- the almost reclusive author, Dream-Maker, and creator of the Gaiadon Universe
Readers, thanks for checking out another Author Spotlight Interview. Let’s give a good, hearty welcome to this week’s guest!
MT Ceres is the pen name of Louise Ceres, the author and creator of the Gaiadon Universe.
She has a bachelor of arts in English Literature and is an avid reader of SFF.
Ms. Ceres is the author and creator of the Gaiadon Universe body of works and began writing earnestly more than a decade ago when she left her role in the English Civil Service to care for her father who had Alzheimer’s Disease.
Ms. Ceres is now a full-time writer, with traditionally published works of SFF and further works of epic fantasy fiction published independently, under the Gaiadon Press imprint, and her poetry published by Lothlorien Poetry Journal.
She calls the North Lake District and the Eden Valley region her home, where she shares her space with two cats and two kids.
MT Ceres, thanks for agreeing to be here today. Most author spotlight interviews start off with the boring stuff, but I know what readers REALLY want to know.
If you could have any pet (real/fantasy/no-allergies/no worries about feeding it) what would it be?
In Gaiadon Lore two sea creatures, Makara, called Lark and Joy open the story when they are transporting a young Isknot to the Isle of Katharos, when he begins his search for the missing Witch Queen, Mordeana Never Dead.
They are wild animals so I wouldn’t want one for a pet, but I would really like to travel across the (warm) ocean on their backs. They have the lower body of a sea serpent but the upper body of a horse and a winged deer respectively. They are full of a supernatural light, Eleri Imole, and are quite lovely but they cannot talk, unlike Tonnta Damhsa, who is a water dragon known as Wave Dancer in the common tongue.
They sound amazing!
What do you write? And how did you get started?
I write epic SFF and poetry (usually dark/metaphysical).
I started in earnest over a decade ago when my father was ill, and I created this fantastical world where I went to process his illness and the way I felt about it, which resulted in Shadow on The Other Shore. However, it took so long to publish I wrote another two books in the meantime, and these became books 1 and 2 of Gaiadon Lore.
Writing can be so therapeutic.
What do you like to read?
Anything, but SFF and poetry to begin with. I also like historical fantasy set in the Renaissance, Tudor, or Elizabethan eras. I also recently read a biography on the alchemist Dr. John Dee recently, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
What a great selection of genres.
What do you drink when you write/edit?
Gallons of tea, and water with lime juice.
A classic choice for a writer.
Do you snack when you write/edit? What are your favorites?
I don’t snack but I do eat my lunch at my writing desk – I really shouldn’t do that.
As long as you clean up the crumbs, you’re probably fine.
Name one commonly accepted piece of writing advice that doesn’t work for you
Writer’s block is a fate worse than death!
Nope. It is a natural part of the artistic process.
So true. While some authors skip it, most of us face it from time to time, in its many different forms. It’s not always fear of the blank page.
Name one commonly accepted piece of writing advice they can pry out of your cold, dead hands
Pay attention to your world building.
There are so many pieces of advice, but I think because of the genre and scale I write in it must be about world-building and how we can use the well-developed cosmology of our universe to inform the world build and even the milieu. Like a top-down approach, I suppose.
Also, if you are creating a magic system, remember to think about the rules that govern its use and the limitations of that power. Oh, and…have a map, even if you’ve scribbled it on the back of a napkin it will eventually prove invaluable.
The world-building is my favorite part! And I love exploring how magic systems work.
Shameless Self-Promotion time!
Shadow on the Other Shore (Blood’s Bane #1)
When the winter sun sets in hell and crowns itself king… the Eve of Destruction shall begin.
Gaiadon was paradise and fondly called The Other Shore, until The Lord of the Dark Flame, Conquest, shattered the Heartlands and built his demon city, Lodewick, upon the rubble and ruin.
Using blood magic to cast his dark arts, Conquest, masquerading as Lord Abrecan, harvests power from his thralls in Baelmonarchia, while he brutalizes the lands and their Governors in the North. Anarchy erupts in fire and fury when Micah Apollon, crowns himself King on the forbidden Night of The Dead.
Meanwhile, in Mountwraith a hidden Spectral Star appears, but will the secretive Romarii meet the terms of the covenant they made. Will they be able to protect the Spectral Star from the Acolytes of Anuk?
Elgenubi Zuben, one of a group of insurgents called The Ten, give aid to Reynard and Lady Leleth’s son, even though they are favoured members of Lord Abrecan’s demonic inner circle.
There is only a whisper of shade between the light and the dark, yet this is the place where gods and demons come to make war.
Gaiadon. The Other Shore.
Dagger Path (Gaiadon Lore #1)
A series of attacks by the Witch Queen Tuahine Hae and Rubric Volsunga’s Demon Sleeks results in a crippling injury to Athas Orga, Lord of the Lonely Ocean, and the subsequent abduction of his mother, the Witch Queen, Mordeana Never Dead.
The inhabitants of Koura Pourewa help Mordeana’s grandson/apprentice, Isknot, cast blood magic in an attempt to protect him before he sets off on an adventure to find the Witch Queen. Isknot travels to the isle of Katharos to ask the Crystal Witch Marama Rawa for aid. But. The very act of Isknot leaving the Gold Tower releases a knot in the fabric of All-There-Is and sets in motion the events that are the precursor to the prophesized Eve of Destruction.
Meanwhile, the hand of Fate is shaping destiny when a storm erupts at sea.
Silas al Seamist is besieged by the Witch Queen Tuahine Hae who has sent an unnatural storm to sink his ship. Then, the storm loosens something from the deep seabed, something that Silas desires – an Eternity Eel and its heart gives a gift of prescience to rival the gods. Silas uses his berserker energy to kill the eel and takes the heart but cannot bring himself to eat it — still raw, still beating. Instead, he puts it in a casket where the weight of the balance come due increases. Every day the heart is not eaten, Silas draws terrible destiny to himself, his crew, and all who know him.
Other Gaiadon Books include: In the Hall of Records (A Prelude) and Black Void (#2)
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WRITING TIPS & WRITERLY MUSINGS 
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