UFI welcomes Lee Roland Author of The Earth Witches series. Thanks for Joining us!!
What can you tell my
readers about yourself that they might not know from looking on your bio or
reading in another interview?
That I think the automobile
is the finest form of transportation and love the open road. I love to drive,
love to ride, always pushing on to see what is over that next hill. My bio doesn’t tell a reader that I love the
high-mountain American desert. Red and
gold rocks, digging for fossils, the dry hot air are all heaven to me.
What do you enjoy doing on
your down time?
Mostly I read. When I can, I travel.
What is your Favorite part
of writing?
The
first edit of a completed work. The
first edit means the manuscript is finished.
You’ve done it! You’ve pushed
forward and accomplished something big.
The first edit is the chance look at your story as a whole, add,
subtract, move words, and build nuances of characters. A writer is in complete control. After that golden moment, you will sometimes
find yourself manipulating your baby to fit someone else’s vision.
Do you have any certain
routines you must follow as you write?
I
require silence. No music, television,
just focus on the words before me. Some
members of my critique group will go to libraries, bookstores, or coffee
shops. Not me. I have to be firmly positioned in the cocoon
of my fictional world for it to come alive.
What are some of your
Favorite books or Authors in the Urban Fantasy/ Paranormal Genres?
Illona
Andrews and the Kate Daniels Series.
I’ve read each book in that series three or four times. Kate’s Atlanta
is an incredible place. Richard Kadrey’s
dark, gritty Sandman Slim Series. Kadrey
is not for the faint of heart. If you
want sunshine and roses, look elsewhere.
How would you pitch the Earth Witches series to
someone who has not heard of it before?
I
would call the Earth Witch series Urban Fantasy with mild humor and a strong
love story. The earth witches are keepers of the
world’s magic. Servants of the Earth
Mother, they battle men, monsters and personal conflicts to protect the
world.
Can you tell us a little
bit about the world that your books
are set in?
The story is set in Duivel,
Missouri, a modern Midwestern town.
Duivel, Missouri, sits on the banks of the Sullen
River, a deepwater channel that eventually empties into the mighty Mississippi.
Local legend among the area’s original Dutch settlers said that the devil
pushed the land up out of hell. They named the city for him, the Father of
Lies. Duivel—literally, the devil.
There is a section of town called the Barrows. The Barrows is protected with a spell cast by
the Earth Mother to keep most people away—to keep them safe. It’s a “see but don’t see” spell. You may see it, but as soon as you leave, you
forget.
The Barrows is mostly block after block of dark
ruins, forgotten and filled with monsters and evil men. In the center of the ruins is a place called
the Zombie Zone. If anything earth
shattering happens in the Barrows, it occurs in the Zombie.
The Earth Mother uses her witches and other special
people she has chosen as warriors to act on her behalf in the Barrows. Unfortunately, her goals are often unclear
and her servants are left to make critical decisions with little guidance from
her.
A history of the Barrows can be found on my website,
leeroland.com.
Do
you have a favorite scene in Vicious Moon?
My
favorite scene in Vicious Moon is the one where our heroine, Nyx, shows our
hero, Etienne, exactly what she can do with Magic.
Etienne glared at me.
“My men, my guns. I told you to
leave the Barrows and you wouldn’t. Now,
you do as I tell you.” He whirled and
stalked toward the door. “Bring her,” he
ordered without looking back.
The sudden pronouncement astonished me. He wanted me a prisoner? Etienne’s leadership couldn’t be faulted, but
I wasn’t one of his men and he needed a lesson in manners. And a witch’s power. He might, as Laudine said, be immune to
witchcraft, but I had other weapons.
“Hey!” I shouted just as he reached the door. He stopped and turned. “Check this out, Mr.
Immunity.”
A rock the size of a football lay by his foot. It jumped in the air and stopped at eye
level. He backed away from it. For all the good it would do him, he raised
his gun. The room grew still with
anticipation of violence. With all the
power I could draw without draining myself, I flung the rock toward a far
wall. It punched through the wall like a
cannon ball—and probably through the wall of the next building. The impact came sharp as a rifle shot that
reverberated through the empty building. An echo of thunder rolled around the massive
empty room.
Darrow stepped close.
He’d be in the line of fire if the men started shooting at me, but my
friend’s first instinct rose to protect me.
How completely gratifying.
Etienne stared at the wall where the rock had punched
a three foot hole. He had, in no way,
lost his composure. “That was good. Behave yourself and I’ll let you do a magic
show after dinner.” He walked out.
Which character was your
favorite to write about? What about the hardest to write about?
My
favorite character is Herschel, Nyx’s unusual and uncouth familiar. Of him, Nyx
says:
The
morning after my capture I sat in the hotel lobby handcuffed and feet chained,
with Herschel’s massive head on my knee. His floppy jowls slimed my pants with
slobber. Herschel’s heritage seemed to
be mostly Bull Mastiff crossed with a Great Dane. He weighed in at two hundred pounds, far
larger than any domestic dog. Black as
the inside of a deep mountain cave, he could be mistaken for a small pony at a
distance. I did love him, in spite of my
irritation. I’m told he arrived on the
doorstep the day I was born. His primary
functions in life were sleeping, eating and farting. And there was the incessant drooling. Since I hadn’t seen him in ten years and my
captors, the Sisters, wouldn’t speak, I had no idea how he got from Georgia to
California.
The
hardest character to write is Laudine, a mediocre earth with minimal
powers. Laudine can be kind and generous
when she makes medicines and freely gives them to vulnerable people. Unfortunately, greed caused her to commit an
act that causes the death of someone she loved.
Maintaining the balance in the contradiction of kindness and angry guilt
is difficult.
What Other Projects can we
look forward to reading from you?
Right
now, I’m working on a paranormal romance involving witches, families and power
struggles. My agent and I are discussing
possibilities and direction of the story.
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Lee Roland lives in Florida with her husband and is hard at work on her upcoming series.
