First lets thank Anne Elisabeth Stengl for being here! She has
graciously granted me an interview, and I am sure that you all want to know what she had to say, so here it is:
Is there anything that
you would like to tell us about yourself?
Hi there! I am a bookish,
introverted, crazy-cat-lady novelist type. Most people wouldn’t
guess the introverted bit because I appear outgoing in public, but
it’s the truth! I live with my husband, Rohan, in a little house on
a hill beside a bamboo forest. I spend my days taking care of my (now
six!) cats, my big fluffy dog, and writing fairy tale novels. I also
edit, dabble in design, mentor writing students, and sometimes still
find opportunity to draw/paint and practice piano. I love listening
to opera, drinking Ceylon tea, and going dancing with my husband.
Shadow Hand is your
newest novel. Can you tell us about the story?
Shadow Hand is book 6
in the Tales of Goldstone Wood. It picks up where my third novel,
Moonblood, leaves off. But this story takes secondary
characters from earlier novels and makes them the protagonists. Thus
readers finally get into the head and heart of “bad girl” Lady
Daylily and “pathetic” Prince Foxbrush . . . maybe to discover
that neither is so bad or pathetic as previously thought.
The story is loosely based
on the Ballad of Tam Lin, St. Patrick legends, and a George
MacDonald fairy tale, all rolled up into an ancient jungle setting.
It deals with several different time periods, connecting stories from
the past with stories of the present. It is quite a wild ride!
When did you first start
writing?
I’ve been writing ever
since I can remember. My mother began her career as a professional
novelist when I was still quite young, and I was always inspired by
watching her work. It was quite a natural step for me to take up the
pen myself.
Where did you get the
idea for the Tales of Goldstone Wood?
I couldn’t really say. The
ideas are still growing, and the initial inspiration is pretty hard
to pinpoint. When I was fourteen I started penning a variety of
stories all set in the same world but in different times and
locations. Each story referenced the others, but they weren’t a
“series,” per se, because they didn’t move in any specific
chronological order. Not unlike the Tales of Goldstone Wood as it
looks today! I know I wrote down the first ideas for Dragonwitch
when I was seventeen, and the first ideas for Starflower came
soon after that. Those are probably the oldest ideas to make it into
the series as it is today.
How many novels do you so
far plan to write in the series?
Well, until recently I would
have said 15. But, as is usually the case, each time I write a story,
new ideas crop up. So I couldn’t give you an exact number at this
point. More than 15, that much I know!
Do you have any plans for
other series?
Possibly. At the moment I’m
pretty focused on Goldstone Wood, however. It’s such a broad world
with limitless scope, so it’s hard to think outside of it just now.
Could you tell us your
publishing story?
I wrote my debut novel,
Heartless, when I was 21. I found an agent the year after, and
she found a publisher less than a year after that. It was almost
miraculously quick, really! I definitely see God’s hand in bringing
my work to Bethany House and giving me the chance to launch this
series . . . which has turned into something much bigger and more
exciting than I ever could have imagined!
Out of all your
characters, could you tell us which is your favorite and why?
Oh, definitely Eanrin, Bard
of Rudiobus, poet and cat. I have been writing about him since the
early days of Goldstone Wood, and he has always been a favorite! I
mean, I am a crazy-cat-lady after all . . .
What is the most
difficult part of writing for you?
For some reason I usually
struggle with beginnings. The beginning of Dragonwitch was the
most difficult writing I’ve ever done! Shadow Hand also gave
me pain at first, trying to find the right opening. But I will say
the next three projects—Goddess Tithe, Golden Daughter, and
Draven’s Light—have all started out really nicely for me,
and the beginnings didn’t change much from the first lines I
pounded out. So maybe I’ve broken that trend? (Knock on wood.)
Do you have a favorite
part of writing?
Finishing. I love the whole
creative process, but there is nothing quite like writing the climax
of a story that has consumed my life for the past several months . .
. and then putting that final, finishing flourish on the end. It’s
an enormously satisfying feeling. So satisfying that I can’t wait
to jump into the next project so I can work up to that moment again!
Here on Backing Books,
every Wednesday we have a Writing Tip. Do you have any tips or tricks
to share with us?
Hmmmm . . . I suppose I
would suggest this: Each writer should figure out what matters to
her or him. Right now. What is the issue weighing on your heart?
Is it crippling self-doubt? Is it striving toward a specific goal? Is
it a broken heart? Is it anxiety about the future? Is it grappling
with grief? I recommend each writer to find out what is currently the
driving force in her or his heart . . . and then shape stories around
that.
Successful stories are
stories that matter. Particularly stories that matter to the
writers writing them. If you can communicate something that
personally, deeply matters to you right now into your story,
you will find your audience. If you try to write about someone else’s
concerns, someone else’s problems . . . it’ll never mean as much.
Not to you, not to your readers.
This is a similar tip to the
classic “Write What You Know.” But I don’t necessarily agree
with that tip. It tends to make people think too small. But writers
should write from personal experience, personal pain, personal drive,
hopes, and dreams. And aspect of “writing what you know” is
absolutely vital to creating an absolutely vital story.
What inspires you?
Great writing inspires me. I
try to surround myself with great writing—great reading—all the
time. Both classics and modern. I don’t bother with writing I find
thin, inauthentic, or trivial. But I read a variety of genres,
styles, and narrative voices. A good writer is a good reader.
And finally, my favorite
question for every author: Is there anything that occurs in your
novel that has happened to you in real life?
Well, the old-Southlander
dish Foxbrush eats at one point in the story . . . I’ve eaten that
too! And was equally surprised by the spicy heat that could
burn your tongue out. But oh my, it’s delicious! It’s based on a
Sri Lankan dish called Seenie Sambol, and I hope to share a recipe on
the book page one of these days .
Are there any ways for
readers to learn more about you and your book?
Readers can find me in the
following places:
And readers may also visit
the
Shadow
Hand Book
Page to learn more about this particular story!
Be certain to click the book tiles on the side bar to go to those
book pages as well.
Thanks for hosting me on
your blog, Rebekah!
Author Bio:
Anne
Elisabeth Stengl is the author of the award-winning Tales of
Goldstone Wood series, adventure fantasies told in the classic Fairy
Tale style. Her books include Christy Award-winning Heartless
and Veiled Rose,
and Clive Staples Award-winning Starflower.
She makes her home in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she lives with
her husband, Rohan, a passel of cats, and one long-suffering dog.
When she's not writing, she enjoys Shakespeare, opera, and tea, and
practices piano, painting, and pastry baking. She studied
illustration and English literature at Grace College and Campbell
University.
Shadow
Hand (available now):
This
is a story about love, and blood, and the many things that lie
between . . .By her father's wish, Lady Daylily is betrothed
to the Prince of Southlands. Not the prince she loves, handsome and
dispossessed Lionheart, but his cousin, the awkward and foolish
Prince Foxbrush. Unable to bear the future she sees as her wedding
day dawns, Daylily flees into the dangerous Wilderlands, her only
desire to vanish from living memory.
But
Foxbrush, determined to rescue his betrothed, pursues Daylily into a
new world of magic and peril, a world where vicious Faerie beasts
hold sway, a world invaded by a lethal fey parasite . . .
A world
that is hauntingly familiar.
Golden
Daughter (coming November 2014)
BEYOND THE REALM OF
DREAMS
IS A WORLD SHE NEVER
IMAGINED
Masayi Sairu was raised to
be dainty, delicate, demure . . . and deadly. She is one of the
emperor’s Golden Daughters, as much a legend as she is a commodity.
One day, Sairu will be contracted in marriage to a patron, whom she
will secretly guard for the rest of her life.
But when she learns that a
sacred Dream Walker of the temple seeks the protection of a Golden
Daughter, Sairu forgoes marriage in favor of this role. Her skills
are stretched to the limit, for assassins hunt in the shadows, and
phantoms haunt in dreams. With only a mysterious Faerie cat and a
handsome slave—possessed of his own strange abilities—to help
her, can Sairu shield her new mistress from evils she can neither see
nor touch?
For the Dragon is building
an army of fire. And soon the heavens will burn.
