Literary Escapism is excited to welcome author Pati Nagel to the room today. Pati is the author of the new release, The Betrayal, and you can also find her work in the anthologies Elf Fantastic and Elf Magic. Today, Pati is here to talk about one of her favorite beings…Elves.
Be sure to stick around for the whole shebang….we’re giving away a copy of The Betrayal to one lucky person!
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Many thanks to Literary Escapism for the opportunity to celebrate the release of my new fantasy novel, The Betrayal! It’s been a long and interesting road getting here from when the first spark of the idea came to me.
Ideas are usually easy for writers it’s the writing that’s the hard part. Sometimes, though, when you’re put on the spot, it can be hard to come up with an idea that fits the bill.
That’s what happened when I was invited to submit a story to the Elf Fantastic anthology. Being a complete fairy-tale and Tolkein geek, I love elves and jumped at the chance to submit, but for some reason I had trouble thinking of a story I wanted to tell. I was saying so to fellow writer Jane Lindskold, who was also submitting to the anthology, when the idea walked into my head: what if an elf had to hunt down a vampire? It was such a strong idea that it tingled all through me. I immediately stopped talking and went away to write.
The resulting story, Kind Hunter, appeared in Elf Magic (sequel to Elf Fantastic), but when I had finished the story I wasn’t done with the idea. I kept thinking about the conflict I had set up between elves and vampires. The short story has a modern setting, but I wound up musing on the ancient origins of the struggle. Hence, the novel that became The Betrayal was born.
This older history takes place before the evolution of humans, on a continent that no longer exists in our modern world. The ælven dominate the land, even as they struggle to reconcile their creed of honor with the uncomfortable necessity of war.
Centuries ago the ælven vanquished their enemies, the alben, and drove them across the Ebon Mountains. Now the leader of the blood-hungry alben, Shalár, is determined to win back her people’s home in the ælven lands.
When the touch of a hand and a caring thought create a psychic bond that can span vast distances, the lives of two young ælven strangers are forever changed. Turisan and Eliani share the legendary gift of mindspeech, which can aid their people on the eve of war but only if they are willing to embrace an irrevocable intimacy.
Can Eliani, wounded by false love, open her heart to a stranger? Can Turisan gain her trust and prove himself a worthy leader of his clan? Time is running out as the alben mount their attack and their ultimate betrayal.
Needless to say, I had a grand time writing this. The road to publication is long and difficult, and I’m delighted that The Betrayal is at last being released today. In my fantasy world the banners are waving and horns are blowing in triumph.
Literary Escapism is running a contest for a free copy of The Betrayal. Be sure to enter early and often!
You may also read an excerpt from The Betrayal, and the short story Kind Hunter, on my bookshelf at BookViewCafe.com.
Regards,
Pati Nagle
You can find out more about Pati at her website or through The Betrayal’s website
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Thank you Pati for stopping by and sharing your elves with us!
Contest Time! We’re giving away a copy of Pati’s novel The Betrayal to one lucky commentary and it’s very easy to enter. All you have to do is answer this one simple question: What is your favorite thing about elves?
As always, if you want more chances to win, you can post about today’s contest on your blog, social network, or anywhere you can. Digg it, stumble it, twit it, share it with the world. Wherever you share it, make sure you add a link to it along with your answer (yes LE is now on Twitter as well!). The more places you share it, the more entries you get.
Join the Literary Escapism blog group and/or Page over on Facebook and you’ll get an additional entry (for each page). Make sure you leave a comment so I know that’s why you’re joining. Only new readers to the group will be considered.
For 2 additional entires, subscribe to Literary Escapism’s newsletter in the sidebar. This is for new subscribers only.
I’ll determine the winner with help from the Research Randomizer. All entries must be in by midnight on March 31st.
Looks like a great read! I love elves of the tall, handsome and magical type.
What a beautiful cover for Betrayal! I really enjoyed reading what Ms. Nagle had to say (=
One thing I like about elves is their beauty. I’m not big on appearance but I’ve always liked seeing different authors describe elves as always being beautiful in some form.
I also posted a link to this giveaway on the left hand sidebar of my blog:
http://creativitygone.blogspot.com
thanks so much,
mishtakes AT gmail DOT com
There ears!
I love elves! One of my favorite is the dark elf Drizzt. Favorite thing about elves, their ears. Love the pointy ears.
This book sounds great, elves and vampires. Just those two paranormal creatures put together as the main topic in a book sounds grand!
I love Drizzt! I so need to get caught back up on that series.
Great post. I have always been fascinated by the lore of the elves. My favorite things about them is their deep history, beauty, and of course the ears.
Drizzt was great. Its been so long so I read any of those stories.
Thanks for commenting, folks! Hmm…if you like Drizzt, you’ll probably like some of the conflicted characters in THE BETRAYAL.
And ears…what is it about the ears that’s so fascinating? Just because they’re different?
My favorite thing about elves is their cute pointed ears. Please enter me. Thanks!
What I like about elves?? Hmm.. I like a lot to be honest but in the Tolkien tradition I like how connected to the earth they are. Love that they feel a responsibility to take care and work with the earth. Pretty thoughts!
Michelle – Me too! You and I have similar views of the elves.
Actually I agree with most of these comments.
I enjoy that elves usually have magical powers of some sort and I also like the different descriptions that authors use to describe them. I can just picture them in my mind. Great post!