Author Interview with M. Gerrick

Today, I want to give a special welcome to blogger Misha Gerrick and her debut novel, The Vanished Knight!

I've known Misha almost since I started blogging. She been a great encouragement and I was eager to let everyone know about her and novel. So without further ado, here's my interview with Misha. (Be sure to read the book blurb and author bio, which follow the interview.)

1. Writers get lots of ideas for stories, but not all of them become books. How did this book start, i.e. why did you fall in love with these characters and this story?

Well, this book started with one character who walked into my head and demanded I write the story. Honestly, I told him to go away at first. I was planning to take a year-long break from writing. He kept coming back, showing me bits here and there until I fell in love with him (because come on, who wouldn’t?) and the story.

As for why I fell in love with them… they’re all strong, but have deep vulnerabilities and fears etc. that make them amazing people, each in his/her own way.

2. How did you come up with the title?

Double answer time! The War of Six Crowns is named for a war that occurs later on in the series. It’s between four countries, one of which has three kings. The other three countries have one king each.

Each of my book titles in this series will involve some aspect of the war or events leading up to it. The Vanished Knight deals with what happened after one country’s king orchestrates the kidnapping of another country’s sole heir.

3. What kind of research did you do for your novel? Anything weird or strange?

Mmm… off the top of my head: Castles, manor houses in Britain, medieval saddles. I also did some Western Martial arts in order to understand how real life sword fighting works. Not weird, but serious fun.

4. Where do you write?

Most of this book was drafted in coffee shops and restaurants while I was at University. These days, though, I retire to my room and write on my bed. My writing desk is home to seven orchids and two Cape Sundews. No space to write there…

5. How do you plan to celebrate the book’s release?

By buying three fancy notebooks so that I can write more stories. Already have them, in fact. Honestly, though, I buy a notebook (or six) for the smallest of excuses. I’ll inscribe these three with the publishing date, though.

6. Are you working on a sequel to your novel?

Sequel’s done and ready for Etopia Press to edit. The rough draft of Book Three is also finished, so only a rewrite and edits left for that. Books four and five will come after book two is out, I’m hoping.

7. Can you share one thing about yourself that might surprise us?

Let me think… Uhm… I’m actually a blonde, but I’ve never let it grow out for me to see what the shade looks like on me. 

Blurb:

Since the death of her parents, Callan Blair has been shunted from one foster family to another, her dangerous secret forcing the move each time. Her latest foster family quickly ships her off to an exclusive boarding school in the Cumbrian countryside. While her foster-brother James makes it his mission to get Callan expelled, a nearby ancient castle holds the secret doorway to another land...

When Callan is forced through the doorway, she finds herself in the magical continent of Tardith, where she’s shocked to learn her schoolmates Gawain and Darrion are respected soldiers in service to the king of Nordaine, one of Tardith's realms. More than that, the two are potential heirs to the Black Knight—Nordaine's crown prince.

But when the Black Knight fails to return from a mysterious trip, the realm teeters on the brink of war. Darrion and Gawain set out to find him, while Callan discovers there is more to her family history than she thought. The elves are claiming she is their princess.

Now with Darrion growing ever more antagonistic and her friendship with Gawain blossoming, Callan must decide whether to stay in Nordaine—where her secret grows ever more threatening—or go to the elves and uncover the truth about her family before war sets the realms afire.

Bio:

M. Gerrick (AKA Misha Gericke) has basically created stories since before she could write. Many of those stories grew up with her and can be seen in her current projects.
She lives close to Cape Town, with a view over False Bay and Table Mountain.

If you’d like to contact her, feel free to mail her at warofsixcrowns(AT)gmail(DOT)com, Circle her on Google Plus or follow her on Twitter. If you'd like to see her writer-side (beware, it's pretty insane), please feel free to check out her blog.
Links:
Amazon
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads

Why I Write YA Time Travel

The other day, I signed up for an historical fiction class. I’m an official auditor. (Yes, I loved school and can’t wait to take a new class.) This one has an optional hist-fic writing component. Yeah, I’m all over that.

In any case, it got me to thinking. If you’ve read this blog you know I write both YA time travel and hist-fic/lit fic for “adults,” and I got to thinking about why I love historical fiction. And why I love writing time travel fiction for young adults.

1. I love historical fiction. Sometimes the things that are old are completely new and cool. For example, cockentrice (which I actually have a recipe for and am totally willing to make if someone will bring me a pig and a large capon), poison rings, cuneiform, ziggurats, and cam cloth (oops, that’s from book three).

2. Juxtaposing the modern and the ancient. I love to put the ancient and the modern side-by-side. Because when you do, you discover that although there are so many differences, they still wanted much the same things we do.

3. Young adult fiction has a lot of action. I know writers sometimes complain that writing for young people is intense—your competition is video games, texting, and YouTube. But I love that. The challenge of capturing the intensity of modern life and translating that into another culture in a way that’s fresh to our culture’s jaded eyes.

4. I love writing from Mark’s perspective. Growing up, my brother was a lot younger than I was. He was eleven when I left for college. Now I have three sons (two are grown). And getting to peek into the heads of teenage guys has been wonderful. I think they’re grossly underestimated by a lot of people. I want to give them a chance to be noble, brave, and fallible.

5. Bottomline, I love the rush of blending sci-fi, hist-fic, and fantasy. I can’t wait to finish book three because book four is already waiting to be written. And it’s taking every bit of self-control not to tell you about both of them.

Here's a hint from book three.

Excavated by Jacques de Morgan. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. 

Screwing Up Time Book Three Teaser

Now that the short story, "Screwing Up Mongolia" is available. Click here. I thought I'd start telling you all a little bit about book three in the Screwing Up Time series.

Here's a color engraving of one of the settings book three. Yes, one of the settings means that Henry and Miranda travel to more than one time. I'd love to show you more pictures, but most of the images are subject to copyright laws. This old image is done by Martin van Heemskerck. (I love those Dutch artists. He also did an engraving of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.)



So, readers, what place/time do you think this is? Leave me a message in the comments.

Screwing Up Mongolia Release

After a few more gray hairs that I gathered from formatting issues, I'm thrilled to announce that "Screwing Up Mongolia" is live on Amazon. "Screwing Up Mongolia" is a short story set between Screwing Up Babylon and book three. (It was originally published in the Winter Wonders anthology.) And it's available for 99 cents, Amazon's lowest price.Click here.

Here's the blurb.

As if being a teen guy isn’t hard enough, Henry is also a time traveler with a job to do. And a horde of Mongols who don’t want it done.

It should’ve been easy. All Henry and his girlfriend Miranda needed to do was time travel into a Mongolian caravan, steal some mammoth tusk, and get out. But thanks to a peacock, the Khan’s warriors attack them with scimitars swinging. Only Henry’s Granddad can help, and he doesn't know who they are.

Screwing Up Mongolia

I had hoped to have "Screwing Up Mongolia" available by today. But I ended up spending most of the week helping a friend who was in the hospital. But my goal for this week is to get the story properly formatted and uploaded to Amazon.

After that, I want to finish editing book three in the Screwing Up Time series. I'm so close, less than thirty pages before I send the novel off for editing crit.

Thanks, everyone, for being patient.

Here's the SUM cover in case you missed it last week.

UPDATE: "Screwing Up Mongolia" is now live at Amazon. Click here.

Cover art by Tara Rimondi, http://www.tararimondi.com/

Screwing Up Mongolia, Cover Reveal

A special thanks to Tara Rimondi for her amazing cover art. Here's a link to her website.

Here's the blurb.

As if being a teen guy isn’t hard enough, Henry is also a time traveler with a job to do. And a horde of Mongols who don’t want it done.

It should’ve been easy. All Henry and his girlfriend Miranda needed to do was time travel into a Mongolian caravan, steal some mammoth tusk, and get out. But thanks to a peacock, the Khan’s warriors attack them with scimitars swinging.  Only Henry’s Granddad can help, and he doesn't know who they are.

"Screwing Up Mongolia" is a Screwing Up Times series short story and comes between Screwing Up Babylon and book three. It was originally published in Winter Wonders, an anthology published by Compass Press.

If all goes well, I hope to have "Screwing Up Mongolia" available soon. I'll definitely post a blog when it's live.

A Chance to Win

Today is a short shout-out. Tomorrow (Sept. 4) I'm being interviewed at Crystal Collier's blog for Writerly Wednesday. And there will be a chance to play "Two Truths and a Lie" and win a Screwing Up Time mug. Don't miss it!

Here's what the mug looks like.