First Love by Chandra Ryan

First Love

Do you remember the first book you fell in love with? The first one to capture your heart and convince you the characters were real? Mine was Season of Ponies by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. I first read it in the fourth grade. At the time I hated reading. Reading was a hard, laborious process for me. And, since I’d never fallen in love with a book, they payout wasn’t high enough for all the work I had to put into it. But from the moment I opened Season of Ponies until the moment I put it down, I was captivated. I checked that book out of my school’s library so often that the librarian started making suggestions of other books to read. I didn’t want to read any other books, though. I was in love with Season of Ponies.

She did eventually get me to try a couple other books. And, eventually, I fell in love with several of those as well. But when I think back to books I’ve loved over the years, that one is always the first title to jump into my head. What was it that made me fall helplessly in love with this book? It had horses. I’ll admit it. I’m a girl and I loved horses when I was growing up. Any book with horses would’ve grabbed my attention. But it was more than that. The horses in this book were magical. They were full-sized, real life horses that were in the same color as those blown glass horses I loved! I so wanted one. And the girl got to escape her mundane life for a brief period. She got to have a grand adventure in the woods surrounding her aunts’ home.

The most important thing to me, however, was that while I was watching her story unfold, I was escaping from my mundane life for a brief period of time. Don’t get me wrong, my childhood wasn’t horrible. But it was childhood. Few people survive it without some discomfort. I wasn’t the best student. I wasn’t popular. And my family didn’t have much money. But none of that mattered when I was reading Season of Ponies.

By the time I’d grown up and decided I wanted to write, I’d fallen in love with so many books that I couldn’t possibly list them all. And I loved them for different reasons. Some I loved because they challenged my beliefs. Some I loved because they made me see things in a different light. Some I loved because they made me laugh. And some I loved because they made me cry. But it remained true that the ones I loved the best were the ones that wrapped me up in their words and carried me away to some magical place for a grand adventure. When I sat down to write my first book, it only made sense that I try to offer an adventure to my readers. So I decided to write fantasy. Some have been high fantasy, others have been urban fantasy, and recently I’ve delved into sci-fi. As different as these genres may look at first glance, they really aren’t. The reason I write fantasy and sci-fi is because there’s always an adventure waiting for the reader between the covers.

So what grand adventure do I have in store for you today? My first story, Ink in the Blood, was just re-released by Ellora’s cave today.

Blurb:

Prequel to Bond Betrayed

Izzy has lived between two worlds her entire life—one filled with magic and darkness, the other populated by mundane humans. She was born into the magical world of the Community. But sexy, forbidden DEA agent Jacob belongs to the other. He has no idea her world even exists.

But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t noticed her. They’ve worked together for the past six months, attempting to bring down her drug-dealing half brother while driving each other crazy with pent-up desire. But now that it’s time to say goodbye, they both find it impossible to let go.

After one passionate night together Izzy realizes her mistake. She can’t bring him into her world. She has to end things before she gets too attached. When he refuses to leave, she must find a way to guide him through the darkness.

Inside Scoop: In this scorching urban fantasy, ink is thicker than blood.

A Romantica® paranormal erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

Publisher’s Note: This book was previously published elsewhere and has been revised for Ellora’s Cave.

If you’d like to know more, an excerpt can be found on the Ellora’s Cave site: http://www.ellorascave.com/ink-in-the-blood.html

Or on my website:

http://www.chandraryan.com/

I can be found here-

Twitter: @ChandraRyan

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chandra.ryan

Chandra Ryan

Please join me in welcoming the amazing author Chandra Ryan!! I am so excited to have her with us today!!

My Own Personal Fantasy

I was a bit of an anomaly growing up in the early 90s in rural America. I know, growing up in the early 90s we all felt like a bit of an anomaly. And we were. But I was a small-town girl (there were less than 10,000 people in the town I grow up in) who had the audacity to read and love fantasy. Every time I’d go to the bookstore I’d have to by one or two or five and then race home to devour them. There were whole weekends I wouldn’t sleep. I’d be up until three or four o’clock in the morning reading. So, when I decided I was going to write—seriously write, four or five years ago, it only made sense that I write what was in my heart—a fantasy. But not just any fantasy. Since it was going to be mine, I could tweak the things that I found a bit annoying in my youth.

The first thing I wanted to fiddle with was the point of view. I love men. I really, truly do. But it seemed to me that most fantasies were written from a guy’s viewpoint. There were exceptions. And, even the books that were primarily written from a male perspective, there were several books that had chapters written from a female character’s point of view. But I wanted a book told exclusively from a woman’s or, as it turned out, a couple women’s point of view. So that was where I started.

And, since I was writing exclusively in feminine voices, I wanted to give the women real depth. The thing that annoyed me the most while growing up and reading fantasies was that so many female characters in fantasies were damsels in distress. They were too stupid to live. They were Princess Buttercup in the Fire Swamp standing there screaming in terror while their Wesley was fighting the monsters for them. Don’t get me wrong, I love that movie. I could quote it for days on end. But there isn’t a time that I’ve watched it that I haven’t yelled at the TV during that scene. Why can’t she just pick up a sword and hand it to him?

The other option for females, if she wasn’t cast as the damsel, was the evil manipulator. Written to be the hero’s downfall, she was there to drive a wedge in the group of adventurers. She was always vivacious and curvy and sexy as hell. Usually witty and cunning, she was the other half of the damsel but, being just half a woman, she still fell flat when I read her. That being said, she was the character I always rooted for.

Enter Saraphina Raven, my damsel who can fight her own monsters thank you very much, and Anneleissa Dawnsfall, my manipulative femme fatale with a heart of gold. They are the voices of my own personal fantasy. They are the heart and soul of Ravenborne. And they became two of my friends as I wrote their stories.

Fantasy, as a genre, has come a long way in the last twenty years. It’s more approachable, more readable, and—most importantly—it’s become more diverse. Authors have worked hard to open the genre so that it others can fall in love with it the way we did in our childhood. But there is always room for improvement. So, my question to you, if you were to write a fantasy, what would you tweak? What would you change to make it your own? I’ll be giving away a digital copy of Ravenborne to one of the brave souls who leave a answer in the comments (make sure you also give us an e-mail address so I can get in touch with you).