The Only Hope

Mid-Book Q & A With A.T. Judge

1.        Will you be making a ‘book’ 3 &4?

Yes! I am so excited to see how the Avatar world changes in the next to book and what challenges they face. I'm even more excited to discover more of Zabri as we follow the last two books in the series.

2.      How did you come up with the name Zabri?

Google. I love-love-love unique names for my story and google can lead you to millions of baby-name sites. Literally every name I’ve ever written, minus Zabri’s and Leza’s was found through Google. Her original name was going to be Zabra, but I didn’t like having ‘bra’ in her name. But I wanted the ‘Z’ for Fire-Nation related reasons. So I kept the ‘za’ and changed the ‘a’ to an ‘i’. I actually am not a fan of her name, nor Amaya’s. That’s why you’ll see me write ‘Bri’ as much as I can.

3.      Why did you make Zabri a girl?

Well, at the end of ‘A Moment Please’ I made it very clear that Amaya would not be reprising her role as the main hero(ine) in The Only Hope. In doing that, I was given the freedom of a new character, and I seriously considered making Zabri a male. I went so far to planning out a story board in my head. The guy would have had a crush on Korra for book 1 and that would cause conflict between him and Mako and Bolin. Somewhere along the line, the story died, and Zabri came to life.

4.      Is there a name for the illness that killed Zabri’s mother and Maya?

There isn’t! I wrote it though, with the idea that they had some sort of brain cancer and that’s what caused the seizures and what not. I wanted to make it like an aneurism, but those are deadly if not treated at once, so that was tossed out the window. My only other option was a tumor within the brain.

5.      Where is Zabri’s Father, what’s his name? Will we ever met him?

Well, her father has no name and at the moment I have no clue where he’s at.  The story has yet to call for him, so right now he’s just a minor character in her life and the story. I would like to introduce him at some point, but it all depends on how the story goes. Maybe he’ll make a camo in the epilogue, but right now that’s not known.

*Edit*

While rereading the story, in Chapter 5 I DID give Zabri's father a name. It is Roe- said like row.SO his name is Roe Fa

6.      Is Zabri a Fire Nation Princess or an Air Master?

Didn’t you read the story?! She’s both! She was born a “minor” princess to the throne, because Ursa is Fire Lord thus making her children and so-forth first in line to the throne. If you want to get technical, it would be (by my world) Iroh, Kenji, and then Zabri, Maya (if she was alive). Reason being is Kenji is higher than Zabri by royal standards, but lower than Iroh because he’s a direct offspring of Ursa. So Zabri is a princess. She worked her butt off to become an Air master. She was born a princess, but she earned the title of Air Master and that is shown by the arrows on her.

7.      Why are her arrows barely mentioned, or people magically not seeing them?

She hides them. She is proud of her Master rank, but Air benders are so rare that people might recognize right off the back- mainly in the City. So I see her hiding the arrows with her bangs, long sleeve shirt and fingerless gloves. It also plays into that whole ‘finding who you are’ that we see/are seeing her go through this past book into the next. It’s part of that internal struggle to be the person everyone wants her be. So she has issues with just flaunting her powers off, or even her arrows.

8.      What happened between Zabri and Bolin- and who the heck is Kwon?

Well, they grew apart. As a lot of people go through in life, they went through changes and slowly discovered they’re not right for each other- right now. Kwon is a friend for Zabri. She needs more of them, and so I’m giving her more. And to clearly state this- I have no clue who Zabri will end up with at the end of book 4. We still have 2 whole books to go through and a lot can change. So, yeah, she’s single ATM, and is remaining so until I say.

9.      Will Zabri have the power to air and water bend since she fused with Amaya?

Zabri is, and will forever, only ever be an air bender. Yes, I know what you’re think, ‘YOU’RE CONTRADICTING YOURSELF A.T!!’ But I’m not. Amaya already had the power to water bend when she fused with La. When they fused, her water talent just increased and became her ‘main’ bend- if you can say. The second fact is- Zabri already had a piece of her grandmother/La in her. That didn’t affect her before, it won’t now. At most, maybe her eyes will get darker or something like that.

10.  Will you write a book about Amaya’s adventures?

Beyond what is already written? (She has a whole story ‘A Moment Please’) No. I’ve said it time and time again. Amaya’s story was, is, and forever will be ‘A Moment Please’. I never planned nor wanted to write a squeal for her. If you haven’t read ‘A Moment Please’ and you are dying to know more on Amaya and have the time- then go for it. It’s a pretty old story though, maybe like four or five years old, so it’s not as amazing as it could be.

11.  You said Amaya’s story was done- yet she’s played a major role in book 2- what gives?

What gives? What gives is that I write each book between the seasons. (I really hope you’re in a joking tone, because I am) Amaya’s story was written after the original series ended. I was able to know how the whole story would end before I wrote it. With Zabri’s I write each season as it’s given. I wasn’t planning for Amaya to be in this story much if any. But the writers went in that direction and so I put her in where I saw fit. I’m not sure how much of a role she’ll play in Book 3- but it’ll most likely be a good size role since the spirit world and the mortal words are fully open to each other. You know, ya just gotta do what you gotta do.

12.  In that last chapter, you said you were going to be in college by Book 3, will that affect your writing updates?

Hopefully not too much. I’m not one to update on a regular basics though I try. I won’t have cable in my dorm, so I’ll be getting caught up by watching it online and going from there.

13.  What’s next?

I don’t know. Your guess is as good as mine. As I’ve repeated so many times above and in author note- I don’t know. It’s up to the writers and then from there I plan my story. :3

*Update August 15th 2014*

I am so please to give you a tad hint of what is come for this next book. 

Expect:

A lot of letters

Moments between Zabri and her grand father

Moments between Zabri and Bolin

Tears; mainly from Zabri

Maturity

Choices being made

Do Not Expect:

Amaya- or a whole lot of her

A chapter from Zuko's POV

Happy-go lucky story

Romance

Oh my gosh People, thanks so much for all the questions sent in! I loved getting them and answering them and I may do this for other my books! I hope your questions got answered in the most satisfying or unsatisfying way possible. The song in the side bar is from 'The Book Of Mormon' OBC; which I just discovered the other night. It's not a show for kids though. This song is totally PG, I ensure. (And yes, Josh Gad is in it- AKA Olaf from Frozen)

Remember, no matter what, Keep Reading!

 <3 A.T. Judge