Tuesday, January 24, 2017

BOOK REVIEW: Tiyo The Dog Who Saved Ansgar: A Windflower Saga Story for Kids By Aleksandra Layland.

WINDFLOWER SAGA FOR KIDS!



Tiyo is a herding dog. His friend Dara, another dog, is missing. With his owner, a young woman named Keholani, he searches for Dara. They find her in a cave. They also find a young man who is badly injured. Tiyo runs to the village to get help while Keholani remains with the man. Dara has had puppies. Keholani brings the puppies home. Tiyo and Dara are very happy.





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REVIEW

 Tiyo the Dog Who Saved Ansgar is overall an adorable story on its own for any child to read. For Windflower Saga fans that this book is spun off from you may wonder how does Tiyo the Dog who Saved Ansgar fit in considering the Windflower Saga is more adult oriented. Tiyo still fits in. Fans of the saga will enjoy Tiyo too. A branch off from Ansgar: The Struggle of the People. The Triumph of the Heart we get a more clarifying perspective on how Ansgar finds the Kimbrii people and Keholani…from a dog's  point of view of course. 







                 AVAILABLE NOW ON AMAZON!








ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Aleksandra Layland is a retired civil engineer and a federal civil servant who worked primarily for the United States Air Force as a senior installation engineering manager responsible for buildings, airfields, infrastructure, fire protection, and emergency preparedness. She also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Western Caroline Islands where she helped build school classrooms and cafeterias, low-income housing, and simple village water distribution systems. Her other interests include arts and crafts, family genealogy, religion, and spirituality, fostering peace in the world, and enjoying retirement with family and friends.  




Wednesday, January 18, 2017

BOOK REVIEW: Three Brothers of Ansgar: A Windflower Saga Novella By Aleksandra Layland



Synopsis: 

This novella is related to "Ansgar: The Struggle of a People. The Triumph of the Heart" (Part I of the epic trilogy The Windflower Saga). In a time not now and in a world not of our own: Kapa’a, Bogumil, and Koritane are the three youngest sons of King Ansgar of Kimbria and Queen Anwen Keholani, the High Chief of the Kimbrii people. These three brothers were only fourteen, twelve, and nine when their father died in a tragic accident, leaving them to enter manhood without his guidance. But we know almost nothing of what happens to these young men. The only mention in the novel "Ansgar" is that they leave Kimbria and settle elsewhere. This novella completes their story. It isn’t necessary to read Ansgar first, but it would provide a better understanding of the family, cultural, and geographic setting in which these brothers lived. The related novellas, The Feathered Crown, and Far Endeavor, also provide insight into their family history, sibling relationships, and the mixed cultural setting in which they were raised.




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REVIEW

Three Brothers of Ansgar is another branch off novella telling the tale of the last sons of Ansgar and Keholani whom we met in Ansgar: Struggle of a People. Triumph of the Heart.
Three Brothers of Ansgar is a charming tale and Layland’s deliverance of the three brothers tale is what adds to the charm of the book. Each brothers story is told in their own chapter but then end with tons of loose ends. There is no closure as we move on to the next chapter which starts another brothers story.  It might seem a bit off-putting, right?  There is no need to worry as Layland wonderfully brings everything back together to conclude the three brother’s tale.
Three Brothers of Ansgar is the sweetest of the books in the series. The story of these last sons of Ansgar is pure soul searching romance. If you are a follower of the saga then you know what I mean. For new readers to help entice you a better title for the book would be “The Courtship of Three Brothers” and you will have a good idea of what Three Brothers of Ansgar is all about.




                                              AVAILABLE ON AMAZON





ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Aleksandra Layland is a retired civil engineer and a federal civil servant who worked primarily for the United States Air Force as a senior installation engineering manager responsible for buildings, airfields, infrastructure, fire protection, and emergency preparedness. She also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Western Caroline Islands where she helped build school classrooms and cafeterias, low-income housing, and simple village water distribution systems. Her other interests include arts and crafts, family genealogy, religion, and spirituality, fostering peace in the world, and enjoying retirement with family and friends.


Tuesday, January 10, 2017

BOOK REVIEW: The Courage of Ansgar (A Windflower Saga Novella) By Aleksandra Layland



In a time not now and in a world not of our own... Kerys of Ansgar is a young woman with a lot on her mind. She's in her last year of studies at University, and it's exam preparation week. She's VERY concerned about where she'll go and what she'll do, once she's finished at school. Just ask her roommates, Emilia and Ronny; or her Uncle John and Aunt Johanna, who raised her after she was orphaned as a child. But one thing that is definitely NOT on her mind is spending this week at the Royal Palace along with three other young women of ducal rank, being introduced to the new King of Kimbria, and competing for his hand in marriage. She enjoys riding her tall mare at a fast pace, and she's a good sprinter, but this is one race she has no interest in running. No. Let it go to one of the others. The last thing she wants to do this week is to marry a stranger and become the Queen Consort of Kimbria. This novella is related to the third part of the Windflower Saga trilogy, "Far Haven: A Quest for Certitude. A Fight for Justice." which follows the lives and adventures of some of the members of the Ansgar family of Kimbria.


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REVIEW

The Saga is not finished...The Windflower Trilogy is over, but the saga is not complete as we get delivered COURAGE OF ANSGAR. Another branch off novella from the third book in the trilogy Far Haven: A Quest for Certitude. A Fight for Justice we learn more of a briefly mention character from Far Haven the nameless Ansgar Queen Consort who had done heroics during the time of Kimbria’s only war. In COURAGE OF ANSGAR, we learn her name and the story of how she did just that. Having read the previous books I really loved how we followed through not only the generations of this prestigious fictional family line but in the world, they lived in too.  Their world changes evolve with them as well. This is highly noticeable in COURAGE OF ANSGAR as television, radios, and taxis are mentioned among the castles,  Kingdom’s, servants, and horses. It is also interesting that Layland chose to have a side story about such a briefly mentioned character who was just briefly mentioned in conversation as Ansgar Queen Consort. After reading however you see the added value her story has to this epic saga of love, war, and peace.

COURAGE OF ANSGAR throws us back in a time that is not our own into a fantasy political adventure. Once thought friendly forces reveal their destructive true intentions for a war that can not be stopped. The heroics of one woman whom pretty much helps save the ducal line to rise up and fight against this evil threat amidst love, marriage and baby making.









ABOUT THE AUTHOR



Aleksandra Layland is a retired civil engineer and a federal civil servant who worked primarily for the United States Air Force as a senior installation engineering manager responsible for buildings, airfields, infrastructure, fire protection, and emergency preparedness. She also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Western Caroline Islands where she helped build school classrooms and cafeterias, low-income housing, and simple village water distribution systems. Her other interests include arts and crafts, family genealogy, religion, and spirituality, fostering peace in the world, and enjoying retirement with family and friends.












Friday, January 6, 2017

INTERVIEW WITH AN AUTHOR: Aleksandra Layland of the WINDFLOWER SAGA


HAVE you ever read a book and wished you could talk to the author afterward? Well, I recently had the pleasure to do just that! I recently had a sit-down with Indie author Aleksandra Layland of the epic fantasy THE WINDFLOWER SAGA.


 Authors and Angels:  Welcome, and thank you for taking time out of your busy day to sit down and talk with me.

Aleksandra Layland: Thank you for having me! 


Authors and Angels: The Windflower Saga is epic fantasy, to say the least. What birthed this epic fantasy saga?

Aleksandra Layland (AL): Back in my late twenties I started to see a story in my dreams. It was what became the love story between Lady Keridwen and Lord Leofric in the first three chapters of Part II of the trilogy, Of Wisdom and Valor. At the time the characters as I saw them in my head were simpler. I didn’t yet know the details of their “back stories.” What I saw and felt as these dreams came to me, and I saw them as if I were watching a film but with a device that let me feel the emotions of the characters within me, was the simple story of a warlord coming to a convent to marry the new queen and take her (supposedly) to the Palace, but (actually) to a remote castle, where he was to hold her a prisoner without her knowing it. In my dreams, I saw the young queen and the warlord come to love each other, his spiritual transformation which accompanied that, her learning the truth and locking herself in the dungeon with a “You can’t be both my husband and my jailor. You’ve got to pick one,” position, and his choosing to be her husband and fight for her against those who were her enemies. That was the start, but I never got it written, and I never saw the background. That didn’t happen until my 60s after I retired.     


 Authors and Angels: The chronological order of the saga is quite different from most book trilogies and chronicles. There are three main novels, but then there are a bunch of  “branch off novellas” I like to call them that coincide with each one of the main novels. Was this planned, or did it just happen? Were you worried this might confuse readers?

  
AL: It wasn’t planned. When the story of Keridwen and Leofric first came to me, I saw it as part of a trilogy, though I didn’t know where in the trilogy it was going to fall until I started to write it. I had no thought at that point about the novellas. The first one came to me as I was seeing the story of Keholani in my dreams. I couldn’t tell all her story, much of which related to her family history and being raised by her uncle, in the length of the book that I felt the first volume of the trilogy, Ansgar, should be constrained to. I’m daunted by a very long book myself, as much of a reader as I was since childhood. So I intentionally left very little detail about her early life, and that of her cousin Koritane and their uncle the high chief, out. I saw them in my head, I knew how she became the woman and leader that she was, and how her uncle became the wise leader he was, but there wasn’t space. After the trilogy was completed, I decided that I would write a short novella about the High Chief’s life and Keholani’s and Kori’s childhoods. The same with the next novella, Bind Not the Heart.  Ermentrude is mentioned only in a few chapters; her brother only in a few lines. And nothing in detail is told of Lady Keridwen’s parents and their love story. There’s more about Leofric’s parents than hers.  I wasn’t worried that people might get confused because it’s the way life is. We all see our own story through our own eyes, and other people see our story through a different set of eyes. What I saw of my parents’ life story was from a different perspective than what they saw on their life story. And I tried as best as I could to make each novella able to stand on its own, and not be repetitive of what was in the trilogy, but to fill in between the lines. 
  
Author and Angels: Each novel also seems to be a stand alone book so to speak. Meaning each book is kind of an individual book on its own with all new characters, yet each book does blend into each other for we are following the genial line of this fictional ducal family. It’s an indifferent approach. What made you believe that it could work?

 AL: I’m not a professional writer or trained in novel writing in any way, so I’m sure critics could find many faults. The story came to me, and I told it. The story of Leofric and Keridwen came first, and I ended up deciding it would be in the middle of the trilogy. Keridwen came from a line of royal dukes and duchesses who at times were elected to be kings and queens. The story of Ansgar didn’t come into my thoughts and dreams until Of Wisdom and Valor was almost complete. I ended up editing OWAV to make references to the Ansgar story after OWAV was written but not yet published.  The third part of the trilogy, Far Haven, started to come to me while I was finishing up Ansgar and editing OWAV. There were a couple of months when characters from all three novels were speaking to me at the same time. That was a strange experience. 


Author and Angels: Now I have to ask this being a reader of the saga. The names throughout the books are quite unique. Where did you come up with them?


AL: There are two different cultures, as you know. The Aspatrian-based people, such as the Kimbrians and Pomeranians, or the “dark ones,” as they’re sometimes called. The descendants of the colonists from Aspatria. And then there are the fair-skinned people, the indigenous people, the Kimbrii as they are called on Kimbria. Since this is a fantasy world, I felt entirely free to use any names I liked, and I decided that the Aspatrian characters would use names based primarily in European cultures from which my own family are descended, such as English, German, Celtic, Scandinavian, Polish, and so forth, or variations of them. In some cases, I chose names for their meanings, such as the four sons of King Bogumil all being a version of “God’s spear” in translation. For the Kimbrii, I wanted to evoke what, in comparison to the European names, would sound “exotic.” I used Polynesian and Japanese names for the most part, with a few other Asian-based names added in. Of course, by the time of the second part of the trilogy, many of the mixed-race people use Kimbrian names for their children instead, or in some cases, give them both. For example, the heroine of “Courage of Ansgar” is named Kerys Pualiani. “Kerys” is inspired by the Welsh name Carys (meaning love) but I altered it to become a “modern variation” or short form of the name “Keridwen,” which is the name of a heroine in each novel and was Ansgar’s sister’s name. “Pualani” is Hawaiian (meaning Heavenly flower).
  
Authors and Angels: What about the world the story takes place in? How was that created and the names?

 AL: I had fun with the place names. My family is primarily English on my mother’s side and Polish on my father’s side. My mother’s ancestors came primarily from northern England, now Lancashire and Cumbria. The Lakes is one of the most beautiful parts of that area. You may remember that as the later home of the author Beatrix Potter. I used place names from that part of England, including towns and villages where my ancestors lived; and I used place names from areas in Poland where my father’s ancestors were from. For example, Pomerania is the name of a region of Poland, and Lomza (the island where Ansgar heals after the storm) is the name of a city in Poland where my great-great-grandfather lived. Whitehaven, Longridge, and Hesket are all towns in England. And the island where Lord Leofric’s swords were forged was named after Helvellyn, a mountain in the Lake District. 
  
Authors and Angels:  Is The Windflower Saga your first attempt at writing? What made you decide to pick up the pen and write?

 AL: TWS is my only attempt at fiction writing, other than poetry. The story and the characters talked to me, so I wrote them down. I felt a great deal of emotion in telling their stories, and I hope anyone who reads them will get a glimpse of that same emotion. Romantic love is a foundation for the start of many families, but it had to buoyed up by spiritual love. Peacefulness is a virtue we can try to instill in our children and in our culture, but there are many forces that work against it. The struggle of the individual soul to find its way, and the struggle of a culture or a society to find its way, were compelling to me. If no one ever read the stories, I still had to write them.   
  
Author and Angels: Is The Windflower Saga going to be it for you? What else can we as readers look forward to from you?
   
AL: This is the only story within me. Once I finish the last of the novellas, and a book called “An Author’s Commentary and Illustrated Companion,” I expect to be finished. If I write anything more about TWS, it would be what I describe as the prequel. Basically, I’ve summed it up in “The Story of the Kimbrii” chapter of Ansgar.  The early exploration of the lands around the Great Aspatrian Sea and their eventual colonization by shiploads of settlers coming across the Great Ocean from Aspatria. I’ve seen much of it in my head, but I’ve not wanted to go there. As you can imagine, while there were a few individual cases of friendship and love between the two peoples, in general, it’s a lot of violence, treachery, and so forth as one group tries to annihilate the other. If you think about the things that happened as Europeans explored and colonized Africa and the “new world” of the Americas, it’s similar. With one major difference. The Europeans were experts at pitting one tribe or group against another and forging alliances so that indigenous people fought with them, against other indigenous people. The Aspatrians tried that when they arrived in Pomerania and other lands in the northern region, but it didn’t work. None of that is in any of the novels or novellas, but I’ll explain that and other things like it in the Author’s Commentary. 
  
Authors and Angels: Final question. WRITER’S BLOCK. Never had it. Never will. Yes, I have had it.
  
AL: Hmmm. Let me answer with a “sort of but no.” The characters speak to me. There are times when one becomes quiet, and that’s ok. I sit back and snooze until he or she is ready to speak again. I’m under no deadline. 

  
Much thanks to Aleksandra Layland for the lovely interview. If you haven’t already check out THE WINDFLOWER SAGA by Aleksandra Layland available on AMAZON.

 Read Windflower saga reviews Here.


                                  The Windflower Saga











                                           Look for the rest of the saga on AMAZON!

Monday, January 2, 2017

BOOK REVIEW: Leofric of Longridge: A Windflower Novella by Aleksandra Layland



BACK TO KIMBRIA!!!

This novella is related to the novel "Of Wisdom and Valor: The Art of War. The Path of Peace." (Part II of the Windflower Saga). In a time not now and in a world not of our own… He will become the youngest and most victorious warlord in the region. Ever. He will later become a beloved king, an advocate for peace, and a man of deep faith. In his elder years, he will be called upon to defend Kimbria one last time; and he will die a national hero, the savior of his people. He will marry and become a father and a grandfather; the ancestor of future dukes and duchesses of Ansgar. But right now, he's a fourteen-year-old youth, a parentless orphan; tall for his age, energetic, athletic, quiet, kind, well-liked, and extremely bright. Right now, he has no other expectation for his future but to become a teacher, and possibly a monk. Right now, he has no title, no family, no wealth, and no home, but what Brother Ermen and the monks at Longridge Monastery give him. One day, he will be called Lord and Majesty; but today he’s simply called Leofric of Longridge.



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REVIEW

Leofric of Longridge is a delightful add to The Windflower Saga. 
We first got to know Leofric in Book II of the saga Of Wisdom and Valor: The Art of War. The Path of Peace. In Leofric of Longridge we learn more about this enigmatic character in his younger years in the monastery, and the tragic event that lead him to become who we meet in OWAV, and how his relationship with Wulfric began.

Layland lends more of an innocent voice for Leforic of Longridge appealing to young adult readers as well as her regular readers. This is highly noticeable if you are a reader of the saga. It felt a little bit dumb down compared to the other books though. It didn't fail the story though. It still gripped you enough to hold you through the book succeeding in Layland's goal. This is still an epic piece. I enjoyed it.


AVAILABLE ON AMAZON










ABOUT THE AUTHOR



Aleksandra Layland is a retired civil engineer and federal civil servant who worked primarily for the United States Air Force as a senior installation engineering manager responsible for buildings, airfields, infrastructure, fire protection, and emergency preparedness. She also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Western Caroline Islands where she helped build school classrooms and cafeterias, low income housing, and simple village water distribution systems. Her other interests include arts and crafts, family genealogy, religion and spirituality, fostering peace in the world, and enjoying retirement with family and friends.