Updates on Wings of Fire!

2/21/2020

Guys...

So basically, Tui answered A MILLION questions at an interview, and there is information about the Wof world and book 14, so PLEASE, read the stuff below!

(Warning: Spoilers for Wings of Fire Books 1-13 and Darkstalker.)

-Direct quotes are marked with "", otherwise it's paraphrasing the answer.
- Questions asked by me personally are marked with *

Q: Who is the Book 14 Protagonist? (actual question was "Can you give us any hints on the Book 14 protagonist?")*

A: Queen Snowfall of the IceWings! The fandom was close with guessing Lynx.

Other relevant info on Book 14:

- A somewhat finalized version of the Book 14 cover will hopefully be shown at the FanWing Fan Fest at Barnes and Nobles across the United States on March 7! The cover will have Lynx on the back and Snowfall on the front. Hopefully the title of Book 14 will also be revealed on March 7 (Tui said she is HOPING so it's not 100% definite).
- Lynx will play a major role in Book 14 and help temper Snowfall in her isolationist anxieties and fears.
- We will definitely see Winter again in Book 14.
- Snowfall is not 7 yet, since she hasn't made it to the adult wall yet by the end of Book 10 (Wall of Circle Rankings)
- Someone (a "she") in Book 14 knows more than they are letting on with respect to current events.
- Tui said that she typically has difficulty with the 4th book in a 5-book arc because she wants the main character to help change the world, but also leave some problems there for the finale. She described Snowfall as particularly fun to write since Starflight and Turtle were more scared and passive; Snowfall is also scared, but in a very powerful, reactive way. When Snowfall gets upset/scared, she acts out very dramatically, which drives the story forward.
- Tui is still currently writing Book 14 and has made significant progress, but she hasn't decided how it will end yet. She is hoping to have the book out by late 2020 (possibly early 2021).
- Snowfall has white scales and dark blue eyes. She also has a heavy metal crown that was her mother's, with diamonds and metallic spikes that look like icicles. Snowfall was excited to get the crown but it became a source of frustration as it's really heavy and too big for her.
(hehe, symbolism!)
- Snowfall is very different from the other characters Tui has written so far, and the most different from Tui herself out of all her protagonists. Tui is aware that currently she is seen as a "mean girl bad guy", that she has a lot more power than most of her protags, but Snowfall has also recently gone through enormous trauma (IceWing plague). Snowfall is heavily driven by fear and anxiety and in pursuing Arc 3's theme of "empathy and resistance" Tui wanted to explore this type of character. (ie a character that most people can't fathom empathizing with). She hopes to tie Snowfall's anxieties and worries to her own in order to relate to her more, and help the audience relate to her more. (Note from Bio: Bahaha y'all activated Tui's trap card - she expected people would start off disliking Snowfall)
- This is the first time Tui has had to think for a long time about who would be the protagonist. In Snowfall she wants a protag who is extremely different from all other protags, and who is coming from a very different perspective. She does want Snowfall's perspective to change and develop over the course of the book.
- Jerboa II was one of the potential main characters that Tui was considering for Book 14.
- We will find out in Book 14 what happened to animus magic (it may or may not have to do with Jerboa, Tui just made a funny expression at us and said "This is my expression" when we told her the popular fandom theory that Jerboa messed with animus magic).

Q: Is there a title for Book 14?

A: Tui said not yet, but she will be revealing that in March hopefully.
(We suggested "The Extinction" and "The Distant Kingdoms" and she wrote these down hahaha)