Guest Blog: Jennifer Alllis Provost

Join me in welcoming a new guest blogger: Jennier Allis Provost. Jennifer's novel, Copper Girl, will be released June 25, 2013. I asked her about the magic system in the novel and here's her reply.

Available June 25, 2013 from Spence City
Copper Girl by Jennifer Allis Provost

Making Magic From Scratch

My newest release, Copper Girl, focuses on Sara Corbeau, a woman who lives in a world that used to be full of magic, until it was forbidden. Then, magic rears its glorious head, and Sara’s forced to reconnect with her heritage. The farther I got into the writing process, the question became, what sort of magic did Sara reconnect with?

I knew that I wanted the magic system to be different, but, being that one can only suspend one’s disbelief so far, I didn’t want it to be too different. After all, there are certain basic principles of magic one must adhere to: it has to have some sort of cost, there has to be something (or someone) generating the power, and the power cannot be limitless. Especially the not limitless part; omnipotent protagonists do tend to be boring.

Inspiration struck in the most unlikely of places – the bathroom of a bar in Portsmouth, NH. The fixtures were a beautiful, rich copper, and I mentioned that copper was my favorite metal. A friend of mine mentioned that I should write a story about copper, and there it was: Sara’s magic would be derived from metal.

It was only a short hop from that eureka moment to my Elemental magic system, with the Elements in question being earth, air, fire, water and metal. Each Elemental would bear a mark of their respective Element somewhere on their skin. Have a peek at Copper Girl’s cover – that ain’t no tramp stamp on Sara’s back. That’s her Element, the copper that lives within her body, taking the form of a raven.

Of course, all the magic couldn’t be Element-based. Sara’s world is also populated by satyrs, mages and elves; in fact, quite early on in the story Sara meets Micah, a silver elf. There’s a definite line between the newer magic of Elementals, and the older magic of the hills, so to speak. That’s a pretty hard-core spoiler for later in the series ;)

So I ran with the idea of a copper girl and a silver elf; all Elementals pretty much stick to their own, but Sara does have a significant interaction with a water being. The sequel, Copper Ravens, will introduce both stone and fire Elementals. Sara, our copper girl, will need all the help she can get.


Jennifer Allis Provost is a native New Englander who lives in a sprawling colonial along with her beautiful and precocious twins, a dog, a parrot (maroon bellied conure, to be exact), two cats, and a wonderful husband who never forgets to buy ice cream. As a child, she read anything and everything she could get her hands on, including a set of encyclopedias, but fantasy was always her favorite. She spends her days drinking vast amounts of coffee, arguing with her computer, and avoiding any and all domestic behavior. 

Friend her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jennallis

Follow her on Twitter: @parthalan

http://jenniferallisprovost.com/

http://jenniferallisprovost.blogspot.com/