The Story Behind Northern Echoes by Melody Ash

 

The Story Behind Northern Echoes

Ask any author and they will tell you inspiration for books come from just about everywhere: dreams, movies, a song, the kid next door. And I can tell you all these are true. But for Web of Echoes (because it was really the series I had the inspiration for and not the book) was a little less straightforward. So we’ve got to take a little tour of what I enjoy, and all the pieces will come together. 

While I was writing this, I was trying to figure out the best place to start, and since I’m watching tv (Stranger Things) with my oldest kiddo, I figured we’d start there. I LOVE movies off all kinds: romance, some romcoms, thrillers, suspense, adventures. If the story is good, I’m all over it. But I do a thing for movies that can take me away for a little bit, that bend the rules of our world, that leave you thinking, “What if?” When I was growing up, it was Star Wars, Gremlins, The Neverending Story (all you 80s kids will get it). As I got older, not a lot changed. With TV favorites like Outlander and Vampire Diaries, fantasy still grabs my attention. 

And that leads us to stop number two. Now you’ve got to understand, I don’t get time to enjoy many hobbies – not with two kiddos, homeschooling and you know, all the stuff that makes up adulting and being a mother. I wouldn’t really have it any other way. But every once in a blue moon, I take a couple hours (usually during the winter) and do a little gaming. Like some of my favorite movies, my favorite games allow me explore and have an adventure, figure out puzzles. Whether its fighting monsters in games like Resident Evil or Silent Hill, or exploring in games like Tomb Raider (which is my favorite, btw), I could lost in these games for hours. 

Now stop three and the final one on our little tour, and the one that makes my hubby just a little bit crazy. By now, this probably won’t come as a surprise to you, but you put me in the middle of the forest on a strange path I’ve never been on before, and I can guarantee you one thing: I’m going to want to know what’s at the end of it. Add in some mysterious brick walls or an overgrown brick path, and you’ll have me circling it for hours, imagination in overdrive, looking for clues on what it might have been. Coming up with stories to it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve freaked out my husband when we first started dating, finding the most remote trails and heading down them for hours only to find another and following that. 

One thing people will tell new writers is to write what they know about, and as you can see, the inspiration for Web of Echoes came from many different parts of what makes me who I am. In that way, there is probably more of me in the series than in any other project I’ve undertaken, and that’s a scary thing for an author. But in the end, I hope its those pieces that make you fall in love with Caitlin, John, and all the characters who make up the Web of Echoes story.

Caitlin Benoit assumed the next destination would be her time, her world. Instead, the stone thrusts her further into the past and onto a different continent.

Now in 1831 England, she’s discovered by William, the Duke of Lancaster. By sheer luck, he’s willing to allow her into his manor. While she fights to gain a footing in this new time, Caitlin discovers the stone also ripped John from Charleston.

Everything she thought she knew about how the stone worked is false, and neither John nor her understand how to escape the grip of the past. As they work to uncover the mystery of the stone, an acquaintance of the Duke plots an intricate scheme certain to destroy them all. She and John must solve the puzzle in an unknown amount of time or risk getting stuck—or buried—in 1831.

Book Information

Release Date: March 3, 2020

Publisher:  Independent

Soft Cover: ISBN:979-8619635171; 301 pages; $9.29; eBook $4.99

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3IQZteU

I grew up loving the endless possibilities Fantasy and Sci-Fi held between their pages or played on the big screen. Star Wars, Stephen King, The Neverending Story, vampires, Disney, I loved it all (and still do!) At age ten, I picked up a pencil and began coming up with stories of my own that toyed with other worlds and the mysteries of this one. 

My first attempt at writing came at ten years old while, during a sleepover, I tried writing a ghost story. In sixth grade, I entered my school’s writing contest, and in college, my writing professor allowed me to work on a novel instead of following the curriculum.

 But at the time, writing was only a hobby I enjoyed. I picked it up, put it down, sometimes for months or years at a time, but I didn’t think of it as a career. Instead, I majored in communications with the goal of a career in journalism. After a couple of years, I changed course and entered the travel industry. Travel had always been another love, especially to Walt Disney World, and the choice seemed the perfect fit. I opened my own travel agency and grew it from the ground up until the Great Recession of 2008 rolled in, along with the blessing of my first child.

With her birth, I left behind the office career and finally admitted what I already knew – I wanted to spend my life creating on paper what played in my head. A series that had already been haunting my dreams for months that I knew would be my first attempt to break into the publishing world. 

After releasing romantic suspense under the pen name, RM Alexander, Caitlin Benoit started whispering in my ear and her story started forming. My passion for adventure and travel bled onto the pages as Caitlin was launched into the adventure of a lifetime. But because the story wasn’t focused on romance, I knew I needed a new pen name that would be focused more on UF / Sci-Fi, and Melody Ash was born. 

As a complex PTSD and trauma survivor, I often write characters who often face the worse circumstances and must search for their inner strength. It is my hope readers not only connect with the characters and stories but also are encouraged, as they read the last word, that their real-world problems can be overcome.

Outside my writing world, I spend my time with my husband, two children, and Pomsky (who you’ll likely find posted on my social media) in Indiana. I still love to travel and am addicted to orange juice, Ghirardelli chocolate, and adventure. 

You can visit Melody’s website at www.melodyash.com and connect with her on Facebook and Tik Tok.