NarniaFans Exclusive Interview with Wolf of Tebron Author CS Lakin

Hey, everybody. I am happy to bring to you all our exclusive interview with fantasy author CS Lakin. She wrote a brand new Narnia-esque fantasy book, Wolf of Tebron, which is available now. Wolf of Tebron is only the first volume in what promises to be a truly wonderful new fantasy series and I was delighted to read it and I encourage all of you to read it. It is a really good book and worth every penny. I was even more delighted to have the chance to talk with the author.

It should be noted, I refrained from asking to many questions about the story istelf as I don’t want to risk giving you all to many spoilers. You all deserve to experience the wonder of this new world for yoruselves and I don’t wish to ruin that , especailly since the book is so mind-bending, and in a very good way. And now with out further ado, our interview with CS Lakin.

NarniaFans: How and when did you come up with the idea for the Wolf of Tebron?

CS Lakin: After God led me to the idea of reinventing fairy tales into allegorical Christian novels, I chose one of my favorite fairy tales: “The Enchanted Pig.” I melded that with a poem I had written years early ( found the scrap piece of paper in a folder)about the Moon. Then I wanted to show God the way I experienced him—a bit different than Aslan. I love dogs and have always felt they reflected God’s loyal love. I wanted to show that God is always by our side—caring for us, watching over us, providing for us, saving us, and ultimately, sacrificing himself for us. This was about four years ago when I prayed fervently to God to renew my love of writing and to give me something important to write about, that would lead people to him. Since then I’ve written seven novels and am completing the fourth book in The Gates of Heaven series: The Unraveling of Wentwater.

NarniaFans: How long did it take you to write The Wolf of Tebron?

CS Lakin: Because it was winter and snow piled up ten feet outside my door, I was able to write all day every day with that book. It took about two months from start to good first draft. Of course, I go through all my novels at least ten-twenty times with editing, polishing, etc.

NarniaFans: Considering the popularity of fantasy not just with Narnia or Lord of the Rings but with Harry Potter and many other fantasy books, was it easy to find a publisher for your book?

CS Lakin: I queried both the general market and the Christian market. I wasn’t sure where God wanted these books to go, as my heart is to reach the general populace with a message of hope. But God made it very clear that AMG was to be the publisher for this series. After speaking with them for many hours, their heart was revealed to me—and they share the same passion and vision I do for these books. And they are so supportive of their authors and willing to allow me control over the artwork, which was important to me. I had already chosen Gary Lippincott as my artist and wanted him to do all the covers. AMG has been wonderful to partner with in the design and execution of these covers. I found most CBA publishers are not open to fantasy, or if they are, they only have one author they represent, which is not the way to reach this particular mission field. I got a lot of rejections both from CBA and ABA, but God was opening and closing doors, and although I dreamed of a big house taking this series on, I see now God’s wisdom and long-range view. AMG is the foremost fantasy publisher in CBA and they bought my series without even reading any of the books. I guess I wrote a killer proposal!

NarniaFans: Did any of these CBA publishers say why they weren’t open to fantasy?

CS Lakin: Most CBA publishers have never published fantasy and they aren’t familiar with the market. Some have “tried” to publish one here or there, but in the past, those books proved to be very preachy and didn’t do well. Also, the target audience for CBA are white women in their 30s-40s with small children who don’t buy or read fantasy, so they aren’t really interested in expanding or changing their readership.

NarniaFans: That must have been frustrating to go through the rejections, especially from various CBA publishing houses .What kept you going?

CS Lakin: I’ve been writing and submitting novels for twenty-three years. Actually, once I prayed to God to direct my writing and career, it only took four years to contract four of my nine novels. I have two agents trying to sell four other books and one proposal. And yes, I got so frustrated after the third novel and third agent that I quit writing for about ten years. I’m still trying to break into the commercial market because most of what I write is contemporary edgy mysteries. But when you know you’re a writer and called to write, you don’t have a choice, really. You can’t imagine doing anything else or giving up writing, so it calls you and you come, like a faithful wolf pup.

NarniaFans: I had noticed in the endnotes section in the back of the book that along with quotes from CS Lewis, GK Chesterton and George MacDonald you had quoted some other sources such as Emily Dickinson, Carl Jung, TS Elliot, and William Wordsworth. How did you choose these thinkers and writers? After all there are a good many thinkers, philosophers, writers and theologians through the ages so it must have been a hard choice.

CS Lakin: Since dreaming is a big theme of the book, I searched for quotes about dreaming that worked well in my story.

NarniaFans: So with these quotes from these thinkers, and the fact that the character of Sola is listening to music composed by 19th century composers like Schumann, is this particular world supposed to be our Earth in the future, the past or neither?

CS Lakin: Well, it’s just stretching the fantasy realm a bit. Sola is the Sun’s mother, which is already a bit out there. And she has a library that contains all known human knowledge past and future. I just thought it would be a kick to overlap worlds a bit. I do this in all my books, as you will see characters referring to historical biblical incidents as tales from their kingdom’s past. That’s the great thing about writing fantasy—you can create the rules for your world and as long as you abide within those rules, they can work. So, my fantasy world is not our earth in any time or form, yet, it does contain elements from our world—maybe more like a parallel universe of sorts. It’s just fun to play around with these kinds of things.

NarniaFans: In the immortal words of Marty McFly in Back to the Future… “Woah, that’s heavy!” How did you keep everything in your fantasy world streight? Was your approach to it more like CS Lewis were he saw pictures in his head and wrote from there or more like JRR Tolkien’s with exaustive planning and back story writing before ever writing a story?

CS Lakin: make extensive notes on plot and character development, just as I do my many contemporary mysteries. The next book in the collection–The Map Across Time— required a lot of research as I use Hebrew as my ancient language for the kingdom of Sherborne, with nearly a hundred words and phrases in ancient Hebrew. My world itself is simple, as are most fairy tale settings. And each book is centered in a different part of the world and characters overlap books and time periods. But overall, I focus more on creating rich plots with complex characters tied around a theme or two and numerous motifs. The Wolf if Tebron explores waking and dreaming. The Land of Darkness explores light and darkness (spiritual), and Map explores greed and destiny. It’s also a convoluted time travel story that rivals Back to the Future with all those dangerous paradoxes of characters possibly running into themselves in certain scenes.

NarniaFans: So with this time travel aspect, would you describe the Gates of Heavenas sci-fi or fantasy?

CS Lakin: The Gates of Heavenis a series of fairy tales, which is a fantasy sub-genre. Sci-fi requires some tech, some space exploration or mechanical world. I’m not sure of the exact definitions of each, but that’s been my experience as I read both.

NarniaFans: In many ways ( especially with the time travel aspect) This is definitely way past typical fairy tale material which brings me to another question. Typically in mythology, fairy tales and literature( such as Fenrir in the Norse myths, werewolves in horror stories, the Big Bad Wolf in the fairy stories, Maugrim in Narnia , and the Wargs in LOTR ) wolfs haven’t always been portrayed in the best light, the novels of Jack London being an exception. The Bible even uses wolves in negative metaphors. Why is the heroic character of Ruyah, a wolf?

CS Lakin: You could ask the same about dragons. Even in Christian fantasy, dragons are the most popular creature and they are portrayed in a positive light– like Donita Paul’s and Bryan Davis’s books. Yet, the dragon in the Bible us associated with Satan. I’ve always loved wolves and have read great books on wolves– one especially called “In Praise of Wolves.” wolves are loyal, devoted to their families, and have never been aggressive to humans unless in defense. And since dogs are the best creatures to use as examples of God’s loyal love, a wolf is the best animal I could use for this story.

NarniaFans: Was Jack London’s book White Fang an influence in the relationship between Joran and Ruyah ?

CS Lakin: I haven’t read London’s book in it’s entirety, but I’m familiar with it.

NarniaFans: How did you come up with some of the names for the people and places in your story?

CS Lakin: I try to come up with names that are simple to pronounce and feel like the right fit for a character. However, Ruyah comes from the Hebrew ru’ach, which is spirit. He is the spirit of God with us and in us. Noomah is the Greek pnuema, which is also spirit because the wind embodies the spirit of truth. I originally planned to use Jordan as the man’s name but felt Joran was a little more interesting. Charris of course comes from charity or grace, as she shows grace to Joran.
NarniaFans: How do you pronounce ( or at least what are your recommended pronunciations) for the names Tebron, Noomah, Joran, Charris, Ruyah, etc.

CS Lakin: Tebron and Joran have accent on the second syllable.

NarniaFans: Many fantasy writers ( GK Chesterton, CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, JK Rowling) go by their initials and you are no stranger to this trend. What does the CS in CS Lakin stand for?

CS Lakin: Unlike Joanne Rowling, who chose the “K” in JK Rowling randomly, I felt by putting “C” in front of my name, it would always remind me who comes first: Christ. That way I will keep my calling in the proper perspective.

NarniaFans: Last two questions, since we are a Narnia fan website, how old were you when you first “discovered” Narnia?

CS Lakin: I must have been about ten when I learned about Narnia through friends. We’d play “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” in the backyard and it was fun!

NarniaFans: What was your favorite book in the Chronicles of Narnia?

CS Lakin: My favorite Narnia book—hmmm, that’s hard. It’s probably a toss-up between The Magician’s Nephew and The Last Battle.

NarniaFans:Why were those ones your favorite?

CS Lakin: I love imagining the creation of the universe, but I also love the hope and comfort in understanding the gift of eternity we’ve been given.

NarniaFans: Do you have any advice for other aspiring authors out there?

CS Lakin: Write from your heart, about the things you feel passionate about. And let your imagination soar. I just this moment posted a great post about that: www.gatesofheavenseries.com/blog. Thanks!

NarniaFans: Thank you again for your time Ms. Lakin. It has been an honor.

CS Lakin:Thanks for the interview! Great questions. You can also let readers know the publisher’s Web site: www.thewolfoftebron.com is up and we have a forum for readers to post thoughts, reactions, questions, and engage in discussions about different chapters in the book. We’re just launching this, but it should be fun!

Wolf of Tebron is available in book stores no or you can order it on-line. I highly recommend everyone go out and read it. I don’t think I enjoyed discovering a fantasy book this much, since well, the first time my mom read Narnia to me, and the first time I read The Hobbit. To find out more about the book, interact with the author and other readers, order the book, or look at some discussion questions check out www.wolfoftebron.com andwww.cslakin.com.

Be back here tomorrow, 9 AM EST ( USA) / 8 AM CST ( USA) for our review of Wolf of Tebron.