Title: Greta and the Lost Army
Author: Chloe Jacobs
Published: February 1 2016
Publisher: Entangled Teen
After spending the last four years trapped in a place of monsters, demons, and magick, the last thing the fierce teenage bounty hunter Greta expected was to ever be back on Earth. But a rare opportunity gives her and the Goblin King Isaac the opportunity to do just that. Now she’s home. With a boy in tow. And her parents have lots of questions.
Although Greta finally has her heart’s deepest wish—to see her family again—every step she takes to reconnect with them drives her further away from Isaac. Greta and Isaac planned for her to return to Mylena and become his queen, but she’s not sure if she can go back to that harsh world, though staying on Earth means giving up the boy she loves.
But a powerful enemy refuses to let Greta escape. A demon who will stop at nothing to destroy her and everything she loves. Even if it means following her to Earth and forcing her to face a fate as unavoidable as love itself.
Did you know the end of Greta and the Lost Army when you were writing Greta and the Goblin King or did the story pull you in that direction?
I really didn’t know anything when I started Goblin King. I didn’t even know whether a publisher would buy one book, much less three, and so I tried not to think about what might happen afterward just in case I never got the chance to write the rest of the series. Although after Goblin King was done and I got started on Glass Kingdom, I started to see where the series had to go and Lost Army was so much easier to write.
How do you plan out and write fight scenes? (ie. take a class? watch a lot of action movies?)
I’ve always tried to see any scene in my head like a movie. If this person hits someone in the face, what happens to their head – and what other parts of their body are going to move? How? Where? I think one of the ways you can tell if you’ve written a scene really well is if you can actually see it in your head when you’re reading along and that’s always what I strive for. I want to be able to smell the pine and dirt, and feel the cold nipping my cheeks and the snowflakes tickling my skin when they land. If necessary, I also want to feel the punch in the exact part of my gut, and be able to visualize the exact way the person’s head would snap back and the oomph they would blow out of their mouth.
When creating the world of Mylena did you make a map?
I really should have. Especially before starting Glass Kingdom when Greta started to travel a little farther afield of her comfortable spot in the Goblin Forest. I did keep a description nearby outlining the different areas: Goblin Forest, Goblin Castle, Eyna’s Falls, Solem’s Bridge, Luna Pass, etc. But I think I’d like to put a map together one of these days. It might be fun!
Did you base your characters off anyone you know in real life?
No. When Greta first came to me, I was trying to write a cops and robbers sort of story that wasn’t working out so well, and I had just finished watching a movie trailer for a snow-white re-telling (I can’t remember if it was the Huntsman version or the Disney version). I started thinking that I wanted to do a fairytale re-telling too, but something that didn’t get done so often, like maybe Peter Pan or Alice and Wonderland – and so I thought, why can’t I try to incorporate both! (with a little Labyrinth thrown in for good measure LOL)
Which of the three books did you find the hardest to write?
Definitely book 2. Mostly because after I’d written Goblin King I had all these ideas for a second book, but by the time I had finished the editing process on book 1 and talked to my editor about what we were going to do to continue the story, I had to change my entire vision and start the whole thing from scratch again. Book 3 flowed really well, though!
Do you have any writing rituals?
I like to sit down with a snack and a cup of coffee or tea (which usually goes cold, but that’s another story). Then I’ll re-read the last page or so from my previous writing. And after that I just write until I’ve got 1000 words. I try to put at least that much down per day. If it’s coming easy, then I’m done in 45 minutes or so, and I take a break and maybe go for a walk, then come back and do more (or sometimes I don’t come back at all that day). If it’s hard and slow, then I sit there staring at the page and force those words out. Even if it takes 4 hours. Those are not the fun days.
Do you think you will revisit the world of Mylena again?
I really would love to. I have more ideas, and I would love to see what happens to other certain people, and even see how Greta and Isaac bring the rest of Mylena together. So I’m thinking there’ll be at least a novella sometime in the not-too-distant future.
Chloe Jacobs is a native of nowhere and everywhere, having jumped around to practically every Province of Canada before finally settling in Ontario where she has now been living for a respectable number of years. Her husband and son are the two best people in the entire world, but they also make her wish she'd at least gotten a female cat. No such luck. And although the day job keeps her busy, she carves out as much time as possible to write. Bringing new characters to life and finding out what makes them tick and how badly she can make them suffer is one of her greatest pleasures, almost better than chocolate and fuzzy pink bunny slippers.
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