Tina Glasneck, USA Today Bestselling Author

writing

Peppering facts into fiction

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History is brutal, but ... 

If we don’t know history, we can’t see the patterns and ripple effects in our modern day.

But Tina, you write fantasy and romance. How does history affect your writing? I love to write all in one world, but in different time periods, as I pepper history through my stories..

But fiction is not fact; yet we can braid those things together, while entertaining  and informing.

One such topic I uncovered while writing my time travel paranormal romance is that of cruelty of Napoléon, who historians often praise. But, did you know France forced Haiti to pay reparations to France to ensure their freedom?

I don’t remember hearing anything about this while growing up. The lack of information caused me to dig deeper.

My stories are set in this timeline, mostly, and I wanted to reference something historical that still impacts today. This meant shining a light on Haiti’s history and presenting some of it as part of the background for the story.

The tale of independence for present day Haiti from French rule came with generational consequences.

As France was creating fashion trends with its 18th century, mouse hide eyebrows, Haiti, known as the French colony of Saint Domingue, which had gained independence in 1801, was once again fighting off a new potential colonial rule, this one being Napoléon. He was hell-bent on retaking the colony and threatened to reinstate French rule and chattel slavery.

The fight for independence was brutal. But it wasn’t until 1805, when Haiti became officially independent. Here’s the caveat: for France to recognize this, Haiti had to agree to pay France 150 million francs, as well as a 50% discount on exported goods to them.

This debt did not go away.

In 1838, France agreed to reduce the debt to 90 million francs. It would take Haiti 122 years to pay it off, finally settled in 1947.

The world we see today, the moving pieces and nuances, we can often discover by digging deeper. After all, nothing is how it might first be perceived.

The United States didn’t recognize Haiti until 1862. This meant that the US also didn’t trade or have commercial relationships with Haiti, although benefitting from its pressure on revolting against French rule. It is suspected that because of Haiti’s revolution, this is a partial reason of why Napoléon gave up on the “New World” and agreed to sell the Louisiana Territory, what is known as the Louisiana Purchase.

France will not give reparations or payment back to the modern day Haitians, and… just in case you think Britain was any better, well, they were paying reparations to actual slave owners descendants until 2015.

Why am I showcasing this? Because with a wealth of knowledge comes power to enact genuine progress. Yes, history is often evil… but the more we know, the more we can help to change our world for the better, and I’m hoping to do that with my stories too. There is nothing like taking the darkness of history and fighting back with the fantastical and have the good guys win.

My dragon series continues to play with history, sprinkling in historical truths, and lighting it on fire with beautiful magic.

Ask Tina

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How did your writing journey come about?

Story was my safety net growing up, and in the colorful in-between of reality and my imagination, I found comfort in the great pages of wonderful books. A book was the best of gifts to me. It gave me a chance to travel, learn, escape…to love, to fight for what was right. It offered me more than my every day.

Especially when my every day shifted more to criminal justice and figuring out ways to help the disenfranchised and ensure that every person has a fair shot under the law. As a then paralegal, I had high hopes for every client that walked through those doors.

But one fateful day, things changed.

A disgruntled client’s family member burst into the office. They demanded that things be done on their case. This wasn’t odd. The paralegal is often the one to take the brunt of the abuse; think of it as customer service on the front lines.

Yet when they promised to come back and shoot up the office, I was terrified. None of my education had prepared me on how to duck and dive, to potentially push heavy furniture around. So instead, we were sitting ducks with only one way out and all of the windows painted shut.

I panicked.

I took this fear home with me, and every day when I returned to the office, it gnawed at me. Would this be the day I’d die?

There was no plan on what to do, but my mind wouldn’t rest without something being done… and that is when I started writing. It began as a paranormal romance, but due to this trauma quickly shifted to something more sinister.

I needed to process the darkness.

Now, that's meant diving into the world of magic and the fantastical...  

But back then, well,  there would be more threats, and I’d be more prepared as I’d pour all of that angst into my fiction.

Processing my every day in a high-stress environment came a lot easier by my spending time creating characters and solving their problems. It empowered me and gave me hope, peace, and a way to express myself.

Although I left being a paralegal behind, I still find the sweet solace of storytelling to be my anchor.

I’m happy to say that the family member never returned with a weapon, and safeguards were put in place to protect the staff.

Oh, and the book that came out of this trauma is Deadly Sins under my pseudonym, Rayne Marrow.

Wanderlust & Metamorphosis

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To become a butterfly, the caterpillar has to grow, change, and molt. A writer does, too.

Every time I sit down at my computer to write, a new adventure starts.

In fiction, I love to take a character, chase them up and tree, and throw rocks at them. Those hard decisions cause growth.

For so long I wandered aimlessly. I struggled, unable to shake off the muck from my everyday. Haunted by a sense of wanderlust and knowing that my life was so much more than what I was experiencing.

Then a flip switched.

I had to come to a decision and face life head-on.

Entering the Chrysalis

This year, I was sick for 4 months, which prompted emergency surgery, and in that chaos I found certainty, in the reflection almost a new life as if I were shedding my old self to crawl from a chrysalis, unfurling my beautiful blue wings to reclaim a freedom I never thought to lose. You see, fiction is a combination of truths — even if it is just the author’s inner journey that presents keys to a sometimes invisible cage.

Being sick for so long, I learned the value of becoming my advocate — not only for health things but also just in my everyday life. That has meant taking the time to silence those words of self-doubt, releasing fears, and finding that magic that’s all around, seizing the days and nights.

Often this life itches, and is uncomfortable. Even more, it seems as though we continue to find ourselves playing in the halls of middle school, trying to find our way. But what if it isn’t about the destination but the journey to self-discovery?

Butterfly Emerges

Though we wander in this magical forest of literature, a landscape filled with possibilities, therein we might also find exactly what we need and never knew what we were looking for.

Violet blue butterfly, isolated on white

This is so true when I read this Tolkien quote!

Although written before my time, it still gives me so much peace. Even more, it encourages me to shine my light brightly!

Life is the adventure we make it to be. There is more to it than those tough times, the struggles and fears. Be it good or bad, we are individually responsible for achieving our happy-ever-afters.

I’m taking that leap of faith regardless of what else may be out there or coming my way.

Yes, here are vampires, dragons, and the supernatural.

Life continues to teach me this valuable lesson, as well as the characters who continue to come forth and allow me to create their tales.

I will forever strive to make the most out of this life, fluttering my butterfly wings, spreading magic along the way, and wander in continued joy and wonderment.

Yep, let’s make the most of it!

Woot! Winner!

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Winner! Thursday Threads

I’m happy to share that I won this past week’s #ThursThreads, a weekly flashfiction contest hosted by author Siobhan Muir.

What is flash fiction?

Flash fiction is when you tell a story in 250 words or less. It’s a great challenge that often can wake up the fingers to write.

I must admit that I needed this win. The past 40 days have been super hard with ongoing health challenges leaving me both physically and mentally exhausted. Yet, this week, I wanted to create something, just to lean in and listen to my muse a bit. This gave me an opportunity to write without overtaxing myself and hope that I’d been missing as I silently struggled.

The battlefield was quiet now.

When the first line came to me, I saw it in technicolor, almost as if I stood on that bloodied field. I could feel my chest pounding, my body aching, and the weight of so much betrayal which I carried on my shoulders. It was visceral.

I can never predict how the muse will behave. Writing allows me to live a thousand lives (or maybe even remember past ones (???) the jury is out on that. But when it takes over the physical senses and becomes so real, I am happy to pen it on the paper (or page).

Wriiting is different for every author.

It is finding the magic in the shadows as the story unfolds…

Currently healing, I’d be remiss to say it was just a one-off. I know that this is only a snippet of a story that will come to life; its germinating in my soul, sprouting roots, and when the idea is formed, it’ll be planted.

And I can’t wait.

This marks my 5th win in the #ThursThreads contest. I am stoked and honored.

You can read the story and learn more about the honorable mentions, as well as the runner-ups and more stories here.

Dragons? Gods? All A Process

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When I started the Dragon series, it was the result of needing something to balance out the darkness around me. It was my response to a very dark time. A time when I needed the supernatural to reach out and find me.

Having a spark of an idea, I threw myself into researching everything I could find out about the Norse gods, and Viking life.

Most of us are aware of Greek and Roman gods, and Marvel has taught us a lot about Thor, Loki and Odin, but once I pulled back the veil, boy was I amazed. The tales were so epic.

I wanted my characters to be influenced by these deities, but also I wanted to infuse my world building with historical details. The first story I set in 1520, which is the time of the Protestant Reformation, and I wanted paganism and this new religion to interact. The second story then takes us to France in 1799, after the French Revolution and right before the rise of Napoleon. This time period is full of conflict, and so I was able to also include historical figures, referencing them in dialogue.

I have a M.A.in religion, and love history. So, for that simple reason, I love to bring history to life – be it part of Church History, and referencing how Magic was regarded and punished, to the Haitian Revolt and the names of the prominent leaders behind it all. My goal is for my reader to leave with a nugget of truth.

For the first book, A Dragon’s Destiny, I took a college course through the University of Barcelona on Magic in the Middle Ages.  I wanted to make sure that I had those facts correct to be able to present the conflict in such a way that the reader would understand the overlying threat of being a time-traveling fish out of water.

For the second story, A Dragon’s Desire, I researched colonialism, the Haitian Revolt, the French Revolution in all of its progressions, and the life of Napoleon – this included devouring anything that I could get my hands on regarding France at that time (for example the ceruse paint that they wore contained lead; and their eyebrows were made out of mice skin).

In this world building, I’m excited to see where the story takes us next, but also when. I’m ready to explore more of this grand world, and interact with these characters who’ve taken me from darkness into the light.

The third book, A Dragon’s Heart, took me deeper inside Napoleonic France, but it would be the fourth story that I first thought to include in the Dragons Series that spoke to my soul, that of Hellish.

When I met Lady Hel in A Dragon’s Destiny, I never knew what a character I was discovering, but she is so much more, just like Loki and Freyja are to me, too.

What happens when we meet the gods?

Oftentimes, I think that it was the magic of those Norse myths that rescued me from the depths of despair. I am so happy to continue on this path and learn even more.

Since beginning this Norse inspired journey of legend, lore, gods and myth, I’ve created the Dragons Series, which now has four stories; the Dragons Series: Origins, which tells the story of Baldr and Nanna in the Ancient World; The Hell Chronicles, which stars Lady Hel, Sif, Thor & Loki.

I don’t know where this new found path will take me, but I am enjoying this journey!