T.W. Fendley Book Party!

 Welcome T.W. Fendley!

T.W. has been hosting the Blog Ring of Power with me for several months. In that time we've become good friends over the web.  I was excited when she told me about what she was planning. So, with the joined effort of many others we have come together to bring all of you her Book Party! 

T.W. Fendley writes historical fantasy and science fiction with a Mesoamerican twist for adults and young adults. Her debut historical fantasy novel, ZERO TIME, was voted Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Novel in the 2011 P&E Readers Poll. Her short stories took second place in the 2011 Writers' Digest Horror Competition and won the 9th NASFiC 2007 contest. Teresa belongs to the St. Louis Writer's Guild, the Missouri Writers' Guild, SCBWI and Broad Universe.

BOOK BLURB:
As Zero Time nears, only Keihla Benton can save two worlds from the powers of Darkness. But first she must unlock the secrets of Machu Picchu and her own past.When Philadelphia science writer Keihla Benton joins an archeological team at Machu Picchu, she learns the Andean prophesies about 2012 have special meaning for her. Only she can end the cycle of Darkness that endangers Earth at the end of the Mayan calendar. As she uncovers secrets from the past, which threaten her life and those she loves, Keihla struggles to keep the powerful Great Crystal from the Lord of Darkness and his consort.
Xmucane leads an expedition to Earth to overcome a genetic flaw that threatens the people of Omeyocan with extinction, but she soon finds herself involved in a very personal battle that pits mother against daughter and sister against sister. With the help of the time-traveling Great Serpent Quetzalcoatl, she leaves the Southern Temples to arrive in present-day Machu Picchu as the expedition’s time-window closes.

Xmucane and Keihla work together as Earth and Omeyocan near alignment with the galaxy’s dark heart for the first time in 26,000 years. They must seize the last chance to restore the cycle of Light to Earth and return to the Pleiades with a cure, no matter what the cost to their hearts.


Sweet!    Alright T, before you go into your contest, I had a few questions for you. 'Cause I'm evil like that. 


E.M.: What characters do you relate to? 
T.W.:  Usually I find Xmucane most appealing because she's a strong leader who listens to her heart.Lately, though, I've been focusing on the Maya calendars (they had many), so Mama Chicchan's been on my mind. I had a lot of fun introducing Maya/Aztec astrology through her. Today Mama Chicchan would advise us to stay at home and not wash or comb our hair because it's the first of five "unlucky" nameless days in the Maya Haab calendar. Instead of having a Leap Day to keep their 365-day calendar from drifting out of sync with the seasons, they added this short "month" called Wayeb. The other 18 months (winals) were each 20 days (kins) long. During Wayeb, the Maya believed boundaries dissolved between the mortal world and Underworld, allowing evil spirits to wreak havoc. 
 
E.M.: What parts of it would you get stuck in? 
T.W.: Outlining plots in advance is not my strength, so my characters often got trapped in awkward situations. Then I had to find a way out for them that was consistent with the overall story arc. It wasn't always easy. For instance, in the cosmology of ZERO TIME, those who aren't bonded with the Great Serpents must drink Serpent Broth to time travel. When Keihla's father goes to Snake Woman's temple in the past, he only had enough Serpent Broth for a one-way trip.It was also hard trying to decide the right level of detail to make the world and characters seem real without slowing the story down. You have to have enough interaction so readers will care what happens to the characters as the plot progresses.The same is true with setting--it's a very fine line between "enough" and "too much" information.


E.M.: Did you choose your characters by personalities that you knew, or were they all from the voices in your head? 
T.W.: You could say they were in my head, hanging out with other beloved fictional characters. I loosely patterned the relationship between Xmucane and Xpiyacoc on that of Jamie and Claire in Diana Gabaldon's OUTLANDER series (which I love). Both stories have epic scope, with time travel and historical elements, but my characters quickly diverged from the more traditional romantic path I thought they'd take. So much for that! The same is true with the Great and Plumed Serpents. Like the dragons in Anne McCaffrey's brilliant PERN series, my Serpents bond with humans and communicate with them telepathically. But unlike McCaffrey's dragons, which rarely traveled through time when they went "between," in ZERO TIME, time travel is essential to the Serpent race. These mutlidimensional beings have a legacy of their own, separate from humans. They create light from darkness, a process we glimpse when Xmucane and Xchicchan encounter the Mother Serpent.

E.M.: Did you ever feel you were part of your story to the point of almost living it in the back of your head when you weren't writing? 
T.W.: The pull of the story has been strong enough to stay with me since 1997, when I fell in love with the cultures of ancient America while researching short story ideas at the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Workshop. I finished writing ZERO TIME before I traveled to Machu Picchu in 2008, but I definitely viewed the ancient citadel from my characters' perspective. When I got home, revisions began in earnest. I had to invent an earthquake to open up a hidden room so they could see the valley below as they walked between the king's mausoleum and the Temple of the Condor.
Although metaphysical concepts from Edgar Cayce, Gregg Braden, Elisabeth Haich and others played key role in envisioning the Omeyocan race, I'm sometimes surprised to find the world of ZERO TIME popping up when I least expect it. Two years after ZERO TIME was completed, I took the Monroe Institute's Gateway Voyage. During meditation, when I reached Focus 15--the Void beyond time--I recognized it as the Darkness I had envisioned years before.
 
E.M.: Was there any part of the story you didn't want to write because you didn't like what happened? 
T.W.: Some of what happened in the final battle between Golden Bells, the Lord of Darkness, Xmucane and Xpiyacoc was difficult for me. It was necessary, but I didn't like it.T.W.: Thanks, Em, for being a Party Host in my Virtual Book Tour Party!

E.M.:  No problem, I'd do it for any of my friends.  I will have to read your book when I shrink my to-read pile a bit, it sounds fascinating! :D



The ZERO TIME 2012 Virtual Book Tour Party is here!
To celebrate, T.W. Fendley is giving away a Maya-Aztec astrology report, a Mayan Winds CD, ZERO TIME tote bag and fun 13.0.0.0.0. buttons. Check out the prizes and other posts on the Party Page.

3 ways to enter  (multiple entries are great!)

1) Leave a comment here or on any of the other PARTY POSTS listed on the Party Page.

2) Tweet about the Virtual Party or any of the PARTY POSTS (with tag #ZEROTIME2012)
Example: Join the Virtual Party for historical #fantasy novel ZERO TIME by @twfendley for a chance to win prizes! #ZEROTIME2012http://bit.ly/x91NgP

3) Facebook (tag @T.W. Fendley) about the Virtual Party. (NOTE: tag must have periods to work)
Example: Join the Virtual Party for historical fantasy novel ZERO TIME by @T.W. Fendley for a chance to win prizes!http://twfendley.com/?page_id=510
  
You can find ZERO TIME at:
Ebook $4.99
Paperback $16.95

Comments

  1. T.W. FendleyMarch 28, 2012 at 8:26 AM

    Thanks, Em, for being such a gracious Party Host--even the questions were fun! Having someone like you to hang out with puts the "social" in social media. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. E. M. LaBonteMarch 28, 2012 at 8:34 AM

    *blush* thanks T! I hope it's going great on your end so far. I'm having a blast bouncing around to everyone. :D

    ReplyDelete

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