Guest Post: Juli D. Revezzo — “Changeling’s Crown”

This will be the first of two consecutive guest posts from fellow authors.  One of the (many) wonderful aspects of the WordPress community is the way we as bloggers can share our words, ideas, and inspirations on one another’s sites, a kind of creative cross-pollination that enriches the digital landscape.  I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to share guest posts and interviews on other blogs over the past eighteen months.  Likewise, it is always fun to feature other writers on The Eye-Dancers blog.

Last summer, just over a year ago to the day, Juli D. Revezzo authored a guest post on The Eye-Dancers blog about her Antique Magic series.  And now, here we are again in high summer, and I am once again privileged to have Juli return to talk a little bit about her new novel, Changeling’s Crown.

Without any further delay from me, please welcome Juli!

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“What I learned writing a fun fantasy love story”

by

Juli D. Revezzo

 

Michael invited me here to talk about my newly released upper YA paranormal romance, Changeling’s Crown. For this novel, I decided to set the story on a horse ranch. Growing up my parents bought a house not far from a horse ranch—or at least the owner of that specific property owned horses. Still, I never paid much attention to the ins and outs of their property. I just oohed and ahhed over the lovely horses whenever we would pass.

Yes, I admit to doing that even still. I’m such a girl, I know. 😉

When the idea hit me to write what would become Changeling’s Crown, I decided to set it on an even bigger, truer horse ranch than the one I grew up near.

Now, truth to tell, I know next to nothing about horses or running a ranch so, yes, much research ensued. We have one nearby us and so I trotted down and observed for a while. One thing I learned is that sometimes, the owners put masks on the horses to keep flies out of their eyes. Another is that horses are much bigger than I realized they might be. This will tell you how short I am, but I could’ve walked under one of the stallions! I didn’t expect that. I’d never seen that of the horses down the way from me, (except for their size) so it surprised me. Yes, writing can teach you things, who knew? 😉

How about you, folks? Did you ever learn something from a book, or a school assignment that you never expected to?

 

Would you be interested to know a little more about the resulting book, Changeling’s Crown? Here’s the blurb:
When Ianthe began her career as a faery godmother, she stumbled so badly that Snow White will probably never speak to her again. After a long suspension, she’s finally been given a chance to redeem herself . . . but everything on this latest assignment is going wrong.

But why?

Worse, she definitely doesn’t need an attractive mortal man distracting her from her duties. Of course, needs and wants are two different things.

Briak has had his eye on Ianthe for a very, very long time, but he’s been waiting for just the right moment to make his move. Despite the fact all hell’s about to break loose on his watch, he can’t resist the opportunity to insert himself into her earthly assignment. Can he convince Ianthe of her true calling and thereby win her heart? Or will his subterfuge ultimately cost him her love?

 

Buy links:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Changelings-Crown-Juli-D-Revezzo-ebook/dp/B00KPJ27UW
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/449603

and

In paperback from Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/4797366

 

About Juli D. Revezzo

Juli D. Revezzo is a Florida girl, with a love of fantasy, science fiction, and Arthurian legend, so much so she gained a B.A. in English and American Literature. She loves writing stories with fantastical elements whether it be a full-on fantasy, or a story set in this world–slightly askew. She has been published in short form in Eternal Haunted Summer; Dark Things II: Cat Crimes (a charity anthology for cat related charities); Luna Station Quarterly; By Blood, Bone, and Blade; Crossing the River, An Anthology in Honor of Sacred Journeys; The Scribing Ibis; and Twisted Dreams Magazine. She’s the author of the Antique Magic series and the Paranormal Romance Harshad Wars series. Changeling’s Crown is her first YA novel.

She is a member of the Independent Author Network and the Magic Appreciation Tour. Come learn more about her at http://julidrevezzo.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/JD-Revezzo/233193150037011

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/111476709039805267272/posts

Good Reads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5782712.Juli_D_Revezzo

Shelfari: http://www.shelfari.com/authors/a1002694572/Juli-D-Revezzo/

Pintrest: http://pinterest.com/jewelsraven/

Twitter: @julidrevezzo

Newsletter signup at: http://bit.ly/SNI5K6

Thank you for inviting me here, today, Michael!

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Thanks so much for the great post, Juli!

And thanks so much to everyone for reading!

–Mike

Worlds without End

Have you ever been somewhere, just some random place on a normal, nondescript day, when, all of a sudden, it hits you?  You blink, once, twice, three times, trying to reorient your senses.  You look more closely at your surroundings, inspecting every detail, hoping to prove–or disprove–your suspicions.  But no matter what you do, or where you look, or how you try to rationalize, the conclusion is inescapable.

You know you’ve lived this moment before.

Deja vu is a phenomenon that science has never been able to explain with certainty.  It has tried, of course.  Many theories exist.  Perhaps memory itself is the root of the feeling.  Maybe, in moments of deja vu, we are remembering something similar, something partial–unable to make the necessary links to complete the picture.  Maybe there is a rational, scientific, perfectly logical explanation to all cases of deja vu.

Or maybe the answers are not so cut-and-dried.  Certainly, to anyone who has felt a strong sense of “having been there before” when they, in actuality, never have, an explanation of faulty memory or a perception that somehow has gone momentarily haywire might not satisfy.

I know it has never satisfied me.  I have experienced deja vu several times, but there was one episode in particular that stands out from the rest.

I was in a store I had never visited.  I knew this to be true because I had never even been to the town in which this store was located.  It was an old-fashioned country store, in the hills of southern Vermont, the kind of place you might expect to see in a Norman Rockwell painting, with hardwood floors, exposed ceiling beams, and an antique cash register, behind which stood a bespectacled woman with snow-white hair and a welcoming smile.

Immediately, upon entering, the feeling hit me, an almost out-of-body sensation.  In my mind’s eye, I saw myself–months ago, years ago?–walking down the aisles, browsing the merchandise, the dull thud of my shoes echoing against the sturdy wooden planks on the floor.  And when the woman behind the register waved, said, “Nice day, thanks for comin’ in,” I knew, knew, she had said those exact words to me before.

I took a deep breath, my head swirling.  I nearly walked out, then and there.  It was too strange, too uncanny.  I paused, thought . . . was I mistaken?  After all, I had been to several country stores throughout Vermont.  Maybe I’d forgotten.  Maybe I had visited this town, this store.  But no.  I was sure of it.  This was the first time.

I walked down one of the aisles, knowing what I would see before I saw it.  I turned into the next aisle, still feeling as if I were somehow hovering above, unseen, a film projector in hand, recording the past, yet playing it simultaneously, the very fabric of time wrapping in and around itself, with me stranded in its spinning, whirling center.  How could this be?  How could my memory of an event that had never transpired be so specific, so actual?

I purchased a small item, checked out.  When the clerk rang me up, I knew what she was going to say.  “Come back and see us again soon.”  I nodded, thanked her, and quickly left.  I have never been back.

Or, perhaps, without knowing it, I have. . . .

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The Eye-Dancers, among other things, explores the concept of parallel worlds, of a layered reality, where universes lie, side by side, without any knowledge of each other.  And in these parallel worlds, we have other selves, other versions who go about their days and their lives, just as we do, running errands, picking up the mail, going to the dentist on rainy November mornings–most likely convinced that their universe is unique, the only one in all creation.

In The Eye-Dancers, after journeying through the void and while exploring the variant town of Colbyville, Mitchell Brant, Joe Marma, Ryan Swinton, and Marc Kuslanski are confronted with these issues head-on.  And while discussing their plight, Marc offers this explanation, from chapter 12 . . .

“Everything in existence fits together. . . . The smallest subatomic particle, the worst hurricane, the largest whale, the layers upon layers of reality.  All of it.  And what quantum mechanics tells us is–there are infinitely multiple versions of each of us.  Infinitely multiple versions of our earth.  You couldn’t even begin to count them all.”

Such an idea is difficult for the other boys to grasp, and Marc does admit:  “Infinity will blow your mind if you let it.”  But, given their situation, it is something they think about often.

In chapter 13, in a quiet moment, Joe Marma ponders it all.  The text reads:

“He thought about what Kuslanski had said earlier–worlds upon worlds, onward through infinity.  Each of us scattered throughout the various realities like fallen leaves from the same tree.”

Indeed, might this be the real reason behind deja vu?  Could it be when we feel a strong sensation of having done something we haven’t done, seen something we haven’t seen . . . could it be that some small, hidden aspect of our subconscious mind is remembering an event one of our alternate selves experienced?

Marc Kuslanski considers just this in chapter 18 . . .

“It made him wonder.  What we call the subconscious–how much of it is derived from other worlds, other selves, spread out through time and space?  How much of who we are, what we know, is but a small piece, interlocking with an ever-expanding, layered puzzle of an infinity of existences?”

Far-fetched?  Outlandish?  Perhaps.  But impossible?  Nothing is impossible.  So, you see, maybe I had in fact visited that Rockwell-esque country store before, after all.  And maybe I have again since . . .

. . . in a world far, far away, beyond the sign posts of our reality.  And yet, so close, close enough to almost remember, to almost touch and see.

Close enough that, if we listen, really listen, we can occasionally hear its echoes speaking to us, like soft whispers in the dark.

Thanks so much for reading!

–Mike

Guest Post: Juli D. Revezzo–Antique Magic Series

One thing I would like to do a little more of on The Eye-Dancers blog is invite other authors and bloggers to write a guest post or take part in a Q & A for the site.  And you know the old cliche–there’s no time like the present (to get started)!

So if anyone would like to be featured on The Eye-Dancers blog, please contact me either through a comment on this site or by email at michaelf424@gmail.com.  I would love to hear from you!

Without further delay, I’d like to introduce supernatural fantasy writer Juli D. Revezzo, author of the Antique Magic series.  Please welcome her and read more about her fascinating series!

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“Eye of the Beholder”

By

Juli D. Revezzo

 

The question of perception is one that we face every day.  Do we really understand what we’re seeing sometimes?  Take a car wreck.  Experts say that if you have five different witnesses to the event you will get five different explanations of what happened.

I think the same thing happens in other areas of life.  For instance, is there someone you work with or know that you just love, and others don’t? or vice versa?

Perception, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder and is something that changes throughout life.  There’s a whole field of study on it, including but not limited to Alzheimer’s patients and perception.  Sit in a warm house with an Alzheimer’s sufferer who claims they’re freezing and you’ll understand what I mean.  Or take a look at your car.  Does it really look like the color your registration lists?  (Yes, I’ve heard this question before).

The question of perception concerns even my main character, Caitlin.  In my debut paranormal novel, The Artist’s Inheritance, Caitlin’s husband—an artist—gains a new patron who he, and his mentors in the art community around them, think is just the best person to know.

Caitlin, on the other hand, spends five seconds in the dude’s presence and knows something isn’t right about him. Read here and you’ll see:

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“How much will you take for these fine drawings?”

The male voice drew her attention away from Trevor’s work.  A short man with black hair and a lazy eye, dressed in a pinstripe suit and straw hat, crossed the gallery to pause at Trevor’s side.  “They’re your work, are they not? Are they available?”

“Yes, they’re mine,” Trevor said.  “They’re not for sale.  Sorry.”

Caitlin eyed the older man.  Who’s this fella?

“Don’t be absurd, Trevor.”  Abby Wilkins jumped in before Caitlin could ask.

Caitlin took in his fine coat, the diamond gleaming from his ring finger.  More than likely, the man could pay a fortune for the pictures.  Perhaps even the chair they had stashed in the attic.  Maybe they’d be rid of the stupid thing yet.

“For you, Mr. Hofter?  Of course they are.”

“No, I’m sorry,” Trevor said.  “They’re not for sale.”

Abby choked and pulled Trevor aside.  “Are you mad, darling?  Do you know who he is?”

Caitlin peered over Abby’s shoulder, seeing the man in question studying a Jeffersonian era desk.  Trevor grimaced.  “I can’t say I do.”

“That’s Marvin Hofter,”  Mrs. Wilkins said conspiratorially.

“Who’s Marvin Hofter?”  Caitlin asked.

Abby spluttered and tugged at the collar of her linen blouse.  “How can you not know him?”

The name meant nothing; Caitlin could only give her a blank look.  “I don’t.”

“My dear, he’s only the editor in chief of Antiques Daily.”

Now Caitlin understood why Trevor’s mentor was making such a huge deal.

Trevor touched one of the sketches, almost, Caitlin thought, as if he would protect them.  “I’m sorry, no.  The pictures aren’t for sale.”

Hofter pursed his lips and retrieved a card case from the pocket of his silk coat.  He pulled forth an embossed business card and handed it to him.  “If you change your mind, don’t hesitate to call me.”  The man tipped his hat and walked away.

Caitlin kept her gaze on him.  Something about him made her want to grab Trevor and move as far away as possible.  Like to Siberia.

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This is something Caitlin struggles with throughout The Artist’s Inheritance; she can’t convince anyone of her feelings about Hofter, and she can’t explain why he makes her uneasy—and he’s not the only one she questions.  It seems everyone around her has some sort of duality.  Is she right about Hofter and the others comprising her husband’s new circle?  Is there something out of the ordinary about them—something supernatural and sinister?  Are they out to harm her family?  How far can she trust her perception of them?  Her questions continue in the follow-up, Caitlin’s Book of Shadows.

I hope you’ll take a look at the stories and find out for yourself.  If you’d like to see how Caitlin’s perception lines up with her reality The Artist’s Inheritance is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords and in paperback from Createspace.

Meanwhile, it’s something to think about, right?  How trustworthy are our perceptions of the world?  Are you sure of what you see?  Or is the world subject to the eye of the beholder?

Synopsis:

The balance between good and evil can be an art . . . or a curse.

Trevor and Caitlin were once happy newlyweds, profiting from Trevor’s art.  Until Trevor inherits his brother’s house, and with it, his part of a family curse.  Now, Caitlin will stop at nothing to save her beloved husband from insanity and suicide, even if it means she must embrace her destiny and become a witch.

Caitlin’s perception continues to develop and change throughout the rest of the series.  Book 1.5, Caitlin’s Book of Shadows, is out now at Amazon, and Drawing Down the Shades (Antique Magic, Book two) is coming soon.  Stay tuned! 🙂

Caitlin’s Book of Shadows

Something terrifying stalks Caitlin and her beloved Trevor.  Something the bits and pieces she left claimed she had to make sense of–or so legend says.  When the curator of their collection finds Caitlin’s long-forgotten diary, she wonders if it will tell the whole tale.  Will it tell why Caitlin seemed so determined to tell the difference between reality and nightmare even as she continued the fight to defend her family from evil?  Will it explain why she thought her world twisted?  If she really became a witch?

Perhaps the answer lies between the lines of her story, one of lessons, struggles, and the hopes she carried like a warrior’s shield.

—Thanks for having me as your guest, Michael!

About the Author

Juli D. Revezzo has long been in love with writing, a love built by devouring everything from the Arthurian legends, to the works of Michael Moorcock and the classics, and she has a soft spot for the “Goths” of the 19th century.  Juli received a Bachelor’s degree in literature from the University of South Florida, and her short fiction has been published in Dark Things II: Cat Crimes, The Scribing Ibis, Eternal Haunted Summer, Twisted Dreams Magazine and Luna Station Quarterly.  She also has an article and book review or two out there.  But her heart lies in the storytelling.  She is a member of the Independent Author Network and the Magic Appreciation Tour.

You can find all the books in the Antique Magic series at: Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Juli-D.-Revezzo/e/B008AHVTLO

And you can learn more about Juli at:

Her homepage: http://julidrevezzo.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/JD-Revezzo/233193150037011

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/111476709039805267272/posts

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jdrevezzo

Twitter: http://twitter.com/julidrevezzo

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Thanks so much for the great post, Juli!

And thanks to everyone for reading!

–Mike