Photographer: Andrew
Schmidt
Welcome to Meet The Author! Today Maggie Secara has stopped
by to give us a little insight into her life and her books. So let's get started.
Please tell us a little about yourself.
Let’s see. I have a Master’s degree in English and, before
you roll your eyes, I actually make a living at putting words in a row. Not
fiction, no, alas—but I am a technical writer, which is almost as good.
Currently, I’m working on contract for the Los Angeles Police Department. I live
in N. Hollywood, CA with my very supportive husband, the amazing JimDear, and our cats: a champagne and buff
tabby called Mister, and Coco, a very fluffy torty. Everything else, as they
say, is subject to change without notice.
When did you start writing?
I wrote a little poem when I was about 8, which I can still
recite. It began: Spring is in the flowers, Spring is in the air...” And they
haven’t been able to shut me up since.
What projects have been published?
The Dragon Ring, my first fantasy novel, came out in March
as an e-book from Crooked Cat Publishing.
It’s Book 1 of the Harper Errant series, and concerns Ben Harper, an
American reality show host who finds himself on a mission for the king of
Faerie. The paperback will be available August 31, and I'm very excited about
that. I recently turned in the manuscript for Book 2, King’s Raven. We'll be
starting the editorial round shortly, then they can schedule the release. Since
small publishers have much shorter lead times than the big guys, it shouldn't
be too long a wait.
I've self-published two projects:
Molly September, a
romantic adventure novel set in Port Royal and the Spanish Main (2011) and
A
Compendium of Common Knowledge 1564-1603, a little handbook of Elizabethan
daily life for writers, actors, and re-enactors (2008). I've also written
poetry now and then, and have been fortunate enough to have a few poems
published here and there in little magazines.
Illustrator: Larissa Neto
Tell us about The Dragon Ring:
The Harper Errant series is essentially a blend of urban and
mythic fantasy with time travel. In other words, while my hero, Ben Harper,
starts out in the modern world, he can find himself pursuing an artifact, a
lost friend, or a killer through time, usually on behalf of the king of Faerie.
Music is the foundation of Faerie magic, you know, and the stories are wrapped
in music, magic, and adventure. At the center of The Dragon Ring is a broken
Viking arm ring with dragon-headed finials whose pieces have been flung into
various points in the past. Ben has to
locate the pieces so that Oberon can magically restore the ring to its proper
form and return it to the court of Alfred the Great, in time to make a treaty
with a Viking warlord - a pivot point in history on which the world
depends. The action takes him to Viking
Age Wessex, of course, as well as Elizabethan London and 18th century Devon.
Illustrators: Scott Perkins
and Ari Berk
What was your inspiration?
This is actually kind of a funny story, but only if you know
my friend Ari, who’s a college professor. He’s a brilliant scholar and
folklorist, and a gifted writer with a devastating wit—and I’ve known him since
he was a teenager. Well, I’d been wanting to tackle a mystery for some time,
and was racking my brain for a starting point, when late one night in a hotel
room in the middle of nowhere, a question popped into my head: “What if Ari had
to solve a mystery?” That tickled me so much I knew it was the start of a great
idea. For one thing, if he was in it, Faerie had to be involved. There had to
be a puzzle worthy of his talents. And there had to be something precious at
stake to be worthy of his time. I stayed up all night scribbling on anything I
could find, asking “what if...” and “what about...” until something like a plot
started to gel.
In the end, the story is more of a quest than a mystery, and
Ben isn’t very much like Ari except in his eclectic interests, his Renaissance Faire
experience, and his intimate acquaintance with Faerie. And oh yes, Ari’s son
Robin became the model for Ben’s son Sparrow—the precious thing that’s at
stake. That’s the reason The Dragon Ring
is dedicated to Robin and his parents. One day, I really have to write a
mystery for them.
How did you select the title of your novel?
The original title was Sparrow’s Dragon, a play on Ben’s
son’s name. It seemed to make sense because he is the object of various
villainous threats. The trouble is, he’s not really a main character. And with
that title and my original opening, too many people thought of it as a YA book!
Not that older teens wouldn't enjoy it, but that wasn't the intention. Clearly,
I needed a new title. Since the dragon
arm ring is the object of Ben’s quest, The Dragon Ring turned out to be the
perfect answer.
What are you currently working on?
Well, I just finished creating a good, clean submission
draft of King’s Raven. It wasn’t bad at the beginning of the year, but getting
Dragon Ring out kind of interrupted the polishing for a while. I still had 8
pages of notes to fix this or fill in that, smooth this transition, check
another source. So I’m taking some time to just read and watch movies for a few
weeks, and do some final research for Book 3, The Mermaid Stair. It’s still
more or less a first draft, so as you can probably imagine, the file of notes
for that is even longer! I also have The Curse of the Crystal Palace, a
half-finished Victorian paranormal, still waiting for me to get back to it—it’s
outside the Harper Errant sequence, but uses some of the characters from King’s
Raven. And then there’s the Elizabethan mystery. I’m definitely going to be
busy for a while!
What are you reading at the moment?
Some of my reviewers have said things like “if you like Charles
de Lint, you’ll love this book,” so I thought I’d better see what they were
talking about. As it turns out, it is a terrific compliment, and I can see the
connection. I’d never read much of his work before, and it’s complex, resonant,
mythic in a unique and idiosyncratic way. He takes the elements of Faerie and
North American shamanistic tradition and blends them into a contemporary
setting in a way that manages to be both mystical and naturalistic at the same
time! I can only hope I’m really that good, but what lovely company to be in.
I’ve also just discovered S.P. Hendricks' Glastonbury Chronicles. Horned King,
dying and rising god, sacrifice to replenish the land, multiple reincarnations,
and true love: its all believably told and beautifully written. My other favorites at the
moment are Marie Brennan, Connie Willis, and Ari Berk.
And finally, can you tell us some fun facts about yourself,
such as crossed skydiving off my bucket list.
Here's three... I once worked as an office assistant for Harlan Ellison
(Deathbird Stories, Dangerous Visions, Strange Wine, etc.). One of the
strangest, most bizarre years of my life, but definitely a learning experience.
I spent at least 20 years working the Renaissance Pleasure
Faire in California; I’ve been both a countess and a camp follower, and made
all my own costumes. Most of my friends (including my husband) are Faire
people, even now. And oh yes, there’s a website and a book that came out of the
experience (The Compendium I mentioned earlier)!
In my extreme youth I saw the Beatles in concert each of the
three years they played in Los Angeles. I screamed and screamed!
Where can we find out more about you?
Find out more about me and all my books, with background
material (including video links for most of Ben’s music) at
http://maggie-secara.com.
Where can we purchase your books?
The paperback versions are all at Amazon and most other online booksellers. Molly September and The Dragon Ring are also available as e-books in all the usual places, including Amazon, the Apple Store, and Smashwords. And you can get Dragon Ring direct from the publisher's book store at Crooked Cat Books.
