Featured Artist Friday: David Frauenfelder

Today I am pleased to introduce you all to David Frauenfelder, author of the The Master Mage of Rome books, a YA Fantasy series. I have several new authors to introduce to you this month, all of whom write Clean Fantasy, which fits in nicely with my February Fantasy theme! Hey, looky there, I'm all coordinated and stuff... it's almost like I planned it that way! haha!Here's the blurb for the first book in the series, The Mirror and the MageFourteen-year old Lucius Junius Brutus yearns to join the army of King Tarquin the Proud, Etruscan ruler of Rome. When he successfully swims the Tiber River before sundown on the longest day of the year, he counts on the King choosing him as a warrior. But Lucius' father has other plans: to make Lucius a priest and guardian of the dusty scrolls of Rome's legendary lawgiver, Numa Pompilius. Obeying his father, Lucius arrives at the shrine only to find it is a place of magic empowered by Numa's grammarly scrolls. If Lucius can master the scrolls' potential, he will not only defeat the human and ghostly forces that terrify and threaten Rome, he will become the master of the city and even the world. Can Lucius resist the temptation of becoming a king even prouder than Tarquin?Book 2, The Staff and the Shield, is coming to a bookstore near you very soon!When and why did you start writing?I started writing soon after I was able to pick up a pencil and string together sentences. It was instinctual, like being a dog and digging. My first "novel" was about a dog, in fact. It was called "The Dog With No Whiskers." I was in the first grade. My first epic blockbuster was called "Dawe and the Typhoon." That was a big hit with my third-grade teacher. It was about a young boy from Polynesia who is the sole survivor of a typhoon that hits his island.What are your fondest writing memories?I collaborated on a science-fiction novel with my best friend when we were in high school. He wrote a page, then I wrote a page, then he wrote a page, and so on. We used his Royal manual typewriter. It was a straight blast.Who has been the biggest influence on your writing? Why?My biggest influence was my third-grade teacher, Mrs. Mengel. She taught us how to write stories and encouraged us to get better. She also gave us lined paper and construction paper, and let us fold and staple the construction paper over the lined paper to make a "book." We would then illustrate the "cover," and the last part of the process was actually writing the story on the paper. I made about eleventy-three "books" of that kind, and filled up maybe one or two with stories. If there's anything more fun, I don't know what it is.Would you be willing to share an excerpt from your latest book?Sure. This is from The Staff and the Shield, the second in in The Master Mage of Rome historical fantasy series, about Lucius Junius Brutus, a young Roman mage who will become the man who started the revolution to make Rome a republic. That's the history part; the fantasy part is how the teenage Lucius acquires and masters great power and must decide whether to give it up to let the people rule. “Fulmen lapidem scindens,” Lucius Junius Brutus yelled to the angry heavens. Lightning splitting the stone.It was raining-- raining as it had most of the winter, except for one thing: this time the fire of Jupiter was arcing across the sky.Lucius slung a grammarstone into the black night. Raindrops mixed with hail stung his forehead and ears. The stone disappeared into the darkness.Then a flash, a boom, and an explosion that knocked Lucius flat.For a sliver of a moment, bright white light flooded the whole hillside: the stone quarry where Lucius practiced grammar; the thick grove of trees that grew all about it; the steps leading down to the caves of Egeria and the casula, the hut of Logophilus, his Greek assistant.Lucius’ little world for the past nine months.“By Jupiter,” he whispered, his ears ringing, his nostrils flaring at the telltale sour, burnt scent of an exploded grammarstone. He’d smelled it many a time, fighting against the Etruscan haruspices, seers with powerful mirrors who were trying to destroy the shrine of Numa Pompilius.The explosion hadn’t come from thunder. It was the lightning splitting the stone that knocked him over. His grammar had worked."By Jupiter, I did it!" he cried, and let out a whoop of joy. Well, I'm intrigued. Reminds me a bit of the "Percy Jackson" stories, but perhaps with a little more historical fiction thrown into the mix. Tell me, where did you get the idea for your book?I had been knocking around the idea for several years about a magic system based on Latin grammar. Harry Potter has some Latin, but it's very rudimentary. I wanted to do it full-blown, where you truly have to be exact to have your spell work. To me, if it's going to be magic, there needs to be some effort on the part of the spellcaster for there to be an effect. Not just saying "Wingardium leviosa" with the accent on the right syllable.Yes, it seems every fantasy author has a different opinion on how magic should work and what level of effort/explanation ought to be required. Interesting to hear your perspective.Can you pick a favorite character from your book or series? Why is that character your favorite?I'm actually kind of partial to the villain, Turanquil. She's an Etruscan prophetess with a nasty magic mirror, and she's smart and ambitious and ruthless but at the same time very wise and calm. The type of person you kind of regret not being on your side.Ah, villains. They can be so much fun!If you could “apprentice” with any author, which one would you choose and why?Probably John Steinbeck or Jack London. They were Californians who lived adventurous lives apart from writing, and I would love to pal around with them in California in the early twentieth century and have adventures, then learn from them how to write really good books that have both excellent stories and beautiful writing.I love Jack London!What do you do when you’re NOT writing? (hobbies, things you do for fun, your day-job, etc?)I teach Latin and Greek to sixth through twelfth graders at a wonderful school in North Carolina.Are you working on anything new, and would you be willing to tell us about it?Book 3 of the Master Mage of Rome series. It is called The Fire of the Chimaera, and if you want to know how I pronounce "chimaera," it's Ky-MEER-a. Some people pronounce it SHIM-mer-ra. and I guess that's okay with me, but I happen to think my pronunciation makes it sound much more exotic and menacing.I believe your pronunciation is the correct one... Moving on to a bit of a lighter note:Favorite season? Why?Autumn. Great weather and students are super-enthusiastic about school.Favorite hot beverage?I had a Cuban espresso this summer that jet-fueled a five-thousand word writing day. That'll do, I think.Favorite dessert?Two-fruit pies. Like apple-blackberry, or peach-blackberry.Tell us something strange, odd, weird, or random about yourself.I used to read archeological reports in Romanian.How many siblings do you have?Four brothers. Basketball team!What is your favorite movie?"Defending Your Life" which stars and is directed by Albert Brooks. It also has Meryl Streep. Hilarious and very heart-true. Thank you for joining us today for Featured Artist Fridays!