Alice Ivinya

 Interview with Alice Ivinya

Author of

The Kingdom of Birds and Beasts Trilogy

 

Please tell me a little about your current work in progress.

My current work in progress is The Widow and The Beast, which I'm hoping to get back from my copy editor next week.

The book is bursting with folklore, especially Scottish and Norse. Some of the creatures I've included are seriously freaking me out!

Did you know in the north of Scotland, there is still so much fear around the Nuckelavee that they only have started speaking its name out loud in recent years?

As a result of these insane creatures, this book is on the darker side, but still focusing on hope and redemption!

The story is a retelling of The Water Horse of Barra, with echos of Beauty and the Beast, and is the prequel to four more planned books in the same world in the series, Kingdoms of the Faery Path.

Where did you get the idea for this book or series?

I heard the fairytale The Water Horse of Barra when I was on holiday in Scotland and I loved that it was the flip of most stories in the fact it is the innocent girl who captures the beast and not the other way around.

 Do you write in more than one genre?

I try to stick to young adult fantasy, but some are more romances, some are more adventures, some are more new adult! So I'm not that strict within the broad category! I feel my readers are pushing me toward more romances though!

Tell me about something that you believe makes your writing unique or worthy of attention.

I often have under represented heroines, including a lot of characters with perceived disabilities. For example, Violet in The Flawed Princess has a club foot. Adelaide in Silent Melody is deaf and her friend, Claricia is blind. Charity in Enchanted Melody is missing a leg, whilst Peter has depression. Brianna in Feathers of Snow has severe PTSD.

I often have these characters showing how these characteristics make them stronger rather than wishing they were the same as everyone else.

 Is there anything about your personal history or personality that manifests strongly in your writing?

I am a die hard optimist and always believe good will triumph over evil. I think this definitely comes across!

I am also dyslexic and really struggled at school until I was about ten when I finally had enough strategies to help me keep up. I couldn't tell the time and my spelling was awful, not to mention how bad I was at maths!

I felt like I had to work three times as hard as everyone else for the same result, and actually, being used to that disadvantage from a young age, and working harder, helped me overcome harder studies later on at university and pass all my exams with top grades.

I think this is reflected in a lot of my stories where things that put my characters at disadvantages compared to their peers turn around to become their strengths.

What else would be helpful for readers to know about you?

I write fun, beautiful but with dark edges books with clean romance.

Excluding your own work, what underrated author or book would you recommend that more people read? Why?

So many good underrated books out there! Why not check out The Fair Queen by Lyndsey Hall, which is so imaginative and so much fun! Or A Soul as Cold as Frost by Jennifer Kropft which has such beautiful prose and fast paced adventure. Or The Apprentice Storyteller, whose philosophical deeper meanings are like nothing else I've quite read. Or if you're after something fun and a bit silly but with profound moments, try Sky Sommers book Cinders: Necessary Evil.

Which of your books do you most highly recommend? Why?

My most popular is the Kingdom of Birds and Beasts trilogy starting with Feathers of Snow, or available as an omnibus. But my debute, The Flawed Princess, will always hold a special place in my heart with it's gentle, slow burn enemies to lovers!

Which break, event, decision, or fortuitous circumstance has helped you or your writing career the most?

I couldn't point to any one event, but the thing that has helped my career the most is the amazing support I get from other indie authors who have now become close friends. I write with some of them in anthologies together and we have such fun!

What question do you wish you would get asked more often?

Would you like another cup of tea and biscuit?

Do you have a catch-phrase or quote that you like? What is it? And why do you choose it?

'Imperil the world.' Is a quote from Brandon Sanderson about writing. He says to always raise your stakes as high as they go to make the story feel urgent and fast paced.

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Thanks to Alice for participating.

 Out of curiosity, I asked one of the AI sorcerers to tell me about Threading the Rude Eye. This was the response:

Threading the Rude Eye is the first installment in the Tomahawks and Dragon Fire series by Stanley Wheeler, blending elements of alternate history and flintlock fantasy. Set against the backdrop of the American Revolutionary War, the novel introduces a world where magic and mythical creatures coexist with historical events.

Plot Overview

The narrative follows Lucette, a determined young woman from a nation under siege, tasked with delivering a secret map to a powerful cache of magic in America. Her journey intertwines with Alex, a young man whose aspirations are disrupted by the unfolding conflict. Together, they navigate a landscape fraught with danger, including a formidable dark commander wielding mysterious powers. Their quest is further complicated by encounters with dragon hunters and smugglers, all while the fate of two continents hangs in the balance.

Themes and Style

Wheeler's writing is characterized by its fast-paced action and rich historical detail, seamlessly integrating fantastical elements like dragons and magic into the 18th-century setting. The story explores themes of courage, destiny, and the complexities of war, offering readers a fresh perspective on a pivotal era in history.

Reception

Readers have praised Threading the Rude Eye for its engaging plot and imaginative world-building. The book has received positive reviews, with an average rating of 4.89 out of 5 on Goodreads.

Series Continuation

The Tomahawks and Dragon Fire series continues with the following titles:

Power to Hurt

• Clamorous Harbingers
• Promise of Carnage and Flame
• Truth in Flames
• Crisis in Fire and Snow

Each installment builds upon the rich tapestry of characters and settings introduced in the first book, delving deeper into the alternate history crafted by Wheeler.

If you're interested in exploring a unique fusion of historical fiction and fantasy, Threading the Rude Eye offers an adventurous and thought-provoking read.

Feudal

This weekend found us back at the manor engaged in the battle with the green horde threatening the estate. After major battles with the assailants of both the chemical and mechanical nature, I found time for two other battles with one of Les Freres Corses. 

Before I address those difficult conflicts, I need to engage in some thoughts of a vain, presumptuous, and solipsistic nature. Raconteur Press posted a piece on its Substack page entitled "On Witty Dialogue Choices for Writing Noir and Hard Boiled Characters." Naturally, having had a story accepted for publication in the upcoming moggie noir anthology, Dames, Derringers, and Detectives, I had to consider the possibility, based on this line from the post ("I’m thrilled to say that at least one of the new Moggie Noir stories features a bit of wordplay that takes me back to classic exchanges..."), that my story entitled "Calypso's Count" might have inspired the post. Odds are pretty good that some other brilliant writer (of which there is no shortage at RP) penned some excellent dialogue that motivated the posting of the article. However, I won't let that likely fact dissuade me from presuming that it was my story and dialogue the article writer had in mind. 

By what right do I wedge myself into the position of praise? None, really. However, I do have reasons, if not a right. I remember doing some particular wordplay in the story--so I've got that going for my presumption. Additionally, the main characters are featured in my book Smoke, as well as the first short story I submitted to RP, "Monica on My Mind." The detective and his attractive assistant routinely engage in some pleasant badinage as part of their interaction and discussion about their cases. Finally, a couple readers have previously informed me that they loved the "witty banter" featured in these detective stories. That's the sum total of my reasoning--except for the additional fact that there's a lot of dialogue in the story; I'm hoping that at least some of it is memorable in a good way. Of course, once I read the anthology, it may become obvious that it was another gifted wordsmith who drafted the dazzling dialogue (and they no doubt avoided things like that alliterative affectation I just slipped in) and I'll have to bow my head in contrition--but until then, I'm shouting my presumption like a bevy of celebrity dames boasting about their ten minutes in space.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Le Frere Corse and I were handicapped by the other brother's illness, so we had to postpone completing the rumble at the cursed ruins. We consoled ourselves with a battle across the checkered field by armies of black and white. White made a determined attack that kept black trading pieces while seeking for an advantage. Eventually, the advantage came and the white king found himself trapped behind his own guards at the mercy of a renegade rook and a patient bishop. 

On the following evening, the illness persisted, so we pulled out the more elaborate version of the game from the night before. My old Feudal game--acquired circa 1979--provided our evening entertainment. The checkered field became a grid of holes in a countryside of white and green with armies of white and blue. Once again, white got first move. Our initial setup was hidden and we didn't know who would get the first move. I was glad I had taken defensive positions behind mountains.

He made a cautious advance. I responded by killing one of his pikemen with a sergeant. He retaliated by slaughtering the lone enemy piece in his territory. He continued to press forward with caution, but threatened my castle with an advance on his right.

We had a few skirmishes, reducing each other forces in the process, while I prepared to take the fight into his territory. I finally advanced a sergeant deep into his backfield. While he was distracted with that, I ran cavalry up the flanks to threaten his castle from the rear while advancing infantry toward the castle's side entrance. The pocket collapsed around him. He pulled back to defend his fortress, but I had enough men converging on the goal to prevent his white warriors from intervening in the assault.

He attacked everywhere and casualties left the field faster than a jet bound for El Salvador. The effort was in vain. His king slew the initial attacker, but then fell to the blue prince's lance. It was a hard-fought battle worth every plastic corpse it cost.

 

 

 

Thomas Kast

 Interview with Thomas Kast

Author of

The Great Convergence

 

Please tell me a little about your current work in progress.

My debut novel, the Great Convergence, was published a couple of months ago. It’s a thought-provoking philosophical science fiction and a social satire. Two competing academics living ten million years in the future travel back in time to 2022, wrecking reality in the course of their investigation into a mysterious event — the Great Convergence.

Currently, I’m working on the humorous and philosophical comic book series Bablah’s Odyssey, which is scheduled for release in August 2022. Bablah’s Odyssey features a mad scientist, lord Bablah as he traverses the universe, mansplaining the ‘wonders of progress and civilisation’ to his unassertive yet perceptive mutant sidekick, the Pet-Thing. It’s colourful, psychedelic and contains a lot of irony and dark humour. I’m both a writer and illustrator.

Where did you get the idea for this book or series?

I wanted to create a book that can be enjoyed, read and re-read and could give the reader a memorable experience. I’ve noticed that most contemporary sci-fi often ventures into the strictly commercial territory. Not entirely happy with this trend, I wanted to use science fiction as a vehicle to highlight many social and philosophical problems, but with a healthy dose of humour.

There are several recurring themes in my book, which result from observing and analysing the world around me. One of those inspirations would be stupidity. It’s a subject that has always fascinated me. All of my characters make inexplicably unwise and shortsighted decisions despite being exceptionally smart (some of them). Superheroes are great but, often being no more than mere archetypes, they often lack humanity. It’s the crazy ones who provide all the fun.

Do you write in more than one genre?

I don’t write genre fiction. Even though the Great Convergence contains alternate realities, time travel and depictions of the world ten million years from now, it’s a simple story about a couple of characters lost in a world they neither fit into nor understand. There’s a lot of satire to be found in my book. But also philosophy, humour and social critique.

Tell me about something that you believe makes your writing unique or worthy of attention.

I’m proud of the nameless narrator and his biased voice as he relates the story. He’s a failed researcher stuck at a dead-end university position. Unable to move on, he pigheadedly investigates a once-fashionable subject no one is interested in.

Sometimes, he tells the truth, sometimes he lies, and in most cases, he misrepresents his account only to get his point across. Seeing the world through the narrator’s eyes, the readers must discover what happened themselves. Unreliable as the narrator is, his observations are full of dry humour, and the constant feeling of being stuck in a place one doesn’t belong to is probably something many can relate to. 

Is there anything about your personal history or personality that manifests strongly in your writing?

I’ve been diagnosed with Autism spectrum disorder (Asperger’s syndrome as it used to be known). This means that, on the one hand, the intricacies of social interaction remain a total mystery to me. On the other hand, thanks to having way-too-many brain connections, I’m uniquely predisposed to quickly examine the world around me in a very pragmatic and unemotional way and see things others can’t. I’ve been an outsider most of my life (which I don’t regret), and so are my characters.

Resulting from my condition is another recurring theme in my book — miscommunication. My characters are all stuck in uncomfortable situations. Constantly missing the point, they don’t understand each other’s motives, and they’re unable put themselves in someone else’s shoes. They oscillate between being inordinately overconfident or hopelessly insecure but can never think on two feet. Above and beyond, they’re blinded by their personal goals they consider of great consequence and which are insignificant and trivial. As irony would have it, they all have a profoundly important part to play on the universe’s stage — something they’re never to discover.

What else would be helpful for readers to know about you?

I’m an award-winning independent photojournalist and illustrator and have published a number of photography art books. I’ve spent a big part of my life in Israel, where I taught photography and illustration at the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design and other Israeli colleges. To find out about my illustration and photography projects, you may head to www.thomaskast.com.

Excluding your own work, what underrated author or book would you recommend that more people read? Why?

Stanislaw Lem and his novel: Eden. A group of astronauts from Earth crash on a distant planet, where they discover a highly-developed yet mysterious civilisation. Despite making contact, it turns out that despite their advancement, both civilisations are ultimately too different to offer anything one another. Eden makes the reader come face to face with extraterrestrial intelligence as something incomprehensibly unlike anything we imagine it would be like. Which probably is close to the truth.

Which of your books do you most highly recommend? Why?

Apart from the comic book series coming out in August, there’s only one I could recommend at the moment — the Great Convergence. It took me about ten years to complete until I was happy enough with it to release it into the wild. It went through several editors and iterations. It’s weird, it’s funny, it’s sometimes profound and sometimes absurd.

10.000.002 A.D. A cantankerous scholar slipping into obscurity is out for revenge. He time-travels to the year 2022 to stop his nemesis, Scott — a successful scientist at a competing university — from thwarting his research into the origin of a mysterious phenomenon, the Great Convergence. Cunning and ruthless, Scott will stop at nothing to defend his tenure track. The feud quickly spins out of control, and the damage to reality grows unchecked.

Caught in the crosshairs are three characters responsible for triggering the Great Convergence: an art-hating professional art critic who, unbeknownst to him, spontaneously switches between universes wreaking havoc as he goes; a talentless artist whose sculptures act as trans-universal portals; and a schizophrenic astrophysicist trying to avert the invasion of alternate versions of himself from different realities. As their paths converge, the apocalyptic event takes place, and the inescapable tragedy of human existence unfolds. 

Which break, event, decision, or fortuitous circumstance has helped you or your writing career the most?

I can’t recall a specific circumstance that has pushed me towards writing. I always had it in me. The only thing I didn’t have was the time. I still don’t have time, the only difference being that now I make time ;)

What question do you wish you would get asked more often?

I wish there were questions about the distant future. Although large parts of the plot take place in 2022, we also experience the world 10.000.000 years in the future through the narrator’s flashbacks. Since my book is a satire, I created the future as the ’50s, only with everything turned up to 11, especially the world of the academia, run as a for-profit corporation, where science and progress are just side-effects of a cut-throat fight for personal advancement and prestige.

There’s a lab where the scientists grow universes to experiment upon. There’s an old, baroque-like fountain spewing streams of time instead of water in the university’s courtyard. There is a site with portals connecting different universes, much like the Four Corners Monument in the US. It’s frequented by tourists taking selfies with a hand in one universe and a leg in another. Everybody keeps a time machine in a garage. For the more curious readers, I relate the history of time travel in one of the appendixes.

A quick disclaimer: most of the action doesn’t take place in university halls of academia.

Do you have a catchphrase or quote that you like? What is it? And why do you choose it?

I don’t, but my characters do. For instance, Geoffrey, a failed artist, constantly repeats ‘Glory to the lizard!’ The ‘glorious lizard is a lizard-shaped gargoyle sculpture at the top of a St. Laurence University of the Arts main tower, where he studies sculpture. According to the local folk tale, the Glorious Lizard housed the heart of Albertus Ambrosianus, a thirteenth-century alchemist who attained the secret of everlasting life through the mastery of dark arts. Geoffrey’s catchphrase represents his obsession with achieving artistic immortality.

Another catchphrase by Larry, a disillusioned art critic: ‘I am the captain of the ship …’ reassures him that he’s in control of his life, which, of course, he isn’t.

There are a few more catchphrases, and all have a similar function — to tell something about the character and make their personality recognisable and memorable.

 _____________________________

Thanks to Thomas for participating.

Great news: I signed a contract for another short story yesterday. That means I've two stories coming out in two separate Raconteur Press Anthologies next month. I'll post links when I get them.

Note: Smoke is on sale for a limited time.

Fire and Inferno: Plight of the Dragomancer Book I, by Luna Fox -- now only 99 cents.

Here's a link to the Wyrd Warfare Anthology that contains my story "Seventh Hussar and Aide to the Mage."

Check out these great deals available for a few more days:

Free Fantasy and Paranormal ebooks

Discounted Dangerous Dames and Deadly Detectives

Free Fantasy Frenzy of various genres