Blog Tour: One-Question Interview with Teresa Frohock

 Hi, everyone! Today I have a very cool one question interview with Teresa Frohock to share with you! Make sure you leave her a comment to say hi!



Raised in a small town, Teresa Frohock learned to escape to other worlds through the fiction collection of her local library. She eventually moved away from Reidsville and lived in Virginia and South 

Carolina before returning to North Carolina, where she currently resides with her husband and daughter.

Teresa has long been accused of telling stories, which is a southern colloquialism for lying. Miserere: An Autumn Tale is her debut novel.

Teresa can be found most often at her blog and web site (www.teresafrohock.com). Every now and then, she heads over to Tumblr and sends out Dark Thoughts http://teresafrohock.tumblr.com, links to movies and reviews that catch her eye. You can also follow Teresa on Twitter (http://twitter.com/TeresaFrohock ) and join her author page on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Teresa-Frohock/134892453223242).

When writing MISERERE: AN AUTMN TALE did the story/characters surprise you in any way? Meaning, did they veer from the path you had originally intended for them?


Oh, absolutely, Arya. I think it happens to all of us at one time or another, don’t you? No matter how meticulously we plan our novels, we have those characters that get away from us.

For me it was Lindsay.

Lindsay is twelve years old in MISERERE, and she passes through the Crimson Veil from Earth into Woerld with her brother Peter. Lindsay is Lucian’s foundling, and it’s his job to teach Lindsay how to control her talents and become a Katharos.

I had originally written Lindsay as a brat and wanted a lot of twenty-first century references through her character. She was supposed to change from a little horror to a good kid through her interaction with Lucian. I also wanted her to be the catalyst that brought Lucian out of his self-absorption.

However, as the story progressed and shifted and changed (as stories tend to do as writers find their voices), Lindsay’s character changed. I really struggled with how to portray her. It was quickly apparent to me that Lindsay as brat wasn’t working. All the scenes I wrote with her fell flat and the twenty-first century references jerked the reader out of Woerld.

So I shifted gears and made her a good kid. Then she was boring. I kept trying to kill her, but my daughter reminded me that Lindsay had an important job later on. Hours of brainstorming went into this one character. In the end, I didn’t kill either Lindsay or my daughter.

I just kept writing and hoped that Lindsay would eventually show up and join the party. It wasn’t until one of my critique partners mentioned that I had Lindsay too trusting of Lucian during one scene. My partner said that as a child of an alcoholic, Lindsay would be highly sensitive to sudden mood shifts, and she would be wary of Lucian at that particular point.

I had to read her email twice, then I went back to the manuscript and, sure enough, I had planted the idea that Lindsay was the child of an alcoholic in her very first scene. It was a real ah-ha moment for me and I was able to go back and work more detail through the beginning. Weronika really helped me with Lindsay too, and I believe it was that last push by Weronika that made Lindsay’s character believable.

When I finally quit trying to ram Lindsay into being the kid I wanted her to be and just let her be herself, I was able to get into sync with her character, but it was work. I had to let go of some preconceived ideas of how she fit into the plot and I had to expand her role. [Here’s a scoop for you: While Lindsay has minor roles in both MISERERE and DOLOROSA, she will be the protagonist in BELLUM DEI.]

I think she’s a solid character now and can carry her own story, but it was not an easy road to bring her to that point. The trick I employed was to cut and paste every scene from Lindsay’s point of view into a separate document. Then I could read her actions and reactions to others around her more clearly. I went back to the main manuscript and filled in the blanks until I was satisfied with her growth.

That was how I did it.

What about you? Have you ever had a character get away from you and turn into someone completely different?

The next interview in the blog tour will be at Michele Corriel’s blog http://mcorriel.livejournal.com/ where I’ll be talking about the relevance of the magical world of MISERERE to contemporary society.

I hope you’ll join me there.



Miserere: An Autumn Tale (Night Shade Books www.nightshadebooks.com / July 1, 2011)

Exiled exorcist Lucian Negru deserted his lover in Hell in exchange for saving his sister Catarina's soul, but Catarina doesn't want salvation. She wants Lucian to help her fulfill her dark covenant with the Fallen Angels by using his power to open the Hell Gates. Catarina intends to lead the Fallen’s hordes out of Hell and into the parallel dimension of Woerld, Heaven’s frontline of defense between Earth and Hell.

When Lucian refuses to help his sister, she imprisons and cripples him, but Lucian learns that Rachael, the lover he betrayed and abandoned in Hell, is dying from a demonic possession. Determined to rescue Rachael from the demon he unleashed on her soul, Lucian flees his sister, but Catarina's wrath isn’t so easy to escape. In the end, she will force him once more to choose between losing Rachael or opening the Hell Gates so the Fallen's hordes may overrun Earth, their last obstacle before reaching Heaven's Gates.

Read the first four chapters of Miserere FREE here.

LINKS TO PREVIOUS INTERVIEWS:
All Things Books
Layers of Thought
The Written Connection

Blog Tour: Fallen Grace by Mary Hooper + Author Interview

Fallen Grace by Mary Hooper 5 of 5 stars.

Life has been nothing but unfair to Grace Parkes and her sister. Penniless, the two orphans manage to stay alive--but only barely, like so many on the streets of Victorian London. And Grace must bear a greater heartbreak,  having become pregnant from terrible circumstances and then given birth to a stillborn baby. But the infant's death sets Grace on a new path, bringing her into contact with people who hold both riches and power. A great fraud has been perpetrated on young Grace and her sister, and they are the secret recipients of a most unusual legacy--if only they can find the means to claim it. This breakout novel by Mary Hooper offers Dickensian social commentary, as well as malicious fraud, mysterious secrets, and a riveting read. (Book blurb)

Grace and Lily Parkes know all to well what hardship means. Not long after Grace was born their father left for the Americas in search of a fortune. Just a few years later their mother died. Surviving both a London orphanage and a few months in training school, Grace finds herself on the street. She must learn to fend for not only herself and her simple sister, but also the unwanted baby growing inside her.

But Victorian London does not approve of unwed mothers, and when it comes time for Grace to give birth none of the hospitals will accept her. Finding a charity house that deals with young, unwed mothers Grace gives birth to a stillborn child. The burial of her baby sets in motion things that Grace could have never before imagined, and brings her unwittingly into the empire of death and mourning that spins silently at the heart of London.

Fallen Grace is a beautifully told Gothic mystery that shows the shadowy world of undertaking fueled, in part, by the pomp and grandeur of the upper-classes of Victorian London. Heartbreak, redemption, and surprise embody this wonderful story by a seasoned historical fiction author who doesn't mind showing the truly gritty streets of Victorian England.

I greatly enjoyed this novel. I had no idea what a big deal undertaking was in Victorian England, and the way Mary Hooper showed how Prince Albert's death affected this business was very interesting. She set it up quite nicely by showing us Albert from the girl's point of view, as well as showing that the evictions of the time were order (so to speak) by Prince Albert who wanted to help the lower classes. It was obvious that while the majority of the public held him in high esteem, most would not have felt the need (and certainly couldn't afford) the rather extreme decry by Queen Victoria that the public be in morning for her husband for so long.

One of my favorite parts of the story was Lily. All of the characters in the novel were wonderfully well-written, but there was something uniquely complex about Lily and her situation. The novel alternates between the two sisters' points of view and while reading from Lily's POV I automatically assumed her to be the sweet, younger sister. It wasn't until a bit later in the story I realized she was the older. For a moment I was confused until in the simplest of 19th century terms it was declared that Lily had a mental handicap. She was simple. So many people throughout the story expected her to be stupid, and indeed, she was naive, but she proved them all wrong in the end. She was truly someone you could cheer for even more so than for sensible Grace who did such a wonderful and selfless job taking care of her sister.

The only thing I disliked about the story was the ending. The very ending itself was perfect, but I would have liked to have seen more before that. What happened with Grace and James Solent? Where did Grace and Lily move to? I would even like to see a sequel! But I understand that sometimes its better to leave the endings of these things to the imagination, so I cannot fault Mary Hooper for that.

If you love the Victoria-era, Dickens, or just historical fiction in general, you will adore this book!


To order Fallen Grace from Amazon.com, please click here.

Interview with Mary Hooper

1. Did you have to do any research for Fallen Grace?

Masses of research. But for me, this was the best bit. This is where you find out little nuggets of truth which will make your book come alive.

  

2. What makes this book different from your others?

Well, It's the first book that I've written about the Victorian funeral trade!

  

3. If a movie was made of Fallen Grace who would you cast for the lead roles?

I think it would have to be an unknown, because Grace is only fifteen.

4. What is a normal day of writing like for you?

Every day is slightly different...I'll either be writing, re-writing, thinking, proof-reading, editing, catching up on emails, answering interview questions, reading round a subject or out actually researching by going somewhere like Brookwood Cemetery, which features in FALLEN GRACE. (This is not strictly necessary, but fun).  

5. Do you find the inspiration for your novels comes from other media (books, movies, songs etc.) or from different sources?

From all over the place - but you can't help picking up bits and pieces from wherever you go/whatever you read/view, etc.

6. Out of all of the characters you've written, which one do you connect the most with?

Difficult one, this. When I'm writing I try to get right inside my main character's heads and feel as they would feel. I make a connection with all of them and couldn't pick one in particular. They would all be my best friends.

7. Favorite quote?

From a book or from life? In life, the one that has stood me in good stead is: You are responsible for your own happiness.

8. What is the number one piece of advice you would give to aspiring writers?

Read, read, read... 

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A special thanks to BloomsburyUSA for the review copy and to Mary Hooper for answering all of my questions! Please leave a comment for her below.
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Author Interview with Julie Berry!

Today, I would like to introduce you all to one of my favorite fantasy authors, Julie Berry. Her latest book Secondhand Charm was released October 12th.



1. What was writing The Amaranth Enchantment like for you?

Writing The Amaranth Enchantment was a lot of fun, though there were many moments when I wondered if there was any merit at all in what I was writing. The more you stare at words for months, and puzzle over this verb or that verb, the more the words lose all meaning. It’s very hard to be objective about your own work.

2. Was there ever a time when you were afraid you might not finish it?

I knew I would not rest until it was finished, however, I did wonder sometimes if it was finish-able. Would I be able to craft an ending that resolved all I’d started? Heaven only knew!

3. Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?

I think so, though I think I kept it on the back burner in my life plans for a lot of years. Since my books have come out, though, many friends have said, “I remember you talking about wanting to be an author back when we were kids together.” It surprises me to hear this. Maybe I wasn’t as mum about my hopes as I’d like to think I was.

4. Do you have any particular writing "quirks", thing you seem to do differently than others?

I don’t think so. My busy schedule and large family force me to be flexible about where, when, and how I write. I don’t have the luxury of special rituals. I need to be able to move my story forward in whatever snatches of time I have, and wherever I am.

5. What was your publication journey like?

Mine was fairly straightforward. I started writing essays for a local paper, then after a couple years of doing that, I applied for graduate school and pursued an MFA in writing for children and young adults, eventually graduating from Vermont College of the Fine Arts. While in school, I wrote three novels. I submitted the second one to an agent shortly before graduation, and she offered me a contract. She sent the manuscript out to several publishers, and I was fortunate that Bloomsbury wanted to buy The Amaranth Enchantment.

6. How do you get ideas?

If you’re awake and alive, your mind is always noticing things, observing ironies, laughing at what’s funny, pondering what baffles you or breaks your heart. The more you write, the more you learn to sift through that stream of thoughts to find and file away the ones that have story potential. When I want to start something new, I just think of whatever interests me at the moment, ask a lot of what-if questions, and let the new story bubble to the surface.

7. What drew you to writing for MG-YA rather than adult?

Writing fiction for adults was never my goal. I always wanted to write children’s books. I write other things for adults, such as essays and commentary, and perhaps one day I’ll write a book for an adult audience, but my heart lies in the kids’ book section.

8. What's your favorite quote?


I don’t have a favorite quote, but I do have one pasted next to my computer at work: “Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.” This is attributed to Henry Van Dyke.

9. Do you have any advice for young writers?

Read, read, read. Take advantage of the fact that you don’t need to pay all the bills and just read, read, read, in whatever pockets of time you have. Then, write! Keeping a journal is a great way to limber up writing muscles. So is writing stories and poems. Write whatever comes easily and brings you joy. It will all feed the muscles that help you write terrific stories down the road.

Thank you so much for doing this, Julie!

Julie Berry's Website
My review of Secondhand Charm
My review of The Amaranth Enchantment

To order Secondhand Charm by Julie Berry from Amazon.com, please click here.
To order The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry from Amazon.com, please click here.

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This blog is an Amazon Associates Affiliate. When you buy an item from Amazon.com after following one of our links to the site, we gain a small commission. However, this does NOT effect our opinion of the books. Thank you.
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Author Interview with C.T. Douglas

Good morning, everyone! Today I'd like to introduce you all to C.T. Douglas a very talented young artist and author of The Lore Trilogy: A Pirate's Charm. For those of you who love paranormal romance and pirate stories, you won't want to miss this!



When she flees Barbados in the late 1780s, the last thing Molly Bishop expects is to begin life anew with a criminal -- much less the infamous Captain Thomas Crowe. On the high seas, far from her old life and even farther from England and her Uncle Samuel's farm, Molly learns more than just the way of outcasts. Captain Crowe keeps secrets -- many secrets. His eyes are sometimes deep blue and sometimes yellow. Inhuman noises can be heard from his cabin on moonlit nights. Stranger still, Thomas possesses a ring crafted by Molly's father -- a man she thought to be long gone. Life on the fringes of civilization seems to offer something forbidden and exciting to Molly, and when Thomas's secrets are revealed, she is immersed in a world of fantasy and myth more real and much larger than she could have imagined. (book blurb)


1. How did you get the idea to add vampires and werewolves to a pirate story?
When I was a junior in high school, the excitement surrounding Pirates of the Caribbean just started to die off, and at the same time, Stephanie Meyer hadn't yet released the second installment in the Twilight series. I remember being in a meeting for a club that a friend and I had started, "Creative Writing and Comics", and someone who was talking about Twilight eventually had everyone on the subject of vampires. It was sometime soon after this that I thought, "Why has no one put pirates, werewolves, vampires, and everything else possible into one story?" I've always been a fan of mythology, especially Greek mythology, and I love studying the deeper meanings attached to folklore and legends. At the time I realized that the fan bases for pirates and vampires overlapped and I decided to start writing a story that just made sense to me. Once I began, I kept writing, and finished the series in high school, but didn't pick it back up and consider it seriously until I was already a year into college.

2. Who is your favorite character in A Pirate's Charm and why?
My answer may come as a surprise: the Leviathan. I can't tell you how many times I came back to that chapter. I could never make it quite good enough, and while I was revising A Pirate's Charm, I had several revelations about writing and purpose. I think what upset me about the Leviathan chapter, initially, was that every version of it felt cliche. It was in the early morning one night that, out of exhaustion and frustration, I tore the chapter apart and rewrote it in every way possible. I wanted to evoke a new sense of wonder in the face of this creature, and describing a "dark and stormy night" to set the stage was not going to cut it. The question to be answered here, I thought, is "what is fear made of?" I decided that fear was a reaction to the unnatural and unfamiliar, so I started by making the natural setting (ocean, sky, etc) grotesque and surreal. Then, I decided that the Leviathan should be a deep sea creature and hark on the fear of "alien" things. This fascination I developed for creating a mood and designing a character, or in this case, a creature, to inhabit it led to my love for the Leviathan.

3. What is the hardest thing about writing for you?
The hardest thing about writing is knowing when to set down the work and call it "finished". I was prepared for this by years of art classes in high school. Any kind of artistic work is defined more by its flaws than its successes. When a writer can "finish" a work, and move on, the work will later become a tool for reflection. I think writing is more about progressing than perfecting. I want to make my stories as perfect as possible, but if I waste time on that, I'll never finish them.

4. What do you do when you need inspiration?
Inspiration, for me, is never in short supply. I feel as though a lot of it comes to me each and every day, in little pieces. I never just have tons and tons of ideas, but I build up a few really worthwhile ones over a long period of time. Watching movies, listening to music, and being able to think in quiet or peaceful places certainly helps when I need a little extra creative fuel, though. I do a lot of questioning and thinking on my own, and rarely do I go looking for "examples" to draw from. I laugh when I think of how often I'm asked to name my favorite author, because I don't have one. I rarely read, and often it's because I'd rather be writing, and I'm always afraid of allowing myself to subconsciously mimic other artists' ideas.

5. When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?
I've always been a writer, but I guess it would be more correct to say I've always been a storyteller. I've been a visual artist for longer than I've been a serious writer, and I've also been a musician since early high school. I love stories, for one reason or another, and these various modes of expression allowed me to realize that I had the greatest room for expression in writing, since writing came easiest. I didn't think of myself as a writer until as recently as two years ago. I began college as an Architectural Design major, ditched it in less than a week, and switched to English. At that time, I took up Lore, dusted it off and said, "I'm going to do this from now on."

6. Do you let friends/family read your writing before its done?
I let several people look through my work as I write, which is a new behavior for me. Normally I'm the type of person who would sooner set a manuscript on fire than let someone look at it "naked" haha. Since the first book, I've steadily gathered friends and other connections whose personalities and perspectives make for an excellent gradient of feedback. Often, if I sit with someone who is familiar with the story, and explain a specific concept to them that I'm developing, the bouncing of ideas will produce a thought that wouldn't have occurred to me if I had kept myself locked up in my own little world and shut-out to other idea highways. Allowing for input during the creation process is great. When you pass your ideas through others, it's like looking at a picture you drew through different lenses, and this allows you to see parts of your picture that you may have neglected or not considered thoroughly.

7. Are there any writers you particularily look up to?
Again, I don't really look to other writers for guidance or look up to other artists to evaluate myself by. I consider all the arts to be alternate means of expression, and storytelling is really at the heart of every art form. Having said this, I do look to certain "storytellers" because I find a certain inspiring uniqueness in their work. A few would be directors Hayao Miyazaki and Shinichiro Watanabe; authors and writers Lewis Carroll, Stephen King, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, Aldous Huxley and Mary Shelley; animator Don Hertzfeldt; composer Tchaikovsky, and many contemporary bands, mostly in the blues and rock genres and subgenres.

8. Any advice for young writers?
What I always emphasize to aspiring writers is this: "If you love it, that means it's what you're meant to do. If you do it, and don't stop, you'll never regret it."


My review of A Pirate's Charm
Official Lore Trilogy website
A Pirate's Charm on Goodreads

Interview with Beatrice Gormley

Hey, everyone! I'm bringing you another awesome historical fiction writer today. Ladies and gentleman meet Beatrice Gormley! Gormley's latest book is entitled Poisoned Honey and is the story of young Mary Magdalene. Filled with bouts of fantasy it is a beauitful and creative book by an amazing author. Here is my interview with the wonderful Beatrice Gormley. Enjoy!



1. What really inspired you to write about Mary Magdalene?


I guess I felt protective of Mary, as a remarkable person who had been so thoroughly misunderstood. First the Church mixed her up with other women in the Gospels and turned her into the iconic Repentant Prostitute. Then Dan Brown wrote her into The Da Vinci Code as “Mrs. Jesus,” the mother of Jesus’ imagined child. I believed that Mary was an extremely gifted young woman with a fascinating story of her own, and I wanted to tell that story.

2. How did you go about researching for this novel?

Many different ways. Since so little is known for sure about Mary Magdalene, I set out to learn what was plausible to assume about her.

I read up on biblical and archeological scholarship for details of daily life in Galilee—specifically, the town of Magdala—in the early 1st century CE. I collected pictures of scenes on the west side of the lake (the Sea of Galilee), where my story takes place. I watched many movies and documentary re-enactments of the period.

Since I was assuming Mary was a visionary from an early age, I consulted a child psychiatrist about to what extent a child might hear voices and see visions and still be mentally healthy.

Since Mary becomes entangled in the occult arts, I read up on the practice of magic at that time. Whew! I did a whole lot of research for this book. Not all of it turned out to be useful, like my extensive research about parrots. Ramla’s parrot turned out to be very minor in the finished story. But you never know--and parrots are interesting anyway.

3. Who is your favorite character in the book, and why?

Next to Mary, I’d say my favorite character is Matthew. I sympathize with his struggle to sort out his conflicting values: to please his father, to make a good living, to understand his brother, to behave ethically. He has some difficult decisions to make.

4. What was the publication of this book like?

I was lucky to have the support of my editor at Knopf, who had already published Salome. She gave me invaluable constructive criticism through several revisions of the manuscript.

5. What's the best piece of advice anyone has ever given you?

“You can do better than this. Write the whole thing over again.”

6. Any favorite cures for writers' block?

Lots! There’s the famous principle of BIC (Butt in Chair). There’s taking care of yourself, like an athlete in training: healthy food, exercise, sleep, regular working hours, avoiding distractions. There’s sleeping on it, telling yourself you’ll have new ideas in the morning. There’s doing something that lets your mind wander productively—for me, that’s long walks.

7. Did you learn anything about yourself while writing Poisoned Honey?

Oh, yes. At the beginning of this project, I wasn’t at all sure I could write about a girl who a) was possessed by demons, or believed she was; and b) was a personal friend of Jesus of Nazareth. But I could, and I did. To me, the challenges of writing are part of the pleasure (as well as part of the pain).

8. Any advice for aspiring authors?

Keep writing, keep getting feedback (classes or critique groups can be helpful), keep working to write better. Good luck!

Thank you so much Mrs. Gormley!

Check out my review of Poisoned Honey here.
To find out more abuot Beatrice Gormley and her book check out her website!

Interview with Barbara Quick

Hello, everyone! Today I am excited to introduce the author of A Golden Web, a historical fiction novel releasing April 16, 2010, Barbara Quick! She's an amazing author and was kind enough to do an interview with me. Its very inspiring to read, and I think you'll all enjoy it!




Alessandra is desperate to escape.

Desperate to escape her stepmother, who's locked her away for a year; to escape the cloister that awaits her and the marriage plans that have been made for her; to escape the expectations that limit her and every other girl in fourteenth-century Italy. There's no tolerance in her quiet village for Alessandra and her keen intelligence and unconventional ideas.

In defiant pursuit of her dreams, Alessandra undertakes an audacious quest, her bravery equaled only by the dangers she faces. Disguised and alone in a city of spies and scholars, Alessandra will find a love she could not foresee -- and an enduring fame.

In this exquisite imagining of the centuries-old story of Alessandra Giliani, the world's first female anatomist, acclaimed novelist Barbara Quick gives readers the drama, romance, and rich historical detail for which she is known as she shines a light on an unforgotten -- and unforgettable -- heroine.

1. Was it hard for you to get an image in your head of the setting/time period in A Golden Web?

It was a surprise for me, once I got to Bologna to begin my research there, to realize how long ago the 14th century was! I guess I was a little naïve and maybe a bit spoiled, too, in that 18th century Venice—the setting for VIVALDI’S VIRGINS—is still more or less intact. The settings for A GOLDEN WEB have mostly been covered up by seven centuries of history and architecture. I literally had to go underground, in Bologna, to explore many of the ruins of the 14th century—to creep around in crypts!

I had a bit of a sense of despair when I realized that time had obliterated so much of what I had hoped to touch, smell, and see. And then I woke up in my little hotel room one day and heard birds singing out in the garden. They were probably the same kind of birds, I reasoned, that Alessandra would have heard. I took a long hike along a pilgrimage road, and realized that the trees, the plants, the way the clouds massed in the sky above the land—all of that was still there to inform me about Alessandra’s world.

The biggest help, though, were the paintings and illuminated manuscripts I studied in Bologna’s beautiful museums and libraries: paintings that were made in Alessandra’s time. Even though the subject matter was almost always Classical or Biblical, the little details in the paintings revealed a huge amount about the way daily life was lived in the early 14th century in that part of Italy. I mined these pictures for details: how people dressed, what furniture they sat and slept on. What and how they ate, and how they harvested and prepared the food for their table. All the complex architecture of their everyday lives.

Of course, I profited, too, from the considerable scholarly research that’s been done on the subject. I’m putting together a list for my web site of the books I used for my research. I’m tremendously grateful for the patient work of all those scholars who’ve spent whole academic lifetimes studying the Middle Ages!


2. What was your favorite thing about writing this book?

Well, of course, I loved going to Bologna and spending time there, doing the research. Soon after I got home, though, I had a really serious accident on a backpacking trip. I ended up with a horribly bruised face, thirteen stitches at my hairline, and a broken heart (on top of it all). The characters of A GOLDEN WEB gave me companionship and escape during what turned out to be a year of healing. My bruises took about three weeks to heal; the broken heart took the entire year.

Fortunately, I was more than willing to immerse myself in what turned out to be the most intense experience of research and writing of my entire professional lifetime. It took me only one year, from start to finish, to research and write A GOLDEN WEB—and there was, as you know from the book, Arya, a huge amount of material to master: daily life in early 14th century Emilia-Romagna, educational practices, gender roles, the Church, how medicine was practiced (what was known, what wasn’t), all the physical details about how books were made prior to the invention of the printing press….

I’m pretty sure I did enough research, for each of these two novels, to earn a PhD (if only a novel could be counted as a doctoral dissertation!).

History was never one of my favorite subjects in school. But history has become a treasure-hunt for me, piecing together a richly detailed world to hold the stories I want to tell. I loved every moment that I worked on A GOLDEN WEB. “Worked” doesn’t even seem like the right word. The process was more a deeply emotional adventure for me: a full immersion into a fascinating and quite magical time and place. The hardest part was looking up, when the book was done, and realizing that I had to lose the companionship of Alessandra and all her family and friends, who had done so much to get me through what would have otherwise been a really difficult year. I hated saying goodbye to them!

3. What do you struggle most with when writing?

For the most part, writing isn’t a struggle for me—writing saves me, and always has, since I started writing poetry at the age of nine. The struggle for me is the world of publishing, which is littered with stumbling-blocks, not just for me, but for just about every writer. I filled an entire wall with rejection slips before my first poems were published.

Now that I’ve said that, I guess I have to add that writing sometimes has been an enormous struggle for me. My first novel, NORTHERN EDGE, took me ten years and thirteen complete drafts. It was a struggle to figure out how to make the transition from writing poetry to writing fiction.

For years, I had a sense of helplessness when I wrote short stories: the sense that I had no mastery over the form. I’ve only recently gotten to the point where I’m beginning to feel some sense of comfort in the genre: I’ve just written two short stories I really like.

These last two novels, VIVALDI’S VIRGINS and A GOLDEN WEB, were a breakthrough for me: I’d never written or even thought about writing historical fiction before. With both novels, I felt wonderfully connected with the characters. I felt like I could overhear them, inside my head, talking and thinking. I know it sounds kind of goofy—but that’s what it felt like.

4. Are there any authors you look up to?

Oh, there are so many! I so admire Tolstoy, Flaubert, Jane Austen, Henry James, Shirley Hazzard, the Bronte sisters, Rose Tremain, Dickens, Melville—I could go on and on. I don’t pay much attention to the bestseller list. When you look at the bestsellers of thirty years ago, they are almost all, uniformly, forgotten today. Time is the only trustworthy judge of literary merit. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that, in today’s cold-cruel-world of publishing and book selling, which only pays attention to the books that make lots and lots of money. That said, I’ve got to add that I really love the editor at HarperTeen, Rosemary Brosnan, who worked with me on A GOLDEN WEB. She’s wonderful—and I’m proud to count her now as a friend.

5. How do you find inspiration?

Being alive is terrifically inspiring—especially in light of the knowledge that our lives are all, absolutely, temporary. I’m inspired to do the best work I can, in whatever time I have in this body—and to be the best person I can be, too (well, that’s a lifelong struggle, isn’t it?).

But, getting back to your question, I think I find the greatest inspiration in things that move me—that open my heart. That make me feel—that bring tears to my eyes. Music does it, sometimes. And so does art—art that shows the humanity in all of us. And Nature, too, provides tremendous inspiration and solace. I love hiking and being in Nature—I’m a real tree-hugger! I love being near the ocean and near streams and waterfalls. I love watching and listening so closely that I myself disappear.

6. Who was your favorite character in A Golden Web? (Other than Alessandra.)

Hands-down, Otto! Although I do also love Nicco, and Alessandra’s father, too. In all of them, I was creating my own pretend-family.

Otto is the one character in the book, besides Mondino and his clan, whose existence is clearly documented. Otto really was a medical student, the son of a great landowner, and, later, an assistant to the great anatomist, Mondino. I found the text of the inscription Otto wrote for Alessandra to be so beautiful and touching. To be loved like that! As I said, it was a sad and lonely year for me. As I created Otto on the page, I was creating my own ideal romantic partner. And then I met Wayne! I have the beginnings of another YA novel called “The Magic Pen”—well, you can guess what that one’s about!

7. Do you have any advice for young historical fiction writers?

Read everything you can get your hands on, relevant to your subject. Don’t read other people’s fiction about the time and place, unless you know that it’s absolutely reliable. There’s a tremendous danger in mistaking other writers’ invention for historical fact! You also have to be very discriminating about “facts” you find on the Internet—although, believe me, the Internet is a fabulous resource for writers of historical fiction!

The other piece of advice I’d give is to surrender yourself to the subject matter. Let your characters live and breathe inside you. Experience their emotions—don’t just write about them! Read every word you write out loud. The rightness of language will often reveal itself to your ears before it reveals itself to your eyes. You have to be an actor as well as a writer, in that sense. “Perform” your novel while you’re writing it.

Make the basic story line of your novel as simple as possible; make sure it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Keep the cast of characters relatively small. Write “back stories,” just for yourself, about all the characters: these will inform you as you write your novel. They’ll tell you how these people will think and react; how they’ll speak. What they’re afraid of. What they want. What they don’t want. Give even your minor characters a wonderful, rich role to play in the story—even if they have only a few lines to speak, make them good ones. Make them matter. Make sure that no one character can ever be mistaken for any other character: give all your characters uniqueness and complexity. But keep your plot simple.

Thanks again, Barbara! I really enjoyed reading your answers!

Click here to read my review of A Golden Web.
To pre-order a copy of A Golden Web from Amazon.com click here.

Interview with Leah Cypess

Hi, everyone! My last interview brought you a little bit closer to the fantasy author Carrie Jones. This time I'm bringing you the amazing Leah Cypess author of the upcoming fantasy Mistwood. Mistwood will be released April 27, 2010 by Greenwillow Books/HarperTeen, and it is sure to be a favorite of every fantasy lover.

Enjoy!

1. Did you try and set Mistwood to a particular time period and setting, or did you just have fun with the fantasy of it?

I had fun with making up a fantasy world, and didn’t deliberately try to match a particular historical period. However, I did generally default to the time period I know the most about, which is late Renaissance Europe.

2. What to you think is the hardest part about writing?

Those times when I think I'm done with a certain scene, character, or plot twist... and then I realize there's a problem, and that problem can only be fixed by reworking the entire manuscript.

3. What was your publication journey like?

It started over ten years ago, with a completely different manuscript that got one revision request and a lot of “Please send us your next book” rejection letters. I wrote, critiqued, and submitted three more manuscripts, and with each one I increased the ratio of positive responses to form rejections. By the time I was ready to submit Mistwood, I had a very good idea of which editors were interested in seeing my next manuscript and were likely to be interested in Mistwood; and it took less than two months after sending my first round of query letters that I had an offer from my editor at Greenwillow. (Two months in one sense, over ten years in another!)

4. Are there any authors you particularly look up to?

Many! Juliet Marillier, Megan Whalen Turner, Connie Willis, Dave Duncan, Libba Bray… there are more, but I think five is a good number to stop at. :)

5. When did you start writing?

At the end of first grade, I wrote a story from the point of view of an ice-cream cone. At the beginning of first grade, I didn’t know how to write. So it was definitely sometime during that year.

6. How do you feel about being compared to Kristin Cashore?

Flattered, of course; I love Kristin Cashore’s books. And some similarities are obvious: Mistwood, Graceling, and Fire all have female main characters with supernatural powers, and all those characters are trying to figure out who they are while simultaneously protecting someone else’s interests.

7. How would you feel about making Mistwood into a movie?

I certainly wouldn’t say no. In fact, when I first workshopped the first chapters of Mistwood back in 2003, one of the members of the writing workshop said, “I could see this as a movie with Halle Berry playing the lead.” But realistically, I don’t see that many high fantasy novels getting made into movies these days.

8. Any advice for young writers?

Read. Write. And be prepared for a possible long haul… but don’t give up!

Click here to read my review of Mistwood.

To pre-order Mistwood from Amazon.com click here.

Happy Valentines! + Interview with Carrie Jones!!

Happy Valentines Day, everyone! What a great day to curl up with one of Carrie Jones's awesome books, Need or Captivate? I know I love them both, and I'm sure there are plenty of you out there who do. So, in honour of Valentines Day, the not-so-long-ago release of Captivate, and Carrie Jones's awesome book tour, I am thrilled to share with you my interview with this awesome and original paranormal fantasy author! ENJOY!


1. Your pixies are very original! Was there anything that sort of inspired you to create them this way?

I was at the Common Ground Fair, which is this huge, cool fair in Maine that’s sponsored by Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association (MOFGA). To get to the main part of the fair you have to walk through this sweet trail that curves through these tall spruce trees.
Right in front of me was this guy. He had a weird vibe. He was wearing all corduroy – blazer, pants. And sticking out from his blazer was this long tail-like appendage that was wrapped in different colored earth-toned cloth. I guess he could tell I was checking him out because he turned his head and looked at me. His eye was this startling silver color. How startling? So startling that I actually gasped and got creeped out.
Then when we were in line to pay we made eye contact again and his eyes were brown.
I know! I know! I probably imagined the silver eye color.
It doesn’t matter. That was one of the main things that got me started. Then, I just had this image of a man standing outside an airport pointing at an airplane this girl was on.
It also creeped me out.
So, I started writing.

2. What is the biggest thing you stumble on as far as writing goes? The passage of time, building relationships, etc.?

I write way too many love scenes because it’s my favorite thing to write and then my editor makes me cut 3/4s of them out and I cry because it’s like I’m eradicating love. I am so sad.
shakes head at self

3. Is there any particular cure for writersblock you like?

I use improv techniques to stop being blocked. Really. And then I just write and tell myself it is okay if it totally stinks, that I can always delete it. I also sometimes switch projects for a day. That way I don’t feel like a slacker.

4. Is there any one writer you look up to?

Oh man. I look up to pretty much everyone. I’m always like, “Wow. Look at what Libba Bray did here or Geeze Louise, check out Sherman Alexie’s sentence structure. Or – Oh my, did you SEE – DID YOU SEE – what M. T. Anderson did with this character. Holy Toledo.”

Yes, I talk like a 1950s sitcom mom when inspired by other authors. It’s terribly embarrassing.

In person, Kathi Appelt, Time Wynne Jones, Rita Williams Garcia, Sharon Darrow , Cynthia Leitich Smith and Lisa Jahn Clough made me believe in myself enough to do this. They are brilliant cheerleaders/writers/therapists/teachers/humans.

5. Are your characters ever inspired by people you know?

All the time. Seriously, if you know me I am so likely to take a tiny piece of you and put it into a book. If you’re my love interest it is pretty much a given that you’re going to show up. 6. Do you have any advice for young writers?

Oh my gosh (Oh no, I am sounding like a 1950s mom again), I think that everyone has their own paths to follow and there’s no one set way to be a writer but the essentials are probably:

1. To be a writer you need to actually write. Lots of people don’t. They just talk about it a lot.

2. Try to write a little bit every day. Writing is a job and it’s a skill. The more you do, usually the better you get.

3. Even though it’s a job and skill it should still be fun. It should be a passion. Life is no fun if you are stuck doing something you hate.

4. So, try to live the craziest, fullest, most awesome life you can. It will make your writing way better. Plus, you’ll seem cool. Just remember to wear deodorant while you do it because sometimes crazy, full, awesome lives make you sweat a little and smelling bad? Smelling bad stinks.


You can find more info about Carrie, her books, and the awesome tour by clicking here.

28 Days of Winter Escapes: Q&A with Frewin Jones!

What better way to stay warm on a blistery February day then with a good book?

HarperTeen is hosting an awesome promotion where they will be giving away a signed book every day in the month of February and releasing an exclusive Q&A with the author to be posted on that day's partnered blog. Check out HarperTeen's 28 Days of Winter Escapes Book-a-Day Giveaway here!

I am proud to say that I am hosting the Q&A with Frewin Jones for you all today! I have been a fan of Mr. Jones for years now, being completely entranced by his wonderful Faerie Path and Warrior Princess Series. To win a signed copy of the 5th installment to the beloved Faerie Path Series, The Enchanted Quest by Frewin Jones check out today's giveaway here! (Trust me, its pure awesomeness!)

Now, here is the exclusive interview with Allan Frewin Jones!

1. Tania faces a number of challenges throughout this series—how do you handle the stress of large challenges?


It’s said that the longest journey begins with but a single step. That’s how I deal with stressful challenges: by taking them one step at a time. I find the best way to deal with large, stressful challenges is to cut them up into smaller, less stressful challenges—then deal with them individually. Like, when I begin a new book, I don’t think of the whole mountainous journey that lies ahead of me—I give myself lesser obstacles, like getting to the end of chapter one—then getting to the end of chapter two. And on difficult days, I just think of how to get to the end of a paragraph or a scene, and I take a time-out when I get there as a reward.

2. Which of Tania’s love interests would you be more drawn to? The faerie Edric or mortal Connor?

I’m not entirely sure I’m the best person to judge this one, but I’ll give it a try. When it comes down to it, it’s really a question of whether a person is attracted to the known or the unknown—to relative safety or potential danger, to the commonplace or the stupendous. Tania has known Connor most of her life; this does not mean she can read him like a book, but it means she has a reasonably good idea of what he is like—thus, going with Connor would be the comfortable, safe option. But Edric—he’s another thing entirely. She has only known him a few months, he has lied to her and duped her and was the instrument of a man who wanted Tania for his own ends. He comes from an entirely different world and has lived for over five hundred years, so although he is actually only seventeen, he has an accumulation of knowledge and life that is way beyond what Tania has experienced in her sixteen years. The fear in Edric’s case would be of entirely losing yourself in him—like a plunge from a cliff top into an unknown ocean. So, do you trust in his love and do you feel willing to take that plunge? I’d like to think I would. It might be terrifying, but it will be one wild ride!


3. What would be your ideal first date?

Dinner for two in a really great restaurant. It would be long and leisurely, and the table would be on a veranda under a starry summer sky, with a river flowing past just a few feet away. Then, after the meal, we’d take a moonlit stroll along the river embankment and over a bridge or two. We would just talk the night away, and then we’d find a bench by the river and sit there to watch the sun come up.


4. In your mind, how can you tell when you’re meant to be with someone?

The poets say that love enters through the eyes. Of course, once love has arrived, it has a whole lot of other things to take note of, but that first sight of someone special holds the key to the whole business. I first saw my life partner across a crowded room, dressed all in black, with black hair and a stunningly attractive face. I asked a friend to go find out who this amazing person was. I didn’t actually know I was in love for a few days—I was just lightning-struck and a bit dizzy. We met four or five times before moving in together. We’ve been together now for eighteen years. Sometimes it is just right, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it happening.


5. What real-world spot have you been to that’s closest to Avalon?

I would have to say the high cliffs of Tintagel on the north Cornish coast. It has strong connections to the legend of King Arthur. There has been a castle there for hundreds of years, windswept, ruinous now, rising high above the waves that come crashing in against the rocky cliffs. Seagulls wheel and cry and occasionally the dark, sleek heads of seals emerge watchfully from the surf. There is a cave on the shore—Merlin’s Cave, some people call it—or simply the Wizard’s Cave. I have been in there and felt a huge presence close by—whether human, animal, or pure spirit, I couldn’t say. The high ridges of Tintagel can only be approached by a long precarious walk across narrow wooden bridges and up flights of uneven stone steps that take you to vertiginous heights above the sea. Whenever I go there I make my way to the very edge of the cliff, where plates of slate jut out over the sea, and I sit there and gaze across to the horizon, listening to the ancient voices of the world and forgetting all earthbound things. On a warm summer’s day, I could sit there forever. One day, maybe I shall.

Christopher Paolini Interview

Christopher Paolini, author of the Inheritance Cycle, my all time favorite series, recently did an interview with authorhour.com that I thought I would share with you. You can go to his page by clicking here. He's totally funny and I always enjoy hearing what he has to say. If you listen to the bonus questions there's alot of good information for young writers.

Enjoy!

Arya

Interview with Jaclyn Dolamore

I hope you all got a chance to read my review on Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore and maybe pick up a copy for yourselves when it comes out in January! =) Ms. Dolamore is a wonderful debut author, who I sincerely hope to see more of. She has kindly agreed to do an interview with me. Enjoy!



Do you remember where the idea for Magic Under Glass came from?

The best ideas seem to come from nowhere, like an unexpected package on your doorstep. Magic under glass was like that, although it came from a long love of the Victorian era, novels written in or set in that time, automata, and the relationships between cultures in a world that was starting to become smaller. The best way to get that unexpected package is to fill your head with as much awesome stuff as possible.

Have you always wanted to be a writer?

I have. Occasionally I thought I might be something else, like an artist. But I kept coming back to writing. Even as a kid I idolized other writers and filled notebook upon notebook with stories. Or at least, the beginnings of stories. My attention span wasn't great back then...

Are there any authors you look up to?

I look up to a lot of writers, for different reasons. In a creative sense, there is no *one* writer I look up to to a huge degree. I get something different out of so many different people's work, and I don't think my work is modeled after anyone. In a career sense, I definitely look up to Maggie Stiefvater right now. She's my friend and we're very close in age, and we have some similarities to our work and background, and since she has obviously been very successful, and a step or two ahead of me in the publication journey, I watch what she does and how well it works for her.

What is your favorite cure for writers' block?

If I have writers block, it's because I either haven't planned out the story enough, or I took a wrong turn and I'm being stubborn about admitting it, or I can't see what's wrong. Or sometimes I get writers block just because I need a break and I don't want to admit *that*. So the best cure is to take a day or two off, maybe, and if the problem hasn't worked itself out, I might need to talk to my boyfriend or a friend, or listen to music and sketch the characters for a while... something to get connected to what needs to happen.

From what I can tell reading Magic Under Glass, you are fairly vague on the mechanics of magic usage. Did you think about that much while writing?

Well, magic is not my favorite part of a fantasy novel. I'm much more interested in inventing new cultures and dealing with the ramifications of different magical species interacting, and things like that. So it's true I don't get extremely excited about developing magic systems, compared to some other things. Also, I have a fantasy world I've been writing about since I was 12. The magic in that world is very developed, and in my brain, that is how magic "works", so while I wanted Magic Under Glass to have its own magic, I have a hard time getting away from my other world sometimes...
BUT, if I'm contracted for a second book, the magic will be more specific! I already have some ideas along those lines...

Do you ever base any of your characters off of people you know?

Very rarely. If they are, it's probably a side character based on an old coworker or something...haha. if I know someone who's gone through a situation similar to a character, I will consider how they reacted, but most of my characters are based on some aspect of myself, another character I love in some other story (obviously, I change a lot of things), or someone whose autobiography or biography I've read...

Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what?

Yes! At least, I love to. This year I've had a repetitive stress injury and I write with voice recognition software, so I can't listen to music at the same time anymore. I miss the music a lot... I listen to different music for every book. My favorite ever is David Bowie and Roxy music. But my taste keeps getting more weird, too where I go to the library and come out with, like, old ragtime recordings and Bulgarian folk singers and bluegrass or something.

Do you have any advice for young writers?

The worst enemy of creativity are the voices -- both your own, and other peoples -- that tell you creativity should not be a priority. Writing, when you're young, and it isn't a school assignment, is quiet and personal and it often seems like no one will care or it's a waste of time. Our society does not value time spent sitting alone, reading, thinking, and creating something that might not be good, that might not be successful, that no one will ever read. But it is valuable. Immensely so. Even if I was never published, I know my writing would be the thing I was most proud of on my dying day. When I learn something, if I use it in my writing, I remember it. When I was sitting in the hospital in the middle of the night waiting to find out if my boyfriend was okay when he broke his arm, I thought of my characters and how strong they are. If it's your passion, it's always worth giving priority to. It will enrich your life in so many ways.

Interview with Jessica Day George

I recently had the honor of doing an interview with the wonderful Jessica Day George author of Dragon Spear, Princess of the Midnight Ball, Dragon Flight, Sun Moon, Ice and Snow, and Dragon Slippers. You can visit her website here.

Enjoy!

Have you always wanted to be a writer?
I've always loved writing stories, but when I was twelve it became a conscious decision.

In your opinion, once you get a book published does writing go from being fun to being a job?
Nope. It's even better, because now you're paid to do what you love!

Do you ever base your characters off of people you know?
Occasionally, and only minor characters, like cameos. Like one of my professors from college is the doctor in Midnight Ball, stuff like that.

When do you come up with your best story ideas?
You never know. Driving down the street, in the shower, making toast. They strike at any time!


Is there anyone who inspires you with your writing, someone you look up to?
I am a HUGE Robin McKinley geek. Also Diana Wynne Jones.

What is your advice for aspiring writers?
Please don't forget to read. And not just the type of book you're writing, but read everything you can get your hands on.


What do you think is the best way to get rid of writer's block?
Eat chocolate.

Interview with Allan Frewin Jones

1. How do you get ideas for stories?

This is an easy question to answer, in a way, but the answer is seldom helpful to the questioner. I get ideas for a huge number of places – anyone who is creative for a living has a part of their brain that is constantly on the alert. I call it being in “sponge” mode. When I am putting a plot or storyline for a book together, this “sponge” part of my brain goes into overdrive – and I am constantly watching out for patterns or random input or proto-ideas in what goes on around me. I might hear a line of dialogue on a TV show, and I might couple that with something I have read recently (Warrior Princess in particular involved a lot of research) or something I’ve seen – a particularly spectacular sunset, or a clear night where the constellation Orion seems to fill the sky. Or an unusual bird appearing in my garden. Or a friend who says something that has nothing to do with the story I’m plotting, but which triggers other ideas. Or a piece of music or an illustration. Or a forgotten memory of something I read twenty years ago. Or watching a movie. And sometimes ideas just pop into my head seemingly out of nowhere – this is when the creature I call my “Muse” is at work. I have no control over this “Muse” – she comes and goes when she likes, slipping ideas into my head waking or sleeping. I can wake with a brand new thought – or I can be having a conversation with friends and a new thought will just be placed into my head by my Muse. She is very useful, but she has to be treated with respect. So…do you see what I mean about the answer not being very helpful? The short version of the above is that I get my ideas for all around me, life, books, friends, TV, movies, music…you name it, ideas are lurking in there waiting to be lined together to form a new chain – a new story.


2. Do you ever base your characters off of people you know?


I don’t think I do. Of course, character traits of friends and acquaintances – or even people one notices in the streets, hang about in ones mind and can pop up at any moment – but I don’t think I have ever really taken a specific person and inserted them into a story.

3. In your opinion, is the literary business competitive?

Not sure here whether you mean is it competitive in terms of other media, or whether you mean are writers competitive among themselves. If the former, I think writing will always have an important place – even if every book becomes an e-book and nothing ever appears on paper again. Even if “reality TV” seems to be everywhere right now, people still like to be told stories – and someone has to write these stories. And although people are developing computers that can tell the “perfect” story – hit all the right beats, include all the right characters, plot-twists and complexities – computers are still way more stupid than people – and computers can’t yet come up with anything new. Writers have to do that.If on the other hand, you’re asking about competitiveness within the publishing industry. Then, sure, publishers compete each and every day for your dollar – every book is in competition with every other book in the same genre. Of course they are – in exactly the same way that shoe-stores or supermarkets compete against one another. Every publisher wants their book to get onto bookshelves and to fly off those bookshelves and into people’s hands. That being said, I don’t ever feel that I’m personally in competition with other writers. I write the best books I can within the limits of my talent and skill, and I hope that people “out there” will like what I have written.


4. Where did the idea for the Shining Ones in Warrior Princess come from?


Let me answer this by showing you my thinking while the series was being created. This is how I originally put my ideas to the publishers:

It is the period known as the Dark Ages – a time of change and conflict on the Welsh borders. (Remember – Brython is Wales) Long years of truce with the Saxons have come to an end – a new king has arisen in England, uniting the country – and their eyes are looking west once more – greedily looking towards the several kingdoms of Brython.

The Welsh Border lords know that their only hope in combating this powerful new enemy is to unite against them and to engage as equals with the modern world that is beating on their doors. The times of the Old Tribes, of the Old Ways are dead and gone – the beliefs and ways of their ancestors are of no use against this new foe.

It is three hundred years since the Romans fled the land, and what ruins remain of their buildings are overgrown or have been robbed away to fortify the ramparts of hill-forts. Their time is becoming the stuff of legend – and the times before the Romans came – well, nowadays that is just mythology; stories handed down to amuse and frighten children. No one worships the Old Gods of the forests and rivers and mountains any more. No one believes that spirits dwell in these places or that once humans had intercourse with these creatures. No one tells the Old Tales. The time of prophecies and omens and portents and of supernatural intervention is dead and gone. The ancient wizard/priest caste – the Druids – was all but wiped out by the Romans, and no one wants them back. Some foolish people say that a few Druids remain, hidden away in the forests, or in caves or on solitary islands, but they have no power any more. No one wants to or needs to talk with mystic stags in the forests, nor to learn secrets from the wise salmon, nor hear the cryptic riddles of the tree dryads nor have any fear of the Tylwyth Teg or other mischief-makers from the fantastical realm.
Branwen is a modern 7th Century girl, in that she too thinks the old stories are just a lot of nonsense for children. But she learns that she and the others are quite wrong – and that they are foolish to dismiss the Old Powers. She learns that she has a destiny – a destiny to lead the Welsh in arms against the Saxon invaders. But she doesn’t want to have a destiny – like any other girl of her age, she wants to lead her own life, to follow her own path (even if she is not sure what that path may be), and to make her own choices. She at first dismisses the whole idea of her destiny as nonsense. But then she learns that destinies cannot be so easily dismissed. She refuses to follow instructions given to her by a mystic power – and is horrified and devastated by the results. She realises she cannot avoid her destiny, but she fights it every inch of the way, resenting the fact that she has been chosen for this lonely destiny, trying to avoid the trials and tribulations of being a Hero to her people. But in her heart she knows she is that Hero and that she must play her part, no matter how hard it will be for her.

The Shining Ones were originally conceived thus:Rhiannon of the Spring (White Lady)Maelgwyn of the Woods (Stagman, name means “Prince of the hounds”)Meirion of the Rocks (mountain-dwelling crone)
Fane: a hawk, messenger of the Shining Ones in various guises, also keeping an eye on Branwen.
Readers of the series will see that some changes were made to this trio. It’s not easy to remember exactly where each one of the Shining Ones came from. I had a cassette of a Beltane Mystery Play called “The Shining Ones” – but although I used the title, there’s not much of a link between the Play itself and Warrior Princess. I wanted them to be “nature” gods – so I chose natural elements for them to inhabit or represent – water, forest, mountain, air. As I mentioned in a previous question, it is hard to pinpoint exactly where an idea comes from. Rhiannon as a white lady on a white horse could easily fit into Arthurian Legend, or any Pagan mythology. The idea of the “stag-man” is also an old one – he is called Cernunnos in Celtic Mythology, and Herne the Hunter in others. (As I live in a place called Herne Hill, I feel quite linked to this concept!!) Similarly the “crone” or old woman is part of the female “triad” often seen in Pagan Mythology. I came up with Caradoc as a young boy (as seen in later books) because I liked the image I had of clouds dancing in the wind – and changed it into a wild young man.


5. Do you think it helps to travel to the place you are writing about?


I think it does – descriptions of places are much more vivid if you have actually been there and looked around. I visited Hampton Court Palace prior to writing The Faerie Path, and although I did change quite a few things (A lot of the Palace as it exists now was rebuilt in Georgian times, and only the front façade is Tudor – the period I was interested in) having been in among the old buildings helped a lot. I also often base the “London” sections of The Faerie Path on actual places I have seen – and when I cannot get to them, I have either got someone to take photos for me, or I go on-line and check up on any relevant photos. In The Immortal Realm, the town of Rhyehaven is based on a town I know in Cornwall, while Hymnal in Weir is based on a town I have often visited in Kent in the South of England. As it isn’t practical for me to travel to Wales to check out the landscape there, a lot of my descriptions are based on the evidence of photographs and written comments found in books and on-line. Of course, there are a lot of places in Faerie that don’t exist anywhere else but in my head – Crystalhenge, Leiderdale, Caer Kymry etc – but I think these imagined places are also shot through with memories of real places I have seen and visited.


6. What made you want to write Warrior Princess? What got you into that time-frame and setting?


Curiously enough, I did not come up with the original idea for Warrior Princess. It was created by a team of editors in the UK with whom I often work. The Publishers of The Faerie Path books were pleased with how they were selling, and were looking for a new project for me to write. The UK editors showed them the original Warrior Princess concept – a purely historical idea with no magic in it at all. The Publishers said they would like some magic added and that they would like me to write it. I came aboard – most of the original concept got swept away at that time and I brought in the idea of The Shining Ones and Branwen’s mystic destiny. Although the series was planned to take place in Wales in the Dark Ages, the actual dates were vague when I was brought it. I did some research and picked a particular date – 638 AD. What particularly appealed to me about that period in history was that it was a time of great change and chaos. The Saxons were moving in with their own pantheon of gods – and the Welsh people were still in a post-colonial place since the collapse of the Roman Empire, and not only had lost the Roman gods, but had also lost track of their own ancient gods. Plenty of opportunity there for exploring the supernatural in nature, I thought! And I especially relished the idea that Branwen was following gods that no one else even believed in anymore. I don’t want to get all eco-warrior about this, but part of my thinking with the “nature” aspects of The Shining Ones is because I think we are losing touch (or have lost touch!) with nature these days – and that we distance ourselves from the natural world at our great peril!


7. What is your best advice for someone who wants to continue writing a story, but it frustrated due to a bad case of writers block?


Best advice? One of three things spring to mind. 1. If you are sick of staring at a blank page, just give up for a few days, go so something else – surf or cycle or jog or visit the great outdoors – do something physical and let your mind float for a while. Often, while you’re thinking about something else, a way through your block will present itself. It’s a little like trying to get to sleep and not being able to. The worst thing is to lie there tossing and turning. The best ting is to get up and do something – usually you’ll feel tired pretty soon and be able to go back to bed and fall quickly asleep. Writing can be like that – stop trying – it’ll come!2. Just carry on writing – white any nonsense that comes into your head – even if it is utter garbage. You might find you’ll be able to power your way through the block – even if it means that the last twenty pages are totally useless and need either shredding or completely rewriting. Remember – you always revise bad writing the following day – but if you have written nothing at all – you might find yourself in the same position over and over.3. Leave whatever you’ve been working on if you hit a brick wall, and move onto some other piece of writing. Again, while you’re thinking about something else the solution to your original problem might present itself. If you’re in the middle of a book-length story, back-burner it for a while and try plotting out another book or a short story or a poem or a song lyric. And finally – and think hard before you go down this path – it might simply be that a story you thought was going to be great, just runs out of steam half-way through. It happens. If you aren’t able to move forward with the story, maybe you should abandon it? Don’t worry – nothing is ever wasted – all the good parts of that story will appear again in brand new stories.


8. Any advice for teen writers?

Several things. Never pay anyone to help you with your writing – if it’s good, people should be paying you, right? Don’t try “quick fix” publishing options – again, if you’re prepared to pay to have your work published, the person pocketing your money will tell you whatever you want to hear and they won’t care if your work is good or not. Be wary about posting your work on the Internet – once it’s out there, it’s going to be hard for you to reel it back in again!Get yourself hooked into a writer’s group where you and a bunch of others can discuss and make suggestions and comments about each other’s work. I’d suggest you try to do this in the “real” world rather than on-line – things like that work better face-to-face that on the Internet.Get a professional to look at your work (only if you already think it’s good enough for people to see!). There are plenty of Literary Agents out there who are always on the lookout for new talent. Don’t assume that your favourite author is the person to approach, though – writers are not the best people to ask for writing advice – not in detail anyway. You’re far, far better off seeking advice and help from a publisher or a Literary Agent.Take all the professional advice you can get! It will be hard and possibly horrible to be told your work sucks – but it is always worth listening to advice and running with it. If you have determination and talent and are prepared to learn the skills of writing – there’s nothing in the world can stop you getting your books into bookstores. Don’t take no for an answer! Work hard, and be smart and flexible and if you have it in you, you’ll get there.