Seven Jane Interview - The Isle of Gold ~ JeanBookNerd

Photo Content from Seven Jane

Seven Jane is an author of dark fantasy and speculative fiction. Her debut novel, The Isle of Gold, was published by Black Spot Books in October 2018.

Seven is a member of The Author's Guild and Women's Fiction Writing Association. She writes a weekly column for WFWA's Industry News newsletter, and is a regular contributor to The Nerd Daily.

She is represented by Gandolfo Helin & Fountain Literary Management and supported by Smith Publicity.

Series: Daughters Jones Trilogy

Paperback: 248 pages

Publisher: Black Spot Books; None edition (October 9, 2018)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0999742388

ISBN-13: 978-0999742389

Praise for THE ISLE OF GOLD

“Part fairytale, part fantasy, part romance, Jane’s debut is full of colorful characters [and] a plot that will thrill the heart of any lover of magic, legends, and epic adventure.” —Booklist

"Jane weaves a tale of myth and magic . . . This tempting novel will entrance." —Publishers Weekly

"A delightful, well researched and evocative historical fantasy that succeeds in bringing a fascinating era to life.” —Midwest Book Review

Can you tell us when you started THE ISLE OF GOLD, how that came about?
I started The Isle of Gold in summer 2017 while I was in the middle of another project. The inspiration for the story itself came in a dream, and once I started putting words on paper it quickly became all-consuming, bumping my previous story to the backburner (which I finished in October 2018). My dream was about a woman standing on a rock in the middle of the ocean, trapped there until being rescued by a pirate with flaming red hair. Once he found her, neither of them could leave unless they did so together—and it took them both a while to get comfortable with that reality. In the end, they had to save each other. It was the first time I met Winters and Evangeline, and their love story became the basis for the story, which turned into Merrin’s journey.

Are there any new Authors that have grasped your interest and why?
To be honest, I haven’t done a lot of reading in the past year—I’ve been so busy with my own writing schedule. But I have had the pleasure of reviewing some of my fellow Black Spot Books authors’ works—Sam Hooker’s The Winter Riddle, Dalena Storm’s The Hungry Ghost, and Alcy Leyva’s And Then There Were Crows. I’m a sucker for a dark story with a good sense of humor, and all of those authors have delivered in spades! I’ve also read some new voices as part of the Havenwood Falls Collective, and have been particularly impressed by Kristie Cook and her novella, Forget You Not.

What do you hope for people to be thinking after they read your novel?
I hope that it inspires a sense of adventure in people, and sparks the inspiration for everyone to carve their own paths, create their own destinies, and take risks to find their own identity. It’s not an easy thing to do—to set out and leave everything you know behind—but I think that sense of searching for yourself is something so many of us can relate to, and we need champions to support that drive. I hope that each of the characters in The Isle of Gold—who are all seeking something of their own—serve as inspiration for readers.

What chapter was the most memorable to write and why?
My favorite chapter in The Isle of Gold is the chapter where the Riptide sails into Charybdis. I think this is the moment that Merrin really comes into her own—not an orphan or a wanderer, but a warrior and a pirate. I still think about her raising her sword into the air and letting loose a battle cry as they descend into the heart of the ocean.

Did you learn anything from writing Merrin and what was it?
Merrin taught me a lot of patience, and showed me a lot of compassion. I’m very much like Erik Winters, and Merrin had to keep us both in line. I think I came away from her story in much the same way the Captain might have—relieved, rewarded, and with a new friend.

What are some of your current and future projects that you can share with us?
Right now, I have an upcoming dark fantasy project, Of Salt and Stars, which will be released as part of the Havenwood Falls series on May 24 (shameless plug: the ebook version on a preorder sale for 99cents right now!) That is a story about two women, a curse, and dark secrets perhaps better left hidden underwater. Aside from that, I have one project being actively pitched by my agent, an upcoming new franchise I’m collaborating on with some major Hollywood talent, and, of course, the next installment in The Daughters Jones trilogy.

If you could introduce one of your characters to any character from another book, who would it be and why?
Another one of my books? Well you’d have to meet Noelani, the naiad in Of Salt and Stars of course. If you meet her, you are blessed with love, and who wouldn’t want that?

TEN FAVORITE READS EVER- IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER

1. She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
2. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
3. The Guardship by James L. Nelson
4. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J Rowling
5. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
6. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
7. Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K Hamilton
8. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
9. Belladonna by Karen Moline
10.The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler

Most memorable summer job?
Gosh. I spent one summer working at a soup and salad buffet. That was horrible. I was 16 and it was my first job.

Who was your first boyfriend?
His name was Aaron. He had curly dark hair and was one of the tallest boys in ninth grade. He was a sweet boy, and as I’ve seen, a sweet man with a lovely wife and a brood of kids.

Tell me about your first kiss
My first kiss was in kindergarten with a boy named Craig. It was, as you might expect, thoroughly terrible and resulted in a chipped tooth—not mine, his. We’re still friends.

If you wrote a journal entry today, what would it say?
Actually I journal almost every day. I find it to be a rewarding writing exercise. Usually my journal entries are bits of random dreams, snippets of conversation, or maybe something that’s weighing heavily on my mind. Today I’ve been thinking a lot about setting back out to sea (I love to sail and haven’t been out since October 2018—the week The Isle of Gold released, actually), so it would probably be something about that.

What is your happiest childhood memory?
Once, when I was maybe five or six, we were living in Pensacola, Florida. My younger brother had just been born, and my uncle—who at the time was a late teenager—had come to visit. I remember going out to the beach with him, and swimming to the second sandbar, which was way farther than my mother would have allowed me to go. Until then, that was the farthest I had ever been out in the water, and I remember holding onto my uncle and laughing wildly as he spun me in a circle—out to see, to land, to the sea, to the land. It was thoroughly magical, and I think about that moment every time I go out into the ocean.

What was a time in your life when you were really scared?
Since we’re touring on a pirate novel, I should share a fitting story – last summer my son and I were on a cruise when a hurricane changed paths and our ship had to make a dart for safe waters. I’ve never seen a hurricane at sea before, and it was absolutely terrifying. I sat in a café on board, staring in horror through a window, and remembering every horror story about shipwrecks I’d ever read—all while trying to write down details for the next book in the Daughters Jones Trilogy. The storm passed, though, and we were fine obviously, but with the ship rocking on twenty-foot swells…well, for a while I wasn’t so sure.

Which incident in your life that totally changed the way you think today?
Probably the birth of my son. That little weirdo changed everything. For the better, of course.

Mystery, Myth & Magic Meet in an Epic Adventure of Two Women Lost at Sea—
and the Secret that Binds Them Together

AN ORPHAN DISGUISED AS A PIRATE SETS SAIL FOR A MYSTICAL ISLAND IN HOPES OF UNRAVELING THE MYSTERIES OF HER PAST

The year is 1716—the Golden Age of Pirates. An orphan who sleeps in the dusty kitchens of a quayside brothel, Merrin Smith is desperate to unravel the secrets of her past and find the truth about the events that brought her to the Caribbean island of Isla Perla as a child. Disguised as a sailor, and with the help of her longtime friend Claudette, Merrin joins the crew of the pirate ship Riptide, helmed by the notorious Captain Erik Winters. Tenacious and rumored a madman, Winters is known as much for his ruthlessness as for his connection to the enigmatic and beautiful proprietress of the Goodnight Mermaid, Evangeline Dahl, who vanished from Isla Perla two summers before.

At sunset the Riptide sails for the mythical island of Bracile, a place hidden between air and sea and that exists only for a moment every two years, and which has never returned any man who has sailed for its shores. The journey will be perilous and long, and it will take Merrin far away from the only home she’s ever known. Because she can read, Merrin will serve as the Captain’s apprentice, deciphering old texts for clues to the island’s whereabouts as the ship sails through haunted, frozen waters and into the very heart of the ocean. As she struggles to navigate the rough, seafaring life aboard a pirate ship, Merrin must keep her identity hidden from the scrupulous gaze of not only Captain Winters, but also Mister Brandon Dunn, the ship’s surly, legend-spouting quartermaster, and Tom Birch, the charming boatswain Merrin can’t help but feel drawn to.

As the Riptide makes its way to Bracile, Merrin begins to suspect that the men she has worked so hard to deceive may in fact be more connected to her than she would have imagined, and that perhaps her own past might have more to do with the Dunn’s legends and myths than she ever could have guessed.

In The Isle of Gold [Black Spot Books, October 9, 2018] Merrin Smith must face perilous waters, cursed sea goddesses, and the embodiments of some of the ocean’s most terrifying legends as she not only struggles to survive her journey, but to find the answers to the mysteries of her past.

A story where history meets fantasy, The Isle of Gold is an epic, emotional adventure of two women—one desperate to save herself, and the other determined to be rescued—and the secret which binds them together.

“For as long as men have sailed the ocean, they have told stories about the sea,” says Jane. “It’s a place of mystery, myth, and magic—and this makes The Isle of Gold a perfect setting for an epic adventure that is not only a tale of historical fiction, but of the very evolution of a woman’s spirit as she seeks to find herself in a world of unpredictability and uncertainty.”

“There is an old saying that ‘the cure for anything is saltwater—tears, sweat, or the sea.’ In The Isle of Gold, Merrin’s journey requires all three.”

You can purchase The Isle of Gold at the following Retailers: