1. What are the inspirations and influences that drove you to write Journey through the Land of Shades?
The primary influence and inspiration for the Journey series springs from my loves of the tales of King Arthur and his knights of the round table. To my mind, this cycle of stories, in its many incarnations, is the foundation upon which all western fantasy is constructed. As I began to develop the story line for this first novel, it was my intention to pay homage to the myth and legend that is King Arthur. This is by no means a retelling of those great legends…rather; it is an elaboration on the concept of some of the pivotal characters in the original tale. In the first novel of this series, the weaving of the Arthurian lore into the fabric of the story is so subtle that it may go unnoticed even by the most devoted of Arthur fans.
2. What is the central theme of this novel?
The extended teaser I’ve written to accompany my book release probably is the most effective way of summarizing the central premise of this novel…
Islena Doraux was an extraordinary woman living an ordinary life. Daughter of the Tempest…this vague yet indelible memory whispered at the edges of her consciousness; echoes of lives lived that were the stuff of legend in a dozen worlds. Compelled by an insatiable desire for dominion, an ancient nemesis would reach across the boundaries of our reality and draw Islena into an antiquated world in search of the Proclamations of omnipotence and compel her on a Journey through the Land of Shades.
Daughter of the Tempest…Champion of Light…Mother of Iniquity; these three ascendant souls stand as sides of an equilateral triangle that has spun endlessly through the eternal river of time...the physical manifestations of a conflict that has been fought at different junctures through the history of a thousand worlds…a thousands realities. With each tragic resolution these three adversaries are set adrift in the current of time until the inevitable moment of confluence when they will fight their battle again. In our world, beyond the veil of legend and myth, they were known as Arthur, Guinevere and Morgana. In an antiquated world, where time seems frozen and progress is measured in centuries, these three will come together yet again to resume the struggle for apotheosis…and should the Mother of Iniquity stand at the apex of the triangle when the final blow is struck, the flow of time will stop and her darkness will extinguish all hope…every flower of salvation and light.
Journey through the Land of Shades recounts the latest incarnation of this recurring conflict between these three pivotal ascendant beings…essentially, these three figures represent the personification of good and evil and the balancing factor of ambivalence. It is Islena Doraux (Daughter of the Tempest) who is the living embodiment of ambivalence and it is upon the hinge of her actions that the central conflict of this story will be resolved.
Read more of this interview.