Daphne Moore
Daphne Moore writes speculative fiction and romance, but try as she might to stick to a classic genre, other ideas sneak in and make themselves at home. Before she knew how to read, she would tell stories to her younger brothers about monster plants and vampires. As she grew up, she wrote them down...
What is this week’s featured book about? Tell us a little about it!
Silver Hands is a fairy tale retelling. What’s a good fairy tale that hasn’t seen much light? Hmmm. The Handless Maiden! It’s got everything. Violence, love, redemption, and nobody’s ever heard of it!
*inner voice—but that means people might not read it*
Quiet, you!
[Silver Hands is a] dystopian cyberpunk retelling, too, so I have a reason for the mechanical hands!
*inner voice—aren’t fairy tales supposed to be fantasy?*
I said hush, inner voice! Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. It says so in Clarke’s Third Law. So there! Princesses go out and DO things, and so does Sage, the heroine of the tale.
D Fischer, my cowriter, fleshed the world out and gave it heart, as well as the details that made it even more real.
Which of your characters do you most wish you could be in real life, and why?
Alys from Freedom’s Knife. She has a very simple life philosophy—many problems can be solved by sex or a suitable application of violence. She’s a happy person, she loves her kid, she wants to overthrow the oppressive government making her obey orders. The guy she falls for is one of my favorite characters. A great book boyfriend. What’s not to like about an ethical necromancer?
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Tell me about a movie adaptation of a book that has forever scarred you.
Shudder. The Lord of the Rings second and third movies. No elves in Helm’s Deep! Denethor was a noble guy who was driven to madness by despair, and died with dignity, not running while on fire! Skateboarding on oliphaunt noses? Noooooo!
I’m not one to watch those movies with unless you like listening to pedantic shouting 😊
What author do you fangirl/fanboy over?
That would definitely be Sarah J. Maas, V.E. Schwab and Leigh Bardugo. I love almost everything those beautiful ladies write and I am sooo excited for Shadow and Bone to air on Netflix.
What was your first story idea as a child?
Radiation mutated a Venus flytrap, and it got huge, as tall as a skyscraper. After it ate people it would spit them out, and they would be vampires. But the lady vampires had a single drop of blood left, so they could have a kid who could grow up and then
they would all drink the kid’s blood. One kid ran away and got others to run away, and they got an airplane with flamethrowers and killed the plant. Then all the vampires died and they lived happily ever after.
What? I was 4, ok?
How do you choose names for your characters?
I think of what I want their name to mean, then go to baby websites and search. Sometimes that determines their looks and ethnicity, when I find a name I like.
What’s your writing process?
My process? I pace, mumbling into my phone as I roam around the room. I have a dictation app. I finish the chapter, then I email it to myself, move it to Word, and clean up the dictation errors, which can be hysterically funny. I do all the chapters in a kind of skeletal way, so I know where the story is going. Then I go back to the first chapter and start expanding it, getting to know the characters and the setting. Most of the time I end up throwing the original ending out, because I think of a better one halfway through. I write most days, though the amount of time I can spend on it is inversely proportional to the free time the spouse and kids have on that day.
"What’s not to like about an ethical necromancer?"
What’s your craziest, off-brand story idea, the one you want to write even if “no one wants to read it”?
Lovecraftian gods are invading the universe. A group of aliens in a distant star system are using altered humans to fend them off. The altered humans encounter the space empire of regular humanity. Culture clash ensues, with the FMC being an altered human and the MMC being a telepathic Naval Intelligence officer. A Terran space empire, planet sized ships, a cabal of hidden mages who get their power from the dimension the abominations are invading from…it’s a kitchen sink space opera.
To you, what is the value of imagination?
Imagination lets us find ourselves in the places we dream of. Imagination makes reality a better place.
The first chapter of Silver Hands is coming your way Thursday, but you can check out more about the Enchanted Kingdoms boxset down below... and pre-order before release day!
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Enchanted Kingdoms is coming soon...
✅ YA Fairytale Retellings
✅ Enchanted Castles
✅ Happily Ever Afters
✅ Charity Anthology
✅ 20+ full length Fairytale Retellings
✅ (99c, Y'all!!!)
Old tales get a new twist in this anthology featuring 22 novel-length retellings of different classic fairytales—all written by best-selling and award-winning authors. And—because everyone deserves a fairy godmother—100% of proceeds benefit Puzzle Peace United, a children's autism charity!
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