Saturday Spotlight | "Once...Tales, Myths & Legends Of Faerie" By Ronel Janse Van Vuuren

In addition to the usual blog posts every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday about our eccentric travel adventures and day-to-day life living aboard a sailboat, I also occasionally post on Saturdays, focusing on things related to writing such as cover reveals, book launches, reviews, interviews with authors etc. So if you're a bit of a book nerd like I am, check in on Saturdays - you never know what might pop up.

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Today, I'm featuring the release of >>Once...Tales, Myths and Legends of Faerie<< by Ronel Janse van Vuuren. I've got an interview with Ronel with some serious and not-so-serious questions, along with details about her new release below.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

1 - What inspired you to write this book?

I’ve always thought that there was more to the fairy tales we heard and read than was shared. Also, I wanted to share the backstory of Faerie. In my other (yet unpublished) works, I refer to Faerie’s past without going into it. Now is the time to reveal secrets...

Ellen: Ooh, secrets! I love a good secret.

2 - Do you have any writing rituals?

A few. They involve pens, post-its, notebooks, mood music (for this book I listened to a lot of Linkin Park, Within Temptation and Nightwish), an imagined deadline, and the promise of a reward (being allowed to watch the newest season of “Arrow” was the reward for this book). The rest is just butt-in-chair stuff.

Ellen: I watched "Arrow" when it first came out. I didn't realize it was still on. I'll have to check it out.

3 - What's more important - character or plot?

Both. Without a compelling character, the plot can be amazing but not worth following. And what is a great character with a plot that only involves mundane shopping and to-do lists? A balance between the two makes for great reading – even if the plot is only vaguely hinted at (like in flash fiction).  

Ellen: I've always thought writing flash fiction would be really hard.

4 - What do you like best about being an author? What do you like least?

Being able to crush worlds at the stroke of a keyboard. Mwah-ha-ah. Having to torture my characters… Oh, wait. I actually like that too. As long as I’m able to create a great pay-off, of course.

Ellen: I like torturing characters too. 

5 - What's your favorite cookie? If you don't like cookies, what's wrong with you? Oops, sorry, scratch that. My follow-up question was meant to be far more polite - "Why don't you like cookies?" 

That’s a difficult one. Anything with chocolate is, of course, high on the list. But I think I’ll have to go with ginger cookies – home baked with my great-grandmother’s recipe (my dad has to bake them, I’m horrible at baking cookies).

Ellen: I love ginger cookies!

6 - A penguin walks through your front door wearing a sombrero. What does he say and why did he come visit you? 

“Does the sun ever set here?” He obviously got lost or thinks he’s a chicken and will fit in with the rest of my flock.

Ellen: That would be fun to see a penguin hanging out with some chickens.

BLURB

Damsels in distress, curses, echoes of faery tales and tragic love affairs swirl together in sixteen stories found in a dragon’s lair by a curious half-fae.

Unexpected changes to reality causes more than one damsel to turn into a strong, independent woman who takes charge of her own life.

A collection of short stories about Faerie and the fae that live in the human realm. A few of the stories had won competitions and all of them had enchanted readers.

Learn their secrets and enter the realm of the fae…

BOOK EXCERPT

Mortals cannot perceive the veil unless they are invited to – or extremely gifted. For centuries, Man and Fae have been kept apart, for nothing good ever comes from them mixing. The collection of The Adventures of Saphira the Faery Dog is proof of this.

Still, there are magical creatures that side neither with Man nor Fae.

Dragons are such creatures. They hold the knowledge of both worlds. Some even collect it in the written word, keeping it safe in their lairs.

An inquisitive half-fae once broke into the lair of a dragon known to hoard books. The knowledge she found was too much to keep to herself…

Here are a few tales, myths and legends from Faerie. Some may sound remarkably similar to legends held by mortals, while others are…well…as otherworldly as the fae themselves.

BUY LINKS

Available on Amazon or click on this Universal Book Link to find >>Once...Tales, Myths and Legends of Faerie<< at your favorite online store.

Also in Afrikaans - available on Amazon or click on this Universal Book Link to find >>Eens...Verhale, Mites en Legendes van Feerie<<  at your favorite online store.

ISBN (EPUB): 978-0-6399476-2-4

ISBN (PRINT): 978-0-6399476-3-1

RELEASE DATE: May 23,  2018

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ronel Janse van Vuuren is the author of New Adult, Young Adult and children’s fiction filled with mythology and folklore. Her dark fantasy stories can be read for free on Wattpad and on her blog Ronel the Mythmaker. She won Fiction Writer of the Year 2016 for her Afrikaans stories on INK: Skryf in Afrikaans. Her published works can be viewed on Goodreads.

Ronel can be found tweeting about writing and other things that interest her, arguing with her characters, researching folklore for her newest story or playing with her Rottweilers when she’s not actually writing. All of her books are available for purchase on Amazon.

Connect with Ronel on Amazon | Twitter | Pinterest | Google+ | Goodreads | Blog


What books have you been reading lately? Do you speak Afrikaans? What's your favorite cookie?

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