Date Published: November 2011
Synopsis:
"Drawn into the
schemes of an angry wizard, Carin glimpses the place she once called home. It
lies upon a shore that seems unreachable. To learn where she belongs and how to
get there, the teenage traveler must decipher the words of an alien book, follow
the clues in a bewitched poem, conjure a dragon from a pool of magic -- and
tread carefully around a seductive but volatile, emotionally scarred sorcerer
who can't seem to decide whether to love her or kill her."
Review:
I absolutely loved The Warlock. It was extremely intriguing and wonderfully written. The descriptions/details were vivid and imaginative. The charcters were fun and interesting. I was hooked right away and loved that I couldnt predict what was to come next. The only thing that I didnt like was the cliffhanger ending! Im not a cliffhanger fan at all, however I enjoyed this beautiful book enough that I can't wait to read more.
5 out of 5 stars! Highly recommend to young adults and older- especially to anyone who loves fantasy and Lewis Caroll!
Author Bio:
Castles in the cornfield provided the setting for Deborah J. Lightfoot’s earliest flights of fancy. On her father’s farm in West Texas, she grew up reading extraordinary tales of adventure and reenacting them behind tall ramparts of sun-drenched corn. She left the farm to earn a bachelor of science degree in journalism and write award-winning books of history and biography, including The LH7 Ranch (University of North Texas Press) and Trail Fever (William Morrow, New York). High on her Bucket List was the desire to try her hand at the genre she most admired. The result is WATERSPELL, a complex, intricately detailed fantasy that begins with Book 1: The Warlock and Book 2: The Wysard, and concludes (for the present) with Book 3: The Wisewoman. But a legal pad filled with notes and tucked away in a desk drawer suggests a possible Book 4 before the saga may fairly be said to be finished.
Deborah is a professional member of The Authors Guild. She and her husband live in the country south of Fort Worth, Texas. Find her online at
www.waterspell.net.
FACEBOOK
Q & A with author Deborah J. Lightfoot
Hi
Deborah, Thank you so much for interviewing with me today.
Thank you,
Brianne, for hosting
this stop on my book
tour and for the great interview questions!
Can
you tell us a little about yourself?
I’m a country girl.
Grew up on a farm in West Texas and studied journalism at a land-grant
university. Except for a brief
time right after
college, I’ve never lived in a city. My husband and I have a few acres outside
town, close enough to drive in for shopping but far enough away to feel rural.
About the only time I willingly become part of a crowd is during the State Fair
of Texas!
What
inspired you to be an author?
Growing up in a
semi-isolated rural environment, I read a lot. Books brought me the world. And
more. In the pages of books I toured distant galaxies and traveled through time.
The first book I bought with my own money was Daybreak
2250
A.D. by
Andre Norton. Cover price: 60 cents. I
loved Norton’s science-fiction
and
fantasy novels but also
devoured classics like Treasure
Island, Kidnapped, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre,
Wuthering Heights, all things Poe, and
of course The
Lord of the Rings.
In college I majored
in wildlife science and didn’t make the switch to journalism until my junior
year. My first job after graduation was as a copyeditor for a
Texas newspaper. It took me a while to work up the courage to try my hand at the
genre I most admired: fantasy. I really wanted to write an intricate,
multilayered trilogy. The three books of
WATERSPELL took me more than a decade. I had to re-educate myself as a
writer.
What
do you do when you're not writing?
I make my living as
an editor for a national nonprofit organization, working on
projects
that tend to be long and complicated. They take
serious concentration and attention to
detail. To rest my
work-bruised brain, I like long
walks in the woods. I’ve been on nearly
every
hiking trail in every nature preserve or state
park
within driving distance. Most times, I
take along a camera.
Nature photography is a hobby. Not that I’m particularly skilled at it, but I
enjoy capturing the great outdoors in pictures. You can see a
couple of shots from the Big
Thicket of East Texas on my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/Waterspell
My husband and I
like to travel to beautiful places
in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and England. We also like movies
when we can find time to watch.
What
project are you working on now?
My work in progress
is called “Out of Mind.” It’s a story of the paranormal set in the American West
of the far future. Eventually, too, there may be a WATERSPELL Book 4. I’m
mulling over the threads from the trilogy that could weave a framework for a
fourth book.
What
is the
best
writing advice you can give?
JUST WRITE IT! I
can’t tell you how much time I wasted, tinkering with Chapter One of Book One.
Looking back on it, I see how the editorial half of my mind kept intruding itself into the
creative
process. A rough
draft should be just that: Rough. But my editor mindset kept wanting to polish
up the draft. I was tripping over myself at the beginning. But finally I forced
myself to move ahead. For me, “Just
Write It” meant finishing Book One, then Two, and
eventually Three. THEN came the time
to go back through and
give the whole saga a deep, detailed, painstaking edit.
I’ve known
other writers who got
hung up on Page One of Chapter One. They
kept worrying that they weren’t doing it “right.” Over time, I’ve come to
realize
that the first draft doesn’t need to be anywhere NEAR right. The important thing
is to write the story. Just
capture the idea. The words of the first draft may be only a rough
approximation. That’s fine! It’s only possible to rewrite and revise a book that
EXISTS, however roughly. A book that doesn’t yet exist because the writer can’t
manage to “Just Write It” is a book with no future.
What
is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Blue Bell’s Banana
Split: sliced bananas,
crushed pineapple, diced maraschino cherries and roasted almonds in vanilla ice cream
with strawberry sauce and chocolate sundae sauce. To die
for!!!
Thanks, Brianne, for a fun
interview.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
DISCLOSURE –
*Disclosure of Material Connection: I am a member of Reading Addiction Blog Tours and a copy of this book was provided to me by the author. Although payment may have been received by Reading Addiction Blog Tours, no payment was received by me in exchange for this review. There was no obligation to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own and may not necessarily agree with those of the author, publisher, publicist, or readers of this review. This disclosure is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commision’s 16 CFR, Part 255, Guides Concerning Use of Endorcements and Testimonials in Advertising*
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