From the author's Q & A at The Nervous Breakdown:You’re writing a trilogy which can be read “out of order.” How did that happen?Learn more about the book and author at Ronlyn Domingue's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.
I didn’t intend to write a trilogy at all. I expected my second book to be one huge sprawling novel, but it morphed into something even bigger. A subplot about a female mapmaker, exiled for treason, took on a life of its own and became the trilogy’s first book, The Mapmaker’s War. The rest of the story grew so much that it split into two.
The second book, The Chronicle of Secret Riven, takes place 1,000 years after Aoife (pronounced ee-fah), the mapmaker, died. There’s a connection between Aoife and Secret which a discerning reader will be able to detect. In Book 3, the pieces will come together, but that novel is meant to stand on its own as much as the others.
In the world of this story, Secret Riven isn’t like most children and her parents aren’t like most people. What do you have to say about this remarkable family?
Secret doesn’t speak until she’s seven years old, but when she’s four, she discovers she can communicate with creatures and plants. She’s able to translate the language, so to speak, through an understanding of emotions and images. It’s a gift that causes both comfort and pain.
Her mother, Zavet, was born in a remote village and had no formal education as a child. However, she can speak, read, and write every human language, ancient or modern. She works as a freelance translator in a world in which women are typically wives, mothers, shop clerks, and secretaries.
Bren Riven, her father, is the son of a chimneysweep. Bright and amiable, he was able to...[read on]
The Page 69 Test: The Mapmaker's War.
My Book, The Movie: The Mapmaker's War.
Writers Read: Ronlyn Domingue.
The Page 69 Test: The Chronicle of Secret Riven.
--Marshal Zeringue