Introducing Author Rebecca Cohen

Welcome to my Reading Nook, . Please make yourself at home and let my cabana boys/girls get you a drink.

Comfortable? Wonderful. Now let’s get started.

Tell us about your latest release or upcoming release. What inspired it?

Servitude is a fantasy novel where one of the main characters, Lornyc Reagalos, finds himself having to serve his secret lover as a valet thanks to a magical contract his grandfather signed. Lornyc is next in line to lead his city and there is a plot to over throw his father, so as well as coping with the contract he needs to find a way to save his family too.

It was inspired by my love of science, and using science to explain magic.

If you could throw a party with any five people (living or dead) who would you pick and why?

Elizabeth I – she was meant to have an amazing presence

Christopher Marlowe – a wild child of Tudor London

Rosalind Franklin – pivotal in helping Crick and Watson with DNA.

PG Wodehouse – one of my favorite authors

Roald Dahl – favorite childhood author

What are at least five things you have on your bucket list and have you done any of them?
Travel more and not for work. I moved to Switzerland from the UK so definitely starting to

Learn another language – learning German

Write a novel – tick

Live next to the sea – maybe one day

Be happy – getting there!

Do you work on one project at a time? Or do you multi-task? 

Tend to have one big project, plus a side one at any one time

What song would best describe your life? 

There’s not one… life changes too many often for one song to encompass that.

Do you listen to music when writing? Do you feel like some stories write themselves a soundtrack with specific music? If so, what book and what kind of music influenced it?

Not really. TV might be on the background, but I don’t need a specific place or situation to write.

Are any of your characters just like you or have personality quirks/traits of you or someone you know? 

All my characters have a little bit of me in them, even if it is only a tiny bit. Lornyc Reagalos from Servitude has my stubbornness and loyalty – and he’s also a bit of geek like me.

Who are some of your other favorite authors and genres to read? 

Fry, Pratchett, Wodehouse, Christie, Adams

I love sci-fi and fantasy

When you looked in the mirror this morning, what was the first thing you thought? 

Roots need doing

What is one thing scientists should invent?

Some days I wish I could clone myself!

Anything else you want to mention?

Just thanks for having me!

 Sneak Teaser into Servitude by Rebecca Cohen

Dreamspinner Press

Fantasy Novel

Buy Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3002

Lornyc Reagalos, future High Lord of the city of Katraman, enjoys his life as a student, even if he has to keep his relationship with Methian Hadral, heir to the throne of Xenetra, a secret. Unfortunately, Lornyc isn’t just any royal student—he’s also the grandson of an infamous magic user named Romanus Reagalos, and his grandfather’s wild youth is about to catch up with him. Unknown to anyone else, Romanus saw fit to sign his grandson into the life of a valet. Specifically, Methian’s valet.

The contract—and the strain it puts on his relationship with Methian—is just the start of Lornyc’s troubles. Though the Reagalos family was once famous for its magic, Lornyc’s father never showed any aptitude, and Lornyc hasn’t either—though that doesn’t make the next contract, the one that says Lornyc must learn to use his latent powers, any less binding. When Lornyc learns of a plot to remove his father from power, he finds himself racing against time. If he can’t master his magic and identify the leader of the plot, he stands to lose everything he knows and loves: his parents, his rank, and Methian.

Excerpt from Servitude:

Lornyc uses his magic to put a mind block on Methian.

“All I’m suggesting is that young Lornyc here put a block on you opening your big mouth. It won’t affect any of your memories. Just stop you saying something you shouldn’t to the wrong person at the wrong time.”

“Will it hurt?” asked Methian, looking uncomfortable.

“Nothing more than a slight burning sensation in your chest,” said Kat. “Lornyc, you need to get close enough to get good, straight-on eye contact. In the future you’ll probably be able to do this at a distance, but for now I suggest you sit astride his lap.”

“Don’t get any ideas, you,” Lornyc warned Methian as he took his place.

Methian looked at him with mock innocence. “Whatever do you mean by that?”

Kat cleared his throat. “If you’ve quite finished.”

Lornyc stared into Methian’s eyes. Kat continued. “Now, how I would do this would be to mutter a simple spell that would guide me through the memories, but….”

“It’s okay, Kat, I think I know what to do.” Lornyc smiled and winked at Methian. In return he felt a squeeze of encouragement.

Lornyc saw a ray of light enter Methian’s eye. The wave split into rainbow colors as if the act of him focusing on it had created a prism. Riding the spectrum, his powers moved forward through the iris, taking him with them. He was bathed in a reddish glow as he moved through the vitreous humor to the far wall of the eye and out via the optic nerve. The network of blood vessels and capillaries that surrounded him pulsed rhythmically, and he spiraled down the optic nerve and across the optic chasm in a heartbeat. Gliding across ganglia, Lornyc watched spellbound for a moment as the flashes of chemical bursts passed between the synapses.

Lornyc stopped, unsure what direction to take next, waiting to see where his powers would guide him. He was pulled toward a series of neurons and their internal protein complexes that danced and darted around the cortex, spinning and whirring as they processed information. He could hear them whir and click as they changed shape and interacted with each other.

The complex biology morphed into the more familiar form of a library, with filing cabinets full of memories stored under long or short term in alphabetical order. Lornyc’s powers snaked around the cabinets, weaving in and out until one drawer opened and a projection of the meeting about the mage appeared. His powers encased the memory, sealing it away; he retreated.

Lornyc returned to reality grinning, but a wave of exhaustion crashed over him, and he slumped into Methian’s arms.