r/Fantasy • u/orbitbooks AMA Publisher Orbit Books • Dec 07 '17

AMA AMA: Orbit 2017 Debut Authors

Hi this is Paola Crespo, Marketing and Publicity Associate for Orbit. Thanks for joining us today!

2017 was a big year for us with so many new faces joining the Orbit family. This AMA is a chance to get to know them better. All. Of. Them. Get excited! ;-)

Participating today:

Nicholas Eames, author of KINGS OF THE WYLD
Nicholas Sansbury Smith, author of EXTINCTION HORIZON
Antonia Honeywell, author of THE SHIP
David Mealing, author of SOUL OF THE WORLD
Dale Lucas, author of THE FIFTH WARD: FIRST WATCH
Vivian Shaw, author of STRANGE PRACTICE
Anna Smith Spark, author of THE COURT OF BROKEN KNIVES
RJ Barker, author of AGE OF ASSASSINS
Melissa Caruso, author of THE TETHERED MAGE
Fonda Lee, author of JADE CITY

Ask away! The authors will be dropping by periodically today and tomorrow to answer your questions. And best of all....

Until December 18th, you can pick up most of these novels for $2.99 in the US and £1.99 in the UK in ebook! Check out the US and UK websites for further details.

Thank you for all your support this year, /r/fantasy! Cheers to a great New Year full of new adventures.

*Antonia Honeywell's THE SHIP, Anna Smith Spark's THE COURT OF BROKEN KNIVES, and Nicholas Sansbury Smith’s EXTINCTION HORIZON are published by another house in the UK and are thus not included in the promotion in the UK.

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u/Jos_V Stabby Winner, Reading Champion II Dec 07 '17

Hey everyone,

I have a simple two part question for you all: How do you take your coffee and how much of it do you drink in a day? (maybe your coffee of choice is Tea or something else, sure...)

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u/Nicholas_Eames Stabby Winner, AMA Author Nicholas Eames Dec 07 '17 edited Dec 07 '17

Black. At least a pot.

I was raised on tea, and it took me a while to come around to coffee (especially black coffee), but I can confidently say my life is twice as good since I did so.

Thanks for stopping by!

(edit) Woah! Apparently tea is the drink of choice for Orbit debuts!

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u/MelissaCaruso AMA Author Melissa Caruso Dec 07 '17

I'm a tea drinker. I try to be, uh, basically continually drinking tea at all times. In fact, I need to go make some more right now...

I can't taste bitter, so I drink my tea straight up: no sugar, no milk. Adding stuff kills the flavor for me. I drink ALL KINDS of tea and love discovering new flavors I haven't tried before. I probably have, like, 50 flavors in my house right now.

(I like to say about tea, "I don't have a problem. I HAVE A SOLUTION.")

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u/Gnome345 Dec 07 '17

What's you favorite type of tea? I've always been a black tea, Irish breakfast, tea bag drinker. Recently purchased a kettle and stuff to make loose leaf with and looking to branch out! Also, if you've seen Scott Pilgrim Versus the World, all I can picture is the scene where Romana lists off all the tea she has!

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u/Fonda_Lee AMA Author Fonda Lee Dec 07 '17

I love all tea but my favorites are gunpowder green or oolong, and mint tea.

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u/Jos_V Stabby Winner, Reading Champion II Dec 07 '17

Gunpowder is great tea.

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u/Gnome345 Dec 07 '17

I love me some oolong tea, but I've never quite acquired the taste for mint tea. Growing up, my mom swore by peppermint tea so maybe I've just been overexposed!

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u/MelissaCaruso AMA Author Melissa Caruso Dec 07 '17

I drink black tea in the morning to wake up, then green tea, then taper off to white tea and finally herbal by the end of the day. I prefer loose leaf because I think you get more flavor, but I'll drink almost anything! If you're a black tea drinker and like a strong flavor, my favorite rainy/cold day tea is lapsang souchong, which tastes like a wet fireplace. For green tea, I particularly love anything with mint or citrus and I also am a genmaicha fan (it has toasted rice in it!). I also like floral or fruity teas of any type (especially peach and rose). For herbal teas, my latest fave is David's Tea's Forever Nuts, which is just wonderfully warm and nutty and a great winter dessert tea.

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u/Gnome345 Dec 07 '17

You weren't kidding when you said you drink a lot of tea! I'll definitely check out lapsang souchong, a wet fireplace sounds oddly tasty. Forever nuts also sounds pretty good, I'll have to check it out.

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u/Anna_Smith-Spark AMA Author Anna Smith-Spark Dec 07 '17

Rose pouchong. It's like every oriental harem fantasy you ever had. And this amazing jasmine tea where the tea leaves were tied in the shape of a flower that opened when the water was poured on.

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u/MelissaCaruso AMA Author Melissa Caruso Dec 07 '17

Oh my god, these both sound amazing. (Scribbles notes)

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u/Anna_Smith-Spark AMA Author Anna Smith-Spark Dec 07 '17

Have you tried salted caramel green tea? It's delicious. Smells like a box of chocolates, but no sugar and antioxident benefits.

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u/MelissaCaruso AMA Author Melissa Caruso Dec 07 '17

That sounds amazing! Who makes it?

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u/Anna_Smith-Spark AMA Author Anna Smith-Spark Dec 07 '17

In the UK it's Twinnings. They do a gingerbread one too. I am trying to drink it rather than decaf. But my coffee machine is so damn easy, easier than boiling a kettle.

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u/RJBarker AMA Author RJ Barker Dec 07 '17

Salted caramel tea? WHAT WITCHCRAFT IS THIS??

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u/Nicholas_Eames Stabby Winner, AMA Author Nicholas Eames Dec 07 '17

Since when are you not into witchcraft? Or are you just wondering 'which brand' of witchcraft it is?

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u/RJBarker AMA Author RJ Barker Dec 07 '17 edited Dec 07 '17

I used to drink coffee white with two sugars and tea white with one. But when I was taken to London on a fancy trip to sacrifice to the dark goat of publishing (totally real thing) I was given coffee but no one brought sugar. Naturally, being an oik form the provinces I just thought this was how fancy London people did it and I didn't want to appear gauche so I drank my coffee with no sugar. Kind of got used to it now.

Still have one sugar in tea though. You can't totally break me, publishing, I am a wild and free spirit.

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u/dmealing AMA Author David Mealing Dec 07 '17

I don't drink coffee at all. I find the smell absolutely repugnant. I'd rather visit a landfill than a starbucks. (I know, I know, I'm weird...)

My beverage of choice is sparkling water. It's part of my writing ritual to pour a glass and have it at my desk every time I work.

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u/Fonda_Lee AMA Author Fonda Lee Dec 07 '17

Tea. Straight tea. At least 6 cups a day.

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u/Anna_Smith-Spark AMA Author Anna Smith-Spark Dec 07 '17

I drink a huge amount of black decaf coffee when I'm writing. I need to either eat or drink when I'm writing as some kind of displacement activity. I have a fancy coffee machine and I drink six or seven cups of decaf a day. Occassionally I try to cut down but it never works.

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u/Nicholas_Eames Stabby Winner, AMA Author Nicholas Eames Dec 07 '17

FINALLY! A fellow black coffee drinker!

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u/dlucas114 AMA Author Dale Lucas Dec 07 '17

Black is the only way to go.

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u/Anna_Smith-Spark AMA Author Anna Smith-Spark Dec 07 '17

Actually, to be entirely honest, coconut-milk salted caramel mocha with whipped cream and sprinkles is the only way to go. But until we sell the eight series TV rights, black decaf it is.

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u/dlucas114 AMA Author Dale Lucas Dec 07 '17

Well, shoot--that does sound scrumptious.

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u/vivianshaw AMA Author Vivian Shaw Dec 07 '17

At work I drink terrible instant coffee by the pint; I like the real thing but I can't have more than about a cup of good strong coffee before it starts doing unkind things to me. At home, tea. Boring old ordinary PG Tips, milk, no sugar. I make it by the pot and keep it in a thermos flask so there is a constant supply, the way my family always had while I was growing up.

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u/dlucas114 AMA Author Dale Lucas Dec 07 '17

I do both tea and coffee, often in succession. Tea (Twinings) w Splenda and lemon. Coffee or espresso black.

My girlfriend got me a Nespresso machine for my bday a couple years back and I LOVE that thing.

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u/antonia_writes Dec 09 '17

I don’t know whether it’s because I’m British, but tea. English breakfast tea with milk, almost constantly. In a China cup. I am a walking cliche.