The silver dragon, Zagros has some serious news for his young Dragoneer that will impact the entire dragon realm, particularly the young dragons, Helios and Cassiel. Luke has to process this information all while a crisis unfolds during English class. Luke has to make some serious choices that challenge the sometimes awkward sixteen-year-old but he cannot share them with anyone without risking the discovery of the magnificent dragons.
This is the fourth book in the Missing Lake series that follows a reluctantly intrepid young man’s journey into adulthood with his family, friends, dogs, cats and dragons by his side.
Tanya Fyfe's writing casts a brilliant glow in the fourth novel in her 'Missing Lake' series, 'The Runaways of Missing Lake!' I love a series with established characters and a good back story and this series is just that. Although this book was my entrance into the series, I never felt lost or like I didn't understand what was happening. Fyfe makes a point to explain everything that a new reader to the series would need to know right off the bat and she does it in a way that doesn't feel boring or like it's slowing things down, which is a rare feat.
The 'Missing Lake' series is told from the perspective of a sixteen year old boy named Luke Houser, who moves to the titular town of Missing Lake with his father and step-mother in the first book. Luke has a lot of trouble adjusting to the small town life and his growing pains are only exacerbated when he discovers a secret that no one in town knows. Above the town, a clan of dragons live peacefully on a rocky mountain. Over the course of the past three books, Luke has built up a friendship with the dragon clan but in this book, the head of the clan, Zagros comes to him with a problem that threatens the dragons and one that he's not sure can be solved.
This is a great read for all ages and one that you won't be able to put down! I hope no, beg Fyfe to continue the series! I give it five stars!
Hi Tanya, thanks so much for agreeing to
this interview.
Where do you get the names for your
characters? Are any of your characters based on real-life friends or
acquaintances?
The only character in my book that is
based on someone in real life is Jackie, Luke’s step-mom. I’ve mostly based her
on myself. This way, I won’t forget that she really likes disco music and
drives her truck with her hands in ‘ten and two.’ I like talking about all
sorts of music and I also get to continue to practice veterinary medicine in a
rural community through Jackie. Luke and his father and everyone else in the
book, however, are made up. I sometimes take things like hair color and names
from our animal companions we’ve had throughout the years and base characters
on them. For example, Tabitha’s Dragoneer, Oscar has a mop of grey and white
hair. We had a well-loved cat named Oscar for many years with the same hair.
Other times I bring in names of my friends for characters even if they aren’t
anything like the ones in the book. Dr.Liebel in the epilogue is named for a
teacher friend in ND who has been a huge source of support for the entire
series. Barb and Don are friends we meet up with annually in Hawaii for a
veterinary conference and Dr.Kelly Fritz is named for two of my best friends I
met in veterinary school. Some of the pets are direct copies of our own, like
Cooper, the black cat who comes to live with Luke and his family in the second
book. I take a lot of time naming the dragons because I want their names to be
unique and special. I try to include an exotic element to their names, too.
Sahim is actually named after a white tiger in Poland and Zagros is named after
the Zagros Mountains in Iran, Iraq and Turkey.
How completely do you develop
your characters before beginning to write?
I try to imagine their physical images first and I make an effort to not have much duplication. If the character is named after a pet or person, like Gordon Mulder, the golfer, for instance, then it is easier to incorporate some of the muse’s own characteristics. Gordon is one of my husband’s middle names and Mulder was a hilarious, scruffy, long haired orange kitty who showed up at our farm years ago looking like he’d been through the ringer. With love, canned food, dewormer and time he started to thrive and he lived with us for sixteen years. He was the most mischievous cat I have ever known! He would disappear for days when he was young and he even got skunked one time. Every woman or girl who met him just loved him. Men liked him, too, and that’s a huge inspiration for Gordon Mulder. Other characters, like Luke’s friends, have developed as the books are created. I know that interpersonal relationships between all of the high school students developed a lot in my third book and I think they really shine in ‘The Runaways of Missing Lake.’
Which actor/actress would you like to see
playing the lead character from your most recent book?
I
would have loved to have a young Chandler Riggs play Luke but he is already 21
so that probably won’t work. Chandler played Carl Riggs in The Walking Dead
series and he had an innocent and charming way about him, even in the midst of
absolute horrors or unfathomable life changes. Luke isn’t fighting off zombies
but he has been thrust into a secret world where dragons exist and actually
depend on him and his family and that is a huge challenge for a young man. It
would have to be an actor who could pull off Luke’s innocence with his sense of
humor and natural connection with animals. I would love to see this series on
screen!
What kind of messages do you try to
instill in your writing? For ‘The Runaways of Missing Lake’ did you hope to
instill the message that climate change is real?
I
definitely want to highlight the fact that the young people of today are very
aware of their environment and what us adults are doing about keeping life
liveable for their future and the futures of their children. It is so important
to realize how every species has a purpose on this planet and that we are all
interconnected. I’m trying to get the dragons to push that message. We all need
to be aware of subtle and drastic environmental changes happening on every
continent and in every body of water. I have also included the message that
everyone has something going on that others might not know about. In the
character, Josh’s case, it is the fact they are living under Witness
Protection, hiding or even running from a very dark past. Anne-Marie comes
across to the other kids as aloof or even snobby but she has sadness from her
youth that she shared with Luke in the third book that might explain her
attitude. And, of course, Luke has secret dragons. Another big message for me
has always been that step-parents aren’t all evil and that it is totally okay
for young people to have other adults as role models and friends. And I like
sharing some insights into the world of sled dogs and mushing because it is so
unique and fun and the dogs are pretty incredible. I have only been on a sled
with my musher friend, Dona one time but I remember the exhilaration clearly as
well as how sore my face was afterwards from sporting a goofy grin the entire
run! Responsibilities of animal ownership and care are big messages that carry
through in this series.
Tell us about your cover. Did you design
it yourself?
My cover artist, Ben Brick, is brilliant.
He is a personal friend who lives in Bismarck. I met him years ago when he
married a very close friend’s daughter, Rebecca. Ben is in graphic arts and is
a genuinely fun guy who ‘gets it’. I approached him for my second book and my
readers and I love the art he creates. I generally give him one or two of the
highlights of the book that won’t necessarily give the whole story away and he
runs with it. He sends me first drafts with a few options and then we tweak it.
This book had to be done over the phone because of Covid19 but usually we meet
at quirky restaurants in Bismarck and do our planning in person. There is
always a lot of laughter involved. I wanted the cover for ‘The Runaways of
Missing Lake’ to make people wonder what was going on- this is why I chose the
scene where Luke is in the woods with Helios, wearing a pirate costume. We kept
the hat and eye patch out of the drawing so that it wouldn’t be completely
obvious. This is also a scene that the new yellow Labrador, Chase is in and I
wanted to tease his existence out a little bit, too. Initial drafts of this
particular cover had Luke looking almost a bit confident about lying in the
woods with a young golden dragon and someone else’s dog. Discussing that with
Ben, he was able to visualize what I was saying and create the awesome cover we
now have.
What is your favorite scene in
the book? Why?
While I really enjoy the
Halloween dance, I think my favorite scene is towards the end when Gwen sees
Luke basically losing it outside of the veterinary clinic and she just wraps
her arms around him and holds him while he cries it out. It isn’t anything I’ve
personally experienced, on either end of the scene, but I was completely
emotionally invested while I wrote it (tears and all.) It is an example of
their friendship and their perhaps-young-romance and it is also an example of
how sometimes you just don’t need words to communicate. Teens have so much
going on in their lives, bodies and minds and it was a bit of a breaking point
for Luke when his secret world and the real world came crashing together with
the death of Sahim.
What draws you to this genre?
I loved being a teenager! I was a bit of a
dork who definitely felt like I was under construction for many years. I was
not on the same timeline physically as most of the kids in school but it never
mattered to me and I never felt bullied or picked on or anything. I was a
competitive figure skater and I was gone half of each year for training so I
was already a bit different and I hung out with adults as well as kids so I
felt like I was friends with everyone. My main high school was small like the
one in Missing Lake and, for the most part, I liked how everyone knew everyone.
I also knew, transitioning to the larger school in Vancouver when I went there
for training, that big city kids have no concept of what a small rural school
is like and I enjoy sharing that with everyone. When I write this series I
really feel like I’m hanging out with Luke, Ben, Gwen, Bethany and Derek and
its fun. I miss them when I’m not writing! I absolutely prefer writing fiction
because I get to share my sometimes-crazy ideas that way. And while I loved
being a teen, I also love working with teens. I have coached adolescents and
young adults in both figure skating and hockey and I love observing them work
through problems and take advice and either use it directly or adapt it somehow
to make things work out. There is a powerful innocence to the teen years that I
try to convey because I enjoyed those years.
What writers have you drawn inspiration
from? What other inspirations do you draw from?
I
loved Stephen King and V.C. Andrews when I was young but laterally, I read Toni
Morrison, Barbara Kingsolver, Tim Robbins, Jennifer Weiner and Ivan Doig. Wally
Lamb and Khaled Hosseini have written some incredibly poignant books that truly
grabbed me, as well. I draw inspiration from the amazing scenery right outside
our home. We are the last home on a dirt road up in the mountains of rural
Montana and US Forest Service is our back yard. I can see our neighbors but
they aren’t anywhere near me and regardless of the season there is beauty all
around. I write next to a large window where I can watch our horses run by the
creek and the cottonwood trees. All of our animal companions inspire me to tell
their stories and the stories of how we all give and receive so much from one
another.
What are you currently working on?
I think it’s time for me and Ben to have another talk about a second
edition of the first book, ‘Lost and Found in Missing Lake’ with him providing
the artwork. Now that I have three other books in the series and people see
them online and in book stores, the first book gets overlooked as it’s cover is
completely different from the others. There are also some editing things I’d
like to clean up in the first book as well but mostly I want the entire series
to look the same because people do, indeed, judge books by their covers.
She completed her BSc and then got accepted into veterinary school in Saskatchewan which she graduated from in 2005. Since then she has worked as a veterinarian in ND and Montana.
Tanya has written stories since she was a little girl and enjoyed completing a course with the Children’s Institute of Literature several years ago. She began writing her teen fiction series in 2013 which began with Lost and Found in Missing Lake. The Dragons of Missing Lake followed and then Secrets Abound in Missing Lake came next. Around the time of publication she started selling real estate in Montana (because, clearly, she was not busy enough) but was still able to jump back into the story to complete Book 4, The Runaways of Missing Lake.
She enjoys hanging out with her characters and tries to give readers a sense of what it is truly like to live in the beautiful mountains of western Montana. She enjoys spending time on any golf course with her husband and they canoe, hike and ride horses as well. They share their world with 5 adorable cats, several horses and 3 ridiculously personable ferrets.
Website: https://tanyafyfe.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tanya.fyfe.9
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tanyafyfe
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tanyafyfe/
Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus Oct 21 Kickoff & Guest Post
Naima Goodreads Oct 23 Review
Am Goodreads Oct 23 Review
GudReader Goodreads Oct 26 Review
Joseph Goodreads Oct 27 Review
Mike M. Library Thing Oct 29 Review
Laura Lee Celtic Lady’s Reviews Oct 30 Guest Review & Excerpt
Michelle I Read Kid’s Books Nov 2 Review & Guest Post
Bee Book Pleasures Nov 4 Review
Bookgirl Goodreads Nov 6 Review
Sal Bound 2 Escape Nov 9 Guest Review
Lu Ann Rockin’ Book Reviews Nov 10 Review & Guest Post
Lora ettria.com Nov 11 Review & Excerpt
Linda Lu Goodreads Nov 12 Review
Sherry Amazon Nov 13 Review
Betty Toots Book Reviews Nov 16 Review & Interview
Jas International Book Promotion Nov 17 Review
Gracie Goodreads Nov 18 Review
Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus Nov 19 Review
Ellen Library Thing Nov 20 Review
Terri Amazon Nov 24 Review
No comments:
Post a Comment