From the mists of time, a forbidden love. An impossible quest. Threats to life and career. But can love survive the accusation of witchcraft? Author Helen Henderson invites us into the magical world of her new fantasy romance, Windmaster Legend.

Interviewer: Christina Hamlett

**********

Q: How did the dichotomy of a simplistic upbringing on a farm and a professional career in computer design influence your writing style and the development of your works’ pacing, structure, dialogue and characters?

A: While there is a certain consistency in my Writing voice and I try to write action and adventure into each storyline, my characters have to be unique … and real. My fantasy worlds have various ranks of characters such as leaders, historians, and arbiters of justice; villagers and the elders who guide and protect the town; or officers and the crew that serve in their command. One of the ways to make a distinction is for one to have different types and amounts of formal education (here I channel more of the professional side of my life) and the other the down-to-earth farm side.

A piece of writing advice I’ve heard since I first put pen to paper is to, “Write what you know.” While I have never lived in the Old West, courtesy of my farm life I have fired a rifle, watched deer in the fields, and ridden a horse. And on the flip side, while I have never worked on the bridge of a starship, I have been behind the controls of a small aircraft and studied the cockpit of commercial aircraft. Combine that with experience designing and programming computers and my thoughts wander the stars to create the more technical worlds of science fiction.

Q: Do you remember the first story or article you ever wrote? 

A: The first article bearing my byline was a story about New Jersey salt-glazed stoneware for a national publication for antique collectors. That first piece led to another and eventually to a career as a correspondent and feature story writer for a dozen or so national and international publications.

The first piece of fiction to be published came many years later after that non-fiction piece and at the time was only the latest of many short stories I had crafted. Considering the first story I wrote was quite a few (not saying how many) years ago, the tale itself is lost in the mists of the past. That said, during a clean-out of old papers, an early story resurfaced. Written while I was a grade-schooler living in the Philippines, the fictional tale set during the Vietnam War chronicled the first mission of one pilot and the final one of another. I not only took the premise but much of the original writing, added another layer, and polished it with the more experienced eye acquired after years of writing. After some tears and a final salute to the me of yesteryear, the base that no longer exists, and to those who never made it home, FIRST MISSION, FINAL DAY was published in Hearth and Sand, a tribute to family members who served in the military.

Q: What books might we have found on the nightstand of your adolescent self? Your teenage self? And now?

A: In some ways my to-be-read pile hasn’t changed much. I still like action and adventure … and a happy ending. The adolescent me would be reading my mother’s collection of Cherry Ames books and every Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys in our local library. My teenage self progressed to the historical westerns favored by my father. Adventure and mystery came courtesy of the characters created by Alistair Maclean, Leslie Charteris, and Ian Fleming.

My current pile of favorites, read, and to-be-read includes historical westerns by Louis L’Amour, science fiction by Anne McCaffrey, and an eclectic collection of historical romance and fantasy.

Q: Tell us about the inspiration for penning Windmaster Legend.

A: To me, a fantasy book requires a rich environment, which means not only the world of today, but legends, myths, and tales of times past. Intended as a bit of foreshadowing of a potential romance between Captain Ellspeth and the archmage, Lord Dal, in the first book of the Series, Ellspeth is explaining the story behind two especially bright stars in the night sky. According to legend, the stars are a pair of lovers named Iol and Pelra. They were turned into stars and placed in the sky by the water gods so the pair could be together for all eternity. A brush stroke of fantasy, a sprinkle of forbidden love and slash of feuding families, Windmaster Legend recounts the real story behind what was given just a few lines in the earlier books of the series.

Q: This is Book #3 of a series. What do you find to be the challenges inherent in writing a series versus a standalone title?

A: With each additional book in a series, keeping the details straight becomes harder. You don’t want to use the same name for two different characters. Fantasy series have an additional problem with unusual character or location names. As the number of volumes grows in a series, the potential for misspelling also increases. And the problem grows by a magnitude when you have written multiple series. I find myself asking were the Revarn Mountains in the Dragshi Chronicles or the Windmaster Novels? Or one of the novellas or stand-alone novels? Creating a series bible helps, but isn’t an absolute solution.

An additional problem I found when writing series is keeping the storyline fresh. While I may include a magical equine of some form in each series, you don’t want the exact same plot and characters over and over and over again. A challenge I inadvertently created for myself was when I wrote the fantasy series, the Dragshi Chronicles, and reprised a scene from early in the book as the story’s ending. Then I had to do something similar for the other books to keep a consistency in the series.

Q: Do you have a favorite character from one of your books? If the two of you hung out together for a day, what would you likely be doing?

A: My heart says my favorite character remains Ellspeth, captain of Sea Falcon. The tale of Ellspeth and the archmage, Lord Dal, is told in Windmaster, the first book I ever had placed under contract so there is a sentimental aspect. That said, I choose to spend a day with Glyn of Clan Miller. Hopefully, one of the magical equines the dragshi raise would allow me to be its rider for the day and Glyn and I would journey along the mountain trails. After lunch in a flower-covered alpine meadow, we’d return to Cloud Eyrie. Or if the weather was not cooperative, we’d spend the day in the practice room while she coached me on some of the finer points of the fighting staff and short bow. If I happen to be there when a celebration is being held for one of the local resident’s naming day, there will be music and dancing. And if I am lucky enough, maybe Lord Talann would grant me the favor of a dance. Just not the dragon wing, I don’t think I’m ready for that energetic or acrobatic maneuver.

Q: Rumor has it that you like to hang out with mages and fly with dragons. Tell us about those dragons!

A: I met the dragons while visiting Cloud Eyrie to interview some of the dragshi. The dragshi are two beings, one human, one a dragon, who share one body in time and space. This sharing allows the human to take on dragon form and take to the skies. Many dragon soul twins stay in the background, sleeping unless needed by their human twin. The quiesence continues until the human half dies and the dragon is able to fulfill its destiny and join the rest of their kind on the high ledges of the remote mountains. Other dragons, such as Honored Old One Llewlyn who is the soul twin of Lord Branin, take an interest in human affairs, observing them and attempting to understand us. And on more than one occasion, expressing his opinion.

The human and dragon halves communicate through mindspeech. Some rare humans also have the ability and they are educated and their talents encouraged. While I don’t have a dragon soul, I have been fortunate to be chosen to chronicle some of the tales of the dragshi and to interview Llewlyn. Through him I have found out that even though they don’t possess magic in the usual sense of casting spells, the dragons are magical creatures and possess an earth magic of their own. Their fire can heal or kill. Although the honored old ones are forbidden to harm a human no matter what the provocation, some of their dragon twins such as Lord Branin are skilled fighters and when in dragon form have on occasion used fire, talon and tail as weapons.

Depending on what part of the land they came from, the human half of each dragshi pairing has their own food preferences. However, most dragons’ favorite meal is sheep, and mountain villagers keep flocks just for the dragons.

Beyond that, anything else I have been told in confidence about his kind by Llewlyn or his mate Honored Old One Jessian, must remain private, unless it was documented in the Dragshi Chronicles.

Q: Does this suggest you were a fan of Game of Thrones?

A: Since I write fantasy, I don’t know if I should admit this or not, but I am probably one of the few people who didn’t see a single episode of Game of Thrones. As to the reason? I could say my cable company didn’t carry it, or that I don’t have cable. Or, that when I’m writing, I don’t read in that genre to avoid inadvertent cross-over from the other author’s work. The same would apply to the small screen. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Q: Do you allow anyone to read your work while it is still in progress or do you make everyone wait until you have typed “The End?”

A: As a rule I don’t usually allow anyone to read a work-in-progress until the story is written and gone through a good polishing. I want it as close to perfect as I can make it before letting it out into the world, even if it is only exposing it to friendly fire. Although I do admit there were a couple of times when I was only a step ahead of the online critique group readers and was giving one chapter its final polish as the group was going over the previous one.

Q: Writing is a solitary craft. How do you combat the potential demons of loneliness?

A: Walking along the waterfront or bicycling a shore trail brought with it the serenity of the outdoors. Attendance at local writers group meetings and an occasional conference reinforced the feeling of community. Since I also wrote non-fiction, being a docent at a local history museum and lecturing at other historical groups also brought me into contact with other people. But I would say the greatest tool to combat the demon of loneliness is the Internet. Although we only met in the virtual world, there are a number of writers that I am privileged to call a friend.

Q: History holds a special passion for you, and you’ve had the experience of participating in archaeological digs. If someone from 200 years in the future were to look at the artifacts we left behind, how would they define us as a culture?

A: Wow, what a hard question. Especially since I don’t consider myself a futurist. A lot can happen in 200 years. In that period of time, a country could go from initial exploration to becoming a major civilization. Archaeology has provided insights into the movements of troops on a battlefield or the migration of a people across thousands of miles. The quality of artifacts can show how people lived. From shards or even entire items we can determine whether the people who lived at a particular site used fine porcelain or primitive stoneware. Even in just my lifetime (and no, I am not hundreds of years old), there has been the Korean Conflict, the eruption of Mount Saint Helens, and the fall of the towers on 9-11. A man has walked on the moon and a mechanical explorer roamed the sands of Mars.

To answer the prompt, I focused on the electronic age. The same amount of computing power that once required huge racks of equipment in climate-controlled warehouses can now be had in a small device we hold in the palm of our hand. As to how our culture might be viewed? I will use one word, primitive. If electronic devices continue to increase in power, our laptops, tablets, and smart phones would be considered crude by the standards of the future civilization. They might also wonder how we ever managed to get anything done with the massive volumes of data that to them was essentially an unorganized dump. After all, we didn’t have the sophisticated artificial intelligence to organize information to its maximum usefulness.

Q: What’s next on your plate?

A: A novel set in the world of Windmaster that I started during NanoWriMo (also known as the crazy month for authors when we try to write 50,000 words in a span of a month) is demanding to be finished. And a twist on a dragon shifter story is fighting for equal time.

Q: Anything else you’d like to add?

A: I love to hear from my readers and invite them to join me on travels through the stars, or among fantasy worlds of the imagination. Excerpts of my work, writing tips, and information on new releases can be found at https://helenhenderson-author.blogspot.com. Or connect with me online at

Facebook—https://www.facebook.com/HelenHenderson.author

Twitter—https://twitter.com/history2write

Amazon—https://www.amazon.com/Helen-Henderson/e/B001HPM2XK

Goodreads—https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/777491.Helen_Henderson