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Avalyne is at peace.
The Shadow War has come and gone and the kingdom of Carleon is now restored. King Dare, a mortal man has finally wedded his elven love Arianne. As they prepare to usher in a new era of prosperity across the land, the Queen happily announces the impending arrival of an heir.
Arianne's joy is short-lived when she discovers that an ancient evil has emerged from the wreckage of war with a monstrous plan for her baby. Determined to protect her very mortal husband, Arianne embarks on a quest with her two companions, the warrior maid Celene of Angarad and Keira of the Green, to journey to the far corners of Avalyne before the enemy can plant a seed of evil in the heart of her unborn son.
Excerpt:
‘You are silent,’ Keira stated as she joined
the Queen at the bow. The wind was blowing northwards, allowing the
sail to do most of the work and carry them up river. Celene had taken
charge of the rudder, directing the boat to move against the current
by weaving it from side to side along the river bank. It allowed
Keira the freedom to join the Queen, who was sitting alone.
Both she and Celene had noticed the Queen’s
melancholy though neither brought attention to it. It was
understandable of course that Arianne should feel somewhat
overwhelmed by everything that had taken place in the last day. Only
yesterday she was celebrating the arrival of her child, and today she
was off to face an enemy who had struck at the most intimate of
places.
‘I am thinking,’ Arianne answered, looking up
at Keira as the other woman sat down beside her.
‘Of what’s ahead?’ Keira ventured a guess.
‘Of what could happen if I fail,’ Arianne
confessed with a sigh.
‘You mustn’t think like that,’ Keira reached
for her hand and squeezed it gently. ‘I know it seems grim, but we
will stop this.’
Arianne was trying not to let despair overtake
her, but it was difficult when she considered the consequences for
failure. ‘I do not know if I have it in me to stop this evil from
taking my child. My mother thinks that I can stop Mael’s agent, but
I wonder if she only thinks that because she has little faith in the
ability to men to prevail. She forgets that until I met Dare, I had
spent my life sheltered behind the Veil. He was the one who
encouraged to explore the world outside, to see what lay beyond. That
time when I came to take you to Eden Taryn, that was probably the
first time I had really travelled alone.’
‘I remember,’ Keira nodded. ‘You saved my
life.‘
‘You saved Dare’s,’ Arianne countered just
as promptly.
Arianne knew how much pain Keira had experienced
with the burrowers burning through her veins, and how much of her
journey to Eden Taryn was seen through a stupor of pain and darkness.
At Dare’s summons Arianne ridden to the edge of the Green and
escorted Keira to Eden Taryn, while he, Aeron and Tully led the
Disciples away. He had already been so grieved at the loss of
Braedan, and so was not willing to sacrifice this stranger whose only
sin was to give him shelter.
‘It was the right thing to do. As this is the
right thing to do,’ she said firmly. ‘We can do this Arianne, and
if we fail, at least we tried to stop the evil from returning to our
world. Sometimes we have to suffer for the good things. Maybe that’s
what makes it all worthwhile.‘
‘You don’t understand,’ Arianne whispered,
caressing her belly protectively, as if will alone would shield the
babe within from all harm. ‘If I fail and the Enemy is successful,
I will have only two choices left to me. The first is to take my own
life, because I will not give birth to a monster. I will not raise a
vessel of Mael to watch him bring to ruin everyone I love. If I am
not given the choice and somehow, the Enemy sees to it that I do
give birth to the child, then neither Dare nor I can allow him to
live long enough to reach adulthood. As a child of our flesh, I will
not call him our son, he will be King. Imagine, if you will, what
that means.’
Lylea’s vision coming to pass, Keira thought. A
bloodthirsty king with an army of Berserkers, with the potential to
be even worse than Balfure ever was.
‘Don’t you see?’ Arianne said with tears
running down her cheeks. ‘If he is born, then we will have no
recourse but to put him to the sword or risk the destruction of
Avalyne. I know Dare would do it. For the good of his people he would
make the sacrifice, and I know as surely as I breathe, it will
destroy him.’
‘It is not the failure I fear Keira,’ Arianne
whispered, It’s what we may to do after.’
And to that, Keira said nothing.
Interview With Linda Thackeray
When did you begin writing?
I began writing a few years after I saw
Star Wars. I was seven years old when that film came out and
it was like a religious experience. This was it for me. I loved the
wonder of that movie, the characters, the worlds and the whole
package. Of course at seven, I had a vivid imagination but no outlet.
Eventually I started writing down some of the scenarios I kept
dreaming up on paper. There was a 100 page exercise book where I
wrote my first Star Wars story and it was awful. However, I learned
from that experience that I love to write and as I was a prolific
reader so it seemed like an almost organic transition.
Who do you imagine you're telling a
story to as you write?
Myself. To begin with, I need to like
the story I am writing if not I don’t feel I can recommend it to
someone else. I prefer being referred to as a storyteller as opposed
to a writer. I want to entertain, give my audience something to think
about and for a few hours, give them some enjoyment from the world I
am crafting.
What genres do you write?
Well I started out with space opera and
science fiction of course and to be fair, most of my output was in
that genre for a long time. Fantasy is something I've only started
writing in the last decade or so and every now and then I dabble in
erotica but those will never be published. I’m not brave enough!
I'm not averse to writing others. If a particular genre interests me,
I am willing to write about it but my first love is science fiction.
Which authors inspire you?
My favorite authors are Stephen King,
Frank Herbert, Marian Bradley Zimmer, JRR Tolkien, Neil Gaiman,
Colleen McCullough and Arthur C Clark to name a few. King’s work
in particular inspires me because his books have wonderful examples
of characterization. Each of his characters are given a fully fleshed
background and you care about them as plot progresses. Frank
Herbert's Dune showed me that science fiction was not just
about a space battles while The Mists of Avalon should be
required reading for any female fantasy author
What's your latest book about?
My latest book is called The Queen
of Carleon. About a decade ago, when Lord of the Rings
mania was at its height, I found that the main problem for me was the
lack of a female perspective. Therefore I wanted to write an epic
fantasy where the females were the primary characters but I didn’t
want them to be stereotypical. The difficulty in writing female
characters I think is that if they are written as warriors, they come
across as almost Amazonian. I wanted to write female characters who
were strong women but also driven out of their comfort zone a little.
In the case of Arianne, she is an elf
who has led a very sheltered life. She married a human she fell madly
in love with and decided to live in the world with him. She’s
accustomed to taking a back seat to all the epic things that place in
Carleon but the threat to her unborn baby means that the Enemy needs
her alive for his plans to unfold. In that sense, Arianne has a
distinct advantage because the Enemy can’t harm her until the baby
is born. Accompanied by her friends, some of whom have their own
reasons for joining her, Arianne leaves her beloved Dare and sets off
to save her baby.
What's your favorite book?
Oh this is a tough one. If I had to
pick on, I would say Stephen King’s IT. It may come off as a
horror story but there are some wonderful themes in it. It’s an
exploration of friendship, childhood insecurities and terror and
filled with characters that you don’t want to say goodbye to when
the book is done. It also has the quote is my inspiration. It’s a
line spoken by one of the characters, Bill Denbrough who asks in a
writing class ‘why can’t a story be just as story?’
To me, that’s how I approach my
writing. Stories sometimes just want to be told for no other reason
than that.
Why did you choose independent
publishing?
I’ve heard of Indie Publishing for
years now but I have to admit I didn’t really understand the
medium. My first two efforts, Children of the White Star and
The Guardian were written a long time ago and I wasn’t
really expecting miracles. Honestly, it was just to get a book out
there to learn how to deal with marketing, Createspace.
I had tried mainstream publishing years
ago but to be fair I really didn’t try too hard. The horror stories
I heard about how hard it was to even get someone to look at the book
was enough to deter me. I am giving it more of an effort now but I
wouldn’t be crushed if my work is never picked up by a mainstream
publisher. I do what I do because I love to write and that’s enough
for me.
What one piece of advice would you
offer other indie authors?
An editor is your friend. The first
two books I put out there were not edited even though I work with a
publishing company that deals in Standards development. I proofread
my books and was confident they were structurally sound but the
feedback I received about The Guardian was that it was a good
book but it needs editing. So as soon as I’m financially able, I’m
going to be putting my first two books through to the editing process
again. I have since read some books by Indie authors who have the
same problem so I appreciated the feedback I received. Great stories
marred by irritating errors.
The Queen of Carleon however,
has been professionally edited and its sequel, The Easterling
is with an editor now.
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