Interview with Simona and DL Richardson on Secrete Cartilor from Romania

Interview with D. L. Richardson, author of The Bird With The Broken Wing

You might remember about the post where I wrote a little about The Bird With The Broken Wing byD.L.Richardson. Well, the author was really kind and accepted to answer some of my questions! I really love the answers she gave! Hope you can take a few minutes and find out more about the author and her interesting book!

Secretele Cărţilor: Hello Debbie! Thank you for accepting this interview. How about making a little introduction about yourself so readers can know you better?

DL loves this room!

D L: Thank you for featuring me on your site. I’m an Aussie who was born in Ireland and my favourite things to do are reading and writing, walking through gardens and on the beach, and playing and listening to music.

My dream home would be one that had a massive room with floor to ceiling books shelves on every wall and a grand piano in the centre of the room. It would have French doors that opened to a glass conservatory with a comfy lounge to read my many books. And it would have and a secret door that led into my own private woods.

In the real world, I once played bass guitar and was lead singer in a rock band. Now I live and breathe young adult fiction and I try to come up with unique stories. My next novel titled “Feedback” is coming out in a few months. It also features an element of the paranormal. And the third book I’m currently working on is a ghostly love story. I just love the idea that there is something beyond our five senses.

Secretele Cărţilor: In the past few years, angel related books started to multiply. How did the story of The Bird With The Broken Wing come to your mind? Anything that inspired you in particular?

D L: At first the story was going to be just about mortals who were trapped in Purgatory, only they didn’t know it and they were going crazy from being stuck there for decades. From that sprang the idea of putting a guardian angel in amongst the mortals to see if she could help them to come to terms with why they were there so they could escape. This is what makes this book different to many other angel related books. My story has dark elements to it that many readers have found intriguing and thought provoking.  

As you say, many angel books are now available, some feature half angel/half mortal characters, and others feature angels falling in love with mortals. What inspired me when I was creating the angel character was that I wanted to keep my angel true to what is conventionally known about them. I borrowed a book from the library on angel sightings. Like stories of strangers telling people to get on different buses and they do and avoid being in a crash, or something guides them down a street where they meet a long lost family member. However, a common belief amongst theologians is that guardian angels aren’t meant to intervene. These two opposing views led me to wondering what would happen if an angel knew she wasn’t meant to intervene but did.

Secretele Cărţilor: The name of the book and also the cover are both beautiful! How did you decide on them?

D L: The name of the book took a while to perfect. I had tossed about a few working titles. Mostly these were one-word titles which are really popular with young adult fiction. Titles like Halo, Hades, Fallen, Entangled, Rapture, Shiver, Lament etc. I considered one-word titles like Sanctuary or Heaven, but nothing seemed to sing out to me. Then, when I was walking my dog one day I started a brainstorming session in my head for titles. I thought about what animal an angel might be – a bird - and if someone is doing everything wrong what could that mean – they’d be broken. Hence, The Bird With The Broken Wing.

As for the cover, I’m afraid this stunningly beautiful cover is the publisher’s doing. I waited with bated breath for my publisher, Etopia Press, to send me the cover. Being my first book I wanted the cover to be special. Oh my, when I opened the email and saw the cover I nearly cried because it was so beautiful. So much better than I ever imagined. Being an Irish girl at heart myself I couldn’t have been more thrilled to find the talented artist was Irish girl Eithne O‘Hanlon.

Secretele Cărţilor: We all have a guardian angel out there. What's your book truly about?

D L: My mother told me that when I was four I told her that an angel sat on the end of my bed at night and watched me sleep. She and my father tried to see this angel, but of course they couldn’t. Over the years there have been times when I’ve sensed someone and done something because of this feeling. Some might call it intuition or instinct, Other might say . For example. I’d been wanting a dog for ages but I’d done nothing about it. Then one night at about midnight I was overcome with a need to email the local pound and ask if they had a puppy. They emailed me back the following morning and said they did and requested I come and see her at 10am. I went and got the dog and only found out as she was being signed over to me that she was days away from being put to sleep. I’m so glad I listened to that little nagging voice in my ear because she’s a terrific dog. So if guardian angels do exist then this book is dedicated to mine. BTW - I think my dog has her own guardian angel haha.

  

Secretele Cărţilor: Do you believe in angels? If one day you could meet your guardian angel(s) what would you have to say?

D L: Things happen to everyday people all that time that are unexplainable until later. And then, iIn hindsight we look back and think “Ah, of course.” Whether this moment is called chance, coincidence, intuition, gut instinct, or help from a guiding divinity, humans like to put a face to the name. Angelic faces are more comforting than whatever we can imagine Chance or Intuition to look like. I picture Chance as a shady character with a hoodie and dark scowl, dragging his feet through corridors and making us bump into the answers to our questions.

What would I say if I ever met my guardian angel? Wow, tough question. One of the characters in The Bird With The Broken Wing wants to meet her guardian angel to punch him in the face for standing by and doing nothing while her life went to ruin. I’m older now and with age comes acceptance. If I met my guardian angel I’d say thanks for watching out for me so far and please keep doing a great job.

Secretele Cărţilor: If you would be given the chance to become an angel, would you do it?

D L: Ooh, tough question. Becoming an angel would mean not having to go to work or wash the dishes. But it would also mean no sleeping or eating. If it meant being part of a team that got to battle dark forces I’d probably do it. It’d be like getting a chance to go up in a spaceship. You’d just have to do it because it would an experience of a lifetime.

Secretele Cărţilor: What do you usually like to read? Are there any books that you would never leave behind?

D L: I like to read well written fiction from younger readers to adult fiction. Most genres, though anything with a fantasy element is preferable. I especially love books that move me. I cried my eyes out reading Black Beauty. The Hunger Games fired me up so much that I wanted to start a revolution. The Hobbit is an exceptionally well written story. Harry Potter books are just fun to read.

On the adult side I love Marian Keyes novels because she is one of the most honest writers I’ve ever read. And I like Stephen King and Dean Koontz. I love classics too such as One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest and The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.

I have many books that I love and still so many more to read to know if I love them too, or not. Hard to choose who would stay and who would go. They’re like parts of me. Most of the books that I don’t like get given away so the books that are left are all the ones I love.

Secretele Cărţilor: What were you listening to while writing your book?

D L: I wish I could write to music, like I’ve read that other writers can. But when I hear music it makes me wanna get up and dance, sing along or break out the acoustic guitar and play long to it. None of these activities are productive when it comes to writing 2,000 words. So when I’m writing, I put music on in the breaks only. The Bird With The Broken Wing is quite a profound storyline, dramatic with dark elements. I listened to more layered, in-depth music like Bruce Springsteen and  Faith No More. My second novel “Feedback” has a lot of action scenes it. So I listened to Guns N Roses and The Offspring. My third book I’m currently working on is a ghostly love story so I’ll be listening to Kelly Clarkson and Adele and love song compilation CDs.

Secretele Cărţilor: What do you think about Romania? What would you like to see here if you come one day and visit my country?

D L: I’d love to see the castles. I simply love gothic architecture. And I’ve read that there are medieval towns in Romania, which I’d love to visit. It’s a pity we still don’t wear floor length gowns made from velvet and lace, and wreaths made of flowers in our hair. The mountains look majestic in the photos I’ve seen. I’ve read that it’s one of the most beautiful countries in Europe so it would definitely be on my list. Plus, you guys have the home of Dracula. How could a writer not want to visit there one day?

Secretele Cărţilor: Thank you for the time you've put in this interview! Tell every angel out there what's on your mind. Anything you think readers would like to know.

D L: Whether you believe in angels or not, listen to that little voice in your head. If something feels right it probably is. And the opposite is true. If something doesn’t feel right then it probably isn’t. Some might call this instinct or chance, but isn’t it better to lift the veil on life’s mysteries and see an angelic face than to lift the veil and see no face at all?

D L Richardson is the author of young adult fantasy novel The Bird With The Broken Wing

When mortals make mistakes they’re forgiven. When angels make mistakes they’re forsaken.

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The Heart Wants What The Heart Wants

Love. Sigh.

There is something about love and tragedy that go so well together. Romeo and Juliet. Buffy and Angel. Sam and Grace (Wolves of Mercy Falls ). Scarlett and Rhett (Gone With The Wind). Forbidden love makes for some of the most emotion writing. Unrequited love is perhaps the biggest tragedy of all the love stories ever written, because the heart wants what the heart wants and there is no telling it otherwise.

A while ago, I was at a party where a 17 year old boy was in a total mess. Why? He was in love. Not just any old kind of love. He was in unrequited love. You see, also at this party was a girl he had a crush on. He told us he had tried everything to get this girl to notice him and everything he tried had failed. He was a nice boy, and perhaps this was his problem. Here sat a nice boy, a look of dejected misery on his face, and he was talking to us and not the object of his desire.

Sometimes the person we love can walk a million miles around us and not notice us at all. Ow, that hurts. 

Perhaps wanting the unattainable wasn’t entirely this boy's fault. Many of the heroes in novels and movies are tough, edgy, dark, brooding and totally off limits. ice guys finish last” is a bit of catchcry of many an unrequited love story. And there is a safety feature in wanting the unattainable that you don't get in conventional love - the're's less risk of any real damage.

In “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, Peeta has had a crush on Katniss since forever, and Katniss plays on this to save her life, but when the games are over she wants nothing romantically to do with Peeta. Besides, Katniss has another admirer in Gale. 

“Wicked Lovely” by Melissa Marr is another example if unrequited love, but it is also an example of what happens when one party has the power to force this love onto the other party. Keenan the Faery King becomes infatuated with Aislinn and tricks her into becoming his Queen, but Aislinn already has a boyfriend whom she loves and refuses to be with Keenan. And no matter how hard you try, you can’t always make someone love you.

 

So how do you even know when you are in love? Well, you cry every time a soppy love song comes on the radio. You burst into tears during any scene in any movie when the male and female love interests finally kiss. You can’t walk past another couple without sighing. You can’t stop thinking about the person you are in love with.  When you eat an apple you wonder if he/she is eating an apple. You dress to impress. You infuriate your friends by talking nonstop about this person.

 

And how do you know when you are in unrequited love? Well, you still do all of the above, but you also stalk the object of your desire from close by, from afar, even from cyberspace. You mope around for all to see. When somebody suggests you ask somebody else out, you sigh and cry, “You don’t understand”. You buy gifts that are tucked away into a secret drawer and you take them out during full moons. You read books on magic spells. You feel as if every minute you are near this person is pure torture. You think he/she will love you back if they’d only give you the chance. You think that nobody understands what you are going through.

All very sad yet and all so very sweet, after all, the heart rules when it comes to love. No wonder there are countless books, movies, songs and websites devoted to unrequited love. Tragedy and love is what makes the world spin, so it makes sense that when you put the two together you have a far better story than simply “boy meets girl and they fall in love”.

 

In my novel “The Bird With The Broken Wing” my two female characters, Rachael and Jet, are in love with the male character, Ben, but for different reasons. Rachael is an angel and Ben’s protector. Jet has a crush on Ben, and Ben likes Jet, but Ben’s head isn’t in the right place so they never end up connecting. Perhaps that is what unrequited love is really about. In fiction, authors have characters whose timing is off, or the situation is wrong, or there are other factors and missions that a character must accomplish before he/she can settle down to love.

If only getting over unrequited love was as simple as writing The End. Or as easy as forcing our characters to “get over it” or “find somebody else”.

Review of The Bird With The Broken Wing

Seeing Night Reviews reviewed The Bird With The Broken Wing.

3 out of 5 stars

Head on over to Seeing Night Reviews to enter the giveaway of delightful feather earrings, signed postcards and winged temporary tattoos.

Extract of the review...

The Bird with the Broken Wing is an emotional story about two people and an angel who are lost and trying to either redeem and forgive themselves for something terrible that happened in their lives. With an interesting setting in what seems like a psychiatric center these three battle with their faults and heartbreaks to try and find their rightful place...

In the end this is a emotional story about three characters who are trying to find their way. It has a great start and one really strong character, Jet, who I feel all the readers will enjoy her spunk. The story will keep you guessing and throws a lot of twist I didn’t expect. The ending will lead you into what’s next for these characters and I’m interested to see where they go.

Read the full review here.

Here is a photo of the giveaway pack on offer. Hurry. Only 4 winners (USA only).

Pretty, Deadly, Creepy Plants In Fiction

Plants often featured in literature. They can either be the setting for a murder, as in a jungle or greenhouse, or they can be the actual murder weapon, as in strychnine or cyanide. Plants are also featured on many books covers, such as ivy that strangles or deadly nightshade that is beautiful yet toxic.

Plants have many uses in real life as well as in fiction novels. Healers use the flowers, roots and leaves to extract deadly poison to make life saving potions. Witches traditionally do the opposite, extracting the goodness from a plant to create a deadly potion, though historically witches and healers were the same thing. Speaking of history, the Wolfsbane plant was once used as means of detecting if a person was a werewolf.

 

Here, I take a look at some of the world’s deadliest plants. Some of which are still commonplace in gardens and yards around the world.

Hemlock

Hemlock is perhaps the most common plant in literature as it is often associated with witches. There are a few varieties but all wreak havoc in the central nervous system of its victims. Hemlock contains five toxic alkaloids and every part of it – fruit, roots and leaves – are lethal to humans. There is a long history of children being poisoned by making pipes or whistles out of the stems. Hemlock’s most famous victim was the Greek philosopher Socrates who was ordered to drink it. Hemlock was commonly used in Greece to execute the condemned. A sadistic and torturous death, because unlike many other deadly plants, Hemlock produce no carcinogenic or hallucinogenic qualities, hence the victim has time to reflect on the reason for his condemnation right up to the moment of death.

Wolfsbane

Wolfsbane is both pretty and deadly. The vibrant purple flowers are commonly found in backyards. It is loads with a toxic which causes asphyxiation. A villain in a fiction novel might mix up a batch of monkshood stew to do away with the hero or heroine. In literature, it is commonly associated with werewolves. The word wolfsbane probably comes from people using it to poison wolves and this wolfish connection seems to have crossed over into literature. In the Harry Potter series, Wolfsbane  is used to ease the symptoms of lycanthropy (an actual psychological condition where a person believes they can transform into an animal) thus preventing Professor Lupin from losing his mind during his transformation into a werewolf.

Venus Fly Trap

Venus Fly Traps are better known as man eaters in fiction. Like the ones owned by Morticia Addams, named Cleopatra, and Audrey Jnr, who had a starring role in the Little Shop Of Horrors. The book and movie The Day Of The Triffids featured carnivorous plants that became mobile and sought out human prey. This plant is often referred to as a man eating plant, though never has it eaten a human. Myths surrounding this man eater began in 1881, when tales of a tribe in Madagascar that fed a woman to a giant man eater as a sacrifice surfaced. The stories were believed to be true right up to 1955 when the book, “Salamanders and other Wonders” exposed the tribe and the myth originator as fabrications.

  
Angel Trumpet

Lovely to look at, and with such an innocuous sounding name, the plants are anything but harmless. In fact, this plant is voted the one most likely to turn a person into a zombie. Causing hallucinations, many teens have been known to test the substance by brewing it like a tea, but not many have survived. All parts of the plant are poisonous. A traveler to Peru in 19^th century told of a man who had fallen into a stupor, his eyes were vacant, his mouth convulsively closed and his nostrils dilated. In fifteen minutes his eyes began to roll, he frothed at the mouth, his whole body convulsed and then he went into a fitful sleep. Zombie stories originated from the deepest darkest jungles, after travelers witnessed people drinking psychoactive drinks, some of which were then believed to be dead and buried, only to have these victims recover where they crawled out of their graves.

Nightshade

 

Everyone has heard of this plant, or as it is sometimes more sinisterly know – deadly nightshade. This plant, also known as the devil’s cherry, and it is toxic from tip to top. Legend has it that Macbeth’s soldiers poisoned the invading Danes with wine made from the sweet fruit. It seems authors are still fascinated with deadly plants, because nightshade is a very common title for short stories, novels, television episodes, fiction series, even comic books. In ancient times, this toxic plant was used in medicine, as an antidote to snake venoms, as a pain reliever, and as a stimulant. In the book and movie The Hunger Games, one of the Tributes was accidentally killed by eating berries known as nightlock. Though these berries are a work of fiction, they are a derivative of hemlock and nightshade, both of which are truly deadly.