The Bajan Scribbler: New Voices: Tessa Stokes

Friday, April 29, 2011

New Voices: Tessa Stokes

Author Tessa Stokes

I started to write fiction many years ago, but I was waylaid by life and turned to commercial writing in response to my employment.

When I found I simply could not contemplate the writing of another thing that was commercial, academic or education oriented, I turned back to my first love, fiction.

I have had the latest series, The Seven Spell Saga tumbling around my mind for so long that I already knew the characters before I started to put them down on the page for others to discover. Their adventures, their voices; the way they moved, it was all there and I couldn’t wait to start writing. Once I had started finally, to write this series, I have not been able to stop.

I write often all night, or until the early hours of the morning, hence the address of my blog http://tess-three-in-the-morning.blogspot.com

The Seven Spell Saga is a blend of genres; it is romance, urban fantasy maybe paranormal romance too. There are three books to date and I am currently writing the fourth book. The narrator is our heroine Chloe McGarry, she moves from her home in California to an estate in England that is steeped in history and mystery with her family, because her father has taken on a restaurant there. The place is beautiful and though Chloe was not initially happy to leave California she starts to “like the place”. Chloe has never been lucky in love, as the saying goes, boys simply do not approach her, but here within a short time she not only meets but also begins to care for two guys. They are the charming and attractive Oliver, an upbeat, remarkably centred person who falls in love with her. Then there is Tristan, enigmatic, mysterious, emotional, and lovely, she falls for him too. Naturally, the feeling is reciprocated and a strange magical, bond begins to form between the three of them.

The stories contain a dynamic mix of everyday life, love, adventure, time travel, and magic. They provide the reader with a story spanning the already written three books and the books to come that engage them in the characters’ lives, as if you were there with them.

I fell in love with my characters and believe they not only would appeal to young adults but anyone who is young at heart.

There are a few excerpts from the books around on the internet, on my blog, on the sites where they are available to buy, on review sites, and chapters of the first book are on my website to read as a free sample. http://www.tessastokes.info

Here is a passage, which is just one of many pointing to the threads in the stories that link the past, the present and the future as the books progress.

Oliver smiled a bit more then, and said “I passed you a couple of times talking with the enigmatic Mr. Dearing but you were enthralled by him and so didn’t see me”.

“Dearing, is that his name”, I was quick to reply, “Is that Liz’s name too? What do you mean by enigmatic?”

Oliver seemed to be relieved I didn’t know Tristan’s name, and nodded “Yes the whole family is descended from some ancient knights or something, all Dearings, there’s quite a history there. There’s some weird stuff too. By enigmatic I just meant he’s a bit of a mystery. When James was doing his thesis old man Dearing got to know that he was including the Dearing family history in it. He was incandescent and tried to bribe James to leave out any mention of Tristan or other ancestors called Tristan”.

I interrupted here saying, “You’re kidding, but why?”

“Well”, continued Oliver “who really knows because after James had refused, since it would seriously put him behind schedule, and take huge chunks out of his thesis, the old guy went away, and the next day Tristan himself went to see James and somehow they sorted it out.

How about you tell me about yourself Chloe?” He leaned in to me a little. “I feel like I hardly know you but at the same time as if I have known you forever”.)