THINKLINGS BOOKS
  • Home
  • Writers' Cafe
    • Submissions Guidelines
  • Readers' Nook
    • Blog
    • Join Our Email List
    • Become a Reviewer
  • About
    • Our Staff
    • FAQ
  • Books
  • Audiobook Kickstarter

What We're Tolkien About

Author Interview: The Land of the Purple Ring by Deborah J. Natelson

4/8/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Every time we release a book, we’ll post an interview with its author during the month before the book is published. Our next novel, The Land of the Purple Ring, comes out on May 5th. "Lotpur," as we affectionately call it for short, is a wonderfully imaginative adventure story like no other, and we are interviewing the mastermind behind it: Deborah Natelson, our inimitable CEO.
When did you know that you wanted to be a writer?

The Writing Compulsion (genus: Inspiration) is one of the most insidious, inexplicable, inexorable, and intractable items in the construction site of Imaginarium.  Often mistaken for a jellyfish when isolated, the Writing Compulsion spreads out over its host’s brain, sending tendrils into every crack and crevice, merging with every lobe and electrical field, influencing every thought and integrating with every action so thoroughly that it soon can no longer be distinguished or extracted from its host.  Nor would many hosts wish to extract it, for though when ignored it causes agony, when its wholly unreasonable demands are fulfilled it exudes chemical satisfaction beyond any other accomplishment.

Where did you get the inspiration for The Land of the Purple Ring?

Give me a random word, please.  Now another.  Oh, you want me to write about knitting and mountains?  Naturally, all mountains are knitted.  There is an entire clan of oysters who do nothing all day but knit mountains.  That’s why mountains have so many trees on them: the yarn pills.  The center of each mountain is, of course, a pearl—for pearls are formed by layers and layers of nacre.  The oysters who form mountains use a nacre-like substance, except that it extends from them like spider’s web . . .

You see?  Like that. 

Who is your biggest writing inspiration?
​

Walter Moers.  L. Frank Baum.  Norton Juster.  Roald Dahl.  Vivian Vande Velde.  James Thurber.  W.S. Gilbert.

But since this is supposed to be a singular answer, I’d say: the alphabet.

It just has it all.

Tell us one weird, interesting tidbit about yourself.

I have five fingers.

(on each hand)

(including the thumb)

What does your writing space look like?

It has no look; it has only sound.  The sound of my cackling laughter.

How long have you been writing this book?

Honestly?  I wrote the first draft in three months.  Then I rewrote it by the time six months had passed.  That was, oh, about a year and a half before publication, during which time I did some editing.
​

This book wanted to be written so desperately, it practically wrote itself.  Maybe it too had a parasitic brain jellyfish infection.

Which character do you identify the most with in your book?

The kheir, whose bones constantly pop in and out of alignment so that it terrorized chiropractors until they appealed to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe to put a stop to it.
As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019

    Categories

    All
    About Us
    Authors
    Book Promotion
    Book Recommendations
    Book Reviews
    Books On Sale
    Diverse Books
    Fun
    Genres
    Gift Recommendations
    Help Your Author
    Interviews
    Marketing
    Nerdy Stuff
    Our Books
    Our Business Model
    Playlist
    Publishing Industry
    Shop
    Staff Spotlight
    Street Team
    Top 10
    Tropes
    Why Read
    Writers' Collective
    Writing Advice
    Writing Styles

    RSS Feed

Thinklings Books Logo
Books
Submissions
Join Our Email List
​
Our Linktree
Blog
About Us
FAQ
​
Privacy Policy
 As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
  • Home
  • Writers' Cafe
    • Submissions Guidelines
  • Readers' Nook
    • Blog
    • Join Our Email List
    • Become a Reviewer
  • About
    • Our Staff
    • FAQ
  • Books
  • Audiobook Kickstarter