PODCAST
Life-Changing Book
THE HERO AND THE CROWNby Robin McKinley
 |
The Hero and the Crown
by Robin McKinley
|
Shop your local indie bookstore
Aerio Ingram Spark
Amazon
Storyteller
Maegan Beaumont is the author of the award-winning Sabrina Vaughn thriller series. Her debut novel, CARVED IN DARKNESS, was awarded the 2014 gold medal by Independent Publishers for outstanding thriller as well as being named a Forward, book of the year finalist and Debut novel of the year by Suspense Magazine. And under her penname Megyn Ward, she is a USA Today Best-Selling author of Smart, dirty, romance. When she isn't locked in her office, torturing her protagonists, she's busy chasing chickens (and kids), hanging laundry and burning dinner. Either way, she is almost always in the company of her seven dogs, her truest and most faithful companions and her almost as faithful husband, Joe.
Megyn Ward - Facebook, Instagram, Website
Maegan Beaumont - Facebook, Instagram, Website
 |
Carved in Darkness
by Maegan Beaumont
|
Amazon
Shop your local indie bookstore
 |
Pushing Patrick
by Megyn Ward
|
Shop your local indie bookstore
Aerio Ingram Spark
Mentions
BOOKS
PODCAST
MISC
Article: Dragon-Slayer vs. Dragon-Sayer: Reimagining the Female Fantasy HeroineInstagram: Maegan at the bar with Sunshine
The Hero's Journey
The Heroine's Journey
TRANSCRIPT
Denise: [00:00:00] Welcome to
the Heart-Shaped Books Podcast where storytellers pour out their hearts about
books that have changed their lives. I'm your host Denise Ganley. As with any
Heart-Shaped Books episode, there might be some spoilers, but don't let that
stop you from listening. This is episode 8 and my guest today is Maegan
Beaumont. We'll be discussing The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley.
But before we kick off,
let me introduce you to Maegan. Maegan Beaumont is the author of the
award-winning Sabrina Vaughn thriller series. Her debut novel, Carved in
Darkness, was awarded the 2014 Gold Medal by Independent Publishers for
Outstanding Thriller as well as being named a Forward Book of the Year finalist
and Debut Novel of the Year by Suspense Magazine.
And under her pen name
Megyn Ward, she is a USA Today Best-Selling author of smart, dirty, romance. When
she isn't locked in her office torturing her protagonist, she's busy chasing
chickens and kids, hanging laundry, and burning dinner. Either way, she is
almost always in the company of her seven dogs, her truest and most faithful
companions, and her almost as faithful husband Joe.
Thanks for joining me
today, Maegan.
Maegan: [00:01:18] You're
welcome.
Denise: [00:01:19] I appreciate
you coming to talk to us about The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley. It was
released in 1984, but it was a Newberry winner in 1985.
Maegan: [00:01:29] Yes.
Denise: [00:01:31] Newbery
Medal Award winner. I'm not that familiar with the original press name Green
Willow books. I don't know what else they've published or if they've been
absorbed into...
Maegan: [00:01:41] I think, I
think they've been absorbed into, I want to say Random House.
Denise: [00:01:48] Puffin.
Maegan: [00:01:49] Is it
Puffin?
Denise: [00:01:50] Puffin has
it now.
Maegan: [00:01:51] But who just
Puffin belong to?
Denise: [00:01:55] That's a
good question. I don't know.
Maegan: [00:01:58] They belong
to Penguin. And who does Penguin belong to? Random House.
Denise: [00:02:03] It all
traces back to Random House.
Maegan: [00:02:10] Puffin
belongs to Penguin. Penguin is an imprint of Random House.
Denise: [00:02:18] Good call,
good call. Okay, let's talk a little bit about what your life was like before
you discovered the book.
Maegan: [00:02:31] Before I
discovered the book. I read it, I want to say, it was 85-86 ish. I was 10, 11
years old. My life was, my childhood would be probably best described as
chaotic. My parents divorced when I was two. A lot of stepfathers, a lot of
stepmothers, step-siblings. Life wasn't always great. So, at the time we were
living with my grandmother. So technically we were homeless. It was just, I would say probably the best
way to categorize my life, my childhood, in general would just be chaotic. I
was really struggling at that point to find my voice as a person. You know,
when you live like that as a kid, you kind of get lost in the shuffle and you
don't feel like you have a say in anything. As a kid, you usually don't feel
like you have a say in anything but even more so when the adults in your life
aren't even in control of the situation. You feel completely powerless and
completely out of control. You just kind of feel swept away and kind of you're
drowning in circumstances that are surrounding you. So that's kind of how I felt.
I was just struggling to stay afloat. For the first time in my life when I read
I read this book and I felt a connection to the main character because she was
not so much the same situation, but she was also struggling to find her voice
since she was struggling with feeling like she was an outsider and like she
didn't belong. And watching her find her voice and coming into her own really,
really spoke to me and it was really powerful for me.
Denise: [00:04:27] How did you
find the book?
Maegan: [00:04:29] I lived in
the library. I was always at the library. If it was my school library or the
library that was within walking distance to my house. And when I say within
walking distance, we're talking a couple miles and I was at the library every
day. The librarians knew me. At the public library, I sat there and read until
closing and then I walked home again.
At school, my
librarian, she would let me sneak in at lunch time. She would let me, you know,
sneak in before school and after school and so I want to say that I found it at
the school library. I own the book. I've been trying to get my kids to read the
book for years. I'm just read the book.
Please just read the
book. I've offered them money to read the book and they won't have anything to
do with it. But that's how I found it, was at the library.
Denise: [00:05:20] So the main
character in the book, I think she feels like an outcast within her own family
because they kind of question that she even belongs there. So that's kind of
something that you identified wih then?
Maegan: [00:05:33] Absolutely.
Absolutely. Her mother was an outsider. She was not a part of it, I think she
was from the north. Yeah, people were afraid she was a witch they were afraid
that she had somehow enslaved her father, the main character's father into
marriage.
And yeah, so when her
mother died all of that kind of passed down to her and she was viewed as- she
was accepted but not really. She was accepted because she was the King's
daughter but there was always a part that she was not really a part of the
royal family. And yeah, I felt that growing up I felt.
I felt like I was an
outsider an outcast even with my own family, kind of held at arm's length a
little bit. Yeah.
Denise: [00:06:23] So let's
talk about the plot of the book. Aerin is an outcast in her own father's court,
daughter of the foreign woman who it was rumored was a witch and enchanted the
king to marry her. Like you were saying. As she makes friends with her father's
lame retired warhorse, Talat, and discovers an old overlooked and dangerously
imprecise recipe for dragon fireproof ointment in a dusty corner of her
father's library, two years many cantor circles to the left to strengthen
Talat's weak leg and many burnt twigs, and a few fingers, secretly experimenting
with the ointment recipe later, Aerin is present when someone comes from an
outlying village to report a marauding dragon to the king.
Aerin slips off alone
to fetch her horse, her sword, and her fireproof ointment. But modern dragons,
while formidable opponents fully capable of killing a human being, are small
and accounted vermin, there is no honor in killing dragons. The great dragons
are a tale out of ancient history. That is until the day that the king is
riding out at the head of the army, a weary man on an exhausted horse staggers
into the courtyard where the king's troop is assembled.
The black dragon is
come, Maur who has not been seen for generations. The last of the great
dragons, great as a mountain. Maur has awakened. Dun dun dun.
Maegan: [00:07:35] Dun dun dun.
Denise: [00:07:36] That's
exciting! A girl going out to fight dragons.
Maegan: [00:07:39] Yes.
Denise: [00:07:40] With a
fireproof ointment, no less, and a retired warhorse that she rehabilitated.
Maegan: [00:07:46] And I think
what appealed to me, as I'm reading this, the description of the book as an 11-year-old
girl, I'm thinking, whoa, she's a dragon slayer. That's not something that you
saw. I kind of dipped my toe in the high fantasy. I didn't read Tolkien. I read
Lloyd Alexander, The Black Cauldron, Book of Three, Castle Llyr. While I loved
those books, they were very much male-driven stories. You didn't have - Are you
squirting your cat?
Denise: [00:08:19] Yes.
Maegan: [00:08:23] Sorry.
Denise: [00:08:25] No, it's
fine. He's misbehaving and getting in the away.
Maegan: [00:08:30] Naughty
naughty. So, this was something new for me a strong female protagonist that
wasn't the Damsel in Distress? She didn't need to be rescued. She didn't look
to a man for help or to protect her or take care of her and that was something
that I really needed to see at that particular moment in my life. And it's like
female dragon slayer. I was like, kick-ass. I'm reading this book.
Denise: [00:08:55] Yeah, I
would have totally loved this book back then and, somehow, I never read it
until you recommended it. I'd actually never heard of it. I was like, where was
it, I mean it was there it was there how did I never come across it. I was
reading fantasy at that time. I was probably reading Mercedes Lackey,k Anne
McCaffrey, and Terry Brooks around then.
Maegan: [00:09:16] I read The
Blue Sword, which was, I believe, a prequel to The Hero and the Crown. I've
read a book of hers rather recently in my adult life called Sunshine. Sunshine
is like Twilight on steroids. This book, I mean, there's no sparkly vampires in
this book, but it is at its core a love story between a mortal and a vampire.
It's got a lot of other things in it and again you have this young woman who is
coming into her own power and she's realizing that she's very powerful and
she's not just a mortal, she's other things also. It seems to be a theme with
Robin McKinley as she writes really, really strong female characters.
Denise: [00:10:03] Well, and
she, I saw an article that was talking about her inspiration. She was looking
for a character, girls who do things, she wanted to write girls who do things.
And she mentioned that she used to read Tolkien, like you mentioned, but her
first role model, was Eowyn.
Maegan: [00:10:21] Yeah.
Denise: [00:10:21] From The
Lord of the Rings, but she was dissatisfied with the character's lack of development.
So, she wanted to have more doing.
Maegan: [00:10:29] Right and I
think it's fine to look pretty and let the boys handle it. But at the same time
that's, that's not every girl.
Denise: [00:10:38] Yeah.
Maegan: [00:10:39] That's never
been me. I've never been the pretty stand to the side, let the boys handle it,
kind of girl. I think that's where other books, I don't want to say failing me,
but I wasn't feeling the connection with those characters in books that I did
with Aerin.
Denise: [00:10:54] I think it's
good to have options, like have multiple different kinds of portrayals of
characters. Girls who do this, girls to do that, girls who do something else.
That really like gives you a broader perspective of who and what you can be.
Maegan: [00:11:08] Yeah, and
that's exactly the kind of message that every girl needs, and you don't have to
be one and stay in that box forever. You can be, you can be all of those
things. You can slay dragons and still be pretty and you can want to have kids
but still be a police officer. You don't have to be just one or the other.
Denise: [00:11:32] Right. And
it's good to also know how other people live or choose because that's part of
like how we develop our empathy. So even if you want to be this you can respect
somebody else's choices to be that or like you said, we could all be pieces of
things. Different pieces.
Maegan: [00:11:51] Yes.
Denise: [00:11:51] So tell me a
little bit about how you felt while reading it the first time and what kinds of
things have changed for you. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Maegan: [00:11:57] When I first
read it, I don't think that I caught all the nuances. A female dragon slayer.
She was an outcast from her family, and I think I kind of glossed over the relationship
with her father, glossed over with the love interest, I mean, there's a love
triangle in this book.
I don't think I really
realized that as the 10 or 11-year-old girl. I was more enthralled with the
action of the book. As I read it as an adult her relationship with her father
was very troubled. He loved her but he didn't know how to love her. He wanted
to protect her. But he also, I think, was a little bit afraid of her and so
there were dynamics in that relationship that came across to me as an adult
that I didn't pick up on as a child. But also, like I said, the love triangle.
As a girl I read it and I'm like, okay, so she likes this guy, but I don't
think that I really caught on to what was going on, you know. Until I read it
like oh, oh.
Yeah, those were the
main sticking points for me was her relationship with her father and then the
love triangle that kind of became clearer as an adult versus the kid.
Denise: [00:13:21] Yeah, and
it's not, it's not what I would call a typical love triangle these days because
it didn't feel like they were directly competing for her.
Maegan: [00:13:29] No, and when
you say love triangle, Bella, Jacob and Edward, it's not like that. She was in
love with two different people. She was in love with two men. Because of the
events that happened in her life or in the process of fighting the Great
Dragon, she, - can I spoil it for people?
Denise: [00:13:52] Yeah.
Maegan: [00:13:54] So she becomes
maybe not immortal but her life, her life expectancy, her lifespan lengthens
exponentially so she can have she can have both. She doesn't have to choose.
She can have, I forget his name.
Denise: [00:14:11] Luth is the
immortal who heals her after the dragon. And then Tor is the one that's the
heir to the throne.
Maegan: [00:14:20] To the
throne. Yeah, so she falls in love with Luth, but she realizes that her life
and her duty, and she is in love with Tor. Maybe not in the same way she is
with Luth, but she realizes that she has things that she has to do and that she
doesn't have to choose.
She can have Tor and
because her life expectancy is so much longer than it should have been because
of how he healed her when that part of her life is done. She can go back to
Luth. That, in itself, you don't have to choose you can have both, that was
something that you don't see in your traditional love triangles. You don't see
that it doesn't have to be a choice.
Denise: [00:15:03] Right, and
they're patient. They're like look, I love you, I know you've got to go do your
thing, I'll be here when you get back.
Maegan: [00:15:10] Right.
Denise: [00:15:10] Basically
for both of them.
Maegan: [00:15:12] Right there
was no angst. I should-
Denise: [00:15:13] Yes,
exactly, angst-free book.
Maegan: [00:15:16] No angst,
you know, everybody was mature about it. Everybody understood, everybody was
accepting. And that's great. I mean, I know that as a teenager and less that
you thrive on angst, but it doesn't always have to be like that.
Denise: [00:15:31] I mean, I
think she does have angst but it's not about the relationships. It's about who
am I going to be? Am I going to be able to kill these dragons or recover from
these dragons and who am I kind of angst? It's not who do I feel for and what
do they feel for me kind of angst?
Maegan: [00:15:50] Right. Who
am I going to be with? That's the kind of angst that a lot of books, a lot of
YAs and middle grade books that kind of edge toward the YAs, that's who, it's
almost like girls find their identity in who they decide to be with. You know,
and that was never the case with this book. You're right. She did have some
anxiety and there was some angst, but it was more about who am I going to be?
How am I going to be both? How am I going to be this dragon slayer? And how am
I going to fulfill my destiny, but still live up to the expectations and
obligations as the king's daughter.
That was the source of
the angst and I like that. I like that. There was no chest-pounding. There was no
pick me. There was no overt alpha B.S. It was, everybody was focused on her,
helping her, and wanting her to be her best person and that was nice. Every
girl should read this book.
Denise: [00:16:59] Yes,
definitely. Would you would you say that book has had an impact on you
throughout your life or is it something you've returned to?
Maegan: [00:17:06] I would say
as a writer, as I've developed as a writer, I gravitate toward strong female
characters and I think that it kind of steered my writing even at, you know,
maybe a subconscious level. I don't think that I could write a weak female
character to save my own life. Not to say that there's no vulnerability.
Weakness and vulnerability, those aren't the same things.
Denise: [00:17:33] Tell me what
you mean by a strong female character or weak female character.
Maegan: [00:17:37] I'm gonna
get in so much trouble. You know a lot of your traditional romances and the
focus of the woman is very much the Damsel in Distress. It's the man that saves
the day, the man who rescues her whether it's, you know, emotionally or
financially or even physically. It's the man who comes in and saves the day.
He's responsible for her sexual awakening. He's responsible for all the good
things that happen to her during the course of the book.
And for me, I guess
maybe I perceived that as a weakness because why isn't she doing these things
for herself? She's perfectly capable. So, I think that reading those books
bothered me and as I got older and as trends started to move toward more fully
developed realized female characters, that has changed. You have female
characters in all genres that are strong and can take care of themselves and
don't need a man or a male character to define them and do those things for
them. That's what I mean.
Denise: [00:18:52] I mean
because there's a lot of talk about what a strong female character is these
days and I don't think there's one way to be a strong female character. I just
was curious how you defined it.
Maegan: [00:19:04] Well, I
guess maybe for me a strong female character someone who looks to herself to
solve her own problems. She doesn't have to be Lara Croft or somebody who can
kick ass physically. Somebody who can stand up for herself and say no I don't
want those things or no you can't do that to me, or I can do this myself. Well,
I appreciate your help, but I'm fully capable of doing this on my own and even
though it's a struggle I can do it and maybe even if she fails she still tried,
you know, she still stood up on her own and she still said I'm gonna do this
for myself. That to me is strength.
Denise: [00:19:45] How many
times do you think you've read the book?
Maegan: [00:19:48] I have read
the book probably half dozen times over the course of my life. I read it a
couple times in high school. I read it several times in grade school. I've read
it once or twice as an adult. So, a lot and every time I read it, I think I see
something different. I feel something different, which is great, which is what
a book should do. As you evolve the book should evolve.
Denise: [00:20:18] What
characters did you identify most with? I know you mentioned identifying with
Aerin.
Maegan: [00:20:23] I don't
think anybody else.
Denise: [00:20:25] I was kind
of thinking did I identify with Talat because I kind of really liked Talat's
rehabilitation and coming back from his war injury. He feels a little bit more
than just a horse in the book.
Maegan: [00:20:37] Yeah. Yeah.
Denise: [00:20:38] But it's not
like he talks or anything, but he definitely has a journey and an arc, I think,
in the story.
Maegan: [00:20:46] Absolutely
he was broken down and after he served his purpose who is put out to pasture
and he was, physically, he was not able, but his spirit and his will would not
allow- He was not happy with that. He was not happy with being put out to
pasture. At the beginning of the book he was nasty. He was not a nice horse.
You know because he I think he turned bitter and you're right, you know, he
wasn't just a horse, he had attributed real human feelings to him, you know,
jealousy and pride and bitterness and anger. So even though he actually wasn't
a talking horse, he was very much a character in the book.
Denise: [00:21:31] Yeah, and I
think he felt really ignored. He was loyal to his King and then as soon as he
got injured it was like he was thrown away and I could really- not that I have
felt thrown away- but like I could really feel that Journey for him. Like hey,
just don't give up on yourself. It's an aging thing, right? It's an aging
metaphor in a way where you're like just because you're not in your prime, it
doesn't mean you don't have anything left to give or anything else you can
offer. And that was a really satisfying storyline for him because he helped
save the day in so many ways.
Maegan: [00:22:07] Right, and
he still had- he maybe wasn't fit to carry the king and go to war, but he still
had a lot to give and you know, and he did. He was as loyal to Aerin as he ever
was to her father.
Denise: [00:22:22] Maybe more
so, I think.
Maegan: [00:22:23] Maybe more
so because she saw the value in him when the other people didn't, you know. So
and as we're talking about this, I think maybe as an adult I might identify a
little bit with Aerin's father in the respect that when you're a parent you
have you have fear for your children, fear that they're not going to accomplish
what they want in life, fear that they're not going to maybe live up to your
own expectations. I try really hard not to put expectations on my kids. So as
long as they're happy and healthy and not in prison, I'm good. Those are my,
that's my criteria. Not actively committing crimes and healthy. As a parent you
do have fear and sometimes you connect with one child more than you do with
another and sometimes it's hard to get those fears and those feelings across to
a child that you don't necessarily connect with on the same level that you do
other children.
Denise: [00:23:24] I kind of
felt like Arlbeth would be, the king, he was trying to balance what was good
for his daughter and what was good for the kingdom. And they were clearly not
open to accepting her and he almost didn't want to draw a lot of extra
attention to her either because then she could be, who knows, ostracized even
more or they could have rebelled and hurt her. And so he's trying to find that
balance of keeping the kingdom happy and healthy and also keeping her happy and
healthy and that in the way it is tricky and it sucks because as a king he couldn't
just be like you guys have to accept her, she's my daughter and you know, screw
you.
Maegan: [00:24:04] Right. And I
think when it became obvious to everybody that Tor intended to marry Aerin. She
was obviously passed over for the throne. People started talking about how she
had done the same thing to Tor that her mother had done to her father which was
enthrall him. She was a witch and I think that made her father nervous because
he was trying to keep her a safe distance from the throne too so that it was
not going to draw attention to her and it's not going to cause problems in the
kingdom and here it is. She's right back where she started. Right back in the
crosshairs of everything.
Denise: [00:24:50] Yeah,
definitely, and then especially when Galana her, I don't know if she's her
cousin, I think she was her cousin.
Maegan: [00:24:57] Yeah. She's
her cousin.
Denise: [00:24:59] She wanted
Tor and Tor didn't want her and Galana would probably be more of the
traditional beauty of the culture there
and so she I'm sure made everything worse for Aerin and not weighing
only because there was a antagonism but there, you know the jealousy to and
then making her the villain. She's like the ultimate mean girl.
Maegan: [00:25:23] Yes, yes,
but toward the end of the book, I don't want to say she gets her comeuppance,
but she doesn't- she kind of mellows out. And she's kind of like- she never
apologizes and she never takes responsibility for what she did, but she's no
longer actively an asshole.
Denise: [00:25:45] Yeah, she's
kind of like, eh, I guess you've got something worthy. I guess you did okay for
us. That's right. I guess you freed the country. I guess that's all right.
Maegan: [00:25:55] Right. I
guess I'll not actively hate you. Right, and again she was the traditional
beauty. She wasn't- I think she had black hair, a traditional beauty in their
country, in their homeland. You know, she was small. She was pretty she was
petite. She's very much a lady. And Aerin was none of those things. Right.
Which how in the world could Tor want someone like Aerin over her, it must be
witchcraft.
Denise: [00:26:28] Yeah. So, what
was your favorite part of the book?
Maegan: [00:26:34] I like her
first encounter with the dragon. And the reason was because she was so
confident going in and she was so sure of herself and nothing went according to
plan and she realized, okay, I'm not I'm not I'm not as ready as I thought I
was. But she persevered and that's when Talat really stepped up to the plate
and protected her. You saw their relationship solidify and I like that part.
Denise: [00:27:06] Yeah, I love
when she, well, you know, I almost I think I've said this before, but I think
of this as like almost a STEM book in a way. She's like a little scientist
because she's- the fireproof ointment takes her two years to develop because
she only has a somewhat intact recipe, like ingredients, but not the amounts of
the ingredients and so she has to keep testing and retesting and she keeps a
journal about what works and what didn't work until she finally gets it right.
Meanwhile the whole
time she's training Talat and then she goes to try to dispatch one of the
little dragons as her test and she's all over that. She's like I got it. I'm
great. And she almost doesn't really tell any I don't think she tells anybody
about it. I don't think anybody really knows about the ointment either.
They just think she's
riding the horse. So anyway, so she does that and then has a little bit of
trouble with the first one but takes care of it. And then she becomes the
dragon slayer for all the little ones that are like, I guess rat size or
something. I don't know.
Maegan: [00:28:11] I think
dogs-
Denise: [00:28:13] Dogs. Yeah,
so they're smaller, but they're-
Maegan: [00:28:17] They're
nasty.
Denise: [00:28:19] But they're
nasty and they're still dangerous because they still breathe fire and all that.
But yeah, and then so I like that whole journey where she's doing that, I like
the scene. Honestly, I like the confrontation between her and Galana, and
Galana is like, you can't eat this plant because you're not royal and it'll
kill you. And then she eats the surka plant and then she eats all of the branch
and overdoses on it and it nearly does kill her. But it does also prove that
she has magic because she survives it. She wouldn’t have been able to survive
at all.
Maegan: [00:28:52] Right.
Denise: [00:28:52] She's like
I'll show you, and I really like that attitude and I do think it was a little
overkill for her, but you know, she survived and learned from it. And then, of
course, fighting the big dragon, that's Maur, the big dragon when she goes out
to save the kingdom and she barely survives that. And just how Robin McKinley
doesn't pull any punches. She's burnt. The kennet only, the fireproof ointment
only lasts a little or like works just so much for this giant ancient dragon
and then you know, it takes a while for her to stab him with the- I think she's
gotten the sword from Tor at this point.
And so, she does kill
him but she nearly killed herself. She breaks her ankle. She's laying on the
side of the path or whatever and then has to pull herself into the water to
like stop the burn. And that whole part and then eventually she gets herself on
the road to where her dad and Tor can collect her. They run into her and find
her. Like that whole part, it's grit. It's total grit, she's just surviving,
you know. She doesn't give up at any point. She just keeps trying to fix the
situation.
Maegan: [00:30:07] Well, she
saves herself. I mean, and that in itself, what she went through she, what she
persevered. And you're right this dragon almost killed her, and she knew that
it was almost going to kill her. That was the thing. Is she she was pretty sure
she wasn't going to survive. But she still felt like she had to do it anyway
because nobody else would do it. Yeah, and so she went with what little tools
she had knowing that it wasn't going to be enough. That was amazing to me.
Denise: [00:30:40] And the fact
that it takes her a while to heal both from eating the plant and recovering
from the dragon. In fact, she doesn't really heal from the dragon until Luth
magically calls and says, hey I can help you out. But both times, I mean like
that's legit like recovering from something so severe as those injuries, and I
even think there's some depression in there for her. I feel like this book
talks a little bit about it without really saying that, without labeling it.
Maegan: [00:31:09] Yeah.
Denise: [00:31:10] And so you
see a lot of inactivity but also activity, like she's clearly dealing with the
fallout from these things and the healing but still trying to do stuff in the
meantime, but she's not up to a hundred percent and quite a while.
Maegan: [00:31:26] Well, and you
know, I think the depression, I kind of always had the feeling that while Maur
wounded her physically, he also wounded her spiritually. He very much scarred
her emotionally where she was not, she would not have recovered from that. Even
if she had recovered physically, she would never have recovered from that. He
would have eventually killed her that way. So yes, maybe that was a metaphor
for depression or PTSD.
Denise: [00:32:00] Yeah, maybe
PTSD. Well and part of it was the skull, they took this skull of the dragon
back to the house and that have like a negative aura about it. So there was
other- I think that exacerbated everything on top of it. But yeah, and the book
kind of just- I think there's two sections but it's definitely feels like two
sections. Like the first section leads up to that and then the second section
is when she goes to find Luth and gets healed and then finds her uncle
magician, evil magician, and then comes back to save the country from potential
usurpers. I guess you would say.
Maegan: [00:32:45] Yeah, who
were under the control of the uncle.
Denise: [00:32:51] Did he call
them?
Maegan: [00:32:52] Yeah. I mean
it was the demons. Her uncle's influences very much infected these people and I
think that that's where all the upheaval and and the civil war came about.
Denise: [00:33:07] Yeah, and
then she finds allies in the mountain cats and the mountain dogs that are
magical as well and help fight for her. The whole battle with the uncle was
kind of weird to me.
Maegan: [00:33:21] It was weird
because it was so, it almost felt anti-climactic to me.
Denise: [00:33:28] Yeah, no, I
agree with that.
Maegan: [00:33:30] She climbed
the tower stairs forever. It was like forever forever. It was like centuries.
Denise: [00:33:40] Yeah.
Maegan: [00:33:42] She climbed
his tower stairs forever, and then there was some back and forth smack talk.
And she put the dragon stone in the surka wreath and that was it. And maybe
it's, I don't know, maybe I'm used to Braveheart and all these long drawn-out
like epic- I've been watching Game of Thrones. Maybe that's what it is.
Denise: [00:34:09] Yeah.
Maegan: [00:34:09] And by the
way Arya Stark, hello.
Denise: [00:34:13] I love her.
Maegan: [00:34:15] Right she
is, her and Aerin are like kindred sisters.
Denise: [00:34:20] They are,
yeah.
Maegan: [00:34:21] So and then the
uncle was dead, and I was like, oh okay. Maybe as a kid it didn't hit me as so
anticlimactic, but as an adult, I kind of felt like- and maybe even as a writer
I would have written it differently.
Denise: [00:34:40] Oh for sure
because I was just thinking you go for the first half of the book you don't
even know the uncle exists. You know that there's rumors of threats out there
and that somebody in the north is causing problems and might challenge Arlbeth
for the throne or something, but you don't know where it's coming from.
You don't know there's
some evil magician behind all of it. You don't know that any of that's
happening and so it does feel kind of weird. While, whereas the battle with the
dragon is set up from the beginning. She's learning her fireproof ointment.
It's foreshadowed or whatever.
Maegan: [00:35:14] The dragon's
on the cover, you know, and she slays him two-thirds of the way through the
book. There again, you know her battle with him is not over. It's not over
until the end, you know her real battle with Maur the dragon is not over even
though she slays him. But he's still gone. And then, you're right, all of a
sudden there's this powerful mage, and you're like what where did this guy come
from?
And he's responsible
for waking the dragon and he is responsible for the civil unrest in the country
and he's responsible for all these things. And okay, so now we see that the
dragon was just a just a pawn and we're going to go to the real battle now. And
again, we're climbing some stairs and we're throwing a wreath and that's it.
Denise: [00:36:10] I'm sure it
feels a little more dramatic in the book but when you say it like that, it's
like yeah, that's what happened basically.
Maegan: [00:36:23] Right?
That's what happened. And maybe it's because it is a kids’ book.
Denise: [00:36:30] Maybe. But I
don't know because there's sex in there.
Maegan: [00:36:36] It's not
overt. It's very much innuendo. It's very much not- there's no bump and grind
going on. But it is there, you're right. And as like I said as a ten-year-old
that totally went over my head. I remember thinking he's like super old and she
liked him? That was that was my takeaway as a 10-11 year-old girl was, he's
really old. What is she doing? But I don't know, as a writer, I would have
written it differently.
Denise: [00:37:13] You're right
though that it's really she has to slay the PTSD Dragon at the end. And I mean,
I like that she shows the after-effects of something like that and how it
impacts you and changes you. But the uncle's part has just felt kind of out of
place for me, even though he instigated a lot of it. And I guess maybe I'm just
used to it in other stories he would have been more prevalent throughout the
story. Yeah, you would have found his fingerprints earlier on you would have
known the prophecy earlier on you would have read all of those things I think
and that's doesn't mean that this story didn't work as well or didn't work at
all. It doesn't mean that it just was, oh like you, say anti-climactic.
Maegan: [00:38:00] Right.
Denise: [00:38:00] And the
first chapter. I don't know how you felt about the beginning but the first
chapter when I was reading, I did have a little bit of a trouble with it. I was
kind of like. I don't know if it was the way it was written, I just had trouble
getting through it. Maybe it was because it was oddly vague and disjointed and
then I was like, okay, but there's something here because that's where we meet
Tor and her and their relationship and their friendship and it's that
relationship that pulled me through that chapter and then kind of story
stabilized after that. And so, then it was fine. And I've heard other people
talk about that for Robin McKinley. In the beginning she has a very different
style, so you have to adjust to that a little bit.
Maegan: [00:38:46] Yeah, she is
very almost stream of consciousness when she writes. It's like it's in her head
and it comes out and I don't think that she really takes a lot of time to
structure it, you know what I mean. And as she's writing it's almost like it
structures itself. And all of her books are like that. Sunshine was very much
like that, very much stream of consciousness, disjointed, head hopping. You
have multiple points of view in the same paragraph, the same chapter, and I
think that as writers, Newbery Medal winners can get away with that. They can
do whatever they want. JK Rowling can do whatever she wants. So these rules
that we learn as writers, one POV at a time, structure your story, inciting
incident, first act, second act, third act, conclusion, is these story rules that
we learn as writers and we adopt and make a part of our craft. They're not
really rules. And if it works but it doesn't always work. Robin McKinley can
obviously break these rules and she can make it work and people will read her
books and buy into it. For writers like me who don't have a following and don't
have a Newbery Medal, I got to stick to the rules, man.
Denise: [00:40:19] For now. Or
maybe not.
Maegan: [00:40:20] For now, or
maybe not. I don't know. When I started writing, it was very much structured
third person, past tense. Very much one POV at a time. Not more than three POVs
in the story or two to three POVs in the story and now I'm writing almost
exclusively in first person present with the alternating POVs. And that's
almost easier for me now. It was a struggle at first. I'm breaking a lot of
rules that I learned as a writer just starting out.
Denise: [00:40:56] Huh
interesting. So, what did you feel about the ending or how do you think you
would write it differently?
Maegan: [00:41:04] You mean
with the battle with her uncle?
Denise: [00:41:07] Well, yeah
or whatever you had said earlier when you said I would write it differently,
were you talking the whole book or just that battle?
Maegan: [00:41:13] No, just
that scene in particular. Like you said, I would have made her uncle more
prevalent in the story. She would have learned about him sooner. Maybe she
would have learned about her mother's role. In fulfilling this prophecy that we
would have known about the prophecy may be a little bit sooner. It was just
kind of thrown in there in the middle toward the end of the book.
So I think maybe I
would have liked to see more of a- obviously she couldn't have a relationship
with her mother, but maybe she could come to some kind of understanding about
why her mother did the things that she did. And you know, maybe find some
closure that way with her mother. And maybe her father also because I think
that that was also unresolved.
You know, how the
father felt about the mother. Obviously he loved her, but I think at the back
of his mind he probably did always wonder did she use magic on me? Did I fall
in love with her or was it something else? And I would like to see those things
resolved. And also, the thing with the uncle there was no- usually,
traditionally, there's many battles.
There's a
confrontation. Your antagonist and your protagonist, they see each other, they
size each other up. They know about each other even if your protagonist doesn't
win that battle or nothing comes of it. They're still very aware of each other
and they are the driving force in each other's story.
It wasn't like that. He
almost felt like an afterthought, which didn't feel right to me. I would have
liked to have seen a little bit more build up. And the final battle, something
more than just she really just put the dragon stone in the surka wreath and
threw it at him and that was it.
Denise: [00:43:02] Yeah. Yeah.
Maegan: [00:43:03] I mean, and
I get maybe that was instinct and it was intuition when all those things came
to her. I get that but at the same, you know, she didn't try anything else
before she did that. I don't even think it was explained why she had the surka
wreath in the first place. The dragon stone I get because that was the last
drop of blood from Maur's heart. So that was something that she carried with
her.
Denise: [00:43:29] I think the
surka wreath help tamp down some of that power or something like that. I think
it was.
Maegan: [00:43:36] Well, I
always took it as it was a combination of her royal magical power, you know,
her power as the princess of the king and her strength as a dragon slayer. I
always took it as combination of those things, but I don't know why did she
have it with her physically? Why did she take it with her?
Denise: [00:43:57] I don't remember.
Maegan: [00:43:58] Right. It
just kind of felt like there was no there's no reason for it. It was growing on
the outside of the tower. She wove it into a wreath and carried it up the
stairs with her for a million years. It wasn't in the prophecy. So, it just
kind of felt like she knew who he was all along. You know I guess maybe it felt
like Robin McKinley had a secret and she didn't share it with the reader until
the very end. And that kind of feels like a cheat to me.
Denise: [00:44:30] Well and I
think part of it is like you said, it was anticlimactic because we didn't
really have the strife that she had when she was fighting the dragons. With
fighting her uncle there was very little, I mean aside from the climbing, it
felt like a lot less strife. And so I would have liked to see more strife
because usually your challenges get more difficult throughout the story and you
build up to the really big deal and that one felt like a lesser deal and then
back to a big deal when she has to ride into the battle.
Maegan: [00:45:09] And I think
you have this sandwich. You have the dragon you have her uncle you have the
war. The uncle in the middle was the cause of everything but he was the easiest
to defeat which doesn't, I don't know, doesn't make sense.
You know, it's an
awesome book and everybody should read it. But and again, I wonder you know, I
wonder if reading it she feels that way that she would have written it
differently.
Denise: [00:45:37] Well, and
part of me is wondering if I'm just trying to pigeonhole it into some of those
tenants of storytelling that I'm used to like you said or if it was just an
alternative… There's so much for the hero or the hero's journey, but then
there's also heroine's journey that has all these rules for writers and stuff.
I don't know very much about it. But I know it's different and so I was
thinking well am I just trying to put it into this box is that the problem and
it doesn't really belong in this box. And it's okay that it's not in the box,
but am I just trying to put it in this box.
Maegan: [00:46:13] She has a
very different writing style. You know, I'm sure that if she were here and we
could ask her if she has she has some very definite reasons why she did what
she did. Cause as writers we always do and yeah, maybe we are just trying to
put it in a box and make it the way we want it to be but it's still felt that
the battle with her uncle still really felt anti-climactic to me. Like there
should have been more.
Denise: [00:46:43] Wherever you
put it, there should have been some more strife.
Maegan: [00:46:47] Right.
Denise: [00:46:48] I would say
that if this book was written today, I mean it might still not be, because not
everything is, but I think that they would have tried to make this a trilogy
instead of just the one book story.
Maegan: [00:46:59] Yes. Yeah,
and and she like there was a prequel it's-
Denise: [00:47:04] But it was
written before this one, but it actually takes place after this one.
Maegan: [00:47:11] Yeah, yeah. The
Blue Sword was written before the Hero and the Crown, but the Hero and the
Crown comes before. So, The Hero and the Crown is the prequel. Yeah. I think
that they probably would have. Most of her books are set up to have potential
sequels. I know Sunshine was very much set up to be a series and she does not
like to write series. So yeah, I think if it were written in present day they
would have wanted more.
Denise: [00:47:44] I think she
liked to write fairy tales because I think, well she did the Sunshine, which is
a vampire story, but I feel like... These are somewhat fairytale-ish and then
she did Beauty and the Beast retelling and a whole bunch of other fairy tale
story lines.
Maegan: [00:48:03] I think
Sunshine is her only contemporary. I haven't read or heard of another
contemporary from her.
Denise: [00:48:11] Yeah, she
did a Sleeping Beauty one. She did Robin Hood one. And a couple others. And I
mean there are a lot of them are straight up fantasy. But there's a lot of
fairy tales and folk tales in there.
Maegan: [00:48:25] She wrote a
book called Deerskin which was very weird. Well, the premise was the father-
the main character had to run away because her father wanted- her mother died
and her father had plans to marry her so there was some weird incest going on
there. But that I believe that was an adult novel. I don't know that that was a
YA.
Denise: [00:48:53] It's based
on an old French fairy tale.
Maegan: [00:48:56] Deerskin is?
Denise: [00:48:57] Yeah, by
Charles Perrault called... I'm not going to be able to say it...Donkey Skin.
It's another one but it's looks very dark and it said contains adult themes of
incest rape and miscarriage and psychological stuff. I don't think I've read
any other stories of hers. I thought maybe I'd read the Outlaws of Sherwood,
but when I tried to read the plot line, it didn't sound familiar. But I wanted
to read Sunshine. I know that one's been referred to me and I love vampire
books. I'll always try anything vampire-y.
Maegan: [00:49:33] Yeah, I
liked that book because and again it's very much stream of consciousness, and
it's kind of hard to get into, but I like that book because it's not the
traditional vampire, he's so handsome. He is not. He is not. He is not in any
way Edward from Twilight, but she loves him anyway. And he pretty much tells
her it's never going to happen, you know, and he and he even though he loves
her too. There's no I'll turn you. Even as you're reading it and you're hoping
that you're going to find a way for them to be together, you know, there is no
way it's gonna happen. And I like that. I like that again you're taking your
stereotypical romance plots and turning them into more realistic, it's never
going to happen. It can't. You'll like it. I have it if you want to borrow it.
Denise: [00:50:38] I can't read
anything that's not ebooks these days. I keep trying and I keep buying books at
events and they sit there and I'm like, I'm going to have to rebuy it in ebook.
I can't seem to crack it open and hold it in my hands anymore. I don't know
what's wrong with me.
Maegan: [00:50:55] I bought
that book at the Strand when I went to New York. I bought that book and I read
it in a bar in New York. All my friends are running around and I'm like leave
me alone, I'm busy. There's a picture, an Instagram photo of me somewhere
reading in a bar.
Denise: [00:51:16] That's
awesome. I think this can be made into a movie. Do you think- I think it would
still play today?
Maegan: [00:51:23] I think so,
especially with the Game of Thrones thing or maybe a TV series. I think that it
could it has has strong themes. Absolutely. I think so.
Denise: [00:51:36] You can
easily flush out the side characters. And that would be interesting, and I
think when anytime you get a young adult character, I almost want it to be an
unknown actor. I can't even think of who I would want to play any of the
characters. I just wanna meet the horse.
Maegan: [00:51:58] Not, what's
her name? Not the chick that plays Bella.
Denise: [00:52:01] Oh well,
Kristen Stewart is much older at this point.
Maegan: [00:52:07] I don't, I
don't know who I would... nobody... nobody that I can think of. Yeah, it would have to be somebody unknown.
Yeah, definitely younger actors.
Denise: [00:52:19] Was there
anything else you want to say about Robin McKinley?
Maegan: [00:52:22] I wish she'd
write more. She hasn't written anything in a while. I wish she would write
more. She has a definite knack for writing strong female characters and taking
situations that as readers we're used to in making them into something
completely different and I really appreciate that as a reader and a writer.
Denise: [00:52:44] So you had
said earlier you would recommend this book to every girl or anyone. Anything
else you want to expand on that?
Maegan: [00:52:51] If you're
not going to read this book, read a book. Just read a book. Out of four of my
kids, only one of them is a reader. Which I guess one out of four isn't
horrible, but still not what I was hoping for. I know that young people are
struggling these days. I know that from personal experience you struggle as a
child. You struggle as an adolescent, and as a teenager, you struggle to find
yourself and to find your voice and to be independent. And I'm not going to say
that the answer to every problem is in a book, but you can find solace there.
You don't have to rely
on social media, and you can find those things in yourself. I found those
things in myself and I found it through a book. It's not like the book gave
these things to me, but the book awakened something in me. And you know, that
sounds cheesy and dumb, but that's what happened.
It's very much. It's
possible for everybody. I think I read somewhere that people who read are more
empathetic and I believe that. I worry about my kids. I've worried about kids
in general these days. Because I don't think that they have the empathy that we
did. I did. Just read a book. Just read a book, man.
Denise: [00:54:23] I agree with
that though. Like I think that books helped me figure out who I was and
developed a lot more, you know, feelings of identifying with other people. I
definitely think they are core to who I am today. I was lucky I read some very
inclusive storytelling and books, and maybe part of that's just what I was
drawn to as well, but like storytelling and books that helped me feel stronger
as a person.
Maegan: [00:54:58] Yeah,
absolutely. Books that validated you and validated your feelings and your views
of the world or maybe changed your view of the world. When you read these
books, you realize maybe I wasn't right about that or that's how somebody in
the same situation I am or might feel differently or react differently. And you
learn that both reactions are okay and it's developing empathy, developing an
understanding of other people and an acceptance of other people. I very much
attribute books and my reading growing up to the fact that I can do that.
It's a great book. It's
a good book even though I picked it apart a little bit. It's an awesome book.
Denise: [00:55:47] It is an
awesome book. I really wish I had found it when I was younger, although I
appreciate it now and I'll try to put it in the hands of people that I know but
I really do wish I had had found it.
Maegan: [00:56:01] I have
bought this book for strangers' children before. There was a woman in a writing
group on Facebook and she was talking about her daughter and how she was really
struggling, and she was being bullied at school and she felt different like an
outcast. And I messaged her and said I'm buying your daughter this book. I need
her to read it. Please, please have her read it and I sent her a physical
paperback copy and I never heard from her again. There was never a thank you.
But knowing that I was able to send that out and hopefully, hopefully, this
little girl read this book and felt even a little bit of what I felt. I know, again, this sounds cheesy and stupid,
but I really feel like this book, if it didn't save my life, it changed my
life. It opened up and made me realize things that I might not have realized,
or it would have taken me years to figure out on my own. Whenever somebody says
what book changed your life or what was your favorite book? This is it, this is
the book. This is the book that changed the course of my life.
Denise: [00:57:14] Especially
kids. We can tell them things, and we can give them the message directly, but
they don't hear in the same way that you would get it from a book. From a third
party that was completely separate from you, and I think that's why books will
never go away. The storytelling that comes from books is different than the
storytelling that comes from other sources.
Maegan: [00:57:38] Absolutely.
Denise: [00:57:39] There's so
much more internal work that's done.
Maegan: [00:57:43] Right and I
think that's the difference between lecturing our children and telling them
things and them reading it and absorbing it and internalizing it, and it
becomes a part of them. And even though they don't know it, it's inside. It's
in their brains. It's in their minds and it's very slowly, very gently
changing. Sometimes it's a lightning bolt of change. But sometimes it's just
subtle shifts in the way you think and the way you feel. And sometimes those
subtle shifts, they make a hundred times more difference than a lightning bolt
of realization and that's kind of where it was.
You know, I did feel
this immediate connection with Aerin, but at the same time, you know, there was
a there was a shift. It doesn't have to be this way. The life you're living now
doesn't have to be the life you always live. Who you are now doesn't define who
you're going to be. You have a hand, you have a say in where your life goes and
who you are as a person and that gentle steering towards something different
was what really changed my life.
Denise: [00:58:57] Yeah, that's
awesome.
What are you reading
right now? And do you have any book recommendations for people?
Maegan: [00:59:03] What am I
reading right now? I am not reading anything currently. I am so under deadline,
I cannot read anything right now.
I'm looking around
trying to see- see all my books? I'm actually getting ready to read- I just
bought Shannon Baker's The Desert Behind Me, and I'm interested in reading
that. It's a different kind of book for her. It's a lot darker. Her protagonist
struggles with the death of her sister, I believe, and there's some
psychological issues going on. So, I'm interested and I'm excited to read that.
The Desert Behind Me by Shannon Baker. That's on the top of my To Be Read list.
Matt Coyle writes a great series. It's the Rick Cahill series. The first book
is called Yesterday's Echo. Very hard-boiled Raymond Chandler-esque style of writing.
I really enjoy his books.
What I read personally,
aside from Shannon and Matt Coyle. I like Harlan Coben. I'm a huge Stephen King
fan.
Denise: [01:00:11] What's your
favorite Stephen King?
Maegan: [01:00:13] It's a book
called The Dark Half. It's not a well-known book of his although they did make
it into a movie. And it's about a writer who has a pen name, and he becomes so
enmeshed with this pen name that it endangers his life and his family and his
happiness as a married man and father. So, he decides to stop writing in this
pen name. The name comes to life basically like terrorizes everybody.
Denise: [01:00:46] Oh my
goodness.
Maegan: [01:00:47] Yeah, but I
really liked that book called The Dark Half by Stephen King. That was a good
one. And the protagonist, his name is Thad Beaumont. So, there's that. I also
like Dean Koontz. My favorite book by Dean Koontz is called From the Corner of
his Eye. I really liked that book. Dean Koontz, his books have become more
emotional and more personal as he's gotten, you know, he doesn't just write the
horror anymore. And From the Corner of his Eye is very much an emotional book.
I really enjoyed that.
Denise: [01:01:20] And do you
have any podcast recommendations?
Maegan: [01:01:24] Matt Coyle
has a podcast called, I think it's called, Crime Corner. It's more geared
toward mystery and thriller writing.
Denise: [01:01:33] Is it a
writing podcast or is it for readers? Like who's the audience?
Maegan: [01:01:37] I think it's
for readers. He interviews authors.
Denise: [01:01:41] So let's
talk about your books. Tell us what you write.
Maegan: [01:01:45] Okay, I
write two completely different genres. I write hardcore thrillers, and I also
write super steamy contemporary romance.
Denise: [01:01:55] Yay.
Maegan: [01:01:55] Yay. That's
Maegan Beaumont, which is the name I write my thrillers under, which is
actually my name. I've written five thrillers in the Sabrina Vaughn series.
Expect at least three more books in that series.
My pen name is Megyn
Ward. Under Megan Ward I have released 15 romances ranging from 30,000 words to
90,000 words and they're all super steamy hot contemporary romance. I have 4
series in the works right now. I'm very, very busy with that, writing 3
thrillers a year in addition to six romances. I'm really busy. I write a lot.
The romance thing I
started writing romance as a way to keep writing and maybe generate some income
and I really wasn't into. It was kind of like whatever I'll do it, you know
because I did research and 70% of all readers read romance. There are genres
that are easier for a woman to break into. Thrillers are the hardest and
romance is the easiest. So, I wanted to give myself a break. Really wasn't
particularly jazzed about writing romance, but I'll give it a shot. Whatever. What's the worst that can happen, right?
Turns out I love it. Turns out I'm good at it. I really enjoy myself. I enjoy
the characters. I enjoyed the writing. I enjoy everything about it.
So, when the deal came
up for the Sabrina series, everybody's like oh, that's great. Are you gonna
stop writing romance? And I'm like, nope. No, I'm still going to do that. Nope,
I'm not giving that up, you know. And there is kind of a stigma attached to
writing romance. And you know, it kind of bums me out a little bit because even
I feed into it. I've had people ask me, when are you going to start writing
real books again, that's not nice. I write real books. You know, they have
words and everything. So, I feel that and I fed into that for a very long time,
because I didn't want to tell people that I wrote romance. Almost felt like
something that I should be ashamed of but I'm not anymore. Yay. I'm out of the
closet. You know, I hit the USA Today bestseller list in February. So, that was
a thing. As Megyn Ward. I'm doing it. I got the USA Today Bestseller tag as
Megyn Ward. And as Maegan Beaumont I've won the Gold Medal for Independent
Publishers. You know, different, but still good.
Denise: [01:04:42] And where
can people find you online?
Maegan: [01:04:44] They can
find me... I'm on Facebook. Most prevalently on Facebook as Megyn Ward, and
Maegan Beaumont on Facebook. Also, I'm on Instagram and Twitter. I'm not so
active on Twitter. I really choose Facebook and Instagram as my platforms. I
also have websites MegynWard.com and MaeganBeaumont.com, and you'll find all
the good stuff on all my releases and whatnot.
Denise: [01:05:21] Well, thank
you so much for sharing your story.
Maegan: [01:05:22] You're
welcome.
Denise: [01:05:23] And the
book. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have read the book and I'm so glad that
I read the book.
Maegan: [01:05:29] I'm glad
that I- Yay!
Denise: [01:05:31] And
hopefully other people who are gonna be listening will also go out read it.
Maegan: [01:05:35] Hopefully!
They're going to say what are these ladies talking about, what's so great about
this book? And then you're going to find out.
Denise: [01:05:40] Aerin
Dragonslayer. Yes. I'm in! If you like Arya Stark, you're gonna love Aerin
Firehair.
Maegan: [01:05:48] Absolutely
one hundred percent. They are soul sisters.
Denise: [01:05:52] Thanks for
listening. You're the best. As usual, you can find the books we discussed in
the show notes at HeartShaped books.com. If you enjoyed the episode, please
share the podcast with other book lovers and add a review wherever you listen.
If you plan to buy
these books, please consider purchasing them using our affiliate links through
Indie Bound, Aerio Ingram Spark, and Amazon. You can also support the podcast
via Ko-Fi And Patreon. For all the details go to HeartShaped books.com. Be sure
to connect with me on Twitter @HSBpodcast or via email at Denise Ganley at
gmail.com. You can even leave a voicemail for the show via Speakpipe, which I
might share on the podcast.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, HSBP will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Thank you for supporting the podcast!
No comments:
Post a Comment