Thursday, December 5, 2019

Rachel Atwood Interview - Walk the Wild With Me


Photo Content from Rachel Atwood

Rachel Atwood is the author of Walk the Wild with Me. She grew up enchanted with British History. Now she writes historical fiction with enchantments. Every time she visits the British Isles, she basks in the shadows of standing stones and glories in ancient crypts while drinking in the lush accents of the people she meets. She thinks driving on the left is natural and roundabouts are efficient as well as aesthetically pleasing.
  


Tell us your latest news.
After a rough year of surgeries and family crisis, I am actively writing again, walking a mile a day and line dancing. I finally feel like me again and am enjoying watching new stories unfold daily.

Who or what has influenced your writing, and in what way?
Of course I read Anne McCaffery, Ursula Le Guin, and Andre Norton to see how writing should be done. But I have also been a part of Book View CafĂ©, a publishing co-operative, since its founding in 2008. The fifty+ members amaze me everyday in their life experiences as well as their writing techniques. I’m getting advice and help at each step of the publishing process. Everything from a twist of a phrase to a short cut to wind up with a well formatted book inspires me to grow as a person and a writer.

Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.
Years ago, I received a letter from a teenage student. It was obviously one of the write a business letter for English class things. The girl opened the letter with the sentence, “I hate to read.” But a friend had given her a copy of “The Glass Dragon,” my first book, because the dragon’s name was Shayla, the same as the letter writer. The dragon and the story entranced her, and she couldn’t wait for her next allowance to buy the second book in the series. I had created a reader out of a non-reader. If I do nothing else in my career this girl’s story means I have succeeded.

What do you hope for readers to be thinking when they read your novel?
“Walk the Wild with Me” is a work of love. I have always loved the Robin Hood stories. I am enough of a historian to recognize the blending of folklore and hero worship. Robin’s character has been inflated so much I can’t really identify him. But I was an adventurous adolescent once. I can see the wonder of exploring a new world, new ideas, and new possibilities through Nick’s and Hilde’s eyes. I hope my readers can discover that they too have choices to determine their own journey, and help them explore the wonder of new experiences.

In your new book; WALK THE WILD WITH ME, can you tell my Book Nerd community a little about it.
Nick is an orphan raised in an Abbey. He knows nothing but the orderly existence of life under The Rule. Then the Pope and King John denounce each other, and the senior clergy is forced out of England. The bells no longer mark the time of day and there is no one tell the people that the Wild Folk do not exist or they are evil if they do venture forth from their shadowy shelters deep in the forest. Free of restraint, the creatures of the wood, half-mortal, half-animal, the spirit creatures of tree and brook and land are free to come out and play with those who venture beyond their previous boundaries.

For those who are unfamiliar with Nicholas, how would you introduce him?
Nick is smart and eager to learn. He needs to push the boundaries of his ordered life in the Abbey as far as he can. Having grown up an orphan he’s constantly looking for a family, be they human or fae.

What part of Elena did you enjoy writing the most?

The first time Elena said “Silly boy,” followed by a laugh as musical as silver bells, I knew her light-hearted approach to the mortals who carry her pitcher. She’s seen it all and laughs at most of it.

If you could introduce one of your characters to any character from another book, who would it be and why?
I think Tess Noncroire—the unbeliever—needs to meet Abbot Maeson, a man of deep faith that is unshaken by the failure of the Church to cure England’s problems.

You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your readers. What would it be?
Open your eyes and your and discover the wonder of a walk through the forest. Absorb the wisdom of the green.

TEN REASONS TO READ WALK THE WILD WITH ME
  • 1) I have read the Magna Carta and examined it as a legal document as well as an historical/cultural manifest
  • 2) Ancient trees don’t truly die, they become nurseries for new trees and shrubs
  • 3) Listening to water chuckle refreshes both mind and body
  • 4) The book is a fun romp through the wildwood
  • 5) You might learn something
  • 6) Nottingham Castle rests upon a series of caves and tunnels.
  • 7) Every crossroad offers a choice that might change your life
  • 8) Shadows may hide villains, but they also conceal the fantastic
  • 9) I love the characters in this book and hope you will too
  • 10)We can escape the real world and play together in Sherwood Forest.
Best date you've ever had?
My first date with the man who became my husband of almost half a century. He took me Scottish Country Dancing. I’m still dancing.

If your life was a song, what would the title be?
“Playmate, come out and play with me.”

If you could go back in time to one point in your life, where would you go?

I have few regrets about choices I’ve made. I’ve learned to live and learn from most of my mistakes. But I think I’d like to go back and observe my parents with grown up perspective and rejoice in the deep love they shared, appreciate the choices they made to stay together and raise a family together despite the difficulties presented by his military career.

What is something you think everyone should do at least once in their lives?
Dance in a fountain and become one with the flow of water.

Where can readers find you?
I’m on Face Book as Phyllis Irene Radford. If you ask me to accept your friend request follow up with a brief message to assure me you aren’t a scammer.

Orphaned when still a toddler, Nicholas Withybeck knows no other home than Locksley Abbey outside Nottingham, England. He works in the Scriptorium embellishing illuminated manuscripts with hidden faces of the Wild Folk and whimsical creatures that he sees every time he ventures into the woods and fields. His curiosity leads him into forbidden nooks and crannies inside, and outside the abbey. He becomes adept at hiding to stay out of trouble.

On one of these forays he slips into the crypt beneath the abbey. There he finds an altar older than the abbey’s foundations, ancient when the Romans occupied England. Behind the bricks around the altar, he finds a palm-sized silver cup. The cup is embellished with the three figures of Elena, the Celtic goddess of crossroads, sorcery, and cemeteries.

He carries the cup with him always. The goddess whispers wisdom in the back of his mind. With Elena in his pocket, Nick can see that the masked dancers on the May Day celebration in the local village are the actual creatures of the wood, The Green Man, Robin Goodfellow, Herne the Huntsman, dryads, trolls, and water sprites, the imaginary faces he’s seen and drawn into the Illuminations.

Over the course of several adventures where Elena guides Nick and keeps him safe, he learns that Little John’s (the Green Man) love has been kidnapped by Queen Mab of the Faeries. The door to the Faery mound will only open when the moons of the two realms align. The time is fast approaching. Nick must release Elena so that she can use sorcery to unlock that door and Nick’s band of friends can try to rescue the girl. Will he have the courage to release her as his predecessor did n
ot?
You can purchase Walk the Wild With Me at the following Retailers:
        

And now, The Giveaways.
Thank you RACHEL ATWOOD for making this giveaway possible.
1 Winner will receive a Copy of Walk the Wild With Me by Rachel Atwood. 
jbnpastinterviews

7 comments:

  1. Lots of different things. I do projects around the house, have friends over for a meal or a game, or veg out in front of the TV.

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  2. When I have a day off I usually cook and bake! Thank you

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  3. "What do you when you have a day off?" Rest and recuperate!

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  4. Put on an audiobook to listen to in the background while doing chores. Then relax with my boo after dinner.

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  5. I'm retired. Every day is a day off! Better to ask, what are you doing different today?

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