Summer of Indie's featured author for today is Jolea M. Harrison, the author of The Guardians of the World series which blends epic fantasy and science fiction.
Chosen is a fantasy
adventure - location; Hell, Purgatory, the Demon’s Lair, and Hell is everything
it’s cracked up to be for sixteen-year-old Dynan Telaerin who finds himself on
a corpse-strewn hillside, charged with saving the soul of his ancestor,
desperate to avoid the monsters and minions who want to eat his soul.
The running starts,
and doesn't stop to the end of this action packed adventure of a young man
coming to terms with his life while he's barely a spirit, through horrors he thought
existed only in dreams.
To
end our interview with Jolea M. Harrison, we asked the author of The Guardians of the World series more
about themselves and their work.
We found out that, "author
Jolea M. Harrison has been writing for as long as she can remember, including a
3 x 5 card epic tale of a young princess in search of the King’s approval, who
went out and killed the evil monster none of the knights could slay! This short
story was even illustrated! After reading The Lord of the Rings, the fantasy
bug left a permanent mark, which was then complicated by her immediate love of
Star Wars and other works of science fiction. Not paying attention to genre
barriers, Ms. Harrison set out to write the story she wanted to, combining
these two genres in an enticing and unique way, producing eight novels in the
Guardians of the Word series.
Her
other interests are gardening and maintaining her Civil War era home. On a
recent fact finding mission about the house, she discovered the name of a young
soldier who died there while being cared for by the doctor who owned the house
at the time. She has two children who firmly believe in ghosts."
Q:
Can you give us some more background on why you started writing?
A:I started writing at an early age because I always
had stories going around my head. Oddly enough, I didn't start reading until
around 3rd grade. There's a touch of dyslexia in the family, so it took a while
for the letters and order of things to sink in, but soon enough, I started
speed reading. Apparently my brain can suck in whole paragraphs at a time, and
I turned into a voracious reader. I started writing seriously when I began
college and I've been at it ever since. Most of the early stuff is lost to
time, but I remember a few of the stories I came up with and one day will
resurrect them. I took courses and courses of creative writing classes and
learned everything that I could on the writing craft. Somewhere in my 30s I
decided I had to do this for a living, but didn't have any idea how to go about
it. I had kids around the same time and put off my writing hopes and dreams
until just recently, when I self-published last June, 2011. It's been one long,
crazy ride since, and so worth it.
The Guardians of the Word series came about some years
ago when I was in a heavy writing phase. Originally, it was going to be a
romance novel, but that quickly changed as I kept cranking out books of 120,000
words (or more), and the whole scope of the story became larger than life.
That's been fun too, allowing the branches to spread out into new arenas of
thought. It's meant more work than I originally envisioned, but that's been
part of the adventure too. At its heart, the story is about good against evil
and all the variations in between with shades of gray thrown in to make it
real. It's about making mistakes and being fallible, and making choices. It's
about sacrifice, facing challenge, and the most powerful of motivators - love.
Q:
What motivated you to publish now?
A: Like so many Indie authors, I went the 'traditional'
route to publication. I came to realize that the industry was changing in such
a way that it was highly unlikely I'd ever get an agent. I thought about giving
up, but just at the right time I started hearing about Kindle publishing. A
fellow writer suggested I read Dean Wesley Smith's blog. Doing so opened my
eyes to the amazing possibilities authors now have.
Q:
Where can people get your book?
or all three here:
Q: What's your favorite book of all time?
A: That's a tough question since there are many books
that I can't imagine not knowing. I'm heavily influenced by The Lord of the
Rings. Tolkien was a genius. I read the book once a year, and have done so
since I was in high school
Q:
Who are some of your favorite authors? (Or What authors incluenced your writing
most?)
A:
Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, M. K. Wren (one of my favorites), Mary Stewart (Arthurian
legend series starting with the Crystal Cave), Stephen King, Tom Clancy, J. K.
Rowling. It's an almost endless list since every author I've read has had some
influence on my writing.
Q: Do you have any advice for new writers?
A: Don't give up! Don't be afraid to share your work.
Learn how to take constructive criticism and take it to heart!
Q:
What's next for you?
A: After I've finished the publication of the entire
series (8 books total), I'm going to start on an idea I have for a new stand
alone book about time travel. At least that's what the plan is now. Next year?
Who knows?
Q:
Anything else you'd like to tell us?
A: I live in a 200-year-old haunted house. I accept the
presence of spirits the same way I accept the presence of my kids. They are
definitely real - in both cases!
If
I could be any kind of tree I'd be a birch tree. I believe in faeries and there
are ghosts in my house. Think of that what you will. :)
You
can find author Jolea M. Harrison online at:
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