Author: Nova Rose – AKA Janet McNulty
Title: Legends Lost Tesnayr
Publisher: Createspace
ISBN: 615624049
Pages: 210, Paperback/Kindle
Genre: Fantasy
Author Interview with Nova Rose
PBR: Have you always wanted to be a writer?
JM: Not always. Like most kids I wanted to be an astronaut, but then had to wear glasses. My career choices changed as I grew up from veterinarian to teacher. When I got to college, I decided to study history and become a historian. I love the subject, but to study it I was forced to do a lot of writing and that is when I discovered my passion for it.
PBR: What was your inspiration for writing the Lost Legends books?
JM: I’ve always liked fantasy stories; the scenery, the characters, and the magic. I first got the idea for the story while watching my cat play with her toys. I sat there thinking, “Wouldn’t it make an interesting story to have a cat as the main character? I imagined my cat telling me a tale about how she got turned into a cat and that was where Legends Lost was born.
PBR: Is fantasy your favorite genre to both read and to write for?
JM: Fantasy is, by far, my favorite genre and I love writing fantasy. However, I also like mysteries and dystopian novels.
PBR: Who are some of your favorite authors and why?
JM: This is a tough one to condense with so many great writers out there. However, I can narrow it down to 5.
William Shakespeare. Shakespeare had a way of telling great stories about human nature while writing them entirely in iambic pentameter. A feat that no one has been able to duplicate. With plays such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear, and The Taming of the Shrew you get all of the elements of a great story: jealousy, betrayal, love, war, dealing with anger, and deception. Five hundred years later, people are still reading Shakespeare and using his plays as inspiration.
Jack London. I read White Fang and The Call of the Wild while in high school. Few people are able to capture the Alaskan wild they Jack London did. What I love about those books is he tells the story through the prospective of a dog, their struggles and joys.
J.K. Rowling. Rowling managed to create a unique world that is very believable. I resisted the Harry Potter books when they first were published thinking they were little more than kid’s stories. When I finally read the first one, I breezed through the entire series and could not get enough of them. She created complex characters that encompass almost every aspect of humanity.
Ray Bradbury. Though Sci-fi/Dystopian literature, Bradbury’s books present realistic what if worlds about what humanity could end up like if we went down certain paths. When reading his world, I immediately become attached to the main character and find myself caring about what becomes of them.
PBR: How did you decide on the type of Hero (s) to be used in Legends Lost?
JM: That was a difficult one. I wanted a hero that was very, very human; one with a troubled past. I definitely wanted the hero to be older, in his thirties to separate my book from the influx of novels with a teenage protagonist. I wanted a man that had seen a lot of the world, had life’ experiences, and would be believable as a leader. But I wanted him to be mysterious as well. So I settled on making him a man who was a new arrival in the world I created, an ex-soldier, and a haunted past. This way he would be believable as the hero, but would have a flawed personality to make him a real character.
PBR: What advice would you give to new writers entering the book writing market, especially for the fantasy market?
JM: Be stubborn. Breaking into writing is difficult, especially when you are unknown. You will get a lot of naysayers telling you that you can’t make it. Be stubborn and persevere.
Also, learn your craft. I have read books by authors who managed to get published through big name publishing companies, but their writing was horrible. Now, we all have a writing style that is unique to us, but if you do not use proper grammar, your writing will fail. Learn the basics of writing. Build you vocabulary. Play with your writing style. Keep plugging away and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it.
PBR: Have you considered writing for other genres, if so which ones and why?
JM: Yes. I have written a paranormal mystery series titled, The Mellow Summers Series. I have also penned two nonfiction books: Illogical Nonsense and Politics and Insights From History (An Anthology of Blog Entries). These books are published under my real name, Janet McNulty.
PBR: Since Legends Lost is part of a trilogy what direction will you take with the story line for the third book in the trilogy?
JM: The story in the third book is going to be set about 1500 years after Legends Lost Tesnayr and focus on a new cast of characters. I’m going to have a bit of mystery in this one. Whereas in Tesnayr the villain is straight forward and introduced in the beginning; the villain in the third book, Galdin will be more mysterious. I am going to make him a shadowy figure who is not named until the end. It will be darker with more twists and turns.
PBR: There is a touch of romance in the Legends Lost books would you consider writing romance novels?
Probably not. Though I like a little romance, I was never one who liked it being the main focus of the story. I am not a fan of romance novels. Never have been. I will probably stick to adventure stories, or humorous tales, with romance being a secondary aspect.
PBR: Besides Legends Lost, what writing projects are in the future for Nova Rose?
Nova Rose is a pen name I chose to use for my Legends Lost books and will not being using it for anything else. I have published other books under my real name, Janet McNulty. To get a complete list of them, go to my author pages on Amazon:
