Date Published: April 1, 2017
From author Angelina Kerner (Seven Hours: Challenge Accepted) comes an all-new fantasy series about Gardenia, a daughter of Athena, and her 100 years of coursework on how to create whole new worlds and subjects of her own.
A sheltered schoolchild in a realm of condescending gods and goddesses, Gardenia goes to Earth on a dare to witness the unsavory side of mankind for herself. Believing she can do better, she undertakes the formation of an entire galaxy, but without permission from Zeus.
Zeus disciplines her by assigning an epic 13-fold creational lesson destined to take her a century to complete. But he is taken aback once more when she makes an odd choice. She vows to fulfill this knowledge quest by tracking down a lost race of dragons, and discovering the secrets they’ve kept since time began.
Searching the universe to meet even one dragon may be a fool’s errand, but that’s the least of her worries. For ancient wartime resentments linger between the nations of dragons and deities, and some dragons would attack Gardenia on sight!
Yet she ventures out undaunted, learning unexpected things about nomadic life, tender love, and mortal peril along the way. The biggest surprise of all, though, goes by the name of Ri. Ri may be the man of her dreams, the voice in her head, the dragon she’s seeking, or all these things and more...
Meanwhile, the Fates brew sordid plans of their own and Hera jealously sets traps and trials for Gardenia at every chance. What’s a young goddess to do? Flight or fight?
Interview
Is There a
Message in Your Novel That You Want Readers to Grasp?
It takes
time to excel in something. It doesn’t matter if you’re a human or a deity.
Is there
anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
Descriptions take time. I see
scenes clearly in mind, but knowing when I’ve described enough in writing can
be difficult. I guess that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to explore the disability
of blindness in my novella. However, this interview is about Deity’s Soulmate, my
fantasy/adventure/romance novel.
How many
books have you written and which is your favorite?
I’ve published one novel (Deity’s
Soulmate) and one novella (Seven Hours: Challenge Accepted). I also have three
more novels in the works. Two of them are new adult fantasy and one is crime
fiction. One is the sequel to Deity's
Soulmate, one is a tie-in story about the heiress to the throne of
Phoenixes, and one is crime fiction. The crime fiction novel explores the Cosa
Nostra and how
one doesn’t get out after getting accepted.
If You had
the chance to cast your main character from Hollywood today, who
would you pick and why?
Nina Dobrev as Gardenia. I like her acting
skills and I think she’s really pretty. Could pull off the role of a young
goddess.
Dana Delany as Hera. Love her in Body of Proof. She
looks good in expensive clothing and could carry the head goddess role for
sure.
Amy Adams as Aunt Aphrodite. She’s an
easygoing type of actress so playing the part of a love goddess could really
work for her.
Lucas Till fro
play both twins…
When did
you begin writing?
In
high school, after I was told by a teacher that I would never be a writer. I
just had to prove her wrong. ^_^
How long
did it take to complete your first book?
Two years. Deity’s Soulmate went through many drafts and is now on the 2nd and
final edition.
Did you
have an author who inspired you to become a writer?
James
Clemens. He wrote the The Banned and the
Banished series about a young girl, her magick, and a journey. He was
amazing! I remember buying his first novel in passing from a bookstore. It was
one of those businesses that would rent a place for a while and then disappear.
It was only $5 and I didn’t read it right away, but when I did I was hooked. I
went to Barnes and Noble and bought
all of his book in that series.
It was the
first time I got the full feeling I’d been transported to a fantasy realm and
of wanting to reread a series. Until the very end, I was enraptured by
everything about it!
What is
your favorite part of the writing process?
When the characters take
over. That’s when the story becomes real in my mind.
Describe
your latest book in 4 words.
Gardenia’s destiny awaits her.
Can you
share a little bit about your current work or what is in the future for your
writing?
Deity’s
Soulmate is a story of Gardenia, an 18-year-old goddess-in-training. After witnessing the savage side of human
nature, she goes and does something stupid that gets her punished by Zeus. Her
punishment is to learn about 13 days of creation from 13 different teachers.
But she’s allowed her choice of teachers she goes with Zeus’s nemeses, the
dragons. Along the way, she learns what it takes to create life, to love, and
that the truth is far more complicated than she imagined.
I won’t say anymore for fear of spoiling the plot.
Hmm. The future. I’m thinking that I’ll be publishing more works in
different genres.
About the Author
Angelina Kerner, a Pisces, was born during the Chinese astrological year of the Snake, which she absolutely adores. Angelina loves snakes, and was once allowed to feed one a rat. That was an experience of a lifetime.
She moved around during her young years from Novosibirsk to Kaluga in Russia. Finally settling in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, her teenage years were spent dancing in troupes and performing on stage. The dances ranged from waltz to tango, from Jewish to Russian, and finally belly dance. She was accepted into six out of seven universities, and decided to stay close to her family. Angelina pursued a psychology degree until she saw graduates working for Starbucks and then decided to pursue another career path in the department of Social Sciences. The difficult coursework, her job, and finding her life partner inspired her to turn to writing which, at the time, wasn't so much a hobby as a way to escape daily routine.
She worked on countless stories, never really finishing them, but came to understand that flash fiction wasn't for her. After finding an online community where she met her best friend, her writing flourished, making publication a possible next step. She is now the author of one published novel for both young adults and adults, and aspires to publish her other fantasy and crime fiction works soon. Her next project involves a competition for a beautiful phoenix. That novel will, hopefully, make its debut in 2017 or 2018. Angelina currently divides her time between her family, work, writing, and a lot of cats.
