Guest Post from Rhiannon Paille

Good morning and good weekend, everyone! I hope everyone is having a fantastic Saturday. Today on the blog, we have Rhiannon Paille. She's the author of the new book, Flame of Surrender, which is coming out in November. Here is a guest post from her about opinion on parents in YA novels. Check it out, then check out her new book in November!!

Kaliel has no parents, wait what?

I think one of the biggest challenges in YA Fiction is parents. It’s so easy to find books that have teenagers who think the parents don’t matter; or books where the parents aren’t involved in their paranormal lifestyle, or where the parents forbid the teenagers from doing things and therefore make them uber rebellious. The list goes on I’m sure as to how the parents act and how the teenagers interact with them.

In FLAME OF SURRENDER, Kaliel doesn’t have parents, not really. It’s not like traditional procreation where (omg are we really having this conversation!?) the humans mate and have children. For one, Kaliel isn’t even human, she’s elven. Secondly, she’s not seeded the human way (omg seriously can this language get any worse?) but she’s born of the land itself. That means that yes, the land becomes pregnant (again, we’re not having this conversation are we?) with the Children of Avristar and they are literally born in thickets of grass or hollows or trees. In Kaliel’s case she was found in a bed of violet colored flowers.

On Avristar, the Children of Avristar are taken to the Elmare Castle to be cared for by the ladies, and then when they’re toddlers, they are sent to one of the three provinces, Evensess, Amersil or Araraema. They’re cared for then by House Masters, and Elders, as well as being taught things that will help them through the whole coming of age journey.

Because there are no traditional parents, the Elders act more like teachers and caregivers than actual parental units. That doesn’t mean however that they don’t have disagreements, it’s just different. If an Elder isn’t getting along with one of the kinfolk, then that Elder can send the kinfolk to a different Elder, one the kinfolk might actually respect and listen to and learn from.
Krishani has to go through the latter with Adoron who was his mentor when he was found in the forests of Amersil. Adoron is frustrated with Krishani and therefore he denounces his tutelage of Krishani. The only difference between Kaliel and Krishani is that Krishani does have parents, an entire lineage in fact, that exists on Terra. He just doesn’t know it for most of the book because his family was trying to hide him.

When Krishani does face his family, he meets his ancestor Tulsen Tavesin and their relationship is tense. Krishani’s parents are dead because Krishani was born 200 years ago via Terra timelines. It’s only been about 20 years on Avristar. So that also leaves Krishani parentless, except for Tulsen who was granted a form of immortality. (You know, as long as someone doesn’t decapitate Tulsen he’ll live forever.)

And then there’s more spoilery things I could tell you but I'll just let you read the book instead. :)

Rhi was never a normal girl. She tried, but she couldn’t get rid of the visions, the voices in her head, and the hallucinations. When she was on the edge of crazy someone pulled her back and explained it all. She wasn’t insane. She was psychic, really psychic, too psychic. Her life was an urban fantasy wrapped in a paranormal romance and served with a side of horror. To escape her everyday weirdness she began writing fantasy. She frequents Twitter and Facebook, but if you really want to get to know her you should visit her site.

Her book FLAME OF SURRENDER (The Ferryman and The Flame #1) comes out November 1st, 2011. Check it out here.