Happy Thursday, friend! Welcome to an interview with author Edale Lane about her latest novel, Atlantis, Land of Dreams. Some years back, she shared her 10 little known Historical Villains in a guest post. It’s lovely to reconnect with authors that I hosted years back. Let’s welcome Edale and learn more about her new book!
Get to know the author: Edale Lane
Hi Edale! Welcome back to Armed with A Book. Tell me and my readers a bit about yourself!
It’s great to be back, Kriti! I’m a retired schoolteacher, retired truck driver, and full-time author enjoying life in beautiful Chilliwack, BC with my long-time partner. The kids are grown, and the grandkids are delightful. There’s nothing like having a job you love, and I love writing … and music, nature, animals, and good times with family and friends.
Credentials? Yes. I have a master’s degree in history, taught social studies for over twenty years, and let’s not neglect a hunger for learning new things plus life experience. I’ve been fortunate enough for several of my twenty-six and counting books to win awards or hit #1 best-sellers in their Amazon categories. New York Times? Not yet.
I write crime-solving mystery/thrillers, both historical and contemporary, historical fiction, fantasy, and romance with action, usually a twist or two, all headlined by a couple of strong women who end up in a sapphic relationship. Intimate scenes involve metaphorical language and fade to black, but you might be exposed to someone getting killed. No matter how bleak things appear, you can count on an HFN or HEA ending in an Edale Lane book. 😉
What inspired you to write this book?
When I was a small child, my mother passed on her fascination with Atlantis to me. She read Edgar Cayce and marveled at all the mysteries about the past that modern humans could only guess at. Why write it now? I was inspired with the idea for this story around the beginning of 2024 and started turning it over in my mind while I wrote Cold in Murder for my Lessons in Murder series, as it was on my agenda and readers consume these books faster than I can keep up with the demand. A voice inside told me this was the time. It seems a spiritual awakening is happening all over the planet and what I uncovered about Atlantis feels like reconnecting with a long, lost friend or remembering something wonderful you haven’t thought about in years.
How long did it take you to write this book, from the first idea to the last edit?
In preparation, I started watching TV documentaries on ancient civilizations as refreshers and research around late January. Once I uploaded Cold in Murder to Amazon around the middle of February, I dived headlong into research, outlining, and world creation, and when I had accumulated about fifty pages of notes, I started to write. On April 6, 150k words later, I sent the first draft to my editor for her to work on, then wrote the author notes and created advertising material and artwork for the book. The cover and the long hours of creating were done, but my editor got hung up with some personal stuff. So, during April and May, I wrote two more books – another Lessons in Murder novel released in May and a sapphic thriller standalone that releases in August. I spent the first part of June editing the sapphic thriller (SapphicLover69) myself and then Atlantis was done! I swept up the mistakes, completed a detailed index, and sent it off to my proofreader, tidied up what she found, and Voilà! Beginning of July, here we are.
What makes your story unique?
Atlantis fuels the imagination, and plenty of books and a few hokey old movies have emerged about it over the years. Mine differs from those in several ways. First, I conducted exhaustive research, considering a broad sampling of information from Plato to earth science to individual “past lives” memories, to recreate the world as authentically as possible. I don’t present Atlantans as greedy conquerors who fall prey to their own technology, as some popular theorists do. My interpretation is complex, rational, and both scientifically and historically sound. Although the characters are fictional, this could have happened for real. And it is unique because of the second-chance, over-fifty, sapphic romance woven into the story’s heart. It’s timeless, emotional, and inspiring.
Who would enjoy reading your book?
Anyone who dares to dream that humanity can do better. If you enjoy historical romance or fantasy worlds, if you are interested at all in spirituality or protecting the planet, if you like epic adventure led by a small band of unlikely heroes, if you ever wished you could talk to animals, influence the weather, converse with angels, or develop a gift of healing, you will find yourself in this book. If you’re curious to see how an author can turn an apocalypse into a HEA, welcome aboard! But if your mind is closed to such things, or if you seek gratuitous sex and violence, gritty characters spouting strings of profanity, or an unredeemable villain, you won’t find them here.
Did you bring any of your experiences into this book?
Yes. I think occasionally most of us have had what many call a supernatural experience. Maybe you just know something without evidence; the thought appears in your mind and your heart is confident it’s true. Intuition draws you away from danger or toward a blessing, or while relaxing at the beach or in a park, you get a sense that we’re all part of something bigger and somehow connected. A peace you can’t explain settles over you like a cool breeze on a scorching day. I brought that to this novel.
What’s something you hope readers would take away from it?
Shall I say something sappy like, “Hope springs eternal” or “love conquers all”? I seek to inspire readers to think, to reconsider, and to imagine. As humans, we have the potential to be so much more than we have collectively allowed ourselves to become. Yet, as individuals, we are all the protagonists of our own stories, the masters of our fates, and the captains of our souls.
Do you have a favourite quote or scene in the book that you find yourself going back to?
I like something Ariel says to her daughter: “You can have everything you want; you just can’t have it all right now.” Life is a long game if you play it right. Our modern society says everything should be instant and happen right now, but would you want to eat everything you’re ever going to eat in one sitting? Travel to all the exciting places you want to see at once? Patience is almost a forgotten virtue, but one that can add so much peace and joy to life when we exercise it.
What is something you have learned on your author journey so far?
Never stop learning, never stop improving, and always be true to your vision. In other words, persistence pays.
Where can readers find you on the Internet?
Visit my website! Download a free novella: https://www.authoredalelane.com
Browse my Amazon store: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Edale-Lane/author/B07GRFPDRZ
Join my Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/887028485401701
Follow me on GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15264354.Edale_Lane
Or BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/edale-lane
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EdaleLane
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edale_lane/
Or better yet, sign up for my author Newsletter! https://bit.ly/3qkGn95
Atlantis, Land of Dreams
Historical Fantasy, LGBTQ+, Historical Fantasy Romance, Historical Myths and Legends
Publication Year: 2024
A handful of heroes; an impending cataclysm. Can Ariel and her friends save the world as they know it?
Communicating with plants and animals has become a rare gift, one Ariel cherishes. She loves her farm and her family, especially her three-hundred-year-old oma. As she grapples to preserve her connection with the spirit world, she realizes something is dreadfully wrong.
Lysandra, a gifted healer, lives in the most splendid city in the world, overflowing with culture and prosperity. Despite her meaningful career, she misses the love of her youth whom she left behind. Now something is causing more illnesses and deaths at increasingly younger ages than typical for Atlantans.
When both Ariel and Lysandra are called to the Ring of Stones for a meeting of scholars, masters, and gifted individuals, they reunite for the first time in thirty years. Pushing personal feelings aside, they must focus on discovering what’s wrong with their world and help fix it. Making a startling discovery, Ariel brings an ominous report to the council. Can the sharpest minds and most compassionate hearts of Atlantis create a plan to save their civilization, or is it doomed to be obliterated from the face of the earth forever?
Captivating storyteller Edale Lane brings you an epic historical fantasy warmed with a second-chance sapphic romance. Atlantis, Land of Dreams, will transport you to a world of wonder and imagination, where myths of the past come to life and inspire a brighter vision for our future. Get ready to embark on an unforgettable journey of discovery and marvel at the beauty and magic of this legendary place that has captured the hearts and minds of generations.
Book Excerpt from
Atlantis, Land of Dreams
Ariel watched her great-great-great-grandmother smoothly glide through her Ruh Mutaharika movements, pausing at each asana. At three-hundred-thirty-eight years of age, she didn’t stand on her head; still, Naunet was an impressive woman. She was a couple of thumbs shorter than Philomena—only because of gravity. Her every joint functioned properly with each organ operating in perfect health. And though her hair, braided and wrapped in a bun, had turned snowy white, she stood with a straight back and had all her original teeth.
A robin caught Ariel’s attention, and she glanced up to see it perch on the balcony railing above and to her left. The farmhouse’s outdoor staircase leading to the bedrooms had been replaced several times throughout its hundreds of years of history, but the short, stone wall surrounding the broad patio was original. The branches of a peach tree extended over the two-cubit wall at one corner, far enough away from the sprawling, old, live oak in the yard to stay out of its shade. Clay pots of every size and description sprouted flowers, herbs, and berries across the top of the wall and on stands along the back bricks of the house.
Ariel was anxious to talk to Oma but didn’t want to interrupt her morning routine, so she sat on a stool near the oven and watched. Naunet stood on one foot, her other raised to her knee, and let her arms flow upward until her palms pressed together above her head. After holding the pose and her breath for eight counts, the elder’s arms breezed down while she transitioned to the other foot; then she repeated the motion. With both feet back on a smooth, slate tile, she lowered herself into a deep squat and circled her arms, gathering in the energies around her body. Next, Naunet sprang upward, throwing her arms open as if scattering autumn leaves, and a brilliant smile erupted across her lined face.
Dazzling particles of energy rained down on Ariel like the sprinkle of static electricity in a dry lightning storm, sending tingles across her skin. “You minx!” Ariel said with an amused expression. “You used to shower me with happy bubbles like that when I was a child.”
“You look like you could use them again,” the intuitive old woman answered.
Leaving the stool, Ariel stepped over and hugged Oma, pressing vibrations laced with worry to her chest. When she stepped back, she took her great-great-great-grandmother’s hand. “Can we talk?”
Oma sighed. “I suppose my breakfast will have to wait.”
“I’m sorry. Certainly, you should eat first. I apologize—”
“Enough of that, child.” Oma shooed Ariel’s apology away with the back of her hand. “Let’s sit over here, away from your mother and daughter’s endless chatter.”
They moved to a bench at the far side of the patio, protected by the huge live oak, and sat together in the cool of the morning. A shadow drew Ariel’s gaze upward for an instant. It was nothing—just a cargo sled transporting goods. They would fly over several times a day, traveling from one major city to another. Ice went south every morning. The markets couldn’t open without ice to keep fish and meat cold, and people had to replace the blocks in their coolers a couple of times a week. Or it might be a shipment of precious metals from the mines of Gadlan or shellfish from Elapus, or perhaps wool. Ariel couldn’t tell what products the air barge the size of an eight-man fishing boat carried. It was a silent vessel that left no sign of its passing in the sky. She knew the basics of how they worked with gyros and antigravity, like her family’s personal sleigh, but Ariel wasn’t interested in mechanics. She just knew to insert her thumb-sized, charged crystal into its slot and press her palm on the brass start plate. Her own body’s electric current would then activate the processes to put the vehicle in motion. It was easy to steer up and down, side to side, and control the speed with a separate lever.
Will our mechanics stop functioning soon too?
Ariel returned her attention to Oma, comforted by the warm contact of their joined hands. “Something isn’t right. Can’t you feel it?”
She searched the wise sage’s blue eyes for the answers she didn’t possess. Oma nodded, the joy fading from her face. “Yes, Ariel. I’ve felt it for a long time, since before your mother was born.”
Astonishment swept over Ariel. She angled her body toward Oma and gripped her hand tighter. “But how can that be? I only realized it today—or at least I only now acknowledged my suspicions as real.”
“I hoped it was a temporary effect caused by the movement of one star or another, an atmospheric disturbance brought on by a weather system,” Oma explained. “Nobody wants to talk about it; nobody is talking about it, but the energies our civilization—our people—have relied on for generations, from time immemorial, are waning, and have been my entire lifetime.”
Interested?
Find Atlantis, Land of Dreams on Goodreads and Amazon. I am excited to make time for this one.
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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