Tuesday, April 1, 2014

World Building: The Land of The Hazel Tree by Julia Debski





The land where The Hazel Tree is set in a parallel world to the one we live in. Ivy and everyone else live on planet Earth, but it’s very different to this one.

Geography

               Geographically, the world is the same. The continents just as green, and the oceans just as deep. The Orarius Pack (or the Costal Pack) is located in northeastern North America. It reaches from North Carolina to Quebec but only goes as far west West Virginia and Toronto.  The capital, where Matthias and Ivy live, is in the North Carolina’s Appalachian Mountains, as that is where the territory began before it expanded to its current size. The Mara Negra Pack (Black Sea Pack) lies in southeastern Europe and the Middle East. This means the territory covers Romania and Ukraine, through Turkey, to Georgia, Lebanon and Azerbaijan. (Google is your friend!!)

               Religion

               There are hundreds of religions among the werewolves all over the world, but they all revolve around the moon in one way or another, hazel trees and water. The main religion of the Orarius pack, and across the Earth, believes the first nine packs of the world were born from nine hazel trees which grew around a sacred pool. The men emerged from the water and the women from the trees. They were mated in pairs and began the Alpha lines – from one of which Matthias is descended. 

               History


               Despite the different religions and beliefs the wolves have about the origins of werewolves in this world, werewolves and humans evolved next to one another - one didn’t come before the other. Unfortunately, werewolves’ physical superiority meant that humans got left behind in more ways than one. They became servants and slaves, and fell prey to disease. Humans ended up dying out a couple hundred years before Ivy was born. Since then, they have become a symbol of weakness.

The Hazel Tree
Julia Debski

Genre: YA Fantasy Romance

ISBN: 1493510789

59,990 words
282 pages

Cover Artist: Julia Debski

Available at Amazon and  BN

Book Description:

The Hazel Tree revisits a classic Cinderella tale of abuse and sought after freedom from the confines of a cruel life.

Ivy Lune is not your ordinary girl for within her blood flows the secrets of an ancient species of werewolf; a secret that also foretells of a great war and a struggle for ultimate supremacy.

Ivy lives a life of isolation torment at the hands of her aunt and cousins for the majority of her life. Mistreated and neglected, she longs to escape the shackles of her prison-like life. And in that longing, she learns the truth of her identity. She learns her place in a long line of events that were set into motion many years ago. She finds intimacy and belonging in a much larger family.

All the while, unknown to her, there are dangerous forces are at work; old blood ties and murderous plots threaten her chance at happiness beyond her current life.

The Hazel Tree is a tale of mystery and romance set against a supernatural backdrop of terrifying and awesome power.




About the Author:

Julia Debski was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1996. Her family moved around a lot during her childhood before finally settling down in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It wasn't until the 8th grade that she found her passion for writing. It was thanks to a particularly inspiring English teacher and a story that needed to be told. So she began to write, and she never stopped.

Four years later she found herself with nearly a dozen started novels and short stories. As junior in high school she was introduced to Greg Wilkey, a self-published independent author of four novels. He soon became a mentor to her as she worked to write and self-publish her own novel. After two years of hard work, and a nearly a year of mentorship The Hazel Tree was published in October 2013.



Twitter: https://twitter.com/juliadebski  (@juliadebski)





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2 comments:

bn100 said...

Informative psot

~Julia~ said...

Thank you Roxanne for hosting me! I had (too much) fun writing this guest post.

 
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