Self-Published: H.H. Miller (@HHMillerBooks) 9 January, 2014 Official Author Websites: Facebook | Twitter Converse via: #InscriptionTour Available Formats: Trade Paperback and E-Book Page Count: 278
Acquired Book By: I was selected to be a tour stop on the “Inscription” virtual book tour through Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours. I received a complimentary copy of the book direct from the author H.H. Miller, in exchange for an honest review.I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Book Synopsis:
The year is 1851 and the Grand Guard is ravaging Mainland. Arrests. Floggings. Swift executions. Twenty-year-old Caris McKay, the beautiful heiress of Oakside Manor, is sent to live with distant relations until the danger has passed. It’s no refuge, however, as Lady Granville and her scheming son plot to get their hands on Caris’s inheritance with treachery and deceit.
Soon, alarming news arrives that the ruthless Captain James Maldoro has seized Oakside and imprisoned Caris’s beloved uncle. And now he’s after her.
Caris escapes with the help of Tom Granville, the enigmatic silver-eyed heir of Thornbridge. But when a cryptic note about a hidden fortune launches them on a perilous journey across Mainland, Caris and Tom must rely on wits, courage, and their growing love for each other if they hope to survive.
Filled with adventure, intrigue, and romance, Inscription will transport you to a historically fictional world you’ll never want to leave.
Author Biography:
H. H. Miller is the author of the novel Inscription, a historically fictional romantic adventure. In real life, she’s content director at Stoke Strategy, a brand strategy firm in Seattle, Washington, where she specializes in transforming what some might call “boring” technology jargon into compelling, readable, memorable stories. Her favorite escape is Manzanita, Oregon – a place of beautiful beaches, wild storms, chilly nights around the bonfire (even in July), and time to enjoy life with her husband and three children.
For more information please visit H.H. Miller’s Facebook Page.
On how I enjoy beginning a novel:
I am not sure the rituals other readers go through when they start to delve into a novel, but for me, I like to take a bit of time coaxing myself into the narrative hidden beneath the pages of the covers! I like to note the subtle definitive descriptions of the story on either the inside flaps of hardcovers or the back-covers of soft-cover editions. I like to take a nod and a pause to read the Acknowledgements, the Dedications, the Author’s Foreword, as well as see if the writer included a Table of Contents. This last habit is a bit remiss these days, but thankfully Inscription is the exception! Quite a lot can be found about a writer and their story prior to consumption, and what I appreciate the most are all the little hidden bits you can wander around a book and find! For instance, Miller likes to leave a bit of a trace of humour and intellectual curiosity for those who like me, are always a bit on a search for interesting words and turns of phrase. To include a scientific word I had not yet seen but knew was a nibbling of a clue of sorts was the kind of folly I cherish! For you see, a quick whirl of the One Look Dictionary Search I came to denote that the word ‘lepidopterist‘ is the particular person of interest who appreciates moths & butterflies!
My Review of Inscription:
The ominous beginning of Inscription left me murmuring about the atmospheric way a novel can transport us into that humming void of forethought and regret once we begin an adventure. Miller has the instinctive nature of writing a level of intrigue into her narrative that propels you forward, whilst yearning to see what shall happen next at the same time. Her deft skill is in giving such a vivid display of well-bodied characters set amongst the backdrop of turmoil. She eludes to the devastatingly brutal eclipse of a military state of fear all the while noting the charm of an Uncle’s love for his niece. Maddox and Caris are two characters you want to stand behind, due to the fullness of their heart and character.
I personally love to see authors knit in a proper dose of moxie into young female leads. To break the barriers and reveal the unique few who lived boldly in the 1800s. Pioneers so to speak who were rebels with the cause towards equality and the freedom to choose your own destiny as a woman. Care and attention was taken to have a flushed out back-story to weave together the in-between bits of Caris’s past. I love the broad and layered strokes Miller etches into the story-line. She makes reading Inscription a delight for the imagination. I truly celebrated her choice in giving her female lead the advantage over William Granville who is far more rake than gentleman! Even denoting this, Miller envelopes him with a dash of intrigue as he foolishly cannot make the leap as to how any woman can dismiss his advances. And in that bit of self-conceit, I always mirthfully feel a twitching in knowing an electric battle of the wills shall ensue!
Caris blessedly held her head and her carriage to an astute level of calm when facing down an adversary as thick and slick as William Granville. Her disdain for his reckless behaviour and his ill-wont attitude of elite privilege was never lost on her either. In never giving him the upper hand he craved she was slowly and calculating nibbing away at his ego. A trait that served her well as the danger started to heighten and her more immediate concerns turnt to survival.
The extenuating circumstances which led Caris to Thornbridge (relatives by marriage not blood) and away from her Uncle’s estate at Oakside Manor would reappear in her life to lead her back to the starting block. The entirety of her life was properly out of balance and sync with her heart, as she was running from danger from the moment she first left her Uncle. Danger has a cheeky way of catching up with you, as though a mark of its arrival is attached to you and only when you finally unravel the full scope of the deceit can you firmly step outside its reach.
Every inch of detail is set to the rhythm of events as they are unfolding for Caris; Tom William’s long-lost brother who returned home with quite the barrage of ill-justice attached to his heels. A motley crew of two seeking to find redemption and revenge on behalf of their circumstances and situations, they travelled together towards Oakside to see what if anything had become of Caris’s home. Whilst they travelled, I felt Caris was shedding her childhood skin a bit with each click of the horses hooves. She had become aware of her independence at Thornbridge surely, yet on the road back home she started to settle into her skin and realise this for herself. Part of reading her story felt like a woman on the verge of owning her own life, emerging out of a period of respite and entering into her future a bit stronger despite the grief of her adventure.
Inscription is told in three parts, much like a play on the stage. For all the entrances and exits, you find yourself so emerged into the story you struggle to re-adjust your eyes to the reality around you. It is a story enriched by courage, faith, love, and the determined grit to overcome all odds which become stacked against you. It is not for the faint of heart in some passages, as it does ruminate about the floggings (lashings by a cat-o-nine-tails) and the grisly vigilante murder by a lawman consumed by madness; but at the core of Inscription is the plight of one woman (Caris) and one bloke (Tom) finding their true destiny. And, that dear hearts is far worth the anguish of a few passages of turmoil! I devoured this text in one sitting as I could not bear to wait to know the outcome!
On Ms. Miller’s writing style :
Ms. Miller’s writing style reminds me distinctively of Jane Austen & Charlotte Bronté as she takes the best of what I love of both women’s style of the craft. She has picked up on the subtle grace of Austen’s observational narrative and of the beguiling atmosphere of Bronte. She has writ such an alarmingly brilliant drama that each page turn meant digging deeper into the suspense of the Granville family! In this, the joy of reading Inscription truly lay as it was within the layered threads of the Granville tapestry which beheld the best bits of intrigue!
Of course, one of the most startling revelations was in finding that William was a mere apple fallen too close to the tree! His mother Lady Granville was the spitting image of Danielle’s step-mother in Ever After! Where pride fell strong towards marital wealth and how the coffers of a family were paramount towards all other pursuits. As if the notion that wealth would bring true happiness rather than the gift of love providing true joy. Miller lets her readers think hard on the thematic she explores whilst giving a well-written story to be savoured.
I cannot wait to see what Ms. Miller writes next. She is one of the self-published authors who is re-defining the bar of excellence in self-publishing. Even the copy of the final draft was free of errors from my eyes!
Have you ever opened a book and begun to read what was inside its pages completely unaware of the story which would unfold? Only to realise that the story you are reading is writ in such a unique fashion, that your heart doesn’t want the pages to end? You want more of either this story or more titles by the author to consume next? This is how I felt as I read Inscription! It is even hard to describe *exactly* the kind of novel it is as at the heart of the story its a romance between two young twenty-somethings caught up in the middle of events that are beyond their control. Their harrowing journey is both towards each other and away from the danger others seek to see befall them. I could not take my eyes off the pages, as I loved how Miller elected to tell this story. Which book have you recently read which mirrored my own thoughts on this story?
{SOURCES: Inscription Book Cover, synopsis, tour badge, and HFVBT badge were provided by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours and were used by permission. Book Review badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Tweets embedded by codes provided by Twitter.}
Acquired By: I was selected to be a tour stop on the “The Tenor” virtual book tour through Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours. I received a complimentary copy the book direct from the author Peter Danish, in exchange for an honest review.I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Inspired to Read:
I was always keen to read & watch Captain Corelli’s Mandolin as it spoke to me at the time the film was being released. I never did get the proper chance to explore its story, but as I read about this book being hinged to history as it was lived I decided to take the chance now to read a powerful & evoking story of courage! I’m an appreciator of opera as well, and I find it rather keen that a singer was saved by one man’s selfless act to protect her!
Book Synopsis:
The Tenor is a sweeping tale of historical fiction in the style of Ann Patchett’s “Bel Canto” and De Burniere’s “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.” It swiftly moves from Pino Vaggi’s youth in pre-war Italy, to his coming of age as a soldier in war-torn Greece, before ending in a shattering surprise finale at Maria Callas’ historic final performance ever on the stage of New York’s Metropolitan Opera House in 1965. It is based loosely on the stories and anecdotes that I learned from several of Maria Callas’ personal friends and from nearly a dozen trips to Italy and Greece to research the subject.
Pino Vaggi is not like the other children in Italy in 1930. While they play soccer, he listens to opera. By age ten, he is already a child prodigy, an opera singing sensation on the fast track to a major international career. On the eve of his debut, WWII breaks out. The theater is closed. The season is cancelled. Pino is drafted. He is stationed in war-torn Athens, where he hears and ultimately falls in love with another child prodigy, the young Maria Callas. There is one major problem: she is the enemy.
However, as famine devastates Athens, (a famine created by the diversion of humanitarian aid meant for the Greeks to the Russian front to feed the German Army) the artist in Pino can’t fathom the thought of the greatest singer the world will ever know perishing, especially if he is in a position to prevent it. With a firing squad in the balance, he repeatedly risks his own life to protect and feed the young girl and her family. In the process, his love for her deepens, until something tragic happens – something with devastating consequences that blows the young lovers apart.
Author Biography:
Peter Danish is the Classical Music Editor in Chief for BWWClassical.com, the classic music site for BroadwayWorld.com,, covering and reviewing the classical music performance in and around New York City and the greater New York Area. A proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America, he is the playwright of the play: “Gods, Guns and Greed,” as well as the new musical: “The Flying Dutchman.” His writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Ad Age, Ad Week and Media Week Magazines.
Artistically Determined:
One thing I have always known about artists, is that they are artistically determined to make it on their own terms. Pino Vaggi in the story of The Tenor, is clearly one of those self-confident musical artists whose bold grit in succeeding in singing opera is what thrust him forward whilst his family was a bit less than certain of his choice. Coming from a family who supported my choices, whether I was pursuing art, science, or writing it’s hard to understand why other parents wouldn’t help their children reach for their own dreams. To pursue the gifts they were bestowed and to give them the courage to find their own voice and path. The hardest road an artist has is finding the ability to believe in the impossible because the mark of any artist is how willing they are to stay on their path whilst their road becomes muddled and difficult.
I appreciated the honesty of Pino’s character being painted as a young artist whose misguided brassy personality oft lended him to rows with his family but is his grace of voice gave him purpose from the darkness. Growing up in the age of looming war, the fact that Pino could keep a grip on his artistic soul is impressive.
My Review of The Tenor:
Danish has the ability to ease you into the story-line of The Tenor, by giving you a reason to hone in on Pino! First through recollections of his aromatic memories inter-related to chestnuts, and then, gradually as we start to see the underpinnings of his passion for opera emerge into place! I appreciated the intimate portrait of how a young Pino fell in love with the beauty of opera whilst caught up in a French rendition of Romeo & Juliet! His unexpected emotional connection to the voices and music was a pure joy to read. Music is evoking on such deep levels, each time we individually listen to opera or another form of music, a part of us is transformed; altered for the performance in which we took in. I remember vividly how I felt whilst listening to orchestrations and symphonies as a child, how the music washed over me and inside me at the same time. You become a part of where the musicians are leading you as music is one art form which transcends outside of itself to a greater purpose.
The setting in which Danish places his novel comes alive with the full breath of Italian countryside living lit inside the sturdiness of the people who lived there. He envelopes the story around the everyday interchanges of Pino’s townespeople, whilst giving a greater scope to the impending war between Italy & Ethiopia. Politically charged, we get inside the mind-set of Pino’s father’s beliefs as much as the harrying realities of Italy in the early decades of the 20th Century. The tug-of-war between Pino’s teacher and himself gave a clear view of how you have to develop strength whilst your young to be brave in hours you feel the least able to stand up for yourself. His teacher pushed him past where he felt he could take his voice because his belief in his abilities was paramount to where he viewed Pino could strive in the future to succeed as a tenor.
War is such a heavy hand to be dealt when your young, and seeing the beguiling ignorance and diffidence towards those who are different weighted on Pino’s shoulders and heart. I can imagine that whilst he struggled to find a grasp on the changing world outside, so too were those who were dealing with countries being invaded and worlds being turnt upside down by World War II. Innocence evaporates when the world arrives at one’s feet. The war is very much a part of the story, but only as a backdrop to the whole. In this, I am grateful to Danish, whose sole focus in on Pino.
A tightrope of a dance between Maria (Callas) and Pino grew out of their affection for opera and the innate gift bestowed to both of them which gave them a tie to each other. They were each on the opposite side of the war, Pino was serving in the army and Maria was in Greece employed as a singer. Their lives were ill-fated to intersect at a point in their lives where tragedy and solace would find them. They carved out happiness within the shadows of a dictator’s reign and what they shared amongst them was fit with humour and the joy of singing. They understood each other in ways they both were transfixed by as it isn’t often you can meet someone who understands every inch of you without needing definition. As they each went their separate ways after the war, it show their fates ended up crossing once more that truly was remarkable.
Here is where truth and the shadows of history differ as the story is based on an unknown soldier who could not have survived the war. I think its a more befitting story for Pino to have survived the war and survived in the way he had, as it hardened his character a bit with worldly experience. To think there was a Pino who lived long enough to effectively save Maria Callas is the most incredible part of the story! Where one life is given in order to ensure the freedom of another. And, for Pino his life took an alternative course which would have endeared him to his teacher who gave him the best insight into how to live a life full of worth.
The beauty of opera is revealed:
Peter Danish gives a wonderful introduction into opera, which will satisfy the novice appreciator as much as the devouted follower. The vulgarity used in the story is relegated to the blights of war and thus, are not something I would flinch over as war is war, and the most shocking of realities for all men is being caught up in the face of war. What exits one’s lips whilst a chest is heavy with confliction over the impending approach of a World War arriving at your door is not a mark against language or story; but a notation of how those who lived might have reacted themselves. His writings inside the novel read as part travelogue and part historical remanent of a past most of us might not have recovered without this story.
The Tenor by Peter Danish Book Trailer by Peter Danish
{SOURCES: “The Tenor” Book Cover, synopsis, and tour badge were provided by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours and were used by permission. Book Review badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. The book trailer by Peter Danish had either URL share links or coding which made it possible to embed this media portal to this post, and I thank them for the opportunity to share more about this novel and the author who penned it. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination.}
An eruption of blog posts throughout the blogosphere are going *live!* in different intervals throughout April Fool’s Day, and this isn’t a prank nor a joke! This is a world-wide globally connected blogosphere challenge where each blogger who signs into the participant linky is quite literally confirming their express desire to blog straight [except on Sundays!] for *26 Days!* whilst writing *26!* most intriguing & thought-producing alphabet essays! Or, to be comically inspiring, randomly cheekily, and otherwise delightfully entertaining! The bloggers who have signed into the challenge are from all walks of blogosphere life: book bloggers united alongside lifestyle gurus; writers of all literary styles nudged up against travelogues; the gambit runs the full course of each and every theme, topic, subject, and genre you could possibly light your heart with joy to broach in a blog! And, the curious bit to the journey is where your posts lead you as much as where other blogger’s posts inspire you! It’s this fantastic community to celebrate the spirit within the blogosphere as much as the spirit of connection amongst the bloggers who might not have crossed paths with each other otherwise. After all, the road map for blogs is as wide and large as the actual world outside the nethersphere of websites, pixels, and memes! Walk with us whilst we discover a bit about ourselves, our blog, & each other!
I am blogger #552 out of 2155!
One quick tour around Jorie Loves A Story, and the new visitor will notice that I am a bookish girl bent on literary excursions which encourage my spirit as much as they challenge my perspective of what I have learnt thus far in my life. Literature by definition is a self-guided and self-evolving process of gaining knowledge through books and ruminations of those who walked before us, imparting their words and tangible thoughts to the page. I truly do “blog books!” and I am most esteemed to say “I <3 Fiction” as the badge to the right expresses quite definitively! Yet, how does a book blogger translate the rhythmic murmurings of her wandering compass when there isn’t a fixed point of entry or landing point? How to encase within a blog challenge to relate what motivates her and what excites her beyond the girth of what is deemed plausible!?
I tend to move like a dancer through genres, as what motivates me is the inertia of magnetism that draws my eye, heart, and mind into a particular setting, time period, locale, and character sketching… that vortex of suspension in-between first finding a book that whets your fancy and drinking in the words that will either leave you blissfully entranced or ruminative about where the writer was intending to take you.
For you see I truly am passionate about the art of discovering new authors and the legacies of their words left to the world to find them. There is an electric pulse to seeking out a bookish tome of joy, especially if your heart holds within it a heavy attachment to wordsmiths and world-builders whose narratives jump you straight out of your chair and into the heart of their stories. Where time itself is eclipsed by the overwhelmingly familiar experience your about to engrave inside you through sensory registers you were given. To soak into a character’s shoes to the brink of attaching a piece of them to your DNA and vice versa. We take bits and bobbles of light along with us for where we tread next along the labyrinth pathways of literature. Wanderlust abounds because it only takes the impetus of a notion of seeing a title, an author’s name, a book’s cover-art or the premise winking at you from off the shelf to whet your palette of interest towards reading its story.
Each book which settles itself into my mind’s eye whereupon it fixated itself and has become a part of me, will be rendering a new chapter of my collective memory. A story of which has etched itself a remnant piece of my journey as I continue to make an onwards advance towards my next literary find. The books featured here are the ones that left me with a hitching in my chest, a murmuring in my soul, and a thankfulness in my heart. Books like these are to become the cherished friends that sit upon a bookshelf ready for a second conversation and visit.
Story-tellers of whom engage with their audience in such a clever way as to give them a sampling of a taste of their collective work OR even a breath of an introduction to enliven the imagination of their readership is one step I’ve taken towards embracing the world of “A N T H O L O G I E S“!! And, yes dear hearts, today’s Letter A which I cheekily enscribed as a reference “Day1 is 1APR (Not a Foolish Day!) A is for?” whilst announcing today’s post via Twitter is a winking nudge towards the fact I posted ‘two’ new posts today which curate the essence of the “Letter A”. The first of which is “ANDRA Watkins” on behalf of her debut novel “To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis“ and the second of which is the post your reading right now!
A N T H O L O G I E S are little dirths and dots of curiously broaching short stories! They give us a nibblement of an idea, whisk us away into this alternative realm and properly deposit us back to whence we started long before we were ready to make our exit! I had always become curious about anthologies but as to where to alight my hat within its vast vault of choice was beyond daunting! My first notion was to sink into the mystery genre before approaching the science fiction & fantasy genre anthologies! My thinking was based upon my enjoyment of the Agatha Christie omnibus editions of her stories! You could gather a heap of Christie inside of a hardback volume of joy, let me tell you! It was Christie who inspired my heart towards having murder & suspense on my brain as a youngster because I was forever engaged on bated breath to see ‘who’ was guilty and of ‘whom’ would catch the nefarious deviant criminals! You might be surprised to realise then, my first ‘A N T H O L O G I E S exposure’ came on behalf of: Regency Christmas novellas & novella collections of inspirational romances from Barbour Publishing! At least, this is where my memory alights as being the first time I realised I was reading an anthological collection of short stories! I am in love with the aspect of creating a dramatically splendid experience out of the smallness of space in which ‘shorts’ are notorious to be inhabited. My personal writings in fiction are too akin to breadth and depth of expression to suit the needs of a proper short story, but its the joy I have pulsing through me as I endeavour to read the works of others which captivates the fullness of my attention!
Whilst being a book blogger, I am finding the wide sea of anthologies mingling around the bookish sphere of choice isn’t quite as difficult to unearth as I once feared! In fact, oft-times I am finding anthologies are starting to become quite the choice of publishers to either offer as a review option or they place them on a blog tour to help introduce the timid anthology readers like me take a small step towards embracing their mirth! I say ‘timid’ here as a way of expressing that because I struggle to get the words to fit within a confine word count limit, I sometimes notice my mind ‘over-thinks’ itself to death whilst I read! Instead of simply appreciating the experience of the story, my ferret of a head is trying to augment how the writer elected to make the choices she or he did to keep the story alive yet without the girth of a novel to anchor its dimension. In this, I find anthologies extraordinary!
The first anthology which crossed my path was “Chronicles of Ave: Volume 1” by Stephen Zimmer, published by Indie publisher Seventh Star Press. This collection of which fronts a curious dragon in flight on the cover illustrative plate is a map of sorts for a new visitor of the Ave world to become acquainted with key characters and uncover little nuisances of where the larger tome of the book series “Fires of Eden” will take the reader. Zimmer expands fully to encase certain elements of where a previously published portion of Ave might have been edited for length or content, but within his Chronicles he can re-examine, re-define, and re-explore those moments of Ave which deserve to have their light shined on their own.
He parlays his fervent passion for research by interspersing what he uncovers into the tapestry by which Ave is threaded against! It’s a world that encompasses as many distinctively unique cultures, traditions, spirituality’s, and languages as our own living counterpart, and yet, it has something to give back to us as well!
It’s quite apparent at first reading that Ave is a world that you can gently enter into but its a world that draws a breath of dedication with each glance! The further you walk inside Ave, the more you want to know, the more you want to experience, and the more your drawn to wonder about the extensive scope of the stories that prompted this collection of shorts, which marks a transition through a lesser notation of them in the serial installments already known! Bits and bobbles of undercurrent histories stitched into the under threads, that give a larger impression of the story on a whole! OR, at least this is what I imagine to be true!
Second out of the gate in my newly minted exploration of anthologies was the incomparable “Writers Workshop of Science Fiction & Fantasy” edited by Michael Knost. I felt as though I was sitting down with the collected writers who gathered to inspire other writers’ within their genres and outside them with the encouragement needed to boldly dare to pursue their craft! Writers sometimes forget that the one bit that is most important is the totality of belief in their imagination and their writing. Writers need to remember to ‘own their work’ and refute disbelief whilst pushing ahead when odds stack against them like ricochet hail at the tail end of a severe storm! Negative electrons are everywhere in life, but if we refuse to accept defeat we will always walk out the other end with a level of grace and knowledge of how to proceed forward on a better leaf than the prior! The anthologies which attract me to read are not limited to fiction, as I have always had a piqué curiosity of the writer’s craft.
And, it’s within this boiling and brewing of ideas where I gather my energy for the story about to transfer out of my mind’s vortex and unto the written page! To take a thread of an idea, nurture it into being and then, allowing the freedom of the idea to transition and transmorph into its full-bodied existence of what its meant to be is a writer’s realised dream. Nibblements of ruminations sprinkled throughout a lifetime of experience and adventure start to ink out into our imagination. Transcending both time and memory, as pieces of ourselves are wrangled into the lifeblood of our characters! Being a writer is akin to being a nurturer of ideas and of ideals. We take our observations from our living realities, and pour our heart into our works attempting to yield a story that others might find palatable. I say ‘might’ find as I am one writer who writes the stories which flow through her rather than write a story which is hinged to a specific audience or topic. We (writers) all hope that the momentum and passion we have for an idea will garnish itself a foothold in a reader’s queue. Perhaps even, enlighten their outlook or perception, but moreso than naught, to give them a hearty piece of narrative which leaves them pensively grateful for the idea which started the words to fill the page!
I was transfixed and inspired as you can see by the inertia of what was being revealed inside this anthology! What made my heart flutter the most are the topics & subjects explored by the writers who contributed to the anthology were giving advice across the literary divides! The advice was not limited strictly to science fiction and fantasy, although in some instances they were given direct instances of how to write a story in this particular world of vision; but any writer could eek out the lessons of the writer’s craft itself. Enabling all writers to feel a bit more motivated and uplifted for the time spent inside its pages!
Is editing an anthology more difficult than writing a book? If so, why? And, how did you coordinate the sections of Writers Workshop on Science Fiction and Fantasy in such a way that the previous writer melded into the next’s topic?
Knost responds: Each has its own difficulty, and each has its own strengths. As an editor, I am tasked as a conductor, seeking to keep the whole in a harmonic state, which sometimes can be nearly impossible. Where the writer is concerned about his or her solo, the editor is concerned about the entire piece. Just as each song is different, so is each anthology or collection, and because of that, each is structured by going with one’s heart. As for WWOSFF, I assigned the particular element of the craft of which I wanted each writer to focus. And I planned the layout while in the assignment stages, which evolved somewhat.
On 8th April, I will be posting my first book review on behalf of Indie publisher Xchyler Publishing, which is “Moments in Millennia” a fantasy anthology of futuristic fantasy set against the continuum of time and space! I found Xchyler Press through a tweet posted by Marian Allen, which led me to the discovery of “A MidSummer Night’s Steampunk” by Scott E. Tarbet. Whilst browsing the catalogue of choices on their website this particular A N T H O L O G Y stood out to me. I was intrigued by the concept of allowing each writer the freedom to answer the thesis of thought in their own methodology of choice.
I had the honour of interviewing Ms. Penny Freeman
who is the Editor of the A N T H O L O G Y.
We had an excellent exchangement of conversation surrounding its creation:
In regards to book trailers, I was quite impressed with the motion picture quality of “Moments in Millennia” where the undercurrent score and cut-away sequences where the broadcast is nearly being cut-off draws the reader into the scene. The vortex of how ‘time’ itself draws a circle around the necessity of ‘now’. Of being in a position to react and effectively impact the state of ‘what is happening right this instant’. How as an editor did you draw a stitching of continuity inside the anthology, where stories were brought together whilst giving freedom to the writers to explore the premise in their own vision?
Freeman responds: The continuity is a product of several different factors. The first, of course, is the theme we set. When we come up with something we think might spark the imagination (in this case, back to the future), we announce it as part of our writing competition. Writers will often ask us exactly what we mean by that. Our answer is always the same: what does that mean to you?
This particular project was interesting to me in that so many of the entries (and ultimately the winners) focused on dark scenarios. Going in, I rather expected some fun fantasy romps, and I think the fact that we didn’t have anything of that nature reflects society’s outlook as a whole. We seem to be a rather cheerless bunch at the moment.
The next influence is our judging algorithm. Because each individual judge has their own likes and dislikes, the stories that suit their aesthetic will rank higher, so that tends to influence the overall outcome. Finally, the editorial process itself plays a significant role. We look at the entries as first drafts, and then we work with the authors to polish their work. Because the same content editor works with every author, that influence is felt within each story.
For instance, I like stories to get inside people’s heads and ask questions: how do situations and events affect the characters emotionally; what are the ramifications of an event? My mantra: dig deeper! Another editor may have wanted more emphasis on technical details or more “atmosphere”. The editor’s own “what does this mean to you” comes into bear and becomes that consistent thread that runs through everything.
Thank you for giving me such a beautiful insight into the production of “Moments in Milliennia”, as the scope of the project is as multi-dimensional as I had forethought it might have been! I do agree with you on the ‘dark undertones’ throughout the anthology itself, as I was quite curious when I first picked it up to read on how each writer surprised me in turn by giving me a revelation inside their story I had not expected to find after having read their individual premises. I believe its going to the heart of what you revealed yourself: there is an undercurrent in our society for focusing more on the dark than the light; even if those of us who are reading fantasy have a penchant for seeking out the light at each possible turn! For without the Light, where then do we find the Hope!? Yet. Despite this, the anthology gave me numerous sociological implications to ponder about and for that, I give the writers credit for taking up the bold challenge of answering your submission call in a way which will stand out to the readers who pick up the anthology!
Likewise, I am quite eager to find A N T H O L O G Y which will help introduce me to Steampunk, as I am approaching it from a historical fiction reader’s point-of-view as I described in this Question to Mr. Tarbet:
Being that you’re a history enthusiast, I noticed that you inserted 12 historically known characters into your story. Do you feel you’re creating a new niche in steampunk which might be considered historical steam? Where those who appreciate historical fiction might find themselves crossing over to reading your stories due to the nature of how much history you’ve woven into the background?
Tarbet responds: Nice term, that: historical steam. I like it. It captures A Midsummer Night’s Steampunk very well in its “something for everyone” essence. And by ‘everyone’ I mean ME. I believe that an author worth reading will be writing something that they would want to read themselves. For me that means having way more than one element to any story. Mine always have at least two of three, sometimes more. A Midsummer Night’s Steampunk has Steampunk, Shakespeare, and alternative history. I would want to read it. It tickles me pink that other people find it a satisfying blend as well.
Within the hours leading up the A to Z Challenge, I was presented with a chance to host a blog tour for an inspirational devotional from the perspective of a woman who has rescued cats and observed lessons of life etch out of her time in their role as caregiver. I always knew the animals who become our companions hold a very special place in our hearts as much as in the corner-most spot of our spirits. They endear us to grounding ourselves into the pureness of love, acceptance, and friendship. The world is oft-times a jaded askewed place to inhabit and with the companions of those whose innocence block out the shade, we find ourselves softened and affirmed by their grace.
I wanted to take part in this tour because I have always enjoyed snippets of inspiring stories shared through the Chicken Soup for the Soul series such as “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Devotional Stories for Tough Times: 101 Daily Devotions to Inspire & Support You in Times of Need” by Susan M. Heim & Karen C. Talcott of which I mentioned in my review of “The Prayer Box” by Lisa Wingate. I want to wander through the pages of more non-fiction titles as time progresses forward here on Jorie Loves A Story. There is such a beautiful gift in knowing the world of A N T H O L O G I E S is not limited to a specific definition of context. They are merely a representation of a collection of stories and writers uniting together for a common purpose. Sometimes they are not even stories in the traditional sense. They can transmorph into life lessons, antidotes of memory, and affirmations of how to strive towards a well-balanced life within the light of tomorrow’s dawn.
Anthologies are lightning inside the ether, one spark of imaginary bliss, can ignite a fever pitch for quantitative consumption!
– Jorie, of Jorie Loves A Story
I am happy to share with you the book covers of three Seventh Star Press A N T H O L O G I E S I am most anxious to see hit the book blogosphere by storm! Their press releases on the Seventh Star Press blog are directed on their titles. I am hopeful to take part in their virtual tours and I look forward to your return visit on the 8th of April for “Moments in Millennia” as well as watching my Bookish Eventspage or my Twitter feeds to see when the forthcoming A N T H O L O G I E S on tour will alight here! When you click over to read about the stories contained inside them you will realise why I am as excited about them as I am!
A bit of an extra surprise for those A to Z Challengers
who patiently awaited my “Letter A”:
Moments in Millennia : A Fantasy Anthology Book Trailer byXchyler Publishing
Thank you for joining me on DAY 1 | A to Z Challenge!
I am a girl named Jorie who loves a story!
I am a bookish library girl on a quest for literary enlightenment!
I am predominately self-taught and library educated!
I am Mademoiselle Jorie!
Thank you for joining me on this journey!
This marks my first post for the:
And, might I add as an observation on Day 1?
Bless A to Z Challenge for giving me a way to explore my writerly muse! I want to take a moment to *wave!* a bit to my new visitors from the following countries:
United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Greece, India, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, South Africa, France, & Switzerland! I thank you for dropping by either yesterday on my 1st Blogoversary OR today my first A to Z Challenge!
Would you lament the same as I do?! The brilliance of the revolution of anthologies is to give us a bit of a teaser of a taste of a writer’s style? What do you appreciate the most from reading anthologies!? And, like me, do you ever notice your being pulled towards one author moreso than another!? Do you follow-up your readings of the ‘shorts’ by expanding your knowledge in seeking out full-length novels by the writer who you were hungrily consuming in the collection!? Which writers are most beloved to you right now were originally discovered in an anthology? And, which anthologies do you gravitate to purchase, borrow from the library, or simply sit in a coffeehouse attached to a wicked sweet Indie bookshoppe and peruse!?
{SOURCES: A to Z Challenge Participant & Letter A Badge provided by the A to Z Challenge site for bloggers to use on their individual posts & blogs to help promote the challenge to others.”I Blog Books” badges by Parajunkee Designs is a free resource provided for book bloggers. Cats Are Part of His Kingdom Too devotional tour provided by Editing Through the Seasons and used with permission. Book covers provided by Tomorrow Comes Media & Xchyler Publishing for promotion and review on Jorie Loves A Story; used with permission. The book trailer by Xchyler Publishing had either URL share links or coding which made it possible to embed this media portal to this post, and I thank them for the opportunity to share more about this novel and the author who penned it. Post dividers & My Thoughts badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination.}
{: Peter Danish is welcomed to Jorie Loves A Story :}
Peter Danish is the Classical Music Editor in Chief for BWWClassical.com, the classic music site for BroadwayWorld.com, covering and reviewing the classical music performance in and around New York City and the greater New York Area. A proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America, he is the playwright of the play: “Gods, Guns and Greed,” as well as the new musical: “The Flying Dutchman.” His writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Ad Age, Ad Week and Media Week Magazines.
I am honoured to welcome Mr. Danish to Jorie Loves A Story on my very *first!* blogoversary! Today marks the day I created a WordPress account & started the foundation of what you see now. What better way to celebrate the joy of being a book blogger for twelve-months than to showcase a début novelist who dug out of the recesses of history a story which etches out a courageous act of selflessness to inspire a story with such depth. An author I might add who shares my passion for ‘Magical Realism’ which is quite possibly the largest groupings of books I aspire to read for “The Classics Club”.
I even have “Winter’s Tale” sitting on my shelf and I fear I might run out of the hours to consume its loveliness before it needs to return to my local library! As I asked the questions on behalf of “The Tenor”, I was most impressed by the responses Mr. Danish supplied, as he gave us a breadth of knowledge for his writing style as much as how research can lend itself its own education for a writer. The historical significance of how one opera singer’s life intersected with a soldier and how the legacy of their actual lives and bond inspired the woman behind the Huffington Post is beyond remarkable! Let us pause from my celebratory mood and listen to his remarkable story of how “The Tenor” was created and given back to the world.
Book Synopsis:
The Tenor is a sweeping tale of historical fiction in the style of Ann Patchett’s “Bel Canto” and De Burniere’s “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.” It swiftly moves from Pino Vaggi’s youth in pre-war Italy, to his coming of age as a soldier in war-torn Greece, before ending in a shattering surprise finale at Maria Callas’ historic final performance ever on the stage of New York’s Metropolitan Opera House in 1965. It is based loosely on the stories and anecdotes that I learned from several of Maria Callas’ personal friends and from nearly a dozen trips to Italy and Greece to research the subject.
Pino Vaggi is not like the other children in Italy in 1930. While they play soccer, he listens to opera. By age ten, he is already a child prodigy, an opera singing sensation on the fast track to a major international career. On the eve of his début, WWII breaks out. The theater is closed. The season is cancelled. Pino is drafted. He is stationed in war-torn Athens, where he hears and ultimately falls in love with another child prodigy, the young Maria Callas. There is one major problem: she is the enemy. However, as famine devastates Athens, (a famine created by the diversion of humanitarian aid meant for the Greeks to the Russian front to feed the German Army) the artist in Pino can’t fathom the thought of the greatest singer the world will ever know perishing, especially if he is in a position to prevent it. With a firing squad in the balance, he repeatedly risks his own life to protect and feed the young girl and her family. In the process, his love for her deepens, until something tragic happens – something with devastating consequences that blows the young lovers apart.
When you first learnt of the soldier’s story, to where his survival was not evidenced, did you in turn try to dig through the archives to see if he had lived?
Finding the soldier himself after the war would have been an impossible task. According to the folks I spoke to in Athens, when the Russians ‘liberated’ the city, they were every bit as brutal and ruthless as the Nazis had been. They took no prisoners. So, in all likelihood, the soldier perished there. Even if he had not, immediately following the end of WWII, both Greece and Italy were plunged into civil wars. In the chaos that followed record keeping was not the first thing on peoples’ minds. And of course, there was no internet back then to do the research!
What touched you most about the story whilst giving you the breadth of creating “The Tenor”?
I originally learned the story of the soldier from Arianna Stassinopoulos (now more famously known as Arianna Huffington, of Huffington Post fame) and her biography of Maria Callas. But when I read a half dozen other accounts of her life, none of them mentioned him! So I sought out an old family friend who was a personal friend of Callas (actually a friend of my ex-in-laws – yes, I cared enough to reach out to my ex-in-laws!) He informed me that the story was indeed true, and not only had the soldier existed, but Maria had a school-girl crush on him! And that the two of them often sang together! The fact that they sang together struck me deeply. I just knew he had to be a fellow opera singer, because only another opera singer would have recognized the subtleties, the nuances that separate the good from the great and the great from the once-in-a-lifetime voices.
What was it like to interview friends who knew Maria Callas personally?
It was total joy. We sometimes forget that even the greats, the legends, were also just ordinary people. One acquaintance of hers said that she was actually brilliantly witty with a sardonic sense of humor, even quite ribald at times. Yet, watch all the video of her interviews and performances and you will never find any record, video or otherwise in which she is ever anything short of pure elegance. So, it was delightfully endearing to hear and learn about the person behind the diva.
Did anything stand out to you in those enquiries you had not yet stumbled across!?
Several things! But one thing that particularly struck me was how she hated wasting food. And allegedly would admonish dinner guests about “cleaning their plates”. In some sense, I suppose the lessons and the scars of the war and poverty were ingrained so deeply that they remained a permanent part of her. On the other hand it speaks of a person who in spite of all the diva antics, had a firm grip on what was truly important.
What captured your attention the most about the plausibility of Maria Callas being rescued by an unknown soldier?
That is a very good question! Callas mother became very friendly with several Italian soldiers and encouraged her daughters to be nice and cordially with them. Maria and Jackie would often serenade the soldiers in little impromptu concerts and the soldiers would respond with flour, rice, even the occasional bottle of wine – all in short supply to the Athenians. But the unknown soldier who sat beneath her window and listened to her night after night was especially interesting to me. He cared enough to risk his own life just to hear her sing, but he remained anonymous probably to protect himself from any consequences. Yet, Maria’s audacious disregard for the curfew was really reckless and possibly even suicidal. And in that regard, the young 17 year old girl showed infinitely more courage and moral fortitude than the soldier.
What draws your heart into stories set around the genre Magical Realism?
Magical Realism is possibly my favorite genre of fiction. Partly because it is so infrequently successful. In fact, I think you can probably name on one hand – maybe two hands – all the masterpieces of the genre – but those few, those happy few! Magical Realism is a style that is almost exclusively unique to the printed page and by extension to the mind’s eye of the reader. That makes it very special. The images that the mind conjures up while reading Mark Helprin’s “Winter’s Tale” or Gabriel Garcia Marques “100 Years of Solitude” still give me goosebumps just thinking of them years and years later. The first time that Athansor (Peter Lake’s horse) flies, I held my breath and almost forgot to start breathing again. The swarm of yellow butterflies from 100 Years of Solitude still brings a smile to my lips and tears to the eyes. The impossible and the implausible, the very laws of physics fall before the imagination and the craft of the author. That is what make Magical Realism so wonderful.
When you were a young boy what books drew your eye? And, what were your favourites?
I started reading very young and by the 3rd grade I had consumed most of Agatha Christie’s mysteries and all of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. Shortly after, Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels became an obsession. I still love a good detective story a good mystery, but in truth, even though there are now literally thousands of titles in that genre – and I’ve probably read several hundred of them – very very few stick with you. I was talking to a group of writers at a conference a while back and Dean Koontz name came up. He’s sold a gazillion books and made more money than God or the Rolling Stones, and I’ve probably read over a dozen of them. But as we speak, I could not tell you what even one of them was about. While I could tell you the plots of virtually every single Sherlock Holmes story ever written. For me, discovering Russian literature was the turning point. It happened in High School and the first novel was Anna Karennina. After that, it was Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment. Then I discovered Puskin and his verse novels. Finally came War and Peace – easily my favorite book of all time. I find myself quoting from it constantly, over thirty years after I first read it!
How young were you when you first started to write? Who was your best cheerleader?
In grammar school I wrote detective stories – and they were awful! I kept at it though and after a few years – they were still awful. They were sooooooo much harder to write than I imagined! My narrative style of writing didn’t lend itself at all to that style – still doesn’t. But that won’t stop me. I’m nearly done with my first mystery suspense novel as we speak. I’ll keep you posted on it! As far as cheerleaders, I never had any. I come from a family of accountants and they are all totally left-brained. It wasn’t until I met my wife, who is a voracious reader, that I had any encouragement at all. She is and has been my inspiration and my muse.
Opera evokes a lot of passion through vocal story-telling, did you find it difficult to translate this to the page?
Opera is a completely unique art form. It is largely people screaming at each other for hours – those are Luciano Pavarotti’s words not mine! But he’s right, it is almost completely unnatural yet there is something almost otherworldly in its beauty when its done well – a lot like Magical Realism! It’s really impossible to convey the emotion of an aria into mere prose. You try to augment with imagery and metaphors but it’s up to the reader to fully ingest and project their imagination. It was by far the hardest part in the writing of the book. How do you accurately and vividly describe someone singing? I hope I convey at least a small portion of the power and the passion of the music through my prose.
What was your favourite part of your research for “The Tenor”? Did one locality of travel stand out over the other?
The research for The Tenor was done largely in Italy and Greece. The book has three parts: part one takes place in Italy in the 1930s, in the breath-taking Appennine Mountains in the north. The second part takes place in Athens in 1941, when the Italian Army was the occupational force left behind by the Germans after the Nazis had overrun Greece. Part three takes place in New York City in 1965, amid Beatlemania, The World’s Fair, the Civil Rights Movement and most importantly to our story, the return of Maria Callas to the Metropolitan Opera after being banned for nearly a decade. Italy and Greece are almost indescribably beautiful and the research was pure joy. Italy of the 30s, where our protagonist grew up, is idyllic and the village where he was raised could be straight out of “The Sound of Music”. Athens, 1941, is the diametric opposite. There is rampant starvation, people begging in the streets, dead bodies piling up on the curb. The juxtaposition of the stunningly beautiful Italian mountain village against the horror of WWII Athens is critical to the story. Our protagonist, Pino, has led a charmed life in a magical place and suddenly finds his world turned upside down. He’s no longer an artist, he’s a soldier. The beautiful vistas have been replaced by starving children begging in the streets and the bodies of those who have starved to death littering the sidewalks. Pino is completely ill-equipped for this new world, this new reality. Meeting dozens of old folks who were there at the time, who had lived through the occupation was by far the most rewarding part of the research. I often played dominoes and backgammon in the parks with them for hours on end, and listened to their stories. They were priceless. In fact they were so special that I have incorporated many of the stories and even the people into THE TENOR. I have compressed several people into characters in the book. I think you will be able to figure out who are the real characters without too much difficulty!
What did you learn personally by writing this story?
The one thing that immediately stuck out in my mind was just how incomplete my education was. I think of myself as a student of history and I am a voracious reader of historical tomes, yet I had no idea whatsoever about half the things I learned during my research. Just to name a few, I did not know that the Russian’s had concentration camps. I thought that the Nazis were the only ones, but that was not the case. I met several old Italian men who were soldiers in the Italian Army that were captured and interred in camps. In addition, and most sadly, I never even heard of the “Great Famine of 1941” that took the lives of nearly a half million Greeks. Far more Greeks died of starvation during WWII than in battle. I never read anything about that in any of my history books.
Did the Callas family read the final draft? What were their impressions?
I didn’t send the manuscript to any of Callas’ relative because the book is first and last a work of fiction. And when people read historical fiction, the tendency is to examine historical accuracy down to the minutest detail. All of the characters in the book are fictional – although some are composites of several people and others are loosely based on real people. Just showing the manuscript to people who knew her was tough enough! Some said: “that’s EXACTLY what she would have said!” Others said: “she would NEVER say that!” So in the end, I had to allow my own imagination and intuition guide me.
Did writing “The Tenor” inspire you to seek out other unknown historical stories?
Writing THE TENOR did inspire me to research several peripheral historical stories. I am actually putting the finishing touches on my next novel – which takes place in Bosnia in the former Yugoslavia and it deals with the children who were seeing visions of the Virgin Mary during the war there. THAT was quite a research job! But that’s a story for another interview.
Describe your perfect day.
Here is a photo of ‘heaven’. My wife Sanela on the top of Bear Mountain (in NY) sitting under a tree, looking out at the valley, a cup of coffee and a good book! My perfect day: waking up just before dawn, making a thermos of fresh coffee and homemade bread, heading up to the mountains and sitting in the middle of nature with my coffee, my bread and a good book. Heaven.
I want to thank Mr. Danish for giving me such a wonderful reflective conversation on his intuitive writing style and for his appreciation of books and stories which fit under the spell of ‘Magical Realism’! I too, fancy biographical fiction and stories of this kind because they are not merely suspensions of reality and time itself which can become bent and yielded against the narrative, but they are glimpses into the possibilities which exist just past where our imagination circumvents the plausible! I am thankful his début novel was offered through Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours, as I might not have come to discover it as quickly as I have! My gratitude is his for giving all of us a lot to ponder about in his replies to my questions!
And, in closing I am thankful to all the dear hearts who have travelled with me on this journey! You entered my life on my blog’s birthday (6 August, 2014 or thereafter) but several of you supported me whilst I was in the process of going live! I appreciate your support and your willingness to give a new book blogger such a fantastic first year! For those of you who have been with me within the first seven months Jorie Loves A Story has been ‘visible’ I applaud you for giving my comprehensive approach to book blogging a nod of gratitude! I was originally going to post a reflective missive but decided this was better in the end! Why not march into the next twelve-months celebrating the joy of interacting with authors for without whom I would not have a blog! Their dedication to their craft and the stories they lit alive in our mind’s eye provide me with endless hours of appreciation!
Be sure to leave a note in the comment threads for Mr. Danish! I would be especially interested in hearing if your a regular reader of war dramas and if so, which particular war era draws your eye the most!? Do you appreciate stories which evoke a reprieve from reality and enter into the hidden dimensional space habituated by Magical Realism? Do you enjoy reading biographical fiction based on living persons or would you prefer to read a non-fiction piece instead? I welcome you to start a conversation in the comment threads and I look forward to conversing with you!
And, thanks for dropping by Jorie Loves A Story!
{NOTE: Similar to blog tours, when I feature a showcase for an author via a Guest Post, Q&A, Interview, etc., I do not receive compensation for featuring supplemental content on my blog.}
{SOURCES: The Tenor Book Cover, synopsis, and tour badge were provided by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours and were used by permission. I requested an Author Interview with Ms. Bruno to run in conjunction with my book review of “The Tenor” as I wanted to enquiry about the writer’s inspiration for conceiving the story! I received the replies in return from the author via Ms. Bruno. Author Interview badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs.}
Proposed Topic for B.R. Maul: As my first impression of “Passages, Portals, & Pathways” reflected this statement of excited anticipation: “Even before the reference to “The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe” (of which, I prefer the film over the book! ironically or not!) and “The Lord of the Rings” (on my Classics Club list of books to read!), I was simply hooked into the idea of Simon being chosen as a Guardian! I love stories which are stitched together like this, as I still remember being rapt in awe over “The Seeker: The Dark is Rising” (motion picture again – hadn’t realised it was a book!)!!” Therefore I knew I had to simply ask Mr. Maul about what prompted the impetus for his new Young Adult Fantasy series as much as the inspiration to tell the story therein!
I am thrilled as peaches to welcome B.R. Maul back to Jorie Loves A Story, after spotlighting a book showcase revealing all the important bits of information on his wicked keen début novel! As you most likely have garnished from my piece yesterday, his novel resonated with me as being one story I am most apt to read as soon as it goes into print! Which as they say, could very well be on the fringe of happening sooner than we all might realise! Due lend your support of which edition of preference you’d like to read his collective works within the comment threads on either post! Otherwise, tweet Mr. Maul directly, as that would be most kind on his inaugural blog tour! Let me yield now to his creative ear whilst he gives us an insight into his writer’s road towards publication!
}: Book Synopsis :{
When a portal to another world cracks open just outside the small town of Riverside, it sets off a series of events forever changing the lives of two boys; one boy is chosen to lead a world to peace while the other one is chosen to tear it apart.
Simon Whittaker lives an ordinary teenage life. That is until the most powerful ring in the land of Magnanthia chooses him to become its guardian. Overnight, Simon has had to flee from something trying to kill him, seen magical spells he had only read about in stories, and stepped into the most majestic world ever imagined.
Swept away to the fantastic world that’s in the midst of a brutal war, Simon must place his life in the hands of four unlikely travelers, a swordsman, ranger, cleric, and wizard, sent to lead him down the right path. While King Elderten has ordered death to Magnanthia’s nine guardians, the group he believes is responsible for the kingdom’s devastation, Simon remains the only hope for those who believe the guardians are innocent.
Meanwhile, Jak Jakobsin has been pulled through a portal by two of Bedlam’s undead scouts. Bedlam’s overlord plans to use Jak, along with his army of undead, goblins, and trolls, to build a force so powerful that Magnanthia will be his forever. “Portals, Passages & Pathways” is a story of our greatest journey, to discover our purpose in this life, and the consequences of the choices we make to get there. “In the Land of Magnanthia” is the first novel in the series and is complete just under 115,000 words. It’s told from the alternating viewpoints of Jak and Simon.
}: World-Building – The Land of Magnanthia :{
Magnanthia was pieced together, named, and expanded upon almost seven years ago. But her creation started over three decades ago. There is no mistaking it; Magnanthia is a compilation of my favorite fantasy worlds mixed together and then molded into a figment of the imagination.
The first time I was introduced to C. S. Lewis was between the pages of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. As a little boy I fell in love with an idea, an idea that walking through a wardrobe, a portal, could take me to a world where animals talked and magic was real. From that day forward, my childhood was filled with adventure! Every closet and closed-door was potentially a portal leading to a world of wizards, castles, and lost treasures. That’s all I had to do was find the portal and step into it.
I slowly side-stepped the narrow, fantasy fiction isle in my elementary school’s library. I was looking for a book to read. That’s when I stumbled upon J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. I opened the worn cover and looked at the table of contents. Chapter five’s title grabbed my attention; I had to know why it was so cleverly named “Riddles in the Dark.” I checked the book out of the little library and brought it home with me. Middle Earth, a world filled with dwarves, elves, hobbits, goblins, giant spiders, dragons, creatures of all kinds, and of course magic, began its contribution to the making of Magnanthia.
The discovery of a fantasy world where worthy travelers could become heroes exploring haunted castles, goblin-infested dungeons, and finding hidden gold and magic items, became my favorite pastime. My older brother took me and a good friend of ours into the spellbinding world of Dungeons & Dragons. My favorite character to play was a magic-user.
Later in life, years of working to pay the bills disconnected me from the beautiful gift of imagination. It was finding my way into the Great Hall at Hogwarts with Harry Potter that rekindled my love of stories and my passion for magical adventures. I found it refreshing Harry Potter and his friends lived in contemporary times, cloaked in a medieval backdrop with magic and wonderment mixed into the works. Harry, Hermione, and Ron were about midway into their schooling at Hogwarts when I realized what I had and what I needed to do. Magnanthia was almost tangible in my mind, along with a handful of characters who had already made Magnanthia their home. I needed to create; I needed to write the story.
In 2007, the year the Harry Potter series ended, Portals, Passages & Pathways was born. I love that parts and pieces of Lewis, Tolkien, and Rowling are embedded within the fabric that is weaving Portals, Passages & Pathways together. I hope readers around the world find it as easy as I have to fall in love with the characters, and are exhilarated in the land of Magnanthia!
I must confess, the one fantasy novel I had difficulty in soaking into was the precise fantasy series which inspired you to write Magnanthia! The Lion, The Witch, & the Wardrobe for me was greater appreciated in its motion picture adaptation over the printed word in which C.S. Lewis left behind! It was one of the first times where I noticed that I had trouble shifting into the heart of a narrative I already knew I would enjoy! Perhaps an early nod to realising that not every story is tangible to our hearts through our eyes, and that sometimes we have to seek out an adaptation of the story in a new medium in order to allow the merit of why the story was left behind to resonate with us fully.
On a similar vein, I was experiencing a reader’s rut (I am sure this will make most of my dear readers gaff with disbelief!) during the years of Harry Potter’s epic adventures at Hogwarts, yet I was the happy spirited twenty-something who felt as though she had a renewed childhood whilst wandering off into the local movie-houses on release days, weekends, and even at midnight releases! Ah, yes, young Harry Potter will forevermore hold a special niche in my heart! His stories I know I will appreciate on long cold Wintry nights, where the blizzards are howling and the warmth of his character and friends will guide me from one book straight-through to the startling conclusion! These are the types of fantasy series I long to unearth and discover,… as I was reflecting yesterday fantasy gives us such a beautiful window into fantastically honest worlds where characters are able to do things that modern contemporaries are oft-times limited in achieving. Fantasy of today are the fables, folk, mythological stories of an ancient age. Sage advice wrapped inside a heroic adventure!
The fact that your sharing the kernels and seeds of inspiration behind Magnanthia is a credit to your own character and bold confidence as a writer, as often you will find new authors a bit hesitative about discussing their craft and progress towards getting the words onto paper rather than being stored inside their imaginations! I always felt that the best gift the writing community has given all writers through the generations is the ability to reach out and connect with each other! The sharing of knowledge, of strife and of joy, all the tools in which are needed to encompass a novel’s birth and straight-through back over the day-to-day journey of what a writer on the verge of discovery is experiencing! Bless you for being open and responsive!
Alas, I kept Tolkien for my concluding thoughts, because I fear before I sit myself down to read Middle Earth (in the Order of Middle Earth — inclusive of the Histories!), I am always going to be on the brink of relaying my total thoughts as once more, I yielded to the adaptations, this time through the grace and eloquence of Peter Jackson whose capturing finesse for the extraordinary world which is Middle Earth left me forever changed afterwards! The depth of the narrative is hard to not lay a pensive thought upon each installment’s endings, and yet, it’s the capstone of what pulls each of us into our own stories. By allowing us not to limit our potential or the girth of the final draft, in which lies our epic tales!
The genre-bender aspects of Harry Potter were not lost on me either, and I only had hoped in some of the bits of the films (as I presumed they were reflective of the stories) they could have held the tradition of their clothes a bit more, but I respected the fact that it was a modern story lit inside as you say a world of yesterday! Being a Dragon Master and player you might want to read my recollections of gaming on my Virtual Blue review! Congratulations for holding onto your world and for being daring enough to build the story in the hours and moons long after it was originally breathed into life!
Similar to blog tours, when I feature a showcase for an author via a Guest Post, Q&A, Interview, etc., I do not receive compensation for featuring supplemental content on my blog.
Kindly post notes in both B.R. Maul comment threads, discussing what you enjoy about Young Adult Fantasy series! Leave behind a reflection of how you started to read fantasy series and novels, and what you are hopeful to find inside this new one by a Mid-West writer! All comments are welcome, short or long! I look forward to reading your thoughts & engaging with you afterwards! Remember to come back to see my responses! And, the author himself might surprise you with a reply as well!
+ Open Invitation for Book Discussion +
+ 28 March, 2014 +
Author B.R. Maul has expressed a desire to converse with readers who pick up “Portals, Passages, & Pathways” to return to Jorie Loves A Story giving all of us a hearty discussion about the life lessons & attributes of each of the character’s arc which translated directly into the reader’s heart! I am hoping to read a print copy of the story myself one day, and therefore, this is an Open Discussion Post where the comment threads will be waiting for you to return & share your experiences & thoughts about the story as you read it! I look forward to hearing your recollections & to dig a bit deeper into the heart of the narrative!!
{SOURCES: Book Cover art for “Portals, Passages, & Pathways”, B.R. Maul photograph and book synopsis were provided by JKS Communications Literary Publicity Firm and used with permission. I requested an Author Guest Post via Samantha Lien at JKS on behalf of B.R. Maul’s new Young Adult Fantasy series Blog Tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs.}