Welcome to the wonderful author,
Merelee Knott
"The Magic of Jhas"
and
"Starduster Tagla"
Young adult novels, but excellent for any age.
Merelee Knott
"The Magic of Jhas"
and
"Starduster Tagla"
Young adult novels, but excellent for any age.
Summary of the novel:
One young man, Dura. A magic sword, the Sword of Jhas. Can Dura save Jhas, fighting against repeating rifles, jet airplanes, and bombs? Or will he die trying?
Dura pledges his life to defend his nation Jhas. The Jhasan people believe the magic Sword of Jhas can't lose. Dura knows better.
He knows a sword can't defeat rifles, but he cares too much to give up. He can't stand to see people get hurt. When a messenger calls, Dura flies to the rescue alone with only the Sword.
He's stubborn enough to try to help. Will he die, or is there still magic in Jhas
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Author Interview
I really enjoyed your descriptions of the landscape of the world of Jhas. I know you did some hiking. Did the images come from those experiences?
Yes, hiking taught me a lot for Jhas. Every new environment challenges me when hiking: mountains, canyons, prairies, deserts, rain forests. In high, dry Colorado you can die without enough water. My favorite hiking boots turned out useless in Hawaiian rain forests, the Pacific Northwest, and Alaskan snow. Canyons challenge me; hiking downhill, how far do you go? You have to walk UPHILL at the end! Hiking across a wide-open prairie or desert, where do you find shade? One of my scariest hikes was in Hawaii, taking a trail around an active volcano, when the hillside above us started getting hot and glowing red. Another was getting lost in the Rocky Mountains. We packed for one night, followed the wrong stream downhill in the morning, and came to a road 26 miles later, 50 miles from my car! Oh, and hiking alone, when the mountain lion followed me. At Glacier NP, a Jhasan grizzly bear tried to share my lunch.
Did any of the characters in your book do things that surprised you. (Sometimes they seem to take over the direction of the book and we just write the story they are telling us.)
In my sf series, Ryan astonished me when he kissed Dusty! I thought her boyfriend wasgoing to be a different character, a really handsome, slightly older guy, not this Ryan kid.
In Jhas, Dura surprised me many, many times. Yes, Dura definitely took over and told me the story!
Readers love to hear a little inside information about writers. Can you tell us about your family, where you live, and a little about your career?
I’ve lived and traveled all over the US, and in Europe. I married a pilot. My son is a computer guru at Microsoft, and my daughter is a Physician Assistant who monitors pharmaceutical research. I like to brag about my kids! We all currently live, hike, ski, ride, sail, and swim in the Pacific Northwest, Seattle area.
I am looking forward to your next - a science fiction series. Can you give us a little idea about these upcoming books.
My teenage sf heroine, Dusty, lives onboard a huge starship and has her own ship, Tracker. She doesn’t listen to Tracker, or adults, who try to keep her out of danger. Dusty and her talking ship, Tracker, get into a lot of trouble that way. They make some deadly enemies. But a teenage girl, especially a beautiful, leggy, blonde like Dusty, attracts boyfriends, too. Romance takes last place in Dusty’s life, after star flight, action, and adventure.
Are you planning a sequel for The Magic of Jhas?
Do I have a choice? Scenes for 'Song 2' demanded to be written before I finished the first Jhas novel. Now readers are asking for more, too.
Authors do lots of research that readers are not aware of. Can you tell us about your research for your book?
My research started with reading, but an enormous number of tasks followed. I interviewed friends and experts in fencing, sword fighting (very different), flight training, piloting, building thatch, gemstones, geology, geography, astronomy, and other fields. Hobbies helped and so did travel. For background, I like to drive, hike, fly, ride, swim, dive, and ski in an enormous range of environments. Every new experience resulted in revisions and re-writing for Jhas.
How do you write? Every day? Long stints? Short bursts?
All of the above.
Your experience at the Lego Conference:
BrickCon Seattle is a conference where adult Lego builders display their creative, and sometimes enormous, Lego creations. Like Hogwarts, Aliens, etc. Kids loved one is my son’s creations, a full-size, walking, talking, R2 who interacts with the children. My son suggested we put The Magic of Jhas on our Lego nametags. That led to: let’s display a scene from Jhas, which became 2 Lego scenes, the Sword Day ceremony and the horse parade. We gave away a dozen books and nearly 200 bookmarks. We could easily see the readers among the Lego fans, they’d stop to read the back of the book. If we gave one of them a book, they’d often dash away hugging the book!
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Merelee Knott also has a darling children's book:
Meet Merelee on Twitter: @MereleeKnott
Pictures from the Lego Convention - Creations from Merelee's Book -The Magic of Jhas - and R2 with Lilly
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Click the picture above to see it on Amazon