A Novel Conversation with Jean Gill and Mielitta

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To be a little different from the usual 
'meet the author' 

let's meet a 
character...


Mielitta

from

Q: Hello, I’m Helen, host of Novel Conversations, please do make yourself comfortable. Would you like a drink? Tea, coffee, wine – something stronger? You’ll find a box of chocolates and a bowl of fruit on the table next to you, please do help yourself. I believe you are a character in Jean Gill’s novel Queen of the Warrior Bees, Book 1 in the series Natural Forces (but can be read as a standalone). Would you like to introduce yourself? Are you a lead character or a supporting role? 

A: I’m Mielitta, just turned eighteen and I live – used to live – in the Citadel. I’d love a glass of mead – if the honey is locally sourced. Hmm.. it’s complicated. I was nobody, invisible unless I failed or disappointed… and then I was stung by bees and changed. I suppose I must be the lead character.

Q: What genre is the novel and what is it about?

A: Eco-fantasy. Perfect society in the Citadel has banished all forms of Nature to keep citizens safe in a sustainable world. The ruling mages create greylight and darklight beneath a canopy that protects us from weather and the big enemy – the Forest. Even the word Forest is unmentionable although we know it’s out there. But I don’t fit in. I wasn’t born like other babies and I knew there was something better than this grey life. I had to flee to the Forest and what I discovered there – well, it changed my life.

Q: No spoilers, but are you a ‘goodie’ or a ‘baddie’? (Or maybe you are both?)

A: In the Forest, I’m a goodie, the hope for its survival. But in the Citadel, I’m a ‘freak’ under sentence of death.

Q: Tell me about another character in the novel – maybe your best friend, lover or partner … or maybe your arch enemy!

A: I don’t know what to make of Jannlou. He’s the Chief Mage’s son, the bane of my existence with his friend Bastien. But when he’s had the chance to take his bullying further and hurt me, it’s as if he protected me. When he followed me into the Forest and we fought, I thought we’d reached some strange truce. He even asked me to the Courtship Dance, when he could have any girl he wanted. None of it makes any sense. He must be using magecraft on me. How else could I find his blue eyes so attractive? There’s some mystery here that I haven’t figured out yet.

Q: What is one of your least favourite scenes you appear in?

A: I don’t want to talk about the way the Chief Mage penetrated my mind.

Q: And your favourite scene?

A: Discovering the Forest, in all its rich variety. Or shifting into a queen bee and going inside the hive, feeling like I belonged for the first time in my life. It was frightening though, especially when the other queens hatched.

Q: Tell me a little about your author. Has she written any other books?

A: She’s a busy bee 😊 She’s written twenty-one books and she’s a photographer too – and a beekeeper and mad dog-lady. She doesn’t settle on just one flower to make honey but she’s best known for her medieval historical fiction, The Troubadours Quartet. And for her dog story, Someone To Look Up To. But she’s also written a cookbook, WW2 military history and poetry. She’s won some awards too, which makes her very happy.

Q: Is your author working on anything else at the moment?

A: We’re telling her what happens next in the war between the Citadel and the Forest and she’s writing it all down as fast as she can. Arrows Tipped with Honey, Book 2 in the Natural Forces series will be out soon, probably in May 2020.

Q: How do you think authors can be helped or supported by readers or groups? What does your author think is the most useful for her personally?

A: She says she’s like Tinkerbell. Every time a reader enjoys one of her books and says so, anywhere in the world, in conversation or in a review, her writing spark gains strength.

And respect from other writers is a huge support. Inviting me to talk about her made her feel motivated. She said, ‘Thank you, Helen.’ [Helen: My pleasure]

Q: If your author was to host a dinner party what guests would she invite and why? Maximum nine guests – real, imaginary, alive or dead.

A : She doesn’t like dinner parties but she does like one-to-one conversations over a good meal. Since she was a teenager she’s kept a list of ten men she’d like to meet tête-à-téte. She was more romantic when she was younger and doesn’t usually tell anyone who’s on the list. I know Arsène Wenger made it at one stage but was dropped. I’m not sure she’s telling the truth but she says she’ll reveal five of them and yes, there are women she’d very much like to spend an evening with over a good meal – she loves food - so here’s her list – in no order.

Athos (who is her favourite musketeer)

Catullus (as long as he doesn’t talk about Lesbia all the time)

Rupert of theRhine (I’m afraid so)

(Helen: well I suppose someone has to be interested in him...)

Sir Michael Palin

(photo: Wikipedia)

Sirius (yes, he’s a Great Pyrenees in one of her own books but she’s happy with good food and a giant dog for company. I understand that because of how I feel about my bees)

Dame Jane Goodall

(photo: Wikipedia)

Lee Miller (my favourite photographer)

(photo: Wikipedia)

Ermengarda,Viscomtesse of Narbonne (at her place, 1150, with troubadours)

Any of the amazing writers I’m privileged to know, now, in the ‘real’ world. Online friend and brilliant writer, J J Marsh is in my sights as somebody I MUST meet.

Helen: Thank you, Mielitta. It was a pleasure talking to you. Would your author like to add a short excerpt? Meanwhile, chatting is thirsty work, would you like a refill of that mead…? I’ll join you I think . . .

Salute! Here’s to writing a best seller!

Mielitta: May the stones be with you, Helen!

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EXCERPT 

She unnocked her bow, slung it over her shoulder, braced herself and stepped into the fierce heat again. This time, she was ready for the uncontrolled warmth playing on her skin, tickling. She laughed. She need not fear the sun.

She made her way back to the stream, listening to the music of water on pebbles, a song she had never heard. She sat down to listen better, on a comfortably rounded rock, safely above the prickle of grass blades. This was a song like book poetry, not like the schoolroom songs which praised the Citadel and promoted good citizenship, with a side-nod to hygiene and reproduction.

Her exertions in the heat had made her thirsty and, in defiance of the schoolroom songs, she scooped up a handful of unpurified water, losing trickles between her fingers as she drank.

As she sipped, she paused to marvel and drank again. Bubbles burst on her tongue like a liquid giggle. Then the water told its history, from snow-capped mountains through forests and meandering pasture, to this small diversion from a mighty river.

The water told its geology, from glacial tarns through limestone pavements and hard bedrock, picking up a tang of calcite or magnesium, a glitter of gold, en route.

Then the water told its wildlife. Silver-scaled fish, seething jellies of tadpoles and slithers of eels. This and more, Mielitta could taste in her scoop of water, as she watched a turquoise glitter of tiny wings over the water. Dragonfly.

She wanted these pleasures again but when she scooped and tasted a second time, the story was different. How could that be? Did one change of pebble, one shadow over the sun, change the taste of water? It must be so. The sadness of change, of death, and the glory of a new adventure, in two scoops of water. She should go back.

But she was already outside the Citadel. The sun was not to be feared, the stream was shallower than she’d thought, grass blades did not pierce her skin. The Forest could be named and it was just – trees. She’d stood beside one and felt no harm. She should at least explore a little while she was here. She could go back later, when she could be sure it was safe. Maybe Jannlou and Bastien were just inside the gate, waiting for her as she had waited for them. Let them wait!

Reviewed by Discovering Diamonds

This author has been awarded an 
INDIE BRAG GOLD MEDALLION

https://www.bragmedallion.com/

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