IN A FIELD ALL HER OWN. Since publishing her first fantasy novel at age 14, Cayla Kluver (now 19) has been picked up by Harlequin Teen and published in 16 countries.

As a 14 year-old, Cayla Kluver began a journey. Along with her on this journey were Princess Alera, Narian, Steldor, and London – characters of her novel Legacy. Now, at 19, Kluver is anxiously awaiting Feb. 28, the day Legacy’s sequel and second book of the trilogy, Allegiance, is released globally through Harlequin Teen.

“It was a crazy up-and-down roller coaster.” – Cayla Kluver, on getting famous for her fantasy novel at 14

Allegiance picks up right where Legacy left readers, with Alera married to a man she does not love and her kingdom headed for war. While Kluver agreed that Legacy was very much a tale of romance, she said her own political interests can be seen at a greater depth in this sequel.

“The kingdom’s at war and there’s death,” Kluver said. “The love that kept Alera going in the first book is suddenly absent and she feels very lost.”

Just as Princess Alera faces struggles throughout the tale, Kluver admitted to a few struggles of her own in writing the story. Most revolved around being criticized at such a young age.

“It was a crazy up-and-down roller coaster,” Kluver said, “trying to figure out that people who hate your book don’t necessarily hate you.”

At this point, Kluver’s mother and first publisher of Legacy, Kimberly Phifer, chimed in. “The faith we had in it was well-founded and proven over and over again,” she said.

Kluver claimed it was just as hard having a piece of herself exposed to the world (as Legacy has been published in 16 different countries).

“It was the strangest thing to imagine that Legacy was no longer in my house – that there were copies of it in other people’s houses.”

When comparing writing Allegiance to the first novel, Kluver said she has grown as a writer. When remembering her first drafts, Kluver recalled how her older sister informed her it took place in a vacuum.

“I’ve learned to incorporate more as I go,” she said. “I’ve learned to write more completely.”

While there were four years spanning the time between the first edition and its sequel, Kluver is glad to announce the wait for the third book will be much shorter. Harlequin Teen, who now owns the publishing rights to all three books, has tentatively set the release of the third and final book, Sacrifice, for this November.

Going along with the release of Allegiance is a 10-day blog tour. Allegiance-themed posts will appear on 10 different blogs between Feb. 20 and March 9. The promotion will also give away 10 books, one for each stop, and an Allegiance-themed Kindle Touch at the end. For the tour, Kluver will write guest posts for the blogs, or the blogs will write something about Allegiance.

“They’re calling the tour The Tournament,” Kluver said. “They’ve got it set up so it’s Seldor versus Narian.” Offkey, Kluver’s personal blog, features a complete schedule of the blog tour.

As for what’s next with the teen writer, Kluver said it’s up in the air. When she first finished the trilogy, Kluver said she was sick of the characters and thought she was done. However, this may not be the last readers hear of Alera and her kingdom.

“There has been some talk about maybe doing a prequel,” Kluver said. “There’s an older generation of characters who are a lot of fun to write.”

Until then, Kluver said she is keeping busy and is still enveloping herself in her writing. “I’ve been working on some other things now and I’ve got another trilogy in the works.”