blog tour: white stag + q&a with kara barbieri

White Stag by Kara Barbieri
Wednesday Books, 368 pp.
Published January 8, 2019

The first book in a brutally stunning series where a young girl finds herself becoming more monster than human and must uncover dangerous truths about who she is and the place that has become her home.

As the last child in a family of daughters, seventeen-year-old Janneke was raised to be the male heir. While her sisters were becoming wives and mothers, she was taught to hunt, track, and fight. On the day her village was burned to the ground, Janneke—as the only survivor—was taken captive by the malicious Lydian and eventually sent to work for his nephew Soren.

Janneke’s survival in the court of merciless monsters has come at the cost of her connection to the human world. And when the Goblin King’s death ignites an ancient hunt for the next king, Soren senses an opportunity for her to finally fully accept the ways of the brutal Permafrost. But every action he takes to bring her deeper into his world only shows him that a little humanity isn’t bad—especially when it comes to those you care about.

Through every battle they survive, Janneke’s loyalty to Soren deepens. After dangerous truths are revealed, Janneke must choose between holding on or letting go of her last connections to a world she no longer belongs to. She must make the right choice to save the only thing keeping both worlds from crumbling.

Welcome to Day 2 of the White Stag blog tour, hosted by Wednesday Books! For today's stop, author Kara Barbieri was kind enough to answer some of my questions about the darkly fascinating world of the Permafrost, and how our heroine Janneke navigates such a treacherous, supernatural kingdom. 

Janneke, the heroine of White Stag, has been the victim of abuse during her time in the Permafrost, and this heavily influences her story arc in the novel. Why was this an important character choice for you, and what do you hope readers will take away from her journey?

So, as you might have heard, White Stag had its roots in rehab. During the time I was writing it I was doing a stint in rehab due to my bulimia nervosa. I’d also just experienced the death of my father and in general I was having a hard time in life. Which wasn’t new to me, I was always dealing with certain types of trauma, but at that time it was really bad.


Janneke is written the way she is, with her history as a victim of abuse and everything else that happened to her almost as a certain type of therapy for me. We underwent similar circumstance—for example if you pay close attention while reading you’ll notice Janneke also deals with an eating disorder.

While obviously my story isn’t exactly the same as Janneke’s, we’ve both undergone a lot of trauma in our lives that affected us emotionally and mentally. Janneke’s story of learning to accept the trauma and live despite it, letting go of her survivor’s guilt and self-hatred for the things she blames herself for, learning to see herself and others as people who make mistakes and that it’s okay to be happy despite tragedy, and her journey in general to accept what she is, what happened to her, and how to both accept her pain and let it go and continue on living is really a story about recovery.

Recovery from illness, self-hate, guilt, trauma, etc. And so White Stag and Janneke in particular was a catharsis for my own recovery against all these things.

We see a few unique environments in White Stag: a cave system hidden away in snowy mountains, a fire bog, and the thin border between the Permafrost and human lands. How large is the Permafrost and can readers expect to see even more of it in the sequels?

It’s pretty large. I did have a map drawn out at one point but I forgot where it is. The basic layout of the Permafrost is there are seven regions to it. There’s the Southerlands, which is the area closest to the invisible border. Most goblins coming from there are quite human-like due to lots of cross-breeding with humans. Seppo’s mom is from there. There are the Eastlands which make up part of the fire bog and the area tends to be less inhabited because it’s very dangerous. The Westlands are by both a coast and string of mountains that cut across the Permafrost back into the Southerlands and into the human world. The Middlelands are in the, well, Middle of the Permafrost and that’s where the Erlking resides. Then there is the North, Higher North, and Highest North. The Highest North is unlivable for most any creature.  Soren lives in the Higher North which is why he looks different from most other goblins as not many goblins live up there. His blue-greyish translucent skin, the lilac undertones, his hair, and eye color are all traits of the Higher North coupled with the goblin version of Albinism (We don’t see much about it in White Stag but Soren can’t see very well so Janneke is actually a better archer than him.)

Readers can definitely expect to see more of the Permafrost in the sequels and that each region has it’s own different culture.

The concept of "power" in the Permafrost, how goblins can possess, lose, and accumulate it is a fascinating idea. How did you come up with that system of magical strength? Was it inspired by any particular mythology?

I’m not honestly sure I remember how exactly I came up with it. I just knew I wanted something different and almost tangible about goblins and how their species worked as a whole. So along with making them morph into more monstrous creatures when using their power, I thought the concept of a dog-eat-dog world where they need to practically steal other peoples power would be interesting. It also fits in with the idea that goblins can’t create. I don’t think it was inspired by any mythology in particular.

Thank you so much to Kara for taking the time to answer my questions, and share a little more information on her debut with my followers! It's been a pleasure hosting you and White Stag here on This Dark Material!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kara Barbieri is a writer living in the tiny town of Hayward, Wisconsin. An avid fantasy fan, she began writing White Stag at eighteen and posting it to Wattpad soon after under the name of ‘Pandean’. When she’s not writing, you can find her marathoning Buffy the Vampire Slayer, reviving gothic fashion, and jamming to synthpop. You can follow her on Twitter @PandeanPanic and pre-order your own copy of White Stag here!