Today I’m hosting author Joni Parker and she was kind enough to write a guest post about what inspired her to write her latest novel, The Blue Witch. Check it out!

After decades of absence, my muse came to visit and forced me to write or go crazy.  I wanted to remain sane, so I started writing.  I sat down at my computer and wrote until I had drafts of ten books.  Once my muse gave me a recess, I organized the books and divided them into series.  The first series, already published, was called “The Seaward Isle Saga” and the second one became “The Chronicles of Eledon.”  Eledon is the name I created for the world the Elves live in.

The ultimate goal of the second series is for my main character, Alex, to fix the structural problem with Seaward Isle.  It’ll take her four books.  In the first book, “Spell Breaker,” Alex gets off Seaward Isle and moves to Eledon where she can fix the problem if she can only figure out how.  As I wrote the book, I knew Alex was getting into a lot of hot water and could have a problem.  At the end, I came to a stop.  She could stay on Seaward Isle and hide; she could remain in Eledon and face the consequences, or she could run away.  The most realistic scenario for an impulsive sixteen-year-old was to run.  The question was to where?

My favorite choice was Camelot.  I’d always loved everything about King Arthur.  I also was fascinated by recent discoveries that not only suggested he existed but was a Roman soldier, living in the 400 A.D. timeframe.  In addition, I found a possible burial place for him was in Glastonbury, England.  So, when I got to the end of “Spell Breaker,” it was a no-brainer.  Alex was going to meet King Arthur.

Fortunately, Alex’s story meshed perfectly with the Arthurian legend, at least for a while.  Alex is falsely accused of helping the Celts in their rebellion against the King and is thrown into prison.  With the help of the rebels, she escapes.  In order to obtain a pardon as well as a reward, she joins the quest for the Holy Grail.  None of Arthur’s knights have been able to locate it in the mortal world, but Alex has an idea it could be in Eledon.  With help from the Elves, she returns and begins her search.

Her return is crucial for the series.  She can only fix the problem in Eledon and nowhere else.  With each book, she’ll take a step forward.  The next book is called, “Gossamer” and is in the editing process.  The last book is “Noble Magic.”  I hope you’ll stay tuned—it’s going to be fun.

About the Book

Title: The Blue Witch

Author: Joni Parker

Genre: Fantasy

Under the rule of King Arthur, Alex finds the mortal world far from what she’d imagined, and the mortals are less than hospitable.  Accused of being the “Blue Witch,” Alex is sentenced to die for treason and has been implicated in the mysterious death of one of Arthur’s noblemen by seemingly magical means.  With help from unexpected sources, she escapes and returns to Eledon, where civil unrest and the threat of war looms.  Alex resumes her responsibilities as Keeper of the Keys for the Council of Elders, but must execute a series of quests to prove her abilities to handle the magical Keys of Eledon.  But are her efforts enough to save the Elves from Civil War? And can she commute her own death sentence by finding the Holy Grail?

About the author

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Joni’s a city-girl, raised in the heart of the city.  So, when her first grade class took a field trip to the Museum of Science and Technology, she was fascinated by the chicken farm where there were live chickens and chicks hatching from eggs under a light.  Like the other students in class, she wrote a report, but hers was selected to be in the school newspaper.  Her first published article!  Joni’s writing continued with short stories until the eighth grade in Phoenix, Arizona when she won second prize in a short story contest and an honorable mention for a poem.  After that, she developed a writer’s block and couldn’t write another short story or poem for the next 45 years.  Talk about a writer’s block!  Now, it seems she can’t stop writing and has retired from work to write.  “The Blue Witch” is her fifth published novel and the second book in “The Chronicles of Eledon” series.

Links

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IIGMVWW/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_DLOIxbPY2HQV9#nav-subnav

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJoniParker

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7191836.Joni_Parker

Google Plus:  https://plus.google.com/u/0/+JoniParker/posts

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ParkerJoni

Website/blog:  http://www.theblackelf.com

Book Trailer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teYsqOs0yjI&feature=autoplay&list=HL1343068571&playnext=3

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