Just participated in a wonderful book launch and reading for The Lion and the Aardvark! My fable "The Cat and the Cell Phone" is one of many stories in this fun collection of modern fables.
My new short story "Ogre Baby" was released in Issue 7 of Here Be Monsters: Tongues and Teeth. You can read an excerpt from "Ogre Baby" online in the Here Be Monsters blog. Warning: It's gory, as you might expect in a story about ogres.
My fantasy novels (so far) are Brondings' Honour and Firedrake.
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Ann Ewan has written fantasy books and stories for as long as she can remember. She always loved telling stories to her three younger siblings. When she was a bit older, she started writing the books she would have liked to have read.
For the first 10 years after leaving high school, Ann lived various places in Canada (where she grew up) and Britain (where she was born) and tried a wide variety of jobs, from secretary to security guard to assembly line worker.
Ann had always enjoyed school and been fond of animals, so in her late 20s she attended Seneca College and got a diploma as an Animal Health Technician. She worked for a large animal vet (in Peterborough) and a small animal vet (in Toronto) but found she didn't enjoy the work. Instead, she returned to school again and this time had a wonderful time at the University of Toronto, earning a degree in Linguistics, specializing in Old English, Latin, and Irish Gaelic.
Since graduating, Ann has worked as a technical writer. She's been with many companies and currently works full-time for IBM.
My friend Richard Scarsbrook tagged me in this writers' blog chain-letter, but I haven't been able to find any other writers to tag who haven't been tagged already. So if you read this and want to join in, let me know and I'll add your name at the end.
The idea is that each writer answers 10 questions about the book they're currently working on. So here goes!
Waldings' Curse
It started off as a sequel to Brondings' Honour but with more about the Waldings, the travelling entertainers. I found that readers wanted to hear more about teenage healer Dayraven's younger brother Derwin, whose "body kept growing but his mind didn't." I started to explore the relationship between Dayraven and Derwin, how she loves and protects him but doesn't really understand him.
But then I started thinking more about the "villains" in the book, who are ogres. Why are the ogres always wanting to kill and eat people? Maybe there's a reason they have to! That resulted in my rather gory short story "Ogre Baby" (you can read an excerpt here) but also resulted in me getting fascinated with the ogres and starting to write about them instead! So I'll probably change the title...
Fantasy, for sure! Young adult, I guess, since Dayraven's a teen, but I let the publisher call the shots on that kind of thing.
The teenage Amber Tamblyn (from "Joan of Arcadia") would have been great as Dayraven. And I like Molly Quinn, the teenager on "Castle."
Johnny Depp back in "Benny and Joon" times would have made an awesome Derwin! Nowadays, how about Chord Overstreet from "Glee?"
When a bandit outpost is threatened by man-eating ogres and no one dares to warn the bandits, Dayraven decides it's up to her.
My previous two books were published by Thistledown Press, so I hope they'll be interested in another one.
It took me about four years to think about and a year to write, but since I'm completely rewriting it now, who knows?
Very tough question! If I come up with an answer, I'll let you know. In the meantime, the last fantasy book I read that I really loved was "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer.
I was bullied at school, but I had wonderful younger sibs who always thought I was amazing.
Dayraven and Derwin pick up a travelling companion with a younger brother who's also unusual. He's completely hairless, and can do magic.
Now go read Richard Scarsbrook's "The Next Big Thing" and the other writers linked from it.
The Brondings'
Honour page The Firedrake
page Upcoming readings
and signings Back to the front gate