Interview with Karin Rita Gastreich, author of Eolyn

Karin Rita Gastreich is the author of Eolyn, a fantasy story about a young woman who loses everything she’d known (including her village), and is forced to embark on a path of adventure, betrayal and war. Eolyn was published by Kansas City indie press Hadley Rille Books in early 2011.

“Sole heiress to a forbidden craft, Eolyn lives in a world where women of her kind are tortured and burned.  When she meets Achim, destined to assume the throne of this violent realm, she embarks on a path of adventure, friendship, betrayal and war. Bound by magic, torn apart by destiny, Eolyn and the Mage King confront each other in an epic struggle that will determine the fate of a millenial tradition of magic.”

Another more astounding note is that Karin Rita Gastreich was also my Animal Behavior and Botany professor at Avila University School of Science and Health. We even got published around the same time!

Hadley Rille Books, like us, is an independent publishing company, located in Kansas City (where I live), and has been publishing quality fantasy and science fiction by amazing authors for many years. I recently had the opportunity to talk to Karin about herself, her book, and Eolyn’s writing process.

 

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TW: Tell us about Eolyn. What inspired you to write it? How long did it take you to do so?

KRG: Eolyn is about a woman who inherits a tradition of magic that has been forbidden to women in her world, for political and historical reasons. As a young girl, Eolyn develops an important friendship with the boy Akmael, heir to the king who killed her family and destroyed the Magas (the name given to women who practice this tradition of magic). When Eolyn and Akmael meet again as adults, they are leaders on opposite sides of a major military conflict, and must come to terms with the meaning of their friendship in the context of war.

It’s hard to pinpoint what inspired me to write Eolyn. Although it took me about 4 years to complete the manuscript, the story itself has had a very long gestation period, so the influences have been many and complex. I suppose at the heart of my motivation was a desire to write a fantasy in which a female character could play a meaningful role, including leadership in times of war, without necessarily wielding a sword. I also wanted the story to reflect something of the reality of women’s history, especially during medieval and renaissance times in Europe. I’ve read much of women’s history from those periods, and I have always been fascinated by how certain extraordinary women managed to exercise a lot of power, despite their lack of skill on the battlefield and the rampant discrimination that characterized those societies.

TW: What are some authors that have inspired you? What are you currently reading?

KRG: I’ve been reading for a long time, so it’s hard to put together a short list of authors who have inspired me. J.R.R. Tolkien would have to be included, as would T.H. White. The Brothers Grimm, while not ‘authors’ in the same sense as Tolkien or White, provided a lot of fertile ground for my imagination with their German folktales. There are many historical fiction authors I admire, such as Frances Kazan, Philippa Gregory and Karen Essex; and a long list of Latin American authors who have inspired me, including Giocanda Belli, Mario Benedetti and Jorge Luis Borges. I’ve also been inspired by the work of historians such as Alison Weir, David Starky and Caroline P. Murphy. That’s just with respect to my life as a novelist; if we start talking about my life as an ecologist, the list gets even longer…

I recently finished reading the fourth book of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice series. Martin is another author whose work I greatly admire. This past summer, I also read Bambi, a Life in the Woods, by Felix Salten. I was pleasantly surprised by the book, which I suspect is significantly different from the Disney movie. (I never saw the movie.) Salten’s work is an excellent example of how to write a story about animals without turning them into humans. This week, I started Ian McDonald’s The Dervish House, a science fiction novel set in a near-future Istanbul.

TW: Aside from writing, what else do you do? What is your profession? What are some of your hobbies?

KRG: My day job is as an assistant professor of biology at Avila University. My areas of specialization are tropical ecology and animal behavior. I’ve spent a lot of time doing field work in the tropics — tramping around dense forests, mucking through mangroves, and the like. My love for the forest experience comes through loud and clear in the pages of Eolyn. I was very pleased when artist Jesse Smolover gave Eolyn muddy feet in the cover art for the novel.

I have a lot of hobbies. I enjoy camping, hiking and bicycling. I have studied dance almost all my life, including ballet, modern, Latin dance and most recently, flamenco. I like to go out with friends & listen to live music. I love to travel, especially to national parks and to different countries.

TW: Eolyn has had some outstanding reviews and a great overall reception. Do you have any other works in progress?

KRG: Oh, thank you! Yes, I’ve been really pleased with how people are responding to the novel. I’m currently working on a sequel, as well as a short story that takes place prior to the start of Eolyn.

A few years down the road, when I wrap up my time in Eolyn’s world, I would like to write a novel based on my short story ‘Creatures of Light’, published in Adventures for the Average Woman last fall. ‘Creatures of Light’ is a fantasy set in the Age of Exploration, 16th to 17th century. It’s a period that doesn’t get much attention in fantasy (compared to, say, the medieval era), but it’s a violent and gaudy era that I think would be a lot of fun to capture in the context of fantasy fiction.

I’ve also recently started a very exciting blog project called Heroines of Fantasy with authors Kim Vandervort and Terri-Lynne DeFino. The blog will launch in September, 2011, and will be devoted to facilitating discussions of fantasy fiction, and especially women in fantasy fiction.

TW: Explain the writing process. How do you go about writing a story, from beginning to the completion of the novel itself?

KRG: Well, I’ve only done one and a half novels so far, so it’s hard to generalize. I don’t write an outline, but before I sit down to start a novel, I have to have a clear idea in my head of how it’s going to end, and the major events leading up to that ending. While writing the novel, I put a lot of thought into characters and motivation. I try to build the story around the choices that each character makes, and the logical consequences of those choices. Sometimes, as in the case of Eolyn, this leads me to a different denouement from what I had originally envisioned.

Throughout the writing process, I seek feedback from readers and other authors. I’ve developed some very important collaborative relationships with members of two writers groups, one based in my home town of Kansas City, the other an on-line workshop with authors from all over the world. Their support and critical input has been fundamental to my success as a writer.

TW: Were there any obstacles with writing Eolyn?

KRG: The biggest challenge was the battle sequence. I felt very insecure about this, mostly because I started out with little knowledge of medieval warfare. I kept wanting my characters to just ‘talk it out’, to come to terms with each other and establish peace without having to put all those long swords and battle axes to use. Yeah, right. Like that was really going to work in an epic fantasy. Akmael, Drostan, Tzeremond, and all the rebels that rose up against them would hear nothing of peace talks. So in the end I had to do my research and write my battle sequence. But it actually turned out to be very interesting and a lot of fun – one of my favorite parts of writing the book. I had a lot of great help from members of my writers groups in the process, and again, their contributions made all the difference. One of the highlights of the release of Eolyn was when Publishers Weekly described my battle scenes as “vigorously written”. I have rarely felt such a sense of accomplishment.

TW: Finally, what are three things you aim to do before you die? Think carefully.

KRG: Oh, goodness. Is this a ‘three wishes’ question, or a ‘three goals’ question? And how much time do I have?

If I were slated to die next week, I would like to have my mother’s sauerbraten one last time (sauerbraten is a traditional German dish, basically a marinated roast). I’d also want to enjoy a romantic night out with my husband, and I would eat lots of dark chocolate.

But let’s assume I have another few decades ahead, in which case I’d like to:

• Hike through the Bialowieza Forest. Maybe even camp there, if they allow it. Bialowieza is one of the last remnants of primeval deciduous forest still standing in Europe, and I would just love to experience it.
•  Visit the Galapagos Islands. That’s kind of every biologist’s dream. Maybe I could get a trip to Ecuador and the Peruvian Amazon included in the tour.
• Walk the Great Wall of China. (It’s kind of a tough choice, actually, between that and seeing the pyramids, or visiting the cradle of civilization in Iraq. But if I have to pick just one, it’d be the Great Wall. Maybe on that tour, I could get a trip to a panda reserve included, and from there it’d be only a short hop on a jet plane to Angkor Wat…)

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Karin Rita Gastreich, along with some of the other female authors at Hadley Rille Books have just recently started a new blog titled “Heroines of Fantasy”, where they discuss (among other things) female oriented subjects in the world of fantasy fiction. Make sure to check it out, since they’ve generated some rather interesting posts and discussions so far. 

Eolyn can be found on Amazon, available in print, hardback and kindle.

About Terra Whiteman

Terra Whiteman is a scientist who writes whenever she's not doing things that scientists do. She loves philosophy, chemistry, biology, classical literature, graphic novels, loud, obnoxious music, frog slippers and beer. Terra is the author of The Antithesis. Other works and musings can be found on her author website.

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