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If you could have one paranormal ability, what would it be?
The ability to change traffic signals/ crossing signals. I’m either running early or late so being able to change signals for my benefit would be awesome. I’d always be on time.
What is one thing your readers would be most surprised to learn about you?
I’ve parachuted. When I was 21 years old. A friend and I went to a small airfield in Sunderland, UK. Being the only female on the jump I had to go first. We were on static lines, and solo. It is the most frightening experience I’ve had. I jumped and then blacked out. The chute opening revived me. Needless to say, I only jumped the once.
When writing descriptions of your hero/ine, what feature do you start with?
Height usually, although this is the first time, I’ve thought about it. At school I was taller than average. And having lived in India and Hong Kong I became aware of other people’s height a lot. My youngest son grew to be above 6-feet, and was made very conscious of his height when we traveled around India and Asia. Strangers would want to include him in their family photographs!
Are you a plotter or a pantser?
Definitely a plotter. Writing a series, I think you have to be. That doesn’t mean I know everything about the story when I sit down to write a first draft, but I know where I want to start and how the book will end.
Did you learn anything from writing this book? If so, what?
First, I learned that I could write a novel. That is a big deal in itself. A lot of would-be authors start and never finish that first book. I also learned about the process of writing. Giving yourself permission to write without editing that first draft, then being patient about the number of revisions required before a manuscript is ready for publication.
Wilf Gilvary is a teenage wizard who is terrified of using magic. When his father dies under mysterious circumstances, Wilf is plunged into the middle of a political struggle between the witches and wizards in the Magical Realm. He’d rather play soccer than practice magic, but he’s forced to make a choice between the life of a normal Hong Kong teen and one of wizardry after a powerful virus begins to decimate the witch community. The cure is spellbound in a journal Wilf inherited from his father and when his friend Katryna contracts the virus, Wilf understands that he must overcome his fear of magic to unlock the journal’s secrets – but will it be too late to save her?
A woman stomped down the central aisle towards him. He observed the purple silk slippers she wore. Shoes that delicate shouldn’t sound like soccer cleats marching across a metal basement hatch. She stopped at the counter.
His gaze lifted from the woman’s feet to her face. Her leaden complexion and doughy face were enough to make him recoil. But the enormous wart at the end of her long, beaked nose was his undoing. He gasped.
She pursed her lips and her eyes flared. Wilf took in the rest of her appearance, from the severity of her hair bun to the red carpetbag, the size of a professional tennis player’s racket bag, slung over her shoulder. He furrowed his brow. She reminded him of someone, but he couldn’t quite remember who.
“Beautiful, isn’t it? Not many are blessed with a wart of such magnitude,” she said.
The hairs on his arms all stood up at the sound of her scratchy voice. Blackened nails poked out of the ends of her fingerless gloves, but thankfully, she wasn’t offering to shake hands.
“Have we met?”
“Not that I recall,” she said.
“You’re probably right. I think I would remember seeing you before.” He tried to avoid meeting her hypnotic, brown eyes. They seemed like mud pools wanting to suck him into their fathomless depths.
“Is that so?”
His stool rocked of its own volition and forced him to stand.
“Ermentrude Wakefield is the name.” She glanced around the small store. “You may call me Witch Wakefield.”
Wilf stepped back, braced against the wall, and shoved his ringed hand into his pocket. His heart raced. The Wizard Council had dispatched this witch to collect him. Well, it didn’t make any difference who they sent. He wasn’t leaving Hong Kong.
“Now, I don’t usually deal with wizards” — her face wrinkled the way Myra’s did when she took his soccer kit out of its bag for washing — “but this time I have to.”
At the age of 18, she took a role as typist for a nursing school in Middlesbrough. She then moved to London and enrolled in night school. She was quickly recognized for her ability to fit in anywhere and for not being afraid to push back on the predominantly male leadership. She eventually became a project manager in software development and micro-computers, bridging the gap between computer programmers and management.
Her dream to travel was finally realized in 1990 when she moved to New York City, USA with her husband and the first of three sons. This was the steppingstone to a lifelong adventure that has taken her and her family to India, Belgium and Hong Kong.
Raising her family in multiple countries around the world, she saw that each move, while a shock, was an opportunity for her sons to redefine themselves against new challenges and different cultural norms. Now, that her sons have left home, Carolyn has used her passion for the fantastic to create a world where every day gender inequalities are at the forefront of a world ending conflict. She shares this story through the eyes of a young man who is suddenly thrust into this new world along with all of his own woes and prejudices. The introduction to this world is in Carolyn’s debut YA fantasy novel, “The Virus of Beauty” under C B Lyall.
Carolyn has published two short stories in an annual anthology by 25 Servings of Soop. She wrote a number of articles for the American Women’s Associates Magazine. Fueled by her love of the works of Terry Pratchett, Sarah J Maas, Cassandra Clare, Brandon Sanderson and others, Carolyn has completed a number of writing courses, which included a Master Fantasy/Science Fiction writers course with Gotham Writers’ Workshop, a YA Voice class and Advance Novel Writing course at Sarah Lawrence College’s Writing Institute.
Website: http://www.cblyall.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cblyall
Instagram: http://carolynlyall
Amazon buy link: https://www.amazon.com/Virus-Beauty-Book-1-ebook/dp/B08NF1L94T/ref=sr_1_1
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Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteI liked the excerpt, thank you.
ReplyDeleteGreat excerpt!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a very good book.
ReplyDeleteThank you for hosting my novel
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