Welcome, friend! Today I am chatting with author Jordan Tuck about his book, Goddess Ascension. This is the first book a YA Paranormal Romance series. Let’s welcome Jordan and learn more about the book!
Get to know the author: Jordan Tuck
Welcome Jordan! Tell me and my readers a bit about yourself!
Hi Kriti and Armed with a Book followers, thank you for hosting me. I’m an ex-software engineer trying my hand at more creative pursuits after an unceremonious dismissal from a 20-year career. Growing up, I had always been a big fantasy and role-playing fan; however, I found the books of the day always left me wanting. I decided I would make the books I would like to read instead. I dabbled with some writing, but life and family made me, unnecessarily, put my writing dreams on hold. With the dissolution of my marriage, I had more free time and motivation to get back into my writing and recoup lost time.
What inspired you to write this book?
The book is inspired by a person with a harrowing history I met on a now-defunct MMO. During the Great Recession, she was having trouble with her business. While delirious from lack of sleep on a 36-hour redeye flight fiasco, I was thinking about her situation and was struck with the tagline, “In the time of gods, there dared arise a Goddess.” I decided I would write a book in honour of her struggles and the time we shared together.
How long did it take you to write this book, from the first idea to the last edit?
From that initial flight above to the publication date, the book was 15 years in the making, although most of that time was spent dabbling with the idea. Initially, I only occasionally put time into the book, and my writing style was very inefficient. The first half of the book took 10 years. Once I was laid off, it only took me a year to finish the last half. The final 4 years were spent between beta readers, editor’s schedules, and rewrites, and 2 years going back to school. All in all, I have done 12 revisions, 3 narrative edits, and 2 proofing edits.
What makes your story unique?
Superficially, I have written the book with a mix of traditional narrative and the style of classic mythology. This gives the story an air of the surreal, where space and time are not concrete. Movement through heaven and earth is seamless, and there are few references to time. Despite the story taking place in a desert, I wanted the reader to see the world as mystical and ageless.
More profoundly, I made the book very visceral. I really wanted to put my readers in the main character’s shoes. Underneath the story of gods, magic, and relationship struggles, there is a story of someone who has suffered lifelong physical and emotional abuse. I wanted to give my readers an understanding of domestic violence and how the effects of abuse go further than wounding the victim but also affect those around them.
I have a content warning on the Amazon page, as the book sometimes gets very heavy.
Who would enjoy reading your book?
Anyone who wishes to read a mature, well-developed book that pulls at the heartstrings will enjoy Goddess. Written around an established “empty nest” couple, the book was initially intended for an older audience. However, it contains so many messages and cautionary tales for the younger generation that they would also find it a very cathartic read.
And for those that really wish to dig, there are many pop culture references and role-playing easter eggs. Don’t think that they interrupt the story beats, though. They are very subtle and will be missed by most readers on the first pass. Alas, my Monty Python reference was removed as the editor felt the scene containing it was unnecessary.
What’s something you hope readers would take away from it?
Everyone will find something different in Goddess. There has been considerable change in the cultural landscape since I started writing, so I can’t predict what people will now take away from it. I do hope readers at least get from the story what I took away from my time with my Goddess: “Arise to the strength to complete your day before all you have risen for is taken away.”
Do you have a favourite quote or scene in the book that you find yourself going back to?
The book has many great lines and scenes, so it is hard to pick a favourite. A fun scene I do go back to is in the chapter “Paradise Waning”. The lead male, feeling frustrated, plays a trick on the titular character. The joke does not go over well, and she storms off. This leads to the exchange:
Syffox knew better but couldn’t resist shouting out after her. “Can I call upon my Goddess for help now?”
Vantaiga continued angrily towards the trees. Her only reply was to cast an obscene hand gesture over her shoulder.
This scene reveals more of the strain developing between the couple. Still, despite the hurt, their playful nature shows how they do not hold malice towards each other. It also demonstrates the lead male’s tendency to overdo things.
What is something you have learned on your author journey so far?
It certainly has been a long journey. My biggest lesson is just how long it takes to write a book. I don’t know how people write multiple books a year, but that is certainly not my speed. With a book as emotional as Goddess, I could only manage 4 hours of solid 1st draft writing a day. Now considering rewrites and edits, there is no quick way about it.
What’s the best piece of advice you have received related to writing?
Besides my editor’s advice to remove all my “bad habit wording,” I think the best advice I’ve received is the advice I finally gave myself; keep moving forward. If you wait for the perfect time to write, you’ll never have time to write. If you continually fuss over every line and paragraph, you’ll never make progress. Set aside a time for nobody to disturb you and start writing. Then when you do write, finish a chapter completely before reviewing it. Once you’ve done your review, don’t touch it again until you’ve completed the manuscript. If you need to make plot and beat changes, make a note in a separate document for the final full review. But whatever you do, get those words down onto the paper and let the story out. Worry about making it perfect later. That’s what the editors are for.
If you could give a shout out to someone(s) who has helped in your writer journey, please feel free to mention them below!
I would love to give a shout-out to my editors, Katie Zedybel, Joanne Machin and the Darling Axe team. Katie particularly needs to be heralded as I subjected her to the first narrative edit, final assessment, and a line edit of harrowing proportions. She went above and beyond to pull this story together for me.
I would also like to thank my children for their support, critiques, and moral boosting to complete the book. I really appreciated their enthusiasm to see the story unfold. Cover art and illustrations are from my daughter Kat by the way.
And, of course, I have to give a shout-out to “Volupia”, my warrior, my destroyer, my saviour, my Goddess; without her, the book would not have been possible. She never liked the name Vantaiga but writing a book about the Goddess Volupia is a totally different story.
Goddess Ascension
Fantasy, Published 2022
Through a life of struggle, Vantaiga and her mate build a mighty forest in a desert world. As leaders of a powerful Order, the couple must complete their realm by joining the gods and becoming a force of nature. Their rise to divinity, however, does not go as expected. The gods have been keeping secrets. The world is growing jealous. There is no place for a peaceful forest in this cruel land.
Now the pair must battle a hostile desert, a disapproving heaven, and their own doubts, to keep their love and forest alive. For in the time of gods, it takes more than faith for those that dare arise a Goddess.
Content notes – Goddess Ascension is a mature tragic love story with violence and intense emotional scenes that some readers may find difficult
Book Excerpt from
Goddess Ascension
Context:
Vantaiga – a 6 or 7 year old peasant farm girl
Hydar – the God of Rain
Coronus – the God of the Sun
Coronus gazed over the world from atop his throne in the afternoon. His single blazing eye scorched the ground as he scanned the land looking for the weak and foolish, looking for those that should be purged from the earth. On that day, just as all the other days, he found many that would not survive until he rested in his bed below the horizon. On that day, the young girl Vantaiga was one such soul.
She stumbled along a rocky path on the side of a steep, barren mountain. Her only company was an occasional dry, scraggly bush and the buzz of unseen insects hiding from the sun. She carried two clay jugs full of water yoked by a rough tree branch over her shoulders. Occasionally, her stumbles would splash water onto the jagged tan-coloured stones of the path. She had long given up cursing her mother for not allowing her to take the light, sealable water skins. The skins were too valuable to lose, and both Vantaiga and her mother knew she was not meant to return from her fool’s errand. Coronus glared down on the tiring girl; he knew as well.
She breathed heavily from the stifling heat and burden, conscious thought fading from her mind. She focused on the distant end of the path at the base of the mountain shimmering beneath the stare of Coronus. She moved by delirium and will alone, forcing herself forward by chanting in her head for one more step, one more step towards home, one more step to prove to her mother she wasn’t weak.
All other thoughts were pushed from her mind. She did not heed the burning sun on her head. She did not heed the weight of the jugs or the branch that bit into her shoulders. She did not heed the pain and knots tightening in her back. She did not heed the warning hiss of a snake before it sunk its dripping fangs into her foot.
Vantaiga’s thoughts remained on the path and on home. She was only vaguely aware that her foot no longer ached, and weakness crawled up her leg. She forced herself for one more step, one more step towards home. A growing awareness that her journey was coming to an end intruded on the girl’s trance. A sickened smile crossed her dry lips. She was more than halfway home. She was certain her mother never expected her to make it so far.
Venom and fatigue finally overwhelmed Vantaiga’s remaining strength. She dropped the jugs and stumbled to the right, her leg no longer willing to obey her commands. Her mouth too parched to speak, she pleaded in her mind. She pleaded for her leg to move, to take just one more step.
The leg did not listen to the young girl and crumpled beneath her. Vantaiga slipped off the edge of the path and fell down the steep side of the mountain. As she tumbled, each rock she encountered pummelled into her, giving her rattling reminders that there was no place for the weak in this world; there was no place for her in this world.
Vantaiga finally rolled to a stop; she lay in a heap among the rocks at the foot of the mountain, all but her breath battered from her. She made a futile gesture to lift herself; it only came as a shifting of her hand. It was all she could manage to show to Coronus that she deserved to live. Unmoved, Coronus continued to glare at the girl. Why should he show her mercy out of the countless souls he would claim that day? The venom that slowly numbed the girl’s tattered body was more than enough mercy for her.
In the skies above, Hydar had been watching the valiant yet hopeless efforts of the girl. His thin, cirrus form collected into a grey cloud to stand before Coronus, allowing Silhlotte, the God of Shadows, to cover the body of the expiring child.
Hydar’s words were wispy but clear, like the sound of rain approaching from afar. “Why do you torment this one?”
Coronus sneered at him. “I torment this one no more than the others. If she is too weak to rise, then she deserves to die where she falls.”
“But this one already suffers at the hands of others.”
Coronus laughed with the sound of a raging fire. “Many suffer at the hands of others in our world. Hydar, you betray yourself. What is this insignificant thing to you?”
“This one is different. There are many that pray for my rains to come. But this one does not pray, yet she dances for me when I arrive. No one dances anymore. I want to see if she will still dance when she is a woman.”
“Then satisfy your curiosity and save her yourself. Do not bother me with your whims. I have many souls to collect today. This one means nothing to me if she dies. She also means nothing to me if she lives.”
Hydar darkened into a storm cloud. His rain fell onto the girl, soothing her bruises and quenching her dry skin. Through her delirium, Vantaiga could see Hydar’s form in the dancing spray of the heavy raindrops on the stones about her. Hydar raised a finger to his lips, and with the sound of hissing rain, he whispered, “Our secret.”
In a flash, a lightning bolt crashed into the side of the mountain, deafening and blinding the young girl.
Dumbfounded, Vantaiga lay there, her body still numb from the venom. When her eyes cleared enough to be able to see, the rain had stopped, and Hydar was gone. Her only company was Coronus, watching her and waiting to see what she would do next. Vantaiga could only shift her head to drink the water in the growing puddle forming round her. It relieved her parched mouth and cleared her head.
She rested her face into the cool water as the puddle continued to build. Vantaiga slowly became aware that something was not right. The rain had stopped, yet the water of the puddle continued to rise. It rose till it reached Vantaiga’s gasping mouth and flowed into her lungs.
With a violent rack of coughing, Vantaiga lurched up from the water. Her numbness was not enough to cover the pain of her muscles as they convulsed the water out. The young girl was caught between crying in pain and gagging to empty her lungs. With awkward jerks of her paralysed limbs, she managed to drag her head from the puddle that continued to grow.
Vantaiga stared in wonder as the water crested a lip and trickled its way along the ground. While she watched, the ringing in her ears subsided, and she became aware of a playful babble of water running over rocks. She twisted herself over. In the side of the mountain, still smouldering from the lightning bolt, a small spring had been blasted free of the rock. The clear water sparkled as it washed over the stones into the puddle around her.
Vantaiga shuffled her battered body to the spring. Its cool water gave her relief from Coronus’s judgement. The young girl smiled and fell asleep next to the spring with thoughts of her mother’s disappointment that the gods would not be taking her away after all.
Interested?
Thank you for hanging out with us today. Find Goddess Ascension on Goodreads, IndieStoryGeek and Amazon. Connect with Jordan on Twitter, Instagram, his website, Goodreads, and Facebook.
If you are an indie author and would like to do a book excerpt, check out my work with me page for details. Check out other book excerpts here.
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