We
are so excited to have as our guest today, Kenneth A. Baldwin, author of THE SHARDS OF LAFAYETTE: DROPS OF GLASS BOOK 1. He is here to tell
us five things you should know about
his book!
5 Things You Should Know About The Shards of Lafayette: Drops of Glass Book 1
By Kenneth A. Baldwin
1. This story respects history, even though it has magic.
History is crucially important to me. I don’t appreciate stories that steal an aesthetic and disrespect the people and cultures that made a time period what it was. At the same time, I think all of us have a hard time with books that call themselves novels but are really nothing more than written history lectures (I’m looking at you Tolstoy). I’ve tried to strike a balance. The book is deeply researched. Some of the people in the story are true historical figures. I’ve tried to treat them as respectfully as possible. The protagonists, though, and the plot are fictional and rely on a magic system that, as far as I know, does not exist in real life.
2. It’s the first book in a trilogy, but the ending shouldn’t leave you throwing the book against the wall.
If you love short series, then this will be a great trilogy for you to dive into. Three books. I won’t suddenly discover that a fourth is necessary or find myself unable to cut down adequate words to keep it to three. Let’s make a pact here and now. This is a three-book story. If you stick with it for three books, I promise to deliver in three books. Additionally, if you can only stick with me for one book, the ending on Drops of Glass shouldn’t make you feel as though you’ve completely wasted your time. It wraps up pretty well, and though there are lingering strands that will, hopefully, make you want to read the second, it’s not some insane cliff hangar.
3. The story takes place in WW1, but there are no trench scenes.
So much of WW1 storytelling takes place in the trenches. I get it. The trenches were crazy. I mean really crazy. In fact, the deeper you get into the research, the crazier they are. But trench stories dominate WW1 storytelling, and that’s just not representative of the time period. Only a certain number of soldiers manned the trenches, and even they did so in rotating shifts of a couple weeks at a time. Meanwhile, the entire world was affected by the war, and people everywhere had to keep living lives. Drops of Glass focuses on the men and women that powered the aerodromes and the intelligence networks that were so vital to the war. A common theme I heard back from some of my readers was that they don't normally go for war books, but this one came across differently. One went so far as to call it a cozy WW1 fantasy. How's that for a genre?
4. You’re going to learn a lot about early airplanes.
Some readers love this. Others love it a little less. But out of necessity, there will be plane talk. One protagonist is an American combat pilot. He knows and loves airplanes. His life depends on them. The other is a young British woman who fixes airplanes with hedgewitch magic. She also knows airplanes inside and out. I tried to ensure that readers don’t need to know anything about airplanes coming into the story, but it would do these characters a significant injustice to block them from speaking about what they knew.
5. This book is written from two, first-person perspectives.
The story follows Marcus, a pilot, and Jane, his mechanic. They have a wonderful bond and very different backgrounds. Chapters rotate between their first-person perspectives. I love first-person because it provides such an intimate look into the characters’ hearts and minds and because a good use of rotating first person is a wonderful tool to generate dramatic irony and suspense. In this case, though, it also leads to some airplane talk from time to time (see point 4). And for those reading this who are already rolling their eyes at a male author writing from a woman’s perspective, I promise, there is no description of breasts or undue underwear imagery or heaving, really, of any kind.
1918. France. Reports of unexplained rogue attacks have come in from both sides of the Western Front.
When Marcus Dewar is tasked with investigating the aerial bombardments, it’s not because of his aviation record. To make a name for himself, he will have to escort his best friend, a woman named Jane Turner known for her witchlike repairs on damaged aircraft, through some of the war’s most dangerous battle zones.
But when they learn the rogue pilots seek out arcane devices filled with magic powerful enough to alter the war, it will take more than some hedgewitch tactics and smart flying to return with their lives.
And in a conflict that values human life so little, that’s the least they have to lose.
The Shards of Lafayette: Drops of Glass Book 1 is available at Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Drops-Glass-Magic-Shards-Lafayette-ebook/dp/B0C42B144X .
Kenneth A. Baldwin writes stories that blur the lines between history, magic, dreams, and reality. He loves finding oddities in history books with unbelievable tales or unexplained phenomena. His first series, The Luella Winthrop Trilogy, takes place during just such a time when late 19th-century Victorians struggled to balance a surge of occultism and never-before-seen scientific advancements.
Before he started writing novels, Kenny paid his way through law school by writing, performing, and teaching humor. You can still catch him on stage or in corners of the Internet that feature sketch and improv comedy. Now, he lives nestled under the Wasatch Mountains with his wonderful wife, sons, and Golden Retriever.
Website & Social Media:
Website ➜ www.kennethabaldwin.com
X ➜ http://www.x.com/kennethabaldwin
Facebook ➜ www.facebook.com/kennethabaldwin
Goodreads ➜ www.goodreads.com/kennethabaldwin
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