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Albert Camus

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

Monday, January 2, 2017

the last time - The Rise of the Queen (Saskia Trilogy #3) by Aoife Marie Sheridan

"omg I expected this book to be good as the others and this book didn't let me down it was brilliant. I couldn't put it down and ended up reading it in two sittings.just like the other two books this book is action packed, there is never a dull moment. at 12o'clock last nite I kept telling myself I'll read the end of this chapter and I have to go to bed but as soon as I finished the chapter I wanted to carry on reading [...]" - Lisa, Goodreads

Description:

FROM AWARD WINNING AUTHOR AOIFE MARIE SHERIDAN 
The final Instalment of the Saskia Trilogy.

Sarajane struggles with her separation from Tristan as she moves towards the heart of Saskia to defeat Lucian. But her journey isn’t easy. She encounters The Forsaken, zombies and fights to recover her true form. But with Marcus beside her and the help of Willow she makes her journey to her final destination but nothing is as it seems.

Verona and Mirium try to understand why their visions are gone, what Prudentia is up to? and find Sarajane. All the while Tristan and Verona are at war with each other, and politics makes each decision difficult with Morrick.

Loved one’s will be lost, Decisions will be final, and all betrayals will rise to the surface.

Step into Saskia for the last time.

GUEST POST
Secrets Behind Eden Forest: Creating a Fantasy World

This is by far the hardest yet the most fun part of writing. Saskia was the first fantasy world I have ever created and the first thing I did was to create a map. It’s basic but allows me to see where I am.

I didn’t want it to be all cities and towns so I let my imagination run free. The willows is a place I just love. Here is a small part in the book that explains the Willows from Sarajane’s perspective. 

We turn back to the wolves and make our way across the grass. As we get closer, the wolves become very alert. They all rise, their blue eyes fixated on me. It’s a terrifying and amazing moment, to capture the attention of such creatures. 

Mum seems taken aback also as she stops in her tracks. “I have never seen them behave this way.” 

“Maybe they know I’m a stranger?” It sounds like a weak excuse. Maybe they’re hungry. The thought sends a chill down her spine. I start to get nervous, fiddling with her hands. 

Mum notices and reassures me. “It is all right. I would not let anything happen to you.” 

We move slowly under the trees. Mum sits down, pulling me gently with her. 

The wolves are huge up close. Their coats look so soft and shiny. They all fall on their front legs as if in a bowing gesture and their eyes are all set on me. One by one, the wolves rise. 

It’s the most unnerving moment of her life. They gather around me and one of the wolves reaches me and lies down, placing his head in her lap. I hold her breath. 

“It is all right; you can touch him.” Mum assures me, yet her face says something else. She looks confused. “I have never seen them like this. It makes no sense.” 

I reach out with a trembling hand and let her fingers sink into the wolf’s fur. “Wow.” He doesn’t even move. I let out a sigh of relief. “This is amazing. I’ve never seen a wolf before, let alone touched one.” 

I look all around me. There are wolves under every tree, their blue eyes staring at us. This all feels so surreal. “Why do they sit under the trees?” I ask Mum. 

“They protect them. The trees are known as weeping willows… The story goes that a man named Willow lived out here on the outskirts by himself. He didn’t want to live amongst us. To the villagers, he was odd as he always had a pack of wolves with him. He was known to have a very powerful earth affinity. They say he created the spring you just saw by reshaping the landscape.” 

“Wow, that seems hard to believe.” 

“Willow was intrigued by the mortal world, but he felt very sorry for them, as their lifespans were so short, so he started planting trees in their memory.” Mum moves her hand around us, motioning to all the trees. “So for every leaf that falls, a soul has passed from the mortal world, but the trees will never go bare, as mortals will always reproduce and exist. So when Willow died, they say he whispered into the wolves’ souls and made them promise they would always guard his trees. They have never left the trees unguarded since Willow died. They are friendly as long as you mean them no harm, but they would kill in an instant if you posed a threat to them.” 

I sit there thinking about Willow speaking to wolves, whispering into their souls. It all seems like something from a fairy tale. This world was so full of magic and beauty. 

I set the world in medieval times, as it would be an era I was fascinated with, but I always wanted some areas to be more advanced, like Aquaterra. But in giving the people of Aquaterra the ability to make pottery, candles and electricity this took a lot of research to understand how this is done. I also had to research types of wood to build huts and how exactly they were made. It may seem silly to want to know so much, but the more I learn the more the world becomes real to me, and hopefully to my readers also. 

Latin is also something that is associated to Saskia as it was their first language until Bellona came into power and banished it, enforcing English as their mother tongue. But a lot of names and places are Latin and there are also a few lines written in Latin throughout the book. 

Creating a world like I said is fun but takes a lot of research too, you want the foundations to be sturdy so the world you build on top of it can be somewhat believable even if it is fantasy.

About the author:
Aoife Marie Sheridan has loved reading from a very young age, starting off with mills and boon books given to by her grandmother. Her love for romances grew, by the age of 14 she had read hundreds of them. 

Aoife has a passion for writing poetry or in her eyes her journal entries. It was something she did throughout her teens and into her twenties. Aoife won first place for two of her poems and had them published at a young age of just nineteen. 

Aoife's first book Eden Forest (Part one of the Saskia Trilogy) took first place with Writers Got Talent 2013. Aoife continues to write tales of fantasy and romance.

To find out more about Aoife Marie Sheridan you can visit her at:

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for having me on your blog :)