Please describe your novel twitter style 140 characters or less.
A priestess in modern day England fights her aunt’s black magic aimed at stopping her from fulfilling her destiny to help humanity discover the most powerful magic – love
What is the one thing you wish you knew before you tried to get published?
This quote from Sports writer "Red" Smith says it - “There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.” The same applies to the agent and publisher quest!
Still, writing is who I am, and I wouldn’t trade the thrill. I think writer’s critique groups are essential, and I really appreciate mine. As a writer I know I need objective feedback to polish my craft. The one thing I would have done differently is attend Writer’s Conferences sooner in my writing career. The networking and camaraderie is incredible. It’s an unsurpassed opportunity to meet and pitch to agents and editors. I won many of my book awards through conference writing contests.
What to you is the best part of being a writer and what is the part you wouldn’t mind giving up?
I really do love the whole process. It is a passion. Even the hard parts…the really difficult, throw yourself down on your knees and cry and scream challenges - like the gazillion re-writes an author has to go through to get things just right. What I enjoy is that with magical fantasy in particular, I get to explore other realms, realms of mystery and magic, worlds seen and unseen. The worlds that lay parallel to our everyday existence. And as for romance… I think love in all of its many forms is the reason for living!
I like tapping into these realms of legend and magic, especially Celtic lore. In Carry on the Flame, Sharay meets the elder, eccentric wizard, Dillon. Dillon offers to take her on a journey of initiation, a vision quest called the Celtic “Imram,” in order to set her on her rightful path. I loved playing with the archetypal themes of an Imram, and bringing that into contemporary times.
The romance in Carry on the Flame was inspired in part by my personal story. I met my husband Chris while I was living in Glastonbury. He is English/Welsh/Irish, and the Welsh name his mother originally wanted for him, Guethyn, became the name of my main male character in Carry on the Flame. Guethyn is the wizard Dillon’s grandson, a rebellious college student. When he falls in love with Sharay, he finds himself, despite his rejection of all things magic, drawn into an adventure that requires him to awaken to the truth of who he really is.
The other part of writing I like is getting to explore edgy ways of behaving that I would personally never engage in but my characters certainly do. In Carry on the Flame, Sharay’s Aunt Phoebe has a penchant for using sex to get her way. Phoebe also has a dark side. She conjures a dark magical entity called a Tracker, created to stalk Sharay, suck her dry of her magical power, and destroy everyone dear to her.
It’s the part after writing a novel – the querying, publishing, marketing – that I find more challenging. And it takes away from writing time!
What city would you love to set a story in but the right one hasn’t come along yet?
The story and the setting have melded for me already. My favorite place on the planet is a town called Glastonbury, England. All of my novels are at least partially set there. When I first read The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, I became fascinated with Glastonbury. I visited there several times, and eventually moved there for 13 months. That land and its sacred sites stirred my heart and my imagination. I experienced inspiring dreams and waking visions. I studied the folklore and legend, and sacro-magical knowledge. And while there, I began to write my Goddess of the Stars and the Sea series about priestesses who had lived in Glastonbury, the ancient isle of Avalon, throughout the ages to today.
I have visited the locations readers will find in my new novel Carry on the Flame - the coast of Wales and some of its quaint villages like Betws-y-coed, the mysterious Orkney Isles of Scotland, and of course magical Glastonbury. Each locale I visited informed my scene descriptions with firsthand knowledge. And each location imbued my story with its own brand of magic.
Vampires, Shifters, Zombies, Angels - who wins the final ultimate battle?
Angels. The bottom line for me is who has heart, who carries love. So, Angels who represent love. I’d add priestesses to the list, by the way. I’d be really depressed, and frankly terrified, if I thought it would be any sort of loveless being. But if we’re going to be true to life, not everyone is black and white or a stereotype, are they? Even evil beings have a core of something good in their essence. I’d just hate to run into them in a dark forest before they find it.
If you could witness any historical even, past, present, or future, what would it be and why?
I’d love to have been privy to the life of Mary Magdalene. I’m intrigued with the theories, cover-ups, and hidden truths found in many pieces of historical art and recently discovered ancient writings that say she was the lover and wife of Jesus; and that she carried on not only his message of love, but also his bloodline/his children. Was she the Holy Grail? She represents the feminine half of sacred union. Women’s empowerment, the embodiment of the Goddess, and the power of sacred union are all themes in my novels already.
And, as far as the future? I really would like to see how we as humans move forward during these tumultuous times. Chaos always precedes healing and regeneration, so our future should be a good one given what we are going through in today’s world. Many ancient cultures speak of this time in human history as a crucial turning point, calling it the ‘shift of the ages’. I’d like to see how it all turns out.
About the Author:
Jodine’s series is a dark and edgy saga of a young priestess who's reborn during three different critical junctions in history in order to help humankind move through fearful and bleak times - the demise of Atlantis, the Dark Age's suppression of the feminine, and today's turbulent world.
Each novel in the series is a standalone read. First in the series is the highly acclaimed The Awakening: Rebirth of Atlantis. The second novel is the award winning The Keys to Remember. The third novel, Carry on the Flame: Book One Destiny’s Call, is already award winning. The story of Carry on the Flame concludes in Book Two, Carry on the Flame: Ultimate Magic, which comes out October 31, 2011.
About the book:
Carry
on the Flame: Destiny’s Call Book One is a YA/adult magical
urban fantasy, paranormal romance novel.
Carry
on the Flame: Ultimate Magic Book Two releases October 31, 2011.
In
Carry on the Flame, humanity is in the midst of the greatest
crisis in their evolution. Sharay is the one chosen to show the way
forward and help humankind move through the fear and dark times
of today’s world. Born into a lineage of priestesses in modern day
Glastonbury, England, Sharay’s way is blocked by her jealous Aunt
Phoebe, who uses black magic against her to steal her fortune and
magical power. When Phoebe commits Sharay to a psychiatric ward and
accuses her of murder, Sharay struggles with the temptation to fight
Phoebe’s vengeance with her own. Through the ancient Celtic
ceremony of Beltaine, Sharay experiences profound sacred union with
the Welshman Guethyn, who shows her how to open her heart. But Sharay
must learn to transform her hatred for her aunt in order to claim the
mystery held deep within her cells that will allow her to fulfill her
destiny and prove that the ultimate magic is the power of love.
View the trailer
Buy on Amazon
View the trailer
Buy on Amazon
The next blog stop: Sept
4 – The Bookish Snob
Great interview!
ReplyDeletethank you! Glad you stopped by to say hello!
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