YA Reads Readers' Bash 2016 - Julie Leung

For the past few years,  I have participated in the YA Reads Debut Authors Bash . Normally I have hosted several authors, but one of the authors wanted a different blog so I only have one author this year. 

I now present you : Julie Leung

4 Must-Read Rodent-as-Hero Tales for Beginner Adventurers

Greetings! My name is Julie Leung, debut author of the middle-grade fantasy series, Mice of The Round Table. As you may infer, this is the story of Camelot’s humblest creatures and their secret roles in helping King Arthur’s knights accomplish their legendary feats.

Book One, A Tail of Camelot, goes on sale October 4th—which is why I’m here on this lovely blog as part YARead’s debut authors bash. Ten thousand cheese wheels to The Phantom Paragrapher for hosting me, and letting me geek out about the grand tradition of rodent adventures that inspired my own tale.

Redwall series by Brian Jacques

Mice of the Round Table follows the antics of one Calib Christopher, an aspiring squire who dreams of becoming a mouse knight in his father’s and grandfather’s pawsteps. Whenever I mention that I’m writing a book about mice in a medieval setting, nine times out of then, the next words I hear are, “like Redwall?”

To which I shout, “YES, EULALIA!!!!!”

I cannot begin to describe to you what a treasure the late Brian Jacques left us in the Redwall series. Endearing heroes of the mice, otter, hare, and badger variety! Epic rodent vs. rodent battles! The most vivid, drool-inducing descriptions of feasts!

MouseGuard graphic novels by David Petersen

MouseGuard is an Eisner & Harvey Award winning comic book series, drawn and written by the inimitable David Peterson. Also set in a world where mice live in a medieval society, MouseGuard was one of my favorite sources of visual inspiration as I wrote. (Mouseguard—and YouTube videos of mice running!)

Watership Down by Richard Adams

While rabbits are not technically rodents in the scientific sense, I think they still count in the literary sense. And Watership Down just happens to be the rabbit novel to end all rabbit novels. Mythic in scale, but also true to the character’s beastly natures, the book defies categorization. And for Mice of the Round Table especially, I was inspired to create a strong mythology that my characters could base their culture on.

The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary

The three titles I’ve already mentioned share a benefit in that interactions with humans are either limited or nonexistent. I did not have this luxury, as humans naturally play a large role in Mice of the Round Table. One of my favorite books that features a strong human and mouse bond is The Mouse and the Motorcycle, in which a mouse named Ralph befriends a boy and is loaned his toy motorbike. Describing how a mouse might interact with items on a human scale proved to be a unique challenge. I envy Brian Jacques a little for never having to deal with that.

BIO

By day, JULIE LEUNG works in book publishing. By night, she works on getting her own books published. She is also the mother of FictionToFashion.com, where she interprets her favorite books into outfits. In her free time, she enjoys furtively sniffing books at used bookstores and winning at obscure board games. Follow her on social media at @jleungbooks!