Portal Fantasy and the Doorkeeper: Guest Post
Do you enjoy portal fantasy? Have you ever opened a door, hoping to find a secret world filled with magic and dragons and talking animals hidden behind it?
Today, I am pleased and excited to be sharing with you a guest post by Fantasy Author and Expert in All Things Fairy Tale: Kendra E. Ardnek, who has a brand new book out!
Yes! The third book in the Rizkaland Legends is available now! And today, Kendra has graciously joined us to talk about how she has incorporated the elements of Portal Fantasy into her stories.
Portal Fantasy and the Doorkeeper
by
Kendra E. Ardnek
I don't make a big secret out of the fact that Rizkaland began life as a very blatant rip-off of Narnia. Once upon a time, what is now Lady Dragon, Tela Du featured four sisters, Petra, Susie, Edna, and Lulu, venturing into a snowlocked world, battling a Snow Witch, and then the great giraffe Jeptha was going to save the day and ... stuff.
Needless to say, the story has changed a bit since. Like, massively.
One thing I have strived to do with Rizkaland is to create an ... inclusive world. One where you can easily imagine that all of your favorite fantasy worlds could easily coexist within. Now, I won't say I have managed to incorporate every world, but magpie me has tried my best.
And mostly through the help of one certain character, Laura, the Doorkeeper.
I don't exactly remember how Laura came to be - though she started life as my penname Sandra Elizabeth Nedor, and slowly involved into a complicated, 4-dimensional person who made my head hurt and I eventually just retired her. I brought her back after falling down a Doctor Who rabbit hole and becoming obsessed with River Song, a fact that has my readers CONVINCED that a certain couple are her parents, but that's neither here nor there.
How does she tie together all the portal fantasies?
Well, in short, Laura is a girl who has the power to create and control the doors between worlds. There are infinite worlds that she has access to, which means that I can't create them all, so inevitably, she'll reference other worlds as an Easter Egg.
(Or I just imagine her into a world in order to solve a plot hole or something or other that I don't like ... but that's neither here nor there. The main book where I've done that, the author knows.)
Naturally, the main world that I have most definitely referenced is Narnia itself. It's not a blatent reference, but Laura does use the last name Macready from time to time for ... reasons. (Eventually, you'll get to find out the reason, and I'm looking forward to that.) A bit more blatant reference will come towards the end of the series, as I may or may not set up something that was very intrinsic to The Magician's nephew.
I actually had a pretty fun reference to Tara Grayce's Lost In Averell towards the end of Love and Memory. Whether or not Averell is the world Laura is talking about in the one scene is entirely up to my readers, but it's a fun book, and you really ought to check it out.
But, yeah. The Lauraverse is huge, and I love worlds.
Or something. Love and Memory's release has been crazy and I'm running out of braincells, which is why I generally don't do guest posts during blog tours.
About the Book
When a Queen forgets,
Her enemies rejoice in her weakness.
But when the Queen remembers,
They tremble in fear.
When a King loves,
His country rejoices with him.
But when that love is broken.
The land is broken, too.
Can Water and Fire join again?
Can Love and Memory be restored?
They spent years in Rizkaland. They ruled the land, forged friendships, built families, and made it their home. But then it was time to return to Earth, and their former lives just don’t fit anymore. Clara and Andrew struggle to reevaluate their priorities when hundreds of miles separate them. Reuben and Petra are lost as they seek a balance between their old friendship and their Rizkan marriage. And Ashna and Noraeto never planned to return, so what life is there for them on Earth?
When the unthinkable happens and a new enemy arises, they’re all thrown back into Rizkaland, into a young prince’s rise to power and struggle to build alliances for his kingdom. But they no longer belong in their other world, either.
Are good memories too much to bear?
about the author
Kendra E. Ardnek is the self-proclaimed Arista of Fairy Tales. She lives in the Piney Woods of East Texas with her dragon babies and massive herd of mini-giraffes, and she is still waiting for one of her fifty nutcrackers to come to life and marry her. When not writing, you can usually find her sitting in a random box, and she's frequently known to act before she thinks. Find her online at: Website || Blog || Facebook || YouTube || Newsletter || Instagram || Amazon
To follow the blog tour and learn more about Love and Memory, please visit THIS POST!