Shah Fazli
Edward Eaton, Thanks for joining Spotlight, tell us how was the weather today where you live, and also you may want to tell us if a good or bad weather affects your writing in any way, like it does with going out for a walk?
Edward Eaton Boston today is cloudy and cool. The weather was not bad, but not particularly interesting. Sure the weather interferes with (or at least affects) my writing. I have an 8-year-old son. On really nice days, I sort of have to take him out and let him run around. Can't do much writing that way.
Really? Not particularly. I wrote some stuff in the desert (Oman) I am very proud of. I wrote some stuff in the middle of winter I am equally pleased with. Weather is weather. I still have to work.
Shah Fazli What can you say about your book Rosi's Time for us please?
Edward Eaton Rosi's Time is the second book in the Rosi's Doors series. The first book is the award winning Rosi's Castle (Silver Medal, YA Fantasy Scifi, The Readers Favorite Book Awards). Rosi Carol has discovered her family's secret and is being taught about the responsibilities that come with the power she has. She is also a fifteen year old girl who is perhaps more interested in parties and boys. The bully in the first book becomes a villain and Rosi must stop him from using her power to destroy the town and her family. She does not get a lot of help from the locals, because everyone thinks she is a witch.
Shah Fazli Tell us about the setting of the book, which town and which people does he want to destroy?
Edward Eaton The villain wants to destroy New Richmond, New Hampshire. I made up the town, but it is like small towns everywhere (everyone knows everyone else's business). I put the town in NewHampshire because I live in the Boston area and wanted a New England feel to it. New Hampshire specifically for tax reasons--the families of may of the characters have moved there so they don't have to pay Massachusetts taxes. There is a conflict between the old families, who have lived there for generations, and the new families, who have been there only a handful of years. Between them (and away from them) is Rosi's family, who founded the town in the late 1640s and have been protecting the town and their family ever since. Her ancestors were fleeing Cromwell. I don't want to go too much into the details of that, because that secret (or much of it) is revealed through hints throughout the series. There is a lot of history in the series. I tag it fantasy-scifi and historical fiction.
Shah Fazli What does Rosi do to protect the town and the people, does she fight physically, or uses other supernatural forces?
Edward Eaton She has to fight physically. She also has to convince the townspeople to help her, which is not easy. She has to put it on the line. To make matters worse, she knows how everything is supposed to turn out. Her supernatural power is knowing what is supposed to happen, even if someone has changed the actual outcome (spoilers: Rosi Carol could be a distant relative of Dr. Who's). Her knowledge and memory are not affected by linear time.
Shah Fazli Interesting, describe the villain for us, how does he look like please?
Edward Eaton Hmm. He is 15/16 years old. Longish dirty blond hair. He's good looking, but he has the disadvantage of being the younger brother of the town heart throb and local sports hero. So he physically goes in the opposite direction. He dressed in dark clothes and tries to be an outsider. He is not muscular. Doesn't bathe enough, so his hair is stringy and his complexion spotty. He sneers a lot (unless he is around adults, in which case, he smiles and is very affable). In Book 1, he's a malicious jerk. In Books 2 and 3 he becomes more and more wicked, verging on evil, which makes him a lot more interesting and oddly attractive (like Darth Vader--the closer tot he dark side Annakin goes, the more interesting and, yes, sexy he is).
Shah Fazli Thanks, what do you think is very essential to making your book a real good book, the characters, the story, or the setting of the book?
Edward Eaton I hope all three. Quite a few readers have said that I really nailed the main character (Rosi Carol), and the character relationships develop and change throughout the series. Rosi's Castle is a character-driven book with a paranormal mystery. The characters continue to evolve in the later books, but the books also become more story oriented (and action packed).
Shah Fazli Can you read from your book for us please?
Edward Eaton From Book 2 -- a little longer than you asked for :)
CHAPTER 1
WITH a sigh, Rosi looked at her watch. She hoped no one, or no thing, would see the light green glow.
One o’clock. She was not happy.
Who would leave a fifteen-year-old girl alone in the middle of the woods in the middle of the night?
Even the little bit of light from her watch practically blinded her. She slid the eye patch on her left eye over to her right and saw the woods leap back into vision. She was not sure if she looked silly or dashing wearing an eye patch, but it was great for her night vision. Uncle Richard had thought it a childish affectation, but one of her favorite shows had suggested that it might be effective, so she had given it a try. Chalk up another one for the educational potential of television
Her knees were stiff and it was getting positively chilly. She had spent so much time in this cramped hunting blind in the old gnarly tree, she was not sure if she would ever be able to straighten up. She tried to straighten her legs, but simply was not flexible enough.
For the umpteenth time, she checked her thermos. For the umpteenth time, she discovered that it was still empty of hot chocolate. For the umpteenth time, she told herself that she should not have drunk it all in the first half hour she was here.
She shook the thermos just to be sure, as she had done each preceding time. She even held it upside down on the off chance a drop might appear.
She must be going crazy. Benjamin Franklin once said that insanity is doing something over and over again expecting a different outcome. Of course, some people said it was Einstein, but Rosi had heard it straight from the horse’s mouth, as it were.
Of course, she could not tell anyone that, or they would think she was crazy and lock her up.
Irrationally, she dragged her finger along the sandwich bags for crumbs from her ham sandwich, her warm pretzel, her chips, and her lettuce. Nothing. She even licked the plastic pudding container, but to no avail.
Perhaps she should not have eaten her snack with her hot chocolate.
Perhaps Uncle Richard should not have left her alone this time. He had lamely explained that the blind was not big enough for the two of them. She was not happy about the lack of help, but, as Uncle Richard pointed out, he had his own work to do.
I’ll bet you do, old man, Rosi thought, scowling to herself. She had followed Uncle Richard one night and watched him hobnob with great lords and flirt with their wives. He was probably eating pastries in the pursuit of an Antique Chippendale Secretary, while she was stuck in a large tree at the edge of a steep run with no snack and only a thin jeans jacket to keep her from shivering.
“What if I get eaten?” she had protested when saw the drawing of what she was supposed to catch. Uncle Richard had simply replied that Guardians were not supposed to interfere with each other.
Rosi felt that she had interfered quite a bit these last few weeks, even if Uncle Richard called it training. She had saved his life just a month before when they had been ambushed during a minor war. A war, Rosi had to admit, she had started. She did not think it fair that she had to take all the blame. That woman should have been able to keep hold of her own jewelry. How was Rosi supposed to know that the woman was Mumtaz Mahal and that her jewelry was the Koh-i-Noor?
Shah Fazli Do you have a certain dress code for your characters, do they have to carry swords, guns, or any other weapon with them?
Edward Eaton They dress like teenagers. Rosi, the heroine, is pretty and has money, so she dressed quite nicely (she likes to show off). Angie, her best friend is somewhat frumpy. Andy, Angie'sboyfriend is nerdy and dresses it. Kirk, the bad guy, dresses down. In Book 2, Rosi is dressed much like a young man -- she comments that she feels like a doll. There are a couple of times when exactly what Rosi is wearing makes a difference, but then it is a clue as to the nature of the mystery in Book 1.
By and large, in Book 1, they go unarmed. In Book 2, Rosi is armed (sword and pistol -- specifically, a .50 caliber). Kirk carries a knife and a pistol.
Shah Fazli What else can you say about Rosi's Time please?
Edward Eaton Well, it is an exciting book. There is a lot of action and even a fair amount of violence. The violence is intended to be realistic and fairly gritty. People get hurt and stay hurt (some characters even die). There are no easy answers for the characters. Rosi has to make some uncomfortable decisions and they don't always turn out for the best. Some of the decisions she makes and the actions she takes are not all that much different than those made by Kirk and her other enemies. Her intentions are, perhaps, different. Her methods are sometimes questionable.
Shah Fazli Give us your particular tips on writing please?
Edward Eaton Writing is a job. It should be treated like one. (It may be a part-time job, but so be it). That is, write. Writers write. They don't spend a lot of time talking about writing. They write. I make sure I work on my piece every day. When I can, I schedule time. When I can't, I find time. I treat writing like a job (and a career) and I insist that my family and friends do so as well (there is a tendency that unless you are making lots of money from writing for everyone else to treat it like a hobby).
Shah Fazli Thank you for giving us the pleasure. See you soon in the near future.
Visit:
http://shahsightshop.blogspot.de/2012/09/rosis-time-edward-eaton.html
ShahSight Literary Book Shop: Rosi's Time - Edward Eatonshahsightshop.blogspot.com
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Edward Eaton It was fun. Thank you. Ted out.
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