Author Interview: Jeffrey Bardwell

Good day, fellow readers! Today's post has not been written by me but is instead a guest post by Jeffrey Bardwell talking about his book The Knight's Secret which is the first in The Mage Conspiracy series. I know some of you out there enjoy a good fantasy book chock full of adventure and romance and Jeffrey promises to deliver that with this series. Take a look below for the details!

A terrible secret. A vengeful empress. An unstable empire.

Sir Corbin, retired Hero of Jerkum Pass, dies on the eve of an urgent mission. His granddaughter Kelsa dons the old man's armor and his wrinkles and sets out to complete his last quest. She ventures to the capital of the Iron Empire. The city is in an uproar. The emperor has been slain by rogue mages. The new empress is livid. Now, every mage is suspect, including Kelsa's mother.

Hidden behind a magic ring, Kelsa infiltrates her grandfather's old regiment. As the mission leads her down a path of dark suspicions and lustful adventures, Kelsa struggles to live up to her grandfather's legacy. Yet the more she examines it, the more holes she discovers, until Sir Corbin's secret past threatens to expose her.

Unravel The Knight’s Secret, the first fantasy adventure of The Mage Conspiracy series. Discover a world of romantic entanglements and political intrigue where lies cut deeper than any sword.

About the Author:

Jeffrey Bardwell writes epic fantasy with elements of darkness, steampunk, and romance set in the Metal vs. Magic Universe. His character-driven books are guaranteed to include gritty realism, political intrigue, lurid entanglements, dry wit, and dragons in differing proportions. He devours fantasy and science fiction novels and is most comfortable basking near a warm wood stove. When not writing, Jeffrey enjoys cooking, gardening, and shooing baby dragons from the compost bin.

The author lives on a farm and in a prior life worked as a community ecologist. He is overfond of puns and alliterations. He is also an unabashed history and mythology enthusiast and would love to hear from you.

In the Author’s own words:

Many sources swirl together within an author's head to shape the overarching theme in a long form narrative and The Knight's Secret is no exception. Theme isn't usually conscious at first: it arises from the depths of your mind like Excalibur, guided by the wet, icy hand of your muse in lieu of The Lady of the Lakes. Now, many reading this will understand that allusion because we share a common history. I was inspired by that history and a nasty recurring pattern I saw there. I don't claim my book will break the pattern or even warp it a little. Time is a wagon wheel, and we're all tied to the damn thing as it goes round and round again. However, the crushing cyclical nature of history does not magically rob those living through it of their free will.

There are numerous parallels between our mundane world and my dark little fantasy realm. Oppression comes round time and time again like a wheel rolling through different versions of the same putrid puddle of muck. You may have been reminded of stories of the parading auto da fe, the nightmare of the Holocaust, the cruel political machinations of McCarthyism, or the recent draconian changes to American immigration policy. Whenever those in power encourage bigotry and oppression, using a minority demographic as a scapegoat to distract the populace from the regime's own glaring flaws, we the people have three options within the confines of society and law: wink at the regime, turn a blind eye, or let the rage bleed from our eye sockets.

I choose to bleed from his fingertips instead. We all fight oppression in our own way. Some wave placards. Some give speeches. I write books. I would be lying if I said that was the sole source of my inspiration for this series, but it played a large role, and writing these words has been very cathartic. I won't waste time repeating that old saw about those who ignore history and history repeating itself. History will repeat itself century by century on a scale of civilizations whether we acknowledge it or not.

The smaller scale of day to day human lives is more malleable, but I do not wish to dictate how you live your life. I only ask that you ponder what you've read. I seek to pose questions. The most relevant question is this: What will you do with your turn of the wheel when it splashes through the filth?

Check out the book here: https://www.books2read.com/the-knights-secret

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31952643-wayfarers-highway?from_search=true

You can follow Jeffrey on his blog here

Peter Petrack on writing for a modern audience

Sorry for the late posting but I've just started a new job and I'm all over the place. :-P As a result, today's post has not been written by me but is instead a guest post by Peter Petrack. It's all about his new book Wayfarers Highway. If you're looking for an epic story about a seemingly normal character then I think you've landed in the right place. Enjoy!

A camper travels the back roads of America, but it is not what it seems. Pursued by powerful forces: a master-mind, a maniac, and a terrorist, its crew wonders if they'll ever reach Journey's end.

When Eloise Corwin - a longtime patient in her desert hometown's infirmary - finds a wounded young traveler sharing her sick room; she insists that he tell her about his adventures. The young man, Orson Gregory, tells her how he found and stole a glowing gemstone, hidden for decades beneath the government-built factory beside his family farm. He tells her how he's been chased ever since - by mercenaries, by terrorists, and by other, stranger enemies. He tells her how he threw in his lot with a real adventurer, a mythology professor, an innkeeper, and a duo of hired guns on a cross-country journey to clear his name and return home - something he's currently failing to do. To reach safety, the motley travelers will first have to deal with each other, evade the foes that follow their every move, and tangle with other forces both strange and powerful, their fellow travelers on the Wayfarers Highway.

About the Author:
In addition to writing the Wayfarers Highway novels, Peter Petrack is also a composer and performing trombonist. In recent years, he has found growing success as a writer of Jazz, as well as Orchestral, Choral, and Band Works. Between these two artistic businesses, Peter has frequently been forced to write in the third person. He lives in Pennsylvania, where he is constantly surrounded by pieces of paper.

In the Author’s own words:
Wayfarers Highway is a story for today. We live in a really weird time. A lot of people are confused and frightened. Naturally, readers and writers turn to strange stories in these kinds of times. The difference now is that a lot of the bizarre things in the story can come directly from real life. I wanted to write that kind of story, a legend for today – that’s something I’ve been calling it for a while. I wanted all of the adventure of the big legends set in the modern world, with modern themes, and modern characters.

I like that timeliness. It also made the book difficult to write. I would never want to write something blatantly for 2016, for example, something that a year from now would be obsolete. But achieving the general early 21^st Century setting was worth the balancing act.

Wayfarers Highway is the end result of nearly eight years of that kind of thinking. It’s a story about an ordinary young man, named Orson Gregory, who steals a glowing rock that he finds under a factory that was built decades ago on farmland his family sold to the government. This ends Orson’s life as he knew it. People want the rock he stole - strange people, and dangerous. Powerful enemies – mercenaries, terrorists, and maniacs chase him across America. Orson’s only help comes from a motley bunch of his fellow travelers, a hippie, an innkeeper, a mythology professor, and hired guns. On the road, trying and failing to find a way to return home, Orson is forced to face the truth that the world is stranger, more complicated, and more dangerous than he ever imagined.

Here are the purchase links:

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wayfarers-highway-peter-petrack/1124660555?ean=9780997973204

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Wayfarers-Highway-Peter-Petrack/dp/099797320X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475868650&sr=8-1&keywords=wayfarers+highway

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31952643-wayfarers-highway?from_search=true

You can find Peter on Twitter: https://twitter.com/peterpetrack  or @PeterPetrack

Andrew Joyce on the importance of thorough research

Psst today's post wasn't written by me but was instead written by a debut novelist, Andrew Joyce. The topic is historical research and how important it is to be as thorough as possible when writing anything with a basis in fact (like his book Yellow Hair which you can check out here.) Enjoy! :-)

My name is Andrew Joyce and I write books for a living. I would like to thank Alicea for allowing me to be here today to promote my latest, Yellow Hair, which documents the injustices done to the Sioux Nation from their first treaty with the United States in 1805 through Wounded Knee in 1890. Every death, murder, battle, and outrage I write about actually took place. The historical figures that play a role in my fact-based tale of fiction were real people and I use their real names. Yellow Hair is an epic tale of adventure, family, love, and hate that spans most of the 19^th century.

Through no fault of his own, a young man is thrust into a new culture just at the time that culture is undergoing massive changes. It is losing its identity, its lands, and its dignity. He not only adapts, he perseveres and, over time, becomes a leader—and on occasion, the hand of vengeance against those who would destroy his adopted people.

Now that the commercial is out of the way, we can get down to what I really came here to talk about: the research that goes into writing an historical novel or an action/adventure novel that uses an historical event as a backdrop.

I want to say that I learned the hard way how important proper research is. But it wasn’t really that hard of a lesson. In my first book, which takes place in the last half of the 19^th century, I made two mistakes. I had the date of an event off by one year and I had my hero loading the wrong caliber cartridge into his Winchester rifle. I would have gone blissfully throughout life not knowing how I had erred if not for my astute fans. Both mistakes were quickly pointed out to me in reviews of the book. One guy said he would have given me five stars if not for the wrong caliber bullet mistake. I had to settle for only four stars. Lesson learned!

Before I get into telling you about the year-long research I did for Yellow Hair, I’d like to tell you how I researched my second and third books and describe what that research entailed. My second book was a western and the protagonist was a woman. The research took about three months. I had to know everything from women’s undergarments of the late 19^th century to prison conditions for women in those days. (I sent my heroine to jail.) That kind of research was easy. Thank God for the internet. But then I had to do some real research. Molly (my protagonist) built up her cattle ranch to one of the largest in Montana, but she and her neighbors had nowhere to sell their beef. So Molly decided to drive her and her neighbors’ cattle to Abilene where she could get a good price. She put together the second largest herd on record (12,000 head) and took off for Abilene. That’s when I had to really go to work. I wanted my readers to taste the dust on the trail. I wanted them to feel the cold water at river crossing. I wanted them to know about the dangers of the trail, from rustlers to Indians to cattle stampedes. This is how I learned about all those things and more. 

First of all, I found old movies that were authentic in nature. I watched them to get a feel for the trail. Then I read books by great authors who had written about cattle drives to soak up even more of the atmosphere of a cattle drive. That was all well and good, but it still did not put me in the long days of breathing dust and being always fearful of a stampede. That’s when I went looking for diaries written by real cowboys while they were on the trail. After that, I found obscure self-published books written by those cowboys. Then it was onto newspaper articles written at the time about large cattle drives. That’s how I had Molly herd the second largest cattle drive. I discovered that the largest was 15,000 head, driven from Texas to California in 1882.

My next book took place in the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897. Here new elements were added such as wolves and the extreme weather as adversaries. Dogsledding was also involved. I have seen snow only three times in my life and I have never dogsledded. I knew even less about wolves. I had to learn about those things. I had no idea what it was like to travel across a wilderness on a dogsled at seventy degrees below zero. I also had to acquire knowledge about the dogs themselves, especially the lead dog. I learned about all that by doing the same things I did for my second book. The old diaries were the most helpful. As to the gold rush, there was plenty of material in the form of self-published books by some of the participants. Some were never even published, but I found copies of them in the archives of universities and historical societies. Again, newspaper stories printed at the time were very useful. Concerning wolves . . . I read everything I could get my hands on about wolves—their habits, the pack hierarchy, the alpha male, and the different jobs or tasks the males and females have while hunting.

Now we come to Yellow Hair. As I mentioned above, the book is about the Sioux Nation from 1805 to 1890. I had to know both points of view, the white man’s and the Sioux’s. Getting to know the whites’ take on things was easy. There are many, many books (non-fiction) that were written at the time. I even found a book written by Custer detailing his strategy for wiping out the Sioux entirely. That was hard reading. And, again, there were universities and historical societies whose archives were a great help.

As to the Sioux’s point of view, there are a few books that were dictated to newspapermen years later by the Indians that took part in the various battles that I weave into my story. I found a lot of material from Native American participants of the Little Big Horn, written twenty to thirty years after the fact.

But I wanted to immerse myself in the Sioux culture and I wanted to give them dignity by using their language wherever possible. I also wanted to introduce them by their Sioux names. So, I had to learn the Lakota language. And that wasn’t easy. There is a consortium that will teach you, but they wanted only serious students. You have to know a smattering of the language before they will even deign to let you in. I had to take a test to prove that I knew some Lakota. I failed the first time and had to go back to my Lakota dictionary and do some more studying. I got in on my second try.

I’m running out of space, so I reckon I’ll wrap it up. I hope I’ve given you a little insight into the research process. It’s time-consuming and sometimes frustrating. But it is also a blast. Every new discovery is like finding the motherlode.

I’d like to sign off with another commercial. The three books I alluded to above are:

·       Redemption: The Further Adventures of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer

·       Molly Lee

·       Resolution: Huck Finn’s Greatest Adventure

I would like to thank Alicea once again for having me over and you good folks for tuning in. - Andrew 

About the Author

Andrew Joyce left high school at seventeen to hitchhike throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico. He wouldn’t return from his journey until decades later when he decided to become a writer. Joyce has written five books, including a two-volume collection of one hundred and fifty short stories comprised of his hitching adventures called Bedtime Stories for Grown-Ups (as yet unpublished), and his latest novel, Yellow Hair. He now lives aboard a boat in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with his dog, Danny, where he is busy working on his next book, tentatively entitled, Mick Reilly.

The man himself

Thanks, dear readers! I'll see you back for a regularly scheduled review on Friday. XD

Natasha Murray on the possibility of alien life on Earth

Hi, readers! Today's post is going to be a little different because I'm not the one who wrote it. :-) Instead of telling you why you should check out Natasha's books, why not find out about the inspiration for them from the author herself? Terrified of what might happen to humanity in a century? Look no further than 3004 and 3006!



Synopsis

London covers the whole of England and is protected by an invisible shield.  The shield is there as protection from terrorists and from criminals.  Lawbreakers are cast out of the cities and into the wilderness.  The Isle of Wight hosts ‘lifers’, A-class criminals, murderers, and the insane, who are left there to fend for themselves.  Thieves and anarchists, ‘wasters’, are sent to the wilderness around London to live a feral lifestyle.

London is run by a secret underground society who created software named the “Think Tank Program”, which, over time, has orchestrated a communistic life style due to the lack of resources, the rise of the Aids II virus, and the decline of man.  Love and sexual relationships are banned. It’s rumoured that women have hideous bodies beneath their clothes.  Only mentor partnerships are permitted, with one child and occasionally two lab reared children allocated to them.

   

At the age of sixteen, boys become ‘taskers’. They are taken into the wilderness and have to find their own way home.  This story is about two taskers, Kayleb Heinz and Rowan Gellpen, and their struggle to return to London. It is about their emotional journey as well as all the challenges they face. As they battle to get home, they meet David, leader of the Veenans, who has come to Earth seeking sanctuary for his people. Is this our future? What will become of us?

Author Bio

My name is Natasha Murray and I am a West Sussex author and artist. I am a diverse writer and as well as writing and illustrating children’s books, I write for adults and teenagers too. 3004 and 3006 are dystopian adventure stories for 12+ set in London and Paris a thousand years from now.

I have always looked up at the sky and wondered if we have ever had visitors from outer space and if they came from another planet similar to ours and discretely integrated. We are now able to look at our blood and DNA and work out what part of the world our ancestors originated from. I am quite sure there will be a few anomalies.

We have always feared being attacked by aliens. What if a population of another planet came to us seeking sanctuary as their planet was dying. Would we turn them away? So this is the idea behind 3004 and 3006. These dystopian novels look at life when we have become overpopulated. World population is increasing at 1.13% per year so unless we throw ourselves off cliffs like lemmings, then by 3004 we will be overpopulated and all be battling to survive. I do not believe that we will perish. Thankfully, despite acting barbarically at times, humans are resourceful, inventive, and the majority show kindness. Good will always conquer evil.

You can learn more about Natasha and her books by visiting her website at www.nmurray.moonfruit.com.



Laura Caputo-Wickham on growing up bilingual

Hi, readers! Today's post is going to be a little different because I'm not the one who wrote it! Instead of telling you why you should check out Laura's book A Fish in Foreign Waters why not find out about the inspiration for the book from the author herself? If you're looking for diversity in children's literature then I do believe you're in the right place. :-)

WHEN BEING BILINGUAL DOESN’T FEEL AS GOOD AS IT’S CRACKED UP TO BE

When I met my husband and moved from Italy the the U.K., I knew that if one day I was going to have children, I would have raised them bilingual. I wanted to give my children what I also had growing up: the ability to think and talk in more than one language, to belong to more than one culture, to have future doors open in terms of job opportunities.  

I always assumed that the process was going to be easy and natural, that my children would have absorbed the language through me and that they would grow up feeling proud and confident. But alas, that wasn’t the case! My four year old refused since day one to speak the minority language despite being able to understand every word.

While looking for help in books, I came across a very interesting quote from Professor Colin Baker, who writes in his book, A Parent’s and Teachers’ Guide to Bilingualism (Multilingual Matters, Third Edition): “Children often don’t want to appear different. They want to conform to the status-giving behavior of the peer group. This may entail a temporary non-use of one of their languages.”ites in his book, A Parent’s and Teachers’ Guide to Bilingualism (Multilingual Matters, Third Edition): “Children often don’t want to appear different. They want to conform to the status-giving behavior of the peer group. This may entail a temporary non-use of one of their languages.”

It finally made sense: children don’t like to be different! I started looking back at my life, growing up bilingual in Rome. I remembered how my friends would tease me for the way I pronounced different words and the curious looks over my “weird" South African snacks (while everyone else was digging into pizza or warm ciabatta bread sandwiches). I realised that as a child, I saw bilingualism as a burden rather than an amazing privilege. And this was probably how my daughter saw it too.

This consideration made me feel really sad. How many frustrations and wasted opportunities could be avoided if children actually understood that speaking more than one language is good for them! 

This was the inspiration for my picture book: A Fish in Foreign Waters which tells the story of Rosie Ray, a fish whose world gets thrown upside down when she has to move to a different bay. She has to learn a new language, make new friends and face some of the challenges that bilingual children often face. But on the day of her birthday she will make an exciting discovery that will help her see how much she has actually gained from being able to speak two languages.

My book can be used as a tool that parents and teachers can use in order to have a good conversation with their children and explain to them the benefits of being bilingual. It gives children a sweet character they can relate to, and a story that will help them understand that yes, they are different, but in a cool sort of way!

About the author: 

Laura Caputo-Wickham was born in Rome where she graduated in Languages and Foreign Cultures. She then moved to the U.K. where she taught Italian for many years. Laura was raised bilingual, so was her mum and so are her two daughters. Her own experience inspired her to write A Fish in Foreign Waters.

To order a copy of the book, please visit http://www.longbridgepublishing.com/Pages/AFishinForeignWaters.aspx

Author Interview: Louise Herman

A little something different today, guys. Louise Herman very kindly supplied me with the following interview and book blurbs for her two YA Fantasy series, The Orcus Games and Split Blood. Please enjoy and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Background

I’m a teacher of Computing and a keen fantasy movie fan from the leafy suburbs of North London. I absolutely adore any film from Guillermo del Toro (especially Pan’s Labyrinth, Devil’s Backbone and Cronos), love listening to music (I especially enjoy listening to Bjork, Daft Punk and Royal Blood),  and am a big 80s fantasy film fan (with my favourite’s including Labyrinth, Big Trouble in Little China and Blade Runner). I also have a big passion for Anime and am slightly obsessed by the genius director, Hayao Miyazaki for his work on Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Howl’s Moving Castle. From an early age, I had always had a passion for writing stories, which would take the reader to different fantasy worlds and realms. With a little confidence and the ease of publishing novels on the internet, I have now self-published five fantasy stories to date.

What were you like at school?

It's funny because now I'm a teacher I can finally see how hard it is gaining a student's attention and maintaining it for an hour! I was an average student at school, who prioritise social matters over education and with hindsight, that may not have been the best idea because although I obtained good grades in the three subjects I enjoyed (English, Spanish and Media Studies), I flunked the rest and had to retake Maths at college. I finally realised that my education was more important when I left my peers at school (they stayed on for Sixth form) and went to college, where I gain invaluable experience and found my independence.

Were you good at English?

I loved literature and would often offer to read (and act out) the Shakespeare plays we were studying in class. I found the old English language, the powerful stories and the way Shakespeare would set the scene, to make the reader feel like they were in the story, amazing. One of my favourite plays by Shakespeare was, 'A Midsummer’s Night Dream' and it was the enchanting story, affairs of the heart and magical settings that ignited my passion for writing. Unfortunately, although I had great ideas for storylines, characters and worlds, my grammar and punctuation has always been my 'Achilles heel' which is why I invest in a proof-reader and editor for all my published work.

What made you decide to sit down and actually start something?

I have always had a vivid imagination and had written short fantasy stories, for my own pleasure, in my teenage years. However, it was not until my English teacher told me she enjoyed one of my stories that I started to take it more seriously. I researched competitions and writing challenges but unfortunately, without the aid of the internet, it was a little harder, than it is now, to gain the information I needed, so my college and university work took presidency and I put my writing passion to one side until I had more time (and resources) to concentrate on it fully.

So far I have written five YA Fantasy books to date:

The Orcus Games: Blood Moon (Book 1)

Guilty until you survive all zones…The Orcus Games is ready to put you on trial…

The lives of a witch and wizard couple, a new vampire and a rogue Lycan intertwine in three magical tales of love, loss and revenge.

The Craft – When witch and wizard couple, Heather and Phoenix make that fatal mistake on that, ‘Blood Moon’ night, they never thought they would be forced to working with a loner Lycan but…is he the only one who saw the, ‘accidental’ fatal act?

The Clan – Ardan would do anything for his wife and daughter but he could not protect them from the new blood thirsty life that was about to be bestowed onto them but what happens when he risks his immortal life for them?

The Pack – Caleb was always the Lycan that wanted more! With constant schemes and risky deals, to increase the potential of a better lifestyle, he thought his latest underground deal was the perfect idea, until he loses more than just his money…

The first book in the prequel to the, ‘Split Blood’ series, this novella is a mind-blowing magical tale of belonging, sacrifice and revenge…The Orcus Games: Blood Moon will drag you, kicking and screaming, on this deadly journey with the ill-fated prisoners.

The Orcus Games: Mistress V (Book 2)

The Underworld as no fury like Mistress V scorned…

Mistress V had it all…looks, power within the vampire clan and men at her disposal but she wanted more. She wanted Ardan, to be precise. He was unlike any other vampire she had turned before and she wanted him, needed him and was determined to do anything to get him…

Frustrated by his lack of interest and constant rejection, Mistress V is dealt another blow as Ardan is accused of a crime and is thrown into The Orcus Games, leaving her to watch her obsession fight for his life, whilst witnessing a second by second account of his budding friendship with fellow vampire contestant, Luan.

Unable to admit defeat, Mistress V plots and plans ways of getting to her man before it was too late but with every minute he is in the show, he grows closer to Luan, enraging Mistress V, leaving her to become more erratic and mentally disturbed, which has disastrous results…

The Prequel to the, ‘Split Blood’ series, this novella is a deliciously dark tale of power, lust and obsession…The Orcus Games: Mistress V will leave you licking your lips, thirsty for more…

The Orcus Games: New Awakening (Book 3)

You can run but you can’t hide…

Escaping The Orcus Games, each of the fugitive’s dreams of a happy reunion with loved ones are short lived as they each find out there is a bounty on each of their lives. Ardan finally accepts his new life as a vampire and enlists the help of Cathal, the vampire leader of the district, to help him make a proposal to the Elders so he can live…but what ulterior motives does Cathal have?

Heather and Phoenix return to their coven, only to find they have moved. After much searching, they find their circle and are reunited with their daughters. They beg their coven to hide them but why is the Grand Witch so reluctant to agree with the plan?

And with Mistress V agreeing to marry Cathal, have the damned foursome finally found peace and safety? Or is there one more ‘hurricane’ coming to destroy all they hold dear? 

The last book in the prequel to the, ‘Split Blood’ series, this novella is an enticing end to a tantalising fantasy trilogy…The Orcus Games: New Awakening gives you the electrifying conclusion, with a seductive surprise, to keep your blood flowing for another possible bite…

Split Blood: The Ancient Codex – Part One (Book 1)

When Faith’s mother starts organising the second stage of her arranged marriage to wizard, Damien, Faith knew she needed to escape, so she used her school as a place to retreat. Throughout her after school duties, she meets the intense, alluring Rohan, who changes her life forever. With his ice cold skin, transfixing eyes and enchanting voice, Rohan took hold of Faith’s heart and soul as soon as they looked at each other.

She knew it was wrong. They were from two different circles and if the Elder’s found out, the consequences would be catastrophic for all involved, but the more time they spent together, the stronger they’re love grew, until one day someone sees them and they are forced to go on the run together.

Will their love be strong enough to combat their conflicting mythical needs? And what will they do when Faith is dealt a life threatening blow that forces her to make a heart-breaking decision?

INTENSELY PASSIONATE WITH EXTRAORDINARY TWISTS AND TURNS, SPLIT BLOOD IS A LOVE STORY WITH A DARK MYTHICAL DIFFERENCE.

Split Blood: Rise of the Wolf (Book 2)

‘You are the oil to my fire and no one will ever extinguish us’ Enya said as she stroked the scar, which reminds him of his horrific childhood.

Lowell was always the outcast in his pack. Coming from a poor, abusive background, the only attention he knew was when his father used him in illegal Lycan fights. He never knew what love was until he met werewolf, Enya. Experiencing a similar, isolated upbringing, Enya was the glue that helped Lowell stick together. She was intoxicating to him and he was her addiction. With every second they spent together, they gave each other the rush they needed – Unfortunately, this union was not to last as the rules of the Aliis World clearly state that Lycan’s are forbidden to communicate, let alone be romantically involved with werewolves.

So what happens when Lycan, Lowell tries to fight his attraction for lower class werewolf, Enya? And can they escape the wrath of vengeful witch, Raven when she finds out Lowell is partly to blame for her sister, Faith’s disappearance?

SEVERELY THOUGHT PROVOKING WITH A STING OF ROMANCE, SPLIT BLOOD: RISE OF THE WOLF IS A DELICATE TALE OF LOVE, LOSS AND VENGEANCE WITH A BITE.

What are you working on at the minute?

I am currently working on the third book in the 'Split Blood' series, which will be published on Amazon and Smashwords by April 2016.

What’s it about?

It concentrates on Raven (Faith's Wiccan sister) and her fight to get her family back. Raven's character also changes due to the trials and tribulations she encounters on her journey and we also meet new magical beings and say goodbye to some favourites. With lots more magic, lust and revenge, 'Split Blood 3' promises to continue the emotional rollercoaster ride further into the 'Split Blood' world.

Give us an insight into your main character.

In the previous two books, Raven has been a minor character, who has always been there for her older sister, Faith. Happy to find out her new magically heritage, Raven tried to show her reluctant sister the benefits of their new life as she grew in power but Faith was not interested in the magic classes and her history as Raven was. Unfortunately, Faith felt suffocated from the endless rules and her curiosity led to her running away, leaving the Coven to deal with the consequences of Faith's illegal choice. This emotional departure left a scar on Raven, who struggles to cope with life without her sister and things get much worse when her parents are taken to the Underworld for questioning about their part in their daughter's detrimental rule breaking. Alone, distraught and unable to deal with some members of her Coven turning against her, Raven becomes obsessed with finding her family, by any means necessary - with disastrous results...

Which actor/actress would you like to see playing the lead character from your most recent book?

I love the film, 'Mirror, Mirror' and thought Lily Collins was very good as the lead character. I think she would make a great Raven because she has a very fearless, determined attitude in the film, which Raven has in the third book of the 'Split Blood' series as her whole world becomes consumed with finding her family, which has a devastatingly dark effect on her mind and powers.

For more information, please go to: www.louisehermanauthor.com

My Website | Amazon | Smashwords