I haven't had a lot of time to write this summer due to personal commitments related to my children. I have, however, had a lot of time to think about my writing and where I want to go with it.
So, to be efficient, I'm announcing that I'm going to retire this pen name. I'm moving into some different genres and styles. I feel that I've drifted from what I wanted to do when I started writing and publishing, and there are a number of other related creative and personal issues involved.
To be clear, I'm still going to write. I'm just kind of starting fresh with a new pen name, a I feel this path is the best way to move forward without any creative baggage.
I appreciate everyone who has read my work under this pen name, and I hope that I gave you a bit of entertainment, if only for a few hours.
Monday, June 29, 2015
Friday, April 17, 2015
Some things just shouldn't exist: new YA UF release, IMPOSSIBLE INTERN
All that changes one hot summer night in her hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. A trip to a party leads to an encounter with an otherworldly creature called an impossible, a type of being so bizarre most people can’t even remember seeing one.
Her immunity to the imp catches the attention of a secretive government agency and the owner of a mysterious library in Oregon. There’s also the little matter of the shadowy lizard eyes that seem to be following her around.
Alice planned to spend her summer interning at an art gallery, not a magical library. Now she finds herself drawn into a deadly world of magical factions and a ruthless sorceress boss determined to unlock the intern’s mystical potential at whatever cost.
Monday, April 13, 2015
An insecure artist, a mysterious library in Oregon, and even the occasional hot guy or two: Impossible Intern
Coming Friday, April 17:
312
imminent in AOR. Special considerations: Multiple guests have RSVPed. Order
hors d’oeuvres for small party.
Monday, March 2, 2015
New Month, New Project Report
Greetings,
So now that Osland is over, what's in store?
Well, the primary thing that I have been working on and is in store in the near future is a new YA UF series (yes, I know such a shocking departure from what I've already done).
The main protagonist in this new series is a bit older (18) and a high-school graduate, so there's be a bit less school hi-jinks this time around, but I think people who liked the Osland Trilogy will also enjoy this new series with the tentative title for book one of THE IMPOSSIBLE INTERN.
This series is going to be structured a bit differently in that it'll initially be a bit more episodic than what we I had in Osland, especially given the nature of the paranormal elements, but this doesn't mean I won't have a continuing plot, just that things may go on a bit more than three books depending on how things flow.
There'll be romantic elements, but they'll be a bit more slow burn than in Osland.
I'll note that despite the heavy hinting at other supernaturals in the Osland Trilogy, this series is not directly connected. I previously had an idea for another series directly connected, but for the moment, I wanted to start a new series with less setting baggage, though I may revisit the Osland world in the future (i.e., explore the mysterious 'information' contact that Miss Norris kept mentioning).
I'm working with a bit of a different protagonist type this time around. Typically, my protagonists tend to be very self-assured (more than a few have said cocky), whereas I'm going for a lead that's a bit more unsure herself at first. We'll see how it works out.
So now that Osland is over, what's in store?
Well, the primary thing that I have been working on and is in store in the near future is a new YA UF series (yes, I know such a shocking departure from what I've already done).
The main protagonist in this new series is a bit older (18) and a high-school graduate, so there's be a bit less school hi-jinks this time around, but I think people who liked the Osland Trilogy will also enjoy this new series with the tentative title for book one of THE IMPOSSIBLE INTERN.
This series is going to be structured a bit differently in that it'll initially be a bit more episodic than what we I had in Osland, especially given the nature of the paranormal elements, but this doesn't mean I won't have a continuing plot, just that things may go on a bit more than three books depending on how things flow.
There'll be romantic elements, but they'll be a bit more slow burn than in Osland.
I'll note that despite the heavy hinting at other supernaturals in the Osland Trilogy, this series is not directly connected. I previously had an idea for another series directly connected, but for the moment, I wanted to start a new series with less setting baggage, though I may revisit the Osland world in the future (i.e., explore the mysterious 'information' contact that Miss Norris kept mentioning).
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
The Final City, Book 3 of the Osland Trilogy
Her relationship troubles are bad enough, but when Brunhilde finally surfaces and launches a series of brutal attacks, Gail realizes it is only a matter of time before her nemesis attempts her final revenge. Love may be an afterthought with death coming to Seattle.
Monday, December 22, 2014
Even When Experiments Fail They Still Give You Useful Data
So, you may have noticed I didn't start posting any serial episodes.
After four weeks and tens of thousands of words, I realized that the serial format just doesn't mesh with my style as a writer. As a result, I tossed those words.
I suppose it was a good experiment, and I wouldn't have known that it doesn't work for me unless I tried it. That said, it kind of ruins my desire to bounce around a bit more, but every single writer on the planet has that problem, so boo hoo, I can just put on my big boy pants and do some prioritization.
Some of the ideas and plots I was looking at for the serials may be recycled into full-length novels in the future.
So, where am I at now?
The good news is, I'll finish up the primary draft of THE FINAL CITY this week, and go into editing following Christmas, with a tentative release date of January 15.
That book will of course finish off the Osland Trilogy, and I'm exploring my options for further YA paranormal work depending on how the last book is received, though I'm generally sticking my plan to write (well, really, extensively edit an existing draft) the second in my Cleansing War saga fantasy series for a spring 2015 release.
After four weeks and tens of thousands of words, I realized that the serial format just doesn't mesh with my style as a writer. As a result, I tossed those words.
I suppose it was a good experiment, and I wouldn't have known that it doesn't work for me unless I tried it. That said, it kind of ruins my desire to bounce around a bit more, but every single writer on the planet has that problem, so boo hoo, I can just put on my big boy pants and do some prioritization.
Some of the ideas and plots I was looking at for the serials may be recycled into full-length novels in the future.
So, where am I at now?
The good news is, I'll finish up the primary draft of THE FINAL CITY this week, and go into editing following Christmas, with a tentative release date of January 15.
That book will of course finish off the Osland Trilogy, and I'm exploring my options for further YA paranormal work depending on how the last book is received, though I'm generally sticking my plan to write (well, really, extensively edit an existing draft) the second in my Cleansing War saga fantasy series for a spring 2015 release.
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Distance
During recent vacation travelling, we drove over 1200 miles. My children handled it like champions. When I was young, a 120 mile two-hour drive seems interminable.
We also live in the age of the plane. Years ago, when I returned from Korea, I recall the flight taking about ten hours, and I thought that seemed long.
All of this rattled around a bit in my head the other day as I was working on some writing and research. In MIND CRAFTER, the plot takes place in one location for the most part, whereas in the sequel, some characters need to take a little road trip. As I decided on the transportation and did a little research to nail the times and distances, I found myself amused by the reality that a long and fairly uncomfortable trip for my characters basically placed them as far as I might travel just to get to a certain "local area" store.
Friday, September 26, 2014
Long Time, No Write, and some changes in direction
It's been a long time. I think my new goal will be to post at least once a week. I'd become discouraged in the last year or so because just posting, "I'm very busy at my day job and can barely write" over and over again would be pretty pointless.
Things have changed a lot for me in recent months, mostly for the positive. The bottom line is for various reasons, I'm now free of my primary day job. Now, for various other reasons, this doesn't mean I get 100% time to write (for one thing I have children, and I'm heavily involved in editing for my wife), but I do have a lot more time to write.
I'd hoped to have the final book in the Osland Trilogy finished, but I'm only about half-done. I'm not going to give any firm projected times at this point other than "before the end of the year", as I just seem to be terrible about that, and it is unfair to my readers. We'll see more going forward if I can do a bit better about that.
I've had a lot of time to reflect, even during the periods where my writing was fairly limited. There's a lot of types of things that are perhaps a bit more idiosyncratic to my tastes that I've avoided working on because I've worried they weren't "commercial enough." Some of this is an artifact of me being more interested in traditional publishing before finally committing to self-publishing and worrying about what agents might want, but the bottom line is I don't know if I've truly devoted myself to writing the kind of books, in general, that please me versus a mix of my pure ideas and what I thought I "had to write" to get an audience.
Now, don't get me wrong. I like everything I've published, but in the back of my mind, I've always been tweaking characters, plots, set-up, et cetera with the idea that those tweaks would help with marketability. Not saying that's wrong, and for many authors, their natural writing inclinations just line up better with certain audiences, but for me, I think it's led to a muddled focus.
As a result, I think I've produced a number of books that aren't as strong as they could be, even if I did like them, and I feel they were good books overall. I've very grateful for the readers who have enjoyed my books, but, at the same time, I wonder if I've been robbing them of a better experience because I'm letting these doubts influence my writing process.
The main reason I started writing was to express my personal creativity. I wrote for years (mainly short stories) without any thought of publishing or even, to be honest, other readers than myself. Back when NaNoWriMo first started, I realized I did have it in me to write a novel with proper motivation.
Now, those early efforts were completely unreadable, but they were good practice for some of my later books, which judging by reader reactions, are at least somewhat readable.
So, where do we go from here?
Well, for one thing, I'm going to just write what I feel like without a particular concern about neatly fitting into certain genres or expectations. Honestly, this doesn't mean I'm going to be producing something all that transgressive, but more I'm trying to return to why I started writing in the first place.
What does this mean in terms of my future writing? A few things really.
I intend to finish the final book in the Osland Trilogy (about half-way through that), but I'm unlikely to have a follow-up to A WOMAN OF PROPER ACCOMPLISHMENTS. I do appreciate the readers who liked it (the admittedly small number, if we're being honesty), but I think it was an experiment that didn't quite come out the way I truly wanted, but still, it was worth doing.
I'll primarily be focusing mostly on pure non-YA fantasy in the foreseeable future. Now, I may mess with sub-genres a bit, but probably nothing as directly identifiable as, for example, pure romance (not that I won't have romantic elements) or pure mystery. Many of my books will continue to feature strong and intelligent female protagonists as well.
I'm doing research on a project of, uh, well limited commercial appeal. I've been burning for a while with the desire to write a suspense/thriller set in Heian Japan. Although I'm familiar with the general history of the period, there's a lot of research needed to get the fine details right. Of course, just doing the research has opened up more plot possibilities. Now, this project can't get started probably for a year or so due to the research requirements, but if I have a true "dream" project, that one probably is it.
My core process going forward, and starting in mid-October (because I'm on vacation for a bit), will involve me working on one core main novel and rotating through serials (probably bi-monthly serials).
A sequel will be coming for MIND CRAFTER, but I don't have a firm ETC for that yet. I originally started work on that earlier this summer, but became a bit disillusioned for various reasons, but I actually do believe in the series and want to keep going.
THE FINAL CITY, the last in the Osland Trilogy, will be the primary novel focus probably until the end of the year, maybe sooner depending on how quickly I can get it done.
Why the serials? This is not really because I think serials are the light at the way or whatever, but honestly just because I want to be able to write a lot of different things at the same time. I want to experiment to see what kind of stories I'm truly enjoying writing.
One of my problems has always been the surfeit of ideas swirling around. Writing serials are a way that I can scratch that itch.
On the other hand, I get that some people despise that format, so I'll be putting serials into collections probably every 6 or 7 episodes. With each episode being around 15,000 words or so, that means the collections will be a novel-length bundle of work, and I'll be organizing them accordingly.
So, here's my general plan for the next three months:
1) Blog once monthly: This probably won't involve a lot of history blogging or interviews because at this point, I want to focus more purely on just getting words on the virtual page, but you may see an occasional interview or announcement related to friends of mine.
2) Finish up THE FINAL CITY, hopefully by the end of this year if not sooner.
3) Finish up the sequel to MIND CRAFTER by spring of next year. I actually have a draft, but it was written years ago, and I'm extremely dissatisfied with its quality, so there's a lot of work to be done.
4) Start on two serial bi-monthly serial projects. I'll reveal more about this once I'm closer to releasing episodes. Currently, I'm tentatively looking at November for the first serial release.
I feel good about where I'm going with my writing, and I've been pleased with the readers I've been able to reach at this point.
Things have changed a lot for me in recent months, mostly for the positive. The bottom line is for various reasons, I'm now free of my primary day job. Now, for various other reasons, this doesn't mean I get 100% time to write (for one thing I have children, and I'm heavily involved in editing for my wife), but I do have a lot more time to write.
I'd hoped to have the final book in the Osland Trilogy finished, but I'm only about half-done. I'm not going to give any firm projected times at this point other than "before the end of the year", as I just seem to be terrible about that, and it is unfair to my readers. We'll see more going forward if I can do a bit better about that.
I've had a lot of time to reflect, even during the periods where my writing was fairly limited. There's a lot of types of things that are perhaps a bit more idiosyncratic to my tastes that I've avoided working on because I've worried they weren't "commercial enough." Some of this is an artifact of me being more interested in traditional publishing before finally committing to self-publishing and worrying about what agents might want, but the bottom line is I don't know if I've truly devoted myself to writing the kind of books, in general, that please me versus a mix of my pure ideas and what I thought I "had to write" to get an audience.
Now, don't get me wrong. I like everything I've published, but in the back of my mind, I've always been tweaking characters, plots, set-up, et cetera with the idea that those tweaks would help with marketability. Not saying that's wrong, and for many authors, their natural writing inclinations just line up better with certain audiences, but for me, I think it's led to a muddled focus.
As a result, I think I've produced a number of books that aren't as strong as they could be, even if I did like them, and I feel they were good books overall. I've very grateful for the readers who have enjoyed my books, but, at the same time, I wonder if I've been robbing them of a better experience because I'm letting these doubts influence my writing process.
The main reason I started writing was to express my personal creativity. I wrote for years (mainly short stories) without any thought of publishing or even, to be honest, other readers than myself. Back when NaNoWriMo first started, I realized I did have it in me to write a novel with proper motivation.
Now, those early efforts were completely unreadable, but they were good practice for some of my later books, which judging by reader reactions, are at least somewhat readable.
So, where do we go from here?
Well, for one thing, I'm going to just write what I feel like without a particular concern about neatly fitting into certain genres or expectations. Honestly, this doesn't mean I'm going to be producing something all that transgressive, but more I'm trying to return to why I started writing in the first place.
What does this mean in terms of my future writing? A few things really.
I intend to finish the final book in the Osland Trilogy (about half-way through that), but I'm unlikely to have a follow-up to A WOMAN OF PROPER ACCOMPLISHMENTS. I do appreciate the readers who liked it (the admittedly small number, if we're being honesty), but I think it was an experiment that didn't quite come out the way I truly wanted, but still, it was worth doing.
I'll primarily be focusing mostly on pure non-YA fantasy in the foreseeable future. Now, I may mess with sub-genres a bit, but probably nothing as directly identifiable as, for example, pure romance (not that I won't have romantic elements) or pure mystery. Many of my books will continue to feature strong and intelligent female protagonists as well.
I'm doing research on a project of, uh, well limited commercial appeal. I've been burning for a while with the desire to write a suspense/thriller set in Heian Japan. Although I'm familiar with the general history of the period, there's a lot of research needed to get the fine details right. Of course, just doing the research has opened up more plot possibilities. Now, this project can't get started probably for a year or so due to the research requirements, but if I have a true "dream" project, that one probably is it.
My core process going forward, and starting in mid-October (because I'm on vacation for a bit), will involve me working on one core main novel and rotating through serials (probably bi-monthly serials).
A sequel will be coming for MIND CRAFTER, but I don't have a firm ETC for that yet. I originally started work on that earlier this summer, but became a bit disillusioned for various reasons, but I actually do believe in the series and want to keep going.
THE FINAL CITY, the last in the Osland Trilogy, will be the primary novel focus probably until the end of the year, maybe sooner depending on how quickly I can get it done.
One of my problems has always been the surfeit of ideas swirling around. Writing serials are a way that I can scratch that itch.
On the other hand, I get that some people despise that format, so I'll be putting serials into collections probably every 6 or 7 episodes. With each episode being around 15,000 words or so, that means the collections will be a novel-length bundle of work, and I'll be organizing them accordingly.
So, here's my general plan for the next three months:
1) Blog once monthly: This probably won't involve a lot of history blogging or interviews because at this point, I want to focus more purely on just getting words on the virtual page, but you may see an occasional interview or announcement related to friends of mine.
2) Finish up THE FINAL CITY, hopefully by the end of this year if not sooner.
3) Finish up the sequel to MIND CRAFTER by spring of next year. I actually have a draft, but it was written years ago, and I'm extremely dissatisfied with its quality, so there's a lot of work to be done.
4) Start on two serial bi-monthly serial projects. I'll reveal more about this once I'm closer to releasing episodes. Currently, I'm tentatively looking at November for the first serial release.
I feel good about where I'm going with my writing, and I've been pleased with the readers I've been able to reach at this point.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
The Eternal City, Book 2 of the Osland Trilogy
Months after a shocking showdown, Gail Dorjee is doing her best to recover and settle into her new role as a Rift Watcher at Osland Academy. Her friends are distant, and she’s uncomfortable with her growing relationship with the handsome Nick MacEvoy. That’s all stressful enough, even before she wakes up one night to a ghost warning her about a powerful enemy coming to Osland to seek vengeance.
The suspicious and timely arrival of a too perfect foreign exchange student feeds Gail’s paranoia. It doesn’t help that killer shadows keep appearing.
At a place known for beautiful lies, she finds it difficult to trust anyone, even herself, but with the rift in danger, she has to risk her life and friendships to carve through the darkness and find her true enemy.
Now available at Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, and Barnes and Noble.
For those of you who haven't read The Emerald City, the first book in the Osland Trilogy, I direct you to here.
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Big Book/Ebook Giveaway
Over at Cookie's Book Club, from December 21st-30th, there's going to a giveaway for a variety of different book bundles in several different genres. If you like free books, you should probably check it out.
There's a preview post up today that features some of the books that will be given away, but authors are still contributing, so even more to come over the next few days.
There's a preview post up today that features some of the books that will be given away, but authors are still contributing, so even more to come over the next few days.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Herding Historical Author Cats: An Interview with the Founder of the English Historical Fiction Authors Blog Debra Brown
1) Please tell us a bit what the English Historical Fictions Authors blog is all about. What sort of content is present on the blog?
The blog has a daily British history post written by one of many historical fiction authors. The eras and topics range widely from Roman Britain to World War II, and from warfare and weapons to tea, food, and dance.
2) What sort of other web presence does the group have other than the blog?
As a group we have a public Facebook page, English Historical Fiction Authors, where we chat on history and historical fiction with other authors, reviewers, and readers. Each member has their own web presence as well, book sites, blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, etc. We interact frequently everywhere.
3) What motivated you to start the blog?
I was making an effort to market my first book and felt fairly alone in the jungle. I wanted to blog about England, but had very little background in history and had to do an overwhelming amount of research. I felt that there must be other people like myself who wanted to learn more about British history in small bites, and that we could have a steady stream of information if we had enough people to produce one daily post, so I invited people who had obviously done their homework to share what they had learned.
4) What's your goal with this group?
I hope we will continue as we have been for over two years now with a daily post and friendly conversations on Facebook. I believe it has been informative, fun, and helpful to us all.
5) What originally made you interested in English history?
As a child, I had a seven volume set of books called My Book House. They were captivating, with bits from great writers such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Keats. They also had detailed drawings and paintings that introduced me to castles, cliffs, land divided by hedgerows, fashions from past eras, and many things that I hardly understood from old English culture. I loved it, and over the decades to come I picked up information and began to better understand what I had seen.
6) A recent collection of essays from the blog came out, Castles, Customs, and Kings came out. Please tell us about that.
After we celebrated the first anniversary of the blog, one of our authors, Deborah Swift, suggested we put together a book from some of the first year's posts. After a year of sorting, editing, and proofreading, we have, with the help of Madison Street Publishing, released Castles, Customs, and Kings: True Tales by English Historical Fiction Authors—a large, thick book of topics just a few pages long. The subjects are organized chronologically so the book flows nicely over the passing of centuries. A person can pick it up and start at any point, however, and have a satisfying read during a coffee break. It would be a good waiting room book or a nice gift for someone who loves Britain or history. We also kept the price below $20 USD, so hopefully everyone who wanted a copy in print could have it.
.jpg)
7) Please tell us a bit about your work.
My first novel is The Companion of Lady Holmeshire, the early Victorian story of a former servant girl who receives a rude reception in polite society. It is an Austen type of story with surprising twists and turns. I have also started a Victorian novel I call For the Skylark, the story of adult twins who were raised isolated on an estate by their wealthy, reclusive mother. Evangeline cannot cope when she “loses” Dante, her brother and only friend, to love.
8) There is a lot of content on the blog. Please tell us about a few of your favorite entries.
I especially enjoy Richard Denning's post, Old English—The Language of the Anglo Saxons, in which he has a YouTube video of the Lord's Prayer read in the old tongue to eerie music. Though there are countless other fascinating topics, there have been a few by different authors on the Bayeaux Tapestry that stand out in my mind. It is a story of the Norman conquest of England told in complex, coded needlework on a long stretch of linen that has lasted for nearly a thousand years. The age of it alone is awe-inspiring, but I love the explanations given for the symbols sewn in above and below the actual stitched story itself.
----
Thanks, Debra.
The books mentioned are available at the following links:
Castles, Customs, and Kings:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Barnes and Noble
Kobo
The blog has a daily British history post written by one of many historical fiction authors. The eras and topics range widely from Roman Britain to World War II, and from warfare and weapons to tea, food, and dance.
2) What sort of other web presence does the group have other than the blog?
As a group we have a public Facebook page, English Historical Fiction Authors, where we chat on history and historical fiction with other authors, reviewers, and readers. Each member has their own web presence as well, book sites, blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, etc. We interact frequently everywhere.
3) What motivated you to start the blog?
I was making an effort to market my first book and felt fairly alone in the jungle. I wanted to blog about England, but had very little background in history and had to do an overwhelming amount of research. I felt that there must be other people like myself who wanted to learn more about British history in small bites, and that we could have a steady stream of information if we had enough people to produce one daily post, so I invited people who had obviously done their homework to share what they had learned.
4) What's your goal with this group?
I hope we will continue as we have been for over two years now with a daily post and friendly conversations on Facebook. I believe it has been informative, fun, and helpful to us all.
5) What originally made you interested in English history?
As a child, I had a seven volume set of books called My Book House. They were captivating, with bits from great writers such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Keats. They also had detailed drawings and paintings that introduced me to castles, cliffs, land divided by hedgerows, fashions from past eras, and many things that I hardly understood from old English culture. I loved it, and over the decades to come I picked up information and began to better understand what I had seen.
6) A recent collection of essays from the blog came out, Castles, Customs, and Kings came out. Please tell us about that.
After we celebrated the first anniversary of the blog, one of our authors, Deborah Swift, suggested we put together a book from some of the first year's posts. After a year of sorting, editing, and proofreading, we have, with the help of Madison Street Publishing, released Castles, Customs, and Kings: True Tales by English Historical Fiction Authors—a large, thick book of topics just a few pages long. The subjects are organized chronologically so the book flows nicely over the passing of centuries. A person can pick it up and start at any point, however, and have a satisfying read during a coffee break. It would be a good waiting room book or a nice gift for someone who loves Britain or history. We also kept the price below $20 USD, so hopefully everyone who wanted a copy in print could have it.
.jpg)
7) Please tell us a bit about your work.
My first novel is The Companion of Lady Holmeshire, the early Victorian story of a former servant girl who receives a rude reception in polite society. It is an Austen type of story with surprising twists and turns. I have also started a Victorian novel I call For the Skylark, the story of adult twins who were raised isolated on an estate by their wealthy, reclusive mother. Evangeline cannot cope when she “loses” Dante, her brother and only friend, to love.
8) There is a lot of content on the blog. Please tell us about a few of your favorite entries.
I especially enjoy Richard Denning's post, Old English—The Language of the Anglo Saxons, in which he has a YouTube video of the Lord's Prayer read in the old tongue to eerie music. Though there are countless other fascinating topics, there have been a few by different authors on the Bayeaux Tapestry that stand out in my mind. It is a story of the Norman conquest of England told in complex, coded needlework on a long stretch of linen that has lasted for nearly a thousand years. The age of it alone is awe-inspiring, but I love the explanations given for the symbols sewn in above and below the actual stitched story itself.
----
Thanks, Debra.
The books mentioned are available at the following links:
Castles, Customs, and Kings:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Barnes and Noble
Kobo
Thursday, October 10, 2013
A Man Torn Between the Sea and a Woman: An interview with Chrystalla Thoma Azure, a paranormal new adult romance
Although I'm mostly out of the interview game, today I wanted to give a chance to my friend Chrystalla Thoma to talk about her new paranormal new adult romance Azure as part of her current blog tour:
A terrible mistake haunts college student Olivia Spencer. To escape the past, she travels to the Mediterranean island of Crete, hoping for the courage to start anew.
By the sea, she meets sexy and enigmatic Kai. But there’s more to Kai than meets the eye — and nobody wants to talk about it. The locals shun him, accusing him of magic. Kai, apparently, belongs to the sea, no matter how crazy that sounds.
Kai isn’t free to be with her or live his own life, and this is how he will stay, unless Olivia can break his curse and save him — in doing so atoning for those she failed in the past.
-----
1) Tell us a bit about your story overall. What makes it unique?
Hi, thank you for hosting me. And let me tell you about Azure.
Azure is contemporary romance but with a couple of twists. First of all, although my protagonists are college students, the story doesn’t take place in college but on the Mediterranean island of Crete. Each is there for different reasons, although both are running from their past. But that’s not all that’s unusual about Azure.
I mention in the book description that it’s contemporary romance with a smidge of paranormal, and the paranormal in it is not the typical kind. No vampires, zombies or werewolves were used in the making of this story. Instead I drew on local legends and Greek folklore for the magic of the story. Hint: it has to do with the sea...
2) Tell us about your male lead. What separates him from other male leads out there in New Adult books?
As far as I’m able to tell, male leads in New Adult books are usually bad boys, with tattoos and an attitude, running from a traumatic event in their past. Although Kai is running from his past, he isn’t your typical bad boy. He isn’t sleeping around and drinking himself stupid when Olivia meets him. But he’s a recluse, someone who has forgotten how to live, how to feel, how to laugh or cry, and Olivia is determined to break his shell and bring him back to life.
3) Tell us about your female lead. What separates her from other female leads out there in New Adult books?
Well, there is a huge variety of New adult romances, so such questions are tricky – but compared to most of the New Adult romances I have read, I’d say Olivia is stronger. She has her own demons and is struggling to regain balance and be happy, but she is determined to help Kai, no matter the cost to her own heart or her beliefs. She will go as far as believe in magic if it can aid him.
4) Crete isn't a setting you see in a lot of romance books. Why did you decide to set your book there?
I love Crete. I’ve visited the island a number of times – it’s not far from Cyprus where I live. It’s a stunning place, with its rugged mountains and fantastic beaches, the archaeological sites and the great food! It’s a magical place, and I’ve always wanted to set a story there, especially since my last trip in May. Every village, every hamlet has an ancient shrine, a cave where an ancient god or goddess was worshipped, a legend. I wouldn’t be able to imagine this story set anywhere but there.
5) Lot of possibilities in the Mediterranean. Will you be revisiting the area in the future? If so, can you give us any sneak peeks into any of your ideas?
Oh sure! Since I moved back here to Cyprus, my world setting has been more and more influenced by the area. I am planning a series about a cloned angel set in Italy and Greece, and a steampunk series based right here in Cyprus. I’m very excited about them both.
6) What was your favorite part of writing this book?
Part of it was reliving my Cretan experience – remembering the food, the atmosphere, the towns, the mountains, the people. Another part was writing about supernatural in connection to the sea. I love the sea and I’m happy when I find a way to give it a role in my stories. Finally I was excited about my heroes. I like them both, I like how they both struggle to keep afloat but need each other to make it through.
7) The "New Adult" genre/demographic/category/whatever-you-want-to-call-it to explode it has exploded in the last year or so. Why do you think all the sudden interest in this particular type of books?
I’m not sure. I’ve heard say Twilight started it, with its young but not-too-young heroes. Others say it’s because Young Adult became so popular and New Adult is its erotica counterpart... I bet there are many factors at play here. I feel that the age of the protagonists (18-25) is ideal for dealing with coming-of-age questions while being able to include adult themes, so maybe that’s where the appeal comes from.
8) Please tell us briefly about some of your other published works.
I have an urban fantasy/paranormal romance series called “Boreal and John Grey” – Season 1 is now out in complete If you like elves and mechanical creatures, then I think you’ll love this one. I also write dystopian science fiction, so if you like the genre check out my series “Elei’s Chronicles”.
9) Please tell us about your writing plans for the future.
I have so many... Can barely keep track! I am finishing my dystopian series this month, and will be working on Season 2 of my urban fantasy. I have the series mentioned set in the Mediterranean mentioned further up, and loads of other books bouncing around in my head... Wish me luck!
-----
Thanks, Chrystalla.
You can find more from her here, and enter a drawing for a copy of Azure here
Azure can be purchased from Amazon.
-----
She's currently preparing a non-fiction book about dragons, because the truth must out, and is juggling two series ("Elei's Chronicles" and "Boreal and John Grey").
A terrible mistake haunts college student Olivia Spencer. To escape the past, she travels to the Mediterranean island of Crete, hoping for the courage to start anew.
By the sea, she meets sexy and enigmatic Kai. But there’s more to Kai than meets the eye — and nobody wants to talk about it. The locals shun him, accusing him of magic. Kai, apparently, belongs to the sea, no matter how crazy that sounds.
Kai isn’t free to be with her or live his own life, and this is how he will stay, unless Olivia can break his curse and save him — in doing so atoning for those she failed in the past.
-----
Hi, thank you for hosting me. And let me tell you about Azure.
Azure is contemporary romance but with a couple of twists. First of all, although my protagonists are college students, the story doesn’t take place in college but on the Mediterranean island of Crete. Each is there for different reasons, although both are running from their past. But that’s not all that’s unusual about Azure.
I mention in the book description that it’s contemporary romance with a smidge of paranormal, and the paranormal in it is not the typical kind. No vampires, zombies or werewolves were used in the making of this story. Instead I drew on local legends and Greek folklore for the magic of the story. Hint: it has to do with the sea...
2) Tell us about your male lead. What separates him from other male leads out there in New Adult books?
As far as I’m able to tell, male leads in New Adult books are usually bad boys, with tattoos and an attitude, running from a traumatic event in their past. Although Kai is running from his past, he isn’t your typical bad boy. He isn’t sleeping around and drinking himself stupid when Olivia meets him. But he’s a recluse, someone who has forgotten how to live, how to feel, how to laugh or cry, and Olivia is determined to break his shell and bring him back to life.
3) Tell us about your female lead. What separates her from other female leads out there in New Adult books?
Well, there is a huge variety of New adult romances, so such questions are tricky – but compared to most of the New Adult romances I have read, I’d say Olivia is stronger. She has her own demons and is struggling to regain balance and be happy, but she is determined to help Kai, no matter the cost to her own heart or her beliefs. She will go as far as believe in magic if it can aid him.
4) Crete isn't a setting you see in a lot of romance books. Why did you decide to set your book there?
I love Crete. I’ve visited the island a number of times – it’s not far from Cyprus where I live. It’s a stunning place, with its rugged mountains and fantastic beaches, the archaeological sites and the great food! It’s a magical place, and I’ve always wanted to set a story there, especially since my last trip in May. Every village, every hamlet has an ancient shrine, a cave where an ancient god or goddess was worshipped, a legend. I wouldn’t be able to imagine this story set anywhere but there.
5) Lot of possibilities in the Mediterranean. Will you be revisiting the area in the future? If so, can you give us any sneak peeks into any of your ideas?
Oh sure! Since I moved back here to Cyprus, my world setting has been more and more influenced by the area. I am planning a series about a cloned angel set in Italy and Greece, and a steampunk series based right here in Cyprus. I’m very excited about them both.
6) What was your favorite part of writing this book?
Part of it was reliving my Cretan experience – remembering the food, the atmosphere, the towns, the mountains, the people. Another part was writing about supernatural in connection to the sea. I love the sea and I’m happy when I find a way to give it a role in my stories. Finally I was excited about my heroes. I like them both, I like how they both struggle to keep afloat but need each other to make it through.
7) The "New Adult" genre/demographic/category/whatever-you-want-to-call-it to explode it has exploded in the last year or so. Why do you think all the sudden interest in this particular type of books?
I’m not sure. I’ve heard say Twilight started it, with its young but not-too-young heroes. Others say it’s because Young Adult became so popular and New Adult is its erotica counterpart... I bet there are many factors at play here. I feel that the age of the protagonists (18-25) is ideal for dealing with coming-of-age questions while being able to include adult themes, so maybe that’s where the appeal comes from.
8) Please tell us briefly about some of your other published works.
I have an urban fantasy/paranormal romance series called “Boreal and John Grey” – Season 1 is now out in complete If you like elves and mechanical creatures, then I think you’ll love this one. I also write dystopian science fiction, so if you like the genre check out my series “Elei’s Chronicles”.
9) Please tell us about your writing plans for the future.
I have so many... Can barely keep track! I am finishing my dystopian series this month, and will be working on Season 2 of my urban fantasy. I have the series mentioned set in the Mediterranean mentioned further up, and loads of other books bouncing around in my head... Wish me luck!
-----
Thanks, Chrystalla.
You can find more from her here, and enter a drawing for a copy of Azure here
Azure can be purchased from Amazon.
-----
About Chrystalla Thoma:
Chrystalla is Greek Cypriot (hence the
strange name) and likes writing about bratty, angsty boys and spunky girls in
fantasy and science-fiction worlds. She writes mainly for a young adult public
but not only (heed the warnings!)
She's currently preparing a non-fiction book about dragons, because the truth must out, and is juggling two series ("Elei's Chronicles" and "Boreal and John Grey").
Sunday, October 6, 2013
A Genocidal Cult, A Capricious Empress, and a Naive Magical Scholar: Mind Crafter
To be a crafter is to control the essences of the world. To be a crafter of House Lran is to control the very essence of being, the mind. Feared by others for their ability to read and alter minds, the Lrani are known across the Larangian Empire for both their powers and mental discipline.
Shala, a talented young Lrani scholar, is obsessed with her research and has little concern for the mundane banalities of the outside world. A chance trip to a market rips the woman out of her isolated life after she chooses to use her crafting to stop a massacre. When the eccentric Empress Tua Van orders Shala to investigate the involvement of the mysterious Cult of the Cleansing Gods, the scholar doesn't know if she’s looking into a centuries-old conspiracy or just the paranoid delusions of an unstable woman.
With an unpredictable empress, suspicious palace officials, and strange nightmares all wearing her down, Shala is determined to find the truth before she ends up disgraced or killed.
-----
It will soon also be available at Apple/iBookStore and Sony.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Mr. Beard's Regency Tour Day 24: Living Decoration: The Ornamental Hermit
Over at the EFHA blog, I discuss a most curious trend in the Georgian England.
For the Georgian landowner who has everything: the ornamental hermit.
For the Georgian landowner who has everything: the ornamental hermit.
Monday, September 23, 2013
From Rome to Napoleon: Portchester Castle and the Castles, Customs, and Kings Blog Hop
As many of you know, I occasionally pen historical essays over at the EFHA blog.
In an effort to provide an interesting not-so-little book of bits of English history, the powers that be from that blog (particularly Debra Brown and M.M. Bennetts) gathered up and edited a collection of the essays from the blog and did a bang up of organizing them by period. The result is a nice collection of English history from well, before there was an England all the way to modern times:
As part of celebration of the release of the book, there's a blog hop going on focused on castles (though, just to be clear, the book subject matters covers a lot of different aspects of English history, even beyond just the customs and kings of the title). There are many fine people discussing many fine bits (and giving things away as well), and you can find their blogs here:
For my part, I decided to discuss Portchester Castle, a castle that links the ancient past of England with the perhaps more familiar to many medieval and later period.
Our fine defensive fortification tale begins before there even was an England, in the 3rd century AD. At that time, the Romans, those ancient masters of defensive positions themselves, established a fort at the location of modern day Portchester, in Hampshire along the southern England coast. The area's access to the sea allowed the Romans to use the fort as a naval base, in particular in their attempts to deal with local pirates.
Once the Romans mostly withdrew from the area, the prime location of the fort still made it useful for later groups to use for similar reasons, such as the Saxons dealing with Viking pirates. The Saxons added some additional buildings and towers in the area, and the evidence suggests continual occupation from the 4th century on, even after the departure of the Romans.
Of course, 1066 and all that brought Norman domination of England. In the 11th and 12th century, Norman lords controlled and helped fortify the area even more by adding such features as additional defensive ditches, timber palisades, and additional towers.
The castle would move from mere nobles to royalty by the end of the 12th century. Three different England kings (John, Edward II, and Richard II) would occupy that castle at various points between the 12th and 15th century, and Henry V spent some time in the castle in 1415. Every new occupant brought new fortification, expansions (e.g., royal apartments), and remodeling of the area. Other important royal leaders from English history, including Queen Elizabeth I, would also grace its halls.
Ownership shifted back from royals to "mere" aristocracy in 1632, when one Sir William Uvedale (his descendants the Thistlethwaites still retain ownership of the castle) purchased the castle from Charles I. The shift from royalty also resulted in a shift from focus, as the castle was often used as a prison for prisoners of war in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries. During this time, although the defensive fortifications of the castle were not strongly upgraded compared to earlier periods, many additional wooden houses were built to house prisoners.
Coalition victories in the Napoleonic Wars would lead to less necessity for military prison in the early 19th century, with the last prisoners of the war gone from the location by 1814. The military itself would leave in 1819.
Though I am not personally one who is inclined to believe in ghosts, the long history of the castle, combined with things like the deaths of prisoners there, may have contributed to Portchester Castle's reputation as one of England's more haunted castles.
Thanks for stopping by. I encourage you to stop by and visit the various other blog hop participants listed above.
In addition, as part of the celebration, I'm giving away an eBook copy (available in Kindle/Mobi, ePub, and PDF) of my Regency paranormal romance, A Woman of Proper Accomplishments, which doesn't feature any castles, but does reference the Napoleonic War. If you're interested, just leave a comment with a contact e-mail, and I'll pick someone next week at random.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Mind Crafter Delay
There's been a bit of a delay due to some scheduling issues with my proofreader. Mind Crafter will be delayed a few days. Alas.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Schedule for Mind Crafter and The Eternal City
So, just wanted to drop a few schedule notes.
My next book, Mind Crafter, which is a conspiracy-driven fantasy tale, will b released on June 1st.
The sequel to The Emerald City, The Eternal City, will be released on August 31st.
Thanks for reading.
My next book, Mind Crafter, which is a conspiracy-driven fantasy tale, will b released on June 1st.
The sequel to The Emerald City, The Eternal City, will be released on August 31st.
Thanks for reading.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Shattered Lives, Forgiveness, and Restoration: An Interview with Inspirational Romance Author Lucie Ulrich
Broken Vessels is set in Colorado Springs, Colorado, one of my favorite places. It’s a story of shattered lives, forgiveness and restoration, revolving around a man and women, once childhood friends, who have each suffered great loss. They meet again after being apart for ten years, and rekindle their friendship. There is plenty of family dynamic, with a good dose of love/hate relationships, secrets and betrayals. Though the story is faith-based, it’s far from sweet and sappy. I won’t deny that my beliefs run throughout, but I worked very hard not to sound preachy.
2) Please tell us about your main characters.
Emma Brody is a former fashion model who bears not only emotional scars, but physical ones as well. Her struggles to make a new life for herself as a potter are impeded by a lack of self-esteem, an overbearing mother, and a brother whose main goal in life is to restore peace between Emma and their mother, Louise. Sadly, Louise can’t forgive her only daughter for what she considers “the sins of her past.” Emma is one who not only keeps secrets she’s one to run when things go wrong. And it terrifies her that Luke is getting too close.
Luke Connors has spent two years in therapy dealing with the loss of his wife and two young sons. He’s traded in his life as a high school counselor to take over his father’s landscaping business. He’s not looking for love, but his life changes when Emma moves back to their hometown. It doesn’t take long for them to become friends again. Like Emma’s brother, Jimmy, Luke is a fixer. His desire for Emma to see beyond her scars causes friction, and threatens to derail the unexpected feelings he’s feeling for her.
3) One of the main themes of your novel seems to be forgiveness. Why did you choose that as one of your main points of thematic focus?
About fifteen years ago I read a book by John Bevere called The Bait of Satan, which speaks of the effects of holding onto a grudge, or offence. It changed my mind-set, and made me realize how important forgiveness is for spirit, soul and body. I wanted Broken Vessels to reflect that by showing different degrees of conflict, and allowing the characters to make their own choices where forgiveness is concerned, and to live through the consequences of their decisions.
4) What, to you, fundamentally defines a romance book?
Great question! For me, a great romance is a story of love and commitment. It doesn’t matter if the couple is already married, or finding each other for the first time. A friend and fellow writer once said that for her, romance had to include sex. I don’t necessarily agree with that assessment. I do believe there needs to be sexual tension, however. I suppose the degree to which it’s shown depends on whether a book is classified secular or inspirational.
Strong characters are a must for me. I can’t stand wimpy women who wait for their hero to ride in on a white horse and save the day. That isn’t to say there shouldn’t be emotional conflict or angst. That’s vital to a good romance. A typical romance is a story of love – loss – love again. A happy ending is preferable, but not necessary. Nicholas Sparks has certainly proved that happy endings are not mandatory.
5) Do you have any links to any excerpts you'd like to share?
On the above mentioned website, and on Twitter @LucieUlrich
7) Where can readers purchase your book?
Friday, April 26, 2013
Blood, Love, and War in the Reign of Charlemagne: An Interview with Historical Fiction Author Kim Rendfeld
The Cross and the Dragon is a tale of love amid the wars and blood feuds of Charlemagne’s reign. Here is the blurb:
Francia, 778: Alda has never forgotten Ganelon’s vow of vengeance when she married his rival, Hruodland. Yet the jilted suitor’s malice is nothing compared to Alda’s premonition of disaster for her beloved, battle-scarred husband.
Although the army invading Hispania is the largest ever and King Charles has never lost a war, Alda cannot shake her anxiety. Determined to keep Hruodland from harm, even if it exposes her to danger, Alda gives him a charmed dragon amulet.
Is its magic enough to keep Alda’s worst fears from coming true—and protect her from Ganelon?
2) What inspired this book?
The inspiration came to me during a family vacation in Germany, when we encountered the legend behind the Rhineland ruins of Rolandsbogen. What follows is a spoiler and readers who would like to avoid it should skip to the next paragraph. The legend is that Roland (Hruodland in The Cross and the Dragon) built a castle for his bride and went off to war in Spain. His bride received false news that he was killed, took a vow of chastity, and joined the convent on Nonnenwerth, a nearly island in the Rhine. Roland returned too late and spent the rest of his days at his window, just trying to catch a glimpse of her as she went to and from prayers. I found out later that the legend was not true and that the historic Roland died in the ambush at the Pass of Roncevaux in the Pyrenees in 778.
However, the legend of Rolandsbogen refused to leave me alone. It followed me home on the plane and would not rest until I sat down at my computer and began to type, even though I knew little about the Middle Ages, let alone the Carolingians.
3) Please tell us a bit more about your main characters.
There is a lot to like about my heroine, Alda, a young Frankish noblewoman. She’s strong-willed, intelligent, wise, and compassionate, but what I admire most about her is her courage. Her love for Hruodland is so strong that she is willing to make herself vulnerable to physical danger. Giving him her most precious possession, the dragon amulet mentioned in the blurb, is just one example. Later, she will take a great risk for her husband’s sake.
Hruodland loves Alda’s strong will and cleverness, even though he’s been taught the ideal wife is submissive. But he is also a medieval man, and medieval men did not completely trust their wives, which is why is he is subject to bouts of jealousy. Still, he will defend Alda against any enemy and is even willing to die in the attempt.
Hruodland and Ganelon, my villain, already dislike each other at the start of the novel, but the fact they both want Alda as a wife deepens their animosity. Ganelon is a good-looking guy. Unfortunately, his looks are the only thing to like about him. Reviewers have rightly pointed out how loathsome he is. Alda describes his heart as black and twisted as a piece of burnt wood.
4) Please tell us how you approached the balance of fact and fiction, especially given that your basis is a historical legend that in of itself has some fictionalized details of the events and people it is about.
Any portrayal of Roland is going to be fictitious. All we know about the man is where and when he died and that he governed the March of Brittany.
The Cross and the Dragon borrows from the story of Rolandsbogen and the Old French epic The Song of Roland, both light on historical and heavy on fiction, yet historical events are woven into its narrative. The wars in my novel are real, and I’ve done my best to stay true to Frankish politics, culture, and customs. For example, I’d never have a girl refuse to marry a guy because she was apathetic to him.
As much as I cherish accuracy—to point of researching whether bishops wore miters then—the story must come first. The key word in historical fiction is “fiction”; I am a novelist, not a scholar. But I include historical notes at the end of my novels where I confess to the liberties I’ve taken. I owe it to the readers.
5) The period your book covers seems less popular than later, and for that matter, earlier periods of European history. Why do you think that is?
This is pure speculation, but I wonder if the answer lies in the fact that this period is little known to a general audience, at least here in the States. When I started writing this novel, I’d heard of Charlemagne and knew it meant Charles the Great, but that was about it. I don’t think I’m alone in that assessment, and that’s a pity. There is so much more to this era than that.
The family drama alone could rival a soap opera, and it led to a war and an attempted coup. There is not enough space here to discuss everything, but let me give you a little taste. At the start of my story in 773, Charles is in his mid-20s, twice divorced, married to wife No. 3, and about to go to war with his ex-father-in-law who is threatening Rome. This is all true. As a storyteller, how can I resist?
6) Do you see historical fiction as an educational tool or merely an entertainment tool? If the former, what advantages do you think it has in that regard?
My first responsibility as a novelist is to keep readers interested all the way to the end, but if I’ve done my job right, the reader will learn something new about the history. As an educational tool, historical fiction can show that the past was populated by people, not cardboard cutouts. Too often, we’re taught history as a list of events, who did what where, an approach that turns off many students. In historical fiction, we can understand people of the past saw the world differently, but they worried, grieved, loved, and felt great anger and great joy as we do today.
7) Are there any other early medieval period legends you are interested in revisiting?
My muse instead decided to bring me the heroine of The Ashes of Heaven’s Pillar, Leova, a peasant Saxon mother determined to protect her children. Charlemagne fought bitter wars against the pagan Saxon peoples on and off for more than 30 years, something I could only touch on in The Cross and the Dragon. The Saxons, who did not have a written language as we know it, are history’s losers, and I wanted to give them a voice, even a small one.
Legends and folk tales still play a part, though. I used folk tales as one way to imagine what the Continental Saxons might be believed—their religion is mostly lost to us. And I’ve included a story about Saxon leader Widukind, a historical character, having different colored eyes.
8) Where can reads find out more about you?
Is its magic enough to keep Alda’s worst fears from coming true—and protect her from Ganelon?
2) What inspired this book?
The inspiration came to me during a family vacation in Germany, when we encountered the legend behind the Rhineland ruins of Rolandsbogen. What follows is a spoiler and readers who would like to avoid it should skip to the next paragraph. The legend is that Roland (Hruodland in The Cross and the Dragon) built a castle for his bride and went off to war in Spain. His bride received false news that he was killed, took a vow of chastity, and joined the convent on Nonnenwerth, a nearly island in the Rhine. Roland returned too late and spent the rest of his days at his window, just trying to catch a glimpse of her as she went to and from prayers. I found out later that the legend was not true and that the historic Roland died in the ambush at the Pass of Roncevaux in the Pyrenees in 778.
However, the legend of Rolandsbogen refused to leave me alone. It followed me home on the plane and would not rest until I sat down at my computer and began to type, even though I knew little about the Middle Ages, let alone the Carolingians.
3) Please tell us a bit more about your main characters.
There is a lot to like about my heroine, Alda, a young Frankish noblewoman. She’s strong-willed, intelligent, wise, and compassionate, but what I admire most about her is her courage. Her love for Hruodland is so strong that she is willing to make herself vulnerable to physical danger. Giving him her most precious possession, the dragon amulet mentioned in the blurb, is just one example. Later, she will take a great risk for her husband’s sake.
Hruodland loves Alda’s strong will and cleverness, even though he’s been taught the ideal wife is submissive. But he is also a medieval man, and medieval men did not completely trust their wives, which is why is he is subject to bouts of jealousy. Still, he will defend Alda against any enemy and is even willing to die in the attempt.
Hruodland and Ganelon, my villain, already dislike each other at the start of the novel, but the fact they both want Alda as a wife deepens their animosity. Ganelon is a good-looking guy. Unfortunately, his looks are the only thing to like about him. Reviewers have rightly pointed out how loathsome he is. Alda describes his heart as black and twisted as a piece of burnt wood.
4) Please tell us how you approached the balance of fact and fiction, especially given that your basis is a historical legend that in of itself has some fictionalized details of the events and people it is about.
Any portrayal of Roland is going to be fictitious. All we know about the man is where and when he died and that he governed the March of Brittany.
The Cross and the Dragon borrows from the story of Rolandsbogen and the Old French epic The Song of Roland, both light on historical and heavy on fiction, yet historical events are woven into its narrative. The wars in my novel are real, and I’ve done my best to stay true to Frankish politics, culture, and customs. For example, I’d never have a girl refuse to marry a guy because she was apathetic to him.
As much as I cherish accuracy—to point of researching whether bishops wore miters then—the story must come first. The key word in historical fiction is “fiction”; I am a novelist, not a scholar. But I include historical notes at the end of my novels where I confess to the liberties I’ve taken. I owe it to the readers.
5) The period your book covers seems less popular than later, and for that matter, earlier periods of European history. Why do you think that is?
This is pure speculation, but I wonder if the answer lies in the fact that this period is little known to a general audience, at least here in the States. When I started writing this novel, I’d heard of Charlemagne and knew it meant Charles the Great, but that was about it. I don’t think I’m alone in that assessment, and that’s a pity. There is so much more to this era than that.
The family drama alone could rival a soap opera, and it led to a war and an attempted coup. There is not enough space here to discuss everything, but let me give you a little taste. At the start of my story in 773, Charles is in his mid-20s, twice divorced, married to wife No. 3, and about to go to war with his ex-father-in-law who is threatening Rome. This is all true. As a storyteller, how can I resist?
6) Do you see historical fiction as an educational tool or merely an entertainment tool? If the former, what advantages do you think it has in that regard?
My first responsibility as a novelist is to keep readers interested all the way to the end, but if I’ve done my job right, the reader will learn something new about the history. As an educational tool, historical fiction can show that the past was populated by people, not cardboard cutouts. Too often, we’re taught history as a list of events, who did what where, an approach that turns off many students. In historical fiction, we can understand people of the past saw the world differently, but they worried, grieved, loved, and felt great anger and great joy as we do today.
7) Are there any other early medieval period legends you are interested in revisiting?
My muse instead decided to bring me the heroine of The Ashes of Heaven’s Pillar, Leova, a peasant Saxon mother determined to protect her children. Charlemagne fought bitter wars against the pagan Saxon peoples on and off for more than 30 years, something I could only touch on in The Cross and the Dragon. The Saxons, who did not have a written language as we know it, are history’s losers, and I wanted to give them a voice, even a small one.
Legends and folk tales still play a part, though. I used folk tales as one way to imagine what the Continental Saxons might be believed—their religion is mostly lost to us. And I’ve included a story about Saxon leader Widukind, a historical character, having different colored eyes.
8) Where can reads find out more about you?
You can find out more about me on my website www.kimrendfeld.com and my blog www.kimrendfeld.wordpress.com. If you’re into social media, you can also connect with me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/authorkimrendfeld), Goodreads (www.goodreads.com/Kim_Rendfeld), or Twitter (@kimrendfeld)
9) Where can readers find your book?
The Cross and the Dragon is available in e-book and print from many outlets including:
Amazon U.S.
Amazon Canada
Amazon U.K.
Barnes and Noble
Kobo
You can find readers’ reviews and even more vendor links at The Cross and the Dragon’s Goodreads page.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)