WRITER PRUE BATTEN - GUEST POST & DOUBLE GIVEAWAY

Have you seen the lovely invitation to  a Masked Ball on May 1st on my sidebar? The invitation comes from Prue Batten, a very kind and talented Australian lady, a fantasy writer, who is one of my latest interesting acquaintances in the blogoworld. I asked her to be my guest on Fly High and to tell us about her love for writing and whatever she wanted about herself and her interests.

 Read till the end : there is a double giveaway open worldwide. Just leave a comment under this post and don't forget your e-mail address!

Now it's time to meet Ms Prue Batten

I’m Prue Batten, an Australian writer of fantasy and I’m delighted to be Maria Grazia’s guest on Fly High. Maria Grazia  asked me to guest-blog after she’d become a regular commentator on Mesmered's Blog , my site. We both have a love of historical fiction, of the great writers through the centuries, of costume dramas and of course, an interest in the work of Mr.Richard Armitage.

As a writer of Fantasy, the contemporary take on Robin Hood delighted me. I loved the language, the in-jokes, the costuming and the storyline. Having not yet seen Series 3, and shattered at the death of Marion, I firmly believe the writers took a wrong turn, but that’s a personal and very uninformed opinion. The thing with writing is that it takes U-turns when a writer least expects. In writing each of my books, I had a carefully detailed plot and an idea of how I wanted the plot to unfold. The reality was another thing altogether. In that first draft, as the characters grew so the story changed and I had to be mindful of controlling the characters with an iron fist in a velvet glove so they didn’t gallop away too often with the plot in their saddle-bags.

My world is the fantasy world of Eirie, a world no different from our own. There are the misty, wooded vales of Trevallyn, the cultural jewel of the canal province of Veniche, the sun-baked exotic province of the Raj and the disparate and eclectic islands that make up the Pymm Archipelago. In my world, Others exist – those enchanted immortals who drift from our own myth and legend to enhance and trouble the lives of mortals with whom they share Eirie

Over a series of books, the same family is written about – through successive generations. And yes, in looking for qualities on which to base my various male protagonists, Richard Armitage’s alter-egos have helped build my character profiles. (Read my post Dark and Dangerous)
My stories are romance, adventure, tragedy, endurance and revenge and since 2008/2009, have begun to build a niche following. It’s all I want, all any writer wants, to have loyal readers who love and hate the characters as much as the author both loves and hates them herself.

Most recently, it was deemed suitable in terms of marketing, to create and upload a book-trailer to Utube for my first novel The Stumpwork Robe, which was an exercise in fun of the highest order.

After that, it was decided to increase the books’ profiles by having a blog event. So here am I, the world’s greatest Luddite, with two e-friends from America, hosting a ‘virtual’ Masked Ball in May and quite honestly having more enjoyment than I thought possible. We have created our own far-fetched and fantastic back-stories (something we hope everyone who joins us will do). We have researched costumes, food, dance, music and will introduce a bit of each and some of the fantasy world of Eirie as the weeks progress toward the Ball. We shall have competitions with delightful prizes like miniature books and handmade silk reticules, prizes to please the discerning eye.

And after it’s over, I shall return to my world and my characters and push on through the generations and see where it takes me. I have travelled with Liam, Finnian, Lalita and Phelim to Trevallyn, Veniche and the Raj. With Nicholas and Isabella I am currently in the Han, an Asian inspired and hitherto undiscovered province. And in the future, Gervais the Cartographer shall sail with me across seas that were believed to have a finite end. In each you will find women of highly charged emotion and daring, some will be mad, clever, even attractive and their men, both mortal and immortal, shall be beautiful, tragic and vengeful.

In the meantime, I invite you all to join Maria Grazia, and Pat, Rebecca and myself on May 1St. We’d love to meet you at the Ball.

AND NOW THE DOUBLE GIVEAWAY!!!

Win a signed copy of Prue's

THE STUMPWORK ROBE ( one lucky winner )

or a copy of her second novel , THE LAST STITCH ( another lucky winner).

Open worldwide.

Just  leave your comment and e-mail address.

Winners will be announced on Wednesday March 31st

THANK YOU VERY MUCH, PRUE. YOU ARE AMAZING!