Cindy Tomamichel
‘Action. Adventure. Romance.’
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Are there any authors or artists who influenced you?
I like to keep my books fast paced and action packed, so my influencers are Matthew Reilly, Michael Crichton, RE Howard and Andy McDermott.
Tell me about your book / series.
A portal closed for 2,000 years – a love that crosses the centuries.
The First Journey is the first in a series that takes the reader back into time – back to Roman Britain in the area of Hadrian’s Wall. It was a time when two contrasting cultures – the Romans and the Celts – clashed. A time when the ancient religion of the Druids was destroyed. Multiple generations of the one family will find out what it means to be the guardian of the Arwen Pendant, and have the power to travel in time.
A portal closed for 2,000 years.
An ancient religion twisted by modern greed.
A love that crosses the centuries.
An ancient druid pendant shows archaeologist Janet visions of Roman soldier Trajan. The visions are of danger, death, and love – but are they a promise or a curse?
Her fiancé Daman hurts and abandons her before the wedding, her beloved museum is ransacked, and a robed man vanishes before her eyes. Haunted by visions of a time she knows long gone, Janet teeters on the edge of a breakdown.
In the shadow of Hadrian’s Wall and 2,000 years back in time, Janet’s past and present collide. Daman has vowed to drive the invaders from the shores of Britain, and march his barbarian hordes to Rome. Trajan swears vengeance against the man who threatens both his loves – Janet and the Empire.
Time is running out – for everyone.
How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
A few now – so any publisher reading is welcome to call! A sword and sorcery, an urban paranormal, urban thriller fantasy, and a scifi military, which are all in various stages of draft. An unfinished ghastly romance which is unlikely to see the light of day, and a fan fiction that I enjoyed writing, but breaches so many copyrights that it also will never escape the hard drive.
It’s said that to write well, you need to read a lot. What do you think?
I personally can’t imagine not reading! A writer needs to fill their imagination with facts and stories as fuel for their own. As you read you absorb sentence structure, plot devices and good and bad characters. It must be very hard to write without knowledge of what others have done with words.
Are you a plotter, or a pantser? What do you think of the opposite approach?
I am generally a pantser, because I find planning out a story bores me so much I can’t be bothered to write it! However, writing a time travel series really needs to be planned out, so I have a flowchart. I think both methods have their merits, and while a person will probably fall in one camp or another, both aspects have their merits.
Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?
When I write underground scenes in scifi, I always reference the north end of level 14. It is a reference to an area I used to work back in the days of being an underground mine geologist.
I recently wrote a scifi story for the Quantum Soul Anthology where I used writer friends in a scifi comedy about life and the power of words.
What are you writing at the moment?
I am editing the second Druid’s Portal, and researching and writing the third. I also just finished an alternate history short story, which will appear in an anthology soon.
What is your favourite genre to write, and why?
I most enjoy writing fantasy, as I can let my imagination run free and invent all sorts of craziness. I have dabbled in scifi, and been published in time travel romance, but most of my writing ends up with a fantasy element.
If you could, would you live in the world you’ve created? Why / why not?
Generally I put my characters through a lot, and in primitive conditions, so probably not. Any bad guy seeing me pick up a mighty sword would only die from laughing!
If you could go back to the start of your writing career, what is the one piece of advice you’d give yourself?
Write more, write faster and don’t waste time reading books on how to write.
Cindy, thank you for participating in Galaxy of Authors!
