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C.L. LAUDER INTERVIEWS KYJTA CROMENK

January 16, 2024 | By Women Writers Women Books | Reply More

About The Quelling (The Quelling – A Trilogy, 1)

Befriend your enemy, save your friend.

Fans of Hunger Games and Shadow and Bone will be gripped by this dystopian sci-fi set on Aurora Saura, a planet of merchants and farmers whose quiet lives were interrupted nineteen years prior by an invasion of technically advanced beings known as the Rhemans.

Kyjta Cromenk has been through it all, and with her nineteenth birthday approaching, she’s got more of the same coming. She sees her life as a tapestry of errors, with one foolish move leading to another, culminating in an idiotic act that saw her branded by an alien fluid.

As one of the Stained, Kyjta’s skin glistens like liquid starlight, making her a homing beacon for the creatures regularly dispatched by the Rhemans to abduct townsfolk for quelling. Kyjta is determined to avoid the creatures’ clutches and the harrowing act that follows…

One night, while sheltering during a raid, Kyjta forms an unexpected pact with a Rheman rebel to protect a young girl, Calipsie, who’s fallen into her care. However, when the young girl is snatched away, destined to be quelled, Kyjta abandons precaution to go after her. Facing impossible odds and allied by a Rheman she’s not sure she can trust, Kyjta must not only rescue Calipsie, but also face down the Rheman overlord who’s taken a disturbing interest in her.

C.L. LAUDER INTERVIEWS KYJTA CROMENK
C. L. Lauder interviews Kyjta Cromenk, the protagonist in her new dystopian fantasy, The Quelling about her worst day, her biggest mistake, and the day the Rhemans landed.

C. L. Lauder: Kyjta, tell me about your worst day ever.

Kyjta: My worst day? No, you wouldn’t like it. Your readers definitely wouldn’t like it.

C. L. Lauder: OK, tell me about the last bad day you had.

Kyjta: My last bad day was someone else’s nightmare. I’m still his worst nightmare, actually. He hates me.

C. L. Lauder: Who is he and why would he hate you? What did you do to him?

Kyjta: He’s a boy, Merrick—a fieldhand on my stepfather’s farm. What I did to him was an accident, but he still doesn’t believe me. I moonlight for my biological father, delivering potions and tinctures—he’s the town’s potion master. I met up with one of his customers, a woman who wanted an infatuation potion, but she didn’t have enough coin, and I wasn’t about to gift it to her, so I ended up carrying it around. When I told my cousin about it, she said she’d buy it from me, and I took her up on it. I had no idea she’d spiked the water I handed Merrick. She was the one who wanted him infatuated, but she got dragged away by my stepfather on some errand, and Merrick, well . . . I’m who he saw when he took that first sip.

C. L. Lauder: So, you drugged him?

Kyjta: Not purposefully. It was a case of mistaken infatuation. It didn’t last long—like I said, he hates me now.

C. L. Lauder: How about your biggest mistake, can you tell us about that?

Kyjta: You really need to ask? (gives me a meaningful look) I mean, you can’t see these perpetual tears? (points at the silver markings on her face)

C. L. Lauder: What is that?

Kyjta: It’s Stain—some alien fluid that bonds with our skin. The Rhemans use it to brand and track us, but I managed to get this mess on myself. (sighs) You did ask for my biggest mistake.

C. L. Lauder: So, it was accidental?

Kyjta: Not exactly. It was more of a cover-up—which is why I can’t get into details.

C. L. Lauder: Can you tell us anything about the day the Remans landed?

Kyjta: Well, I was about three weeks old, so nothing first-hand, but it was a big deal. Six ships landed, and the Rhemans started handing out all these amazing tools and gadgets. It started out friendly, and there was a lot of reverence. Some of my people just assumed they were gods, but later, you know, when they started stealing and using our bodies, that enchantment kind of fell away. So…

C. L. Lauder: Right, and how do you feel about the Rhemans now?

Kyjta: (Gets a faraway look) There isn’t an infatuation potion strong enough to combat my feelings toward the Rhemans. They’re merciless and my kind have been suffering under them for decades.

C. L. Lauder: So it’s safe to assume you won’t be befriending any of them in the near future?

Kyjta: Not if my life depended on it.

—

C. L. LAUDER grew up in South Africa before immigrating to the United Kingdom, where she attended the University of London to complete an MA in Creative Writing.
She now lives at the foot of a lush mountain in Hong Kong with her husband and two rapidly lengthening sons, who all enjoy their newfound proximity to nature, and especially the sea.