Love Charms and Other Catastrophes
Page 26
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with watching Disney’s The Little Mermaid. I always had to dance at the end! My parents said I had terrific concentration, especially when sitting with a book. I never ripped the pages and they had to shout to get my attention if I was reading.
HW: Who is your current book boyfriend?
KK: Nawat from Tamora Pierce’s Trickster’s Choice and Trickster’s Queen. He was a crow who took the form of a man to help the main character, Aly, and fell in love with her. He won my heart with his crow-isms as he adjusted to living as a human and how deeply he cared for Aly as the story progressed.
HW: I love Nawat, although Numair Salmalin will always hold a special place in my heart. And speaking of love, if you could have any love charm, what would it do?
KK: I still suffer from shyness, so a love charm that would arrange a meet-cute would be awesome. But then, I think the confidence charm that Fallon found would take care of that since having confidence is half the battle when meeting new people.
“The Swoon Reads Experience (Continues!)”
HW: Did publishing Love Fortunes and Other Disasters change your life?
KK: My life is full of bookish surprises now. I’m excited to open my email in-box each morning knowing that I may find fan emails, interview requests, or even news from Swoon Reads itself! I can attend conferences and literary events as a guest author. It’s surreal. I used to dream about this. Now that it’s happening, I’m enjoying every moment.
HW: What has been your favorite thing about being a Swoon Reads author?
KK: I love that readers have such a big voice in my Swoon Reads publishing journey. One of the most exciting moments for me was when readers voted on their favorite cover concept for Love Fortunes. That choice led to Love Charms having another fantastic Zara Picken–illustrated cover.
HW: What is the oddest thing a fan has ever said or done?
KK: While I was on the Summer of Swoon Tour, I had two different fans from two different cities tell me that I reminded them of Cather from Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl. At the time, I hadn’t read Fangirl yet, but I knew enough about the book to feel flattered and kind of in awe by that comparison. I snagged a copy and devoured the book within two plane rides toward the end of the tour. They were totally right. Cather and I have a lot in common!
HW: I can see that. And what a nice comparison! What was the most unexpected thing for you about being a published author?
KK: Taxes! I didn’t know much about the financial side of being an author before Swoon Reads, but I’ve learned a lot over the past few months. Makes me feel like I’m adulting correctly.
HW: Do you have any advice for aspiring authors on the site?
KK: Read other manuscripts on the site and get comfortable with giving feedback through the comments and rating system. As exciting as it is to upload your manuscript on Swoon Reads, it means so much more when you engage in the process. You may find your next favorite book—and new writer-friends—along the way!
“The Next Phase of the Writing Life”
HW: If you could change one thing about your writing habits, what would it be?
KK: I wish I used outlines more often. Outlines and I don’t always mesh (if I get too detailed, I get bored), but when we do, it works beautifully. Trying out different outline techniques is definitely something I’ll be doing in the future so that I can have a better balance between planning and experimenting.
HW: That could be fun. You know that I’m a big fan of outlines.;-) Where did you get the inspiration for Love Charms and Other Catastrophes?
KK: By the time Love Fortunes had been revised and off to print, I knew I couldn’t leave Grimbaud just yet. Out of all the voices begging to tell their stories, Hijiri’s was the loudest (ironically). I wanted to know what kind of future a love charm-maker would have in this newly liberated town and what kind of boy would capture her stubborn, “tiny” heart. Once I knew those answers, Kentaro was born. I’ve always loved those funny and heartwarming scenes where a person surprises loved ones by bursting out of a cake or a box. I knew Ken was going to surprise Hijiri by popping out of a box. It was one of the first images I started with when dreaming up Love Charms and the scene was so fun to write.
HW: Second books are notoriously difficult. What was the hardest part about writing Love Charms and Other Catastrophes?
KK: The tricky part about writing the second book was learning how to do so as an author, rather than an unpublished writer. People are finding Love Fortunes in stores. They’re leaving reviews. I can’t not see these things, yet at the same time, I had to learn how to balance that new dimension of my writing life with trusting my instincts and skills as a storyteller (and my fabulous editor!).
HW: One last question. What do you want readers to remember about your books?
KK: I hope readers will think of my books as quirky adventures with characters who never give up on their dreams.
Discussion Questions
1. Hijiri is a love charm-maker, while Ken makes hearth charms and the twins control the weather. If you lived in Grimbaud, what charms would you make?
2. For much of the novel, Hijiri feels that her heart is too small to ever find love. Have you ever worried that you didn’t have room for more people in your life?
3. During the first part of the contest, the love charm-makers had to come up with a single question to help someone choose the perfect date. What question would you have asked?
4. If you had access to Hijiri’s missed communications charm, who would you contact?
5. Throughout the novel, Femke and Mirthe are fighting over their future plans. If the choice was yours, would you have specialized in a specific type of weather as Femke did or tried to be good at everything as Mirthe wanted?
6. Hijiri’s first instinct was to solve Nico and Martin’s problem with a love charm, but Nico refused. What would you have done in that situation?
7. Of all the charms mentioned, which is your favorite?
8. Hijiri refers to Ken as her “puzzle boy” and tries to solve him. When you are attracted to someone, do you enjoy a sense of mystery, or do you prefer to know everything you can about them?
9. While checking out the competition, Hijiri thinks about how love charms are usually monitored as potentially dangerous since they impact a person’s emotions and thoughts. What do you think about love charms?
10. While under the influence of Stoffel’s lovesickness, Hijiri says some things to Ken that really hurt his feelings and damaged their relationship. Have you ever accidentally hurt someone like that? What did you do to repair your relationship?
In which plans for a season without
romance are unapologetically foiled.
In this hilarious homage to Jane Austen, a lady
with a penchant for trouble finds a handsome
spy much more than merely tolerable.
CHAPTER
1
In which a young lady clinging to a cliff will eventually accept anyone’s help
“OH MY, this is embarrassing,” Miss Juliana Telford said aloud. There was no reason to keep her thoughts to herself, as she was alone, completely alone. In fact, that was half of the problem. The other half was, of course, that she was hanging off the side of a cliff with the inability to climb either up or down and in dire need of rescue.
“Another scrape. This will definitely give Aunt apoplexy.”
Juliana hugged the cliff ever closer and tipped her head slightly so that she could glance over her shoulder. Her high-waisted ivory dress was deeply soiled across her right hip, where she had slid across the earth as she dropped over the edge.
Juliana shifted slowly and glanced over her other shoulder. Fortunately, the left side showed no signs of distress, and her lilac sarcenet spencer could be brushed off easily. She would do it now were it not for the fact that her hands were engaged, holding tightly to the tangle of roots that k
ept her from falling off the tiny ledge.
Juliana continued to scrutinize the damage to her wardrobe with regret, not for herself so much as for her aunt, who seemed to deem such matters of great importance. Unfortunately, her eyes wandered down to her shoes. Just beyond them yawned an abyss. It was all too apparent how far above the crashing waves of the English Channel she was—and how very small the ledge.
Despite squishing her toes into the rock face as tightly as possible, Juliana’s heels were only just barely accommodated by the jutting amalgamate. The occasional skitter and plop of eroding rocks diving into the depths of the brackish water did nothing to calm her racing heart.
Juliana swallowed convulsively. “Most embarrassing.” She shivered despite a warm April breeze. “I shall be considered completely beyond the pale if I am dashed upon the rocks. Aunt will be so uncomfortable. Most inconsiderate of me.”
A small shower of sandy pebbles rained down on Juliana’s flowery bonnet. She shook the dust from her eyes and listened. She thought she had heard a voice.
Please, she prayed, let it be a farmer or a tradesman, someone not of the gentry. No one who would feel obligated to report back to Grays Hill Park. No gentlemen, please.
“Hello?” she called out. Juliana craned her neck upward, trying to see beyond the roots and accumulated thatch at the cliff’s edge.
A head appeared. A rather handsome head. He had dark, almost black, hair and clear blue eyes and, if one were to notice such things at a time like this, a friendly, lopsided smile.
“Need some assistance?” the head asked with a hint of sarcasm and the tone of a …
“Are you a gentleman?” Juliana inquired politely.
The head looked startled, frowned slightly, and then raised an eyebrow before answering. “Yes, indeed, I am—”
“Please, I do not wish to be rescued by a gentleman. Could you find a farmer or a shopkeep—anyone not of the gentry—and then do me the great favor of forgetting you saw me?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“I do not want to be rude, but this is a most embarrassing predicament—”
“I would probably use the word dangerous instead.”
“Yes, well, you would, being a man. But I, on the other hand, being a young woman doing her best not to call attention to herself and bring shame upon her family, would call it otherwise.”
“Embarrassing?”
“Oh, most definitely. First, I should not have gone out in the carriage alone. Carrie was supposed to come with me, but we quarreled, you see, and I got into a snit, and—” Juliana stopped herself. She was beginning to prattle; it must be the effects of the sun. “Second, if I had not been watching the swallows instead of the road, I would have seen the hole before my wheel decided to explore its depths—very scatterbrained of me. And third, if I return home, soiled and in the company of a gentleman with no acquaintance to the family, I will be returned to Hartwell forthwith in shame. All possibility of a Season and trip to London will be gone completely.”
“Well, that is quite an embarrassing list. I do see the problem.”
“Is there someone down there?” another voice asked.
The head with the blue eyes disappeared, but Juliana could hear a muffled conversation.
“Yes, but she does not want to be rescued by us. She says she needs a farmer.”
“What?”
Juliana leaned back slightly to see if she could catch a glimpse of the other gentleman, but that dislodged a cloud of dirt.
“Achoo.”
“Bless you,” one of the voices called from above before continuing the conversation. “Yes, it seems that we are not the sort—”
Juliana’s nose began to itch again. She scrunched it up and then wiggled it, trying to stop another burst. To no avail. “Achoo.” This time her left hand jerked with the force of the exhaled air and broke several of the roots to which she was clinging. Slowly, they began to unravel, lengthening and shifting Juliana away from the cliff’s side, out into the air.
Looking for more charming Grimbaud adventures?
Learn the full story of Zita’s defeat and how Fallon and Sebastian defied fate in Kimberly Karalius’s first novel Love Fortunes and Other Disasters.
In love with Nico and Martin?
Check out their e-novella,
First Kisses and Other Misfortunes
Join the hottest community of Young Adult readers and writers online now at swoonreads.com
About the Author
KIMBERLY KARALIUS is the author of Love Fortunes and Other Disasters and its sequel, Love Charms and Other Catastrophes. She holds an MFA in fiction from the University of South Florida and has been sharing stories on Figment.com with a strong following of enthusiastic readers since the site’s inception. Although Kimberly lives in sunny Florida, she prefers to stay indoors and sometimes buys a scarf in the hopes of snow. She loves watching really old cartoons and silent films. Being in Florida certainly has one big perk: going to Disney World. Which she does. Frequently.
kimkaralius.com. Or sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Prologue: The Bargain
Chapter 1: Party
Chapter 2: Made with Love
Chapter 3: Sweater Weather
Chapter 4: Impressing the Principal
Chapter 5: The Questionable Dating Game
Chapter 6: Instinct
Chapter 7: The Unfortunate Accident
Chapter 8: Change of Plans
Chapter 9: Skin and Signatures
Chapter 10: Waterworks
Chapter 11: The Right Kind of Mood
Chapter 12: The Bells of Grimbaud
Chapter 13: Kissable
Chapter 14: New Heart, Old Heart, Real Heart, Fake Heart?
Chapter 15: They Say Lovesickness Is Incurable
Chapter 16: Sabotage
Chapter 17: Home Again
Chapter 18: Heart-to-Heart Talk
Chapter 19: Spoken and Unspoken
Chapter 20: It’s All in the Chase
Chapter 21: Crossfire
Chapter 22: Aim and Fire
Chapter 23: Unmeasurable
Acknowledgments
Swoonworthy Extras
About the Author
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 by Kimberly Karalius
Excerpt for Love, Lies and Spies copyright © 2016 by
Cynthia Ann Anstey
Swoon Reads
An Imprint of Feiwel and Friends
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
swoonreads.com
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Karalius, Kimberly, author.
Title: Love charms and other catastrophes / Kimberly Karalius.
Description: First Edition. | New York: Swoon Reads, 2016. | Sequel to: Love fortunes and other disasters. | Summary: “Aspiring love charm maker Hijiri Kitamura, her friends, and her new boyfriend (given to her by Love itself), must find and stop a rogue charm maker from taking over Grimbaud”—Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015036230 | ISBN 9781250084040 (paperback) | ISBN 9781250084019 (ebook)
Subjects: | CYAC: Love—Fiction. | Fate and fatalism—Fiction. | Magic—Fiction. | Friendship—Fiction. | Contests—Fiction. | High schools—Fiction. | Schools—Fiction. | Japanese Americans—Fiction. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Love & Romance. | JUVENILE FICTION / Fantasy & Magic.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.K36 Lp 2016 | DDC [Fic]�
��dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015036230
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First trade paperback edition 2016
eBook edition May 2016
eISBN 9781250084019