Interview with fantasy author Marie Judson

Novelist Marie Judson is chatting with me about her new adult fantasy with time travel, Braided Dimensions.

During her virtual book tour, Marie will be giving away an epub copy of one of her books to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:
Marie Judson is a school teacher on the rural coast of Northern California. An ardent fantasy reader since childhood, she also loves singing, dream work, and crashing waves. Language and the mind are others passions, along with her cat Panda.

Welcome, Marie. Please tell us about your current release.
Braided Dimensions was first published in 2018. A new version came out Feb. 6. This novel is about the adventures of a woman, professor of ancient languages, who stumbles upon a bard from medieval time. With him, she crosses into the hills and into an ancient era. After that, she becomes obsessed with him and that time again.

What inspired you to write this book?
The initial inspiration for this book (and the series) was an invitation in a pagan newsletter hosted by a Druid group based in Denmark to enter a story contest. I was in a Ph.D. program at the time and letting a fantasy story ignite me was too tempting to pass up after years of very dry writing! In the story, the first scene is her leaving a Samhain (Halloween) party dressed as a monk. On her walk home, a medieval bard steps from an oak tree. She goes with him to a party on a hillside, a thousand years ago. When she wakes, there’s no sign any of what happened except a silver piece. She waits all year and when she sees the pumpkins appearing on front porches, her heart races. Maybe she’ll find the that medieval world again. The story is very much how the book begins except in the book we go to the party with her. The story did win the contest, by the way!

Excerpt from Braided Dimensions:
“Halfway down Partridge Street, moonlight filtered through the lofty branches of old oak tree, revealing a man in a long dark cape leaning against its trunk. Half in shadow, he studied her.

She considered crossing, unnerved by his sudden appearance. But she stopped and took in what appeared to be his costume: under the open cape, he wore an archaic tunic over breeches and worn slouching boots of a bygone era. A light breeze ruffled his long, dark hair streaked with silver. Dim half-moon rays etched his lightly bearded face.

They stared at each other, the only sound a breeze rustling in dry oak leaves above. The smell of wood fires wafted on the wind.

Fluidly, he pushed himself from the tree trunk and closed the distance between them. She thought she should run. Yet, something emanated from him—almost…a familiarity.

He looked down at her, eyes warm and intense. He smelled of the woods and wild winds. She breathed in deep.

“Why d’ ye dress yerself so, sister?” His voice, deep and sonorous, sent shivers through her. Something from the past hovered out of reach, a chaos of elusive images. A cottage. Herbs hanging from rafters. Faint voices. A smell—was it peat smoke?

Deep longing filled her. “It’s just…” Her voice came out a squeak. She tried again. “It’s my Halloween costume. You know.” She indicated her monk’s robe, bulging with pillows.

There was a somber deliberateness about his every breath as he waited, seemingly for a different answer.

She went for lighthearted, but her laugh sounded forced to her. “Hey, you called me ‘sister’. My beard’s not convincing?” She stroked the glued-on hairs, acutely aware of the ridiculous puffed rubber cheeks and round-rimmed glasses.

“I fathom yer spirit, Dove. No paunchy, baldin’ monk,” he said, teeth flashing in the moonlight.

What exciting project are you working on next?
Relaunching my Braided Dimensions series has reignited my enthusiasm for that time-travel dimension. I’m imagining a fifth book that I want to write later this year, as soon as I finish Missing Moon, the third book in my sci fi trilogy. I’m thinking Braided Dimensions Book 5 will have more urban fantasy feel with some anachronistic steampunk elements. It will have a lot of scenes in Berkeley and Rousseau will play a large role, as well as Galfride—nemesis mage of the first books who’s had an increasingly ambiguous image. In this next book, he’s decided he very much likes the twenty-first century. What mayhem might he wreak? And will he still try to draw Ian back into the meddling magics of their youth in Cornwall?

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
When I left the Ph.D. program, after working seven years on writing a dissertation, fiction flowed from me. Affirmation came in dreams as well. I wrote about it in my web site on a page called Depth Psychology, along with a dream collage.

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?
I’m a full-time teacher. For the fifteen years I’ve been writing fiction, I find the time outside of work, mostly on Sundays. I also meet with a writing group one evening a week. Over vacations, I often hammer out a big project by doing daily word sprints. I have a process with my writing groups. Once I have their notes, I go through and polish the writing and get the next part ready to share. It keeps me brave, to tackle the next bit. It’s also fun to anticipate my “readers” as I’m writing, since the writing group also becomes that: direct contact with readers!

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I sometimes daydream my next scenes. I drop into the scenes lying awake at night, or walking. I’ve also had the experience of my writing coming alive in dreams and vice versa; my dreams have led my writing in a few cases.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I’m not sure I thought about careers as a child, though strangely I did picture myself behind a large desk, feeling important. Lol. That hasn’t happened. In high school, the only subject I valued was French and for years I imagined myself this worldly sort of 007 spy, knowing many languages, being able to identify all manner of clues. The closest I got was becoming a linguistics major in college!

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Whatever people imagine is the meaning of publishing a book, there is so much more to it than writing and getting it into readers hands. A world opens up, of other writers, maybe blogging, tying in with the community of writers and readers. Hopefully it’s a journey of honing ones craft and developing as a person. To shape characters’ inner life, you need to be reflecting on your own; that’s something I believe.

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