Sunday 12 February 2012

Guest Post and Giveaway: Promising Light by Emily Ann Ward


Hi guyz!  I read Promising Light (The Protectors #1) as part of the blog tour and I really can't enjoy it more!  Read my review here to know more about it. 

Here we have a guest post by the author, Emily Ann Ward, where she shares the locations in Promising Light and where she got the inspirations from.  Promising Light is an epic fantasy/romance, bordering on historical locations.  So, you get how interesting this post can get.  Just read this guest post, you will surely read to your must read books, and hopefully, buy the book soon.  Or still enter the giveaway mentioned below for a chance to win the copy!  Hope you enjoy!


Locations in Promising Light and their inspiration

Hey, everyone! I’m so happy to be here with Vidya and all of you on my blog tour for my fantasy novel, Promising Light.

In Promising Light, Dar suddenly leaves Grace, breaking off their secret relationship, and she searches for answers, reluctant to let him go. Then she’s kidnapped by Dar’s family, who are shape changers who claim she can break a curse set on their family. If the curse endures, Dar’s family could die out forever. But to help them, she’ll have to leave behind everything she knows.

When creating a fantasy world, a lot of thought goes into the new locations, some inspired by real life, some not. I thought for this guest post, I’d tell you about the various locations of Promising Light and my inspiration for them. There are quotes from the book and pretty pictures, too!

Renaul
The royal city of the country Haltar. This is where the protagonist Grace lives, where her family and friends live. We don’t see much of Renaul except for the city square on Victory Day, the day Haltarians celebrate their independence, and the castle.

“Victory Day was Grace’s favorite time of the year. The celebrations spread through the country of Haltar, and its capital Renaul filled with people. The city square was bustling with activity. Grace had to hold onto Jocelyn’s elbow as they weaved through the crowds.

“Entertainers stood on every street corner, competing for attention. One man was juggling dozens of oranges, another was doing magic tricks, and a trio of children, probably siblings, were singing the customary songs of the holiday. The smells of exotic food hung in the air. Merchants yelled out, hawking their mirrors, dresses, weapons, fabrics, and more.” ~Chapter 2

I was lucky enough to visit a castle in Segovia, Spain that served as the inspiration for the castle in Sleeping Beauty. I think it’s a great example of the strong, stone fortress I had in mind when writing about the royal castle of Renaul.

Nyad
A city west of Renaul with a warmer climate. When writing about Nyad, I thought a lot about Hawaii. I know the climate couldn’t change that much with just the travel of a couple days, but I may have stretched the boundaries a little bit. I had a lot of fun with Nyad.

“Grace then saw that the library opened to a garden. Leaving the book behind, she walked outside. The warm sun shone down on the flowers and elaborate paths between the plants. As she moved down the dirt path, she noticed dozens of plants she’d only seen in books. Pink flowers with round, smooth petals. Orange buds with long stems. Palm trees. Nyad was close to the ocean, but she hadn’t thought it would be so different from Renaul.” ~Chapter 3


The Manor in Belisha
The manor where Lisbeth and Jeshro, two elders of the shape changers, live. I’m not really sure where I got the inspiration for this. I just loved the idea of a manor being a building but also being part of the earth, too.

“They passed through an eerie forest and traveled for another hour before they finally approached the manor. It was an old stone building, at least three stories, and it looked hidden inside the hill behind it, the mossy stone blending in with the grass. Some of the rooms were lit, the windows glowing warmly in the night. . .

“The corridors twisted into confusing patterns. Most of them were lit with torches, but some were dark except for the girl’s lantern. Each door they passed looked different to Grace; some were made of wood, others stone, some tall, others short, some with signs, others with paintings, others bare. She felt as if they were still outside, breezes without a visible source blowing through her hair, vines and ivy woven in the stone walls, the fragrance of dirt surrounding them. It seemed as if they were in caves under the hill instead of a manor.” ~Chapter 7

I wasn’t sure what kind of picture to put for the manor. I found a neat house here (http://www.simondale.net/house/) that’s a “low impact woodland home.” The manor would be kind of like this, but more medieval-style.


Aron
A town in the mountainous country Kleisade. The characters enter this humble town looking for answers about the shape changers’ ancient texts. I grew up in the Rocky Mountains, and I can’t imagine what it would be like to pass over the mountains with horses while spending the cold nights in tents!

“Aron bustled with activity, carriages and horse-riders filling the narrow cobblestone streets. People kept bumping into Grace and Sierra and getting frustrated with their horses when they wouldn’t move forward into the space they saw. The buildings were low and mostly built of wood.

“The lively city was a welcome relief from those barren roads with nothing but trees and the six of them. They passed a collection of merchants: a woman selling roses, an older couple with pastries, a man with colorful blankets.” ~Chapter 26

I can see Aron as something like this little town in the Rockies.



Mumbar Jungle
A jungle near Nyad. When writing about Mumbar Jungle, I had a lot of fun researching about jungles and rain forests. Poisonous snakes, quicksand, rabid animals. I actually had a scene where Grace fell into some quicksand, but I decided to take it out for the sake of pacing.

“Grace walked beside Dar, holding his hand as they moved deeper into the jungle. The humidity stuck to her skin. The rich scents of the plants around them filled the air. Gradually, the sounds of insects grew louder. Clicking, clattering, squeaking.” ~Chapter 32

Near the end, the characters come near a waterfall. I pictured it like this, though our heroes would have been at the foot of the waterfall instead of having a bird’s eye view of it.


It’s gorgeous, isn’t it? It’s the San Rafael falls in Ecuador. Makes me want to go to South America!

I had so much fun with this beautiful new world. The book has more, exciting locations that I didn’t talk about here, and in the sequel, some of the characters end up on the coast of the Mediterranean-like country of Jolen.

Thanks to Vidya, for having me, and thanks for reading!

Giveaway

If you think you’d enjoy the book, you can enter the ebook giveaways (http://emilyannward.com/giveaways-galore) or the paperback giveaway (http://riteshkala.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/giveaway-of-2-paperback-copies-of-emily-ann-wards-promising-light/). If you buy the book before the 15th and send your receipt to emilyannward at yahoo dot com, you gain 5 entries into the contest to win a $20 Gift Card for Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice!). Comments on stops also count as entries, so let me know what you think about the locations in Promising Light!

Tour Details

See the full lineup for the tour here (http://wordsofeward.blogspot.com/p/promising-light-blog-tour.html). We have author and character interviews, guest posts, giveaways, and more fun!

Author Online : Blog | Website | Twitter

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