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I currently have two novels available for consideration for publication:
An epic heroic fantasy of cultures in collision
Step this way for a preview…
Z-Dancer is my first finished novel, which I dreamed up during a period working at an Internet company that died in the DotCom Crash. The death of the company suddenly gave me the time to realize this story that begged me to tell it.
Z-Dancer mixes high school drama, a character study, and space opera adventure. The story travels from the moons of Jupiter, between the gaps of the universes, through the past and a strange future, and floats down to an ordinary high school in southern California where an extraordinary sixteen-year old girl walks the halls…
Kristel Holly
An exile from the twenty-fifth century, struggling to learn, for the first time, what it is like to be a teenager, what it feels like to be kissed, how it hurts to have your heart broken.
Kristel Holly
Kristel Holly
Kristel Holly
She stands between an unprepared Earth and a wave of dangers from the depths of space. Dangers she knows of from her own bleak future.
Kristel Holly:
My first novel, Z-Dancer, traverses the genres of space opera and high school drama. My next completed work, The Realm of the Raven, flies off in another direction entirely, winging through dreamlike fantasy and historical adventure.
An Epic of Two Worlds…
Ta’rib, a kingdom of sand and oases, vanished gods, buried temples, palm fronds dancing in the winds, nomads crossing the ocean of the desert, kings and viziers and astrologers, gardens of jasmine and lilies, curved swords flashing in the merciless sun.
Ránland, a land of forests and chill lakes, mountains tipped with snow, gods who freely grant magic, longboats of oak scudding across choppy waters, woodsmen and fishermen, people with bright eyes and fair skin and magic in their souls, sorcerers that spread law and peace through villages of fisherfolk and shepherds.
…the Fateful Danger That Lies Between Them…
A curse stronger than either world can master. A terror that brings the two vastly different lands to each other’s doorstep…and dooms them both to destruction.
…and the Two Youths Who Can Save Them
Altayr, the Prince of Ta'rib.
Kelda, Grand Mistress of the strongest Magical Order of Ránland.
Before the disaster, they were children, but with the coming of the horror that engulfs their lands, they have had to grow up quickly and inherit a task that seems impossible. For between Altayr and Kelda and the rescue of two worlds lies powerful magics, deadly creatures, sly traitors, and the creeping shadows of their own fears and prejudices. And perhaps feelings that go even deeper.
A Few Notes on The Realm of the Raven
The country of Ta'rib appeared in my mind before anything else in The Realm of the Raven and started the process of dreaming up the rest of the book. I had mused for years about writing a Middle Eastern-themed fantasy story because of my academic background. The Middle East—ancient, classical, and modern—has fascinated me since middle school, and The Realm of the Raven started in conception as a fantasy set in a kingdom resembling that of the Sabaeans, a sixth-century B.C.E. culture that thrived in what is present-day Yemen. It appears in the Torah as the Kingdom of Sheba. Ta'rib has much in common with this historical Kingdom of the Sabeans, but it also borrows heavily from classical Persia, other pre-Islamic Arabian cultures, and the tone of the original Arabian Nights (the oldest surviving 13th-century text, the "purest" version).
My interest in early medieval Nordic culture led to the creation of Ránland. In particular, the fascinating history of Iceland inspired me to create Ránland's culture with an unusual, early form of democratic government. The language spoken by the characters in Ránland uses many Icelandic words, since Icelandic hews closest of all the Scandinavian languages to Old Norse, the tongue of the Vikings. Iceland has developed a deep meaning for me, for I see in their history a long struggle for freedom and independence, as well as a respect for their own history and past that crosses religious boundaries. The Icelandic poets, even though they had converted to Christianity by the time they started to record their sagas, dutifully perserved their pagan past and imparted it to the world. Icelandic culture has therefore touched all of Western culture; modern fantasy literature would never have flowered if not for the stirring examples found in such great Icelandic works as The Saga of the Volsungs and The Poetic Edda, two works which strongly influenced my work in The Realm of the Raven.
Bringing the two cultures together was a thrilling writing experience, although often a tasking one. But when I entrenched myself inside the minds two protagonists, Altayr and Kelda, and started to experience the collision of two incompatible worlds through their young eyes, I found an almost magical flow to the story. Themes I had never anticipated in the planning stages of the book started to emerge. In a small way, I think what I have created in The Realm of the Raven speaks out against the cultural prejudices that divide our world today, and shows one example of how two different people came together to solve a problem that threatened both their lands. I also hope that people will appreciate the casting of Arabian-style characters in a heroic mold. There has been so much awful backlash against Arabs since the tragedy of 9/11, and this influenced many decisions I made when developing the Kingdom of Ta'rib and the character of Altayr. I hope that young people who read the novel will recognize something special in the relationship between Altayr and Kelda that they can apply to their own lives. Strength comes from embracing differences. Diversity is the greatest asset of the human race.
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