Feature Enchanting other worlds: Welcome R.Tran To My Blog To Tell Us about Her Book World.

Feature Enchanting other worlds.

Defy Reality by R.Tran

After her father was murdered before her eyes, Mara Coranyda  traded a life of privilege, for one devoted to vengeance.  Shortly into her quest to find the mage that murdered him, Mara discovered it wouldn’t be an easy task to accomplish. Not only would she have to find the magical artifacts to destroy him, but she would also have to raise an army to stop his conquest of her homelands. The consequences should she fail or even succeed set in and Mara has doubts about everything.  There will be a war of blades and magic with Mara at the center, but Mara wonders if she has the strength to survive.

For my series I wanted everything to feel familiar. I wanted the whole world to feel like earth with magic. They have one main land mass and two others are mentioned. They have an ocean and a sea. The climate changes with the seasons and as they travel.  Mara’s world is just one step out of synch with the 1500’s or so in my head. I tried to keep the clothes, weapons and everything else in that era with the exception of anything fueled by gunpowder.

There are four main races in the first two books each with their own culture and cities: the elves, dwarves, faye, and humans.  The humans have two similar yet separate cultures represented by The House of Kern and the Shiori Village. The elves have two separate cities each with their own ruler. Each gave a unique opportunity to create something fantastic in what could have been a very boring world. I will describe each of them for you as a taste of Mara’s world.

The House of Kern is the main temple and the center of the largest religion in Mara’s world. It lies far to the south and has people visiting from all over the land. I wanted the Temple to rival a great cathedral or mosque. It’s always fun to dream up a building and never worry if it would ever stand in reality.


The House of Kern starts well into the courtyard graceful, white marble, arches support a latticed roof that provides shade to people waiting to enter the building. Scalloped three tiered fountains dot the courtyard closer to the House. They are for practical purposes, giving dirty travelers a place to at least wash their faces before entering.

The House itself has white marble with black veins. Arches mirrored the arbor only on a grander scale. They soar thirty feet before reaching the overhang of scalloped roof above. The supporting columns are carved with vines spiraling up to leaves at the top. Three great domed roofs rise another thirty feet above that over the interior rooms. The center dome is capped in gold and the two outer domes in slate.

Double doors lead into each domed section. The center pair of doors is larger than the outer two and all six are gold plated. A blazing sun is embossed in the center of each with its rays radiating out to the border of twisted vines. The sun represents Kern, the bringer of all life, and the vines represents all His creations.

Inside twin curved staircases flank the path to Worshipers’ Hall, Kern’s main sanctuary. The curved stairs are marble like the rest of the building. The risers are white and the treads are black, meant to echo the black and white diamonds on the main floor. Rich red carpet with golden suns and vines ran up the center with gold rods holding it securely in place on each tread.

The ceiling is thirty feet above and a giant gold and crystal chandelier hangs in the center lighting both levels. Upstairs, the balcony runs the length of the room and leads into the working parts of the House.

Inside, Worshippers Hall is square and fifty feet across. The upstairs rooms surround Worshipers’ Hall but never invade its space, allowing the domed ceiling to soar overhead. A gold leaf sun adorns the underside of the dome. Below the dome is a band of windows that let in sunlight. The walls become square below the windows and mark where the room meets the second story. The marble on the floor was a rich red with gold veins.

The Shiori are a tribe of warrior women said to guard one of the artifacts Mara needs to defeat her foe. They live secluded in the mountains to defend the bow, but their culture is also very different from the mainstream. To keep them secluded and secretive I wanted them to be self sufficient and never need a reason to leave the mountains.

The Shiori village lies in a valley that’s enchanted so it’s warm all year long. The main entrance is through a cave that is constantly guarded by the warriors of the tribe. Strange writing and pictures of large battles and family life cover the walls.

The cave opens onto a large open field. A sprawling village lays on the other side. Hundreds of small huts are lined up in neat rows, smaller on the edges and the largest in the center. The huts are made of woven panels and thatched roofs. Most of them are fairly small and plain with minimal furnishings; usually a table, chairs, bed and small chest.

The large hut at the center dwarfs all the others with oversized double doors. Inside is a large open room with a domed ceiling soaring overhead. Rows of torches next to each sidewall rise out of the ground to light the room. At the far end is a small wooden dais with only one stair leading up to it and a single wooden chair for the queen of the tribe. A small door at the back of the room leads to the queen’s office.

The only permanent structure in the village is the temple; a clay brick building with a domed roof. It’s bigger than several huts combined and even has a second story. There is an arched overhang above large double doors supported by rounded columns.

Inside is a huge open room and domed ceiling. Candles and torches are spread throughout the room for light. On the far wall there is a small table with bottles and candlesticks. A chair sat on the other two walls opposite one another. Six banners, each of a different color with gold runes embroidered down their center, hang all around the room. Two banners hang on the back wall; one white, one black. The wall on the right has an orange and a green banner and the wall on the left has a blue and red banner. The vaulted ceiling is painted to look like the night sky and gold runes run around the perimeter of the walls just below it. The floor has a geometric design made of different types of stone.

Artisans, farmers and un-married men live close to the temple in similar huts or communal barracks so the warriors in the center of the village can protect them. Fields surrounding the huts are rotated either growing different crops or laying fallow as necessary.

For the elves I wanted to write something different and give them a new home. I wanted the elves to be familiar yet fresh.

Their main city Eugea is in an ancient forest where magic hangs in the air and the trees still talk to one another. Enormous millennia old trees hold doors and windows hidden in the shadows of the bark. Balconies are built into and around the lower branches. Inside the tree is hollow with the main living space on the first floor and the bedroom upstairs. Tables, couches, shelves and stairs grow out of the tree itself. Well worn paths meander through the city of trees marked by torches; some of which remain lit even during the day due to the thick forest canopy.

In the center of the city hundreds of the ancient trees meld together to form a Great Hall that is oval and nearly 150 feet long. Great chandeliers hang from a ceiling that was barely visible in the light they offered. Tables are set along the walls in a large U-shaped formation with chairs only on the outside.

Lekanis is the elves secondary city formed after two factions split for political reasons. This city of elves was a total departure from any I read before. Lekanis was once the ancestral home of the sprites and in Mara’s world they were water elementals. They lived on the coast and now that they were extinct the elves moved in.

Lekanis practically sits on the beach and you can taste the salt in the air. Magic waits to bite any trespassers that stumble into the city.  Small thatched houses on stilts and platforms line the makeshift road. The walls of each home are simple plank boards bleached white by the sun. Shells hang in strands from the top of each doorway to form the door and the windows are covered in airy cloth. Inside the homes are simple; for those who aren’t mated or married they have a bed and a place to store clothes. All cooking is done communally outdoors.

The homes are scattered throughout the area and seemed to have no apparent order. Torches stand before each one but few are lit. Small tufts of grass grow here and there but not much else. Towering palms grow around the perimeter of the village.

A larger structure stands on the eastern edge of the village. All the elements are the same as its smaller counterparts and only its size and banners set it apart from the others. It serves as the meeting hall, council chambers and a place for the king to conduct any and all official business.


Author Bio

My dad died when I was 16 and it left me pretty shaken up. I never realized it at the time but I was clinically depressed. I needed counseling although I was too scared to admit it. I also didn’t want to freak out my newly widowed mom with the horrible thoughts running through my head. After reading a friends writing I decided to try the same. What started as self prescribed therapy soon turned into a hobby and now it is passion. 20 years later I have three novels published and have two more planned for next year. I have a B.S.B.A. and a Pharmd. I also have a loving husband and two beautiful daughters. I don’t know how my life would have gone if my dad lived; I do know that he’d be proud that I turned something tragic into something positive.  My biggest regret though is that my dad never met my family.

Buy Links:

The Rashade’:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N211HHR


A Guardian Falls: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072LJV5Z5


Social Media Links

Website: www.rtranbooks.com

Blog: https://rtranbooks.wordpress.com/

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Twitter: @rtranbooks

Email: rtranbooks.com@outlook.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16335980.R_Tran

Independent Author Network: http://www.independentauthornetwork.com/r-tran.html

Amazon Author Page: http://www.Amazon.com/author/rtran


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