Author interview and Book Review
of White Raven:
Sword of Northern Ancestors
Sponsored by Bewitching Book Tours
White
Raven: Sword of Northern Ancestors
By Irina Lopatina
Paperback: 378 pages
Publisher: Light Messages Publishing;
First edition (July 30, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1611530245
ISBN-13: 978-1611530247
Product
Dimensions: 8.5 x
5.5 x 0.8 inches
Genre: Fantasy
The fate of Areya rests with the lost sword
Urart. Will White Raven retrieve it before it's too late?
In the kingdom of Areya, humans, animals, and
the magical creatures that inhabit the Eternal Forest have long coexisted
peacefully, but now something is horribly wrong. A terrifying stream of
monstrous creatures has begun to emerge from the secret depths of the earth,
terrorizing all of Areya's native inhabitants. From the tiny, wise drevalyankas
to the bellicose cave-dwelling gnomes to the devious kikimoras who gather roots
and herbs in the marsh, everyone is in danger.
With the aid of Urart, the magical sword that
has been passed down from the time of the ancient northern ancestors, Grand
Duke Vlady can offer temporary protection to his people. But Prince Vraigo,
Vlady's nephew, who is endowed with magical power himself, understands that the
source of the evil monsters must be found if there's any hope of survival.
Along with a motley crew of his forest-dwelling friends, Vraigo sets off on a
perilous quest in search of the koschei, the powerful, corrupt Archmagus whose
mission is the destruction not just of Areya, but of the entire world.
As if this weren't bad enough, Urart disappears
from the duke's stronghold. Without it, Areya is doomed, and only Vraigo, the
White Raven, can possibly get the sword back. This journey requires Vraigo to
use all of his keen wits and magical abilities, as well as to ally himself to
dangerous creatures like yagas and werewolves, natural enemies of man, and
precipitates the young prince into the most bewildering, complex challenge he
has faced yet: life in the twenty-first century.
Orders placed through the Light Messages before July 25 will
be $12.00 per book instead of $16.95 (That's about a 30% savings)
Also, people who pre-order will receive a PERSONALIZED,
signed post card from author Irina Lopatina. Postcards feature landscapes from
Altai, Siberia––the inspiration for White Raven's Kingdom of Areya.
The promotion is extended to any readers that come from
White Raven blog tour hosts for 14 days after the date of the tour stop. All
they need to do is mention the blog name they seen the promo on in the notes
field and Light Messages will honor the promo deal
About
the Author:
Irina Lopatina lives and works in Siberia,
Russia, but her homeland has an even more wonderful and exotic name: Altai. It
is a unique place where old Altai Mountains rise high up to the sky,
centuries-old forests stretch out as in ages past, and mighty Siberian rivers
flow along the plains. Altai is one of the few places in the world where huge,
densely populated cities coexist with pristine wild places. Moreover, this is
an area of the earliest human civilizations, through which the great migration
of people from eastern lands to Europe once took place.
While studying at the Altai State University,
Irina devoted much attention to the past of her native land. As a student, she
went to the archaeological sites of ancient settlements located on the mountain
plateau, where it was only possible to arrive on foot. She remembers moments
when it was quite easy to imagine how the ancient people had lived, what
creatures neighbored them, and what adventures took place in these vast spaces.
Irina needed take only a small leap from there to White Raven, his friends, and
his enemies who were ready to begin a journey through the Eternal Forest of
Areya.
Of course, it would have been much more
difficult for her to create her stories if Irina had not been inspired early on
by the works of many excellent fantasy and science fiction writers such as J.R.
Tolkien and Ursula Le Guin, the Russian authors Nick Perumov and Svyatoslav
Loginov, as well as the wonderfully charming Russian fairy tales where a brave
prince, his faithful grey wolf and the evil koschei always live. And so it
happens that Irina's novels are the stories of a distant, semi-fantastic land
which, who knows, may still exist next door to us.
About
the Illustrator
Even as a child, Igor Adasikov knew that he
would be an artist.
While studying at an art school, he devoted
much of his time practicing classical drawing, seeking to depict the world
around him as fully as possible. His works often won awards in Russian art
contests, and he continued his education at Moscow Art Institute. After
graduating from the Institute, Igor worked as an artist preferring realistic
painting, such as portrait and landscape. However, his rich imagination still
needed an outlet and manifested itself in full while illustrating the fantasy
novel, White Raven: The Sword of Northern Ancestors.
Here, in the surprising fairy-tale world, void
of any boundaries, the artist found the nourishment to feed his creativity.
Having traveled with the heroes through the whirlwind of adventures, he worked
to give readers a visible image of Areya, bringing to life the magical
creatures that inhabit the land, and making friends with the heroes of this
fascinating story.
Author
Interview
Irina
Lopatina is the author of, White Raven:
The Sword of Northern Ancestors, set for release July 2012 by Light
Messages Publishing. She also recently published Tales From The Frog Forest, a collection of children's stories
about three unlikely playmates who learn to get along through hopping, flying,
and running.
Irina
lives in Siberia, Russia, near the ancient Altai Mountains, a setting she says
provides perfect inspiration for fantasy stories. We recently interviewed her
about her writing and the source of her deeply creative stories. Join us as she
discusses why she writes, how she finds her characters, and offers some advice
for young authors.
Please
note: Irina speaks and writes only in Russian. Her answers here were translated
by Dmitry Lopatin, the translator of White Raven: The Sword of Northern Ancestors
and Tales From The Frog Forest.
Irina,
tell us a little about what prompted you to become a writer?
Actually, it is a long story. As far as I can
remember, I always wanted to write a book, and I even made attempts to do this
- when I was seven years old, I filled my notebooks with stories and gave those
to my mother as gifts. But then I suddenly realized that grown-up writers
composed their stories far better than I did, and I definitely did not want to
be uninteresting. Therefore, I postponed the idea about a book until better
times and focused on studying. And, in my opinion, I was studying the most
fascinating thing--the history of mankind--which for some time fully engrossed
my attention. But after the lapse of years, the ideas and images, which were
gradually ripening in my head, began to form their own story, so I realized
that I would write my own book at last. And it won't be only one book.
Have you
always been drawn to fantasy?
I cannot stop letting my imagination run away
with me. Even when talking to someone about an ordinary event of my life, I
manage to do this as if I describe a real adventure. All my family and friends
have long become accustomed to that, and even sometimes joke: "Irina, tell
us about your journey out of town last weekend."
How was
the idea for the White Raven series born?
As for "White Raven," as I said, one
fine day I found some people sitting in my mind. Whenever I thought about them,
they began walking, doing something, going to a long journey, which always
thrilled me because I love traveling. So, I just had to follow closely the
future characters and invent the world where they could live.
The heroes of White Raven, as I see them, are a
complex fusion of characters of the people who once lived on the earth somewhere
and the creative potential for the genre of fantasy.
Are the
characters from White Raven normal characters for fantasy? Or did you create
some of them yourself?
From the beginning, I did not intend to create
a typical classic fantasy. I wanted an organic, harmonious world where my story
could evolve. If this world needed gnomes, I put them in there. As for
drevalyankas, pikshas, bolugs and other totally original creatures, they
appeared there somehow by themselves in the course of events, and then just
began "to get under the feet of the main heroes" (joking).
What was
your favorite part of the process in writing White Raven: The Sword of Northern
Ancestors?
My favorite part of working on any of my books
is always the same--creation of a story. The story ripens and accumulates
details, becoming saturated with colors, until I find the time to write it down
on paper. It may seem surprising, but it usually takes only a couple of days to
write a short plot of a novel on paper. The moment I did this for White Raven,
I was already familiar with Vraigo, Kenush, druids and my other favorite
characters. Unfortunately, no one, except for me, could see all of them among
the compact lines of the draft.
What was
the most challenging part of the process?
So that the reader would be able to feel the
living and vibrant story of their adventures, I have to go to the second,
protracted and complex stage of the process. I sit at my computer, and write a
novel word by word. And each time it seems to me that I won't be able to reach
the end of the story, and will get stuck into some trap in the middle of the
dense forest along with my heroes.
What
authors have influence you in your writing?
I did not try to follow the style of other
authors. I write as I think, so the readers can learn much more about me from
my books, than from an interview (joking).
What
advice can you offer to new authors who are hoping to publish?
Writing a book is a serious work. So, before
you decide to go this way and spend your time on writing, you should make sure
that you have something to say, and that you just can't help saying it!
When you
are not writing, what do you enjoy doing?
I love traveling. Russia is a vast country and
it has unlimited opportunities for personal journeys. Even ordinary trips to
woods or mountains saturate me with a mass of new information which then melts
into the works. I also like swimming in a forest lake, feeling like mermaid. I
like to meet with my friends and go shopping. In general, I love a lot of
things, as long as those give me fresh impressions, without which life
sometimes seems boring.
Tell us
a little about yourself and your family. What is life like in Siberia?
Life in Siberia... First of all, seasons are
extremely different from each other here, and the way of life is highly
dependent on the alternation of the seasons.
We are currently in spring. Snow is melting
rapidly, so the entire streets happen to be flooded with streams of melt water.
The rivers are "waking up" as well, and soon the ice will be broken
up on them, and a real flood will inundate the villages located along their
banks. That happens every year, though. When the ground dries out a bit, we,
city dwellers, will irrepressibly want to be out of the cities. Tourists' tents
will be put up in the woods, and small summer houses will be habitable again.
Summer here is always hot, green, with lots of
berries, mushrooms and flowers. In general, sheer beauty and splendor that we
cannot allow ourselves to miss. In autumn all forests, gardens and parks will
flare with crimson, orange and red colors. So, autumn is wonderful, too, with
its picturesqueness and a slight smell of smoke from fires... but only until
October rains. And then winter comes.
You have probably heard that it is possible to
be stuck and sink into the deep snow in Siberia? It is true. Snow-removal
machines barely manage to clear streets and highways between towns. But winter
also implies skis, sleighs, and ice skates. Everyone can go to a camping site,
taking a mountain sleigh and toboggan for complete delight. Then you can light
a small campfire and roast sausages with bread right on the wooden twigs. Have
you ever seen a fire in the winter woods between the giant fir trees with coats
of snow?
There are a lot of these amazing "secret"
things hidden in Siberia!
You can learn more about Irina's White Raven
project and sign up for the chance to win a free copy at
whiteraven.lightmessages.com
Book Review:
So, my reading for the review was
the prologue and Chapter one but I didn’t know that when I started
reading. Now I’m totally in to the story
and it just ends. I’m like, “What the
h***?” Then I realize I don’t have the
whole book… I hate that. I get totally
into the story and then it ends before I’m done reading. Now I have to add it to my wish list because
I’m so excited about the story.
Even with the creatures who I have
never heard of (there is a character list at the end with more detailed description
than in the book, although the book does a good job of describing the critters/monsters),
this world is incredibly detailed with fabulous word pictures.
I highly recommend everyone buy and
read this book. If you go to the author’s
facebook page or website and mention this blog you get the book for a discount,
which is significant. This is a book,
actual book not e-book, on Amazon.
I give this story a 5 out of 5
clouds to date, and I look forward to finishing the story. I hope this duo writes and illustrates more
stories because both the writing and illustrations are top rate.
This
product or book may have been distributed for review; this in no way affects my
opinions or reviews.
Hidden behind the Fables Hotels respectable facade, five
specially adapted rooms wait; ready to cater for the kinky requirements of its
guests.
About the
Author:
