Lou Hoffmann on Horses, Characters, and the new release Dragon’s Rise (The Sun Child Chronicles #4) (guest post, excerpt, and giveaway)

Dragon’s Rise (The Sun Child Chronicles #4) by Lou Hoffmann

Harmony Ink Press
Publication: July 9th 2019

Cover Art: Catt Ford

Buy Links:

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Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words is happy to host Lou Hoffman here today on tour for the latest novel in The Sun Child Chronicles, Dragon’s Rise. Welcome, Lou!

Five Fabulous Horses from The Sun Child Chronicles

Hi, I’m Lou Hoffmann, author of The Sun Child Chronicles. I love writing these stories, because they take my imaginings and run with them. One of the very best parts of the fantasy worlds Lucky (the main character) inhabits is the variety of animals he encounters. I’ve always loved horses, seriously. At fourteen, as a city girl growing up in Los Angeles County, I used to walk over an hour on Saturday to get to a riding stable so I could spend the lunch money I’d saved all week on a ride. Sometimes I’d muck stalls so I could ride longer. 😊 So I’m happy that the world Lucky lives in most of the time is a world where horses are the major mode of transportation. By the way, these aren’t listed in order of most loved. I’m really terrible at choosing favorites of anything at all. I just love them all.

Windrunner: A white horse, one of the many trained by Lucky’s warrior uncle Han Shieth. Quite old by the time Lucky meets him, he’s now known as Windy, for reasons that aren’t necessarily complimentary. Still, he’s a wise old fellow, and Lucky’s very helpful friend on a snowy, scary adventure in Wraith Queen’s Veil.
Sherah: The wizard Thurlock’s “legendary” silver-gray mare. She’s always there when Thurlock needs her, comes when he whistles even from what seems miles away. She has a moment or two of fame in each of the books, but perhaps her greatest ride is the one she took Thurlock and Han on so they could team up to beat the great Sahlamahn. Find that wild ride in Key of Behliseth.
Simarrohn: This is Han Shieth’s personal ride, a mare that’s always in his corner. It probably makes things easier that Han can communicate mentally with most animals (including Sim), but most of the time, he doesn’t even have to use that talent. Sim knows what’s needed and delivers. She in a lot of scenes throughout the books, but one of the ones I love is where she and Sherah take Han and Thurlock on a magical ride to put the wizard’s blessing on the troops. It happens in Ciarrah’s Light.
Zefrehl: Zef is Lucky’s ride, when what he needs is an ordinary horse. She’s fast and sure-footed and good-natured, and she takes Lucky wherever he wants to go. In Ciarrah’s Light, she helped Lucky dodge an early death with her quick moves escaping an ambush on the trail to Nedhra City.
K’ormahk: As far as fantastic horses go, K’ormahk is one of the most fantastic ever. He’s got an unbreakable bond with Lucky so strong that Lucky’s “call” can bring him flying—that’s right, he’s winged—from unknowable distances, from places that aren’t even in the same world. He’s blacker than midnight, and powerful, and he takes excellent care of his passengers even as he flies them through the stars, like he did for Lucky and Han in Wraith Queen’s Veil. But he’s a warhorse too, bravely flying Lucky and his boyfriend Rio into a battle in Dragon’s Rise, not shying from arrows and swords, zombies and wraiths, dragons, or even strangely deadly aliens.

Thanks for joining me! Don’t forget to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway, and good luck with the drawing! I hope to see you along the way as I celebrate this release! See the schedule in this blog post: http://queerlyya.rainbow-gate.com/dragons-rise-release-schedule-of-events-blog-tour-giveaway-facebook-party-book-signings/

Blurb

Sequel to Ciarrah’s Light
The Sun Child Chronicles: Book Four

Five days after his sixteenth birthday, Lucky—or Luccan, as he’s known in the Sunlands of Ethra—cut down a horde of wraiths with the help of his magical, living blade, Ciarrah. Then they ended the worst undead of all—Lucky’s mother, Liliana, or rather the evil creature she had become. Now he needs a chance to rest, but he can’t catch a break. The otherworld invaders want to take Ethra as their new home, and one defeat hasn’t even slowed them down.

Ancient wizard Thurlock continues to help Lucky learn about his unique magic as they travel together, but when they reach the capital city, they find few allies and too many Sunlandian traitors. They’re forced to flee, but their discouraged spirits lift when they’re joined on the road by an old wizard friend of Thurlock’s and some new young allies. Lucky has armies, friends, family, shifters, dragons, a faithful dog, a winged horse, and magical tools on his side. But when war comes like a great storm, hurling at him everything from zombies to hateful wizards to twisted drakes, can he hope to prevail—or even survive?

Excerpt

An hour, Lucky thought. Two days ago I fought in a battle with aliens and dead people and… ended my mother’s nightmare. Yesterday I went to a meeting where I found out people still hate me. Today I had a bit of not-fishing with Han, a game of Skippers with Cook, and a game of Skies with Aunt Rose, and now I have one hour before I have to leave. My boyfriend’s gone home, one of my best friends is missing, my other best friend is on a mission, and my dog isn’t even here.

Lemon Martinez apparently had taken pity on him for once, though. He purred comfortingly—and uncharacteristically—curled into a loose spiral of gray fluff next to Lucky on a sun-washed flat rock in a quiet corner of the Behlvale. Not far away, a worker was singing a rhythmic song, maybe keeping time with the movements of rake or hoe in the Sisterhold’s kitchen garden. Much closer, a pair of hand-sized golden dragonflies flashed in and out of the sunlight, their wings making a droning hum over the splash and bubble of the creek.

“Springborn.” Lucky had just that day learned the name of the creek, and now he announced it to Lemon, who didn’t seem to care.

The whole scene could, Lucky supposed, be called idyllic, a word he’d also recently learned. Be that as it may, he wasn’t in the mood for peace and country sunshine. He didn’t want to leave the Sisterhold. Not yet. He had questions he wanted answers to, and he felt pretty darn sure that at best he’d come back from Nedhra City with more questions instead. At worst… he didn’t want to think about it.

Fidgeting, he drew the Black Blade from its sheath, which was hooked to his belt at the moment, and squinted at the violet gleam echoing the sunlight deep inside the obsidian. It brought to mind another afternoon in the sun, and he realized one of his questions could be answered then and there.

“Ciarrah.” Lucky mentally called the blade’s name and waited no more than a second for her response.

“Blade-keeper?”

“Remember when we were playing… um, I mean practicing sword stuff?”

“I’m a rock, Blade-keeper. Memories are embedded in me.”

“Is that a yes?”

There was no way to know for sure if Ciarrah was doing the equivalent of an eye-roll, but somehow Lucky thought she might be. He smiled at the idea before communicating, mostly just being stubborn, “Well? Is it?”

When Ciarrah answered, her “voice” had a lilt that might have been laughter. “Yes, young Light-wielder, I remember all that has happened to me and all that I have been told or shown over these last thousands of years, beginning with the day I first met our great ancestress Naht’kah.”

“Naht’kah, the dragon? The one I read about in that book? Isn’t that just a… story?”

“Oh, but there is no such thing, Luccan, as ‘just’ a story! In stories lie the greatest truth. Sometimes it’s hidden in fictions, but sometimes at the core of a legend is the true account of what has come to pass. Naht’kah is quite real.”

“You mean was?”

“She lives. You may meet her one day.”

Why that idea should freak him out, Lucky wasn’t sure. So many crazy impossible things had happened in the last year, what was one more? Still…. He began his usual comforting chant out loud. “Normal, normal, nor—” He stopped and shook his head, then gave himself an order. “Never mind! Nothing is normal. I mean everything is normal. I mean whether it’s normal or not, it is what it is, and no use pretending different.

About the Author

Lou Hoffmann, a mother and grandmother now, has carried on her love affair with books for more than half a century, and she hasn’t even made a dent in the list of books she’d love to read—partly because the list keeps growing. She reads factual things—books about physics and history and fractal chaos, but when she wants truth, she looks for it in quality fiction. She loves all sorts of wonderful things: music and silence, laughter and tears, youth and age, sunshine and storms, forests and fields, flora and fauna, rivers and seas. Even good movies and popcorn! Those things help her breathe, and everyone she knows helps her write. (Special mention goes to (1) George the Lady Cat and (2) readers.) Proud to be a bisexual, biracial woman (of European and Native American descent), Lou considers every person a treasure not to be taken for granted. In her life, she’s seen the world’s willingness to embrace differences change, change back, and change again in dozens of ways, but she has great hope for the world the youth of today will create. She writes for readers who find themselves anywhere on the spectrums of age, sexuality, and gender, aiming to create characters that live not only in their stories, but always in your imagination and your heart.

Author Links:

Visit her on her blog: http://www.queerlyya.rainbow-gate.com

Like her page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LouHoffmannBooks/

Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lou_Hoffmann

Check out her Amazon Author Page: http://queerlyya.rainbow-gate.com/ciarrahs-light-event-schedule-get-blog-tour-links-here/

Giveaway

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Lou Hoffmann on Research, Writing, and her new novel Ciarrah’s Light (The Sun Child Chronicles #3) (author interview, excerpt, and giveaway)

Ciarrah’s Light (The Sun Child Chronicles #3) by Lou Hoffmann
Harmony Ink Press
Cover art: Catt Ford

Sales Links: Harmony Ink Press | Amazon

Dreamspinner Press | Amazon paperback: (Link not yet available—will update) | B&N paperback: (Link not yet available—will update) | Books 2 Read Universal Link (ebooks):

https://www.books2read.com/Ciarrahs-Light-by-Lou-Hoffmann

Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words is happy to have Lou Hoffman here today talking about the latest release from Harmony Ink Press. Welcome, Lou.

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~ Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words Interview with Lou Hoffmann ~

*How much of yourself goes into a character?

Every character is me. That’s a cliché, but I think there’s a fair-sized chunk of truth at its core. We can’t write what we can’t imagine, and our imaginings are made up of everything we’ve experienced, whether through life, reading, observation, even dreaming. Every writer does things differently, so I’m speaking only for myself. With that in mind, for main characters, if I tried to make them up piece by piece—filling out a character sheet, or the like—they’d feel less authentic to me, and so probably to the reader. There are some fantastical characters in The Sun Child Chronicles, but they came more or less whole cloth to the story, and it was in writing the story that the characters were more fully revealed.

The first time I imagined the wizard Thurlock, for instance, he was old, and cantankerous, and simultaneously awesomely powerful and a bit bumbling. In my mind, he looked and acted pretty much exactly then as he does now. Is Thurlock me? Well, I’m certainly no wizard and I’m not a thousand years old, but I do know what it’s like to be the one who has to figure things out, the one who has to pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat and save the day. And, like Thurlock, I know what it’s like to succeed at that, I know what it’s like to fail, and I know what it’s like to have salvation come from an unexpected source. He’s not me, but he’s made out of parts of me, with a bunch of wonderment and imagination in the mix, and I know him in the same way I know myself—in one long journey of discovery.

One more word about characters being revealed through story, though. It’s not one-sided. The character also reveals the story. The more I know about the story, the more I see the character acting within it. The more I know about the character, the more they show me the story.

*Does research play a role into choosing which genre you write? Do you enjoy research or prefer making up your worlds and cultures?

Short answers all in a row: 1) no, it doesn’t play a role in which genre I write, 2) yes I enjoy research, but also 3) yes I like making up worlds and cultures.

I can’t choose between research and making things up, and in my thinking the difference isn’t exactly crystal. Anytime a writer makes fiction, they are making up a world. It doesn’t matter how closely it resembles the mundane world we all live in. The minute you impose fictional characters and fictional events upon that world, it becomes fictional, and will have to be bent and shaped in places to accommodate the story and characters. So even with contemporary fiction, the writer is imagining a world that doesn’t exist.

Also, for me at least, it’s never proven true that fantasy requires less research than contemporary settings. In non-fantasy genres, if the setting you want is a contemporary or historical city, you research where things are and what they look like, what the weather is like, perhaps what people have lived there, major events or cultural facts, etc. To write a fantasy city, you might have to research what kinds of weather patterns might exist in a geography such as the one you’re writing, what kind of building material might be suited to the environment, what kinds of transportation might be available in a pre-mechanized society. Sure, you’re going to embellish that, but for readers to relate to the story it needs to be grounded in human experience, in what feels possible, even if it isn’t.

In creating the Sun Child Chronicles, I’ve had an interesting situation, in that the Earth in the story and the second world, Ethra, have a lot in common, because they came from the same root—a world in which the seeds of cultural and technological evolution had already begun to grow before it split into two worlds. The new worlds developed at different rates—time actually moves differently too, and unpredictably. In many ways, Ethra resembles a historical, pre-industrial earth. So a lot of research goes into creating the trappings—clothing, occupations, means of transportation, activities, food, facilities. homes, streets, arts—basically everything, just as if I was writing a historical. The result doesn’t match a historical earth, exactly, but it feels familiar in the same way history does.

Then an added layer of research has to do with making the magic itself credible within the story. One item on that agenda, for instance, had to do with the “twin blades” which are first introduced in Key of Behliseth, and gain importance throughout the story, as the title Ciarrah’s Light might indicate. The origin story about these sentient daggers is pure fancy. The research came into play especially when I was determining what kind of stone might realistically be expected to produce the kind of “personality” each of these weapons have. I settled on obsidian for Ciarrah, the black blade—sharp, dark, strong, reflective. The other blade, Niamh, is amber, a smooth stone with a silky surface, soft, often preserving the stuff of life within it.

Has your choice of childhood or teenage reading genres carried into your own choices for writing?

I don’t know if I’ve ever thought of it that way, but now that I do, I think the answer is an obvious yes. I read a lot as a child and teen—cleaned out the library at my middle school, for instance—so naturally my reading included all sorts of genres. My favorites were often fantastical—like Wind in the Willows, the Borrowers, and A Wrinkle in Time in elementary school. And at that age my “real world” was so small that often stories that were not fantasy felt fantastical anyway. When I was a teen, I read Lord of the Rings, Gormenghast, Earthsea, as well as a good deal of sci-fi. Most of that wasn’t from the school library—my older brother passed his books down to me. In retrospect, those early literary loves certainly must have had a hand in creating my love of writing fantasy.

What’s next for you as an author?

The Sun Child Chronicles has three more books coming in the series proper: Dragon’s Rise, which is written and contracted for Summer 2019, and Kaynenh’s Triad and Suth Chiell’s Conquest in progress. I’m excited about the idea of some shorter, standalone stories that delve into the back story of the Sun Child, perhaps starring Zhevi, a young soldier, or L’Aria, a very exceptional magical girl, or maybe the story of a younger Han Shieth—gay man, perfect uncle, and fantastic warrior that he is in the series books. I’m right now putting together a synopsis for a brand-new series featuring a young woman as the central character, but with a wide cast of characters. Temporarily, I’m calling the series The Ashvale. We’ll see if that sticks.

Thank you for having me on STARW!

Readers, I hope you’ll check out Ciarrah’s Light, and enter the giveaway more than once. Several ways to enter, including the “Why I love fantasy…” poll. Thanks for reading!