Welcome one and all! I have with me today, Cindy Lynn Speer, author of Blue Moon. Please join us as Cindy tells us more about herself and her book. Hello Cindy, I’m happy that you have joined us today. I cannot wait to hear how this book came to life.
When did you know you wanted to be an author?
Thank you very much…I’m so honored to be interviewed! Let’s see…I knew when I was in my early teens. I used to write stories just for fun, experimenting, and one day I let a friend see one. She told me it made her grin “This big” and I thought, wow…maybe I can write things that make other people happy, too. And so I decided to try and write fantasy, because it seems to have so many possibilities…that, and I’ve always been a sucker for magic.
Your book, Blue Moon, is a unique story. What was the driving ‘force’ or muse that had you sitting down to write this?
I just had all these images in my head. A woman killing crows with her very expensive car, another one living in a cabin fortress. And as these images kept coming, they gelled when I was listening to the radio, and heard the announcer say something about the blue moon. And I wondered, “What does really happen once in a blue moon?” So I decided to find out.
Could you share with us a bit of the story?
The idea behind it is that magic and technology stopped being able to work together…to the point where it was destroying the world. So, the world was split into two, and everything of myth and magic went to one world, and we stayed on the mainly technology driven world. That’s why you hear about dragons with no evidence that they ever existed. Our main characters, Libby, has the key stone that made this spell possible, and she hides it, knowing that someday someone will try and take it and bring the worlds back together. She has a good reason for her fears, she was married to a man who is actually a creature who lived hundreds of years ago, someone so vicious and evil that after he was imprisoned the memory of his existence was taken from all living things.
The other main characters is Alex, who has no memory of his past up to five years ago. When he loses his job, he decides to try and go on a quest of sorts, to see if he could discover who he really is. He runs into Libby, and is incredibly drawn to her, not knowing that she holds the answers he seeks. That’s the main love story, between these two have so much more in common than they know.
While I think romance is one of the most important aspects of the book, it’s not the whole of it. The antagonist, Sabin, and his mother are doing their best to complicate things as much as possible…both to help them win what they want, and just because they enjoy sowing confusion. So you have people’s identities being stolen from them, murder, souls being swapped, and other forms of mayhem. I wanted to reader to be immersed in the story, to feel like they were trying to solve the riddles, too.
You must have had to do a lot of research for the world building to come across on the page so well. How long had you been researching the myths and magic before the book came together?
I’ve always had an interest in folk lore and myth, especially the meaning of stones and flowers. If magic is real, I believe that it must reside in the properties of things of the earth…for years, people have used stones like amethysts (which are supposed to keep you from getting drunk) or metals like copper, or herbs, to enact a change of some sort or to act as protection. So that’s always rung true with me, and because it rings true to me, I can make it ring true to the readers, whether they believe the principle of what I’ve said or not. (Hopefully!) I’ve been fascinated with King Arthur since I was thirteen, and the setting of the novel itself is in the area I live. So it was not hard to be vivid, because the slag pile, Cooper’s Rock, those are places I know well and love.
Is it possible there could be a follow up to Blue Moon?
I’ve had a couple of requests for that, which is awesome because it makes me feel kind of good, because people don’t want to close the door on my characters. I have thought about it, two possibilities include a futuristic story focusing on the children of the main characters, another possibility is that I’ll focus on one of the secondary characters, the dragon Zorovin. I keep wondering what might happen if the people on the other world decide that they want this one back…
Do you have other books coming out this year?
Drollerie Press has bought one book and an anthology of stories from me. The book will be coming out as an eBook in June, with print publication scheduled for later this year. The anthology will come out this summer.
The book is called “The Chocolatier’s Wife” and is a murder mystery set in a fable-esq world. Tasmin has always known that she would marry William, even though she’s never met him. She is freed of her obligation when he is accused of murder…but she rather likes him, having gotten to know him through letters, and decides to make the long journey to him to see if she can help find the real culprit.
Where can our readers find you around the web? Do you have a blog?
I can be found at http://www.apenandfire.com, which is where I also keep my blog. I try to keep it professional, but I talk about everything, mostly. I welcome comments from readers, and it is a place where you can find out more about my books, like locations, character interviews, and other assorted silliness, and interviews with other authors.
With summer just around the corner, are you planning on doing something special or will you spend time in the great outdoors writing?
Yes…I have a goal of finishing another book this summer, but we’ll see what happens. Otherwise, I’m planning on gardening and fencing. I have recently *finally* gotten around to indulging my passion for swords, and I’ve fallen in love with classical fencing. If I am lucky, I’ll get to hit ISMAC, a major sword fighting conference, this year.
I read that your father is a blacksmith. Is there a possible story with a blacksmith as the hero in your future?
I am not sure! That’s a fantastic question…it might be, but while my father is definitely one of my heroes, that character hasn’t appeared in my head yet. Now I’m really wondering about it!
How has your family reacted to you being a published author and do they read your books?
My mother is a voracious reader, so she’s always read my books as I work on them, because I know she’s read enough to be a sharp editor. She tells me what works and what doesn’t. My father never reads fantasy, and I always sort of figured he’d never read my work, but he started to the other day and was like, “Wow, she really can write!” So, I’m lucky in that they are both proud of me and that they support me.
Cindy, I’d like to thank you for stopping by and sharing a bit of yourself with us. Please stop by and visit with us again.
Leave a Comment