Welcome! Today I’m thrilled to interview Dora Machado, author of The Curse Giver. As always, feet up and relax while you learn more about this intriguing romantic fantasy!
Genre: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Romantic Fantasy, Fantasy Romance, Dark Fantasy
Publisher: Twilight Times Books
ISBN: 978-1-60619-289-4
ASIN: B00DSUQL4I
Number of pages: 420
Word Count: 165,000 aprox.
Cover Artist: Brad Fraunfelter
GIVEAWAY! Curse Giver Tour Giveaway Details
Subscribe to Dora Machado's blog and/or newsletter and enter for a chance to win:
1) One of three autographed books of Dora Machado's Stonewiser Series.
Or
2) One of ten special edition bracelets commemorating The Curse Giver's EBook release.
This handcrafted, customized, limited-edition, 1/4 inch aluminum bracelet from Silver Statements is hammered and stamped with The Curse Giver's signature message—Knowledge, Reason and Awareness, and flanked by the stylized outline of butterfly wings. Inside, the bracelet is stamped with the word Strength. Aluminum is a great metal for jewelry. It won't turn your skin green, doesn't oxidize or tarnish, and its water safe. Plus it's so lightweight that you might even forget you're wearing it.
For a chance at one of The Curse Giver's limited edition bracelets subscribe now at:
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Giveaway Terms and Condition:
New subscribers to the blog and/or newsletter will automatically qualify to participate. Names will be selected at random from the list of new subscribers on November 15, 2013. Subscribers will be notified via e-mail. Winners will be asked to provide a mailing address for delivery.
Short Description
Betrayed and condemned to die for a crime she didn't commit, an innocent healer must ally with the embittered lord pledged to kill her in order to defeat not only the vile curse obliterating their lives, but also the curse giver who has already conjured their ends.
Long Description
Lusielle's bleak but orderly life as a remedy mixer is shattered when her husband betrays her and she is sentenced to die for a crime she didn't commit. She's on the pyre, about to be burned, when a stranger breaks through the crowd and rescues her from the flames.
Brennus, Lord of Laonia is the last of his line. He is caught in the grip of a mysterious curse that has murdered his kin, doomed his people and embittered his life. To defeat the curse, he must hunt a birthmark and kill the woman who bears it in the foulest of ways. Lusielle bears such a mark.
Stalked by intrigue and confounded by the forbidden passion flaring between them, predator and prey must come together to defeat not only the vile curse, but also the curse giver who has already conjured their ends.
Book Trailer
Interview time!
SKY: What inspired you to write this book?
DORA: I was inspired to write The Curse Giver when I came across an ancient pair of clay tablets that popped up on my screen one night while I was researching another story. The clay tablets dated from 600 BC and were part of the same collection that gave us the famous Gilgamesh epic. Visually, the tablets weren't much to look at, chicken scratches on clay. But the translated words had a huge impact on me.
"May all these [gods] curse him with a curse that cannot be relieved, terrible and merciless, as long as he lives, may they let his name, his seed, be carried off from the land.”
I know, hardly an inspiration for most. Me? I immediately thought of the man who had been thus cursed, of the pain and hardship such a curse would bring upon him and his people, of the character that eventually became Bren, Lord of Laonia, in The Curse Giver.
I started to think: Who would cast a curse like that and why? What kind of creature could be capable of such powerful evil? What would motivate a person to curse another? A new character began to emerge in my mind, the curse giver herself, someone whose understanding of good and evil was very different from my own.
And, once cursed, how could a person defend himself? A third character emerged from this question, Lusielle, a common remedy mixer, a healer of bodies and souls, someone who didn't realize the scope of her own strength until it began to transform her life.
With Bren, Lusielle and the curse giver thus crystalized, I set out to write this fast, plot-twisting fantasy romance about an innocent woman condemned to die for a crime she didn't commit, who must ally with the cursed lord pledged to kill her in order to defeat the curse giver who has already conjured their ends. The Curse Giver is an epic fantasy story with brawn, brains, and lots of heart, something that I think your epic dark fantasy romance readers might enjoy.
SKY: How did you come up with the title?
DORA: My villain gave The Curse Giver its title. She is an intriguing, mysterious curse giver, a creature who makes her living from casting curses. For her, good is evil and evil is the only way to go.
As the book begins, she has cast a fatal curse on the line of Uras, and only Bren, the last Lord of Laonia, remains alive. But, like his father and his brothers before him, he is also about to die. His only hope is to find a birthmark and kill the woman who bears it in the foulest way. But when Bren finds the woman, the condemned healer he rescues from the pyre is not what he expects.
SKY: What made you choose the main setting for your book?
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