Spotlight on BUZZ GUEST NATALIA BROTHERS, Author of SOUL OF THE UNBORN Y'ALL!

My BUZZ GUEST today is Natalia Brothers, author of the fantasy novel SOUL OF THE UNBORN!

Natalia's debut novel SOUL OF THE UNBORN came out November, 2016. Click on one of the links below to view the blurb or purchase the book.

AMAZON

BARNES & NOBEL

KOBO

IBOOKS

BOOK DEPOSITORY

Natalia was kind enough to provide us with a few pictures to go along with her interview questions. I love that!

'Normal Questions'

1. How did you come up with the concept for your book?

My childhood summer adventures played a major role. Early in the last century, four brothers and sisters purchased summer homes in a village near Moscow. One of the sisters was my great-grandmother, and family mythology places her in the midst of paranormal events. I grew up with those stories. My experience included no supernatural phenomena, but I understand how easily the atmospheric setting could spark spooky tales.
A cold, leisurely flowing river, groves and forests, wildflower meadows—the place is poignantly beautiful. It also offered an abundance of sites irresistible to a child’s imagination, and I had wonderful friends to explore them with.
Springs with clear, ice-cold water, hidden in the fields and ravines; fascinating inhabitants of pools and ponds—newts, frogs, fish, a multitude of insects and crustaceans (have you ever seen a tadpole shrimp that looks like a tiny horseshoe crab?); an abandoned 18th-century cemetery with weathered gravestones, sinking just a little deeper into the moss-covered ground with each passing year; a water-pump station left from the age of steam engines…When I began to work on the manuscript, I had the setting and my heroine’s emotional connection to the place. I only needed to add a supernatural flair to her quests.

2. Is this a series or a stand alone? Will we hear more from you?

SOUL OF THE UNBORN is Book 1 in a series called AURAS OF NIGHT. In Book 2, set in New England, my new heroine will have to figure out which one of the two men she’s attracted to is a murderer.

3. Where do you write?

I tend to migrate around the house. I mumble as I write, pronouncing sentences to hear their rhythm. Fortunately, it doesn’t bother my husband, so I love joining him while he reads or watches TV.

4. Do you prefer creating short stories, or novels?

I prefer to write longer tales, but sometimes the secondary characters from my novels deserve a spotlight of their own. Short stories are a perfect vessel to present the accounts of their adventures.

5. What kind of books do you enjoy reading?

Crime fiction and atmospheric horror.

6. Do you have a favorite author(s)?

Zola. Kafka, Hesse, Camus. Bulgakov. Kurt Vonnegut. Anne Rice, Ayn Rand. Shirley Jackson. Michael Koryta.

7. I happen to know that you are a top-notch gardener. What is your favorite flower?

Matthiola bicornis, or Night-scented Stock. It’s an inconspicuous annual plant that looks dead during the day. Its flowers open at dusk, and their divine fragrance drifts in waves throughout the garden all night long.

8. When you wander/travel where do you go?

I was born in Moscow, where I still have family and friends whom I see often. I’m accustomed to long transatlantic flights. There’s always a place I long to visit. For a while, it was Edinburgh. I finally made it there last summer, and the city is magnificent. What replaced it on top of the list? Iceland—the majestic coastline, the waterfalls, the Blue Lagoon. But I live in the foothills of Pikes Peak. My best brainstorming is done on mountain trails.

'Not-so-normal Questions'

1. If you could invite any 5 people (i.e. cartoon character; famous person; rock band; poet; artist; living or dead) for a meal together, who would they be?

I’m a proud owner of a Roman bronze fibula brooch, also called dolphin brooch for its shape. The piece was unearthed by a metal detecting club in Colchester. It may not look like proper jewelry (strangely shaped and covered with green patina) and doesn’t have much monetary value, but I find the fibula fascinating and often use it as a pendant. Every time I put it on, I wonder about its original owner, the person who used it to fasten his or her toga nearly two millennia ago. I’d love to spend a day in the company of that Roman and his or her loved ones.

2. A wicked old witch has turned you into a frog. What are you going to do with your days?

You mean, if I called a beautiful, colorful swamp bustling with life my home? I’d sit on a grassy, fragrant mound, enjoying a warm drizzle on my back, watch Venus flytraps and sundews catch gnats that are too small for me to eat, and croak…croak…

3. You've been bitten by a werewolf the month before. It's the full moon and tonight's the night of your first change. How do you prepare for this? What color is your fur?

I’d spend the month making friends with a pack of hybrid wolves living down the street. I’d buy a few pounds of steak, sneak into their enclosure on the night of transformation, and we would have a nice meal together. The color of my fur—I would be eager to find out!

4. When you were a child what did you always want to be when you grew up?

I didn’t want to be a ballerina. Everything else was fair game. My brief interest in archeology kept my friends and me busy for a week and resulted in enormous craters all over the garden.

5. What magical place that you've read about would you like to visit?

I’ve been on a lookout for the real-life Paradou garden (Emile Zola’s “Abbe Mouret’s Transgression,” the only book I own both in English and in Russian) since I was a teenager. Last August, I visited Lakemount Gardens in Ireland. It was the Paradou I imagined.

6. Would you rather encounter an alien or a ghost?

Neither! I like to imagine eerie things, but I let my characters deal with them.


Wow! Loved your answers and the pictures were a real bonus. I happen to be reading Natalia’s book right now—and no. I will not give you spoilers. Don’t worry. However, the picture of the river looks very much like the one in her book.  Wait…does that count as a spoiler? Nah, let’s just say it doesn’t. And Natalia, the Roman who wore your broach just got added to my list of five people.  

YOU CAN FIND NATALIA AT:
Website    -> http://nataliabrothers.com/
Twitter      -> https://twitter.com/NataBrothers   @NataBrothers
Blogs         -> http://mycookbookofwriting.blogspot.com/
                   -> https://mycompassroseofwriting.blogspot.com/
Facebook  -> https://www.facebook.com/NataliaBrothersAuthor/
Pinterest   -> https://www.pinterest.com/nataliabrothers/

LET'S GENERATE A BUZZ! Authors, Artists, and Poets if you would like to be a BUZZ GUEST on ‘FAE AND WITCHES AND GHOSTS—OH MY!’ please DM me on Twitter https://twitter.com/kay_latour or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/kaylatour/

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