From the author's Q & A at Layers of Thought:You create an entire fully-realized world in this trilogy. Where did the kernel of the idea come from?Learn more about the book and author at Ronlyn Domingue's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.
For a class assignment when I was in college, I wrote a fairy tale about a girl who lived in a kingdom where women were forbidden to read. The story stayed with me, and it seemed like something I could craft into a novel. On and off for a few years, I dabbled with it, even though I was clueless about what I was doing. Eventually, I shoved the manuscript and notes in a closet.
And then about a decade later, I discovered the electronic manuscript on an old computer, which prompted me to seek out the stored hard copies. I had no intention of returning to the project, but I still read over everything in a couple of days. Turns out, there was something underneath the bad writing and clichéd characters.
What readers see now is vastly different from the original story. It expanded to include a world that resembles the Dark Ages (The Mapmaker’s War) and what it turned into 1,000 years later, which feels somewhat medieval and Victorian at the same time.
The Chronicle of Secret Riven is the trilogy’s second book, but a reader can start with this story and go back to the first novel. How did that happen?
I thought...[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