Fangtastic Books: Channeling Stalingrad: Guest Blog and Giveaway with Isabo Kelly

I can’t claim to be a huge history buff, though I do like historical novels and I invariably end up watching shows about history or movies set in different time periods. I love museums and touring ancient sites. So I like history. I’m just not what you might call an expert on any given topic.

So when I say I was channeling the siege on Stalingrad when I started the Fire and Tears series, take that with a grain of salt. *g*

The truth is, I only know a little bit about the battle of Stalingrad (when the Germans invaded the city during World War II). I know just enough to have a flavor of what life might possibly be like under the strains of an enemy invasion. Add to that the little bits and pieces I’ve picked up about the occupation of France during WWII, and I’ve got a lot of very basic stuff to pull from when I’m world building.

And those little bits and pieces, those half-remembered details without the great heaping background of full scholarly knowledge, actually made writing about a city in the middle of a war much easier. I built the war, the world, the city from my imagination and informed it with those vague memories to bring life to the setting, but I didn’t feel the need to match my warzone to any other. I made up one of my own, and it took on a life of its own.

Writers get ideas from all over the place, which is why I like to read, see and watch all kinds of different things. All of it goes into the memory files and when I need something—even if it’s just a vague feeling or detail—it’s there for me to pull into the fiction. It’s a bit like method acting actually.

So when I started the Fire and Tears series, I was actually using my vague memories of Stalingrad to build my world. But don’t expect to see Stalingrad in the pages of my books. I’m not that good at history.

Probably a good thing I write fantasy romance, huh?

So do you have a topic you like to read about but don’t necessarily feel the need to study it in depth?

The Darkness of Glengowyn

Fire and Tears

Book 2

Isabo Kelly

Genre: Fantasy Romance

Publisher: Samhain Publishing

Date of Publication: April 29, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-61922-046-1

ASIN: B00HSOHSCY

Number of pages: 151 pages

Word Count: 44,000 words

Cover Artist: Angela Waters

Amazon BN Samhain Kobo

Book Description:

They’ll risk forever death for one last chance together…

Nuala of Glengowyn hasn’t left her home city in over a century, but not by choice. Her skill as a weapons master has made her a prisoner of her people. Held apart, protected in the extreme—until Sorcerers attack the human city of Sinnale.

Sent to supply her unique magical arrows to help the humans, she is far from free.

The elf king and queen have sent a bodyguard, a fearsome warrior whose reputation has no rival. The only man she has ever wanted. Einar of Glengowyn.

Einar is known as a battle-crazed destroyer, so feared among elves he’s called by a single name: Darkness. And he has only one weakness—Nuala. Their union is forbidden, for melding their magics could destroy Nuala’s gifts. Yet as they journey to the war-torn city, no royal decree is a match for two hundred years of pent-up desire.

But even if they escape the war zone, their lives still hang in the balance. They must confront their sovereigns and prove love makes them stronger—or face their deaths.

Product Warnings: This book contains a deadly elf hero, a heroine who’s his match, a lot of sexy misbehaving, some hard language, racing through the streets, owls, arrows, evil Sorcerers, wicked minions, and a very dangerous elf king and queen.

About the Author:

Isabo Kelly is the award-winning author of numerous fantasy, science fiction, and paranormal romances. Her life has taken her from Las Vegas to Hawaii, where she got her BA in Zoology, back to Vegas where she looked after sharks, then on to Germany and Ireland where she got her Ph.D. in Animal Behavior.

Now Isabo focuses on writing. She lives in New York with her Irish husband, two beautiful boys, and funny dog. She works as a full time author and stay-at-home mom.

For more on Isabo and her books, visit her at www.isabokelly.com follow her on Twitter @IsaboKelly, or friend her on Facebook www.facebook.com/IsaboKelly

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/722664.Isabo_Kelly

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