Blog Tour + Character Discussion: HEARTWOOD by Freya Robertson

Heartwood
by Freya Robertson
Series: Elemental Wars #1
Genre:Young Adult Fantasy
Published October 29th by Angry Robot
Purchase Links:  Amazon | B&N

A dying tree, a desperate quest, a love story, a last stand.

Chonrad, Lord of Barle, comes to the fortified temple of Heartwood for the Congressus peace talks, which Heartwood’s holy knights have called in an attempt to stave off war in Anguis. But the Arbor, Heartwood’s holy tree, is failing, and because the land and its people are one, it is imperative the nations try to make peace.

After the Veriditas, or annual Greening Ceremony, the Congressus takes place. The talks do not go well and tempers are rising when an army of warriors emerges from the river. After a fierce battle, the Heartwood knights discover that the water warriors have stolen the Arbor’s heart. For the first time in history, its leaves begin to fall...

The knights divide into seven groups and begin an epic quest to retrieve the Arbor, and save the land.

CHARACTER DISCUSSION

(Here's a brief discussion of Heartwood's character, right from the author herself, Freya Robertson! Thank you to Freya and Angry Robot!)

Freya Robertson:

Hi and thank you for having me on your blog today :-)

I’m here to talk about Heartwood, my debut epic fantasy from Angry Robot Books. I thought I’d tell you a little about the major characters in the story, both how they fit into the world and what it’s like to create a cast of players in an epic fantasy tale.

My first aim was to make the people from the four lands of Anguis similar and yet distinctive at the same time. Although Heartwood is a traditional epic fantasy in that it has a quasi-medieval European setting, it does not have elves, dwarves or orcs, and the people of Anguis are all humans. However, in real life someone from Scotland can look and sound very different than someone from Italy or Africa, and I felt it was important for people from the four lands to not only be physically different but to also have distinct cultures.

With the naming of characters, is it always difficult to have names that sound interesting and different and yet are also easy on the ear. I didn’t want to fall into the trap of using apostrophes or collections of consonants that didn’t make any sense, plus I wanted them to have an authentic feel. In the end, I used names for the two main lands—Laxony and Wulfengar—that were old medieval English and German, with spellings from the time in the hope that the names sound natural and not too modern. Therefore the main hero is called Chonrad, and one of the Wulfian knights is called Grimbeald.

For Hanaire, an elegant and sophisticated people, I based the names on old Celtic, so we have Fionnghuala and Bearrach (that’s for my dad—a Celtic form of Barry).

Komis is the fourth land, and the people here have darker skin, black hair and distinctive gold eyes. Their land is a little isolated from the other three, their cities are created above ground level in the trees, and they have a closer connection to nature. I used names with harder consonants for these such as Aukaneck, their king, to reflect their more down-to-earth, harsh society.

The knights of Heartwood were the most interesting to create. I decided that because the fortified temple of Heartwood was based on a medieval monastery, I was going to have Latin names for both the buildings in Heartwood and for the knights themselves. Thus the central square in the temple is not the cloister but the claustrum, and the high walls surround the baillium rather than the bailey.

The leader of Heartwood’s army—the Dux—is called Procella, which is Latin for storm, and I felt that fitted her tempestuous and fierce personality. I enjoyed delving into the meaning behind some Latin words, and one of the younger, beautiful knights is called Beata, while the old fearless warrior who taught Procella is called Valens, which means strong.

Writing strong, individual and realistic characters is an important part of worldbuilding, and I hope I’ve created a convincing cast of varying but believable people, and that they go on to win your heart as they have mine :-)

*I can't wait to have a copy of this in my hands!!! Thank you, Freya for introducing us to the characters that build your world of Heartwood!*

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Freya Robertson

Freya is a lifelong fan of science fiction and fantasy, as well as a dedicated gamer. She has a deep and abiding fascination for the history and archaeology of the middle ages and spent many hours as a teenager writing out notecards detailing the battles of the Wars of the Roses, or moping around museums looking at ancient skeletons, bits of rusted iron and broken pots.

She lives in the glorious country of New Zealand Aotearoa, where the countryside was made to inspire fantasy writers and filmmakers, and where they brew the best coffee in the world.

Author Links:

Website / Twitter