From the Shaky Isles to the Shifted World
by Philippa
Ballantine
People often ask me where I got the inspiration
for the world of Conhaero. I suppose that is because it is quite a different
fantasy world for some readers; it is one of shifting landscapes, many
different kinds of peoples and cultures, and strange creatures lurking beneath
the surface. It is the first thing that is drawn from my life as a New
Zealander. In Conhaero, one day you could be sitting by a lake, and if you
stayed still for a week, it could be a mountain range. It’s a strange
concept…but one that comes from our world, and my life.
I was born in New Zealand, and I may have
added the strange creatures, but the shifting world bit was under my feet all
my life. My earliest memories are of hiding beneath a solid oak table with my
family because our house was shaking. Those kind of memories stay with you. You
kind of got used to things rattling on shelves, and the constant niggling
danger in your everyday life. You learn how to cope and what to do.
The unfortunate truth is the world is
always moving, it’s just that we don’t really notice it in places like
Virginia, where I currently live. Though even here occasionally the earth
reminds us that not everything is as we perceive it to be—as it did in 2011. I
was here when the earthquake happened, and the Washington DC area went into
shock when the earth gave us that gentle nudge.
Such realities make authors think a bunch
of different what-ifs. ‘What if the world was moving but at a pace you could
actually experience?’ ‘What would that
do the people that had to live with it?’
What-ifs eat at you, and if you have a
nagging imaginer, and sooner or later you have to answer the call.
The Shifted World series was born, and I
got to people it with all sorts of folks from all over my imagined worlds. If
you’re going to have a chaotic landscape, then the people must learn to adapt,
and Conhaero has shaped all of the folk that have made it home. I hope that
readers enjoy the lush texture of the world, and maybe see a little bit of New
Zealand peeking through too.
*~*~*
Kindred
and WingsA Shifted World Novel Book Two
Philippa
Ballantine
Genre: Epic fantasy
Paperback: 390 pages
Publisher: Pyr
August 6, 2013
ISBN-13: 978-1616147792
ISBN-10: 1616147792
Book Description:
On the back of the dragon
Wahirangi, Finn the Fox flees the world he has known. As he sets out to find
the brother he never knew of, he still holds in his heart the memory of the
Hunter. He has denied his love for her, but he cannot deny it forever. In the
halls of the Last Believers, Talyn begins to uncover her own mysteries, but her
lust for the death of the Caisah is still strong and clouds her vision.
She must choose her path, as the
Seer of her people or as the assassin of the overlord. Meanwhile, Byre, Talyn's
brother, must venture into the fiery world of the Kindred, to rebuild the pact
that his ancestors made. He will risk everything he is as he forms a new pact
that will change his people forever.
Dragons and myths will be reborn,
as the Hunter and her Fox face each other once more.
About the Author:
She first earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Political Science and then a Bachelor of Applied Science in Library and Information Science. So soon enough she found herself working in the magical world of libraries where she stayed for over a decade.
Her first professional sale was in 1997, and since then she has gone on to produce mostly novel length fiction. In 2006 she became New Zealand’s first podcast novelist, and she has voiced and produced Weaver’s Web, Chasing the Bard, Weather Child and Digital Magic as podiobooks. Her podcasts have won both a Parsec Award and a Sir Julius Vogel award.
Philippa is the author of the Books of the Order series with Ace- Geist, Spectyr, Wrayth and Harbinger coming in July 2013.
She is also the co-author of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series with Tee Morris. Phoenix Rising debuted in May 2011 and The Janus Affair came out in May 2012. Phoenix Rising won the Airship Award for best written steampunk, and was the number eight best Science Fiction book of 2011 according to Goodreads.com. The Janus Affair was the seventh most popular science fiction book of 2012 on Goodreads.com. The series continues with Dawn’s Early Light in December 2013.
In addition she is also the author of the Shifted World series with Pyr Books, with the first book Hunter and Fox released in June 2012, and the second Kindred and Wings scheduled for August 2013.
When not writing or podcasting, Philippa loves reading, gardening, and whenever possible traveling. With her husband Tee and her daughter, she is looked after by a mighty clowder of five cats in Manassas, Virginia.
Website: www.pjballantine.com
Twitter: philippajane
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