, hiding who she is may no longer be possible.

Ilyas is a hunted man. Wanted for killing the last High Queen of Vine, he is plagued by his past of wholesale slaughter. He never wanted another Queen, and certainly not a half-feral, distrustful girl who gave up on the Fae a long time ago. Unfortunately, Soulbonds are not so easily walked away from, no matter how hard they both may want to, especially when trapped together in a cave with a pack of Feral Fae right outside.

With long-held enmities breaking out between the besieged villagers and all their lives on the line, Ilyas and Skye must learn to work together and trust each other if they want to survive.

AUTHOR Q &A

1. What was your inspiration for writing A Bond Of Thread?

Originally, a Bond of Thread started as an Alternate Reality RP we were writing for fun. It turned
into a story we really loved, so we spent some time reworking it from the ground up and creating the
world of the Mountain Fell. It was then that Allegra drug J.P. kicking and screaming into the world of
author-dom.

2. What are some of the fantasy books that have influenced you as authors?

While the classics were certainly a great influence, current indie authors have been such a huge
inspiration. It’s amazing to see the variety and diversity of stories being published today.

3. What was the writing process and research process like as an author duo? Also how did you both balance the writing for this book?

Unlike some of our books, this one didn’t take much research. We just developed an idea and
ran with it. It was a very harmonious process from day one. We plotted and worked out the format of
the book, which Allegra shines at. After writing, J.P. shines in the realm of finding plot holes and
improving the overall narrative.

When it comes to the writing process and balancing who writes what, we generally follow the
‘Play By Post’ Digital Role Playing Style. For those unfamiliar with it, each writer claims a character, and goes back and forth every few paragraphs, writing what their character does, thinks, and feels. It’s a dynamic and fun way to tell stories, in part because you’re never 100% sure what will happen next. For the most part we drafted the same way.

4. Do you have any writing rituals?

For J.P., it tends to be just listening to music as he does so. Other times it’s just being in a video
call on Discord with fellow authors.

For Allegra, other than music, there is a lot of plotting. She likes to break down scenes into beats
and spend some time thinking through each of them and hyping herself up.

When we write together, it consists of multiple messages back and forth to each other just
uttering the word ‘Tag’, whether in a video call, or over Discord’s chat system (with some giggling
inbetween when a character does something particularly funny or dumb). One of the joys of working
together is always having someone there to laugh at the weird typos or gasp at the sudden discoveries
and ideas.

5. If you couldn’t write in the genre you write in, which genre would you prefer to write in?

J.P. would make the change over to Sci-Fi. Allegra laughs at the idea of sticking to one genre and
already has her toes in many, though currently is eyeing up both grimdark and cozy fantasy. Is cozy
grimdark a thing?

6. Which genre would be the most challenging for you to write in and why?

J.P. believes he would hate Non-Fiction. Being constrained by things like ‘reality’ and ‘facts’
displeases him. Allegra is terrified by hard Sci-Fi because numbers and math make her brain hurt.

7. Tell us about a funny/weird/cool / most shocking thing you discovered while researching for the series.

Most of the characters and species in the Mountain Fell are named after real
plant/animal/minerals in nature. This has led down some very weird rabbit holes about bizarre rare
mushrooms or rocks.

8. How has your journey of book publishing been?

It’s been a wild ride. As a group of authors working collaboratively on publishing a series across
multiple genres and platforms, every step has been an adventure. The team at Project Ao has been
learning as we go. The best surprise so far is how open and welcoming the indie publishing world is, and how incredibly kind and knowledgeable other authors are. Getting to know our peers has been a delight.

9. Tell us about the most fun and favorite thing you got to write in the book.

It all boils down to Mycellica. They are a treasure to write: a tiny thumb-sized faerie with the
personality of a titan. Every single time they appeared on page was a delight to write. We’d be sitting
there typing away and one of us would write a Mycellica line. The other would be reading and crack up
on videochat, and soon enough we were both laughing until we cried.

10. What do you love the most to write and hate to write in your stories?

For Bond, J.P. hated writing the fight scene involving the giant Feral. It isn’t that he’s bad at
writing fight scenes, he wrote the majority of the combat scene from Skye’s POV in the second chapter, just something about that scene was bothersome to him. Aside from that, he enjoys writing in general, in particular scenes that are moving to him. Those that pull on the heart strings he can write for hours.
Allegra has a hard time with writing if something about what has already been written feels off.
She sometimes grinds progress to a halt while she thinks very hard about the previous chapter, and then finally has a lightbulb moment, changes one thing, and is back on a roll. Humorous and fast-paced dialogue is her hands-down favorite, followed closely by making her characters suffer.

11. How did you come up with the world of Nine Land in Mountain Fell? Can you tell us a little about the world, the magic system and different species, creatures we get to meet in the book?

The Mountain Fell has been a very collaborative process. With ten writers on the crew, a lot of
love has gone in to making it what it is today. The initial concept was: what if people lived on a weird
and wonderful mountain floating in an inscrutable void? We wanted a setting with geography that
bordered on the surreal, and magic that felt magical. Whimsy went into every aspect of the worldbuilding, but we also wanted it to feel grounded enough that we could tell some very human
stories. To make both work, we created the division between the fair folk and the High Fae, where one is chaos and whimsy, and the other is order and tradition. With that tension in place, a whole lot of
storytelling became possible.

The Mountain Fell is also part of the larger worlds of Project Ao. In fact, it is possibly both the
most important, and the most overlooked of all of them. Existing as it does in the metaphysical space
between worlds, it’s a bit like the trashheap behind the house of a group of incompetent Gods. All sorts of odds and ends from other worlds end up there, and the racoons—ahem—people who make their home there are a little weird and feral. Skye is a prime example of that.

12. If you were on a mission with a team of your own to save the Nine Lands from enemy attack, who would you like to have on your team(please choose authors you want on your team) and your reasons for choosing them?

Well, it would be unfair not to ask all the Project Ao authors along, since they would all defend
the Nine Lands as fervently as we would. Christopher Russell in particular would be handy in a fight. I’d also have to invite Andy Peloquin and his arsenal of mediaval weapons.

13. What are the best things and the worst things about your main characters Skye and Ilyas?

Both characters are remarkably deep and we love them for it. For all of Ilyas being a bully in the
beginning, as you dig deeper and learn just some of what had happened to him, you see his trauma play out and shine. Skye’s checkered and mysterious past means she’s a tad unpredictable and has deep wells of untapped emotion that spill out when least expected. Being trapped with the last person she wants to be with brings out some of the best and worst of her.

For all of that, though, they are both VERY flawed characters. Ilyas is quick to anger and often
goes to a ‘violence first’ response to issues. Skye is, as Ilyas put it, willing to throw common sense out to be eaten by feral faeries. Crazy is her style, but she’s erratic to the point of stupidity.

14. What do you love the most about fantasy stories?

Yes. Be it the worldbuilding, the characters, the fantastic plots, the evil masterminds, or the
beautiful text, there is something about fantasy that draws both of us in. Maybe it’s the escape from
real life, or perhaps just the chance to stretch our imagination and explore a new and exciting world.

15. Your favorite underhyped books you want more people to read.

Jacob Pepper’s Antiheroes series is amazing. More people need to read them for the absolute
wonderful amount of ridiculousness that it is.

AUTHORS BIO

Allegra Pescatore:

Allegra grew up in a small village in northern Tuscany as the daughter of two artists. She was raised on the works of J.R.R Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Phillip Pullman, Frank Herbert, and many others, all read aloud to her while she drew and played make-believe. She began to write at the age of eight and hasn’t stopped since.

After many moves and dozens of countries visited, she now lives in a cozy cottage in Western PA. She is accompanied in her current adventures by husband Job, co-conspirator and long-time writing partner Tobias, and a small army of furry and scaly pets. When not writing or daydreaming, Allegra rules her kitchen with an iron first and feeds everyone who walks through her door. She also gardens, dabbles in various art forms, and spins stories for her tabletop gaming group.

As a disabled woman and staunch LGBTQ ally, Allegra hopes to write engaging, diverse, and representative Fantasy and Science Fiction, where people who do not often see themselves center stage get the chance to shine. Her debut book, Where Shadows Lie, was an SPFBO Semi-Finalist and is a CIBA award finalist. It is the first book of The Last Gift series, and the first title of Project Ao, by Ao Collective Publishing. Other titles in Project Ao include NACL: Eye of the Storm (2021 SPFBO Semi-Finalist) and A Bond of Thread.

Allegra’s socials :

J.P. Burnison:

Co-author of The Mountain Fell series, along with Allegra and E. Sands, Justin joined the team in 2019 to help create the Fae Lands. Working as a tight-knit team, the three writers use a collaborative back-and-forth style to craft the action and adventure in the upcoming series. Justin lives in Florida with his spouse, Quinn, and two fuzzy and rambunctious cats.

Burnison’s socials :

TWITTER | YOUTUBE | FACEBOOK | TWITCH

‘Which kind of Mountain Fell Faerie are you?’ quiz: CLICK HERE !!

BOOK QUOTES

Giveaway Information:

Prize: An eBook, Audiobook, or Paperback Copy of A Bond of Thread!
Starts: December 12, 2022 at 12:00am EST
Ends: December 18, 2022 at 11:59pm EST

CLICK HERE