Virtual Book Tour - Linda Suzane

Today I am hosting Linda Suzane. Linda is the author of the fantasy genre novel, The Eyes of Truth.



Linda, can you give us a brief synopsis of this book?



If you could tell if someone was lying, you would think it would be simple to find a murderer, but Dar learns it isn't so easy, when he is sent to Dak-moon to find the killer of a gardener in this fantasy mystery.






Do you have any reviews of this book?



Ruby Moon-Houldson of Earth Realm Reviews said:



This book was great! It was a mixture of fantasy thriller, fast-paced adventure, and whodunit. Suzane has created a world in which mythical creatures abound. The author integrates Japanese type virtues within her characters. There are many twists, turns, and surprises along the way as the characters race to solve a murder.Dar is much like the world renowned, television hero, Beastmaster—willing to help others and defend the weak. Dar and a friend take on a quest of sorts and run across various forms of life along the way. This tale encompasses unusual phenomenon like death from ghost sickness, night creatures, strange seers, and the not-so-unusual—dragons.



You will not want to put this book down once you’ve begun reading it. So settle into a comfy seat and get ready to be whisked away on a fast and furious adventure.



What is this book about?



Eyes of Truth is a fantasy set in an exotic place where watch dragons bugle warning of impending disaster, villagers are terrified of blood-drinking night-creatures, soothsayers seek answers from house elementals, and some men possess the Eyes of Insu, the power to tell if a man lies. When a gardener is found drained of all blood in the distant province of Dak-moon, the Dyamu of Kingdom of Naj sends his brother Dar to solve the crime. With the Eyes of Insu, Dar can tell if someone is lying, but can he find a murderer?



What prompted you to write this story? What was your inspiration?



This is from the Afterward from the first edition:Some years ago I took a class on writing speculative fiction from science fiction writer Ray Faraday Nelson. He gave me two invaluable gifts. First was the assignment to identify our passion, the thing we write about over and over. I discovered that mine was duality, dealing with the dark, hidden side of ourselves. All my heros and heroines had secret identities, hidden pasts, and the story is always about them coming to terms with these alter egos. The second assignment was in world building and led to the creation of the fantasy kingdom of Naj. In college I was a history major. One of the periods that fascinated me was ancient Japan, the early history, actually before the rise of the Samurai, the time of the Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu and The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon. So when I began creating a fantasy world, I drew on that as a source, rather than the typical European or Tolkein roots.I decided to write a short story set in the Kingdom of Naj for Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword and Sorceress series. I submitted the story and Marion wrote a devastating rejection letter, calling my writing hackneyed. I refused to accept her rejection and kept working on the story. When she was reading for the next book in the series, I submitted a greatly revised and improved story. Although it didn’t make the cut, she wrote me a glowing letter and said that she really had liked the story, but she only had room for a couple of stories of that length. I explored many different kinds of writing trying to find what I really enjoyed. I tried romances, but I found I just didn’t like them. Still romance was the market to break into, so I decided to try my hand at romantic suspense. I wrote a proposal for Harlequin about a mystery game designer whose game goes murderously wrong, using my own experience at designing mystery games. That was when murder mystery games were becoming popular in the early 1980's. They liked the idea and agreed to let me write the book on spec. When I finally finished the book, it was rejected by Harlequin because the hero wasn’t Harlequin enough. Eventually The Murder Game became my first published eBook and is now available from www.wings-press.com. While I didn’t enjoy writing romance, I did really like writing the mystery part, so I decided to try my hand at writing mysteries. About that time, I read a fantasy mystery A Sword in Winter by Marta Randall. I was impressed and began to wonder if I could create a fantasy mystery. I started thinking about what kind of detective I wanted, what powers he would have that would make him interesting, and Dar was born. I played around with a lot of different ideas. The murder, the gardener’s body found drained of blood, hanging above a cookpot was always there, but I didn’t know who the murderer was or why. That came much later.



How many books have you written?



My first book, THE ADDONIAN AFFAIR, was an “original cast” Star Trek novel, that was published as a fanzine. No longer available.


THE MURDER GAME is a romantic mystery originally written on spec for Harlequin, about a murder mystery game designer whose mystery game goes murderously wrong. This was my first published book and is now available from www.Wings-Press.com. It taught me that I really don’t like writing romance, but I do like writing mystery.


EYES OF TRUTH originally published by Twilight Times, and then translated and printed in Romanian. It was reprinted Jan 2009 by http://www.wings-press.com/.


CAPTIVITY DARKHOUR VAMPIRES VOL 1 is also available from www.Wings-Press.com. This is the first of a series of 5 books. In 1998, I had the experience of a character stepping out of a short story and literally demand that I tell the story of how he was first bitten by vampires. This series wrote itself. Over a period of 6 months I completed the first draft of 5 books, all over 50,000 words. This was a once in a lifetime experience to literally be consumed by a story, to feel out of control while the characters took over and told their tales. It was exhilarating and exhausting. So probably this was the easiest to write because it literally wrote itself. Shortly after CAPTIVITY was published in 2002, I was forced to stop writing because of ill health. So it is also the hardest, as I try picking up the series after 6 years and finish it.




Do you have a website that readers can visit to look at more of your work?

Please see below.


http://www.lindasuzane.com/
(official website)


http://www.wings-press.com/
(My publisher) On Wings of Murder


Linda Suzane at Facebook http://www.facebook.com/LindaSuzane



My Space http://www.myspace.com/lindasuzane



Red Room www.redroom.com/author/lindasuzane



Twitter http://twitter.com/LindaSuzane



Thanks for stopping by Linda. Best of luck with your books.