Franny Armstrong Blog

Inspiration comes in many forms and from many sources. The inspiration for Quest for Redemption is a combination of things. This novel started out as a Nano novel. (That’s a novel that was written in one month for National Write a Novel Month.) So really the first inspiration was just to get something down on the page and quick as the clock struck midnight. The first thing that popped into my mind was to do a fantasy love story, something with elves. I am a huge Tolkien fan and he started me on my fascination with elven kind. Seriously, who doesn’t have crush on Legolas? Am I right? Anyhow, I also wanted to have a very strong female character, not some damsel in distress. In fact, she would be the warrior, the ruler, the strong one. And that is how Zanna was born. A little of her came from Underworld mixed with Xena Warrior Princess, but in elf form. I also wanted to play with the idea of a half magical creature who had no idea what he really was. Enter Will. Part human, part sprite, p...

History is one of my passions. I love “going” back in time to discover what our ancestors were like and how they functioned, which shows how much we've changed as a society. Here are a couple of things I learned while writing this book. 1) I had to bend the rules a little to make the story work. When the Vikings invaded the UK, they settled around the Orkney Islands, in Ireland, England, and Scotland. Among a lot of other places too, but the part of Scotland where I wanted my Vikings doesn't appear to have actually had many, if any. So I pushed them farther north with the Saxons and set up a kingship for them. One of the bad guys in the story, Ingvar the White Raven, became king of the area and snuffed out his Saxon neighbors. I fandangled the names of the native people a bit, giving them a little Old English and Scottish flair. 2) I had no idea the Viking reach was so far out into the world. You think Vikings, you think Sweden, Denmark, you know, cold places....