The Creatively Green Write at Home Mom: Interview A Tale of Witchwood Park by S.W. Develin

Tell us a little about your latest or upcoming release.

A Tale of Witchwood Park released in March of this year. It is the first of five books in the Witchwood Park Series. It tells the story of three unlikely heroes as they save a world they knew nothing about but for which they feel a deep connection. In the process they learn about themselves, friendship, and that we all have value, no matter who we are.

Are you a parent?

I am the father of three great kids: Brigid, Jack, and Garrett. Brigid is a dancer (ballet, jazz, Irish, you name it), Jack is an ice hockey player, and I’m relatively sure Garrett intends to grow up to be Godzilla. Or maybe Gigan.

If yes do you find it hard to juggle writing and parenting?

Yes and no. No because my awesome wife runs the household. But between work and the fact that I spent the last four years going to law school at night, there have been challenges. A Tale of Witchwood Park was originally a story I made up for my kids to “beta test.” On the nights I was home, I could spend time with them and create something. It was a really cool “workaround.”

Have you ever based your book or characters on actual events or people from your own life?

Early on in my career I did that with stuff that I never got around to publishing. For many reasons, I don’t do that anymore. That doesn’t mean my life experiences don’t go into my writing. They just aren’t thinly veiled doppelgangers…

Is there a genre(s) that you’d like to write that you haven’t tackled yet?

Sometime after Witchwood Park concludes I’ll resume writing for adults. One of my target genres is Urban Fantasy. I have a lot planned…

Of all the characters you’ve ever written, who is your favorite and why?

Sooner or later, a character named Thomas Blacklake will show up. I love writing him because he’s so deeply flawed. He is human at his core, and may get the salvation he needs but doesn’t want…

If this book is part of a series…what is the next book? Any details you can share?

A Knight of Witchwood Park comes out in June. Whereas the first book set up the overarching story, A Knight gets to focus on a few characters, beginning with Jimmy, the former school bully turned hero. We learn a lot about him, with the help of one of the supporting characters from the first book. She becomes quite a terror and threatens to be Jimmy’s first love interest. We also learn much, much more about mysterious little Emily Spellmaker. Only, as I still don’t know who she really is, neither will you…

Thanks for having me in. You can catch up with me at facebook.com/SWDevelin

A Tale of Witchwood Park

Witchwood Park

Book 1

S.W. Develin

Genre: Young reader/Fantasy

ISBN: 978-0-9886294-1-7

ASIN: B00J44ZO54

Number of pages: 61

Word Count: 15465

Cover Artist: Damonza

Book Description:

“I am older than you can comprehend. I am eight.” – Emily Spellmaker.

Emily Spellmaker is missing. She didn’t return to Witchwood Park Elementary this year and Kendra, the shy little girl she befriended, is heartbroken. Kendra waits alone on the park bench after school each day until the Tuesday a troll walks out of the woods. He chooses Kendra, Jimmy (the school bully), and Daniel (an outcast) to come on a magical journey where they must overcome an evil queen and her Army of the Faceless to free an enslaved land. In the process they learn who they really are and what friendship means, while getting closer to solving the mystery of Emily Spellmaker.

Available at Amazon

Excerpt

They were falling.

“What’s happening?!” Jimmy shouted. “Where’s Daniel?”

Jimmy and Kendra had jumped through a hole in the top of the sky. There was no water to swim in and no ground beneath it. They were simply falling, from hundreds of feet above the kingdom.

Kendra looked around. Daniel was nowhere to be found.

“I don’t know!” she shouted.

Jimmy and Kendra reached desperately for each other. They clasped hands and watched as they fell toward certain doom.

They could see the whole of the kingdom below. There was the central mountain Tree Stump had told them about, with the False Queen’s giant castle atop. A river ran from the north of the kingdom, around the mountain on both sides like it was an island, and into an endless, shining sea in the south. To the northwest were rock-strewn plains with volcanoes and rivers of lava. To the southwest was a welcoming and vast, lush forest. And to the east…was nothing but an impenetrable wall of grey clouds.

They were falling straight for the castle.

As they fell the ground became clearer and clearer. The False Queen’s soldiers were coming out of the castle barracks. Two red shapes began to rise into the sky beneath them.

“Dragons!” Jimmy screamed.

Jimmy was right. There were two, giant red dragons flying toward them.

“Maybe they are good dragons?” Kendra asked.

In response, the closest dragon shot a burst of yellow flame past Jimmy. The next shot wasn’t going to miss. Kendra and Jimmy held each other and waited to be fried. Then a terrifying roar like nothing they had ever heard shattered the air. It must have filled the entire kingdom below. The red dragons heard it, but the sudden fear on their evil, snarling faces was coming from something they could see…

Jimmy and Kendra looked up.

A massive, black dragon, larger than the two red dragons combined, was flying directly above them. It opened its jaws and launched green dragon fire down at them. The stream of blazing hot flame rushed past them and hit its true targets, the red dragons. When the flame cleared, the red dragons were plummeting back to the ground.

The black dragon grabbed Jimmy and Kendra, one in each of its back claws, then turned and flew away from the army below. Kendra wanted to see if they had faces, but that was the least of her worries right then. In a matter of minutes they were low above the trees of the giant forest. The dragon dropped them both into the treetops.

Jimmy and Kendra crashed through the branches and onto wooden platforms built high in the trees. They were shaken, but alive and together. Through the trees they watched the shadow of the great dragon disappear over the mountains in the north.

About the Author:

S.W. Develin lives in West Chester, Pennsylvania with his wife, Julie, and their three children: Brigid, Jack and Garrett. He has a dog named Pink, a cat named Floyd, and a small kitten disguised as a cow.

www.facebook.com/SWDevelin

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