Lumina
by Paddy
Tyrrell
GENRE: Epic
Fantasy
BLURB:
A generation designed by sorcery to destroy your people. Two
races mired in conflict. Can a pair of outcasts unite them against an enemy who
would enslave them all?
The birth of ‘bronzite’ babies in Lumina heralds the onset of war. The people
take fright at the golden children and banish them from the land. A dangerous
move. King Zheldar, commander of the black dragon, is attacking Luman borders.
If he wins bronzite support for his army of monsters, Lumina is lost.
Davron Berates cannot share his people’s hatred of the children and, on
discovering he has a bronzite brother, sets out to find him. At his side
travels Chrystala. A bronzite, she has twice his strength and three times his
determination.
When the black dragon kidnaps Chrystala, Davron is faced with a terrible
choice: save his friend or save his nation.
Excerpt:
Jaldeen
strode towards an ancient font at the far side of the tower and opened wooden
shutters in the wall behind it. Leaning out, he checked the platform outside
for any decay. It looked solid enough and he stepped over the windowsill and
walked to the center. He cupped his hands around his mouth and spelled a
summons, his voice a rasp of vowels that floated on the damp air. He ducked
back inside. There was a thrash of wings and the tower shuddered. Xeralith,
black dragon of Kuhla, had answered his call.
Any
fleeting sense of power deserted him in the terror of her presence. She was as
old as the moss that ate the castle walls. Evil had putrefied her beauty, her
once crimson scales stained black by Rach’s corruption. She thrust her head
through the opening in the wall. Bony nodules covered her upper jaw and the
dark armor plating of her head. Steam belched from her nostrils.
Jaldeen
ran and hid behind the font, clinging to the carvings of the demons that served
his god, as though they could protect him. He averted his face from the
scalding droplets. Xeralith’s breath, heavy with malevolence, contaminated the
air with the stench of burning metal and rotten meat. Stomach heaving, Jaldeen
forgot to maintain his shield. Her eyes swirled and she locked her gaze on his.
Trickles of flame erupted through teeth that could rip him in two. He lost
control of his limbs and fell. She lunged at him and he scrambled back, his
heels banging on the stone floor. The horns on her sinewy neck snagged against
the outer wall and pulled her short. She screeched in frustration.
Interview with Paddy Tyrrell
What was the hardest scene from your book to
write?
Seila
Island. I edited this scene so many times. Davron goes there to find Chrystala,
one of the race of golden children who are banished when they reach adulthood.
He hopes she will help him find his bronzite brother. The challenge was to keep
the pace of the story going. I needed to find a balance between describing the
home the bronzites made for themselves on Seila Island and maintaining the pace
of the action. After the two of them leave the island they are plunged into the
adventure and life gets easier, or at least the writing does!
Why did you choose to write in your
particular field or genre?
I
was first attracted to fantasy writing when following a course on mediaeval
French literature. Fantasy plays a large part and, since these were the first
ever writers in the French language, all the ideas are so fresh and new. When I
later read my first modern fantasy, The Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake, I
was entranced, and decided to write a fantasy myself one day. The richness of
the writing and images in the book, as well as the sheer escapism involved in entering
this fantasy world, were all part of the attraction.
What did you enjoy most about writing this
book?
I
used to walk with my two Siberian huskies in the marshlands around our house
and loved imagining new scenes or ways to solve plot challenges as I did so.
The
part of writing I liked best was the second draft. No more empty page
challenges in the morning but the joy of delving more deeply into characters,
fleshing out parts I’d rushed through in the first draft, or editing and
improving scenes I didn’t like so much.
What book that you have read has most
influenced your life?
The
Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer. I am not a fan of all Germaine Greer has said
and done over the years but in the 1970s in the UK women couldn’t get a
mortgage or buy a car without their husband or father’s signature. Germaine was
a lecturer at my university when The Female Eunuch was published and the book
hit the country like a storm. She challenged all the restrictions on women,
tore down the stereotypes, exhorted us to aim for the stars and be what we
wanted to be. In real life she wasn’t an easy person to get on with but
feminism in those days needed someone tough like her to make people sit up and
take notice, and to give other women the confidence to challenge all the
inequalities they had to face. During my own life I went from not being paid as
much as a man, and not being allowed to do the same job or have the same career
path as a man, to becoming a Vice President of a 40,000 strong multinational
company. Without a book like The Female Eunuch I suspect UK society would have
taken longer to change.
Tell us a little about yourself? Perhaps
something not many people know?
Not
many of my friends know I’m a member of Mensa. I only joined because I was on
my own in London and wanted to make friends. I’ve kept it quiet ever since!
A
more painful secret is that I had undiagnosed peritonitis in my twenties.
Fortunately, according to the surgeon who eventually operated, I had a body
like an ox or I wouldn’t have been alive let alone going to work. On the not so
good side, it had destroyed a lot of the important bits inside and so a future
without children lay ahead of me.
Can you tell us something about your book
that is not in the summary?
One
of the main characters not mentioned in the summary is Salazai and I guess she
is my favorite. She is plucked out of her life as a servant to become the
unwilling consort of the Kuhlan King. If he finds out she can commune with
animals he will kill her. The jealous queen is already plotting her murder, and
if she doesn’t escape the castle she will be dead before the year is out. She
presents an even greater threat to the Kuhlan king when she discovers how the
bronzites are being created, befriends the kidnapped bronzite, Chrystala, and
leads the snow-wolves to fight in the final battle. In Volume 2, Salazai will
search out the good dragons to help in the fight against Kuhla.
AUTHOR
Bio and Links:
I was raised in Kent, the garden of England, and lived in an Oast
House whose round rooms were once used for drying hops. Must be why I’ve
enjoyed a drink ever since!
At
university, I fell in love with medieval French writing, discovered The
Gormenghast Trilogy, and became hooked on fantasy.
I
have sailed down the Yangste, survived an earthquake in Cairo, and picnicked in
the Serengeti. My travels for work and pleasure have inspired my fantasy world.
I now live in France with a naughty Australian Labradoodle, a jealous cat and a
squash mad husband. Our two huskies, Ice and Sapphire, are sadly now gone but
are transformed into wolves and immortalised in my book. Lumina is my debut novel
and the first in a trilogy.
Buy Links:
The book is $0.99.
Giveaway:
$20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning.
7 comments:
Thanks for hosting!
Are you reading more books due to everything that is going on with Caronavirus?
Great post, thanks for sharing!
Sounds like a great read.
A big thank-you to The Avid Reader for hosting me!
Hi Bernie. I always read a lot but right now marketing Lumina and writing a prequel is keeping me pretty busy
Epic cover!
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