William C. Tracy is joining us today to talk about his novel Fruits of the Gods. Here’s the publishers description:
Sisters Kisare and Belili uproot an ancient box in their owner’s orchard and find a miracle inside: a fifth godfruit in a society that knows only four. It is punishable by death for non-nobles to eat godfruit, so the sisters hide the discovery and plot to escape servitude for good. With the power represented in the box, they could live as nobles themselves.
But Kisare finds her new freedom more difficult than she imagined, and Belili has many secrets she strives to keep hidden. With the help of a people slowly losing their culture and technology to the powerful nobles, the sisters lead an infiltration of the highest levels of noble society.
While Kisare finds she cares for the captured leader of the people helping them, Belili comes to love her noble suitor’s guard—a fierce woman with a similar past to her own. In the end, the fifth godfruit may bring harmony to the world, but the sisters’ only hope of succeeding lies in deciphering ancient mythologies surrounding the gods’ original plan for their people.
What’s William’s favorite bit?
WILLIAM C. TRACY
This was by far the easiest “Favorite Bit” to decide on out of my books. Three words: Seasonal Fruit Magic. Pop a juicy slice of godfruit in your mouth and you have a magical ability! That is, if you have the right color hair. The magic varies depending on what season it is, and which magical tree is fruiting. All this leads to a magic system simple in context, but powerful for storytelling. Fruit type + hair color = magic power.
Planning out the magic in this book was lots of fun, especially since I grew up with a huge garden every year, courtesy of my mother and father. Mom used to joke that she got 110% germination on her tomato plants, and it was hard to check, because she routinely planted more than a hundred a year! Keep in mind I didn’t grow up on a farm. I lived in south central Charlotte, NC.
Back to the fruit. When I got my own place, I planted fruit trees, and over the years, I’ve had a plum, a peach, a cherry, a pear, blueberries, avocados, pineapples, lemons, kiwis, blackberries, and raspberries. They became one of the inspirations for this book. What kind of fruit would gods pick to bless? If you read carefully, you’ll notice I picked completely different genera for each season, so they wouldn’t be easy to cross-pollinate. In fact, I worked very hard to make the fruit a scarce commodity. The trees won’t bear if they’re too close to another of the same species. They only bear in one season. They have to be fertilized by the bodies of dead magic-users (probably my second-place favorite bit).
Now add in hair color. Not just anyone can use magic. Only the people blessed by the gods can use the godfruit. This is shown by five different colors of magical locks, as well as the non-magical blond hair. Each different hair color creates a different cross with a fruit, and you end up with twenty magical powers. As an engineer, I love seeing how systems fall into patterns and categorizations. So, after figuring out my basis for the magic, I got to play around with the powers and how to group them by fruit and by season. It won’t spoil things much to tell you the categories of magical powers: Mental, Sense, Elemental, and Body. I even created an in-world children’s verse that teaches how the gods bestowed their powers:
Dumzi, the trickster, put his guile in the morus. Our minds gain unearthly powers to serve us.
Geshtna’s passions are always intense. Her prunae increase all five of the senses.
Kigal can call all the elements to her. The malus’ juice gives them out to the user.
Enta, old man winter, is hard as leather. His citrons make our bodies fitter, stronger, deadlier.
But how does the magic work? Here’s one of the first confrontations where we see the power of the godfruit, in this case the malus of autumn and the citron of winter:
All six elders behind Hbelu had malae to mouths, and Kisare heard the crack of teeth biting into crisp godfruit. From the ground at their feet rose the ghostly forms of past Asha-Urmana, their hair a pallid shade of purple. The shades stalked forward, pushing back the nobles and their guards. The hounds skittered away in fear.
When she turned back to Hbelu, he was facing Aricaba-Ata, already passed through the ghosts’ line. She realized the prince towered over her former master. Hbelu’s leather clothes stretched to their limits to cover him, making him look like a man wearing boy’s garments.
But Aricaba-Ata had already bit into his own citron. She could see the juice running into his fingers. Hbelu swept into Aricaba-Ata with a roar, his voice deeper than usual. Aricaba-Ata resisted the charge. Kisare had seen him rip a tree from the ground with the strength the citron gave those with red hair. Little stabs of lightning trailed down the two magic users’ arms and legs, and Kisare stepped back, wincing as the two crashed together with a smack. They were like two slabs of rock, one twice as tall as normal, the other with strength to raise boulders above his head. Hbelu slowly pushed the noble away, large hands clasped on arms.
Enti-Ilzi was steady again, wiping blood from his face with one hand, his nose straight once more. His arm was still around Bel’s neck, and her face was going pale. She struggled weakly for a moment longer and went limp. The noble guided her to the ground, then drew his sword. He grasped in his pouch with his other bloody hand and produced a slice of malus.
The Asha-Urmana sentries stalked toward him. Enti-Ilzi saw this and bit down, standing over Bel’s unconscious body. As the sentries came close, Enti-Ilzi’s sword grew a band of frost, and then ice, white contrasting with the black lock of his hair. The ice lengthened, and he whipped it forward into the nearest sentry. A wicked shard of ice flew toward him, stabbing into his leg. The sentry stumbled backwards. Enti-Ilzi followed with several more slashes of his sword, each dislodging a spike of ice at a sentry. Kisare ran toward him, but Enti-Ilzi stood his ground, his sword wavering in Kisare’s direction.
Fruits of the Gods is my first book with a publishing house, as opposed to the five I’ve self-published so far. I have to say, I’ve loved working with NineStar Press. It takes a lot of the burden off me in coordinating the release. So if you’d like to go on a journey based on my experience with fruit trees and nature, why not take a big bite of Fruits of the Gods?
LINKS:
Fruit of the Gods Universal Book Link
BIO:
William C. Tracy writes tales of the Dissolutionverse: a science-fantasy series about planets connected by music-based magic instead of spaceflight. He currently has five books out, including the first book of an epic space opera, The Seeds of Dissolution, which includes LGBT-friendly elements.
William is a North Carolina native and a lifelong fan of science fiction and fantasy. He has a master’s in mechanical engineering, and has both designed and operated heavy construction machinery. He has also trained in Wado-Ryu karate since 2003, and runs his own dojo. He is an avid video and board gamer and reader.
In his spare time, he cosplays with his wife as Steampunk Agent Carter and Jarvis, Jafar and Maleficent, and Doctor Strange and the Ancient One. They enjoy putting their pets in cute little costumes for the annual Christmas card.
Follow him on Twitter for writing updates, cat pictures, and martial arts.
