Saturday Series Spotlight: Winter in the Soul

Happy Saturday! Today, is our first every Series Saturday, and here to tell us about her series is Jennifer Novotney, author of the Winter in the Soul series. Read on to hear from Jennifer herself about her inspiration to write the series as well as read an exclusive excerpt from Winter in the Soul.

And, this week only, get the first two books in the series for just $0.99 on Amazon

Winter in the Soul Series
Books 1 and 2

Jennifer Novotney

When I started writing Winter in the Soul, I was initially inspired by the book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I loved the allegorical tale of adventure and motivation. I wanted to be able to inspire readers this way.  So, I started to write. I didn’t have a clear plan of where my main character, Lilika, would end up, but I knew she would live in a fantastical world void of technology. I knew that she would discover the world around her. I knew she would rise to the challenges she faced. I knew she would be a hero.

In the process of writing the first draft of Winter in the Soul, I set it aside several times. Each time I picked it back up to write, I fell into the magical and inviting world and experienced something new about it.

Funny enough, this novel was not my first attempt at writing a full length story. I  had written about two others that will never see the light of day. I think it is certainly a specific skill to write a longer piece, one that takes practice and perseverance. With the others, the story sort of ran out at a certain point and as much as I tried to stretch it and make it work as a longer piece, it just didn’t. With Winter in the Soul, however, it was just the opposite.  When I realized the magnitude of this story as opposed to the others, I knew I had something special.

I’ve always known that I’m a big thinker. Someone once described me as a visionary. I see the big picture of things. I was inspired, in a sense, by everything I’ve experienced. I thought of a world in which I’d want to live. My main character is one I’d want to be. To me, those are the best stories. To be able to escape in a book and live through the eyes of the main character is what got me interested in reading in the first place. In one way or another, every book I’ve read has inspired me to write Winter in the Soul because they have formed my love of reading and writing.

Exclusive Excerpt from Winter in the Soul

copyright 2014 Jennifer Novotney

The room was completely dark, despite a window on the far end. Talon went into the hallway and Lilika remained in the doorway, not taking one step in the room until Talon returned with a candle from one of the holders positioned down the hallway.

As Talon got closer to Lilika, and the candle cast a bit of light into the old man’s room, she was too afraid to peer inside. Talon went in front of her with the candle, and she followed close behind him with her hands on his back for security. She didn’t want him to get too far away from her even though they were in such a small room. Once they were inside, a black mass formed right in front of them. Lilika’s breath caught in her throat.

“Talon,” she whispered, her legs shaking, “look.”

Right when Talon looked up, the black shadow flew out of the room. The door swung closed with a bang. Lilika jumped and hid her face in Talon’s back.

“Did you see that? What was that?” Lilika’s voice trembled.

Talon kept his composure and used the light from his candle to look around the room. “I saw it, and I’m not sure what it was. Hello? Is anyone here?”

They paused for a reply, but no one answered.

“Should we look around for him?” Lilika gripped Talon’s arm.

“Yeah, I guess we should.”

The rooms of the inn were all pretty similar, with creamy white walls and wooden dressers with mirrors hanging over them. They had little in the way of decoration, but were tidy, clean, and bright. The old man checked into his room two nights ago, and the room looked just as the others had. Yet now, the walls were no longer a creamy white, but black, making it much darker than it should have been.

The mirror hanging on the wall above the dresser was broken, with a spider-web of cracks running through it. The bed was filthy. The closet door was open, but it, too, was black inside, appearing almost singed from fire. Lilika wanted to find her golden heart locket as quickly as possible so they could leave.

“Hello?” Her voiced quivered. “Is there anyone here?”

***

For More information about Jennifer Novotney and the Winter in the Soul Series, visit
WWW.ANAIAHPRESS.COM/JNOVOTNEY.HTML