Interview Barbara Russel Author of The Heart Collector
What inspired the Heart Collector?
I’ve always loved steampunk stories. The first I read was a steampunk/futuristic novel set in Italy by Stefano Benni. A rarity since the majority of the steampunk novels are set in Victorian London, and I fell in love with the genre because it’s always a bit funny, has some sci-fi elements, and there’s usually a mystery. I’m a sucker for mysteries. I read everything by Agatha Christie and Conan Doyle. So I thought, why not setting a steampunk novel here in Auckland? This gave me the opportunity to add a bit of Maori culture in the story.
What do you do when you aren’t writing?
Trekking and climbing! I love hiking with my dogs. Forests are the best places ever to think about plot holes and characters’ developments. Not to mention that a good trekking recharges me. I need to get out of the city and its noises now and then and be surrounded by trees and nature.
What advice would you give new writers?
Read everything, from memoirs to sci-fi novels. I love fiction, but true stories are the amazing. There’s a lot to learn from non-fiction books as a writer, and you never know what might inspire you.
Which character can you relate to the most and why?
They say that an author is the sum of all of his characters, including the villains, lol. But I feel closer to Trigger, the orphan Isabel—my main character—takes care of. He’s fun to write and I don’t have to worry about typos because he uses very bad grammar, lol
Anything else you’ll like to add?
Actually yes, I’d like to the tell to those people who say they don’t read book to please don’t say out loud. Every time a person says they don’t read, somewhere a writer gets a writer’s block.
A sneak peek between the pages of The Heart Collector
Chapter 1
Auckland, 1884
One of the perks of being a duchess and the lady of Hastings Manor was that I could make my own decisions.
Most of the time.
I bunched a corner of my long brocade skirt and climbed the sweeping stairs toward Victor’s office. The bustle, heavy with satin ribbons, bounced lightly, tapping on the small of my back.
On the landing, one of the little cleaning machines that roamed the house trotted around, buzzing as its brushes dusted the white marble floor. A puff of steam trailed behind it while its wheels and pistons whirred. I strode on, the star-bright tiles sparkling under my velvet slippers.
The butler bowed stiffly, carrying a tray with tea and cakes that smelled of cinnamon. “Your Grace.” He stepped aside to let me pass.
“Hollom.” My heels’ click-clacking noise died down on the blue rug covering the entrance in front of Victor’s office.
I raised my fist to knock but stopped inches away from the gleaming, polished oak wood, needing a moment to collect myself. Victor had to see reason. Convincing him that my role in the investigation was vital wouldn’t be easy, but I was nineteen and properly trained in combat. More or less. The point was, I could face danger.
My resolve wavered, and I bit the inside of my cheek. On light feet, I turned and slid inside my late father’s personal library. Victor’s supernatural hearing wouldn’t catch me in the room protected by thick walls, and the old leather-bound volumes calmed my nerves.
I cleared my throat before rehashing my speech. “Victor, you’re the leader of Military Intelligence Seven, but as Duchess of Sussex, I have the right to . . .” I shook my head. This sounded patronizing. I took a deep breath to slow my pounding heart, glad that I wasn’t wearing a corset. Another perk of being a duchess.
I squared my shoulders. A wrong word and Victor would dismiss me. “Victor, I kindly request… would you… I would appreciate if you assign me to the ongoing investigation on the Heart Collector, since I believe my skills can be an asset.” There. Simple, polite, and to the point.
I jutted out my chin and smoothed my bodice. I should’ve worn my dark green dress. It made me look taller and older. This blue gown gave me a childish air with its velvet ribbons and budding roses.
Too late.
After another deep inhalation, I marched toward Victor’s office again and knocked on the door.
“Come in.” The thick door muffled his deep voice.
I wiped my sweaty hand on my skirt before turning the handle and stepping into the office that had once belonged to my father. Victor and his younger brother Jamie stood up from their stuffed chairs and bowed.
“Good morning, Victor, Jamie.”
After the dimly lit corridor, the sunlight streaming from the floor-to-ceiling window blinded me, and I squinted, closing the door behind me.
I walked to the desk that occupied almost half of the room, keeping my eyes on Victor’s frowning face. “I need to talk to you.”
Victor stretched out an arm, indicating the empty chairs. His serious expression added wisdom to his five and twenty years. “Of course, Isabel. Please, sit.”
I perched on the very edge of the chair and set my back straight to not crush my bustle. Victor sat at his desk while Jamie settled himself next to the fireplace.
“Is something the matter?” Jamie leaned forward, his blond hair swishing about his cheeks. “You are pale.”
I faced him. “Well, I—” A dark blue bruise marked his chin, his bottom lip was split, and a fresh cut marred his forehead. “What happened to you?”
Jamie clenched and unclenched his fists. “My encounter with one of the Supernaturals we’re trying to recruit didn’t end well.”
I focused on Jamie, unleashed my power, and reached out for his feelings. A rush of energy flooded me, and heat warmed my chest. His anger, annoyance, and humiliation washed over me. Physical pain stabbed him as well. I gently prodded his body with my mental strength. His ribs hurt, and a cut on his back throbbed. His feelings left the sour taste of unripe grapes in my mouth.
I swallowed. “This Supernatural must be particularly strong to hurt you.”
Jamie stroked his bruised skin. A new wave of mortification surged from him. “He is moderately strong.”
Moderately strong? Jamie could bend iron bars with two fingers and lift twenty times his weight. How strong was this Supernatural?
Victor shifted his gaze to me. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
“Exactly about this.” I nodded toward Jamie. “This Supernatural you want to recruit for the investigation on the Heart Collector.”
Victor knitted his blond eyebrows in the same way Jamie would. “You don’t have to concern yourself with that. Jamie will soon make another attempt to meet this Supernatural.”
“But.” I paused to read Victor’s feelings. His determination and mild exasperation reached me. It wasn’t a good start, but maybe my speech would convince him. “I would like you to allow me . . . I mean, to assign me to this mission since I request, kindly, I request kindly, that it would be me, myself, to do it.” Damn. So much for rehashing. I clasped my hands in my lap not to show how much they trembled. “I’d like it to be me.” I swallowed. If I weren’t so eager to get the job, I’d laugh at Victor’s scrunched face.
I searched his feelings again. Even without my supernatural empathetic power, the hard set of his jaw and his narrowed icy blue eyes told me he wasn’t pleased. I cleared my throat. “I want to meet this Supernatural.”
“You want what?” Jamie asked, propping an elbow on the mantelpiece.
I ignored him. “What did you say his name was?”
“I didn’t.” Victor straightened the pile of documents on his desk, arranged quills and inkbottles, and loosened his bow tie.
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Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged Auckland Steampunk, Barbara Russell, romantic suspense, steampunk, The Heart Collector by Tena Stetler with 2 comments.
S.B.K. Burns Author of Entangled – Ages of Invention
When I was in high school, my science teacher gave me tickets to do my lab research at the Franklin Institute of Science. Back then I knew there was something historic about the place, was in awe of the size of the building, the stairways, and the exhibits, but never investigated further. FLY LIKE AN EAGLE was born at the opening of the Franklin Institute. Growing up in historic Philadelphia, I knew stories were there to be discovered; I just didn’t realize the intrigue of the time.
While Jane Austin wrote PRIDE AND PREDJUDICE under the regent for “crazy” George III, industrialists and government officials, members of the Philadelphia Philosophical Society (including Thomas Jefferson), wanted to honor Benjamin Franklin by opening the Institute. I made my characters in FLY LIKE AN EAGLE, hero and heroine, children of those industrialists: lucky Samantha, daughter of Proper Philadelphia Society and Migizi, treated like a servant, his industrialist father having fallen in love and married a Native American woman, the leader of her Delaware doodem.
The Delaware Native Americans, like other Algonquin speakers, had a word for the power of human consciousness—bimijiwan (The Flow). It just seems that the resurrected future queen of Scotland, Ireland, and Britain, Electress Sophia of the House of Hanover (the ancestor to today’s British Royalty), oversaw the building of a quantum computer all out of crystal lenses. Long Live The Q! With the quantum computer serves as a time machine that focused The Flow of Life into both past and future.
Do you see yourself in your characters?
I always admire writers of memoirs. They have to be gutsy to write all the experiences they had, depending on the way they looked at their lives, their perspectives, and the intimate details they’re willing to reveal. I never found a single thread that I was comfortable with in my own life. I was different than others in that with my scientific curiosity, I was always experimenting. But, I am more the sort to step into the bodies of my characters and playact their parts, rather than exposing all the famous people I was lucky enough to know (and that includes my parents). I always felt uncomfortable about speaking of those who have passed on, because I’ll never know what their true motives were. And that’s what it’s about for my characters. If we don’t know their motives, it’s hard to judge them. And I don’t want to put myself in a place to judge others, or to put those judgments out there. END OF SOAPBOX!
What do you want your readers to take away from your books?
In my life, I have fallen in and out of love. TAKE THAT BACK! I don’t think I’ve ever fallen out of love with anyone I was in love with. But I did learn to move on. As to the themes I enjoy sharing with my books: most deal with diversity. My characters are challenged because of the society they’re born into. Their relationships are taboo. Dawn, in ENTANGLED, is born into the lower class, and Taylor, into the upper class. Samantha, in FLY LIKE AN EAGLE, is forbidden from marrying Native born, Eagle, but encouraged to marry his white industrialist father, many years older than she is.
I like my sci-fi heroes to be artificial intelligence androids that look and operate like humans (maybe even super humans). They’re considered one step down in society and, so, romantically forbidden. In my NANOWRIMO performance this year, I wrote a story I’m excited about: a contemporary romance between a “white” woman, a physician, and a black man, a Navy SEAL and firefighter. He rejects her because she’s white. Though she passes for white, she’s a dark-phase African albino from Tanzania, both her parents black (The albino race introduced in LEGENDS OF THE GOLDENS SERIES.
If writing is your first passion, what is your second?
I’m a scientific generalist with several advanced degrees and lots of courses out the whazoo! On my philosophy website (www.TheUnionOfOpposites.com) I extend the things I’ve learned (about conscious awareness) in my published research and use them to seed the themes in my novels. Sometimes the ideas can be difficult for those not into sci-fi, suspense, thrillers, or adventure (or those who just don’t want too many surprises). For those readers, I take my cue from some of my reviewers who just skip over those few geeky sentences. I don’t write formulaic, meaning that I don’t read another author to find out how their characters make love, how their worlds are run, things like that. In that way, I guess my novels are all my own kind of memoir, pieces of my nerdy life shared with my characters.
finished the second suggestive sentence of her self-regression, she was here in
the misty Lowlands of Scotland, not far outside Edinburgh. As on her previous
trips, she was literally in Lily’s body, experiencing all the woman’s senses
and emotions, but none of her thoughts. So frustrating.
Fly Like An Eagle:
most probably escaped to the house. Migizi (Eagle) would return her shawl,
hoping by the time he caught up to her, she would have put on something a
little less fetching.
been wrong about him. Leaving me alone with Ronaldson’s nubile daughter? Look
at her as a sister? He’d have more success taking flight by jumping off a cliff
and flapping his arms.
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Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged Paranormal Romance, Sci-Fi, steampunk, Time travel by Tena Stetler with 1 comment.
The Key To His Heart by Barbara Burke
Happy holidays to all! Give a big welcome to Barbara Burke, author of The Key To His Heart, a Steampunk Christmas Fairy Tale, released December 1, 2017. Have a seat and grab an insulated mug. I’ve got hot chocolate, hot 
cider and coffee. Choose your pot, they’re labeled. Pick your choice of a Snicker-doodle, Chocolate Chip or Peanut butter cookie from the plate. Yep, I baked them myself. Barbara I see your brought guests.
Yes, meet Andres Barbot and Arabella Pike
Nice to meet all of your. Thanks for joining us!
First, Barbara, tell us what inspired this particular story?
Beauty and the Beast has always been my favourite fairy tale so I felt quite cheeky having a go at rewriting it. However, I really enjoyed putting it in a new setting: a steampunk version of Newfoundland at Christmas. Now my only regret is that I didn’t make it longer.
Characters act true to themselves. Sometimes the way they do that can be surprising, but if you know them well enough you can tell if they’re acting authentically or just trying to mess with you (and some of them really enjoy messing with you).
I like to have a general idea about a story and a good grasp of the characters. Then I just let them get on with it while I try to get as much down on paper as possible.
Oh, I have to agree some of my characters love to mess with me! Now Andre, would you mind answering a few questions for me?
Not at all.
What event in your past has left the most indelible impression on you?
The airship crashed that caused my mother’s death. We struck the rocks and my body was so badly damaged no one thought I would live. My father…repaired me, is the only suitable way to phrase it. And turned me into a monster thereby.
What do you most value?
My privacy. If I’m forced to live life as a monster then let me do it outside the public eye. Having rocks thrown at you, being jeered at in the street, seeing revulsion on people’s faces. I’ve had enough. I simply want to be left alone.
What is the type of woman you want to spend the rest of your life with?
No woman would want to spend the rest of her life with me. I don’t allow myself to dream about the kind of woman I would want to be with always.
What is your biggest secret?
My biggest secret is that I don’t want to live out my life alone and I do sometimes dream of a woman who will accept me for what I am, who won’t feel repulsed by my appearance and my mechanical heart.
Thank you so much, It was wonderful learning about you.
Arabella it’s your turn on the hot seat.
Who were the biggest role models in your life?
Hmm, I didn’t really have any growing up. I’m from a small town – we call it an outport here – and most of the people around me, kids and adults, thought I was pretty strange. I was always mucking about with bits of machines or airships if I could get my hands on one. Fortunately, my father found a way to get me the education I needed to pursue that life.
What kind of man do you want to spend the rest of your life with?
One who recognizes that I’m not just messing about in my chosen career until I get married and settle down. Machines need love and attention, too, and I could no more stop tinkering than I could stop eating.
What kind of man would you never choose?
One who expects me to sit at home knitting and producing babies on an annual basis. Also, one who wasn’t inherently kind.
What is most important to you in life?
Love. It doesn’t matter what the subject is, be it another person or a sunset. Love makes the world a better place and it makes you a better person.
What is your biggest fear?
I try not to let fear take hold of me. Life is a challenge and you never know what’s ahead. Embrace life, don’t be held back by the fear of it.
Those are great words to live by. Thank you so much for dropping by.
Click the cover to read more or buy.
Tell us a little about The Key To His Heart. A Steampunk Christmas Fairy Tale.
Since he was a small child Andre has been treated like a monster because of his mechanical parts – scorned and reviled by children and adults alike. He’s learned to hide himself away from people.
Arabella, an airship engineer in training, doesn’t believe he’s a monster at all. But can she convince him of that?
When she’s forced to join him on his airship, The Rose, on a flight through the winter skies it’s an opportunity to teach him that love is for everyone and humanity is more than just flesh and blood.
How about a sneak peek between the pages of The Key To His Heart.
By late afternoon they had traversed most of the island. Barbot explained that they would put down for the night so they could cross the water in the daytime.
“And of course you must sleep,” Arabella said. “You can’t keep this up all day and night as well.”
“I could if I had to, but I prefer not to. We have everything we need onboard. Do you mind putting down away from a town? It will make it easier to get off quickly in the morning.”
“You’re the boss.”
“I wish I could believe you think so, but my mind is full of doubt,” he replied, and Arabella could hear a smile in his voice. “I know a spot not half an hour’s flight from here that will do very well. We’ll dine as soon as we touch down. In the meantime if you’d like to freshen up I will meet you in the salon at -” he pulled a large timepiece out from under his cloak “- 6 o’clock.”
“Nonsense,” Arabella exclaimed. “You’ll need help getting the ship powered off and battened down for the night. I’m not swanning off like some lady of leisure to powder my nose and tighten my corset while you do all the work.”
“And yet less than one minute ago you informed me, with a completely straight face, that I was the boss.”
“But that was-“
“It was not different,” he interrupted. “I know what I’m doing. Go.”
Arabella went.
The Key To His Heart is available at most online retailers including Amazon
About the Author:
Barbara Burke’s peripatetic life means she’s lived everywhere from a suburban house in a small town to a funky apartment in a big city, and from an architecturally designed estate deep in the forest to a cedar shack on the edge of the ocean. Everywhere she’s gone she’s been accompanied by her husband, her animals and her books. For the last fifteen years she’s worked as a freelance journalist and has won several awards. She was a fan of Jane Austen long before that lady was discovered by revisionists and zombie lovers and thinks Georgette Heyer was one of the great writers of the twentieth century. She lives by the philosophy that one should never turn down the opportunity to get on a plane no matter where it’s going, but deep down inside wishes she could travel everywhere by train. Ironically she now lives on an island in the middle of the Atlantic that has no trains at all.
You can find Barbara at the links below.
barbaraburke@nl.rogers.com
https://www.facebook.com/Barbara-Burke-162847103814669/
https://barbaraburkeauthor.wordpress.com/
It was wonderful having you with us today. Please feel free to stop by anytime. Good Luck with The Key To His Heart!
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Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged Barbara Burke, Christmas, Romance, steampunk, The Key To His Heart by Tena Stetler with 18 comments.
Viola Carr, Author of The Dastardly Miss Lizzie
Give a warm welcome to Viola Carr, author of The Dastardly Miss Lizzie released on April 18, 2017!
Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice from the cooler, a Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter cookie from the plate, and let’s find out a little about Viola Carr and The Dastardly Miss Lizzie part of her Electric Empire books.
In the third book in Viola Carr’s fantastically fun and wonderfully edgy Electric Empire novel, set in the gritty world of alternate Victorian London, Dr. Eliza Jekyll must team up with her secret other half, Miss Lizzie Hyde, as her world comes crashing to a halt when a madman begins targeting the city’s most important scientists, and sorcerers threaten all she holds dear.
Crime scene physician Eliza Jekyll is trying to share a life with her rebellious second self, Lizzie Hyde. But being two people in one body isn’t easy, not when Eliza has a professional reputation to protect and Lizzie is veering headfirst into a life of debauchery and crime with an increasingly demented Mr. Hyde. Not to mention the difficulty of making a respectable marriage with Remy Lafayette–Royal Society investigator and occasional lycanthrope–while Lizzie enjoys her own dubious romantic entanglements. And with England on the brink of war, Remy’s secretive mission in sorcery-riddled Paris grows ever more sinister. Has he been an enemy agent all along? Or is Eliza finally going mad?
Now, she’s confronted by her most baffling case yet: an evil genius with a penchant for theatrics is murdering eminent scientists in the most inexplicable ways. Her investigation uncovers a murky world of forbidden books, secret laboratories and bleeding-edge science punishable by death–and a shocking connection to her father’s infamous experiments. Desperate to learn the truth about her past, she must infiltrate a cabal of fanatical inventors bent on a discovery that will change the world–or destroy it.
With London under attack by sorcery-wielding terrorists, and the Royal Society’s enforcers determined to bury her evidence for good, Eliza needs all the friends she can get if she’s to thwart the killer and keep her head. But when Lizzie’s criminal shenanigans get Eliza fired from the Metropolitan Police, and Remy is implicated in an act of bloody vengeance he didn’t commit (or did he?), she’s on her own.
Except for wily, resourceful, mercurial Lizzie. But Lizzie’s got her own life now. And she’ll do anything to keep it. Even if it means attempting the unspeakable and finding her own body. Even if it means throwing Eliza to the wolves, and letting the world burn…
Viola Carr was born in Australia, but wandered into darkest London one foggy October evening and never found her way out. She now devours countless history books and dictates fantastical novels by gaslight, accompanied by classical music and the snoring of her slumbering cat. She likes steampunk, and thought it would be cool to investigate wacky crimes with crazy gadgets…just so long as her heroine was the creator of said wacky gadgets: a tinkerer, edgy, with a dash of mad scientist.
https://www.facebook.com/violacarrauthor
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Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged Fantastically fun, Mystery, steampunk, Victorian London, Viola Carr by Tena Stetler with 3 comments.
