Interview with C.L. Wilson Author of The Sea King

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Winter King comes a breathtaking new tale of love and adventure set in the mystical land of Mystral, The Sea King released today!

 

Give a warm welcome to C.L. Clark, author of  The Sea King, book two of the Weather Mages of Mystral  

Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice from the cauldron, a Bat Wing Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin or Peanut Butter cookie from the plate, and let’s find out about C.L. Wilson and The Sea King.

Tell us what inspired this particular story?

I actually had no idea I was going to write THE SEA KING until I got to the end of THE WINTER KING (the first Weathermages of Mystral book) and met Dilys Merimydion.  He just showed up and leapt off the pages, demanding his own story.  Then he worked out an agreement with Khamsin, helping her defeat the Ice King in exchange for her welcoming him and his men to Wintercraig to court potential wives.

When I was first sitting down to write his book, I thought Autumn was going to be his bride, but as I started brainstorming the plot and the characters, I realized I was wrong.  Summer, who I thought was a sweet, gentle little doormat, took one look at Dilys and said, “um, no.  He’s mine.”

Do you see yourself in your characters?

Actually, I don’t.  My characters are their own people.  What I do do is work hard to understand them, to understand how they feel and how/why they react to certain people and situations.  (If I don’t understand it, I can’t write it.)  While I’m writing a character’s story, I’m taking the same journey they are, being just as surprised as they are, feeling just as emotional as they do.  I cannot plot what obstacles they are going to encounter, and I can’t determine how they’re emotionally going to react to something until it’s upon them, and even then, how they react is based on everything that’s come before, so I can’t do too much writing out of sequence without a ton of revisions.

Basically, my characters let me step outside of myself and be someone else for a while.  I imagine it’s pretty similar to how method actors feel when they’re deep in a role.

Where do your story ideas come from? If they come to you in the middle of the night, do you get up and write them all down?

My ideas come from all over the place.  I was driving down the road a couple of weeks ago, listening to Hell on Heels, and got a story idea.  Sometimes I dream about stories (but that’s usually only about something I’m currently writing).  In that case, yes, I have to get up and write it down else I might forget it.  Sometimes I’ll read a book, and the feeling a particular scene or character gives me makes me sit up and take notice.  Then I play around with that feeling in my head, looking for ways to explore that feeling in my own way.

Most of the time, I’ll have some half-baked kernel of an idea, then I call up my brainstorming buddies, the Starfish Club, and they help me turn my half-baked ideas into something more viable.  Lord love ‘em.

Why do you write what you write?  Contemporary, paranormal,  suspense, etc.

I write epic fantasy romance. Well, that’s primarily what I publish.  I have WIPs and unpublished/unfinished manuscripts in contemporary, historical, and fantasy/paranormal/futuristic romance.  I usually write romance of some kind, and I generally prefer to write stories that have some sort of magic or supernatural element in them.  The romance is because I love the emotional connection and all the excitement, passion, and drama of finding and falling in love.  The fantasy/paranormal is because I love world-building, love figuring out “if people could do this (insert magical/preternatural ability) how would they use it?  How would that ability change who they are/what they’re like/how they behave?”  Hey, if I’m going to play make-believe and  tell a story, why not go all out and just have fun with all manner of imagination?

 Tell us a little about The Sea King.
He wasn’t supposed to choose her…
Seafaring prince Dilys Merimydion has been invited to court the three magical princesses of Summerlea. To eradicate the pirates threatening Calberna and to secure the power of the Sea Throne, Dilys vows to return home with a fierce warrior-queen as his bride. But politics has nothing to do with unexpected temptation.
She didn’t dare wed him…
A weathermage like her sisters, Gabriella Coruscate’s gentleness exemplifies the qualities of her season name, Summer. Yet her quiet poise conceals dangerous powers she cannot begin to wield. Better to live without excitement, she reasons, than risk her heart and lose control—until an irresistible Sealord jolts her awake with a thunderclap of raw desire.
Until evil threatens everything they hold dear…
When pirates kidnap Summer and her sisters, Dilys begins a desperate quest to save the woman he loves. Only by combining his command of the seas with the unleashed fury of Summer’s formidable gifts can they defeat their brutal enemies and claim the most priceless victory of all: true love.
HarperCollins      Amazon        Google Play      Apple      BN
A peek between the pages of The Sea King:
 You can get off me now,” she ordered, mimicking Autumn’s haughtiest tone.
He didn’t move. Instead, he locked his gaze on hers and, with slow deliberation, laid his left wrist flat against her right.
Summer sucked in a breath and went rigid be- neath him as a fresh surge of energy shot through her. Only this time, instead of an electric thunderclap that stunned the senses, this surge fired up every sen- sual cell in her body. If Dilys hadn’t been straddling her, she would have wrapped her legs around his waist and dragged him down atop her. As it was, she burned for him in the worst way. The way his nostrils flared and his tattoos went bright with a fresh burst of phosphorescent blue light only fanned the flames of her desire. She wanted to command him to touch her . . . to kiss her. Her gift of Persuasion flared, bringing the words and the magic to the tip of her tongue.
About the Author:
C. L. WILSON grew up camping and waterskiing across America, from Cherry Creek reservoir in Denver, CO, to Lake Gaston on the border of Virginia and North Carolina, to Georgia’s Lake Lanier and Lake Allatoona. When she wasn’t waterskiing and camping on family vacations, you could usually find her with a book in one hand and a sketch pad in the other—either reading, writing stories, or drawing.
Sometime around the ninth grade, she decided she was better at drawing her pictures with words than paints and charcoals, and she set aside her sketchpad to focus entirely on writing. Wilson is active in Tampa Area Romance Authors (TARA), her local chapter of Romance Writers of America.
When not engaged in writerly pursuits, she enjoys golfing, swimming, reading, playing video games with her children, and spending time with her friends and family. She is also an avid collector (her husband says pack rat!), and she’s the proud owner of an extensive collection of Dept. 56 Dickens and North Pole villages, unicorns, Lladro figurines, and mint condition comic books.
Wilson currently resides with her husband, their three wonderful children, and their little black cat, Oreo, in a secluded ranch community less than thirty miles away from the crystalline waters and sugar-sand beaches of Anna Maria Island and Siesta Key on Florida’s gulf coast.

Views: 12


Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged , , , , by with 1 comment.

Comments

Visit Us On FacebookVisit Us On TwitterVisit Us On PinterestVisit Us On Instagram