Friday, December 7, is the last day of classes at Avila! One week more of finals (and grading grading grading), and we are DONE.
I am very excited about the weeks between now and Christmas Eve, as we have a lot going on both here and on
Heroines of Fantasy. There will be games, giveaways, blog hops and more surprises; opportunities for you to win books of all genres -- even book bundles! --as we get closer to the year's end. It is shaping up to be a very exciting holiday season, so please stay tuned to learn how you can join the fun.
Today, it's my pleasure to welcome
Karen L. Azinger, author of
The Silk and Steel Saga.
Karen has always loved fantasy fiction, and always
hoped that someday she could give back to the genre a little of the joy that
reading has always given her. Ten years ago on a hike in the Columbia River
Gorge, she realized she had enough original ideas to finally write an epic
fantasy. She started writing and never stopped.
The Steel Queen is her first
book, born from that hike in the gorge.
Before writing, Karen spent over twenty
years as an international business strategist, eventually becoming a
vice-president for one of the world's largest natural resource companies. She's
worked on developing the first gem-quality diamond mine in Canada's arctic, on
coal seam gas power projects in Australia, and on petroleum projects around the
world. Having lived in Australia for eight years she considers it to be her
second home. She's also lived in Canada and spent a lot of time in the Canadian
arctic. She lives with her husband in Portland Oregon, in a house perched on
the edge of the forest. The first four books of
The Silk & Steel Saga have
already been written and she is hard at work on the fifth and final book.
Please join me in welcoming
Karen L. Azinger.
What's in a Name?
What’s in a name? Everything! Names evoke mystery, menace,
magic and wonder. Whisper a single name and readers are instantly transported
to another time and place.
Arthur…Camelot…Excalibur…Frodo…Mordor…Voldemort,
these names shimmer in our hearts and dreams like magical touch-stones. Some
evoke wonder while others embody dread. More than any other genre, fantasy tasks
authors to create unique and interesting names, but these names should not be a
jumble of alphabet soup, impossible to pronounce and even harder to remember. For
my medieval epic fantasy,
The Silk &
Steel Saga, I took great care in choosing the names for my main characters,
striving for names that are both unique and memorable and reflective of my
characters’ prominent traits.
Liandra, the Queen
of Lanverness, is one of my favorite names in the saga. Naming this character
was one of my top priorities. After discarding half a hundred mundane names, inspiration
finally struck. As soon as I thought of Liandra, I knew I had the perfect name.
Lyrical and feminine, yet it has an underlying strength, a fitting name for a queen
who uses “beauty to beguile, spies to foresee, and gold to control.” Liandra is
a unique name, one I’ve never seen used in fantasy, perfect for my Spider Queen.
Kath, the princess
of Castlegard, is a strong female character who is often underestimated and
frequently overlooked. Because she is ignored and overlooked, I wanted her to
have a common girl’s name, but I also wanted my character to be bold enough to
name herself. Katherine is her birth name, the name her father calls her, the
name of a princess destine to wed for the good of her kingdom, but my character
rejects that destiny and therefore rejects that name, choosing instead to be
called Kath, a unique and catchy twist on an otherwise common name.
The Mordant is the
name for my darkest character. This name pays homage to the land of Mordor in
Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, but
instead of an eye wreathed in flame, the Mordant is a very real, very complex
character who has lived for over a thousand years. One of the unique aspects of
The Silk & Steel Saga is the way the reader gets to view the world from the
perspective of a very malevolent evil. It is through the Mordant that my books
explore the mechanisms of evil.
Sir Blaine is my
classic knight, always striving to be worthy, determined to be a sword wielding
hero. This character required a very “knightly” name. When naming a knight, one
instantly thinks of the Knights of the Round Table, but authors need to steer
clear of stereotypical names like Lancelot, Galahad, Gwaine, Percival and
Tristan. Instead I chose a name that sounds like it belongs among Arthurian
legends yet is fresh and unique. Blaine rhymes with Gwaine, the perfect
original name for my classical knight.
In epic fantasy, the names of settings deserve just as much
thought as the character names. If you get stuck, just glance at any world map for
inspiration. For example, Inverness is a city in Scotland and also in New
Zealand. I’ve never visited either place yet the name always struck me as
lyrical, magical, even mystical. Putting my own twist on the name, Inverness
becomes Lanverness, the only kingdom of Erdhe ruled by a queen. For the capital
city of Lanverness, I chose the name Pellanor, a twisted spelling of Pellinore,
a king from Arthurian legend who is famous for hunting the Questing Beast.
Choose the names of your kingdoms, cities, and castles with care. Names can instill
a touch of classical legend in your epic fantasy.
And last but certainly not least, writers must choose the names
for their books. A book’s name should infuse an instant sense of genre. The
name should attract attention, create expectation, and be easy to remember
while being distinctive. The name of my first book, The Steel Queen, was chosen by my London editors. They wanted a
name that could work as a cross-over title to attract both fantasy and
historical fiction readers. After a month of e-mailing long lists of names back
and forth, they finally settled on The
Steel Queen. Once I broke free from my London editors and reclaimed the
rights to my books, I chose the rest of the titles as well as the saga name. To
“brand” the titles and identify them as part of a saga, I patterned all the
titles after first book, resulting in,
The Steel Queen, The Flame Priest, The Skeleton King, and The Poison Priestess.
Choosing a saga name is similar to choosing a book name, but
with an added twist. In the fantasy genre, epic sagas are often referred to by
their acronym, so The Lord of the Rings becomes LOTR. One of
the things I love most about my saga name, The
Silk & Steel Saga, is that the acronym is SASS. I hope my readers will
agree that the women in my saga have a lot of sass!
What’s in a name? Everything! Choose wisely!
About The Poison Priestess
While Kath and her companions chase the Mordant into the far
north, the southern kingdoms erupt in Flames. The Lord Raven marches south,
unleashing a holy war against Lanverness. Vastly outnumbered by a ruthless
enemy, Queen Liandra spins desperate gambits in a dire struggle to save her
kingdom. New alliances and new awakenings hatch deeper levels of intrigue. The
Oracle Priestess and the Lord Raven form a tenuous alliance, while deep in the
Southern Mountains the Kiralynn monks stir, revealing more than prophecy.
Armies clash, battles rage, and cities fall, as lives, loves and crowns hang in
the balance, but swords are not the only way to wage war. Treachery, deceit,
assassins, and the power of seduction will face-off against steadfast courage,
forgotten magic, and the power of truth. The Poison Priestess is the fourth book
in this epic tale of Light versus Dark.
