Hallo, Hallo dear hearts and fellow book bloggers from the #AShapeOnTheAir tour!
You could say, I developed an affinity for stories evoking a strong visceral experience of time and the ways in which we can bend ourselves through different evolutions of being physically present in both the historic past and the present day world.
Throughout my tenure on Jorie Loves A Story, I’ve been exploring different variants of genre which seek out to explore how TIME can become a co-director of how a story is both shaped and told. I’ve walked through time shifts, time slips and time travelling narratives from year one into this tenth year of book blogging my bookish life. Each of the different styles of how time is proportioned throughout the story has become a fascinating jaunt through both historic and contemporary conversations about how our lives can become re-anchoured through time and the experiences we continue to shape as we live dimensionally rather than linear.
One of the recommended authors attached to the Dr Dulac series is a favourite author of mine as well: Christina Courtenay of whom was also a regular chatter of mine when I used to host @SatBookChat weekly rather than twice of month. I’ve had the pleasure of reading quite a few of her stories over the years and still have quite a few left to become lost inside. I have been a huge appreciator of her style of time narratives and the dramatic romances she creates inside them. On that note, when I realised she was mentioned in connection with this series, it was a footnote of knowing that I most likely would be able to walk into this new series with ease. As I am dearly familiar with her style and hoped that a similar one might be found in Ibbotson’s series, too.
Throughout this conversation with Dr Ibbotson, you’ll see how my questions led the conversation to discuss different aspects of the story and her ability to tell the story out of the research which gives her a lot of wicked good insight into the Anglo-Saxon past. I’ve previously read a few books about the Anglo-Saxon era and it is a time period that I am starting to explore more deeply myself through the stories I am finding in Historical Fiction.
I loved how she responded to my questions and enquiries but also, how I learnt quite a bit about how she’s written the series overall. It is a wonderful discovery for someone like me who likes a thinking man story and wants to have an intellectual reading experience rooted in wicked research.
And, without further adieu – enjoy the response Dr Ibbotson shared with us!
A Shape on the Air
by Julia Ibbotson
Can echoes of the past threaten the present? They are 1500 years apart, but can they reach out to each other across the centuries? One woman faces a traumatic truth in the present day. The other is forced to marry the man she hates as the ‘dark ages’ unfold.
How can Dr Viv DuLac, medievalist and academic, unlock the secrets of the past? Traumatised by betrayal, she slips into 499 AD and into the body of Lady Vivianne, who is also battling treachery. Viv must uncover the mystery of the key that she unwittingly brings back with her to the present day, as echoes of the past resonate through time. But little does Viv realise just how much both their lives across the centuries will become so intertwined. And in the end, how can they help each other across the ages without changing the course of history?
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 978-1739887704
Published by Archbury Books
on 8th January, 2023
Format: Trade Paperback
A Shape on the Air (book one)
The Dragon Tree (book two)
The Rune Stone (book three)
Converse via: #HistFic or #HistNov as well as #TimeTravel and #HistoricalFiction
+ #DrDulacSeries, #AngloSaxon as well as #HFVBT
Available Formats: Trade paperback and ebook
About Julia Ibbotson
Acclaimed, award-winning author Julia Ibbotson is fascinated by the medieval world and the concept of resonances across time. She read English at Keele University, England (after a turbulent but exciting gap year in Ghana, West Africa) specialising in medieval language, literature and history, and has a PhD in socio-linguistics. She wrote her first novel at 10 years of age, but became a school teacher, then an academic as a senior university lecturer and researcher.
She has published a number of books, including memoir, children’s medieval fantasy, a trilogy set in Ghana, and medieval time-slip, as well as academic works. Apart from insatiable reading, she loves travelling the world, singing in choirs, swimming, yoga and walking in the countryside in England and Madeira where she and her husband divide their time.
