Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Fantasy Author Kevin M. Sunwright: 'In my universe there are worlds or planes as they are called'

June 20, 2018 0 Comments
“As I said a debt was paid.” Michael moved towards Paris and kneeled next to him. “My time to stay here grows short I must go home, but I must tell you this. This Alavar is a new plane, made to compensate for the loss of your home plane. Proto-Humans will prosper here, the magic level is high here. But I must warn you the progenitors of the species here are still at work.”
-- From The Sunwright Chronicles by Kevin M. Villegas


I have been writing for as long as I can remember. My ongoing series The Sunwright Chronicles is a culmination of fifteen years of creating a unique living world with a rich history. I am currently writing the third book in the series. Besides writing I enjoy computer gaming, reading, playing the guitar and watching the history and science channels. My favorite activity though, is hanging out with my awesome family.

My latest book is the fantasy, The Sunwright Chronicles: A New World.

Book Description:

The Sunwright Chronicles : A New World, takes place in the world called Alavar, the Sunwrights a mostly Magical family made up of Paris Sunwright, Suadela Sunwright, Calia Sunwright, Tobias & Jaedus Sunwright and last but not least Pershing Sunwright, have all arrived from a long but bitter stay from modern earth. Alavar is a fresh new world, so the Sunwrights are directed to stay away from the "creators as they work" young Jaedus Sunwright is discovered to be a "necromancer" the most powerful type of mage.

Paris Sunwright the patriarch of the family takes it upon himself to train her before she accidentally kills anyone in the family with her wild powers. Conflict ensues between Suadela, Paris's wife and young Jaedus before Paris can take Jaedus away to be trained. We skip ahead in time and Jaedus is trained properly, The "Creators" are long done with their work and the Sunwrights decide to reside with the elves of the world. The Sunwrights help teach the Elves many things. It is not long before it is discovered there is a sickness amongst the elves, called the soul disease. Because of her special powers Jaedus Sunwright is the best fitted to help combat this disease, only a few elves succumb to the disease, one being the wife of the second most prominent Elf in the land.
Now we move forward, the Elves are prospering the soul disease is gone, the population boom for the Elves has produced several distinct tribes amongst them. A power struggle ensues, in which the first murder occurs in the land, leading to the breakup of the tribes into separate nations and the very real possibility of war.

Interview:

Welcome Kevin! Can we begin by having you tell us how you got started writing fantasy? Did the movies influence you? Books?

Kevin: Oh yes i was heavily influenced by The Lord of the Rings of course, I have historical non-ficition books that have influenced me, as well as writings from authors such as Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I started writing fantasy when I was 6, as i grew older the books got longer and more complex, up to today, I am not nearly done in my development as an author and I don't think i ever will be. I am always striving to outdo myself.

I love the idea of creating new worlds. Can you tell us a little about Alavar?

Kevin: In my universe there are worlds or planes as they are called. There are three categories when it comes to magical powers of worlds none to little which would be earth. Mid Power, and Strong Power which would be Alavar. Alavar was created as a special gift to the Sunwrights for service done on Earth which we shall not go into now. Alavar was meant to be a haven for the Sunwrights, it is a High Magic World, in which humans, elves, trolls, gnolls, and maybe a dragon or two inhabit ;).

Can you tell us a little about the main characters of your book?

Kevin: The Sunwright Family is a complex family unit, held together by their patriach Paris Sunwright an immortal mage, he is joined at his side by his wife Suadela Sunwright, then they have their only child who is without the ability to cast magic Tobias Sunwright, the doctor of the family Calia Sunwright, the youngest Pershing Sunwright, and Tobias' daughter Jaedus, who will be a main piece in this novel.

They say all books of fiction have at least one pivotal point when the reader just can’t put the book down. Can you give us one of those pivotal points in The Sunwright Chronicles: A New World?

Kevin:Yes when the soul disease hits the Elves and the eventual fallout and outcome of that plague.

Will there be a sequel? What’s next for you?

Kevin:Oh yes the sequel is already completed, once this novel has had it's time in the limelight the second novel will be prepared and put up for sale most likely later this year :).

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Interview with Maureen Brady, Author of Getaway

June 12, 2018 0 Comments

Though Maureen Brady wrote the humor column of her junior high school newspaper, she didn't actually comprehend that she was a writer until after she had moved to New York City in her twenties, where she began taking writing workshops at The New School and then fell headlong into the consciousness raising groups of the early 1970's.

She published her first novel, Give Me Your Good Ear, in 1979, and it was published by The Women's Press in England in 1981. Her novel, Folly, was excerpted in Southern Exposure, received wide critical acclaim, was nominated by Adrienne Rich for an ALA Gay Book Award and was reprinted as a classic by The Feminist Press. She published a collection of short stories, The Question She Put to Herself, in 1987, then turned to writing nonfiction in the '90's, publishing Daybreak: Meditations for Women Survivors of Sexual Abuse and Midlife: Meditations for Women. She returned to fiction with the novel, Ginger's Fire, and her most recent novel, Getaway.

Her recent work has appeared in Sinister Wisdom, Bellevue Literary Review; Just Like A Girl; Cabbage and Bones: Irish American Women's Fiction, Mom, In the Family, and Intersections: An Anthology of Banff Writers. Brady's essays and stories have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and were finalists for the Katherine Anne Porter Fiction Prize and the Nelsen Algren Short Story contest.

An Adjunct Assistant Professor, she teaches creative writing at New York University and New York Writers Workshop @ the Jewish Community Center, and works as a free-lance editor and tutor, helping writers across the spectrum take their writing to the next stage.

A co-founder of Spinsters Ink, Brady edited such books as The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde and The Woman Who Breathes Fire by Kitty Tsui. She also served as a panelist for The New York State Council on the Arts Literature Program and as a fiction judge for Oregon Literary Arts. She is a founding member of The New York Writers Workshop and has long served as Board President of Money for Women Barbara Deming Memorial Fund.

She has received grants from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation; New York State Council on the Arts Writer-in-Residence; New York State Council on the Arts CAPS grant; Holding Our Own; Briarcombe Foundation; and The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellowship to The Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Ireland. She was the winner of the Saints and Sinners short story contest for 2015 and is also a Saints and Sinners Hall of Fame winner.

She lives in New York City and Woodstock with her long term partner, Martha, and their joy dog, Bessie.

Visit Maureen’s website at www.maureenbradyny.com.

What first inspired you to write or who inspired you?

I wrote the humor column in my junior high newspaper, wanted to take writing classes in college but was afraid I would be too devastated if the teacher were to tell me what I wrote was no good. A few years out of college, I moved to New York City and was working full time as a Physical Therapist and I decided to risk taking a class called First Fiction at The New School. When the teacher said write, I wrote like crazy, got some positive feedback in the class, and never stopped writing. It became a passion for me and as I shortened my working hours in my other profession and wrote my
first novel, then second, and so forth.

Do you have a day job? What do you do?

As I said, I worked as a PT, first in hospitals, then I taught PT at a couple of colleges, then I went into private practice and continued to work part time for many years both to support my writing, and because I also had a fulfilling career in that field.

Can you name three writing tips to pass on to aspiring authors?

#1: Don’t quit your day job, but try to find ways to allow yourself writing time on a consistent basis. #2: Enjoy the process, the full immersion in the imagination that makes time pass unnoticed so you look up and suddenly 3 hours have passed in what seemed like a minute. #3: Seek the things to write about that compel you so it will not be a labor when you have to go back over and over, reworking them.

Do you let unimportant things get in the way of your writing?

I try not to, but inevitably they do. I try to write before anything else gets started in the morning, in part because I feel closest to the creative spirit if I’m not too far from waking up, and in part because it’s best to get started before the critic gets up and wants to stand over me and have a say.

How often do you write? 

When I’m working on a project, I like to try to get in a couple of hours every day. However, I teach writing and edit others, so often there are days when I have to skip my own writing. If there are too many days in between, then it takes more effort to get back to it.

Are you an avid reader?

Yes, I have always loved to read and feel that my imagination feeds off good, stimulating writing. Right now I am reading Homesick for Another World, stories by Ottessa Moshfegh ,whose novel, Eileen, I just finished. Also, Carmen Maria Machado’s, My Body and Other Parties. Recently, I read Jessmyn West’s novel, Sing, Unburied Sing and Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere.

What are you currently working on?

I’m working on a collection of short stories, as yet untitled. Some of them have been published in literary journals such as Bellevue Literary Journal or Sinister Wisdom, some have been anthologized in Cabbage and Bones: An Anthology of Irish American Women’s Fiction; Like Light: 25 Years of Poetry and Prose by Bright Hill Poets & Writers; and Lovers.

Inside the Book


Title: GETAWAY
Author: Maureen Brady
Publisher: Bacon Press Books
Pages: 230
Genre: Women’s Fiction
BOOK BLURB:
After stabbing her abusive husband and leaving him dying on the kitchen floor, Cookie Wagner flees to remote Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. For a moment, she seems to have gotten away with murder. But, consigned to a secretive life with a new name and the need to be on constant alert, she faces all she has not gotten away with. She is helped by the recently widowed Mrs. Biddle, who offers her a place to stay, and the lobster fisherman Butch, who gives her a job and later falls in love with her. Walking the cliffs and beaches, taking in the scruffy windblown plants that survive the buffeting wind by growing at an angle, she begins to heal.
Yet, there is no leaving behind the notion that Warren is dead as the result of her action.
Or is he? And if not, will he one day come to find her?
Sexual harassment and abuse are all over the news these days, often involving celebrites and other well-known figures, but Cookie, the protagonist of Getaway, is no celebrity. She’s an ordinary woman married to a working class guy who drinks too much and resorts to violence. Their story reveals how endemic the phenomenon of abuse is, and the quandary Cookie lands in when she fights back.
Praise for Getaway:
“Sensitive, sensual, and stirring. “Getaway” is a true page-turner, but one with heart and with context. I couldn’t put it down until I got to the end, not just to find out what happened, but also to discover who these intriguing and complex characters would develop into. An extremely satisfying read!”
Danielle Ofri, author of What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear, Editor-in-Chief, Bellevue Literary Review.
Getaway is available at Amazon.

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