The Man with the Crystal Ankh / The Girl Who Flew Away
by Val Muller
I asked Val if there were places where he got inspiration. His answer is below the blurb:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: YA
paranormal / YA literary
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BLURB:
Everyone’s
heard the legend of the hollow oak—the four-hundred year curse of Sarah
Willoughby and Preston Grymes. Few realize how true it is.
Sarah
Durante awakens to find herself haunted by the spirit of her high school’s late
custodian. After the death of his granddaughter, Custodian Carlton Gray is not
at peace. He suspects a sanguisuga is involved—an ancient force that prolongs
its own life by consuming the spirits of others. Now, the sanguisuga needs
another life to feed its rotten existence, and Carlton wants to spare others
from the suffering his granddaughter endured. That’s where Sarah comes in.
Carlton helps her understand that she comes from a lineage of ancestors with
the ability to communicate with the dead. As Sarah hones her skill through
music, she discovers that the bloodlines of Hollow Oak run deep. The sanguisuga
is someone close, and only she has the power to stop it.
The Girl
Who Flew Away:
No good
deed goes unpunished when freshman Steffie Brenner offers to give her awkward
new neighbor a ride home after her first day at school. When her older sister
Ali stops at a local park to apply for a job, Steffie and Madison slip out of
the car to explore the park—and Madison vanishes.
Already
in trouble for a speeding ticket, Ali insists that Steffie say nothing about
Madison’s disappearance. Even when Madison’s mother comes looking for her. Even
when the police question them.
Some
secrets are hard to hide, though—especially with Madison’s life on the line. As
she struggles between coming clean or going along with her manipulative
sister’s plan, Steffie begins to question if she or anyone else is really who
she thought they were. After all, the Steffie she used to know would never lie
about being the last person to see Madison alive—nor would she abandon a friend
in the woods: alone, cold, injured, or even worse.
But when
Steffie learns an even deeper secret about her own past, a missing person seems
like the least of her worries.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here are five places Val Muller might visit for inspiration
for his books?
For this post, I was asked where are five places I
might visit for inspiration for my books. I’m going to take this literally and
choose places that are logistically possible at this time—with a toddler in
tow. If budget, time, and travel were infinite, I might choose places further
away—like New Zealand, China, and parts of Europe.
Putnam
Memorial State Park
The
Man with the Crystal Ankh takes place in New England,
drawing on the history of the early colonists. The protagonist, Sarah Durante,
discovers that many of the residents of the fictional town of Hollow Oak have
ties to the original settlers there—with a supernatural twist.
Growing up in Connecticut, I frequented Putnam Park with my parents, but my
main memories are of the foliage while hiking and picnicking. Since I left the
area, the park was decommissioned, fixed up, and then reopened as a state park.
I would return there to view the remains of soldiers’ chimneys as well as some
of the replica buildings that were constructed to commemorate those involved in
the Revolutionary War. There’s a different feeling when visiting a place that
has such a long history of civilization. When I was out west touring Native American
sites, I was told that many tribes’ traditional beliefs involve abandoning
possessions, as they tend to hold on to elements of the deceased. With all the
remnants at Putnam Park and the surrounding areas, I would find inspiration for
the last two books in the series.
While I was visiting New England, I’d probably travel
a few more hours north and see Salem. I’m always haunted whenever I read The Crucible with my students. There
were such charged emotions in the 1690s, and this would relate directly to the
troubled history in my novel.
Shenandoah
National Park
On an opposite note, I find such comfort in nature.
Nature constantly renews, and the process of life and death seems natural when
out in the woods. In my young adult work The
Girl Who Flew Away, Steffie is dealing with so many major family issues
that when she escapes into nature to rescue a missing friend, she finds comfort
even as she is tested. Much of Shenandoah National Park
is a little much to hike with a toddler-in-backpack, but I hope to explore
parts of it soon.
Now, whenever I need inspiration, I frequent local
parks with easy-to-hike trails. No matter how stressed I am or how “stuck” I am
in working on a new writing idea, I always come back from a hike (even a short
one) refreshed, with several ideas simmering on the backburner.
Tombstone,
Arizona
One of my works-in-progress (it’s written and needs to be revised
before shopping it around) takes place in a semi-apocalyptic future. The land
has dried out so that everything resembles the dryness of the Wild West. It’s
dusty, it’s nearly lawless, and civilization seems far away. A trip to Tombstone
would help me add those details that make a story feel real. From a historic
courthouse to restored or recreated graveyard, corrals, and gallows, Tombstone
would be a like a trip back in time.
When I first spent time in Arizona, it was in Sedona. It was
beautiful and breathtaking, but something felt “off” to me. I commented that I
didn’t feel the normal “restoration” I felt while out hiking back home (on the
East Coast). I attributed it to jet lag, perhaps, but a woman who overheard me
told me otherwise. She had lived on the East Coast and said it took her years
to get used to the absence of the smell of greenery: that was what I missed.
In my upcoming work, the residents have the chance to travel to a
world that’s basically a rainforest compared to their barren dustbowl, and
being forced to miss the atmosphere of greenery would help me capture their
pain—and explain the sacrifices they would make to find their paradise.
Green-Wood
National Historic Landmark
I have never been there, but the beauty evident on the website (www.green-wood.com) reminds
me of a place I did visit, Longwood Gardens. But because many of my works have
a darker twist, I would look forward to the presence of statuary and
mausoleums. There’s something I enjoy about the blending of nature and history.
It seems humans leave their footprint, allowing their essence to linger, a
theme directly relevant to my Hollow Oak series.
Cranbury
Park
Located near where I grew up, this park has one feature important
to The Man with the Crystal Ankh. On
the grounds of the park, which includes a Tudor Revival mansion (The Gallaher
Mansion) as well as gardens and trails, is an expansive weeping beech tree (You
can find pictures at http://www.adventuresinconnecticut.com/2013/07/cranbury-park-in-norwalk.html). This
tree always inspired a sense of mystery in me as a kid, and I can’t help but
think of it every time I write about the hollow oak that is central to the
novel’s story. I haven’t been to the park in years (since I moved away), but a
trip back would certainly be inspirational.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt from The Man with
the Crystal Ankh:
She picked up the instrument and set it onto her
shoulder. A calmness passed into her, as if the violin exuded energy—as if it
had a soul. The varnish had faded and dulled. Its life force did not come from
its appearance. She brought the bow to the strings, which was still rosined and
ready to play. Dragging the bow across the four strings, she found the
instrument perfectly in tune.
Sarah took a deep breath and imagined the song, the
way the notes melted into each other in nostalgic slides, the way her spirit
seemed to pour from her soul that day.
And then it was happening again.
She had started playing without realizing it. Warm,
resonant notes poured from the instrument and spilled into the room. They were
stronger, and much more powerful, than those she was used to. This instrument
was different than the factory-made one her parents had bought for her.
Rosemary’s violin was singing to the world from its very soul. And it was
happening just as before. Sarah’s energy flowed from her body, causing her to
lose consciousness and gain perspective all at once. She rode the air on a
lofty run of eighth notes. She echoed off the ceiling with a rich and resonant
vibrato. She flew past the guests, who had all quieted to listen to her music;
flew past the table of cold cuts and appetizers and up the darkened staircase,
where she resonated against the walls and found her way into the guest room.
There, she crept along a whole note and slid into the closet.
As the song repeated, she twirled around in the
closet, spinning in a torrent of passionate notes. She searched through the
notebooks and books on the floor and on the shelves, searched for an open
notebook, for something she could read, something that might make her feel tied
to the place. Otherwise, she might spin out of control and evaporate out the
window and into the sky. She found her anchor on the floor in the darkest
corner of the closet, a large parchment—maybe a poster. The notes spun around
her in a dizzying way as she tried to stay still enough to read what was on the
paper. It was a difficult task; now, with every beat her body downstairs tried
to reclaim its energy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and
Links:
Teacher,
writer, and editor, Val Muller grew up in haunted New England but now lives in
the warmer climes of Virginia, where she lives with her husband. She is owned
by two rambunctious corgis and a toddler. The corgis have their own page and
book series at www.CorgiCapers.com.
Val’s
young adult works include The Scarred Letter, The Man with the Crystal Ankh,
and The Girl Who Flew Away and feature her observations as a high school
teacher as well as her own haunted New England past. She blogs weekly at
www.ValMuller.com.
The
Girl Who Flew Away:
Free
preview + discount code http://barkingrainpress.org/girl-who-flew-away/
Nook:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-girl-who-flew-away-val-muller/1125952688?ean=2940157613525
The
Man with the Crystal Ankh:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION
Val Muller will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN GC and a download code
for The Girl Who Flew Away, a download code for The Scarred Letter, a print
copy (US only) of The Man with the Crystal Ankh, and an ebook of Corgi Capers:
Deceit on Dorset Drive, to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the
tour.
congrats on the tour and thanks for the chance to win :)
ReplyDeleteLoved reading about where you would go for inspiration. Have visited two of them and would love to visit the other three. Great to have you here today.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by :)
DeleteI enjoyed the post, thank you.
ReplyDeleteI love your cover.
ReplyDeleteThank you :)
DeleteThanks for hosting me! Good luck to everyone, and happy reading!
ReplyDelete