*The images in this specific piece are granted
copyright privilege by: Public Domain, CCSAL, GNU Free Documentation
Licenses, Fair Use Under The United States Copyright Law, or given copyright
privilege by the copyright holder which is identified beneath the individual
photo.
**Some of the links will have to be copied and
then posted in your search engine in order to pull up properly
***The CRC Blog welcomes submissions from published and unpublished fiction genre writers for INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION. Contact CRC Blog via email at caccoop@aol.com or personal Facebook messaging at https://www.facebook.com/car.cooper.7
****Amalia Stankavage Dillin’s DAUGHTER OF A THOUSAND YEARS is #108 in the
never-ending series called INSIDE THE
EMOTION OF FICTION where the Chris
Rice Cooper Blog (CRC) focuses on one specific excerpt from a fiction
genre and how that fiction writer wrote that specific excerpt. All INSIDE
THE EMOTION OF FICTION links are at the end of this piece.
Name of fiction
work? And were there other names you considered that you would like to share
with us? Daughter
of a Thousand Years—I bounced a bunch of
different titles back and forth with my editor before we settled on this one,
but my working title was One Thousand
Years, because the two timelines were a thousand years apart. It was a
tough book to title because of the dual timeline element. The heart of the
story for both times was the same: both Emma, in the contemporary United
States, and Freydis, in the Viking age, are pagans in predominantly Christian
communities and daughters of influential men in positions of leadership in those
communities, as well, but there’s a lot of difference in how those communities
conduct themselves, and the challenges they face are unique to their times.
Has this been
published? And it is totally fine if the answer is no. If yes, what publisher and what publication
date? Yes, by Lake Union Publishing, February 2017!
What is the
date you began writing this piece of fiction and the date when you completely
finished the piece of fiction? I started writing Daughter
of a Thousand Years in October 2015 or so, under contract. I finished
it in the spring of 2016, delivered to my editor before Easter that year.
Where did you
do most of your writing for this fiction work?
And please describe in detail.
And can you please include a photo? I wrote Daughter
of a Thousand Years in what had been my Grandfather’s house, where my
husband and I were living at the time, and a place that has been very special
to my all my life. (Right: Amalia's Grandfather's garage)
I’d recently set myself up a real workspace that wasn’t just the
couch in the living room, but it was pretty bare bones! Just a desk and a
crooked office chair and a pile of reference books in the corner of our freshly
repainted bedroom. But it was my space, and I could close the door and keep
people from interrupting my workflow. (This was a lot less of an issue before I
was writing novels under contract!)
What were your
writing habits while writing this work- did you drink something as you wrote,
listen to music, write in pen and paper, directly on laptop; specific time of
day?
I worked on my laptop, in Word 2007, and
occasionally in various notebooks while I ran errands on the weekend. My
workday was generally 10am to 10pm, with breaks for lunch and dinner. Sometimes
I sometimes listened to music—though I don’t remember being fixated on any one
band or playlist, as sometimes happens with other books I’ve written! Probably
Of Monsters and Men, if anything!
What excerpt of
the book was the most emotional for you to write? This excerpt can be as short
or as long as you prefer.
“I know,” Sarah
said. “I know. I get it. But if you guys connected—maybe he wasn’t worried
about it until he realized he really should be, because it was going to destroy
him if it didn’t work out.”
I moaned,
sliding down the wall. “Please don’t let that be what’s going on. It’s going to
make it so much worse when I have to tell him how not Catholic I really am.”
“You didn’t?”
“Of course I
didn’t! It was our first date.”
“But you guys
talked about religion, you said.”
“It was bound
to come up,” I told her. “But it was mostly just kind of probing to feel out
his position on things, not mine. I didn’t want to scare him off.”
“You should
just get it out of the way, Emma. Tell him you’re whatever you are, and move
on. He’ll either understand or he won’t, but it’s not like you worship Satan.”
I tipped my
head back against the wall, thumping it once, twice,again. “No, I just worship
Thor.”
“Right,
whatever.”
I let out a
long breath, forcing myself to ignore the way she dismissed my words. My faith.
If someone suggested she was Catholic and not Protestant, she would be
offended, but I was just whatever. And this was why we didn’t talk about
my faith. Why even though she knew the truth, I still felt so alone. “You know
it isn’t going to be that simple.”
“Would you
rather get all wrapped up in him, let him fall in love with you, and then
spring it on him and break both your hearts when he looks at you like you’re
crazy?” she asked. “Because judging by this conversation, that’s where this is
headed. And it’s going to get there fast.”
I closed my
eyes, hating that she was right. Hating that she’d looked at me like I was
crazy, too, when I’d first told her about my beliefs. That she still to this
day couldn’t bring herself to say the word Heathen without implied
subvocal air quotes, when she could bring herself to say it at all. Like it
couldn’t possibly be as real to me as her faith was to her.
And if Alex
responded the same way . . .
We’d been on
only one date, but I knew already it would tear me apart.
“Just tell him,
Emma,” Sarah said. “If you’re serious about your faith and it means that much
to you, it isn’t fair to keep it from him. This is Alex. You already know he
can be trusted not to wreck your father’s campaign if things go south. Just be
honest.”
“Yeah,” I said,
blinking back the tears that pressed behind my eyes.
It was so easy
for her to say. For Sarah, for my dad, it was nothing to say they believed in
Jesus. People just accepted Christianity as a matter of course, and no one was
going to accuse them of being racists or neo-Nazis because of it. No one was
going to tell them their god didn’t exist in the middle of a history class, or
blink if they suggested they’d had some kind of spiritual experience of Christ.
And sure, yeah, maybe part of it was that it was a big deal to me, and I
was making more of it than I needed to because of that, but when the base
assumption of everyone around you was that everyone else was monotheist or
nonreligious and you weren’t either one, it was something that you became a
little more acutely aware of.
“Who knows?” I
said, forcing all the rest of it away. Forcing myself to keep my voice steady
instead of strangled. “Maybe there won’t even be a second date.”
To be honest,
after this, I wasn’t sure whether I wanted one.
Why is this
excerpt so emotional for you to write?
And can you describe your own emotional experience of writing this
specific scene/excerpt? So this whole book was kind of an emotional
roller coaster for me. I wasn’t at all prepared to write it or ready for what
writing it would mean for me, personally. DAUGHTER OF A THOUSAND YEARS, at its
heart, is a book about faith and spirituality that exists outside of what is
considered normal or acceptable, and writing that book meant being publicly and
personally open about my faith and spirituality in ways I hadn’t ever been
before—ways I had been too afraid to
be, before.
So in many ways, Emma’s confession was also mine, and putting it
in print, in a book that would be published, was terrifying. Her agonizing
about that confession, and how the people she loved most would respond, was
something I was experiencing alongside her, anticipating having the same
conversations with my family and loved ones, who I had been too afraid to talk
to about my faith before. (And like Emma, some of those people were more
accepting and understanding than others—which is just human nature, I think,
when it comes to faith.)
Were there any
deletions from this excerpt that you can share with us? And can you please
include a photo of your marked up rough drafts of this excerpt. Nope,
no cuts from this scene—it DID need some clarification and expansion to give us
a stronger sense of what was going on between Sarah and Emma, and what Sarah
understood about Emma’s faith, so this was a scene with a lot of additions
rather than subtractions. Lines like “And this was why we didn’t talk about my
faith. Why even though she knew the truth, I still felt so alone.” came in
later, to give their relationship a little bit more depth and make it clear
that Emma had hit up against this same wall in the past—and explain part of why
she was so hesitant to have these kinds of revealing conversations with other
people, as well. The work-up isn’t such that it makes for a very dramatic
picture, or really works to take a screenshot, sorry.
Other works you
have published? As Amalia Carosella, I’m also the author of HELEN
OF SPARTA, BY HELEN’S HAND, and TAMER OF HORSES, as well as a
co-author of the collaborative History 360 Team novel A SEA OF SORROW: A NOVEL OF
ODYSSEUS, and the short story “Ariadne and the Beast.” I also write
fantasy and fantasy romance as Amalia Dillin, including the Orc
Saga, the Fate of the Gods trilogy, and the Postcards from Asgard
duology.
Anything you
would like to add? DAUGHTER OF A THOUSAND YEARS
was maybe the most personal book I’d ever written to date, and certainly it was
the most soul-baring and difficult as a result. It felt like I was bleeding all
over every page—but looking back, I can see how much my own fear influenced the
book, and the act of facing that fear through writing the novel allowed me to
grow and find my own strength, so I could go on to write a book like FROM
ASGARD, WITH LOVE (as Amalia Dillin) more boldly, and also become more
true to myself on the whole.
I want to note, too, that writing this book, I wanted to be as
sensitive in my portrayals of the spectrum of faith that exists both for
Christians and Pagans—to show how even people of the same faith can respond
differently. Freydis, for example, is rather extremist, in opposition to her
half-brother, Leif, who is fairly zealous in his quest to convert his father’s
settlement, while their father Erik the Red, and other brother Thorvard are
more moderate (and in Thorvard’s case, he accepts and practices BOTH
Christianity and the pagan faith of his father.) Among the Christians in
Freydis’s timeline, in contrast to Leif, Gudrid is in my book (as in the
original sagas) an incredibly virtuous and kind, generous woman—a model of
Christian love and charity. I tried to show the same variance of spectrum of
understanding in Emma’s present timeline, too—to reflect the reality of the
world we live in today.
Amalia
Carosella is the author of Bronze Age Greek and
Viking Age historical fiction, including Tamer of Horses, Helen of
Sparta, and Daughter of a Thousand Years. As Amalia
Dillin she also writes mythic fantasy and time-hop fantasy romance, including
the ongoing Orc Saga and the completed Fate of the Gods
trilogy. Once upon a time, she dreamed of being a zookeeper, but she’s settled
for a house cat and a husband instead.
Twitter
@AmaliaCarosella,
support her on Patreon, to stay up to date on
her latest authorish adventures.
INSIDE THE EMOTION OF
FICTION links
001 11 15 2018 Nathaniel
Kaine’s
Thriller Novel
John
Hunter – The Veteran
002 11 18 2018 Ed
Protzzel’s
Futuristic/Mystery/Thriller
The
Antiquities Dealer
003 11 23 2018 Janice
Seagraves’s
Science
Fiction Romance
Exodus
Arcon
004 11 29 2018
Christian Fennell’s
Literary
Fiction Novel
The Fiddler
in the Night
005 12 02 2018 Jessica
Mathews’s
Adult
Paranormal Romance
Death
Adjacent
006 12 04 2018 Robin Jansen’s
Literary
Fiction Novel
Ruby the
Indomitable
007 12 12 2018 Adair Valerez’s
Literary
Fiction Novel
Scrim
008 12 17 218
Kit Frazier’s
Mystery Novel
Dead Copy
009 12 21 2019 Robert Craven’s
Noir/Spy Novel
The Road
of a Thousand Tigers
010 01 13 2019 Kristine Goodfellow’s
Contemporary
Romantic Fiction
The Other
Twin
011 01 17 2019 Nancy J Cohen’s
Cozy Mystery
Trimmed To
Death
012 01 20 2019 Charles Salzberg’s
Crime Novel
Second
Story Man
013 01 23 2019 Alexis Fancher’s
Flash Fiction
His Full
Attention
014 01 27 2019 Brian L Tucker’s
Young Adult/Historical
POKEWEED: AN ILLUSTRATED NOVELLA
015 01 31 2019 Robin Tidwell’s
Dystopian
Reduced
016 02 07 2019 J.D. Trafford’s
Legal
Fiction/Mystery
Little Boy
Lost
017 02 08 2019 Paula Shene’s
Young Adult
ScieFi/Fantasy/Romance/Adventure
My Quest
Begins
018 02 13 2019 Talia Carner’s
Mainstream
Fiction/ Suspense/ Historical
Hotel
Moscow
019 02 15 2019 Rick Robinson’s
Multidimensional
Fiction
Alligator
Alley
020 02 21 2019 LaVerne Thompson’s
Urban Fantasy
The Soul
Collectors
021 02 27 2019 Marlon L Fick’s
Post-Colonialist
Novel
The
Nowhere Man
022 03 02 2019 Carol Johnson’s
Mainstream
Novel
Silk And
Ashes
023 03 06 2019 Samuel Snoek-Brown’s
Short Story
Collection
There Is
No Other Way to Worship Them
024 03 08 2019 Marlin Barton’s
Short Story
Collection
Pasture
Art
025 03 18 2019 Laura Hunter’s
Historical
Fiction
Beloved
Mother
026 03 21 2019 Maggie Rivers’s
Romance
Magical
Mistletoe
027 03 25 2019 Faith
Gibson’s
Paranormal
Romance
Rafael
028 03 27 2019 Valerie Nieman’s
Tall Tale
To The
Bones
029 04 04 2019 Betty Bolte’s
Paranormal
Romance
Veiled
Visions of Love
030 04 05 2019 Marianne
Maili’s
Tragicomedy
Lucy, go
see
031 04 10 2019 Gregory Erich Phillips’s
Mainstream
Fiction
The Exile
032 04 15 2019 Jason Ament’s
Speculative
Fiction
Rabid Dogs
033 04 24 2019 Stephen P. Keirnan’s
Historical
Novel
The
Baker’s Secret
034 05 01 2019 George Kramer’s
Fantasy
Arcadis:
Prophecy Book
035 05 05 2019 Erika Sams’s
Adventure/Fantasy/Romance
Rose of Dance
036 05 07 2019 Mark Wisniewski’s
Literary
Fiction
Watch Me
Go
037 05 08 2019 Marci Baun’s
Science
Fiction/Horror
The
Whispering House
038 05 10 2019 Suzanne M. Wolfe’s
Historical
Fiction
Murder By
Any Name
039 05 12 2019 Edward DeVito’s
Historical/Fantasy
The
Woodstock Paradox
040 05 14 2019 Gytha Lodge’s
Literary/Crime
She Lies
In Wait
041 05 16 2019 Kari Bovee’s
Historical
Fiction/Mystery
Peccadillo
At The Palace: An Annie Oakley Mystery
042 05 20 2019 Annie Seaton’s
Time Travel
Romance
Follow Me
043 05 22 2019 Paula Rose Michelson’s
Inspirational
Christian Romance
Rosa &
Miguel – Love’s Legacy: Prequel to The Naomi
Chronicles
044 05 24 2019 Gracie C McKeever’s
BDMS/Interracial
Romance
On The
Edge
045 06 03 2019 Micheal Maxwell’s
Mystery
The Soul
of Cole
046 06 04 2019 Jeanne Mackin’s
Historical
The Last
Collection: A Novel of Elsa Schiaparelli
and
Coco
Chanel
047 06 07 2019 Philip Shirley’s
Suspense/Thriller
The
Graceland Conspiracy
048 06 08 2019 Bonnie Kistler’s
Domestic
Suspense
The House
on Fire
049 06 13 2019 Barbara Taylor Sissel’s
Domestic
Suspense/Family Drama
Tell No
One
050 06 18 2019 Charles Salzberg’s
Short Story/
Crime Fiction
“No Good Deed” from Down to the River
051 06 19 2019 Rita Dragonette’s
Historical
Fiction
The
Fourteenth of September
052 06 20 2019 Nona
Caspers’s
Literary
Novel/Collage
The Fifth
Woman
053 06 26 2019 Jeri Westerson’s
Paranormal
Romance
Shadows in
the Mist
054 06 28 2019 Brian Moreland’s
Horror
The
Devil’s Woods
055 06 29 2019
Epic Fantasy
Wings
Unseen
056 07 02 2019 Randee Green’s
Mystery Novel
Criminal
Misdeeds
057 07 03 2019 Saralyn Ricahrd’s
Mystery Novel
Murder In
The One Percent
#058 07 04 2019 Hannah Mary McKinnon’s
Domestic Suspense
Her Secret
Son
#059 07 05 2019 Sonia Saikaley’s
Contemporary
Women’s Literature
The
Allspice Bath
#060 07 09 2019 Olivia Gaines’s
Romance
Suspense Serial
Blind Luck
#061 07 11 2019 Anne Raeff’s
Literary
Fiction
Winter
Kept Us Warm
#062 07 12 2918 Vic Sizemore’s
Literary
Fiction-Short Stories
I Love You
I’m Leaving
#063 07 13 2019 Deborah Riley Magnus’s
Dark
Paranormal Urban Fantasy
THE ORPHANS
BOOK ONE: THE LOST RACE
TRILOGY
#064 07 14 2019 Elizabeth Bell’s
Historical
Fiction
NECESSARY
SINS
#065 07 15 2019 Lori Baker Martin’s
Literary Novel
BITTER
WATER
#066 08 01 2019 Sabine Chennault’s
Historical
Novel
THE
CORPSMAN’S WIFE
#067 08 02 2019 Margaret Porter’s
Historical Biographical
Fiction
BEAUTIFUL
INVENTION: A NOVEL OF HEDY LAMARR
#068 08 04 2019 Hank Phillippi Ryan’s
Suspense
THE MURDER
LIST
069 08 08 2019 Diana Y. Paul’s
Literary
Mainstream Fiction
THINGS
UNSAID
070 08 10 2019 Phyllis H. Moore’s
Women’s
Historical Fiction
BIRDIE
& JUDE
071 08 11 2019 Sara Dahmen’s
Historical
Fiction
TINSMITH 1865
072 08 19 2019 Carolyn
Breckinridge’s
Short Story
Collection
KALIEDESCOPE
& OTHER STORIES
073 08 21 2019 Alison Ragsdale’s
Emotional Women’s
Fiction
THE ART OF
REMEMBERING
074 08 22 2019 Lee
Matthew Goldberg’s
Suspense
Thriller
THE DESIRE
CARD
075 08 23 2019 Jonathan Brown’s
Mystery/Amateur
P.I.
THE BIG
CRESCENDO
076 09 02 2019 Chera Hammons Miller’s
Literary
Fiction w/ suspense, concern with animals & land management
Monarchs
of the Northeast Kingdom
077 09 09 019 Joe William Taylor’s
Literary
Mystery
The Theoretics of Love
078 09 15 2019 Linda Hughes’s
Romantic Suspense
Secret of the Island
079 09 19 2019 Max Elliot Anderson’s
Middle Grade Adventure/Mystery
Snake Island
080 09 22 2019 Danny Adams’s
Science Fiction
Dayworld: A Hole In Wednesday
081 09 24 2019 Arianna Dagnino’s
Social/Historical/Adventure
The Afrikaner
082 09 29 2019 Lawrence Verigin’s
Thriller/Suspense
Seed of Control
083 10 05 2019 Emma Khoury’s
Fantasy
The Sword And Shield
#084 10 07 2019 Steve McManus’s
Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
SEVEN DEVILS
#085 10 08 2019 Sheila Lowe’s
Mystery/Psychological/Suspense
with Scientific Bent
PROOF OF LIVE
#086 10 10 2019 Jess Neal Woods’s
Historical Fiction
THE PROCESS OF FRAYING
#087 10 11 2019 Karen Odden’s
Historical
Suspense
A TRACE OF DECEIT
#88 10 14 2019 Kate Maruyama’s
Love, Loss
& Supernatural
“HARROWGATE”
#89 10 17 2019 Sherry Harris’s
Mystery
“LET’S FAKE A
DEAL”
#90 10 18 2019 Linda Mooney’s
Science
Fiction Apocalyptic/ Post Apocalyptic
“THE TRUNK”
#91 10 19 2019 Jayne Martin’s
Flash Fiction Short Story Collection
“TENDER CUTS”
#92 10 22 2019 Janice Cole Hopkins’s
Inspirational
Romance
“IT ALL STARTED AT THE MASQUERADE”
#93 10 29 2019 Kristi Petersen Schoonover’s
Short Story Collection
“THE SHADOWS
BEHIND”
#94 11 01 2019 David Henry Sterry’s
Fiction:
Sexual Violence
“THE TENDERLOIN WARS”
#95
11 03 2019 Jay Requard’s
Dark Fantasy/Horror
“DEATH
& DUST: THE PALE SAND ADVENTURES”
#96
11 04 2019 Caroline Leavitt’s
Fiction
“WITH
OR WITHOUT YOU”
#97 11 06 2019 Kelsey Clifton’s
Science
Fiction
“A DAY OUT OF TIME”
#098 11 13 2019 John F Allen’s
Urban Fantasy
Tale
“The God
Killers’
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/11/98-inside-emotion-of-fiction-god.html
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/11/98-inside-emotion-of-fiction-god.html
#99 11 16 2019 Damian McNicholl’s
Historical
Novel
“The Moment of Truth”
#100 11 19 2019 Stacia Levy’s
Mystery/Suspense
Novel
“Girl Crush”
#101 11 24 2019 Charlotte Morgan’s
Fiction Novel
“Protecting Elvis”
#102 11 26 2019 T. L. Moore’s
Children’s
Christian Fiction
“Ed On My Shoulder:
Maria & The Candy Trail”
#103
11 27 2019 Jeanne McWilliams Blasberg’s
Coming of Age Literary Novel
The Nine
#104 11 29 2019 Charlotte Blackwell’s
Adult
Paranormal
“MYSTIC EMBRACE”
#105 12 07 2019 Mike Burrell’s
Satire Novel
“THE LAND OF GRACE”
#106 12 09 2019 Phil McCarron’s
Screenplay
“Escapement”
#107 12 11 2019 Wendy H. Jones’s
Crime
Fiction/Police Procedural Novel
“KILLER’S COUNTDOWN”
#108 12 13 2019 Sandra Arnold’s
Historical
Literary Fiction
“The Ash, the Well and the Blue Bell”
#109 12 16 2019 Amalia Carosella’s
Historical/Contemporary/Duel
Timeline/ Women’s
Fiction
“DAUGHTER OF A THOUSAND YEARS”
