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FEATURED AUTHOR: ELIZABETH MERZ
Elizabeth A Merz was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, and no matter where life takes her she will always remain a desert rat at heart. She currently lives in Michigan with her husband and daughter, two cats and a dog. The Last Gate isher first publication. The follow up to The Last Gate, tentatively titled Silent Star, should be out sometime in 2002.
About The Last Gate
To escape a broken heart, Ver dala Ven Cobo went into exile to a forbidden land, vowing that he would never return to his ancestral home. He became a farmer in the Black Desert of Shodalum, adopted a native woman as a Chosen Sister for companionship and took her name. He discarded the gifts he'd been born with as a seer and healer, a hereditary legacy that came hand in hand with an obligation to serve the dakas of Jantideva and the Alliance, and embraced life as a common man.
Toward the end of his eighteenth year in exile, his gift involuntarily awakened. Troubling visions and dreams about a son he never knew called him home.
Cobo's Chosen Sister, Gella al Perraz, understood the risk she took when she chose to follow Cobo to Jantideva. For 2500 years the Janti had enslaved all Shodites caught in Jantideva as a punishment for Shodalum's ancient betrayal of the Alliance. Gella feared the Janti, and the unknown that lay beyond the borders of her small, backward nation, but her fear of losing Cobo was greater. Their legal adoption of each other implied a business arrangement, a chaste familial relationship of support and companionship, but for Gella, her relationship with Cobo meant much more. She was a child when he'd rescued her from a brothel and brought her into his home. His purity of intention, and his compassion, melted the hardness that had grown in her young spirit.
As she matured, she fell deeply in love with him, though he'd made it clear to her that he could never return her love, not in the way she wanted. She long believed that she could never love another man the way she loved Cobo, until she met a rebel slave who turned her world upside down.
When did you first start writing?
I first started writing in elementary school, which is about the time I first fell in love with books. I've always lived in my own little fantasy world, making up stories and characters in my head, but as a kid, my desire to write was channeled into daily journals rather than stories. Looking back, I think that might have been the only thing that kept my feet on the ground!
Why did you start writing?
As I said, keeping journals in my youth kept me focused on the real world. Later, writing fantasy fiction gave me an opportunity to make real the alternate realities I'd been living in all my life. For a chronic day dreamer, writing fiction is the perfect outlet, hobby, career. (pick one!)
What sort of books do you like to read?
Everything! I especially like textbooks. (I am told that is a sickness) In fiction I read all genres almost equally.
Who is your favourite author?
I have so many! But if I had to pick one author, I'd say Parke Godwin is my favorite. I adored Waiting for the Galactic Bus. It is one of those books I've read over and over, and it never gets old.
What advice would you have for beginning writers?
Keep a journal, and jot something into it every day. It is great exercise, and sometimes the most surprising ideas appear on the pages among the mundane details of daily life.
If you could meet a character from a book, who would it be and why?
The devil from Anne Rice's book Memnoch the Devil. I'd love to go on a guided tour of history, heaven and hell, so long as I was returned safely to my time, and didn't end up as a vampire snack!