Blog Tour: Through The Oracle's Mist By Aedan Byrnes @AedanByrnes @GHBTours #Authorinterview #Characterbio

Title: Through The Oracle's Mist
Series: Vengelys Series #1
By Aedan Byrnes
Genre: Historical Paranormal Romance
Published By: Drake Valley Press USA

Blurb:

In the blackest night, with the moon and stars to guide him, she would always be there waiting… Cyrenna thought she died the day she watched Tynan and his brothers jump through the banishment portal in an act of solidarity with Rigor. Little did she know, it would be the first of many deaths she would experience in her quest to claim his heart. She would surrender not only her immortal soul, but a mortal one repeatedly. Through a deal with the great Oracle, she has multiple mortal lifetimes to change the direction of her future and have a chance with Tynan. Her journey spans the ages from the GenPei War in Japan and the Silk Road west, to Cromwell, the Three Kingdoms and modern times, bringing her one step closer to forever until she makes a misstep. Then, the burden falls to Tynan. The only thing that is absolute is her fervent hope that he will come, but there's one big problem. Through it all, he doesn't so much as know her name.

     

Excerpt:

How many times can a man be broken? How many times can a man die and never have it be final? How many lost loves or lost chances at love will it take to undo any chance of ever becoming whole? In the purest sense…only one. Nothing I could imagine or ever endure would compete for the absolute punishing agony of her folding me into her arms to comfort me and hearing her whisper…

"I know."

Two words. Who knew that two words would be all that it would take to loose the storm? Hardly two words really, only five letters. Five little letters with extreme power. Five little letters to rob Zeus of his most lethal bolt, focus the strike, and rend me in pieces. The surge had pushed past my pride and leaves me sobbing for the loss I had yet to experience. A loss I knew would take my breath, but I cannot die. How cruelly ironic that death has become my sole wish now?

My internal emotional upheaval is a flash storm out of place beneath the cloudless sky. The cacophony of my noisy tears and transition scatter the small creatures for miles. I have no control and shift without grace. Rage and pain coalesce to an explosion, angst roaring as the internal battle is waged and the war lost before the call to arms is done sounding. My thunderous eruption screaming against the fading light, with a rising silvery moon and shimmering stars to bear witness to my destruction. The metamorphosis from man to beast is abrupt. I shift, not with the flexing of bone and the stretching of skin, but with the crack of a gun blast and a single pull to form. It is razor wire across my senses and I am bloodied raw without a trace to be found.

A testament to her, she stands still. Not frozen, but placated to let me render the fury that must come out as I cannot hold it in. The beast from within is enormous, but not big enough to hold so much. I warned her. I told her. I had made her aware almost cruelly that first time I let my inner wild out that this day might come…could come…would come and that it would be ushered in on an unseen tide that would sweep our perfect world away. I had wanted her to be afraid. She wasn't. She had believed, but had also naively assured me that the day would be long into the future and we would enjoy the time until then.

She had been wrong. There was nothing to say now. 'I'm sorry' would be a hollow sentiment and 'I was wrong' would do nothing as the last thing I would want to hear and know about this was that I had been right.

Character Bio:

In Through the Oracle's Mist, we meet the Vengelys brothers; Rigor, Mastema, Tynan, Lone, Denoheau, Asmodai and Kyrna. The Vengelys are a family of warriors for the throne of Amaranth. While we meet them all briefly, the main male for this tale is Tynan. Tynan is very certain he knows everything he needs to know about himself and is content with his lot in life. Through the mist and time he learns that he has a lot to learn about love and sacrifice. His sense of duty, family, and honor are clear to him, until they are not and he must choose. He is a fighter but a protector, a brother and to his surprise an incomplete man. He learns, but is it fast enough?

Cyrenna of the Erian is a beautiful, smart, purposed woman. She sits at the right hand of Amarine, one of the god-faces of Amaranth as an advisor in the affairs of the Aradian people. She has no notion of any other life or purpose before it is time for her to be reborn, until she sees the Vengelys and recognizes Tynan as her one perfect match. She faces the ultimate challenges in trying to answer the one question she never knew she would face…how much is forever worth? Through the mist and time she learns not only the answer to that question, but just how far she's willing to go to get it…or a chance of it.

Author Interview:

What inspired you to write Through the Oracle's Mist?

This started as a filler story I was working on for a character that I portray for another author in role-play. As it grew, it just got too big and too different from the original work to fit anymore. It also began to spin off fillers of its own to the storyline and that's when it had to become something else.

When or at what age did you know you wanted to be a writer?

I don't think I decided. I've written for years in one way or another and just did because I could. Traditional publication was a decision, but writing itself has always been one of my escapes.

What is the earliest age you remember reading your first book?

Very young, though I cannot pinpoint it to an age.

What genre of books do you enjoy reading?

Something I can't predict. Grisham makes me crazed. I can't guess him ever. History is a big one too…I'm a huge fan. Old texts will have my attention for days on end, pretty much no matter the subject.

What is your favorite book?

I have no favorites because there is no way in my mind to choose one over another. Writing is the pouring out of bits of soul and I cannot judge between them.

You know I think we all have a favorite author. Who is your favorite author and why?

Again, No favorites…I am a fan of anyone who takes up the charge to put a tale to paper and allow the masses to have an opinion of them and their muse.

If you could travel back in time here on earth to any place or time. Where would you go? And why?

All of them. I love history and would love to live the times and places I've read of first hand.

When writing a book do you find that writing comes easy for you or is it a difficult task?

I really don't think I get writer's block if that's the question. I am constantly refining the story in my mind before I write it out, so when I sit to write it is a regurgitation of details, not creation. I have more struggles with aligning the story to where the pieces fit than the actual creation of it. It is the details that give me pause, not the tales…so I guess that it's easy? I somehow just know the overarching stories.

Do you have any little fuzzy friends? Like a dog or a cat? Or any pets?

We have felines now, we've had canines before…fish, snails, crabs, and birds….it's a regular zoo around here.

What is your "to die for", favorite food/foods to eat?

I don't have any 'to die for' foods. I enjoy a good meal as much as the next. There are things I enjoy every time…but they are not to die for. Reese's, strangled eggs with biscuits & gravy, a good steak, pasta with sugo, German chocolate cake.

Do you have any advice for anyone that would like to be an author?

This is actually a reprint of an answer I gave in an interview over a year ago, but I believe it is still the best advice I can give to anyone who aspires to write.

BEGIN. Whatever you do or don't do after that, Begin. There is no 'THE END' without 'In the beginning'. I've talked to many folks who are trying to start and the question is always "How?" The answer is, keep it simple. Pick an image and describe it, take a word and make a conversation, choose a voice and write a monologue. Can't come up with it? Try picking a character you love and write a story for them that hasn't been told. I am not advocating plagiarism here… I am saying tell the side you have never seen. Choose a villain you love to hate and tell the love story that you've never heard. Choose the good guy from the television show and write about his wild and rowdy night on the town. Write something that you would never see for this character as it is completely against their nature as you know them.

Once you can do this then start coming up with your own characters and the stories that go with them, but don't kill yourself and burn out before you get started trying to take on the 300 or 500 page novel from scratch with nothing else under your belt. The 50 Shades of Grey series that came out by EL James started as fan fiction for Stephanie Meyer and her Twilight saga. Does it seem like it's the Vampires and Werewolves Meyer wrote? I have no idea, I haven't read them, but what I'm saying is that the idea developed by piggy-backing on something else that was out there. We all need to find the end of the pier and jump into the deep end somewhere. Just take a few laps in the kiddie pool first.

Writing isn't re-inventing the wheel. It's finding new ways to tell the same stories we've been reading all along. There aren't a thousand new genres that come out every year….there are a thousand books though that do and they fall into the established genres. And this is the next big step... Once you can honestly put a string of words together to complete a thought, once you can take a mental image of a character and breathe life into them, you have to decide what they are going to do and this will determine the genre you write in. Maybe there will be more than one, but probably best to start with just one. And there is nothing wrong with starting small. It's like writing essays….in middle school they were a page, in high school we went from 3 to 5 to 10 pages and in college we went from 15 - to hundreds for thesis work. Allow yourself the time to grow. I would say to you, remember you have to crawl before you walk before you run. I would remind you to ask "And then what?" "What comes next?" Keep the ideas flowing.

Whatever path you take, remember that you have to start. Dreaming is that voice inside telling you that there is something there but it can't do it without you. There's magic in dreaming and stories too. No matter how good the dream though you still have to get up and take up the pen to tell the tale or it is only ever a dream.

There's a song out that is more an analogy for life, but the key line is an absolutely perfect observation statement for this….Natasha Beddingfield says, "Today is where your book begins, the rest is still unwritten." I say, "You are the only one who can change that."

At the end of the day, you have to be true to who you are and the vision of the tale you have. Readers nowadays are smart, discerning and ruthless. They know when you have compromised, and they will tell you and others. There are tons of tips and advice out there, and all are valid in one way or another. See them all. Hear them all. Then, apply to you and your telling those that resonate and fit with where you are. You cannot be anyone else, and no one can be you better…remember that, and you won't be wrong….now go write something. Begin.

About the Author:

There is no simple description for Aedan Byrnes. Obsessive, dreamer, reclusive, compulsive, outdoorsman and wordsmith would be among the list if one were started. The displaced Gael lives in the upper Midwest with family between jaunts wherever the road takes him. A frequent traveler, he is as likely to be found rock climbing or spelunking as sitting fireside dreaming or aimlessly floating away.

A lifelong lover of words and writing, he claims a diverse reading appetite and his writing reflects the myriad influences. A self-proclaimed 'reader's writer', he looks for the emotional and the sensory in word combinations, not just the visceral comprehension of phrases in the stories he crafts and his love of all things literary shines through.

     

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