Can’t believe it’s this time of the year again! The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog. 😀
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 15,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
The amazing Tricia Drammeh, fantasy author extraordinaire, is here with a list of great books and terrific reads to suit every palate! So check them out folks, Christmas may be over but there’s always time for a good book…oh, and my book is featured as well! 😀 xxx
Today, I’m being a bit of a copycat. Inspired by posts such as THIS ONE by Susan Toy, I’ve decided to list a few of the books I especially enjoyed this year. These are listed in no particular order, and by no means include every book I read and enjoyed. But these books stood out for me in a special way, and I would recommend each and every one of them.
For each book, I’ve included the genre, the blurb, and the link to my review on Authors to Watch. (Click the book covers to buy the book on Amazon)
And so we begin..
Island in the Clouds by Susan Toy
Genre: Murder mystery
Blurb: The dead body in the pool is putting a serious dent in Geoff’s morning. An ex-pat property manager on the Caribbean island of Bequia, Geoff doesn’t want a spotlight shone on the secret past…
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Here is an interview I recently did for the lovely Fiona McVie on her brilliant blog. Many thanks to Fiona for being the gracious host. Check it out folks and all her other interviews! 😀
Name Sophie E Tallis
Age 41
Where are you from Bristol, UK
A little about your self `ie your education Family life etc
I grew up in a sleepy village just north of Bristol, dreaming of dragons and wild adventures. I’ve travelled the world having many of those adventures but now live in the Cotswolds with my family and four huge white wolves! I’m a published author, illustrator, painter and poet and am a member of The Society of Authors. I have BA (Hons) Degree in Fine Art and a Post-Grad in Education and was a teacher for 16 years and am now a librarian – a brilliant job being surrounded by books all day!
Fiona: Tell us your latest news?
My epic fantasy novel, White Mountain, the first of my Darkling Chronicles trilogy was just published on 1st December 2014 by Kristell Ink Publishing, an imprint…
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Okay, I admit it, I’m a HUGE nerd and this particular post will probably only be of interest to me and about three other people on the planet! But I love etymology and the derivation of words.
This is particularly prevalent when it comes to places and place names.
I grew up learning that place names had a beauty and a power all themselves and that they weren’t just a string of random letters but actually meant something. Places had meanings. I spent my childhood in a small village named after a Saxon chief, Alwif, who came across the megalithic stones on the high hill above the village and named the settlement after himself and the largest stone, Alwif’s Stone, which later became Alves’town and then Alveston. Greenhill, just round the corner, was a green hill, Bodyce Orchard was named after the bodies supposedly buried there during the English Civil War (1642-1651). My tumbled down cottage (circa 1577) where I grew up dreaming of dragons and adventure, was on a wonderfully named road – Wolfridge Ride, named after the wolves that used to roam the area when it was forested hundreds of years before and the wolf pits that were dug to catch them along the high ridge.
Lol, I digress…but you understand my fascination with place names and the derivation of words, the inherent mystery and magic in them.
So, here I am lifting the curtain on my weird and wonderful world and some of the strange research I did for White Mountain and for the worldbuilding behind my Darkling Chronicles trilogy.
Despite White Mountain being an epic fantasy in the traditional ‘high fantasy’ sense, it is set now within our modern world, so in addition to my invented places I also wanted to include real places too, to ground the fantasy in reality and give the book an authentic feel for the reader.
I should state here, that having taught phonetics for the last 16years, I understand the basic structures of many Indo-European languages and syntax and so when I decided, like the true nerd that I am, to invent my own Dworllian language, I wanted to make sure that it actually worked…and yes it does!
(*My Dworllian language – actually a mixture of Maori, African Bantu & Ibo dialects, Old Norse, Old English, Celtic and Old Hindi).
(Ïssätun* – iss or issa meaning ‘ice’ in Old Norse + tun meaning ‘town’ in Old English and Old Norse = my Ïssätun, ‘Ice Town’)
(Grey – grǣg in Old English. Llrinaru* trees or ‘The Elder Wood’ – llri meaning ‘old’ or ‘ancient’ in Dworllian + naru meaning ‘forest’ or ‘wood’)
(Undokki means ‘witch’ in African Bantu languages which is apt as Wendya is a witch!)
“Far East beyond heart’s lost desire
The birthplace of the eldest kin,
Through rising sun on wings of fire
Lies forgotten Fendellin.”
(Fendellin* – fen meaning a low-lying land, marshy or near watercourses from Old Norse ‘fen’ + dell meaning a hollow esp. wooded hollow from Old English ‘del’ or ‘delle’ = my Fendellin* rather simple and Anglo-Saxon in its meaning!)
(Mund’harr* – mund meaning ‘mound’ in Old English similar to munt meaning ‘mount’ in Old English + harr meaning ‘high’ in Dworllian and related to hār meaning ‘high’ in Old Norse.)
(The main river in Fendellin, ‘The Great Varuna River’ – Varuna from Hinduism, the ancient sky god, later the god of waters and rain-giver.)
(The Shudras, ‘The Silent Marshes’ – Shudras from the ancient Indian Vedas, the fourth varna from one of the sacred texts from the Rig Veda. Shudras was the lowest social class, also refers to swamps and the dark serpents who inhabit them.)
***
There…I think I’ve bored you all enough! But you get the idea.
Part II will look at myths and creatures – wargols, firewolves, oracles, fÿrrens (dragons), dworlls (dwarves), and the Gorrgos!
Below is a map of the world with White Mountain locations and the approximate routes taken to get there! 😀 xxx
A brilliant post and so so true, if all our friends just did a few of those things it would make all the difference! Great advice, thank you Laura! Check it out folks! 😀 xx
This post could have been written by my family and friends. It’s all about how to support your authorly friends out there, and since my friends and family have been awesome enough to support me through the publication of two books I wanted to let others in on their tips for supporting an author friend. (I bet most of them didn’t even know they had such tips!) Through the years my friends and family have come up with some ingenious ways to put the word about my books “out there.” I thought I would share these with everyone else out there who would like to know ways to support a certain author but are a bit uncertain about how to do that. Believe me there are plenty of ways, and my friends have done a super, stupendous job.
1. Buy the book-— A lot of my friends bought the…
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An AWESOME list of Christmas books to fill your stockings and guarantee a great time over the festive season. For the perfect Christmas gift, check these out…oh, and they have my book too! 😀 xxx
T-minus sixteen days until the big ‘C’! Christmas that is. We’re quickly approaching full-on-panic mode time, but don’t despair I have some Christmas ideas for you. Books! Yes, books, for less than the price of a double venti vanilla soy hot mocha with a shot of raspberry and spritz of whip cream you can be hurled away into far away lands with dragons, be thrust in the middle of a tangled murder mystery, or ride the high seas with pirates and pterodactyls. That sounds like a pretty awesome gift if you ask me. I have a few suggestion of Indie Books, you know, some great authors who aren’t signed to major labels, but are still pretty stinkin’ talented. My goal is to give a little air time to authors who you may’ve never heard of. I’m going to try my best to categorize these books into themes you might be…
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Lol, okay, I’m already late I know, but it’s taken me nearly a week to process what’s happened!
My epic fantasy, White Mountain, the first of my Darkling Chronicles trilogy, was brilliantly published by Kristell Ink Publishing and Grimbold Books last week on 1st December 2014!!!!
To say I’m ecstatic would be a gross understatement, kind of like saying that George Lucas is only vaguely fond of science fiction!
My wonderful new publishers are a world, in fact, a galaxy far far away from what I had encountered previously and the level of dedication, hard work, expertise and passion with which they have approached the publishing of White Mountain, is more than I could ever have hoped for. From the attention to detail, the editing, the formatting, the layout, the beautiful calligraphy, not to mention the AWESOME original artwork commissioned for the AWESOME new cover!!! Wow! I’ve gone from hell to heaven in one leap!
I won’t dwell on the past two years, mostly because this is an incredibly happy time and I don’t want to miss a blissful second of it! I’m humble and thankful beyond words, but mostly, for the first time in ages, I am really truly excited, thrilled and proud to have my novel, a book that took ten years in the writing and researching, finally published as it always should have been!
So, before I continue gushing all over your lovely carpet, what is the book actually about?
Well, beyond the plot itself, a struggle for survival against all odds, the courage it takes to stay the course and an epic showdown between good versus evil, the book is also about identity.
Wendya Undokki
Yes, it’s an epic fantasy in the old-fashioned ‘high fantasy’ tradition, but the themes run deeper than just the action. Throughout the book, the primary issues are around identity, how do we define it, define ourselves? Are we fated to repeat history, to be slaves to our genes? What defines family? Is it the people we are related to through blood that constitute a family or the people we choose to have in our lives, people we love and trust? I have my own personal reasons for being interested in that subject matter. I have said on more than one occasion that I identify with Wendya the most, for many of the same conflicted, complicated reasons.
The book deals with another of my passions, the transformative nature of the world we live in today. Our disappearing natural planet mirrors the growing confines that many of the main characters find themselves in. Humanity is everywhere, how does an ancient pre-existing culture hope to continue surviving, in secret, under such overwhelming pressures? How can the world continue as it is, with the current level of wanton destruction? In many ways the disintegration of the natural world perfectly reflects the disintegration of the characters own archaic civilisation, long past its prime and teetering on the edge of extinction.
I don’t hate every aspect of modern life, like Tolkien generally did, how could I? Where would I be without my blog, my TV, my modern comforts?
But like so many of us armchair activists, I worry for the planet’s future, for nature and the few wild places left. Even in the small rural idyll where I grew up, the bluebell wood at the bottom of the road that I used to play bare foot in, with the little twisting stream running through it, was torn up and replaced by ten ugly Barratt houses. Instead of building much needed houses on brown field sites crying out for rejuvenation or renovating the UK’s many abandoned buildings, our precious woodlands and green spaces are being carved up.
Once lost, those precious green spaces are lost forever.
The Grey Forest
Again, loss is a running theme too. Something we all experience to varying degrees and something that each of the characters have certainly experienced. Loss is as much a part of life as life itself, it is something that can define us, if we let it, or spur us on to achieve our goals while we still have time.
Lol, I’m sounding terribly serious here when I don’t mean to be. The novel has humour and lightness, particularly in the running banter between the characters, but in many ways it is an exploration of the state of humanity through a fantasy lens. That’s probably my favourite genre, not just fantasy, but ‘magic realism’, the blending of the real world with the fantastical one.
Anyway, enough pontificating. Here is a small excerpt from White Mountain, hope you enjoy it! 😀 xxx
*****
The midday sun passed into a hazy afternoon. The last soldiers descended, and the host were on their way again, marching at a great pace to recover lost time. The landscape changed around them. Flat plains and rambling hills of tussock gave way to gnarled weather-beaten rock and thicket beds, their needle like thorns starkly black against the grey granite.
The ground sloped steadily downward before levelling, where the barren expanses of rock fell away into mud, reed and bog. They had reached the Shudras, the silent marshes.
Slimy quagmires stretched out before them as an endless sea. Troughs of stagnant water riddled their way into hazardous deep pools. Foul smelling vapours rose from the ground in choking clouds. The thought of crossing such a place lowered all their spirits.
“This was once a wondrous land,” Hallm said. “These were the water-meadows of the great Kara Kara River. The pure waters fed Fendellin’s rarest orchids here. Grass-pipers, willow larks and meadow-cranes, flitted amongst its grasses. Now, its foul mud clogs every channel and tributary with stagnant filth. Its water sprites and larks have long departed.”
“Our beasts cannot cross this!” King Baillum declared raising his hand. “The pathways should be clear at this time of year. This is the only passage through the swamps…the waters have risen! Another evil M’Sorreck has perpetrated on this land. If we try passing, we shall lose many good horses. Certainly, the wagons cannot cross.”
“How far do these marshes stretch?” Korrun asked Hallm.
“Eight and ten leagues at the shortest crossing, which is here,” he replied.
The King’s stoicism gave way to anger. “How could this happen? We sent scouts ahead to gauge the terrain. Why did they not report this? Bring them here!” he demanded.
Frell whispered into his father’s ear. The dwelf watched the King’s face change, an unmistakable flash of shock. The news was not good. Korrun glanced at Wendya and the wizard. As if reading his mind, Gralen stepped forward.
“If wheels are no use, wings will have to do,” he said boldly. “My kin can take the wagons and the oxen if the rest of you can find a way through?”
Korrun smiled. “He is right, Sire. If the fÿrrens can carry the heavier loads, we should be able to cross. I am a tracker and used to finding lost pathways. I’m sure we can find a way.”
“And if the horses are lost?”
“Then my kindred will have more burdens to bear,” replied Gralen simply. “A dworll is lighter than an ox!”
King Baillum managed a brief smile. “No obstacles too great? We shall see,” he said beckoning to Sedgewick above.
Sedgewick and the other dragons swooped down to carry the various wagons and carts, siege-rams and battle gear, too heavy for the marshes. The most careful dragons carried the nervous beasts, zebu, water buffalo and battle oxen, the eighteen leagues north, to dry land.
Following Korrun and Hallm, the army began their arduous crossing of the Shudras.
It was well into the night before the last exhausted traveller reached the delights of hard ground once more. They set up camp, the slimy mud and stench of the marshes clinging to each bedraggled member as an unwelcome reminder of the day. A deep unease fell on them.
Korrun sat quietly by one of the campfires, listening to Lord Tollam and Hallm speculate, in hushed tones on the battle to come.
“It could be a Hal’Torren’s choice all over again,” Hallm commented.
The other dworlls nodded grimly.
“Hal’Torren’s choice? What’s that?” Korrun asked.
Hallm shrugged. “It’s any situation where the outcome is pre- determined or unavoidable, and usually terrible.”
Lord Tollam poked the fire, his violet eyes reflecting the glimmer of the flames. “It is an old legend, but a true story. Hal’Torren was a nobleman, strong, incorruptible, a hero and leader to his people. He lived in Oralam, a beautiful city once. One day he returned home to find his family held hostage by his sworn enemy, M’Sorreck. Hal’Torren loved his family deeply, his wife, his three young children. He offered his life in exchange for theirs. But Morreck wanted something far more precious. He wanted to break Hal’Torren utterly.” Tollam sighed. “No matter what he did, how he bartered and begged, Hal’Torren was given a dreadful choice. Watch ten thousand of his own people perish, innocent children and families like his own, to save just one member of his family, or save his people and watch all his family die. Now Hal’Torren was a great leader, and he loved his people, but like any father, how could he sacrifice his own family?”
Korrun looked at the wise old dworll. “What did he choose?”
“To condemn ten thousand souls to a grisly death, to save one of his family.” He shook his head. “Then he had to make the worst choice of all…which member of his family to save. That is Hal’Torren’s choice. It is no choice at all. You are damned whichever path you take!”
“How did it end?” the dwelf asked quietly.
Lord Tollam sighed and glanced at his son as if thanking the gods that he never had to face such a choice. “Tragically of course…he chose to save his daughter, the youngest of his three children. They were then forced to watch his wife and two sons being murdered before them. Naturally, it traumatised the young girl. Only a few years later her father found her hanging from a willow tree. He promptly hung himself beside her. You see why Hal’Torren’s choice is impossible. Save one, sacrifice others, condemn yourself.”
“Morreck is a fengal beast, a monster!” Korrun said through gritted teeth.
“Yes, of the worst kind…” replied Tollam.
Hallm looked at his father for a moment then turned to the dwelf. “Have you ever faced a Hal’Torren’s choice?” he asked.
Korrun shifted uneasily, his face half hidden in shadow. “Once,” he whispered.
“What happened?” Hallm asked, trying to hide his surprise.
The dwelf stood up, his eyes lost in the fire. “I made the wrong choice,” he said simply, then turned and left.
*****
Fendellin and the Encircling Mountains
The very lovely and talented Katrina Jack has made a super video and very kindly featured my book! Thank you Kate! Check it out guys! 😀 xx
Sophie E Tallis - Author/Illustrator 
