Novelist Kathryn Troy joins me today to chat about her new romantic fantasy adventure, The Shadow of Theron.
Welcome, Kathryn. Please tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’m a history professor by day, a novelist by night. I like to write what I read – fantasy, romantic fantasy, gothic fiction, historical fiction, paranormal, horror, and weird fiction. Horror cinema and horticulture are my other passions.
When I’m not reading or writing or teaching, I’m gaming, traveling, baking, or adding some new weird creepy cool thing to my art collection. I’m a Long Island native with one husband, two children, and three rats.
Please tell us about your current release.
This is the first book in the Age of Shadows Duology, and is a fantasy reimagining of pulp action/adventure heroes, and Zorro in particular. Who doesn’t love a good swashbuckler? I’ll give you the blurb, the thing that every writer thinks is harder to write than the book itself:
The powers of old are fading. A new Age is dawning.
Holy relics are all that remain of Theron’s sacred legend.
Now those relics, the enchanted weapons forged by the Three-Faced Goddess to help Theron defeat the wicked Sorcerer Argoss, are disappearing.
Lysandro knows the village magistrate Marek is responsible, and he searches for proof disguised as the masked protector the Shadow of Theron.
But when Marek wounds him with an accursed sword that shouldn’t exist, Lysandro must find a way to stop Marek from gaining any more artifacts created by the Goddess or her nemesis. The arrival of the beautiful newcomer Seraphine, with secrets of her own, only escalates their rivalry.
As the feud between Lysandro and Marek throws Lighura into chaos, a pair of priestesses seeks to recover the relics and return them to safekeeping. But the stones warn that Argoss is returning, and they must race to retrieve Theron’s most powerful weapon. But as they risk their lives for a legend, only one thing is certain. The three temples to the Goddess have been keeping secrets: not just from the faithful, but from each other.
Wheel of Time readers and fans of Sarah Maas, Saladin Ahmed, and Trudy Canavan will delight in this fantasy adventure duology infused with romance.
What inspired you to write this book?
Val Kilmer. No, seriously. He was the voice of Diego de la Vega, aka Zorro, for an audio version of The Curse of Capistrano, the first story in which Zorro appears, and his voice was very sensuous, but also very humorous when the story called for it, and I wanted to explore that romantic element of adventure stories more. I was also coming off of reading the Greatcoats series, which is a fantasy-blended story in the vein of The Three Musketeers, one of my favorite pieces of literature of all time. I thought long and hard about how I wanted to use Joseph Campbell’s hero quest structure, but also give it something fresh, so I played around with time and the order of certain archetypal beats, and pulled in some of the concepts of lore from The Legend of Zelda, one of my favorite heroes ever.
Excerpt from The Shadow of Theron:
Lysandro moved along the edges of the room, circumnavigating the central space occupied by countless dancing couples. Then he saw her. At the far end of the hall, the normal view out over the coast had been replaced by a painted backdrop of the Maghreve Desert, at the very farthest border of Mirêne. With her arms wrapped around herself, she looked out over the artificial horizon. She wore a sleek ivory dress covered gold and copper crystals that left her shoulders daringly bare. That now familiar ache that hadn’t left him since this morning grew more pronounced.
As he observed the faraway, wistful look in her eyes, he realized he recognized it—homesickness. He took a deep breath and called on well-used skills to smooth his nerves and keep them tightly tucked away under a charming façade.
He inhaled the hypnotic scent of her hair again as he stood close to her, and almost lost his nerve. He agonized over what to say, knowing he might have only one shot to get her attention.
“Is the city of stars as beautiful as they say?”
She turned to face him, and he saw the truth in her eyes.
What exciting project are you working on next?
Oh, so many. I’m actively working on Argoss Ascendant, the second half of the Age of Shadows duology, I’m typing up my final draft of Night of Storms, the third book in my vampire fantasy series before my editor gets a crack at it, a horror novella (also about vampires) is on submission, and I have three new standalones that are in various stages of outlining/plotting. It’s just a never-ending cycle of stories that fill my mind until they are purged on paper.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
When I launched A Vision in Crimson, which was my first published novel, and someone that was not related to me by blood purchased it.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
Hahaha no. That’s funny. I’m a history professor, and as an adjunct (aka part time) I work at four different colleges/universities. That’s on top of raising 2 school-aged children, tending to a house with half an acre of land, and caring for my three fancy rats. I find time to write (lots of it, actually), because if you look up the word “Type A personality” in the dictionary, you’ll see my mug shot. I’m a hyperactive, hyper-organized, always have to be doing something sort of person. Writing is a compulsion. So it gets done at all hours. It’s a lot like being haunted, come to think of it. I have to get them out of my head.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I still write everything by hand, with Caliber 3-subject spiral notebooks and Pilot G2 inky black pens, no exceptions.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A pediatrician.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Rats are super clean and super cute. They are pocket-sized puppies with loads of personality, and you can safely tuck them away in their cage while you get on with your life. I highly recommend them. Sprinkles, the fawn boy sitting on my lap and sniffing the keyboard at the moment, approves this message.
About books, you meant, oh! I would like to share that most readers are not in it for the money. We are in it for the stories, and for sharing that piece of ourselves with others in the hope of bringing you that same sense of joy and wonder we feel when we are inspired to write. So if you enjoyed a book, please review it. Even just tapping some stars on an Amazon or Goodreads page lets us know that we reached another soul out there, and that makes us so happy.
Links:
Blog: Lady Bathory’s Closet | Facebook | Instagram | Amazon Author Page | Goodreads | Amazon | UBL
Thanks for being here today!