TOUR Audio w/INTERVIEW - FANTASY - THE BEAST HUNTERS (Beast Hunter of Ashbourn, #1) by Christer Lende Narrator Jonathan Johns

THE BEAST HUNTERS
The Beast Hunter of Ashbourn, #1
by Christer Lende
Narrator: Jonathan Johns
Length: 5 hours and 21 minutes
Released: February 7th 2022
Publisher: Hashtag Press
Genre: Fantasy

When a monster brutally kills her parents, Ara is saved by two beast hunters. Becoming their apprentice, she discovers serums, secret bestiary knowledge, and remarkable abilities - all to save unsuspecting souls from the same fate her parents suffered. But, terrifying creatures lurk everywhere and Ara must master the art of beast hunting quickly if she is to uncover the elusive beast plaguing the village of Cornstead.

 

Christer Lende began writing in a library, which sounds fitting, only he was supposed to be there working on his engineering degree. He is a professional screenwriter, working with the Norwegian movie producer behind “One Love”, “Who Killed Birgitte” and “All about my Father” Bjørn Eivind Aarskog, together they are eveloping the manuscript for a Norwegian thriller. Bjørn hired Christer after reading The Beast Hunters, trusting Christer could bring his vision to life. Christer lives in what Norwegians call a city, but people from actual cities would call a town. Of proud Viking blood, he honours his ancestors by heroically sitting in front of a computer writing Fantasy and Science Fiction books. He believes in writing a little bit every day, through weekends, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, even his own birthday. When he’s not writing, he takes care of his two dogs and tries to broker peace with his girlfriend. He’s often found at a gym, trying to compensate for his height issues, or lazily playing video games. Christer did get that master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, despite procrastinating by writing fiction in the library, and works for a large IT firm, but writing and storytelling are his passions.

Q&A with Author Christer Lende

• How closely did you work with your narrator before and during the recording process?
  • Pretty closely beforehand. I wanted us to call each other and be able to talk, but he wasn’t a too big fan of that, which is fine. We sent countless messages back and forth about different voices, pronunciation, the story and characters, and he was excellent. I got the feeling he really wanted to bring the story to life.
• Did you give them any pronunciation tips or special insight into the characters?
  • A little, but not a whole lot. I told him “you get to officially decide how all these new monsters will be pronounced,” and he took to the task with excitement.
• Were there any real life inspirations behind your writing?
  • Not really, the most real ones being The Witcher and Supernatural.
• How do you manage to avoid burn-out? What do you do to maintain your enthusiasm for writing?
  • I don’t write a lot, but I write often. Everday, I have to write something, but rarely more than 30-40 minutes. I live by a strict ruleset, so writing every day is something I have to do, and so far I’ve written five books and one manuscript.
• Are you an audiobook listener? What about the audiobook format appeals to you?
  • So hard! I love audiobooks! As far as formats go, I like whichever audible uses.
• Is there a particular part of this story that you feel is more resonating in the audiobook performance than in the book format?
  • Yes, a particular meeting with many peculiar characters. It’s later in the book, so I’ll try to keep it spoiler-free, but our heroes face up against a group of . . . fanatic individuals, and Jonathan played around with so many voices it made it so much fun.
• If you had the power to time travel, would you use it? If yes, when and where would you go?
  • Hmm…. not backwards in time. We’re by far the most privileged people on earth historically. I might go back in time with all the knowledge I have now, and the thought is tempting until I remember tests and homework. I don’t want to go forward in fear of what I might find or learn - so I guess the answer is: no, I wouldn’t.
• If this title were being made into a TV series or movie, who would you cast to play the primary roles?
  • Hmm, I think for Ara I would love to see a younger Alison Brie from Community. And I pictured a younger Idris Elba as Khendric. This book was written six years ago, but that’s when I pictured them, so that’s why I say “younger” on both. I’d love to see Topper played by Timothée Chalamet and Jamie Foxx (this will make sense if you listen to the book).
• How did you celebrate after finishing this novel?
  • By starting the second book, and it did feel like a celebration. However, when I finished the whole trilogy, then I celebrated by not writing for a whole week, which felt weird.
• What gets you out of a writing slump? What about a reading slump?
  • I’ve never had a writing slump, luckily. In my mind, I’m always so so much further ahead than the written story, so I always know where I’m going when I sit down to do the writing.
• In your opinion, what are the pros and cons of writing a stand-alone novel vs. writing a series?
  • More people like books that are in a series, so that’s a definite pro for series. I think in a standalone you can be crazier, do more wacky stuff, and you won’t have to deal with the problems it creates in a sequel.
• What’s next for you?
  • Either getting the second Beast Hunter book published, or get my Sci-fi/fantasy book Specter out to the world. We’ll see.

 

Jonathan is a Cornish audio book narrator based in sunny Cornwall. He has a talent for character work and descriptive narration which draws in the listener and envelopes them into the story. He is an avid gamer and family man. He is never too far from something sweet!

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SPOTLIGHT w/INTERVIEW - The Waiting Gate by J Merrill Forrest

The Waiting Gate

by J Merrill Forrest

Publication date: October 27^th 2017

Publisher: Hashtag Press

 

BLURB

Alex Kelburn is a psychic medium who knows full well where we go when we die for he has been there. But what about those in the grip of severe dementia whose minds have disconnected? Where, indeed, do they go? He knows he must find the answer. Not only for Erin, the caring, compassionate nurse who has asked it, but also for his own wife, and for friends Kallie and Trish, and the thousands of others who are grieving and bewildered because they have loved ones who have gradually disappeared until only their physical selves remain.

Working on the case of an unidentified little girl whose remains have been discovered in a shallow grave, he is gradually led to a new and wonderful understanding of just what is on the Other Side …

Buy Links:

Hashtag Press     Amazon UK     Amazon

The Book Junkie Reads . . . Interview with J Merrill Forrest author of ‘Flight of the Kingfisher’ and ‘The Waiting Gate’

How would you describe your style of writing to someone that has never read your work?

I write about people who are coming face to face, perhaps for the first time, with what dying and death really means, either because it’s happening to them or to someone they love. Before I begin to write I let the characters and their stories unfold in my mind until I really feel I know them. I live with them daily, I allow myself to feel their emotions, I do my research, and I know I have enough to get started when I sit at my laptop and the story simply flows from my thoughts to my fingers. My novels are classified as fantasy because of their supernatural element, but although my descriptions of the Afterlife might not be accurate (I rather think that mere language would be inadequate anyway), I hope I am able to convey the fact of its existence.

Do you feel that writing is an ingrained process or just something that flows naturally for you?

I know of writers who work to a highly organised schedule, making copious notes and flow diagrams of the plotlines before writing a set number of words each day. I’ve tried these methods and they just don’t work for me. A story begins in my mind, just the merest glimmer, and I just have to let it work itself out in its own good time. I’m fortunate that I can type as fast as I think, and sometimes I might work a couple of hours here and there, other times work through the night if the story is really flowing. My first draft is always the bare bones, sketching out the characters and their circumstances, then I go back in again and again filling in the detail until I feel I’ve got it ready for other eyes to see. I never try to force it, I’ve learned that the stories will give themselves up to me only when they are ready to be written.

Do you have a character that you have been working on for a long time that still isn’t quite ready, but fills you with excitement to work on the story?

I wrote a short story many years ago about brilliant young girl who forges a telepathic link with her best friend who’s struggling at school. She’s trying to help, but it has tragic consequences. Every now and again this girl pops into my head and I know there’s so much more to tell about her.

If you could spend one week with five fictional characters, who would they be?

1)  My own Alex Kelburn, the handsome and charismatic psychic medium. I would bombard him with questions about what it’s like to a medium.

2)  Time travelling Henry from Audrey Niffenegger’s ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’.

3)  Dragon-rider Lord Jaxom from Anne McCaffrey’s ‘The White Dragon’. A telepathic link and an unbreakable bond with a dragon? Yes please!

4)  JRR Tolkien’s wizard Gandalf. I’d just keep pouring the wine while listening to all his adventures.

5)  Faith Aycliffe from ‘Flint and Roses’, the second of Brenda Jagger’s Barforth trilogy. She’s a mid-19^th century woman with a 21^st century spirit. I’ve read this book so many times since I got it in 1983 it is literally falling apart.

Can you share your next creative project? If yes, can you give a few details?

I have four projects I’d like to work on, I just don’t know which one will come first:

- a fundraising book for Guide Dogs for the Blind, based on my experience raising a Guide Dog Puppy from 7 weeks to 13 months old. Throughout the year I took hundreds of photographs of him and captioned them, so the story will be told in pictures from his point of view.

- the story about the telepathic girl mentioned earlier, as yet untitled. The narrator will be her friend, now in her middle years and looking back at what happened during her school days in the time before mobile phones and Internet technology.

- republish ‘Orders From Above’, a light-hearted comedy about angels causing havoc in a small Wiltshire village.  It was published in 2013 but I wasn’t happy with the quality of the book or the way the publisher handled the marketing and I took back the rights last year. I love this story and feel it deserves a second chance.

- a third Alex Kelburn novel. I don’t know yet where this one is going to go. The ideas are so fleeting I can’t grasp them yet, but so far I have a character who is horrifically injured in a traffic accident and doesn’t feel she has anything to live for. I need lots of long walks in the countryside with a dog to let the story develop and reveal itself to me in its own time, as they all do.

Teaser:

“Where do you think they go, the patients who no longer seem to be aware of themselves or their surroundings? I mean, take Simon. One moment he’s angry and shouting, the next it’s as if he’s simply left his body behind and gone somewhere. Some of the patients are like that all the time, never having lucid moments at all, and I’ve always wondered … where do they go?”

Author Info

J Merrill Forrest’s deep interest in the supernatural is a major theme in her writing. For more than thirty years Jane has researched her subject, visiting psychics, mediums, Spiritualist churches and séances, always keeping an open and questioning mind, hunting down evidence.

At age 40, J Merrill Forrest followed her dream of going to university and gained a BA (Hons) in English Literature, and returned to academia ten years later to gain her MA in Creative Writing. It was during this time she began to work on her novel ‘Flight of the Kingfisher’, published in 2015, which deals with the emotive and polarising subject of life after death and introduced psychic medium Alex Kelburn. He returns in her latest novel, ‘The Waiting Gate’, the main theme of which is dementia and what happens to those who ‘disappear’ as the disease takes hold.

J Merrill Forrest is also the author of 'Orders from Above' published in 2013.

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