Tori L. Ridgewood’s new book Wind
and Shadow: Book One of the Talbot Trilogy, published by Melange Books,
was released on June 20, 2013.
After a series of misadventures including being accused of attempted murder in
high school, Rayvin Woods, a photographer and natural witch, left her hometown
of Talbot in Northeastern Ontario, hoping to start her life over and never
return. Ten years later, circumstances force her back to face her past and her
former crush Grant Michaels.
Malcolm de Sade, a cunning vampire, escapes from an underground prison looking
for vengeance. His accidental release unleashes his hunger and ambition on a
small, sleepy town. Rayvin’s power is all that stands between de Sade and his
domination of Talbot, and beyond.
Grant Michaels, a police officer, thought Rayvin was a murderer. He will do
whatever it takes to protect the community he loves from danger... but will he
learn to trust his heart, and the word of a witch, before it's too late?
Rayvin didn't count on rekindling a lost love or battling a malevolent vampire
and his coven for her life when she came home to Talbot. Facing the past can be
a nightmare… It’s worse when a vampire is stalking you.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ToriLRidgewood
Website: http://torilridgewood.wordpress.com/
Tori has joined us for an interview:
Welcome Tori:
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
It’s always just been there. I have journals from my childhood
in which I was writing stories, and I remember being determined, at age twelve,
to get my first book published. It just took longer than I realized . . .
Twenty-four years longer!
How many jobs did you have before you became a writer?
I’ve been a teacher for twelve years, and it’s still my primary
occupation. Prior to getting my teaching certification, while I was in
university, I worked at a variety of part-time jobs: I was a server with a
catering company, demonstrated perfume at a department store, dressed in
full-body animal costumes and delivered singing telegrams, stocked shelves at
another department store, attempted a brief stint as a barista, and (my
favourites), divided my time between coordinating volunteers and a summer day
camp at a community museum, and logging their artifacts on their new computer
system. The last job I had before becoming a teacher was coordinating children’s
summer programming at a series of satellite libraries in rural southeastern
Ontario.
How long does it take you to write a book?
I have discovered that I can write a novel in eight weeks, but
up to the present, that time has been divided up over a series of months, or
even years. Wind and Shadow took me
seven years to develop, from the time that my daughter was an infant until she
was well into school, but its sequel, Blood
and Fire, only took two months: November 2011 and November 2012. I have to give
partial credit to National Novel Writing Month for giving me the impetus to
finish the second book quickly, as well as my writer friends for their
encouragement. My goal this winter is to write the third book in the trilogy, Crystal and Wand, within six to eight
weeks.
What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?
I am a night owl! It’s a curse, really. I do my best writing in
the dark of night, when the house is still and the family is abed, when there
is nothing to distract me on TV, the phone doesn’t ring, and not even cars
passing to attract my attention. Unfortunately, writing until two or three in
the morning does not leave me rested for the classroom the next day, let alone
getting my children out the door, so I have to work in short bursts and then
catch up on my sleep when the weeks of writing are done.
Where do you get your ideas or inspiration for your
characters?
I start with someone I admire, either in real life or from
fiction (film or written text), and I think about different ways to look at
them. What if I changed her background? How would he act if he were in a
different job? Or, I look at decisions an individual has made, and consider
whether they’d made a different choice, and why. I love playing “what-if”, and
writing responses on characters others have created.
How do you decide what you want to write about?
I usually start by looking at the purpose of the piece, and the
target audience. I also look at settings with which I’m familiar, so I can
write about them knowledgeably. For example, when a call went out for a
Hallowe’en-themed anthology of short romances, I was able to come up with a
plot fairly easily by drawing on local legends about our town’s museum, and my
own love for the romance genre and its elements. The end result, “Telltale
Signs”, was a satisfyingly chilling ghost story with a very romantic theme.
I also like to pay homage to my favourite fiction, and write
alternative stories to those I’ve enjoyed and/or critiqued. Some of the Talbot
Trilogy is a response to The Twilight Saga, and parts are love letters to
vampire creators like Stephen King, Anne Rice, and John Carpenter.
What books have most influenced your life?
It’s a long list. The first chapter novel I read by myself was The Blue Sword, the fantasy by Robin
McKinley. I still love the strong female lead, Harry, and I recently had to
retire my paperback as it was so worn out the cover fell off and I lost several
pages. Both Little House on the Prairie and
Anne of Green Gables series were
favourites when I was growing up, as well -- I learned a lot from the way that
Wilder and Montgomery write descriptions, dialogue, and plot. After discovering
Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot, I
devoured Firestarter, Christine, the Tommyknockers, and The
Shining. I loved how he broke the rules, it absolutely captivated me.
So many books have made an impression on me in some way, whether
by presenting questions about human nature, demonstrating literary technique,
alternative philosophies about life . . . That
Scatterbrained Booky, Ramona, Calico Captive, Gone with the Wind, the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules
Verne, Outlander, Dracula, The Phantom of the Opera, Cloud
Atlas, Harry Potter, The Road,
the works of Robert Heinlein, Tolkien, The
Dark is Rising, The Secret Garden,
A Little Princess, and my collections of fairy / wonder
tales. And I have found that re-reading books from my childhood, like Green Gables, opens me to whole new
worlds of meaning.
What are you reading right now?
I’m currently enjoying a graphic novel, I am GooGol, by Bobby Nash and Rodrigo de Castro. My list of TBR
has more than fifty books on it! Up next is going to be Hearts in Exile, by Mysti Parker, and then The Sovereign Order of Monte Cristo: And the Newly Discovered
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Holy Ghost Writer.
What do you like to do when you are not writing?
I am a movie buff, and I like doing handicrafts like
cross-stitch, small quilting projects, embroidery, and appliqué. In summer, I
like trying to garden (sadly, the flowers and veggies are often better off
without my well-intended interference), and mowing my lawn while listening to
an eclectic mix of rock, alternative, and pop music. I don’t mind shoveling
snow in the winter, at least until February, again with my tunes turned up. I
enjoy walking my dog, making rolled beeswax candles, and talking to far-away
friends and family online. I enjoy board games and puzzles (both real and
virtual), and occasionally, picking out songs on the piano.
What is your favorite comfort food?
Chocolate. With pastry, definitely. Pastry drizzled with
chocolate, stuffed with whipped cream.
What do you think makes a good story?
Characters that are well-rounded and identifiable -- when you
can tell that there is a back story just itching to be told from the little
clues dropped here and there. That’s a must. I also like a plot with at least
one twist. While a predictable plot can be comforting, it’s attractive and
impressive when the author presents something I didn’t see coming. Accuracy of
detail in setting and other descriptions is also important. Unless the story is
set in an alternate universe, anachronisms drive me nuts because I just want to
correct them.
Fun random questions:
·
dogs or cats?
I am allergic to cats, though I think they’re wonderful. I can’t
seem to bring myself to get regular shots to allow me to have one, though. I
also seem to be allergic to many dogs, but my body is happy around my mixed
breed Skittles.
·
Coffee or tea?
Tea, preferably Tetley Tea’s orange pekoe or a tasty loose-leaf
blend. Technically I’m not supposed to have coffee, as the caffeine content
makes me anxious, but I occasionally enjoy a small French Vanilla from Tim
Horton’s.
·
Dark or milk chocolate?
Milk chocolate, always. Unless the dark has almonds or mint in
it.
·
Rocks or flowers?
I think I actually like rocks better. I like flowers, and admire
lush gardens, but I’m not very good at planting, weeding, or caring for
vegetation. But rocks look beautiful in sun or snow, glistening under rain or
meltwater and outlined in lichens and moss. Of course, I live on the Canadian
Shield, and spent three of my formative years hiking along rock faces, driving
along highways cut through limestone, granite, and others that I can’t remember
the names of right now, surrounded by their ancient, immovable grandeur. I
guess that settles it -- I like rocks!
·
Night or day?
Night. Ah, the stars, the moon, the shadows . . . “Music of the
Night” from Phantom is one of my
favourite lullabies.
·
Favorite color?
Right now, it’s purple, but I also enjoy red. They’re the
colours of energy, life, passion, and inspiration.
·
Crayons or markers?
I like crayons better, in spite of their tendency to break.
Markers run dry, leak, lose their caps, cause stains, and are generally
untrustworthy even though their shades are initially bright and solid. Crayons
can be melted between sheets of wax for beautiful artwork, or fused with other
broken bits to make new colouring sticks. You can rub them sideways to get
impressions from raised surfaces, like grave markers or fashion plates. They
smell good. And, in a pinch, you can eat them!
·
Pens or pencils?
Pens, definitely. No worries about sharpening, finding an
eraser, or dealing with a broken lead. I’d love to get a really nice feather
pen, with a real quill and an ink well. A few years ago, I taught my grade 9
Academic English classes how to carve quill nibs using small knives, so they
could produce their original sonnets as calligraphy. Pens are wonderful things.
Thank
you so much for having me on the Wormhole!
More about Tori:
After her first heartbreak, Tori found solace in two things:
reading romance novels and listening to an after-dark radio program called
Lovers and Other Strangers. Throughout the summer and fall of 1990, the new kid
in town found reading fiction and writing her own short stories gave her a much
needed creative outlet. Determined to become a published author, Tori amassed
stacks of notebooks and boxes of filed-away stories, most only half-finished
before another idea would overtake her and demand to be written down. Then,
while on parental leave with her second baby, one story formed and refused to
be packed away. Between teaching full-time, parenting, and life in general, it
would take almost seven years before the first novel in her first trilogy would
be completed. In the process, Tori finally found her stride as a writer.
At present, on her off-time, Tori not only enjoys reading,
but also listening to an eclectic mix of music as she walks the family dog
(Skittles), attempts to turn her thumb green, or makes needlework gifts for her
friends and family members. She loves to travel, collect and make miniature
furniture, and a good cup of tea during a thunderstorm or a blizzard. Under it
all, she is always intrigued by history, the supernatural, vampire and
shapeshifter mythology, romance, and other dangers.
Tori L. Ridgewood’s new book Wind and Shadow: Book One of
the Talbot Trilogy, published by Melange Books, was released on June 20, 2013.
For more information, visit http://torilridgewood.wordpress.com/.
Giveaway: 1 ebook - kindle version of Wind and Shadow Book 1 - - - randomly chosen commenter (please include email).
Susan Kaye Quinn grew up in California, where she wrote snippets of stories and passed them to her friends during class. Her teachers pretended not to notice and only confiscated her stories a couple times.
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