Hi, my name’s Toni V. Sweeney and I have a few books floating around in the e-book world as well as in print, so I suppose it’s possible you may have heard of me. If not… Well, now’s your change to meet a new author! I have a new book coming out this month and I’d like to tell you about it. It’s called Blood Sin, the first installment in The kan Ingan Archives.
Blood Sin is the continuation of a Family Saga, and has a slightly unusual history. Taking a breather from writing a Sword-and-Sorcery series called The Chronicles of Riven the Heretic, I finished a completely unrelated book called Blood Sin, set in the 23rd Century. It was the story of a man exiled from his home planet for a crime he didn’t commit, kept from proving his innocence because to do so would reveal he’d committed an even worse crime. About ten years after I wrote the book, I was in an idle mood one day and looking around for something to do, and got to thinking about the background to that story, and ended up writing about what happened before Blood Sin took place–about the crime he committed, and the acts leading up to it. So the first book was actually written second. Later, after much editing and amending and a lot of cross-referencing, I changed the title to Blood Sin because that fit the first novel much better than it did the second, then re-titled the second book Sinner’s Exile. (Is all this a little confusing?) During all this switching and re-writing, I also decided to relate the stories to The Chronicles of Riven the Heretic by having my hero (Erik Brand) be a direct descendent of the hero of The Chronicles. That necessitated a name change, so he became Aric kan Ingan. Since Riven was considered the ancestor of the ruling family in the Emeraunt Galaxy, Aric became the Crown Prince of the current branch. The story came mostly out of my own imagination but I will admit it has a vague resemblance to the ancient Greek myth of Phaedra. You know…older man, young wife, young handsome male relative…prime ingredients for disaster. That story’s been played out a thousand times in a thousand variations–especially on the daily Soaps–since Seneca the Younger wrote his drama. I hope my variation on the story make it a tale readers will enjoy.
When Blood Sin was accepted for publication, the editor asked me if I’d had a co-author. After I expressed surprise at her question, she said there was a variety in the writing style which made her think two people had written it, so the fact of so many years elapsing between the original writing and the changes I made before submitting it apparently show a progression in my writing style, one even I hadn’t noticed. Its acceptance also is a cautionary tale. Originally, it had been rejected but Danielle Kaheaku, the editor, called me to give me her reasons for not accepting the story. I was a little surprised; I mean, the story was rejected, what more could she say? Right? Wrong! She had plenty to say. She talked to me for nearly thirty minutes while I occasionally asked her to slow down because I was taking notes. At the end of her conversation, she told me if I would act on her suggestions, she would consider the manuscript again.
I did.
She did.
She accepted it.
Important Lesson, would-be writers: if an editor takes the time to tell you what’s wrong… Listen! I did and I hope this is a start of a beautiful association between myself and Leucrota Press.
Blood Sin is being released by Leucrota Press this month.
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Hi Toni,
Thanks for coming by and sharing your upcoming book and how it came to be.
How many are in this series? It sounds really awesome.
Raine D.
An interesting story and great advice, Toni!
Thanx, Mary & Raine! There are 5 stories in the series and I’m working on the fourth one as we speak.
Toni you are amazing.
We all support you and I hope your new books sells like crazy.
And the advise, thanks.
Blood Sin, the title is intriguing. It was interesting to see how it came to be a book. I think this is a TBR.