She
has been featured in newspapers, on radio, and TV, has spoken for regional book
events, and hosted the radio program Books and Brews. She currently
teaches writing at Minneapolis Community and Technical College.
As a musician, Laura has performed as on
trombone, flute, and harp, in orchestras, and big bands. She lives in Brooklyn
park with 5 of her 9 children, 3 cats, and an Irish
Wolfhound.
Her latest book is the time
travel/historical fiction, The Water is
Wide.
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About the Book:
Title: THE WATER IS WIDE
Author: Laura Vosika
Publisher: Gabriel’s Horn Press
Pages: 451
Genre: Time Travel/Historical Fiction
Author: Laura Vosika
Publisher: Gabriel’s Horn Press
Pages: 451
Genre: Time Travel/Historical Fiction
BOOK BLURB:
After his failure to escape back
to his own time, Shawn is sent with Niall on the Bruce’s business. They
criss-cross Scotland
and northern England,
working for the Bruce and James Douglas, as they seek ways to get Shawn home to
Amy and his own time.
Returning from the Bruce’s
business, to Glenmirril, Shawn finally meets the mysterious Christina. Despite
his vow to finally be faithful to Amy, his feelings for Christina grow.
In modern Scotland,
having already told Angus she’s pregnant, Amy must now tell him Shawn is alive
and well—in medieval Scotland.
Together, they seek a way to bring him back across time.
They are pursued by Simon
Beaumont, esteemed knight in the service of King Edward, has also passed
between times. Having learned that Amy’s son will kill him—he seeks to kill the
infant James first.
The book concludes with
MacDougall’s attack on Glenmirril, Amy and Angus’s race to be there and Shawn’s
attempt to reach the mysterious tower through the battling armies.
Watch the Trailer:
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As a book bloggin’ and book luvin’ Princess, I’m always
curious to find out how authors got the ideas for their books. Can you tell us what your book is about?
The Water is Wide is the
middle of five books that tell the story of an arrogant, modern musician who
finds himself trapped in medieval Scotland,
fighting with Robert the Bruce and James Douglas. I bill it as a tale of time
travel, action and adventure, mysteries and miracles, romance and
redemption...ranging across modern and medieval Scotland.
It is ultimately a saga of a man
facing himself, packed into action laden journeys across medieval Scotland,
as Shawn seeks a way home to his own time to return to his girlfriend Amy and
their newborn child.
Can you tell us a little about the main
characters of your book?
Shawn Kleiner was the kind of guy
people either loved or hated—really hated. In his 20s, he was good-looking,
charismatic, funny, threw great parties and created a mega success of the
orchestra he played for. He was also an obnoxious, arrogant, hard-drinking,
gambling womanizer and cheater. However, a year in medieval Scotland,
fighting for Robert the Bruce and James Douglas, knowing each day may be his
last, will make a man think about how he’s lived.
Shawn is now a man eager to get
back to Amy and to the son she was pregnant with at his accidental slip in
time, a man conflicted about his growing feelings for the medieval Christina,
and growing in camaraderie and respect for the medieval Highlanders he lives
and works with, even as he tries to return to Amy.
Niall Campbell, Shawn’s medieval
doppelganger, is one of those Highlanders, and everything Shawn is not—upright,
devout, bound by duty and honor. Early in the series, he is no more excited
than Shawn to be forced to travel and work together. By The Water is Wide, he
has come to see that he and Shawn are more alike than either of them wanted to
believe; that nobody is all good and nobody is all bad.
There’s Amy, the gifted violinist
who is coming to know herself once again after being away from Shawn’s
gaslighting; Angus, the heroic inspector and mountain rescuer who helps Amy in
her attempt to rescue Shawn from medieval times, although he is in love with
her; Christina, the serene medieval noblewoman who risked herself to rescue
Niall and now lives at Glenmirril, rescued in turn by Shawn; Allene, Niall’s
wife; the Laird who runs Glenmirril and his giant of a brother, Hugh, who is
endlessly amused by the irritation between the Laird and Shawn, who simply
cannot adjust to the medieval ideas of authority.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what
would that be?
Don’t take that long break! Keep
writing!
What would you say is one of your interesting writing
quirks?
That’s hard to say! I sit and
write, usually at my kitchen counter, and drink coffee. Is it a quirk that I
write anywhere I can? My kids are well known at our local Aldi (and dare I say
loved?) I give them money and a shopping list and send them in while I sit in
the car and work on my laptop. I think they enjoy the responsibility and they
have become friends with the clerks and guards there, who all know them.
My laptop goes pretty much
everywhere with me in case I have five minutes or half an hour to work.
Do you hear from your readers? What do they say?
Hearing from my readers is one of
the things I didn’t expect about writing that really makes my day! Yes, they
contact me, usually through face book, and tell me how much they love the books
and how attached they’ve become to the people.
What is the toughest criticism given to you as an author?
That’s a hard question because I
don’t read reviews, for several reasons. My criticism comes from my writers
group, Night Writers and I don’t really regard anything critical they say as
‘criticism,’ but as help in becoming a better writer.
Perhaps the toughest road was a
character that my friend Ross really disliked. I ended up, with The Minstrel
Boy, rewriting a large section of the book in an entirely different tense.
It was a lot of work. But I believe it was well worth it and I would never want
anyone in my group to tell me they love something that they don’t.
What has been your best accomplishment?
Managing to write a five book
series plus the accompanying ‘Not a Cookbook,’ (Food and Feast in the World
of the Blue Bells Chronicles) while raising nine children and maintaining
my ‘day job,’ teaching music lessons to up to fifty students a week—and still
getting to my kids’ concerts and wrestling matches any time I had an evening
free from work.
I also consider my work on 221
B.C., a historically-based fantastical search for magical amulets by Dr.
Kendall Price, to be an accomplishment. I did a great deal of editing,
including writing many new scenes to flesh out the story. It involved stepping
outside of my comfort zone of fourteenth century Scotland that I know so well,
and learning a great deal about the times, places, people, and history of 221
B.C., from Egypt to Rome and beyond.
Do you Google yourself?
No. You know that old saying about
not having a right to know what others think of you? It’s even more true in the
internet age. Everybody has an opinion. I try to live right and do the right
thing and nothing anyone says is going to change who I am, so it doesn’t
matter.
How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
I have maybe a dozen more started.
I have my current work in progress, The Castle of Dromore, about a young
widow who moves her five boys into a medieval castle, only to find it’s
haunted. I have a novel I completed when I was 24, which I haven’t yet
published. That one is set in modern day Boston.
I also have an anthology in the
works. For those who write poetry in traditional forms—sonnets, triolets,
villanelles, and of course hundreds of other forms—Gabriel’s Horn is now
accepting submissions. Information is at www.gabrielshornpress.com/poetry-anthology
Fun question – if you were princess or prince,
what’s one thing you would do to make your kingdom a better place?
More dancing, more singing, more
music, more laughter. More dogs—big dogs!
And there should be days to dress
in our ordinary lives in medieval gowns, leines, Renaissance clothing—whatever
we like! There’s a reason Comicons are so popular!
Do you have anything specific you would like to say to your
readers?
Thank you to all who have reached
out to me. Thank you for taking the time to leave reviews. Thank you for your
kind words. Thank you for following me on social media and being a part of my
life. Your kindness has been very touching and has meant a lot to me and been a
beautiful reminder of how much we all touch each other’s lives, even when we
don’t realize it.
https://gaelicwordaday.wordpress.com/
Trailer Book Three: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGUnjU2kE3M
Trailer Book Two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp6PS5rUgqU
Trailer Book One: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ000XxYle4
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