Roliath:
The Eidelon Series
by
Amber Schunk-Clubb
Published
June 6, 2016
Publisher:
Outskirts Press
Genre:
Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
Blurb:
For centuries people have always viewed vampires as monsters!
They can only go outside at night, be killed with a stake through the heart and
harmed by garlic and holy water. They have no reflections, sleep in coffins and
drain humans of all their blood to stay alive.
As Alex Keen is told about the past of Geannifer Whitlence he
quickly learns that all of the myths, legends and stories about vampires that
we were told about were all just lies covering up the truth. Even the name they
go by; Vampires! They’re called Eidelon, they live out their lives every day
alongside the human race with many similarities. They have different
races/clans, they live with rulers, leaders and followers. They even have laws
and a legal system of their own. The most forbidden law, is to not kill anyone
from the human race.
While they do have to feed off of humans to live, they do not
have to kill them in order to do so. In present day Geannifer Whitlence is an
Eidelon in the Azeron clan possessing many talents and abilities that no other
Eidelon is capable of. Roliath is in a sense an origin story of how she became
who she is today. How she met Devon, her life-long partner since Roliath’s
beginning; Andrea, her best friend and progeny and all of the Eidelon that
still travel with her in present day and how their life-long battle with the
Osirians began.
The Eidelon Series:
Website ~ Goodreads ~ Facebook
~ Amazon
My
Review:
You
know Roliath kind of puts me in the mind of Interview with a Vampire because
Roliath is a story; a true story of the life of Eidelon Geannifer Whitlence as
she tells it in her own words to a reporter Alex.
Geannifer
Whitlence is out walking one night when she comes upon her best friend Brenna who
has been attacked by what she has not idea. While Geannifer is trying to talk
to her friend in her last minutes Brenna’s husband finds them and thinks that
Geannifer is the one who attacked Brenna and takes her to jail.
But
Geannifer is lucky and finds a way to escape. Later she wakes up in the middle
of nowhere with three guys who try to kill her but Geannifer gets lucky and
kills two of them and after she takes care of the third one she throws him into
a ravine.
She
later finds an old abandon house and stays there for a few days trying to
recover from her attack. While there a man shows up and he knows what is wrong
with Geannifer and why she is so tried. He tells her that she is now an Eidelon
and he teaches her how to live her life now and how to survive as an Eidelon.
After
Geannifer and Arghan part ways she finds an old abandon town and decides to make
this her home so she moves into one of the homes and starts remodeling. It is
not long before humans and Eidelon show up and want to move to the town and
before she knows it she has her own little city.
Some
of these people are Devon Glayson, Trevor Louce, Dillion and Kenneth when they find
out that Geannifer is an Eidelon and that she is the Mayor as well as the
Eminence of Roliath they decide that they want to live there as well and become
a part of the community.
Geannifer
and Devon hit it off real quick like and things start to heat up real quick
like between the two. But Geannifer has other things she has to deal with like
entities in her town as well as being attacked by Osirians. The Osirians have
been after Geannifer for a very long time. They are a life-long enemy of hers
one that she didn’t know about it. They are ready to end the little games they
have been playing with Geannifer all these years. But the Osirians don’t know
who exactly it is they are messing with. Osirians think they are going to end
Geannifer but they are in for a surprise. Geannifer is a lot stronger than they
think. Besides you don’t miss with the people Geannifer loves and get by with
it.
Once
I started reading Roliath I didn’t want to put it down it pulled me in right
from the beginning and didn’t let go until I read the last page. Well actually
it hasn’t let go yet. I am waiting on more. Well at least I hope there will be
more stories about the Eidelon’s and Geannifer and Devon as well as all the
other characters.
I
highly recommend Roliath to anyone who loves to read about vampires, witches
and other paranormal creatures. With Roliath you get a mixture of it all and I
think that is probably what makes it so amazing.
Interview
with Amber Schunk-Clubb
What inspired you to
write Roliath?
Several
things gave me inspiration over the years to write Roliath, the Eidelon world
in general as well as storylines for all 5 books in the Eidelon Series. But
originally…Roliath started out as an assignment given to me in high
school. It wasn’t even ten pages long and was just another typical
“vampire” story, nothing like how it is today…finished. The base idea and main
character I created for that short story always stuck with me though and felt I
could do so much more with it…and so I have. I’ve never been able to
concentrate purely on just my writing until the last couple years. But,
in a span of 11 years, off and on, I made that short story into “Roliath”,
created the world, the characters, every little in and out I could think of for
a five book series. I just never had the time to write ALL of it
between life, work…and more work. It wasn’t until my wonderful
husband gave me the opportunity to purely concentrate and move forward with my
writing. Giving me the chance to officially finish Roliath, which is now
published AND work on the rest of the series.
Can you tell us a
little bit about the next books in The Eidelon Series?
Sure! Book
2 in the series is titled “Secrets Unveiled”, which picks up exactly where
“Roliath” ends and at this point you as the reader knows just as much about
Geann’s (the main character’s) transition as she does. Not only do we find out
who Steve is, if he’s a threat and who has been tracking her all of these
years. But we find out so much more than that…hence the title
“Secrets Unveiled”. Even down to the small minor things that didn’t
make sense when she woke up from her transition. Like; why did she randomly
wake up on a couch in the middle of no where? Why was there a random table in
that cave? Or… Why was there a random dagger lodged in-between the ground and
cave wall, under that random table? She was made to forget her
transition for particular reasons. Reasons that we will discover in book 2, in
fact, at moments, the reader knows more than Geann herself. However, book 2
doesn’t just circle around what happened when she transitioned, it also focuses
on where she and everyone in her group is at in present day and there just
might be another battle with the Osirians that have overruled the city of
Toronto.
“Secrets
Unveiled” is actually finished. Just waiting to get through the
holidays to have my editor go through it. Book 3 is in the works,
currently it’s sitting at 84,000 words, which, is a little over halfway
finished. It picks up right where “Secrets Unveiled” leaves off as
well, continuing in a direction that will surely keep the readers flipping the
pages. I haven’t given book 3 a title yet, I’ve been thinking about
“The World” …which after you read Secrets Unveiled you would totally understand
why, but, I’m still thinking about it. Books 4 and 5 have yet to be
started, however, I am a nut and love working on more than just one writing
project at a time. So, now that book 2 is done, I’ll be starting on book 4
while I continue book 3.
Can you tell us a
little bit about the characters in Roliath?
Well,
Geannifer Whitlence is the main character, who goes by Geann for short. She
is an Eidelon from the Azeron clan, who possesses talents and abilities that no
other Eidelon is capable of. Roliath only uncovers the beginning of
her talents, as it is after all an origin story in a sense. Going
into book 2 and even book 3, uncovers all of the talents that she’s
learned/discovered since her city, Roliath, came to an end.
However,
she is surrounded by those who have become her family since she transitioned. There
is Andrea; who was the only mortal that knew of what she really was, became
close to her like a sister and even becomes Geann’s one and only Progeny. But
then there is also Devon…Geann and Devon have an instant connection from the
very first moment they met and their bond as a couple grows stronger each day
and have never strayed from each other from that very first moment. But
we can’t forget about Dillon, Trevor and Kenneth either, they were the ones who
traveled with Devon to Roliath and has become a part of Geann’s family/solid
group that has always remained at her side since Roliath.
These
are the main/solid characters that is focused upon, but going into the rest of
the series, all of the side characters you met in the first book still pop up
in the rest of the series, some, are even more important than they were in
Roliath.
You know I think we
all have a favorite author. Who is your favorite author and why?
I
guess I’d have to say that Stephen King is one of my favorites. When
I was growing up as a child in the 80’s-90’s my mom and I absolutely loved all
of the “spooky” movies, t.v. shows and books. Stephen King was kind
of a master at providing us with entertainment for all three of those
categories. In fact, still to this day…the works of Stephen King
takes up most of the space on both my bookshelf, and movie collection.
If you could
time-travel would you travel to the future or the past? Where would you like to
go and why would you like to visit this particular time period?
Hmmm,
well, as much as traveling to the past to be able to witness some of the big
events through out history would be pretty awesome…I on the other hand…well…I’m
simple AND sentimental. Sure being able to witness history would be
incredible, but, if I were presented with the opportunity to time travel I’d
have to go back to either the 1980’s or 1990’s. For those of us who
have lost a loved one always say, “God what I would give to see them just one
more time.” I know I’d have to follow the typical time travel rules
and couldn’t talk to her or anything to not change history, but still…just to
simply see her, hear her laugh, or see her smile would be amazing.
Do you have any
little fuzzy friends? Like a dog or a cat? Or any pets?
Not
currently, however, I used to have a cat, that even traveled with me when I
moved from California to Missouri. Funny enough…her name was Haven, lol. She
was an all black cat, with the exception of a small patch of white fur in the
shape of a diamond on her throat. I had her since she was just a
kitten and stayed by my side until she was roughly 17 years old. I
always thought that she was a dog trapped in cats body though. She
absolutely LOVED to play fetch, she drooled like a dog, and sometimes I swear
she even tried to bark like a dog.
Thanks
for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit with us today.
Thank
you for having me, I appreciate it.
Read
an Excerpt from Secrets Unveiled, Book 2 in The Eidelon Series
I’ve been told that there should be more
“cool fight scenes” in the second book.
What they didn’t know is that I was already working on it. I was planning on sharing one of the many
“cool fight scenes”, but reading through them I realized that every one of them
contains spoilers. So…I’ll give you a “semi-cool fight scene” for now. (Just keep in mind this is a non edited,
still in the works, type of draft.)
Lance started to walk away so everyone started follow and as Victor was
about to pass Geannifer to walk in front of her, she tapped him on the shoulder
to stop him for a moment.
“A gift!” She softly
whispered as she handed him the box she held. “From me to you! Well, from me to
you until we send it back to the ancients!” She finished with a grin and winked
as she continued to walk a head with the others.
Devon stayed behind to watch
as Victor took the lid off of the box to see that Sylus’s head inside and
neither one of them could contain their laughter.
“Welp, we know what her
alternative option is.” Devon laughed out as he saw the grin on Victor’s face
grow ear to ear.
“Yes, I suppose we do Devon!”
Victor replied with a look of what could pass as extreme satisfaction to see
Sylus’s head in the box then slowly put the lid back on as they caught up with
the others.
They quickly approached a
door at the end of a hallway to see Magellan, Dillon and a few other men
standing guard at the door.
“Good to see you Geann!”
Magellan began as he saw them all approaching. “How was…whoa!”
“I know, I know…” Geannifer
laughed out. “I look and smell disgusting, I’ll clean up when we’re done.”
“What happened?”
“The herd was bigger than I
anticipated is all and I promise I’ll tell you guys everything. But first,
what’s going on? What are we dealing with here?”
“Well, other than the room on
the other side of this door the entire city has been cleared out now.”
“Ok, so how’s the door
sealed, why not just blow our way in there?”
“Because it is made similar
to what we use to secure our meeting and quiet rooms.”
“Oh of course they have, they
just love stealing our inventions! How many are there?”
“Fifteen, twenty at the
most.”
“I don’t suppose that anyone
happened to see the inside of the room before it was sealed did they?”
Everyone stood silent giving
the answer she already knew.
“Hmmm…” She mumbled as she
folded her arms and silently thought a moment.
Everyone else remained silent
trying to ponder a way into the room but they all knew that the way the room
was constructed it was nearly impossible to break into and could possibly
protect them from the explosions as long as the door was sealed. She closed her
eyes while taking in a deep breath and as she exhaled she opened them and
looked over to Adam for a moment. As she
was trying to think of a way into the room while glancing at him she suddenly
remembered one of the memories she recovered along with an explanation he gave
her and started to form an idea.
“Do you know who any of them
are?”
“Yea actually, Jerome was the
last one in to seal the door.”
“You’re positive it was him
Dillon?”
“Yes ma’am!”
“Well then…” She softly
whispered as a grin slowly grew on her face. “Maybe I can get in there after
all.”
“How darlen, what do you
mean?”
“I don’t know why I’ve never
tried a “jump” like this before Devon, it should be relatively easy using the
same concepts.” Devon and Magellan were both about to ask what she meant but
Adam knew exactly what she saying and spoke first.
“I don’t think it’s that easy
Geann.”
“Yah, but I know it’s
possible because you can do it.”
“No I can’t.”
“But you have! You told me
that you did.”
“Well yes, but that was the
only time I’ve ever been able to do that! I’ve tried many, many times over even
more years. But, I’ve never been able to
do it again like that.”
“I know, but all I need to
know is that it is possible.” She
finished as she started to back up as far as she could and waved her hands to
motion for the others to make a clear path to the door.
“Possible to do what?” Devon
asked.
“To ‘jump’ and place myself
next to him using his appearance as a point to land instead of a visualized
place.”
“I know you're a fast learner
Geann…” Lance began as he now stood next to Devon at her side. “But you haven’t
had any practice at it yet, you really think you can get in there?”
“Why not? I started this
evening thinking that I could only ‘jump’ as far as I could see but look at me
now! After getting thrown into a canyon I’m able to ‘jump’ where ever I picture
myself in my head. So why can’t I picture myself standing next to Jerome and
land myself there?”
She then rubbed her hands
together and closed her eyes for a moment picturing Jerome in her mind.
Everyone silently watched in curiosity and after a few seconds Geannifer
started to run then 'jumped' herself but landed just a few feet in front of her.
She closed her eyes again as she stepped backwards until she felt her back
against the wall and concentrated even more before she ran and 'jumped' again.
She disappeared for about three seconds and when she landed she looked like she
was trying to walk through the door and hit her head on it. Everyone around her
smiled and snickered, herself included as she took a step back from it.
“I told you it might not be
that easy.” Adam softly laughed out.
“Not that easy my ass! It
worked! I pictured myself standing behind him and he's standing with his back
against the door talking to the others.”
“You saw the others?”
“Yup!” She began to answer
taking just a few steps back this time, stopped and grinned. “Every single
face!”
Just as she finished saying
that she didn’t run she simply took a few steps forward and disappeared on the
third step. After a few seconds went by and she didn’t re appear everyone
stepped forward to stand close to the door again.
“You think she actually made
it in there?” Dillon asked as he placed his ear to the door but still couldn’t
hear anything just as everyone else. While he still had his ear placed on the
door something suddenly got slammed into the door from the other side.
“Guess so!” Devon laughed out
along with the others as Dillon leaped back from the sudden noise right against
his ear.
“I can’t believe she did it,
I mean, even my style of ‘jumping’ took me weeks to get down but she got it one
night and now this? How does she do it?”
“Oh, trying to figure out how
she does a lot of things is nearly impossible at times!”
Not even seconds after Devon
said that they all heard the locking mechanisms within the door unlocking and
when it swung open they saw Geannifer standing in the doorway placing her sword
back into the sheath at her hip.
“Clear!” She yelled out with a large
grin on her face and stepped out of the room then started to walk down the
hall.
Author Bio:
Amber Schunk-Clubb was born and raised in Colorado where she
found her love for writing as a young child. From poetry to short stories she
always found unique ways to put her imagination into words. What started out as
something to do in her free time quickly became a passion as she got older.
Going into high school where she had more options, she took creative writing
courses and specialty classes to help her with her passion for writing.
In the beginning of her Junior year in high school she moved to
California and continued with her personal writing ventures. She took another
creative writing class offered her Senior year, feeling as though that she
couldn't have been luckier to land the class. Unlike any other class she took
in the past, this teacher gave assignments given on college levels and was able
to broaden the way she thought and wrote. Teachers can make such a great impact
on a students life and the lessons she learned is still valued to this very
day.
After she graduated she continued to live out her life for 13
years, continuing with her writing off and on as life allowed. Then she made a
move to relocate to Missouri where she still resides with her husband and two
step children.
After many years of continuous writing and creating the world of
Eidelon she met her husband. He gave her the push she needed to concentrate
more on her writing and the time to devote herself to it. With his love,
encouragement and devotion to her talent they decided together to make the
necessary steps to move forward with Roliath.
Author Links:
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