Lean
na Renee Hieber is joining us today with her novel The Eterna Files. Here’s the publisher’s description.
Welcome to The Eterna Files, written by Leanna Renee Hieber, “the brightest new star in literature”(True-Blood.net)
London, 1882: Queen Victoria appoints Harold Spire of the Metropolitan Police to Special Branch Division Omega. Omega is to secretly investigate paranormal and supernatural events and persons. Spire, a skeptic driven to protect the helpless and see justice done, is the perfect man to lead the department, which employs scholars and scientists, assassins and con men, and a traveling circus. Spire’s chief researcher is Rose Everhart, who believes fervently that there is more to the world than can be seen by mortal eyes.
Their first mission: find the Eterna Compound, which grants immortality. Catastrophe destroyed the hidden laboratory in New York City where Eterna was developed, but the Queen is convinced someone escaped—and has a sample of Eterna.
Also searching for Eterna is an American, Clara Templeton, who helped start the project after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln nearly destroyed her nation. Haunted by the ghost of her beloved, she is determined that the Eterna Compound—and the immortality it will convey—will be controlled by the United States, not Great Britain.
What’s Leanna’s favorite bit?
LEANNA RENEE HIEBER
Firstly, a big thank you to Mary for hosting me, because if we’re talking favorites; not only do I find Mary to be one of my favorite authors, but also one of my favorite people. It’s really wonderful when someone who has a great deal of shared interests and some parallel life trajectories also happens to be immensely talented and just as gracious. So thank you Mary, and thank you, Dear Readers, for reading.
My Favorite Bit of The Eterna Files is The Visitor. She’s an otherworldly character that comes into Clara’s life at the worst times to say irritatingly cryptic things. Who this woman is and what she’s about will become clearer as the series goes on. Whether she gets her own entire book or whether she’ll be two side novellas I’m not yet sure, that depends on discussions with my editor, but she’s one of the most delightful force-of-nature characters I’ve ever written with a compelling origin story of her own.
While not wanting to give away too much of the visitor’s story, (she’s named in Eterna book 2) I can say specific signs of her have been with me through all my work. She’s been trying to break through into it all along. This iteration of her began, actually, as a character that I would play for a web-series, but my co-writer Thom Truelove and I grew too fond of her just the way she was to have to constrain her into a TV/Web-series format. So we pulled her from that pitch to give her free reign in fiction. This happened while I was editing The Eterna Files, and I realized that this mysterious, imperious woman had already put her stamp on Eterna narrative in the role of the visitor (a character that, to be honest, I wasn’t sure why I’d included in the first draft but both my editor and I were inexplicably fond of her). But once I knew the visitor and that fabulous character I’d fell in love with were actually one and the same, it was one of those wonderful, synergistic creative realizations that make writing so fulfilling.
I love high mysticism and intense, poetic characters, and she’s larger than life enough to pull it off. Full disclosure; my love for her also has to do with the fact that she was born as a character I would play as an actress, and so I channel her differently than I do other characters I write, having considered her as a character I had literally already begun to embody, write, and speak as. I’ve never directly channeled a character like her before, it’s a compelling new way (albeit a bit ‘method writer’ of me) to work with narrative.
Here’s an example of her; a prologue scene with my heroine Clara. This scene caused Kirkus reviews to quote the visitor as having one of the best lines in the novel:
“Why can’t you stop terrible things if you’re aware of them?” Clara demanded. “Why can’t I?”
“Not in our skill set,” the visitor replied. “You’ve taken too much ownership of something that is not your responsibility, Templeton. What is your responsibility, is to—”
“‘Wake up?’ Yes, I hear it, on the wind. In my bones. What does it mean?”
The woman gestured before her, to Clara’s iterations. “You see the lives, don’t you?”
“Yes.” Clara swallowed hard. “Do you?”
“Of course I do,” the visitor replied. “I’m here to tell you that a great storm is coming. It will break across two continents; two great cities, the hearts of empires. Your team is gone and storms are coming. Weather them, find special souls and shield them. Second-guess your enemy. Find the missing link between the lives you see. Do this for yourself. And for your country.”
Clara snorted bitterly. “Do I hear patriotism?”
The visitor shook her head. “I owe allegiance to no land.”
“Then what are you here for?” Clara begged.
The visitor’s voice grew warm. “I care about certain people.”
“Why me?”
“Show me why you, Templeton,” the visitor proclaimed. “You’re at the center of the storm. Be worthy of the squall.”
The mockingbird made the strange, roaring sound again and the woman was gone.
I hope you’ll enjoy this first installment in the Eterna saga! All my worlds are parallel worlds so fans of my Strangely Beautiful as well as my Magic Most Foul saga will see familiar characters make cameo appearances in Eterna. (Which is another one of my favorite bits about writing this series so far!)
If you’re interested in a signed, personalized copy, please order one from the fabulous independent bookstore WORD in Brooklyn, leave any personalization requests in the “Comments” section. http://tinyurl.com/eternawd
Thank you to Mary for hosting me, you fabulous wonder you! Cheers and happy haunting!
LINKS:
BIO:
Leanna Renee Hieber is a classically trained actress, playwright and award-winning, bestselling author of Gothic Victorian Fantasy novels for adults and teens, such as the STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL saga, the MAGIC MOST FOUL saga, and THE ETERNA FILES from Tor Books. Revised editions of the STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL saga will reissue from Tor in the coming year. Leanna’s short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and her books have been translated into many languages. A proud Goth girl, New Yorker and member of performers unions AEA, SAG-AFTRA, she works in film and television on shows like Boardwalk Empire and as a ghost tour guide for Boroughs of the Dead.
