Author Interview (and TWO Giveaways!): Gloria Clover & Washed Under the Waves

I’m pleased to welcome Gloria Clover to the blog today to celebrate the release of Washed Under the Waves by By The Vine Press!

Gloria Clover, Christ-follower and Truth-seeker, writes romantic fiction with the hope of showing God’s love and our need in both humorous and haunting ways. The Children of the King series is her first endeavor into speculative fiction, a series set in the future when the King sends out his children to reclaim his lost lands.

Gloria’s contemporary romances, published by Barbour Books and Son-Rise Publications, include: The Remaking of Moe McKenna in the Race to the Altar anthology, Brianna’s Pardon, and Tangled Truths. She compiled ten volumes of Penned From the Heart and wrote a short devotional, Who We Are in Christ, A to Z.

She is a member of Emmanuel Christian Church, active in prayer ministry, women’s ministries, American Heritage Girls, and various other projects. She participates in writing/book days at local schools and enjoys giving and receiving from her various writing critique groups. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, participating in the ACFW book club and prayer loops.

Married with child, she writes from her little white box in western PA.

You can connect with Gloria on her website and Facebook.

Her book, Washed Under the Waves, releases March 6, 2018 from By the Vine Press!

A hidden island. A prince in disguise…and a lady torn between love and duty.

Lady Tayte Bashan never desired the distinctive black hair that marks her as Undae royalty, but when her family perishes in a devastating tsunami, the burden of leadership falls upon her young shoulders. Even as she prepares her island for the prophesied prince, she fears the duty to marry him is truly meant for another.

Dispatched by the King to an island untouched by the outside world for centuries, Prince Geoffrey Athan D’Ambrose must lead its people to the ultimate truth. But how is he supposed to win the heart of Undae’s princess when the King sends him disguised as a tutor?

Betrayal stirs within Castle Bashan, a threat as deadly as the rising wave. Now Tayte and Athan must brave the maelstrom or watch as the entire island succumbs to treachery’s destructive tide.

My Review:

Hi Gloria! Welcome to the blog!

Gloria: Apples because apples are simple to clean and eat. Lately I find myself all about simple.

Carrie: The simpler, the better. Yes.

Gloria: Summer with seventeen exclamation points because summer is warm and there is at least hope that the sun may appear. (I live in western PA, third most overcast area in US – I read that somewhere; I haven’t lived everywhere.)

Carrie: LOL I adore winter instead … but we get a lot of sunshine here in KY so it’s not as gloomy.

Gloria: You would think cats for the simplicity, but this time love trumps, and I’m going with dogs because of that unconditional joy they express upon seeing you – every time.

Carrie: Unconditional joy and love always wins over simplicity! There’s nothing quite like the love of a dog ♥

Gloria: Tea if I must. Maybe a fruity kind? Thanks.

Carrie: I’m that way too – tea if I absolutely must… and then please be a fruity kind.

Q: Around here I like to say that reading is my superpower. If YOU had a superpower, what would it be?

Gloria: I’m struggling. I can think of a lot of superpowers I wish I had. So I may answer this one a little more seriously than you intended it. As a child, I was incredibly shy in groups. I can remember other children answering for me when the teacher asked my name. That shy. It didn’t get much better through high school and college. I could answer questions from my desk, but don’t put in front of the class.

I was immersed in Christ when I was 24 years old. And God gave me a superpower: The Holy Spirit who enabled me to talk in front of groups – small groups, teenagers in groups, women’s groups, writers. I’m not saying I’m a good speaker, I’m saying I’m able to do it. And I wasn’t until God did a super work in a shy girl.

Carrie: oh i love that! He is our ultimate SuperPower, isn’t He?

Q: Who is your favorite book character from childhood?

Gloria:  The Black Stallion from the Black Stallion by Walter Farley. I loved that horse. I loved the story premise, unbelievable as it was. I loved the relationship between the horse and the boy and how it developed. Great book. Haven’t read it in years; I hope it stands up to time.

Carrie: It is amazing to me how often that answer comes up when I ask authors this question! I don’t remember ever reading this book but clearly I need to!

Q: If I asked your characters to describe YOU as an author, what would they say?

Gloria: “Our creator Gloria? Well, let’s just say that we’re glad she’s not the one, true Almighty God. She swoops in and stirs up our world and then she’s gone for days at a time. She’s always sending us into situations that we wouldn’t choose, but when we try to convince her, she brings in back story and hidden motivations.”

“Honey, be fair. She has great taste in men.”

“Thanks, love. And she does keep us center stage. I’m grateful to spend as much time with you as possible.”

“And she isn’t afraid to let the Word speak for itself. The true God can have His say as well.”

“You’re right. You’re right. She’s not a bad creator. Actually, I don’t think she could have made anyone more perfect for me than you are.”

“Ahh.”

It really doesn’t surprise me that my characters make a question about me all about them. I pretty much do the same thing to them. 🙂

Carrie: hahahaha!

Q: I’m very curious about the island in Washed Under the Waves. Tell us more about Undae & why it has been hidden from the outside world for centuries.

Gloria: Undae is a tiny island on the edge of the Archipelago of Solumnus, obviously a fictional group of islands unseen to our 21c eyes. Why? The story reason is left in speculation – a hidden veil of protection from the King? A hidden veil of deception from the Enemy? The characters don’t really know. They do know there is a world beyond their island because of the few times people have reached their shores.

Because Undae is a simple island, the setting at first feels as if the book is set in the past, but it is actually set in the future. That will become more apparent through the characters’ language and the references they make to our present as their past.

The author’s reason that the islands are “untouched” by the world is because I wanted to explore a few key ideas. Cultures. Languages. Deceptions in a vacuum. But I didn’t want to write historical fiction where I had to have all my facts straight. So I set my stories in the future where I could be wrong, but no one could prove it because it’s my world and my imagination and how I set up the playground. Someone is going to say, “There is no way that there are any unmapped islands left in this world.” I respond, “Prove it.” But really in my heart, I know the Children of the King series isn’t for the reader who wants her understanding of the world reaffirmed. These stories are for people who want a little twist to make them think a little deeper and a little longer. People who are willing to think, “Maybe,” and speculate along with me.

Carrie: I adore fiction that brings out the ‘maybes’ of history and ‘magical realism’ and speculation. My ever-a-student mind starts whirring and my imagination kicks in!

Q: One of my very favorite things to talk about is how stories reflect THE Story (God’s Story). Washed Under the Waves is, in many ways, a beautiful allegory as well as speculative fiction. Was this your intent all along or did it take shape as you wrote the novel?

Gloria: I find fiction kind of like a parable. I have one main point that I hope the reader grasps, and then all these other parts could be taken this way or that way … and those variables I leave up to the Holy Spirit because I have no way of knowing how every reader is going to be affected or offended by my words.

I definitely intended readers to make a connection between the medallion and prayer. I definitely intended readers to make a connection between the King and God. I definitely intended readers to make a connection between Undae’s citizens hiding from pain by entertaining themselves with stories and plays with an average modern American hiding from her pain with books, television, sports, or gossip.

But God always leads me somewhere deeper than I planned when I started writing. He always gifts me with a lesson that I wasn’t expecting to learn along the way. And if the readers can pick up on that lesson too – double cool.

Carrie: I love that. Yes.

Q: What do you most want readers to take away from Washed Under the Waves?

Gloria: God loves you. God loves you because He is able to love regardless of our unloving nature. He doesn’t love us because of how we perform. He loves us because He chooses to love us in Christ Jesus. I truly believe if people could wrap their heads around the Truth that their Creator and the Sovereign of the universe has their best at the center of His heart, people would relax, make better choices, and all-around stop trying to be in control of a world they have no control over.

Carrie: Amen & Amen ♥

Thank you so much for taking time to talk with me! 🙂 Before we say goodbye for today, tell us what‘s coming up next for you.

Gloria: Thanks so much for the fun questions. Out next month is book 2 in the Children of the King titled The Fire Starter. This time we travel to the island of Celosia with a Greek culture, and a deception of materialism (not the greed kind, but the “I have to see it to believe it” materialism.) Amaryllis sparks a fire in the heart of Prince Valryan long before she’s prepared to quench it.

Carrie: YAY!

TWO GIVEAWAYS!

First Giveaway:

One of my readers will win an autographed paperback copy of Washed Under the Waves! (US only) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.

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Second Giveaway:

This giveaway is hosted by By the Vine Press to celebrate the release of Washed Under the Waves! The prize is a KINDLE FIRE, e-book of book 2 of the Children of the King, The Fire Starter, an autographed paperback of Washed Under the Waves, and a $10 Starbucks gift card.

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What about you? When you read a novel, do you like to explore the ‘maybes’ of history and science OR do you prefer to stick to the already-proven facts?