Author Melinda Salisbury!

Melinda Salisbury lives by the sea, in England. As a child she genuinely thought Roald Dahl’s Matilda was her biography, in part helped by her grandfather often mistakenly calling her Matilda, and the local library having a pretty cavalier attitude to the books she borrowed. Sadly she never manifested telekinetic powers. She likes to travel, and have adventures. She also likes medieval castles, non-medieval aquariums, photography, Richard III, and all things Scandinavian.
Melinda’s debut novel, THE SIN EATER’S DAUGHTER was the bestselling UK YA debut novel of 2015, and rights have sold in 13 countries to date. THE SIN EATER’S DAUGHTER has also been nominated for the Carnegie Greenaway Medal 2016, the Branford Boase 2016, The MWA’s Edgars 2016, and shortlisted for the North East Book Awards 2015. On February 11th 2016, it was announced that THE SIN EATER’S DAUGHTER had been shortlisted in the teen category for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, 2016.
THE SIN EATER’S DAUGHTER was published by Scholastic in the UK in February 2015, and the second in the series, THE SLEEPING PRINCE was published in February 2016. Salisbury is also the author of short story FLAMINGOES, written exclusively for Booktrust’s Letterbox Club. She is represented by the amazing Claire Wilson at Rogers, Coleridge and White.
She tweets. A lot.

Website

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Interview

I was going to start of the questions by asking how you could ruin me like you did with The Sleeping prince aha!
Because I can :)
 
1. Can you tell me about your new book!
My latest book is called The Sleeping Prince and it’s the sequel/somewhat companion novel to my debut, The Sin Eater’s Daughter. It tells the story of Errin, who is the younger sister of Lief from TSED. She is living in Tregellan, in a not-very-nice place, caring for their mother, when the Sleeping Prince invades Lormere. As war approaches the border and threatens to spill over into Tregellan, Errin realises she’s going to have to take control of getting her and her mother to safety, but her resources are limited and her situation dangerous. So she puts all of her trust in the only friend she has, Silas Kolby, who refuses to tell her anything about himself, or his past, but insists on getting involved in her business. But Silas isn’t all he seems, being a friend of his is a dangerous thing to be, and Errin learns this the hard way. There’s poison and curses and fairy tales and monsters, an epic journey and a lot of surprises for everyone.
 
2. Who inspires you?
Writing wise, authors like Jenny Nimmo, and Diana Wynne Jones, J.K Rowling and Neil Gaiman. They all tell stories that reek of magic, and that’s what I want to do. I want magic in my life, as much and as often as possible. I want to tell stories like they do, tales that feel as though they’ve always been part of our culture and life.
 
Life wise, I’m very inspired by my late Nana, who was just the best person that ever lived. My friends are pretty inspirational too, they’re the coolest, most supportive, funny, clever and brilliant people on the planet right now. 

3. Have you read any books lately that you couldn't put down?
Oh yes! I’ve not long finished a re-read of Sara Barnard’s Beautiful Broken Things in preparation for her launch. It’s an incredible debut, a love-story between friends and I can’t wait for everyone else to read it. I got an early read of another debut, Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s The Girl of Ink and Stars and adored it, it’s a classic waiting to happen. It’s MG, about a cartographer’s daughter who has to go off-map to save her friend and it is gorgeous, so lush and vivid, like nothing else I’ve read recently. And I read Pierce Brown’s Morning Star and am still having mild palpitations because of it. I read it in two very tense sittings and I don’t think I’ll ever forgive him for it. It was brilliant.
 
4. If you could be a character in any book who would you choose and why?
I would either want to be in Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha ‘verse because I’d want to try and make Nikolai Lantsov fall in love with me. He’s an absolute dream. I adore him. Also I’d quite like to be a Grisha. A Heartrender, I think. 

Books

 



Twylla has a gift - or a curse. She can kill with a single touch. Now she's the court executioner, compelled to do the queen's bidding - and marry the prince. But when she meets a rebellious guard, Twylla starts to question everything she's been told...

​BUY HERE!

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Return to the darkly beautiful world of The Sin Eater's Daughter with a sequel that will leave you awed, terrified ...and desperate for more. Ever since her brother Lief disappeared, Errin's life has gone from bad to worse. Not only must she care for her sick mother, she has to scrape together rent money by selling illegal herbal cures. But none of that compares to the threat of the vengeful Sleeping Prince whom the Queen just awoke from his enchanted sleep. When her village is evacuated as part of the war against the Sleeping Prince, Errin is left desperate and homeless. The only person she can turn to is the mysterious Silas, a young man who buys deadly poisons from Errin, but won't reveal why he needs them. Silas promises to help Errin, but when he vanishes, Errin must journey across a kingdom on the brink of war to seek another way to save her mother and herself. But what she finds splits the world as she knows it apart, and with the Sleeping Prince drawing nearer, Errin must make a heartbreaking choice that could affect the whole kingdom...

BUY HERE!

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