Elisabeth Wheatley has kindly
agreed to guest post here about her work, and share her inspiration for
becoming a writer in honor of her newest release, The Secrets of the Vanmars.
Happy reading until next time!
Read more >>
About The Author:
Elisabeth Wheatley started writing very short (and rather silly) stories when she was around six. She became a voracious reader and after being practically forced by her cousins to watch Disney's version of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," she developed a chronic passion for fantasy.
Elisabeth eventually went to work on what would become "The Key of Amatahns" when she was eleven. "The Key of Amatahns" is the first in the seven-book series, "Argetallam Saga."
When she isn't spellbound by reading fantasy books and writing her own, Elisabeth trains and shows her Jack Russell Terrier, Schnay, makes goat cheese, and studies mythology.
Guest Post:
What was
your inspiration to write?
I have always been inspired by my own
experiences, people I meet, things I see on TV, and read or hear about. The muse
for the newly introduced character Lady Gwenna was originally Guinevere from
the Arthurian legends (yes, my character became drastically different, to say
the least). I draw inspiration from everything, usually single lines from
movies or books that expand and grow into entire stories. For example, the line
in Transformers where Optimus Prime
says to Megatron, “You left me no choice, brother,” was partly the inspiration
for the hate/love/hate relationship between Janir and her brother, Lucan.
What made me decide to start scribbling out a
story? What gave me that infectious idea? I can’t say I’m sure, but here’s what
happened:
When I was about five or six, family friends gave
me a picture book, Corgiville Fair by
Tasha Tudor. It is the story of a corgi, Caleb, who is preparing his racing
goat, Josephine, for the upcoming race in the town’s fair. I loved that book to
bits (literally) and practically wanted to live in it. I had a pet goat at the
time, Count, and so I wrote a piece of fan-fiction with my goat Count instead
of Josephine and my dog Beauty instead of Caleb and (because I was transfixed
by show jumping at the time) made it a show jumping competition instead of a
race.
The “book” that resulted was written and
illustrated in graphite pencil and held together with duct tape. We still have
it—it’s just too funny-looking to throw away.
After that I wrote some ridiculous Narnia
fan-fiction that I am determined shall never see the light of day and a few
other silly stories.
About six years ago, I was visiting another
girl’s house for a mother-daughter “girl’s night in” party and I found out that
one of the other girls had an imaginary world. This other girl and her friend
were artists (very good, I must say) and they would draw and paint the characters
from their imaginary world, but they didn’t really write down the stories that
went with their characters. I suggested that they should write them down and I
thought the other girl blew me off. So, immature thing that I was, I determined
that evening to construct my own imaginary world from scratch and write the
story to go with it.
For a number of years I toyed with various ideas
for my own, original realm, not really taking it seriously until the winter
after I turned fourteen. During those few years I was inspired by just about
everything I liked in every story I liked and my writing was very copy-cat. I
re-wrote innumerable beginnings for the story to go with
my world. The only thing that has remained constant is the age, appearance, and
gender of the main character, Janir. Her name even changed once or twice until
I happily settled.
Around the late part of 2009 and the early part
of 2010, I started working on what would become The Key of Amatahns.
So that’s the story of how I came to write and I
hope it answers the question of what inspired me.
The Secrets of the Vanmars:
Title:The Secrets of the Vanmars
Author: Elisabeth Wheatley
Date Published: May 15, 2012
After her adventures with the Key of Amatahns, sixteen-year-old Janir Caersynn Argetallam returns home to find Brevia on the brink of war with a neighboring country, Stlaven. Her foster-father and even Saoven—a brave young elf warrior—think it will be safe at the castle where Janir grew up. However, while trying to unravel a looming mystery, Karile—self-taught wizard and Janir’s self-appointed best friend—becomes certain that there is danger in the mountains surrounding Janir’s childhood home and that it has something to do with Stlaven’s most powerful family, the Vanmars…
Happy reading until next time!
