Winding Ways, Dark Secrets, and Dwarf Duels, Oh My!

Happy New Year! Time to start fresh, energized, and, um, unload dark secrets?

In Part Seven of the Rise of the Grigori Beneath-the-Surface series I’ve got my most favourite author interview I’ve ever done in my life. Mary from Kit’n’Kabookle came up with some seriously fun questions—including a behind-the-scenes moment from Calandra’s past that’s not in the series itself.

Read on for a real treat!

A mermaid at rest. Image by Abhijeet Gourav, courtesy of Unsplash.

What inspired you to become a writer?

“I took a hard look at my goals and realized I no longer dreamed of being a songwriter. I wanted to tell stories another way—through fiction.”

— Talena Winters

In one sense, I’ve been writing my whole life. However, even though I wrote a few stories while I was in school, my passion was songwriting. I went to college for composition and jazz piano. While there, I became besties with my roommate, a vocalist and fellow composer, and we wrote most of a full-length musical which we finished over the decade after college (between marriage and little kids and moving, etc.).

It wasn’t until after my kids were old enough that I could consider firing up my career again that I took a hard look at my goals and realized I no longer dreamed of being a songwriter, but that I wanted to tell stories another way—through fiction. There were many steps along the way to get to that point, and it took five years after getting the idea that made me want to learn to write fiction for me to publish anything. Four years after that, I published The Undine’s Tear, my third novel, which was the fruition of that idea that started it all. By then, I was all-in as an author.

Never say never as far as future career shifts, but I’m pretty sure I’ve figured out what I want to be when I grow up.

If you could visit your book’s world for a day, what one thing would you do?

Go sight-seeing! The undines live on a gorgeous island filled with interesting architecture and scenery. While the landscape is based loosely on the island of Kauai (which I’d also like to visit), the architecture is mostly ancient Greek-inspired. I’d especially love to get a tour of the Opal Palace. In my head, it’s breathtaking.

It’s two in the morning. What does your protagonist reveal in confidence? (Don’t worry, we won’t tell.)

My protagonist, Calandra, doesn’t have too many deep, dark secrets, at least at the beginning of the series. (To find out which ones she collects as she goes through, you’ll have to read the book. ;-D) She’s always striven to do her best and meet the expectations that have been placed on her. (A real goody two-shoes!) But she does have a certain rebellious streak, stemming in part from having insomnia and being a super-powerful healer (mage) from a young age, which means she’s developed a knack for tricking the palace guards so she can sneak by them and wander around the palace in the middle of the night. And yes, this does occasionally get her in trouble.

After the opening incident in the book, she repents of her troublesome ways for many years. But before that, she would usually rope her best friend, a siren cadet named Tanni, into her nighttime adventures. Since Calandra’s Tear (the broken opal pendant left behind for her by her mother) has a shielding effect against the siren guard’s sensate abilities, which they tend to depend on, she got away with a lot.

Once when she was twelve, she and Tanni, who was thirteen, sneaked into the douloi’s quarters (douloi are enslaved human men-servants) to hide from a passing palace guard. One of the douloi woke up—a boy of about fourteen who worked in the palace kitchens, and who had only been mind-enslaved (aka “Redeemed”) for two years.

“Most men that young were born on Sirenia, but this young man had been brought in on a ship during the Harvest.”

Tanni wanted to just tell him to go back to sleep and never tell anyone they were there, then sneak back to their dormitories. Unless his bondmistress had questioned him directly, this would have been enough to ensure his silence. But Calandra, ever the curious one and looking for a little excitement, started asking him questions about his upbringing. Most men that young were born on Sirenia, but this young man had been brought in on a ship during the Harvest, and she wanted to know all about where he was from.

She and Tanni kept the doulos up talking for two hours before a very sleepy Tanni finally dragged Calandra away. They ordered the boy not to tell anyone about them being there. The next day, Calandra went to the kitchens to check on him and saw the boy stumbling over his sandals in the kitchen, he was so tired. The cook—a human woman—got annoyed, but when she questioned him, of course, he couldn’t tell her why he was slow and clumsy. Calandra told the cook that he was ill, she could sense it. So the cook sent him to the physic, who couldn’t sense anything wrong with him. He was prescribed an afternoon nap and nothing more came of it.

But even though Calandra and Tanni shared a good giggle over it later, she always felt bad that she’d done that. It didn’t seem right to hurt someone who couldn’t do anything about it and wasn’t responsible for his own choices just because she could. And she promised herself she’d never do it again.

Which of your characters would you go out for drinks with?

Many of the characters in this book are children or teenagers, so… yeah. But I would definitely love to have a conversation with Thea, the panacea healer and mentor who raised Calandra. She’s got a quiet strength that I admire, she doesn’t feel the need to flaunt her wisdom—though she’s wise enough to know when to speak up—and she quietly rebelled against her society’s highest taboo for forty-five years before anyone cottoned on, just because she knew it was the right thing to do.

Not only was she an amazing character to write, she’s the kind of woman I love to learn from in real life. I hope to be a tenth that wise someday.

You’re in a tavern, and a dwarf challenges you to a duel. What do you do?

Start questioning my life choices. :-)

Then I’d probably offer to buy him a drink so we could talk it out. I’m a lover, not a fighter. (At the bottom of my homepage, I’ve had this saying for many years, which sums up my conflict philosophy: Make tea, not war.)

Is there a genre you could never write? Which and why?

There aren’t many, as I love exploring and writing in new genres. (I’ve already got four under my belt, and counting.) However, while I’ve come to have a certain appreciation for why people like slasher horror, I couldn’t write it. I hate gore for gore’s sake, and I have enough bad dreams as it is. I abstain to protect my sleep, essentially.

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In this series:

Part One: Introducing the Rise of the Grigori series

Part Two: Where the idea for this series came from

Part Three: Author Interview and a peek beneath Calandra’s bed

Part Four: Narcissa gives us the low-down on Calandra’s true colours

Part Five: The Seed Ideas that became the fantasy world for Rise of the Grigori

Part Six: The Story Behind the Name (What’s an Undine’s Tear?)