BookLover Sue: Spotlight and Interview - Written in Ruberah by P. Christina Greenaway

Title: Written in Ruberah
Author: P. Christina GreenawayPublisher: Girl by the Sea Publishing
Pages: 420
Language: English
Genre: Paranormal romance
Format: Paperback & eBook

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Blurb:

New York real estate broker Miriam Lewis takes off for a brief getaway to a remote inn on the rugged cliffs of Cornwall. Rest and romance with her boyfriend seem like the perfect cure for a life that appears to be going nowhere, and too fast.

Entering Cornwall, Miriam crosses the River Tamar and glimpses a luminous girl floating in the river. A memory from long, long ago begins to unfold in Miriam’s thoughts—something about a promise she made to perform a selfless act of courage. Could it be true? Could she ever rise to such heroism or is it just a hallucination?

While at the inn, Miriam experiences a series of flashbacks from a life she lived in an ancient land called Ruberah. These startling images convince Miriam that she did write the promise and that she must keep it. But to do so, Miriam will have to let go of everything in her life and place her trust in a guide—the river girl—the wise and eternal spirit of the River Tamar.

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EXCERPT:

The light of the ley line locks onto their feet and forms straps similar in style to the sandals they wore in Ruberah. Kate grins. “Cool, right?”

“Cool.”

“Ready?”

“No. Just kidding. Yes.”

A thundering sound like the drumming of kettledrums blasts through the mine, and the ley line shoots forward. Kate and Miriam hold hands and whiz down the tunnel on the beam of red light. Huge rocks at the end of the mine slide apart, and the girl and the woman skid into the ocean. The ley line expands and encases them in a bullet of light that looks like a futuristic, high-speed railway car. Their globes collapse into rings of ruby light and lie around their necks.

“Brilliant!” Kate runs her hands through her hair and tosses it about her shoulders. “We traveled like this in the Time of Ruberah. We could turn the ley line into airships that carried a thousand people at a time, and we controlled our speed and direction from an astral disk—a soft, razor-thin computer we stuck into the palms of our hands, which was programmed to the astral sphere of the Ruby Kingdom.”

Miriam tunes her out. Please God, she won’t have to use this astral disk thing—it’s hard enough to keep up with the computers of this world, let alone deal with some intergalactic system. She wonders what’s governing their speed now, but doesn’t ask. It might be Kate, in which case she’d rather not know. Foretune to travel well. Watching the waters of the Atlantic splash by, she tells herself that gliding along beneath the sea—breathing air without knowing where it’s coming from, losing complete control of her life—is a good thing. Panic beats beneath her every breath.

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PURCHASE AT: Amazon

TRAILER: http://youtu.be/3tvUkabCafo

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Let's Find Out a Little About the Author:

What is your writing environment?

I write in my office at home. The room has tall peaked windows and a cathedral ceiling. A towering oak tree grows a few feet away. Its great branches hang over my house like arms of love. But I travel a great deal and I’ve learned to write in airports, on planes, and pretty much anywhere I can set my computer on my lap.

Who is your perfect hero and why?

Mr. Rochester of Charlotte Bonte’s Jane Eyre. Damaged and tethered to an insane wife hidden in the attack, Edward Rochester remains unlovable and unforgivable for his treatment of Jane until the end. Then in the exquisite language of Charlotte Bronte, he comes shining through. “I’ve longed for thee, both with soul and flesh …” Mmm!

What authors have caught your interest lately and why?

Donna Tartt -- The Goldfinch. Her brilliant literary voice swept me through the pages of her long, long novel and never let me down. Gillian Flynn – Gone Girl, mysterious, suspenseful, and wicked.

What type of book have you always wanted to write?

The one I’m writing, the second book in my Age of Jeweled Intelligence series. This features a new main character, a seventeen-year-old boy, Ib, short for Ibiza, (Ib’s mother names all her children after the place they were conceived), a sizzling love story, and a breathtaking adventure back to the ancient jeweled kingdom of Ruberah.

Top 3 things on your bucket list?

Make certain everyone I love knows I love them, and why. Spend a summer writing in Mevagissey, the fishing village where I grew up. Snowshoe in the Himalayas.

How did you get the idea for this particular novel?

I wanted to set a book in Cornwall, UK, where I was born and raised. I felt the lush countryside, the moors, and the rugged cliffs would feed my imagination. They did. Lovers came to mind—lovers who must time travel to the ancient past to heal a rift that keeps them apart. I needed an immortal being—a character to guide them. I turned to an old Cornish legend that fascinated me as a child: the legend of the beautiful nymph Tamara and the giant brothers Tavy and Tawridge. Tamara’s father forbids her to meet the giants. Tamara disobeys him. Her father catches her with the giants and punishes her by turning her into a river of tears. Tamara forms the River Tamar. As a child, I travelled back and forth to boarding school by train crossing the River Tamar. I imagined Tamara as a water spirit who helped people.

Written in Ruberah is the first book in my Age of Jeweled Intelligence series about people who lived in the Time of Ruberah who made sacred promises to one day make amends for the disaster that brought about the end of that land. They tossed those promises into the River of Life. Many of those souls live on the planet today. As their promises come due they float in the River Tamar. Tamara, the luminous spirit of the river, guides those who come to fulfill them.

What is your favorite scene in your new release?

The main character Miriam travels with her boyfriend Mitch to Cornwall for what she hopes will be a romantic weekend. Here’s a short scene from when they drive toward an old inn perched high on the cliffs.

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“Mitch eases the hatchback between hedgerows overgrown with long, lacy weeds that flop against the windows. Ancient elms tower above, darkening the day.

“Jesus!” Miriam eyes the narrow lane. “What happens if we meet a car coming in the other direction?”

“Let’s hope we don’t.” Mitch tightens his grip on the wheel and steers the car around a sharp bend. The road plunges downhill at a terrifying angle. He navigates the twists and turns, passing perilously close to the edge where the land falls sharply away.

A waterfall gushes through a ravine in the cliffs. Sunlight plays in mist rising off the water. A rainbow spans the sky. Mitch rounds another turn in the road. The shining body of the Atlantic spreads before him, heaving and rolling to shore like a carpet of diamonds. Waves crash against the sharp-serrated cliffs, carving a savage face on the land. The sky swells with yellow and pewter clouds.

Miriam’s breath catches in her throat. This sudden proximity to nature makes her feel vulnerable. She longs to be back in the concrete safety of her New York apartment.

A dark green Range Rover approaches. The general rule on these roads is that the person traveling uphill has the right-of-way. Mitch is lucky the driver of the Range Rover is Lance Penrose, owner of the inn.

Lance tips his fingers to his tweed cap and reverses. The hatchback and the Range Rover travel downhill, radiator to radiator.

“This is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” Miriam says. “How can you have a hotel in a place where you have to take your life in your hands to get to it?”

Mitch laughs. “Tom Reilly told me that local lore claims no one is the same after a stay at Penrose Hall.”

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What are you working on now and when can we expect it to be available?

The next book in the Age of Jeweled Intelligence series. I aim to publish the book by the end of the year.

What do you like to do when you are not writing?

Go on long hikes, meet friends for coffee and chitchat, go to movies, read, practice yoga, and travel.

What would you consider a perfect date?

Dinner and a movie, followed by cognac and conversation. Followed by? That depends on the conversation.

What is one interesting fact about you that readers don’t know?

I like to ponder the ridiculous about myself. I usually strike gold when I start sinking into the frightening waters of what people will people think about my book. This is when I reaffirm that truism: the journey is the destination. As a writer, this truth allows me to dispel caution and venture into the furthest realms of my imagination. Writing a novel is a grand adventure—a reward in and of itself. That said; ridiculous sticks to me like Scotch tape to the place where you don’t want it.

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About the author:

Christina Greenaway grew up in Cornwall, England in a small fishing village. One of her favorite pastimes as a child was to write a story, stuff it in a bottle, toss it into the sea, and imagine all her characters - pirates, kings, and others - come to life. Her life twisted and turned, however, in so many ways that she never ventured into writing until now, many years later. Her novels include themes generated from her life experiences including: trust, the fantasy parent, empowerment, work and travel and spiritual power.

Christina has worked at BBC radio in England, a NYC high-powered ad agency, as assistant to the president of a perfume company in France, as a partner for a frog farm in Costa Rica, and numerous other venues. She has traversed the globe.

She is the author of Written in Ruberah, published by Girl by the Sea Publishing, and Dream Chaser: Awakening, published by Girl by the Sea.

You can visit Christina at www.christinagreenaway.com or her blog at http://christinagreenaway.wordpress.com.

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WRITTEN IN RUBERAH TOUR SCHEDULE

Monday, March 3

Interview at The Book Connection

Tuesday, March 4

Book feature at Moonlight Reader

Wednesday, March 5

Guest post at Rebecca’s Writing Services

Thursday, March 6

Interview at Booklover Sue