Friday 26 July 2013

Teresa Garcia Author Interview

As part of Double Feature Friday, I have also been catching up with author Teresa Garcia about her work. So let's get started!

1) Can you start by telling readers a little about yourself?


A: I’m in my early 30’s and living with my two children and my daughter’s service cat Lightning. My son was diagnosed with autism very young and my daughter recently found out that she is allergic to wheat and a protein very specific to cow dairy, which has resulted in changing her entire diet and trying to get my son to eat the same diet. Getting him on a wheat and cow-dairy free diet is not always successful. He’s not very fond of goat and sheep cheese, and definitely does not appreciate goats milk!


I’m also a student at the American Public University System looking forward to the last semester or two of my International Relations Bachelors Degree program specializing in Asian Studies. The next step there will be going for a Masters and then a Doctorate since I want to be a university professor when I ‘grow up’.


Geology and specifically volcanology have been lifetime loves along with skiing and writing, and I still collect rock samples. Agates are a favourite as there are so many varieties. I also help administer and write quests for the online role playing game Dragon Hearts, edit for both UK and American English, do a little artwork, publish, and write into the wee hours of the night. I play text based role play games with my long-distance mate when I’m not writing, wrangling children’s schedules and my schoolwork, and trying to spend fun time with the kids. What white hairs I’ve got I’ve earned, especially as a few years ago my kids almost lost me to some weird health problems.


2) Can you tell us how you got into writing? 


A: I don’t remember how I got into writing. When I was around two my parents and foster/adoptive (on dad’s side) grandparents kept me entertained by giving me pads of paper and pens. That probably kicked off my love of both art and writing.



My grandparents and dad used to tell me about the different countries they had visited, and if there was no book around it was torture. Everywhere I went, someone had a book. I started getting serious about wanting to be an author and poet in middle school. My classmates can probably tell stories about all the scribbling in class I did on up through high school. 


I can remember classmates reading over my shoulder, sometimes to find really crummy stream of consciousness poems, art, and at other times bits of The Shadow Chronicles (still not ready) in pink ink. Right now though I’m taking a break from the Dragon Shaman series and the O’Drake/MountainChild families to write Selkies’ Skins and the Makay family adventures for my mate.



3) Can you tell us about your book. What's it about?


A: Dragon Shaman’s story is actually going to be spanning several books; I originally thought the story likely to cover around eight books. The series will be following Blowing Wind’s multicultural family and their involvement with the worlds of spirits and of magic intersecting the mundane world, so there are several plots that have to be covered.



The first book introduces us to Blowing Wind, who is half Apache and half Irish, and expects to pursue a career in environmental geography to serve her local spirits, mankind, and satisfy her shamanic roots. Her spirit guide meets an untimely end, or so one would think, but in following him after that we actually get to explore spirits and the possibilities for reincarnation, and starts Blowing Wind on her quest for healing and to fulfil a destiny that she’s not quite sure of. The next books explore how she came to be and the overlapping life missions of her family while also following her growth as a human and as a shaman.


The first book is currently going through the process of having a new cover made. Victoria Davis did the artwork for Dragon Shaman Book Two: The Smoky Mirror, so she is doing the new cover for Dragon Shaman: Taming the Blowing Wind so that the art and branding will match. I’m sitting on the new cover’s lineart as I’d like to release that along with the new cover in full at the same time. I will say that the new cover is already looking far better than the acrylic painting that I did back in the 2000’s.


4) What inspired you to write a story like this? Are the characters based on anyone you know?


A: My father grew up adopted but unaware of that fact until he was 17 or 18 and ran away, taking back his birth surname. After this and a few tours of Asia in the army he wanted to reconnect with his family and his roots. 


His time in Asia gave him a high respect for the Asian religions, especially as expressed in Japan, and during a tour on Okinawa he got to help with a torii reconstruction, and this is partly responsible for my interest in Shinto and Okinawa even though I was not born then. 


Dad’s interest in reconnecting with all aspects of his heritage and in opening access to the heritage that came to my brother and I through my mother’s side led into a lot of trips in my youth to various places of Native American importance and several reservations.


I got my first dream catcher from an old Sioux. I still wonder if he was really Coyote. As I grew and explored spirituality of the world religions I noted a lot of similarities between Native American and Asian spirituality and shamanism. 


I have my theories about why, and that’s something I plan to work into the storyline of the series. It also helps that I grew up near Mt Lassen and Mt Shasta, and that the hot spring across from my childhood home once attracted several tribes to that valley for their summer camping and for religious and healing purposes. It was an honour to grow up where I did and to receive some of the dreams I did and to speak to various elders. I’m still very attached to that land.


5) Is there anything that you are working on at the moment and can you tell us a little bit about it?


A: Selkies’ Skins ties in just slightly with the Dragon Shaman series, since the O’Drakes are a known factor in that world. The Makay family is the product of a mating between a selkie and a fisherman with magical ability back in a very distant past. The most usual version of selkie tales has ended with the selkie wife gaining her skin back and running home to the sea. 


In my version Marsali never did, and the desire/need for skins of their own has passed down through her children. Mara, a sea goddess, and her sister (who has lost her name...it must eventually be found to restore her) make use of this unexpected turn in their own experiments with the evolution of their children in order to bridge a gap and fill a service for some of their Hidden Children. 


Through the ages the clan has had its ups and downs, of course, and the story itself focuses on Etain Makay and her services to her goddesses, and her daughter Kirsty (Kirsten) Makay who must gain her sealskin to become a full member of the selkie race and fulfil her to-be-inherited positions. Kirsty is... let’s say less than happy that she can’t choose for herself what to become and so plans to at least have some control over how she fills her role. There are a few other complications for her and she’s going to have to figure out how to balance some things.


That story is actually based in part on some role play games between my mate. There was a large gap that just begged for a story to explain how some things happened between certain points in time and to explain the character changes. 


I am influenced by many areas: mythology, folklore, modern fiction, and classic fiction. Influences are impossible to avoid, especially with how much I love to read, and some of the mythology and folklore I am taking artistic license with, but the story is one that I’ve been waiting to tell but needed the right setting and inspiration to finally get out. 


My poor mate probably had no idea what he was unleashing considering I was overloaded at the time by schoolwork and it had been very negatively impacting my progress with the third book for Dragon Shaman. He’s reading along as I serialize the tale. I just wish that I could see the expression on his face when this first book of Kirsty’s adventure is done.

Lucy Pireel Author Interview

Continuing with the author interview theme this week, I have been talking to author Lucy Pireel. Lucy likes to put a new, darker spin on classic fairytales, so this should be an interesting interview!


1) Can you start by telling readers a little about yourself?

I'm a woman. Not a very girly one, I must admit, but still a feminine kind of hiking, gardening, trying to bake a cake and cook up meals, writing person who loves yoga and teaches it to others too. (hahahaha, run-on alert!)

2) Can you tell us how you got into writing?

It was because of my son (yes, I am a mother too) who wanted pirate stories, but not those you find in traditional children's books. Things had to happen! The jump from stories for my son, to the things haunting my brain was easy to make.

3) Can you tell us about your book. What's it about?

Red Gone Bad is about those fairy tale heroines. Just don't expect any sweet smiles, (or do but expect that nasty side and be surprised at how nice girls can be really, really bad).

4) What inspired you to write a story like this? Are the characters based on anyone you know?

I love fairy tales and hated how a certain company turned them from the dark tales they originally are into the enamel cracking sweet sob stories. That had to be corrected. So I wrote my take on some classic fairy tales.

5) Is there anything that you are working on at the moment and can you tell us a little bit about it?

I'm preparing to put out another short story collection called Collected Death. Guess what kind of stories they are? It's currently being edited by a very good professional. And I'm working on correcting some errors in the manuscript of my first full length novel which I hope to be able to publish near the end of this year or early next year.

Red Gone Bad is available here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AFVTYDS
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/260239 

You can also find out more about Lucy by visiting http://lucypireel.com
or on her blog at: http://lucypireel.wordpress.com/



 

Friday 19 July 2013

Rebecca Odum Interview



Let’s kick things off by talking about you. What can you tell us?

I am a new author who grew up and still lives in a small town in Georgia. When I am not writing I love reading, singing and hanging out with friends. I also love watching TV and movies.
Can you tell us how you got into writing?

My love of reading and writing started at an early age. When I was little, my grandma used to take me upstairs to her attic. She’d tell me stories, though later I was the boss of said stories. Had I known how to write at age five I would’ve written them down and I firmly believe it’s my grandmother’s stories that made me fall in love with writing and telling stories.

Can you tell us about your book? What is it about?

My book is called Captured Minds and is the first of a two part series.
From the moment she could speak Raven has soaked up information like a sponge, taking the Upper Level graduation exam at age eleven. Misunderstood by her peers, she spends the next seven years helping in Zoar’s library. When she is selected to participate in a competition between Zoar and what everyone calls The Other World she is elated at the chance to finally bring some hope to a struggling Zoar.

Yet when Zoar’s ruler is killed unexpectedly, secrets start to emerge, beginning with a shoebox of letters addressed to her parents from a man residing in The Other World. Along with her sisters Ava and Kate and a team of new friends, Raven sets out to uncover the dark secrets hidden in the shadows of Zoar and to bring about a truth that will free two lands.

 
What inspired you to write Captured Minds? Are the characters based on anyone from real life that you know?

I have always loved books dealing with the mind and specifically if the mind and memories were altered somehow. I also loved the idea of creating my own world. I’d always wanted to do it and during finals my senior year in college (a really bad time to get a story idea, let me tell you) the idea for Zoar struck me. 

I’d been toying around with other ideas but settled on Zoar. The character of Raven is based off me in some ways. Though I don’t have the same struggles she does, I do know what it’s like to face challenges every day. I was born sixteen weeks early (that’s three and a half months) weighing one pound. I have an eye condition called ROP. It’s a condition that affects premature babies. 

I have limited vision in my left eye and none in my right. Though my visual impairment has presented challenges I am not one to give up. I have always enjoyed reading and writing about characters that I can relate to and Raven is no exception.

Is there anything you are working on at the moment and can you tell us a little about it?

I am working on the sequel to Captured Minds as well as a separate novel that I am having so much fun with. Title reveal for the sequel will come soon!

Rebecca can be found online at:


Twitter: @RaOdum

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RAOdum