Book Brief: SwanSong

SwanSongSwanSong
by Lynne Cantwell
Genre: YA Fantasy
Word count: 88,533

Rhyn, a widowed Wolleni, depressed over the death in childbirth of his beloved half-Tslyddi wife, is ordered by the king to marry his dead wife’s sister. But the new wife becomes jealous of Rhyn’s children — two sets of twins, a girl and three boys — and plots to turn them into swans. The spell goes awry, and the children are only partially transformed. Worse, they must spent 900 years in their new shapes, in ever more wild and isolated places — and they have no guarantee that they will ever be normal again. But least they can still sing.

Based on the Irish tale of “The Fate of the Children of Lír,” SwanSong is the story of how Neeve, Kennet, Corwin and Kyl cope with their transformed bodies in a land where magic is dying.

This book is available from Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes & Noble.

Lynne, how did you come up with the title for your book? Does it have any special meaning?
Supposedly, a swan sings its sweetest when in its death throes. The Swan children have had a magical talent for singing since before their transformations. And in a way, they have been dying for 900 years. (But I wish I’d researched first – a blue billion books have the same title!)

Who was your favorite character and why?
Neeve, for sure. She lost her mother young, and became the de facto mom to her three brothers for the next 900 years. I wrote the book really to explore what that meant for her.

Does your book have any underlying theme, message, or moral?
I didn’t think so at first, but a reader pointed it out. The Swans were able to turn a hate-filled act into long lives filled with good works, and Neeve ends up being grateful to her stepmother for their transformation.

What would/could a reader or reviewer say about this book that shows they “get” you as an author?
There’s a lot in here (I hope!) about sacrificing your own life for others, and about making the best of a bad situation that’s not of your making. If readers recognized those themes, I would feel as though I did what I set out to do.

Give us an excerpted quote from your favorite review of this book:
I was deeply moved by the book’s theme, summed up in the thoughts of the heroine: “…gratitude… [is] the best revenge.”

Where can people learn more about your writing?
http://hearth-myth.blogspot.com

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