Final Friday Fantasy Freebie Giveaway!!

I know, I know...it's not Friday anymore, but on Holiday Time...it's still Friday:-)

For my last Friday Fantasy Freebie, I've saved a real treat. The debut novel by author Geralyn Beauchamp is a huge, satisfying and fascinating read, and I have a paperback copy up for grabs.

But first, here's my review.

And my exclusive interview with debut fantasy author Geralyn Beauchamp!

1. What sparked the Time Masters storyline?

Well, some ideas for Time Masters started years before. A few weird dreams, (who knows if it was something I ate or not) followed by the start of a story with a rough out line. I called that story ‘The Door to Muirara’, followed years later by the idea of Time Masters. But Time Masters, which we have started to call TM1 for short, didn’t really fully come together with a complete story line until the creation of Dallan MacDonald. Once Dallan was created and he took on life, everything just sort of fell into place after that.


2. I love a novel that doesn’t tell it all too quickly. I learned along with Dallan what was going on, and that was frustrating, but cool. How hard was it to keep the threads straight for you? Did you map it all out, or just follow the muse?

Believe it or not, I pretty much wrote TM1 backwards. It’s called writing jigsaw. I got my ending first and then went from there. Wrote the major scenes, some of which were just putting characters into certain situations and seeing what happened, then bridging all the major scenes together with smaller ones. It was like sewing together a quilt. But in the end, voila! Book!


3. The dialects that Dallan, Angus and Kwaku spoke were SO authentic and rich. How hard was it to get the written inflections down? And what language is Kwaku’s based on, or is it all imagination?

I had to study Scot’s dialects and listen to them speak. I started going to Highland games in California where I was living at the time. I bought tapes and read books which contained Scottish characters to see how the authors had their characters speaking. Dallan is from the seventeenth century. Angus from the eighteenth and they of different classes so the dialects will be just slightly different. Kwaku, on the other hand, came fully loaded. Personality, speech, everything. I didn’t really have to work too hard to create him. He just sort of popped in there and started irritating Dallan! Who better than to have as his trainer?


4. I’ve heard we have twelve volumes to look forward to in this series. How far along are you on the path?

I am working on TM2 and TM3 is forming as I work on two. I suspect I will just
keep writing and flow right into three and just get it done. Take a break, and outline the next three as I tend to write in blocks. I designed the series in such a way so as to write as many books as I want. But I figured twelve is a good number, dividing the blocks into three books each. Each block with a beginning book, middle and end. The blocks all becoming the same. A beginning block, middles and an end. But who knows if it will end at twelve. I thought after twelve, however, I might well want to move on to something else, but we shall see. These are extremely fun characters to work with!


5. Where’s your favorite locale to find inspiration for writing your story?

I wrote TM1 while living in Stockton, California. There wasn’t really a favorite locale other than my living room, in a rocking chair, listening to a CD player where I would build all the scenes to the music I was listening to. With TM2, I am living back home in Oregon, and I live in a cozy cabin out in the woods where it is very conducive to writing! I would love to go to Europe one day though, to of course Scotland, and to see Glencoe. I love history and Europe is so much older than America.

6. When it comes to fiction, what genre is your favorite?

Gee, good question. But I would have to say, epic fantasy and good old fashioned romance. I like the sweet variety, (it’s the mushy side of me) but also wholesome stories. I also like fast paced action and love the old Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan novels. Mystery is also fun. My thing then of course, was to wrap all that up into one story and so I did!

7. Are the other books going to be the length of “The Call” ( I hope, I hope, I hope!)?

Yes, pretty much the same length.


8. If you only had ONE message for your readers to walk away with, what would it be?

There has been one reader so far, who was able to capture the message of Time
Masters, and put it into an eloquent display of words. He said, “The word “virtue” used to mean power and manliness. A second strong association was purity. But modern usage tends to mock the latter as weakness, not strength. This book reverses the semantic drift of virtue and shows not only that purity takes strength, but that it also leads to great power.” Pastor Brian Simmons. To sum it up in a word, Time Masters is about the power of purity.


9. What’s on your bedside reading table?

Oh my gosh! You REALLY want to know? Well let’s see … Tarzan the Terrible, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Dark Lord of Derkhom by Diana Wynne Jones, Never Cease, by Sue Dent, Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey, Regency Brides by Kimberly Comeaux, and Neil Gaiman’s Stardust. Yes, I can read several or more books at once …

10. What’s the most difficult aspect of writing this series?

Well so far there hasn’t been any sort of difficult aspect.

11. What’s the most rewarding?

Being able to create something out of nothing and make it all come to life.

12. Do our friends from “The Call” appear in future novels (specifically Kitty, Sinclair and Lany …. and Vyn, and …. LOL!!)??

Yes, all of the above and then some!

13. If you had to cast Time Masters, The Call, who would play what part?

Now that is a very difficult question. I wrote TM1 back in 1994 and back then I had certain actors in my head playing certain parts. Jim Carey for example, was Lany Mosgofian. Bill Hurt, John Eaton. The actor from Walt Disney’s Darby O’Gill and the Little People who played Darby, was Angus. I saw a picture in a magazine once of Jeremy Irons with blonde hair, wearing a tuxedo, holding a snifter of brandy. Boom! There was my inspiration for Philip Brennan. Kwaku I didn’t touch, nor Dallan as the two came with their own distinct look, which my illustrator Lisa Miska has captured. For Dallan at least, she has not done Kwaku yet. But the woman nailed Dallan! Again, a tough question for the here and now, thirteen years later. I think it would be fun for the readers to try and come up with a cast! I don’t really watch TV so it’s hard for me to think of actors out there!


SO, YOU WANNA WIN A COPY OF THIS AMAZING DEBUT FANTASY FICTION BEHEMOTH OF A BOOK?? LEAVE ME A COMMENT, AND I'LL DRAW A WINNER ON DECEMBER 1ST (a full week to ponder and enter...how great is that:-)?

Happy Reading!

Deena