Hello all.
Welcome to my stop on the
Making Connections book tour
for Tangi's Teardrops by Liz Grace Davis!
Unfortunately, I did not have time to read this.
But, the author has saved the day with
a wonderful guest post and excerpt.
YAY LIZ!
Here we go!
When Tangi's father dies, he leaves her nothing but three empty bottles.
A kind uncle takes the poverty-stricken girl and her stepsisters in, and for a
time life gets better on his farm. But Tangi remains a lonely outsider; her
stepsisters tease her for her crippled leg, and the housekeepers use her like a
servant.
Just before her thirteenth birthday, Tangi learns the truth about her father's strange legacy: the three bottles aren't empty any more. They're filled with all the tears she's cried since her father died, and her tears are enchanted. She must use them to travel to Rosevine, the world of her dead mother. Tangi not only belongs there but is necessary to keep Rosevine alive.
Just before her thirteenth birthday, Tangi learns the truth about her father's strange legacy: the three bottles aren't empty any more. They're filled with all the tears she's cried since her father died, and her tears are enchanted. She must use them to travel to Rosevine, the world of her dead mother. Tangi not only belongs there but is necessary to keep Rosevine alive.
Tangi's tears will save Rosevine, and Rosevine will save Tangi from a cruelty-filled life, except for one thing: Tangi's lost the bottles.
GUEST POST!
Welcome To My World
I know there are many
beautiful places in the world where I can set my stories. But I love love love to
make up my own towns, cities, or worlds instead. In Tangi’s Teardrops, I have
two places—the village of Mimbeye and the fantasy world, Rosevine. There are a
number of reasons why some authors decide to create their own places. Here are
my reasons:
- · I can hop onto the wings of my imagination and see where it takes me. There are no limits to what I can come up with. Most of the time I don’t even plan my places beforehand. I just write and return later (maybe in the second draft) to see if they are real enough.
- · I don’t have to research as much. You have no idea how much time it takes to research a place. The weather, the culture, the people, the food…oh, boy!
- · Fear of getting it wrong. There’s always a chance I might leave out something important about a certain place. Readers living in that place could notice and attack me. I know I’m a chicken but better safe than sorry right?
- · To introduce readers to a different place. There are enough novels out there which take you to places you’ve seen or already heard of. I like to give readers a ticket to new and exciting places.
- It’s a lot of fun. It’s incredibly rewarding to know that I’ve created a new world in my readers’ minds, a place I probably have made up from scratch.
In the last point I used the
word probably. The reason for that is
that sometimes I choose a real place and revamp it to make it mine. Mimbeye,
the village in Tangi’s Teardrops, is a mirror image of Uukwaluudhi, the place
where my maternal grandparents lived and I spent a year of my childhood. I
didn’t change much.
Rosevine, however, is a fantasy world I created from
scratch—the land of roses. The Kingdom of Rosevine can only survive as long as
the roses bloom. When the roses wilt, the Kingdom begins to perish. In Rosevine,
the air is filled with the scent of roses and faint music, the rivers sparkle
like liquid diamonds, and the citizens live in modern hill houses and travel on
the backs of giant doves. Everything Tangi could ever wish for is just at her
fingertips. But nothing is as it seems. Beauty can be snuffed out in the blink
of an eye.
Here’s an excerpt from the
novel. Welcome to Rosevine.
A stone
wall appeared in the rainbow’s place. It had no beginning or end and was too
high for her to see the other side. The closer she came to it, the cooler the
sand beneath her feet got.
But there
was no gate. How was she supposed to pass?
Then Daryle
spoke again. “Touch it.”
Tangi
reached forward and tapped it with a fingertip. As if reacting to her touch,
part of the wall disappeared and a beautiful golden gate appeared, wrapped in
ruby red rose vines. Instead of a door handle, it had a golden metal rose with
a diamond in the center. The word Rosevine floated in the air above the gate,
it too adorned with matching roses.
Wow! She
stared, tongue-tied. “What do I do now, Daryle?” It was a struggle to find the
words.
“Touch the
diamond too. And welcome to Rosevine, Tangi. I’ll see you later.”
“Where are
you going?”
No answer.
He was gone.
She reached
out and pressed the cool, glinting diamond and the gate swung open.
Nothing
could compare to the splendor before her. Stretched out in front of her was a path
of seashells, strewn with multi-colored petals, the colors of the rainbow she
had just seen. Tall rose trees framed both sides of the path. Rose trees? Everything seemed to be
possible in this place.
Hope you enjoyed!
See you soon...
