I enjoy interviewing authors as I often get to ask what prompts them to write a story. Some of the typical responses I've heard over the years are they use writing prompts such as;
What talents do you possess and how do you use them?
Who inspired you or what inspires you and why?
What have you, or someone close to you, faced, that you/ they would not want to face again?
Reflect on a memory you hold dear and share how has affected you and those close to you.
Well, a while back I interviewed Joanne Pence and thought it worth sharing how she came up with a foundation for her Ancient Secrets series.
Joanne is an award-winning, USA Today best-selling author of the Angie Amalfi and Rebecca Mayfield mysteries as well as historical fiction, contemporary romance, romantic suspense, fantasy, and supernatural suspense. Her novels present a variety of times, places, and reading experiences from mysterious to thrilling, emotional to lightly humorous, as well as powerful tales of times long past.
During my interview, I asked Joanne, how did you get the idea to write the Ancient Secrets series? I felt her process in writing the book series was enlightening.
Joanne responded; "I’ve written mysteries for many years, but I’ve always loved dark stories with supernatural and occult elements, so I decided to try writing such a book (and discovered that writing such stories differ greatly from writing mysteries). As a new resident of Idaho, I wanted to include something about the state and its history. The state is beautiful, but with large roadless areas that are extremely rugged. The explorers Lewis and Clark are well known throughout the Pacific Northwest, and many parts of Idaho mark their trail. I thought … what if there was a “secret expedition” following Lewis and Clark, and they vanished in the middle of Idaho, along the treacherous Salmon River which is known as “the River of No Return.” And, what if a group of university students, today, go to the same area and they vanish? What’s happening in the middle of Idaho?
Then, one day, I was going through a local used bookstore and I came across a strange book that reprinted the words of Nicholas Flamel, a French alchemist (yes, he was mentioned in the Harry Potter stories), who claimed to find a book called The Book of Abraham the Jew that told him how to create gold. That find began my interest in alchemy.
I put the two together, and the result is Ancient Echoes, which begins in Mongolia and Israel, and then moves to Idaho.
After writing that book, I decided to continue with my main character, Michael Rempart, an archeologist. I’ve always been fascinated by tales of the “Old Silk Road” that crossed most of Asia into China. Marco Polo used it. Added to that, I learned of an ancient Chinese story about a goddess who was insulted by an emperor who, when he saw a beautiful statue of her, was more than a little risqué in his comments. She turned into a demon in the guise of a woman to “get even.” It’s a fascinating story. Throw in alchemy, and the result is Ancient Shadows. I now had a series.
Book 3 has Michael Rempart facing a different sort of demon in his family’s history, plus a journey to Japan spurred on by the ghost stories of a century-old writer named Lafcadio Hearn. In Ancient Illusions, the reader learns a lot more about Michael, his family, and why he is the way he is."
This weeks Top 10 Audience is from
The United States, Ukraine, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Sweden, and Portugal.
Reflect on a memory you hold dear and share how has affected you and those close to you.
Well, a while back I interviewed Joanne Pence and thought it worth sharing how she came up with a foundation for her Ancient Secrets series.
Joanne is an award-winning, USA Today best-selling author of the Angie Amalfi and Rebecca Mayfield mysteries as well as historical fiction, contemporary romance, romantic suspense, fantasy, and supernatural suspense. Her novels present a variety of times, places, and reading experiences from mysterious to thrilling, emotional to lightly humorous, as well as powerful tales of times long past.
During my interview, I asked Joanne, how did you get the idea to write the Ancient Secrets series? I felt her process in writing the book series was enlightening.
Joanne responded; "I’ve written mysteries for many years, but I’ve always loved dark stories with supernatural and occult elements, so I decided to try writing such a book (and discovered that writing such stories differ greatly from writing mysteries). As a new resident of Idaho, I wanted to include something about the state and its history. The state is beautiful, but with large roadless areas that are extremely rugged. The explorers Lewis and Clark are well known throughout the Pacific Northwest, and many parts of Idaho mark their trail. I thought … what if there was a “secret expedition” following Lewis and Clark, and they vanished in the middle of Idaho, along the treacherous Salmon River which is known as “the River of No Return.” And, what if a group of university students, today, go to the same area and they vanish? What’s happening in the middle of Idaho?
Then, one day, I was going through a local used bookstore and I came across a strange book that reprinted the words of Nicholas Flamel, a French alchemist (yes, he was mentioned in the Harry Potter stories), who claimed to find a book called The Book of Abraham the Jew that told him how to create gold. That find began my interest in alchemy.
I put the two together, and the result is Ancient Echoes, which begins in Mongolia and Israel, and then moves to Idaho.
After writing that book, I decided to continue with my main character, Michael Rempart, an archeologist. I’ve always been fascinated by tales of the “Old Silk Road” that crossed most of Asia into China. Marco Polo used it. Added to that, I learned of an ancient Chinese story about a goddess who was insulted by an emperor who, when he saw a beautiful statue of her, was more than a little risqué in his comments. She turned into a demon in the guise of a woman to “get even.” It’s a fascinating story. Throw in alchemy, and the result is Ancient Shadows. I now had a series.
Book 3 has Michael Rempart facing a different sort of demon in his family’s history, plus a journey to Japan spurred on by the ghost stories of a century-old writer named Lafcadio Hearn. In Ancient Illusions, the reader learns a lot more about Michael, his family, and why he is the way he is."
This weeks Top 10 Audience is from
The United States, Ukraine, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Sweden, and Portugal.