Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Bath

In the Fahdamin-Ra series, the Bridges family lives in Bath, Maine. In Spellbreaker, Tansy goes to visit her aunt and uncle who also live in Bath, Maine. The reason is because I live in Bath, Maine and love it.

My Bath is named after Bath, England, which was named after Roman baths that were built in that city because of the hot springs. The Romans called it Aquae Sulis (the waters of Sulis) but Bath is a more catchy name, I think:



Here is a picture of Bath, Maine, City of Ships:

 
Bath, New Hampshire, Covered Bridge Capitol of New England:


Now to get away from New England with Bath, North Carolina, the first town for the state:


Some Bath locations are so small that I could not find photos of them on the internet. I looked for a list of all the towns/cities named Bath in the United States and here is what I found:

Bath, California
Bath, Illinois
Bath, Indiana
Bath, Maine
Bath, Michigan
Bath, New Hampshire
Bath, New York (town)
Bath, New York (village)
Bath, North Carolina
Bath, Pennsylvania
Bath, South Carolina
Bath, South Dakota
Bath, West Virginia

Is there a Bath near you? Can you send me a photo?

Thursday, March 14, 2013

A Storybook House

In Full Wolf Moon, the book I am currently writing, my main character, Amelia, lives in a Storybook Tudor house. I have searched but have not found a house to look exactly like her house, but found different elements that resemble what is in my head.


Her house is half timbered on the top floor and stone on the bottom floor. I really like the top floor on this house.

The house below has more visual interest like I imagined for Amelia's house, but the timbers are brown, not green.
 
This house is more like I had in mind, with the stone first floor and half timbered second floor, but I like the design of the green house above.



 

All the doors in Amelia's house are arched, like below. They are painted bottle green.
 
 
 

 
Amelia's house has a slate roof of reddish slates, like this house. I love the decorative design. Tudor Storybook houses have unusual and or decorative chimneys usually.
 
I will probably have to end up drawing the house so that I get an exact likeness.
 

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Meet the Characters of Spellbreaker



My newest published book, Spell Breaker, is a little different from my Travels to Fahdamin-Ra series but there are some similarities. Both books start out in Bath, Maine, but move on to another world where magic happens and the main characters are brown kids that change due to their visits to those worlds. They also find that people, even adults, depend on them and their choices.

In Spell Breaker, Tansy is the main character. She is fifteen, a medium height, brown, unaware of how pretty she is, and likes to please people. She is a dreamer and creative person who loves fairy tales and that is why she is given the book, The Enchantress of Caraban, to read by her aunt's friend. When she is drawn into the book and finds herself in Caraban, Tansy is worried about her family missing her but at the same time, she loves being inside a fairy tale world. As she works her way throughout the book with her traveling companions, Tansy starts relying on herself and standing up for what she believes in. Tansy ends up having a lot of conflicts with her cousin Donna, mostly about Chad, the handsome guy that was pulled into the book years before.

Donna's father married Tansy's aunt the November before. (The book takes place around the Fourth of July.) Tansy visits the family and does not know her new cousin Donna or her Uncle Richard hardly at all. Donna is fifteen, an athlete, is tall, blond, and pretty; but she knows it. Her father is harsh, disciplined about physical fitness, but obsessed with how he looks, so Donna has picked up those traits. Richard is very controlling so Donna likes to do what she can to fool him so that she can go off with friends and do things he would not approve of. She is also pulled into the Enchantress of Caraban book but is miscast as the character of Falinda, a part for which Tansy was well suited, so throughout the story, Donna fluctuates between trying to be Falinda or relying on Tansy to do the things Falinda is supposed to do.

Chad Hollingsworth is the handsome guy who is supposed to be the character of Samuel in The Enchantress of Caraban book. He is seventeen, tall, black, easygoing, likes to read and learn, and falls for Tansy even though his character is supposed to be smitten by Falinda. Chad was pulled into the book during the 1930's and he is impressed at the changes that have happened since he has been gone, like the fact that Tansy's dad, a black man, can marry a white woman. He is more mature and gentlemanly than guys Tansy is used to and Chad is one of the reasons that she changes and starts believing in herself.

I hope you go to Amazon Kindle and get a copy of Spell Breaker, so you can get to know these characters! http://www.amazon.com/Spell-Breaker-ebook/dp/B00ASZ110K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363103368&sr=8-1&keywords=spell+breaker