About DawnSinger
A headstrong young princess and the guardian sworn to protect her fly on
winged horses to the Gate of Life above the Well of Light in a desperate bid to
release the DawnKing, and the salvation he offers, into a divided land. Will
they each learn in time that sometimes victory comes only through surrender? Janalyn
Voigt's unique blend of adventure, romance, suspense, and fantasy creates
worlds of beauty and danger for readers. Beginning with DawnSinger,
her epic fantasy series, Tales of Faeraven, carries the reader
into a land only imagined in dreams. Fantasy readers who enjoyed Chronicles
of Narnia by CS Lewis, The Chronicles of Pern by Anne
McCaffrey, or The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien are sure to like DawnSinger.
About the author Janalyn Voigt
The story that became Tales of Faeraven, Janalyn Voigt’s epic
fantasy trilogy, began as a fairytale she made up for her bored young daughter
while on a car trip. Long after her daughter had forgotten the people and
places of Elderland, they lived on in Janalyn’s imagination. Any writer might hope for such deep
inspiration, but there was a problem:
after a series of disappointments (including a book contract that fell
through), Janalyn had given up writing.
Years passed, during which
Janalyn attempted a hodgepodge of careers that were far removed from her
calling to write. She delivered mail, studied music and performed in operas, worked
in a real estate office, and even spent several years on the top floor of a
Seattle skyscraper as an assistant underwriter for an insurance company.
Although she was successful in every endeavor, nothing stuck and she always
moved on.
Meanwhile, the world of Elderland
evolved along with Janalyn. The story simply would not let her go. It took a
recommitment to her Christian faith to make her see that nothing could
substitute for what she had been called to do. She needed to return to writing.
More specifically, she had to write DawnSinger,
book one of the Tales of Faeraven.
Her manuscript might never see publication, but that didn’t matter as much as taking
this step of faith and releasing the story that had haunted her thoughts for so
long.
DawnSinger’s journey to publication was
almost as rocky as its inception, but it released with Harbourlight Books
(Pelican Book Group) in 2012. WayFarer,
book two of the Tales of Faeraven,
will release January 3, 2014. Janalyn is currently writing DawnKing, book three in the series.
Interview with the Janalyn
What
is the world of Elderland like?
Immersing myself in the world of
Elderland is like returning to a childhood dream, the one where you can
fly. It is a place that should be, where wild wingabeasts roam the
farthest mountain reaches, long-tailed birds of fantasy roost in strongwood
trees, and fish in rainbow hues swim the streams. Curtain walls shelter castle
keeps, guardians man the barbican, and honor carries the day.
Of course, there’s another side
to Elderland. This is also the place where goblin-like monsters hunt fresh
kill, giant birds of prey spread their wings against the sky, and
spider-waevens inject poison into their victim’s souls.
Elderland’s beauty and its
beastliness both come from me, its author.
That sounds enchanting. Was
writing DawnSinger easy or difficult?
It takes sacrifice and what
old-timers called “sheer cussedness” to write a book. You have to be bull-headed enough to believe
in yourself as a writer when no one else does. Your family may support you, and
that’s nice, but often they don’t understand your writing as a career until
after you sign your first contract.
Writing a novel without a
contract does give you the freedom to take your time. That’s a plus and a
minus. It can mean good writing from time spent unleashing your creativity or
self-editing. It can also mean procrastination. Which it will be is up to the
writer.
Boy, can I relate to that! And you ventured into recently expanding territory when you decided to write the story too. When
you wrote DawnSinger, speculative fiction was accepted less than it is now. Did
you find that daunting?
I did, especially since I didn’t
know if I’d left the story waiting too long and missed my opportunity to bring
it to readers. This all took place at the advent of the e-book revolution, and
very few writers understood self-publishing as a viable option. This put stress
on me to find a publisher at a time when speculative fiction was more of a hard
sell than it is now. If I had it all to do today, I might have self-published
instead. That can be a good option for a speculative fiction author when done
well, but I’d have missed out on the benefits of working with my publisher.
With
such a lyrical writing style, did you find it hard to avoid purple prose?
I learned through the editing
process that I tend to wordiness. Edits were invaluable for teaching me how to
let fewer words do more work. Having editors help you identify and overcome your
particular writing flaws is a huge benefit of traditional publishing. It can be
a painful process but well worth the costs. I’m always grateful for anyone
willing to save me from myself.
How
does the heroine of DawnSinger’s journey echo your own?
Shae has to accept her true
identity if she is to embrace her calling. This, in a nutshell, was what I had
to do in order to write DawnSinger. I
accepted myself as I am and stopped trying to become something I’m not. This
gave me the freedom to pursue my calling to write. Only then could I sing my song.
DawnSinger is an eloquent, exciting story. Grab your copy today at Amazon!
Read an EXCERPT of DawnSinger!
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