Title: Court
Author: Cat Patrick
Date of Publication: October 23rd
2014
About
Court:
For more than 400 years, a secret monarchy has survived and
thrived within the borders of the US ,
hiding in plain sight as the state known as Wyoming . But when the king is shot and his
seventeen-year-old son, Haakon McHale, is told he will take the throne,
becoming the eleventh ruler of the Kingdom of Eurus
Money. Love. Power. Community. What's your motivation?
Q&A with Cat:
Where did the idea came from?
After writing The Originals, I wanted to write something
from multiple character perspectives. Around that time, I was thinking of my
home state of Wyoming .
A friend had recently driven through, and I thought about how people who aren’t
from there don’t really know that much about Wyoming —it could be its own world, hiding
secrets. It could be its own kingdom.
Out of all the 4 perspectives, which is the
hardest to write?
Surprisingly, the boys’ voices came easiest. (And there used
to be two more!) As for one POV being more difficult than the others, I think
the real challenge was developing each voice individually with only a heaping
handful of chapters per character.
How do you think you’ve evolved
creatively?
Any craft grows with practice, and I hope that I’ve become a
more controlled writer as I’ve published more books. I’m definitely more of a
risk-taker than I was in the beginning, as well.
What 5 things would you like readers to know
about you?
That I’m the greatest mommy in the world. (Say my children.)
I love, and am inspired by, wind.
I can kill it at Dance Central on Xbox.
I share a birthday with one of my siblings.
I once met Muhammad Ali.
Excerpt:
HAAKON
Before he was the enemy, James Haakon McHale III was just a
seventeen-year-old in what most people knew as the state of Wyoming, wishing he
was somewhere other than the predawn forest with a rifle in his grip.
“It’s colder than moonlight on a tombstone,” Haakon
muttered, blowing on his fist. His thick-soled boots swish-thumped on the hard
earth as he skillfully avoided twigs, rocks, and low branches.
Alexander Oxendine—youngest son of the Duke of Wind, wide
receiver, video game button masher, and Haakon’s best friend—laughed into his
collar. It could’ve been mistaken for a cough.
“It’s colder than a whore’s heart,” Alexander said, his tone
cautiously low. They were the youngest members of the hunting party, and were
only allowed to take part because of their rank. Haakon could think of a
thousand superior privileges.
He glanced around to make sure none of the other men were
paying attention—especially his father. Smirking, he said, “Colder than a polar
bear’s balls.”
The pair stifled laughter.
“Than a witch’s—”
“Too easy.”
“Colder than a dead woman’s touch,” Alexander said.
Haakon checked again, dialed down his voice even more, and
said, “It’s colder than Gwendolyn Rose’s kiss.”
“Quiet!”
It was Haakon’s father: dictator, fun-spoiler,
and—regrettably for his son—the tenth ruler of the Kingdom of Eurus, also known
as the Realm, the monarchy hiding in plain sight in the depths of the Democracy
known as the United States of America.
Every schoolchild knew the story. In 1670, after Joseph
Dyer’s wife died in the Great Plague in London, he brought his five daughters
to what would become the United States one hundred years later, seeking a
better life. But it soon became apparent that his family would never thrive
under strict Puritan rule in New England–which banned higher education for
girls and taught submissiveness above all else, and which centered around
extreme religious beliefs that were counter to Dyer’s own.
A friend, John Seymour, who was—controversially—married to a
Native woman, suggested that they set out together in search of a new home deep
within America’s treacherous unknown. Seymour ’s
wife had been attacked; her family persecuted. Seymour
believed that rather than fighting the Natives, they should live in harmony
with them.
Dyer, Seymour, and several other men and their families
snuck away. After a long and dangerous journey, together they created their
version of paradise: a kingdom that blended the best of England
with Native cultures. Dyer was thought of as the Father of the Realm, and Seymour ’s Native wife, who ensured their survival through
tribal relations, the Mother.
Rather than cause a revolution, the founders decided to keep
the kingdom secret. Inside the borders of what they’d eventually stake claim as
Wyoming , they’d follow their own rules.
Outsiders wouldn’t know they were different because they wouldn’t understand.
Outsiders weren’t to be trusted.
Dyer’s youngest daughter, captivated by the ancient Greek
she wouldn’t have been allowed to learn in Puritan society, named the new
kingdom Eurus, meaning east wind. She pronounced it
“air-us.”
“But the winds here blow from the west,” Haakon had asked
his father once—before Dad was King James. That was when it was okay to ask
questions. When curiosity wasn’t an imposition.
“That’s right, Haakon,” his father had replied,
straw between his teeth. They’d gone on a walk together. The sun was
setting on an easy day. His dad had pointed toward the eastern horizon. “The
wind here does primarily blow from the west, but our founders blew in from the
east. That day, the wind changed directions.”
Haakon frowned away the memory of days never to return, and
refocused on the trees. He walked as soundlessly as he could in his camo fleece
jacket and vintage Levi’s, his rifle nestled in the crook of his left arm, a
round in the chamber. He was on the left edge of the group, three rows behind
his father. Evenly spaced gaps between them, the men were like migrating geese,
locked in formation.
Geese hunting deer.
“Were you drinking last night?” Haakon’s father had demanded
on the way to the meeting point that morning. “Is that why you’re so tired?”
“I’m tired because it’s so early that the birds aren’t even
awake yet.”
“Good. Because you know what the consequences will be if you
start drinking again.” They’d shared the backseat of the armored SUV; Haakon
had done his best to preoccupy himself with his cell phone.
“Yes, sir, I know.”
“You need to turn that thing off before we arrive.
And when’s your next haircut? You look slovenly.”
Will you just get off my
back? Haakon had thought at the top of his lungs. What he’d
said, though, was simply, “Yes, sir.”
There, in the forest, Haakon toyed with the idea of raising
his gun and shooting King James square in the back of the head. Right there
under his hat, just above the rise of his custom down hunting vest. He could do
it. Even with the others present, he knew there’d be no trial, no trip to
Corby. But offing his father wouldn’t solve anything. In fact, it would make
life a lot worse. Because with his father gone, Haakon would be in charge.
Haakon would become the King of Eurus.
The thought made him want to puke.
About Cat Porter:
Cat Patrick is an author of books for teens. Her debut novel,
FORGOTTEN (available now), is about a girl who can remember the future instead
of the past, and was praised by NYT bestselling author of Thirteen Reasons Why,
Jay Asher, as a "mindbending," one-sitting read. The book is being
translated into 21 languages and Paramount bought the movie rights, with True
Grit's Hailee Steinfeld attached to star as the main character, London Lane.
Patrick's second (unrelated) novel, REVIVED, is about a girl
who's part of a secret government program to test a drug that brings people
back from the dead. REVIVED will be available in the US May 2012, and in the UK
and Australia Summer 2012.
Patrick lives near Seattle with her husband and twin
3-year-olds, and is afraid of zombies, planes, and zombies on planes.
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