Still Falling Audible Preview

Click the image below and listen to the first chapter of STILL FALLING on Audible.

--Order STILL FALLING here!

The Oscars

I fell asleep about 9:30 last night while watching the Oscars.

Even before I fell asleep Mad Max: Fury Road was ahead in the award count. I was glad to see Ex Machina to get one as well.

The Big Short and Spotlight got the Oscars for Best Writing.

Here is the full list of winners.

Chris Rock was awesome.

--Lots of guns in Fury Road. Gotta love Hollywood.

Coffeeium?

How did you know you were a writer?

John Irving talks about how old he was when he knew.


--That was true of me as well.

Fast Friday Indie Interviews: E.P. Clark

Tell me about yourself, Elena?

I guess the most relevant moment in my life for our purposes here is that I moved with my family to Russia shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and spent the next couple of years undergoing immersion training in Russian and witnessing the desperate struggle for survival that was post-Soviet Russia, but also going skiing, ice-skating, mushroom gathering, and picnicking in the woods.  Since prior to that I had spent most of my time horseback riding and camping in my native Kentucky, doing outdoor things and communing with animals and with nature seemed like a natural thing to do, and I incorporated a lot of that into my work.  After Russia (sounds like a book title, doesn’t it?) I lived in England and Italy for a while, before returning to the US.  I ended up studying Russian in college and in graduate school.  While I was in grad school I spent a couple of summers studying Finnish in Finland, and discovered that communing with nature is a big thing there too, so I spent a lot of time outside soaking up the midnight sun (and eating doughnuts.  Doughnuts are big there).  I did go on an adventure above the Arctic Circle, like my heroine, but it was in midsummer, not midwinter!  Maybe one day I’ll visit the Arctic again; I’d like to see the Northern Lights in person.

Tell me about your current Book:

When a group of explorers ventures on a mapmaking mission beyond the sunline, Slava, second in line to the throne of Zem’, must face what she discovers on her journey and gather her courage to do what must be done, or else a treasonous curse could destroy her and everyone she cares about.

In “The Midnight Land, Parts I and II,” the first installment of the Tolstoy-meets-Tolkien epic fantasy series “The Zemnian Trilogy,” we meet Slava, younger sister to the Empress of all of Zem’.  Tormented and half-outcast due to her gifts of empathy and clairvoyance, Slava tries to escape the intrigue of her native kremlin by joining a mission to explore beyond the sunline, the unmapped Northern edge of the greatest country in the Known World.  But instead of escaping her destiny, Slava is plunged even deeper into internecine plotting, and finds herself and her gifts the target of the spirits of the forest, and even the gods themselves.  Hailed as “a tale of power, fear, and bravery set in the brutal and beautiful landscape of the frozen north,” “a surreal, almost mystical-feeling book,” and “Beautifully unique and rich in a Central European and West Asian feel that comes together with a surprising and wonder-filled world,” “The Midnight Land” combines the genre of high fantasy with the “big questions” of Russian literature in a subversive exploration of gender, culture, and morality.

What are you working on now?  

The next installment in “The Zemnian Trilogy,” currently titled “The Breathing Sea.”  I should mention that, although the trilogy is indeed a trilogy in that it has three stories about three central characters, each book so far has been so long that I’ve had to split them up into multiple volumes.  If you like to read, you will not go away hungry!
What is your favorite beverage while you write?  In the morning I drink this ostensibly healthful (or so I tell myself) concoction that is basically a mocha but also has things like turmeric in it.  In the afternoon I drink kombucha.  I was very excited to discover that kombucha is a traditional drink from Siberia and Central Asia!

What is your favorite Website?

Well, I spend a lot of time on Wikipedia, since if you want to find out, say, how to say “The Lord of the Rings” in Russian, Wikipedia is an awesome resource for that.  Also, since I do a lot of translating, Russian translation and morphology sites like Multitran, Slovari.yandex.ru, Wiktionary, and Starling.ru.

Links:

Email: elenapedigo@yahoo.com
Amazon: The Midnight Land
Blog: http://epclarkauthor.net/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/epclarkauthor/
Twitter: @Andreyev7
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1025652.E_P_Clark

Quotes of the Week

All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.
—Hemingway

If I didn’t write I would die.
—Isaac Asimov

Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.
—Orson Welles

Nothing will stop you being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake.
—John Cleese

Books are no more threatened by Kindle than stairs by elevators.
—Stephen Fry

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
—Jack London

Reading this Week: Career of Evil

This week I am reading Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith. If you didn't know already, this is a pen name for J.K. Rowling.

This is the third installment of the series following the exploits of Cormoran Strike.

Here is the description from Amazon:

When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman's severed leg.

Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be responsible--and Strike knows that any one of them is capable of sustained and unspeakable brutality.

With the police focusing on the one suspect Strike is increasingly sure is not the perpetrator, he and Robin take matters into their own hands, and delve into the dark and twisted worlds of the other three men. But as more horrendous acts occur, time is running out for the two of them...

Career of Evil is the third in the highly acclaimed series featuring private detective Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin Ellacott. A fiendishly clever mystery with unexpected twists around every corner, it is also a gripping story of a man and a woman at a crossroads in their personal and professional lives. 

--I love this series. I expect movies soon.