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Title: LARK
RISING (Guardians of Tarnec #1)
Author: Sandra Waugh
Pub. Date: September
23, 2014
Publisher: Random
House Books for Young Readers
Pages: 384
Formats: Hardcover,
eBook
Full of romance and nature magic, this debut fantasy is
perfect for fans of Shannon Hale, Juliet Marillier, and Kristin Cashore.
“A beautifully
realized world, a unique voice, and a compelling, action-packed story. This is
a striking debut novel with a lovely folkloric flavor.” —Juliet Marillier,
author of Wildwood Dancing
Lark has foreseen
two things—she will fall for a young man with sage green eyes, and he will kill
her.
Sixteen-year-old
Lark Carew is happiest close to home, tending her garden and gathering herbs
for medicines. But when her Sight warns her that monsters called Troths will
soon invade her village, Lark is summoned on a journey to seek help from the
legendary Riders of Tarnec. Little does she suspect that one of the Riders,
Gharain, is the very man who has haunted her visions. Or that the people of
Tarnec have called her there for another reason: Lark is the Guardian of Life,
the first of four Guardians who must awaken their powers to recover four stolen
amulets. Together, the amulets—Life, Death, Dark, and Light—keep the world in
Balance. To take back the Life amulet, Lark will have to discover her true
inner strength and give in to a love that she swears will be her downfall.
Interview:
Question: What are some pros and cons to having your
characters live in a fantasy world as opposed to a “real life” setting?
Answer: For me, the pros far outweigh the
cons! With fantasy I can create anything (as in: no fact-checking)! There’s great pleasure in letting the
imagination run wild, drawing maps and building creatures, thinking ‘well that totally belongs in her world,’ even if
it’s outrageous in ours. The con of course is that I have to be careful with language,
particular words and references. I especially had to be careful about moments
where my characters are frustrated or shocked—there are no easy Oh my God!s because there is no reference to religion of
any sort. I couldn’t let them curse the way we might!
Q: Can you tell us a little bit about what
inspired the world Lark lives in?
A: In many respects, Lark’s world is
simply my outdoors. I’ve spent years
struggling to keep the grounds of our old house in some kind of order, only to
watch the wilderness creep back the moment I set down my clippers. That, and
the fact that there are woods that border our field, are very much the way I
picture Dark Wood on the doorstep of Lark’s village, and Lark’s particular
struggle with the thorny ghisane. Merith, on the other hand, represents a
certain yearning I have for an idyllic ‘home’—a community of caring neighbors,
sharing the wealth of physical, creative labor—farmers and herders and tailors
and blacksmiths and weavers and the like. Beyond Merith, beyond what Lark knows,
are dramatic landscapes of places I’ve yet to be (and yet what I borrowed from
visually): the Himalayas, New Zealand, the Amazon, for example. Rich or stark,
and beautiful.
Q: Would you want to have Lark’s ability to
see the future? If not what supernatural
gift would you want to have?A: I’d rather not see into the future!
But I would like to fly.
Q: Can you describe some of the monsters in
Lark’s world?
A: In the Guardians of Tarnec series
there are many beasts yet to be encountered, so I’ll keep them under
wraps. But—in Lark Rising we are
introduced very quickly to Troths. They
are a recurring threat, troll-like creatures with dagger teeth, slits for
nostrils, gristly gray skin and luminous, disc-shaped eyes that see well in the
dark. Swifts are another threat. They
are birds, heron-sized and eagle-beaked, but with human eyes. If they touch things of Earth they explode
and so are used almost like missiles.
Things from earth and sea and sky
will terrorize this little world, but I’ll add that not all the monsters are
fantastical creatures—there are human monsters as well.
Q: Do you listen to music while you
write? If so, what songs were on your
playlist for Lark Rising?
A: I absolutely listen to music! I rotate
at least thirteen playlists I’ve created with music that inspires my
imagination (admittedly of the melancholy minor-keyed variety). However, I write to instrumental music since
I find lyrics distracting. Many of my playlists are drawn from soundtracks. Here are some of those
composers/film/TV/cd: Ramin Djawadi/Game
of Thrones; Rachel Portman/Never Let Me Go; Jocelyn Pook/Flood & Untold
Things; John Summer/Inceptions and Joseph Newton Howell/The Hunger Games.
Q: If you could have dinner with one of your
characters, who would you choose and why?
A: I’d have dinner with Harker, the
seer. Partly because I’d be so curious
what he’d say about me and partly because I feel very sorry for him. He is a tormented man; I’d want to give him a
hot meal and a chair to sit in for once.
Q: I know that some authors use Pinterest for
character/architectural inspiration.
What do you use to inspire you?
A: I probably do the opposite. Mostly
I draw from Nature around me, travels I’ve taken, and my own imagination.
Afterwards, I sometimes look online to see if I might find something that
represents what I’ve described. If I
find it, then I’ll pin it, but that’s been rather slow going. I haven’t found anyone that looks like
Gharain yet!
Q: Do you free-write, or do you write from an
outline?
A: I free-write. I struggle with this admission, because it
seems so much more professional and organized to work from an outline. But while I add to copious notes as I go, I
find it (so far) impossible to be that structured as to set things up in
advance on a page.
Q: What are your favorite genres to read?
A: Favorites? Fantasy, YA/MG, and the
classics. I think my most favorite novel
is Pride and Prejudice.
Q: Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
A: Give yourself a schedule—a
deadline—choose however many words/pages/chapters/novels you want to finish
each day, how many days per week. Then sit down and stick to it. It doesn’t matter how ‘bad’ what you’ve
written seems, because you’ll have a manuscript to hone and shape into what you
love. And having something down on the
page is one less thing to beat yourself up about.
About Sandra:
Sandra grew up in an old house full of crowded bookshelves,
in walking distance of an old library that allowed her to drag home a sack of
six books at a time. It goes without saying, then, that she fell in love with
the old house in Litchfield County, CT, because of its many bookshelves, and
she lives there now with her husband, two sons, and a dog who snores. Loudly.
LARK RISING is her first novel and the first in the
GUARDIANS OF TARNEC series. SILVER EVE follows in 2015.
Giveaway Details: 3
Prize Packs
1 winner will receive a leaf necklace, $25 Amazon gift card,
sachet, a signed hardcover of LARK RISING, and a bookmark and a postcard. US
Only.
1 winner will receive leaf earrings, cuff, soap, sachet and
a signed hardcover of LARK RISING, and a bookmark and a postcard. US Only.
3 winners will receive a signed hardcover of LARK RISING,
and a bookmark and a postcard. US Only
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It sounds like an awesome story, and I love the cover. Thanks for having the giveaway.
ReplyDeleteLark Rising's cover looks beautiful! I would like to have th power to see into the future like Lark. I guess now my TBR pile is building up now.
ReplyDeleteSounds like an interesting book. However, I don't think I'd like to be able to see into the future. I probably wouldn't like what I'd see!
ReplyDeleteI love the sound of this book. It sounds so enchanting. The cover is just breathtaking, too! Cannot wait to read it!
ReplyDelete