Y’Keta Book Tour & Giveaway
Esquialt as his father’s punishment for his rebellious spirit.
Village tradition gives him one Cycle, from spring to spring, to earn
the right to stay.
mythical lords of the wind and lightning who can shapeshift into
human form. Y’keta knows the truth behind these stories. Could there
be more to them than just tales shared around the campfire?
history and traditions apart…but sharing his secrets may be their
only hope for survival when Esquialt is threatened by the brutal,
ferociously destructive Utlaak.
fantasy set in an ancient world where legends walk and the Sky Road
offers a way to the stars.
series.
surrounded me, I learned how important imagination was. When I was 8,
we moved to northern Canada and the legends changed. Stories of the
Fae and the little people were replaced by legends of the Thunderbird
and stories of the woodlands. I never stood a chance. What could I be
but a writer?
lands and indigenous cultures which made its way into the worlds I
create. A mythmaker at heart, I started writing poetry in middle school and
graduated to epic fantasy.
ask questions and explore answers in a larger-than-life game of ‘what
if.’ We need to make room for myths and mythmakers in our fact
driven world. To give space for worlds that are brighter and clearer
than our own. For it is in doing so, that we have room to become more
fully human.
fantasy set in an ancient world where legends walk and the Sky Road
offers a way to the stars.
love dearly, and have put for sale on e-bay when their behaviour
demanded it. My day to day life is a balance between my outside life
as a paralegal counsellor and my inner life as an author/poet. In
between, I work on courses to improve my writing, learning the Cree
Language, book reviews and blogging on my website, and studying
mythologies from around the world.
Hi, my name is Sandra Hurst and I’m a YA Fantasy author, thank you for the opportunity to talk to you and your readers today!
What is something unique/quirky about you?
Ooh, you really want to go there? I think that answer would depend on who you talk to. My son would cringe and point to ‘opera nights,’ evenings when I don’t speak and insist on singing my answers to any questions. My husband might point to my fits of insomnia and my late-night Facebook addiction. But really! You meet the best people online at 3am.
If there is one thing I would say was unique or quirky about me it would be my breadth of interests, I’m a bit of a Hermione, a collector of odd facts and knowledge about anything from the Kaiju culture of manga Japan, to Shakespeare, to Opera, or the band Nightwish. There isnt much that I wont listen to, read, learn about and find value in.
What inspired you to write this book?
My first novel, Y’keta, came out of two unconnected events about four years ago, the first was an off the cuff comment made by a relative on the reactions she dealt with when she came out as LGBTQ in the early 80’s, the other was a long night sitting beside a campfire in Grande Cache, Alberta watching the Northern Lights dance over the horizon.
Myths give us a way to interpret the world past our normal experience. To ask questions and explore answers in a larger-than-life game of ‘what if.’ In my novel, Y’keta, the question is about identity. Is Y’keta willing to give up his identity to please his father? Is he willing to risk being honest about himself, even though he may lose everything he has grown to love.
Who is your hero and why?
I don’t think that I have a real-life hero. There are so many people that inspire me, whether they are historical figures or literary ones. I think the common thread in all of them is that they had the opportunity to quit, every reason to say I’m too old, too tired, it’s just easier to let it be someone else’s problem. This kind of hero, unwilling, often flawed, yet willing to step up, gets me every time. These heroes all have one thing in common. They are people very much like I am, broken and damaged people just trying to do their best with the time they are given.
As far as literary heroes, I love the authors who can make words dance and sentences MEAN things. This has led me to authors like Guy Gavriel Kay, and Don Dellilo. I would give my left ovary (not so dramatic a thing since at 54 those parts are hardly crucial) to sit down with either of these gentlemen, or even better their writing notes, for an afternoon!
What book do you think everyone should read?
Mine? Oh, you mean someone else’s book! Picking one book that everyone should read? Oh, that’s hard. If I had to make a choice I think that I would choose The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay. The writing is lyrical and holds enough legends, enough magic, enough historical reference, and enough action to please most people and to delight word birds such as me.
Describe your writing style.
I think that question would be more appropriately asked of someone who has read my work. It’s hard to describe yourself without being either self congratulatory or somewhat delusional. If I had to say something about my own style, I think I would call it lyrical. I was a poet long before I accepted the challenge of writing prose. I would compare my style to current writers I think I would say that it is somewhat like early work by Guy Gavriel Kay or Neil Gaiman, although I think I smell the self-delusion rising on that one.
What makes a good story?
To me, a good story is one that has characters with depth and nuance. I think it’s important that the characters in a story face conflict, something has to push them out of their safe zones and into situations that they aren’t prepared for, whether that something is a ‘bad guy or an internal crisis. The book has to be driven by the growth and decisions of the character, not just a plot that moves them from place to place like players on a chess board.
