Since Bryanna grows up in Scotland, she is familiar with Hobgoblins, Selkies or Kelpies from the tales of her country. But she is very surprised when she begins to see these creatures one day. Is she suffering form hallucinations? Before she can ask her father’s advice, he gets kidnapped by a woman whose scent is strangely familiar to Bryanna. So, she follows the kidnapper instead of informing the police and lands smack dab in the middle of the biggest adventure of her life. It’s just as well she knows the old tales well enough. The world she lands in is murderously dangerous.
Scotland’s Guardians will be available at the end of the month as an eBook on Amazon. Other retailers will follow. A date for the print-version will be announced on time.
I am a freak, I admit it. When I was younger, I actually enjoyed going to school (go ahead, laugh at me) — not because I wanted to meet my friends, but because I loved learning new stuff. It hasn’t changed all that much. I’m still delighted if I manage to smuggle facts into my stories without anyone noticing. At this place, I’ll give you access to my twisted mind. Welcome to a Freak’s Fun Friday.
My current WIP (Work In Progress), “Juma’s Rain”, is set in a Stone Age Africa that never was. Still, some facts remain true to what happened in our world. I love mixing real life elements into my story, so I did it again. This time, I chose the Nok-culture, named after some terrific Terracotta statues first found near the town of Nok.
Scientists are loathe to declare Nok a culture because they know so little about their economy, religion, or everyday life. One thing they are certain about is that the Nok people learned to forge iron 500-1000 years BC. Intensive research showed that they learned iron forging without learning about copper first. Scientists all over the world are still puzzled by this fact, and I find it absolutely fascinating. They are wondering if the Nok developed these skills independently or if they learned them from traveling smiths of other countries. I’m inclined to believe they learned it without help. Maybe, one of their gods taught it to them. *grin*
It was hard to find relevant facts about everyday life in Stone Age Africa, so I mixed what I know about the time in Europe with the way some of the more traditional tribes still live today. It might not be accurate, but should be close enough. Truth be told, life wasn’t all that different all over the world at that time. Sure, the cultural backgrounds and the individual religions, customs, and beliefs differed, but planting and harvesting, breeding and slaughtering, cooking and cleaning had to be done with only slight variations due to climate.
Whenever I read something about people from the Stone Ages, I keep wondering if they really were that much different from us today. They fell in love, they ate, they had to use the toilet, they quarreled, they were happy or not… I’m sure they would get along well today, too. What do you think? Have you ever thought about people from other times or cultures? Let me know in the comments.
Welcome to the New Year. I truly believe that 2013 will be the year, when eBook readers will soar in countries like Germany and France. Last year, I prepared to become active, and this year I will. Most of my finished novels are translated, and I will begin publishing them one book per month from January onwards. My first project, “Scotland’s Guardians”, will be available in the last week of January. It will be followed by the books I mentioned in my last blogpost (The Next Big Thing). If you want to be notified about the exact day of release, join my mailing list (Plus you’ll get the free YA Fantasy novel “The Witches of Greenwitch” if you do). Or return to this site for the announcement.
I’m really, really excited. With two YA Fantasy and two YA historical romance novels already available, and with the ones I’m planning to get out, I will have ten published novels in two languages by the end of the year. Now, I just hope you will like to read them as much as I enjoyed writing them. If you do, please leave a review somewhere (on Amazon, Goodreads, Shelfari, your blog, or any other site you want).
Reading over the beginning of this post again, I just realized one thing. You don’t need to own an eBook reader. If you’ve got a smartphone, you can simply download the appropriate app and read eBooks there. With a small display, this might be a bit awkward but you’ll save the money for an eReader. Oh, and if you’ve got an eReader for Christmas, what are you waiting for? Go and get yourself some novels to read.
Peter Cruikshank, an aspiring novelist has tagged me as The Next Big Thing. I feel honored that he picked me, especially since he based his decision on my book “Urchin King“. OK, I could have done without the extra work (I’m in the last throws of translating the last German novel into English), but I enjoyed his answers to the questions nonetheless. I hope mine will be as entertaining and enlightening. Feel free to leave a comment (oh, and my nominations are at the bottom of this post).
1. What is the title of the book?
Well, at the moment, I’m sitting on five unpublished YA books: Paralan’s Children (a Science Fantasy story set on an ice world) Scotland’s Guardians (an Urban Fantasy story about Scottish myths and legends) Victor’s Rage (stand-alone sequel to my historical novel “Ann Angel’s Freedom”) Chasing the Grimm Reaper (a non-linear fairy tale murder mystery) and Swordplay (an Urban Fantasy murder mystery, first in an of yet unwritten series).
2. Where did the idea for the book come from?
I find my ideas everywhere. They’re a dime to a dozen. My kids often complain that I turn reality into make believe stories too often. Still, they like it. I spin stories wherever I go – it was a logical step to start writing them down. The real challenge is to find/make the time to do that. I’m getting better at this all the time. Two years back I hardly managed 500 words a day (my kids were still at home back then), now I’m doing 2000-3000 words on my translations with the weekends off. In November, I’ll see if I can keep up that pace with original writing too.
If an idea manages to get so strong that I cannot write anything else, I start plotting and then write it down. I’m currently working on a fantasy story with a Stone Age Africa setting. It’s so much fun to merge true facts with thought out culture. The idea came to me when I visited a museum with a friend. Beside the Egyptian display, they had a small part of the exhibition dedicated to the Nok-people of Africa who were able to forge iron 800–500 BC without any indication that other metals had been forged before that (meaning there was no Bronze Age before that). Also, I remembered a tale we once had to read where the woman in charge of rain had fallen asleep. Pang, there was the idea of a sleeping rain goddess in Africa with a young witch the only person who knows. Once my Main Character is born, the story practically develops on its own.
3. What genre does your book fall under?
All my stories are either Young Adult or Middle Age and all contain some element of history (sometimes made up history but more often than not it’s genuine). I’m a history geek and try not to let it show too much in my novels. Also I’m a great fan of fantasy (less epic, more urban), so a lot of my stories are in that genre too.
4. What actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
I couldn’t say. I’m not watching TV or the movies a lot (due to time constraints and the long distance to the nearest cinema), but I’d love to have Sean Connery in one of the films that will no doubt spring form my work. 😉
5. What is a one sentence synopsis of your book? Paralan’s Children – Rookie Vera Staven of the Galactipol has to combine forces with the supposedly dumb polar-bear like natives of the ice-world Paralan to find fifteen missing wee-ones before they are murdered. Scotland’s Guardians – Book-rat Bryanna follows her kidnapped father into the world of Scottish folk lore and learns that she is supposed to kill her father to take over her job as Guardian. Victor’s Rage – When Rieke Waldmann learns she’s supposed to marry the miller’s son, her beloved William sets out to earn money so he can take the miller’s place. But instead, he gets caught up in the German Revolution of 1848, and Rieke discovers her late father’s secrets that might stop her from getting married at all. Chasing the Grimm Reaper – The Fairy Godmother has been murdered, and Sherlock Holmes isn’t too keen on taking the case, so I, the reader, take over. Now it’s up to me to decide on the right course of action to reach the end alive. Swordplay – Moira has applied for work with the Gendarmerie Magique, her lifelong dream, but since her magic readings are way too low, her stay isn’t guaranteed which endangers her involvement in a case of stolen antiques more deadly than anticipated.
6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
All the German versions of my book are under contract with a very good German agency. Still, they weren’t able to sell them to German publishers — not for their quality though since every editor I talked to really would have loved to take the manuscript but they couldn’t find the right label to put on them.
At the beginning of last year, I started going Indie. My first release, “Urchin King” is garnering a lot of respect and great reviews and it’s sales are slow but steady. My historical novel “Ann Angel’s Freedom” took of running and sold 4000 copies in two days at a promotional price. So, for me, the Indie route is the one I’ll travel for the rest of my career.
7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
That’s hard to say. Nowadays, I take 2-3 months for the first draft of a novel, rarely longer (it’s teh revision that eats up most of the time). But my first novel took 3 years before the first draft was done, and it was only 175 pages long. 😉 I think the daily wordcount increases the longer I’m at it.
8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Sorry, I can’t say. I do hope that my fantasy stories are comparable to those of Diana Wynne Jones. But I don’t really care all that much as long as my readers love them.
9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I’ve been influenced by many writers, the most prominent are Astrid Lindgren, Diana Wynne Jones, and Neil Gaiman, but my main inspiration has always been my family. The kids are so eager to lern about my stories, I just couln’t NOT write them down. Also, the health of my husband is deteriorating fast, so I’m struggling to replace his income. I’d love to tell him to retire in 3-5 years if possible. I think it’s the strongest motivation anyone can have.
10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
All my books have sophisticated worlbuilding. As a studied forester with a PhD in ecology, I know my science and apply it ardently to any new world I create. Also, I’m a great fan of history (not such a great fan of the research though) and with the help of my best friend and my husband, I manage to find the details that make my historical worlds come alive. My stories are always a mix of entertainment and knowledge. Readers can simply enjoy the story, or they can discover and learn new things if they are so inclined.
That’s it. Now, for the fun stuff. I’m allowed to choose up to five authors I believe would make The Next Big Thing, and I already know who I want to nominate:
Holly Lisle – the most hard working and talented author that I personally know William Hahn – the only author of epic fantasy that I enjoyed reading (so far. I haven’t sampled Peter Cruikshank’s tales yet) J.A. Marlow – a superb author of Science Fiction tales for all ages Danyelle Leafty – a crafty twister of lesser known fairy tales Emily Casey – another crafty twister of fairy tales (can you tell I love twisted fairy tales?)
Now, I hope these authors have just as much fun (as many problems) to answer these questions as I did.
Are there questions you’d like to get answered that weren’t in this list? Leave a comment and I’ll do my best to get to them in a timely manner.
… I thought I had lost all my posts on this first page of my website. Luckily I just moved them accidentally. So now, everything is back to normal. Also, I updated the German part of the site because I published the first eBook available in German and English.
Amadi, the Phoenix, the Sphinx, and the Djinn is a trilogy available in individual volumes or as a whole from Amazon and Smashwords. More channels will follow as soon as they are approved.
Isn’t the cover art absolutely stunning?
Update on my writing: I’m very busy translating all my German backlist-novels into English. If all goes as planned, I’ll have 8-10 novels finished by the end of the year. I hope you will be around to check them out.
I’m happy to announce that on the 29th of March (yes, next Thursday) I will put up two snippets of Kerri Cueva’s Choose Your Own Adventure Bloghop. This year, it will all be about a dragon (and believe me when I say that the story-lines are really great). Promise you will look in.
I took a course on marketing – yes, I’m that ingenuous – and the coach suggested giving away copies of our books for free in exchange for reviews. Well, I’ve been offering free copies of my eBooks to many book bloggers (yes, I did check they were taking eBooks) but only a few were interested. If it weren’t so stupid, it’d be funny how much rejection can hurt.
It’s not that my books are bad (at least according to my readers and my German agent), I just don’t seem able to phrase my offers in a way that makes the stories sound as interesting as (I think) they are. Sigh.
I know, I’ll get over it soon enough but for the moment, I feel like hanging in the air with a mile of nothing below – no parachute, no bungee. All that can stop me from falling is my imagination.
Being an author has been my dream ever since I learned my alphabet. Why should I give up only because it takes time to find those who love the same quirky things I like? (Oh, are that tiny wings sprouting from my shoulders?) Maybe, I should offer more free books, and not only to book bloggers but to everyone who is willing to leave reviews on amazon, smashwords, goodreads, and any other place? Meanwhile, I could write more books until more and more people discover they like the way I write.
Argh – this was supposed to be a Blues, and Blues Songs are sad. Now, look what I’ve done. I went and grew myself wings – pink ones. I hate pink. Why couldn’t they be green? Watch me flying off to translate the next chapter mumbling, “I guess it’s time to stop singing. I’m just not cut out for sad songs or stories. I should have known…”
Wow, putting the “Campaigner Challenges 2011” together as eBook and POD book was more work than I had anticipated. So far, I’ve sold 14 eBook copies on Smashwords, 37 eBook copies on Amazon, and 35 POD copies through Createspace/Amazon. With that, we raised roughly 180,-USD so far (Read on) »
Scientists are loathe to declare Nok a culture because they know so little about their economy, religion, or everyday life. One thing they are certain about is that the Nok people learned to forge iron 500-1000 years BC. Intensive research showed that they learned iron forging without learning about copper first. Scientists all over the world are still puzzled by this fact, and I find it absolutely fascinating. They are wondering if the Nok developed these skills independently or if they learned them from traveling smiths of other countries. I’m inclined to believe they learned it without help. Maybe, one of their gods taught it to them. *grin*
