Yesterday I posted my review of ‘The Disappearing Bloodline.’ It is the second book in the YA time travel fantasy adventure Lavender and Time series from Avis M. Adams. It follows ‘The Disappearing Names.’ I have given it five stars. If you want to check out the full review, click here.
Today I am interviewing Avis about her book and her series.
This book focuses on the same two teen girl characters as ‘The Disappearing Names,’ Sam and Nicole. In the first book the girls travel to 1901 Portland to save Sam’s family line. This book focuses on Nicole’s ancestors. Their wily opponent, Mr. Stickel, has once again disturbed the timeline for his own personal gain, and if Sam and Nicole don’t act quickly, Nicole’s family is doomed.
Let’s dive right in with my first question.
I love the 1929 London setting, Avis. This just seems like a historical time and place that doesn’t get visited often. How did you choose it after visiting 1901 Portland in the last book, and how did you research it to get that authentic feel?
Avis: Great question! First, I wanted to go to a different time in this book, and I made a trip to London to do research for this book, and I found the Royal Mail Train fascinating, so I had to choose a time that the train was running! I thought the crash of the financial markets around the world in 1929 could play a part in developing tension for why Darlene Meyer and her family had to get out of London by a certain day. They wouldn’t have known about it until after the fact, so if they were already in transit, they would have continued on to Seattle, but if they’d found out while in London, they may have canceled their trip and changed the course of Samantha’s family history.
I love that you did local research. That gives such an authentic feel to a novel. That must have been a lot of fun to visit London to find out those local details.
How about your heroines? Sam and Nicole are determined young women, but you write strong female characters in your other series too. How do you keep them unique, fresh, and interesting in each book for your YA audience?
Avis: This is another interesting question! I try to create unique voices for my characters, and because they are in different worlds and circumstances, they are strong in a unique way that satisfies the place and time. I kind of feel like it is their weaknesses that make them the most unique, though. Their ability to strive and overcome their weaknesses is what makes them strong. At least I hope that’s the takeaway. 😊
It sure is. Neither Sam nor Nicole are a Mary Sue character. They’re both learning and growing, and that’s what made them so appealing to me.
Now let’s talk villains! Mr. Stickel is a wily antagonist and he bounces back like a rubber ball. How do you go about creating a villain that keeps the main characters on their toes?
Avis: Oh my goodness! Mr. Stickel is driving me nuts! Every story needs a Mr. Stickel, and this guy is not the brightest tool in the shed, but he’s devious, and he may not work had for a living, but he works hard to succeed in stealing from others or taking advantage of situations that may destroy other people, but benefit him, and he doesn’t care if he destroys the lives of others. He’s a little insane in my mind. He’s off kilter, and not logical or reasonable, so he’s unpredictable, which has been very fun to write! LOL! I think Stickel needs to get either a good beat-down or take down in the next book! He can’t go on in his beautiful evilness forever, can he?
I can’t wait to find out! I love that you say Mr. Stickel drives you nuts. My villains drive me nuts sometimes too! Getting a villain that has motivations that feel real and isn’t easy to stop is great for the story. He’s deliciously devilish and that’s what makes him the perfect antagonist for Sam, Nicole, and Archie.
My next question is about the magic in these books. The magic system is really wonderful and is getting even richer in this second book. How did you come up with the idea for the bricks, the cat, and the artifacts?
Avis: Thank you for that! In Book One, ‘The Disappearing Names,’ Sam and Nicole get sucked into a world they know nothing about. They are afraid and alone, but they find ways to survive by making friends and networking to solve problems in the past. In Book Two, ‘The Disappearing Bloodline,’ Sam knows enough about the magic to be terrified, but she must use it to save Nicole who needs her, so in this book, we all learn about the magic, the spells, Archie’s history, the artifacts and their origins. We don’t learn everything, but we get a serious taste of the complexities and rules of the magic that drives the time travel. It was amazing to sit and ponder the possibilities, then write the rules, and create the spells. Language was a huge factor in the spells, and using the London connection made choosing Scottish Gaelic a no brainer. Then because of the antiquity of the magic and the origin in Romania in a time of Roman rule, Latin was the other choice. So I have spells in both languages, and the importance of capturing these spells over the course of time, and how Archie has grown with each century he’s alive, all of it plays into the world building. 😊
I love that the magic is intimidating to the girls. That feels so real to me. Something that foreign would come with a big learning curve, and it’s great that you show that. It’s there for us too. It is so much fun to learn more about the background behind your magic. I particularly enjoy your use of these different languages for the spells. I spent a lot of time thinking about my own so called, “magic words” in my writing process as well. Including the Latin and the Gaelic just adds to that historical depth I get from your books.
Next I have to ask about one of my favorite topics in a time travel book – fate versus free will. What can Sam change and what is out of her control? Your novel explores how family history shapes Sam’s burgeoning identity. As a writer, how do you balance Sam being bound by the destiny of her ancestors with her opportunity to shape her own destiny?
Avis: Sam is definitely a girl from her own time, which in my mind is whenever a reader is reading the book! She has her own way of knowing and understanding her present world, and she can’t help but translate that into what she is learning. As languages evolve over time, so does Sam’s world, and so does the magic she uses. She has the power to use the magic, and she is learning to recognize the importance of magic in her destiny. As much as she doesn’t see magic as a gift in her life, she is accepting it, if only to defeat Mr. Stickel and save her family and Nicole’s as well.
I love that. She’s not entirely reconciled to magic, but she does what she has to. My characters face similar dilemmas, which is part of the reason your book resonated so much for me.
Why did you choose time travel to tell these stories?
Avis: Back in the olden days when I was in high school, we went on a tour of Underground Seattle, and that tour with all its ghost stories and humor and intrigue stayed with me until as an adult, I went on the Shanghai Tunnel tour in Portland Oregon. It brought back all the magic of storytelling and true stories embedded in urban myth that made me think of time-travel. My “What if?” moment was what if a girl wanted to save her parent’s marriage, and after hearing a crazy story on an underground tour, she decides to test the story? And what if, she accidentally pulled her best friend along? And what if she went back in time not a week as she’d planned but over a hundred years to Portland and the dangers of the Shanghai tunnels. I thought about if and mulled it over for several years before writing down the first draft, and now I have two books published and a third on the drawing board. It’s too much fun!
I adore a good writer origin story. That first “what if” can really send us in the most interesting directions. Yours shows the power of an amazing premise that is desperate to be explored.
What do you want to tell teens with these stories?
Avis: These stories are for people of all ages, but mostly for teens. They show characters that hopefully they can relate to. Kids who are inquisitive, who make mistakes, who get into trouble, and who find solutions to their own problems. I hope they find these books hold stories that they can escape into and join Sam and Nicole on their adventures of surviving the unknown, the dangers of another time period, and success of finding their way back home.
I love that. Fictional kids who solve their own problems are inspiring for all of us, but especially for other kids, who can sometimes feel like they don’t have much power in their own lives.
To wrap up, why don’t you tell us about your next project in the works.
Avis: My next work in progress is book three in another series for YA, and adventure/survival story that moves from the real world into a world of dreams. It follows ‘The Impact’ and ‘The Consequences’ and will end the trilogy. It takes place twenty years after ‘The Impact’ and shows a postapocalyptic world that is healing but without modern medicine, technology, or an advanced infrastructure. It shows how people are the same no matter what time or what advantages we have at out disposal. It shows how people’s attitudes and ways of knowing the world affects change in communities and how this community struggles with division within their population. It deals with prejudice and how some people can change their minds with help from evidence, experience, or influence. I’m telling you about this book in general terms because it’s still so rough, but be assured my protagonist, Marie will bring it to life, and her brother Chris will challenge her every step of the way!
That sounds amazing. Thank you so much, Avis, for our chat about ‘The Disappearing Bloodline!’ I loved reading it and can’t wait for this new adventure in your other series. We’ll have to talk again when it comes out!
To order the book, follow this link.
To learn more about Avis, visit her site. She also does a lot of great author interviews on her blog, Your Next Favorite Author. As mentioned above, she is also the author of an excellent post-apocalyptic YA series with stories including ‘The Incident‘ and ‘The Consequences.’
Thanks for reading!
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