Silver Silence - the interview

Silver Silence, book 3 of my Druids of Avalon trilogy is in bookstores Tuesday Oct 27. I'm celebrating with excerpts, lost scenes, an interview and a week-long contest!

To enter, just comment on any post put up between Wed Oct 21 through Friday Oct 30. Two lucky readers will win autographed copies of both The Grail King and Deep Magic, as well as an autographed copy of Romantic Times BOOKReviews magazine November issue, featuring me on the cover!

Please consider including your email with your post so I can contact you quickly if you win! And if you don’t…check out more chances to win at www.joynash.com.

By the way, if you're planning on buying Silver Silence, I hope you'll consider picking it up close to the Oct 27 release day, as any book's opening week sales are the most important to an author's publisher.

Thanks and good luck to all!

Silver Silence Q & A:

Q: What do readers need to know about Silver Silence?

A: It’s the third book in my Druids of Avalon trilogy. And it’s Rhys and Breena’s long-awaited story! Readers who have been following the age-and-circumstance mismatched pair through The Grail King and Deep Magic will finally get to experience their struggle and happily ever after.

In Silver Silence, Rhys and Breena travel from second century Avalon 350 years forward in time to a brutal Dark Ages Britain they barely recognize. There they battle a dark power poised to cancel the prophesized birth of King Arthur.

The wizard Myrddin, counselor to High King Uther faces a hard choice: allow Britain to succumb to a brutal Saxon menace aided by an unknown dark sorcerer, or dangerous deep magic to bring Breena and her unique magic from the past to aid his cause.

Breena, who has at last accepted that her childhood infatuation for Rhys can come to nothing, agrees to the mission. When Breena goes missing from Avalon without explanation, Rhys realizes he would risk anything – even forbidden magic and a perilous journey through the Lost Lands – to bring her home. He doesn’t anticipate a journey to Britain’s grim future, nor that Breena will refuse to abandon her purpose once he arrives. It falls to Rhys and Breena together to unravel the secret of linking their past with Britain’s Future King, and break the Silver Silence.

Q: Where did you get the idea for this story?

A: From history! My Druid characters travel through the mystical Lost Lands, which link all time to Avalon. They emerge three hundred fifty years in the future, in a Britain they hardly recognize. Abandoned by the Roman Army, faced with a brutal Saxon invasion and internal squabbling among Briton war chiefs, Britain is at a crossroads. A strong leader is needed to unite Britons and drive away invaders. As we know, at least for a brief, shining moment, that leader was King Arthur. My characters become deeply involved in the legend of Arthur’s conception, in which much deceit and magic abounds.

Q: Breena is so much younger than Rhys, both in age and life experience.
Why is she perfect for him?

A: Breena is very loyal. She’s loved Rhys since she was a small child—hero worship, really. Unfortunately, hero worship isn’t a firm base on which to build a mature relationship. Readers caught glimpses of Breena in The Grail King and Deep Magic. In Silver Silence, she grows up. She has to accept Rhys’s rejection, leave him behind, and forge her own destiny. In doing that she ultimately wins what she gave up – Rhys’s love. I think her story is a valuable lesson in how letting go of one cherished, impossible dream, and taking charge of your life on your own terms, can bring that dream back to you in the end.

Q: What do you love about Rhys?

A: He’s a “lone wolf” hero – my favorite kind! I love Rhys’s idealism, his lonely dedication to his life duty for Avalon. He’s doomed to a wandering life, which he never wanted and doesn’t like. He thinks his own happiness, especially with Breena, is out of reach, but he accepts that burden for the good of Avalon and Britain’s future.

This obedience takes a toll, in the form of Rhys’s dark and sometimes disturbing sensuality. Which is yet another aspect of himself he could never force on Breena – or so he thinks! In reality, Breena is much stronger than Rhys gives her credit for. It’s her task to teach Rhys that his efforts to keep her cocooned in safety has more to do with his own fears, than with Breena’s happiness.

Q: How did you approach building the world of Dark Ages Britain for this story?

A: I read quite a bit about 5th Century Britain. The withdrawal of the Roman Army prompted many Britons to flee the island. Those who remained in Britain, without the military protection they’d known for five hundred years, had to scurry to protect their territories from rival Britons as well as raiding Saxons. Breena and Rhys go from their own stable, prosperous time into this brutal future. My research into the spread of Christianity in Britain was fascinating.

When Rhys and Breena encounter a future Avalon, they find it inhabited not by Druids, as in their own time, but by monks of a new religion that considers Druidry a work of Satan. So that’s another aspect of the future they struggle to deal with. Added to that mix is Druid magic that is both less common, and more powerful, than in their own time, and a dark menace that threatens to prevent the prophesized birth of Britain’s Druid King. It’s really a quite complex landscape in which to set a love story.

Q: Where can we learn more about Rhys’s and Breena’s past?

A: Check out www.joynash.com for the Silver Silence “Before the Book” scenes to catch a glimpse of Rhys and Breena over the years. These scenes were originally flashback scenes in Silver Silence, but ended up cut because of manuscript length requirements. I loved them so much I couldn’t let them fade away completely!

Q: What’s the best part about writing the Druids of Avalon Trilogy?

The emails from readers who have fallen in love with my characters and my stories! Everyone can daydream, but it’s such a privilege to invite readers around the world to participate in the fantasy. Thanks for being there with me.


Coming this weekend - Winners!!


Joy
www.joynash.com