Flying Horse Books
Linda Ulleseit
Media Kit
Guest Post by Linda Ulleseit
10
Things You Didn’t Know About Under a Wild and Darkening Sky
My third
flying horse book, Under a Wild and Darkening Sky, came out in May 2014. Here are
ten things you didn’t know about the writing of this book.
1. It was
actually the first flying horse book.
It took me four years to write and was terrible. Readers in my writing
group asked so many questions about the world, that it was clear I needed to
write another book (or two) in order to do Tremeirchson and High Meadow
justice.
2. It was
originally called Wings, Waves, and
Wisteria. I loved that name. I liked the alliteration, and I liked the
allusion to the theme of the book. The old religion in the books is one that
identifies people as air (Wings), water (Waves), or earth (Wisteria). Pretty
clever, right? Reviewers hated it. A well-respected literary agent I met at a
conference flat out told me no boy would ever read a title with alliteration
because it sounded like a romance.
3. The
first draft featured a character who went to Hawaii. Life was tough in High
Meadow, and she argued with her parents. She went to Hawaii for an extended
vacation but the dolphins in the ocean were no match for the flying horses in
the mountains where she grew up. Yup, pretty bad. Didn’t I tell you?
4. The
main characters, Ralf and Alina, were originally named Sabarain and Sabriel.
They were twins, both of them nicknamed Sab. So confusing.
5. It was originally set in the modern
Sierra Nevada Mountains. TV crews from
the Bay Area covered the Aerial Games. Early readers turned up their noses, but
one said the setting reminded her of her grandmother’s farm in Wales. Wales it
became.
6. Ralf and Alina’s father was a grocery store
owner, not a baker. No grocery stores
in Medieval Wales, so it had to change.
7. I chose Medieval Wales because of the
prevalence of legends. In many
novels I’ve read, the Welsh mountains are remote and mysterious. In Medieval
times, the people believed in all sorts of demons, fairies, and mythical
creatures. It seemed plausible that there might be flying horses in those misty
mountains.
8. I wrote it in a little over a year. My
first novel took four years. The second one took two years. This one I drafted
for NaNoWriMo 2012 and it was published in May 2014. I believe I’m getting
better at this writing thing.
9. William, Ralf and Alina’s father, became a
baker because I love to bake. I
researched all sorts of medieval trades before I decided on baker. The craft
spoke to my soul—baking is something I understand.
10. I
invented rules that prevented Ralf from stealing a horse by just flying it out
of town. The issue of horse theft seemed too easy when the animal could
fly. I made the horse too young and the people too incompetent. That worked!
Author Bio: Linda Ulleseit was born and
raised in Saratoga, California, and has taught elementary school in San Jose
since 1996. She enjoys cooking, cross-stitching, reading, and spending time
with her family. Her favorite subject is writing, and her students get a lot of
practice scribbling stories and essays. Someday Linda hopes to see books
written by former students alongside hers in bookstores.
Her first
novel, ON A WING AND A DARE, was published in 2012. It is a Young Adult fantasy
set in medieval Wales, complete with flying horses, a love triangle, and
treachery. It’s sequel, IN THE WINDS OF DANGER, was released March, 2013. The
focus of that book is the misty past of a groom and the murky future of a
rider. The last book in the trilogy is UNDER A WILD AND DARKENING SKY, May
2014. It follows a brother and sister, new to High Meadow, who become involved
in a plot to steal flying horses.
As a child,
Linda always loved to write. She took her first creative writing course in
seventh grade, accumulating a closet full of stories that she never showed
anyone until 2007. At that time, she gave the first draft of a flying horse
book to a teacher colleague to read. ON A WING AND A DARE began as a NaNoWriMo
novel in 2009. It was revised with the help of reviewers on
thenextbigwriter.com over the next two years. For NaNo 2011, Linda drafted the
sequel, IN THE WINDS OF DANGER. NaNoWriMo 2012 brought the first draft of UNDER
A WILD AND DARKENING SKY, and NaNoWriMo 2013 saw the completion of UNDER THE
ALMOND TREES. This last is a historical fiction that follows three women who
struggle for women’s rights in early California.
Linda has
also written a novella titled WINGS OVER TREMEIRCHSON, released as an ebook in
Fall 2013. It follows the story of Hoel and Neste, parents of a main character
in ON A WING AND A DARE.
Follow Linda
Ulleseit
Flying Horse Series
ON A WING AND A DARE
Purchase
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/282169
Book Blurb: Flying
horses…a love triangle…poison….Welcome to Tremeirchson.
In Tremeirchson, a barn leader’s children are expected to follow their
parents into the sky, becoming riders of the magnificent winged horses that are
the medieval Welsh village’s legacy. Neither Emma nor Davyd, however, want to
follow that tradition.
As Tremeirchson’s barns prepare for the Rider Ceremony, winged horses
suddenly start dying. Shocked, the adults hesitate, mired in tradition and
politics. Is it a disease or poison? Accidental or purposeful? Someone must
discover the answer and act before all the winged horses in the world are gone
forever.
IN THE WINDS OF DANGER
Purchase
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/324425
Book blurb:
Nineteen year old Nia is shocked when she is secretly
offered the leadership of Third Barn. This new barn full of flying horses will
need someone confident, experienced, and innovative, so why are both warring
factions pursuing an untried girl? Suspicious that both sides want a puppet
instead of a leader, Nia races to discover their secrets before making the
biggest decision of her life.
Some of those secrets are unknowingly buried in the
disconnected memories of a young groom named Owain. Terror and guilt haunt
Owain’s dreams – and then a face from his nightmare arrives in High Meadow.
Owain looks for answers in his past and uncovers a dangerous plot that could
doom High Meadow's future. How can he foil the plot and save his people as well
as the winged horses?
UNDER A WILD AND DARKENING SKY
Purchase
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/437332
Ralf knows he must take over his father’s bakery, but is it
wrong to want some adventure before he does? New to High Meadow, he is
befriended by the beautiful and dangerous Branwen, who has her own goal—to
entice Ralf to help her steal a winged horse and return it to Tremeirchson.
Meanwhile, Ralf’s sister, Alyna, dives into barn life.
Becoming a groom to a winged foal is a lot of responsibility to the horse, to
the barn, and to her father, who idolizes the wrong barn leader. Politics,
greed, and revenge swirl around the teenaged siblings as they struggle to be
true to their family and their future.
WINGS OVER TREMEIRCHSON (a flying horse novella)
Book Blurb: Eighteen year old Neste rides a
winged horse in Tremeirchson's Aerial Games and she is betrothed to the barn
leader's son, Hoel. Life would be wonderful if Hoel wasn't so unpleasant to the
other riders. Adam, on the other hand, is handsome and nice but a terrible
rider. Together, Hoel and Adam are the perfect man. Obviously she can't have
both of them. When Neste's winged horse is involved in a terrible accident, her
life changes and she must make different choices about her future. Can she go
against her father's dying wish that she marry Hoel? Can she forgive Adam? Can
she make a life away from the barn and the winged horses she loves?
ALSO BY LINDA ULLESEIT:
UNDER THE ALMOND TREES
Purchase
Under the Almond Trees is the story of my family – three
ordinary women in California who lived extraordinary lives. It started with a
falling tree branch that killed Ellen VanValkenburgh’s husband in 1862, forcing
her to assume leadership of his paper mill, something women weren’t allowed to
do. Women weren’t allowed to vote yet, either. Ellen decided that had to
change, and became a suffragette. In 1901, Emily Williams , Ellen’s
daughter-in-law, became an architect – very much against her family’s wishes.
No one would hire a woman, but Emily would not be deterred. She and her life
partner Lillian set out to build homes themselves. By the 1930’s women enjoyed
more freedom, including the vote. Even so, Ellen’s granddaughter Eva
VanValkenburgh chose a traditional life of marriage and children, even closing
her photography business at her husband’s insistence. When he later refused to
pay for their daughter’s college education, Eva followed the example of her
Aunt Emily and reopened her photography business. I am proud to call these
women family and honored to share their story.
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