A Guest Post From Jane Routley

Photo taken by Trudi Canavan

Jane Routley is a terrific Australian fantasy writer. She has won awards and been published by one of the Big Four. Recently, she has, like many Aussie genre writers, moved to small press, though in her case self publication, for reasons she explains below.

It's nice to know someone is writing something a bit less grim than Game Of Thrones. Actually, pretty much everything is less grim than Game Of Thrones, Jane, honey! And that includes such dystopian fiction as The Hunger Games, where most of the characters, though not all, are still alive at the end and the bad guys on both sides of the rebellion got what was coming to them, and where when someone dies there's a reason other than to annoy the fans. 

Jane's Guest Post!

Hi. I’m Jane Routley. Sue’s very kindly asked me to do a guest post on her blog to celebrate the publishing of my new book The Melded Child.

The Melded Child is set on the Islands of Yarmar. The Tari - powerful mages who are a kind of cross between elves and nature spirits act seek to maintain a balance between the peoples of the Islands so all can flourish. The peace they’ve brokered between the indigenous peoples of Yarmar and the incoming Mirayans has held for 10 years. But most Tari aren’t interested in the outside world – they prefer to stay in their own realm, growing flowers and fashioning statues out of lava (I‘ve got a thing for volcanoes as you’ll quickly see when you read the book.)

So when a death mage starts to pick off those Tari who do care about the outside world - kidnapping one and tricking another into the hands of the megalomaniac mage, Malov, and his insane sister Daria - the peace falls apart. Suddenly Alyx Mori, heiress to the throne of the Mori forest folk finds herself on the run, wounded and hiding from death angels and blood beasts. Her only help is Serge – the youngest son of the man who murdered her father. 

The Melded Child is heroic fantasy, but it’s not as grim or dark as Game of Thrones. Sure, I like writing about adventures and politics but I’m not a grim or dark person. Apart from anything else, who wants to read about Winter Coming when it’s freezing cold outside? There’s clearly a reason why the GOT TV series comes out in the northern summer. I try to keep the cold scenes to a minimum in the The Melded Child. 

All through the book I’m seeking to tap into the sense of wonder I felt when I read books like the Chronicles of Prydain(SB By Loyd Alexander), the Narnia books and collections of folk and fairy tales. The world, even the real world, is full of magic. You can see it in the unfurling petals of a rose or the tiny black and gold New Holland Honeyeaters hopping through the bushes in your garden. I’ve tried to capture that feeling in The Melded Child with magical singing in the forest, hiding from blood beasts in tree houses and calling birds to the tops of towers. I’ve paid tribute to the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. Even the bad guys get moments of wonder as they break open landscapes and make lava leak out. 

Back in the early naughties I published four books with Harper Collins and won two Aurealis awards for best Fantasy novel with my books Fire Angels and Aramaya. . But then life and publishing changes intervened and though I’ve been writing all the time I’ve not managed to finish much. In that time publishing has completely changed and the world has become much grimmer. So I decided to bring out The Melded Child myself with the help of the wonderful Lindy Cameron from Clan Destine Press. It’s been great fun. And great to discover blogs like The Great Raven faithfully covering fantasy and SF writing. Thank you, Sue. 

Author's Website:

www.janeroutley.com

Where you can buy the book online: 

https://www.amazon.com/Jane-Routley/e/B000AQ76EC

All her books, republished by ClanDestine, which has done this with other wonderful writers, are now on iBooks, including the new one. They cost $4.99 in ebook.

Jane's author page on ClanDestine Press. You should absolutely check out the website in general. ClanDestine is one of Australia's amazing small presses, which publishes crime fiction, fantasy and SF, horror... go take a look!