Please give a warm
welcome to Historical Fantasy author, Stephanie
Churchill. Stephanie is going to share with us her inspirations behind her
fabulous new book…
The King’s Daughter
In this gripping sequel to The Scribe's Daughter, a young
woman finds herself unwittingly caught up in a maelstrom of power, intrigue,
and shifting perceptions, where the line between ally and enemy is subtle, and
the fragile facade of reality is easily broken.
Irisa's parents are dead and her younger sister Kassia is
away on a journey when the sisters’ mysterious customer returns, urging Irisa
to leave with him before disaster strikes. Can she trust him to keep her safe?
How much does he know about the fate of her father? Only a voyage across the
Eastmor Ocean to the land of her ancestors will reveal the truth about her
family’s disturbing past. Once there, Irisa steps into a future she has
unknowingly been prepared for since childhood, but what she discovers is far
more sinister than she could have ever imagined. Will she have the courage to
claim her inheritance for her own?
Author's Inspiration
“Every story can be
broken down into three parts: the beginning, the middle, and the twist.”
R.L. Stine
Remember
the movie The Sixth Sense, the 1999
ghost story? In this chilling
psychological thriller, eight-year-old Cole Sear is haunted by a dark secret: he
is visited by ghosts. He is terrified and confused, too young to understand and
too terrified to tell anyone about his torment, except child psychologist Dr.
Malcolm Crowe. As Dr. Crowe tries to uncover the ominous truth about Cole's
supernatural abilities, the uncovered consequence is a jolt that awakens them
both, including pretty much every movie-goer.
Like
most people, I was dumbstruck by the ending. The solution to many of the film's
conundrums had been in plain view the whole time, but the very boldness of the
storytelling whisked viewers past all the crucial hints, right through to the
end of the film, where everything came to a stomach lurching conclusion that no
one saw coming. Well played, M. Night
Shyamalan.
Another
film that stands out to me for similar reasons is Memento, the 2000 film starring Guy Pearce. Pearce plays a man who, as a result of a past
trauma, suffers from an inability to form new memories resulting in short-term
memory loss that resets about every five minutes. Throughout the film he searches for the people
who attacked him and killed his wife by using a system of Polaroid photographs,
notes, and tattoos to keep track of information he can’t remember. The movie progresses
along two different sequences of scenes throughout the film: one in
black-and-white, shown chronologically, and one in color, shown in reverse
order. The two narratives connect at the end of the film to produce one
complete and cohesive story. And
just like The Sixth Sense, Memento ends with a jaw-dropping
conclusion.
While
each of these stories is a film rather than a book, they share a type of
storytelling that attracts me over and over: twists which mercilessly take
advantage of viewers’ assumptions by choosing a sudden and unexpected route rather
than meander along a well-established and predictable line. What you think you know is supposed turn left,
but it actually turns right, shaking the very foundations of what is supposed to be.
When
I sat down to write my first book, The
Scribe’s Daughter, I wanted to echo this type of plot device in literary
form. Even if I couldn’t pull off
something as dramatic as either of those movies, I still wanted to find ways to
lull readers into a series of safe places through the narrative, easing them
into the basic belief that matters would end predictably, that everything would
wrap up nicely like a good Walt Disney fairy tale - familiar and comfortable. So it was with mischievous glee that I
dropped in a few plot twists, adding enough red herrings to magnify the twists. Safe assumptions were turned on their heads,
disrupted in a way only safe things can be disrupted. It was only at the conclusion of the book that
readers could finally rest, satisfied in the knowledge that matters finally did
settle, coalescing into known, comfortable truths.
Or
could they?
Not
wanting anyone to become too relaxed, it was time to write the next book, The King’s Daughter. Tenting my fingers in my best impersonation
of a mad scientist, I decided it was time stir the pot again. If readers thought matters were settled at
the end of the last book, why not flip the known things on their heads one more
time?
Inspired
by storytellers who expertly smash through expectations of what is supposed to be, The Scribe’s Daughter and The
King’s Daughter explore the heart of perspective by telling the individual
stories of two sisters, each of whom fights to find herself amidst the turmoil
of her family’s past. Set against the
backdrop of dirty city streets, mountain vistas, and glistening palaces, each
sister discovers a reality of truth that will by turns revolutionize then taint
her opinion of the past, thrusting her into a future far more complex and more
sinister than either could ever have imagined.
Facing the shifting realities and fragile facade of these new truths
will require an inner strength that neither one recognized in herself before.
While
readers may not get whip lash from similarly-sized gravitational plot shifts
that exist in The Sixth Sense, my
hope in the telling of these stories is that readers will find surprises
aplenty, cultivating feelings of unpredictability as they journey along with
Kassia and Irisa on their adventurous tale of discovery.
Links for Purchase
About the author
Stephanie Churchill grew
up in the American Midwest, and after school moved to Washington, D.C. to work
as a paralegal, moving to the Minneapolis metro area when she married. She says, 'One day while on my lunch break
from work, I visited a nearby bookstore and happened upon a book by author
Sharon Kay Penman. I’d never heard of
her before, but the book looked interesting, so I bought it. Immediately I become a rabid fan of her work.
I discovered that Ms. Penman had fan club and that she happened to interact
there frequently. As a result of a
casual comment she made about how writers generally don’t get detailed feedback
from readers, I wrote her an embarrassingly long review of her latest book, Lionheart. As a result of that review, she asked me what
would become the most life-changing question: “Have you ever thought about
writing?” And The Scribe’s Daughter was born.'
Useful
Links
Thank you for sharing your inspirations with us! Fascinating!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for having me! Sometimes it takes having the question asked to be able to explore these otherwise intuitive inspirations. I had fun exploring my own motivations!
DeleteI believe a writer's hardest job is to surprise the reader. Kudos for working on twists that surprise.
ReplyDelete