Local Author Ascends with Debut Novel “Descent From Anwyn”
by James Coulter
Banished to the mortal realm due to her mother’s treachery, the fae Geneve harnesses her desire for power and revenge by raising an army to invade the fairy realm. Meanwhile, in an alternate universe, the young lass Alizeh is summoned by a powerful warlock to claim her destiny as a heroine and overthrow Geneve and her army.
With the fate of the universe at hand, only one winner can rise victorious. Who will it be? The scorned fae and her dark army? Or the budding young heroine and her motley crew of witches and other misfits?
Descent From Anwyn is the debut sci-fi novel of Lisa Chronister, a local author from Auburndale. Over the past 11 years, she has worked tirelessly on her story, which started as a short story until evolving into the first novel in a planned three-part book series.
Chronister was born and raised in St. Petersburg. She moved to Tennessee in 2011, where she met her fiancée. She moved back to Florida in 2014 where she has been living back and forth between Lakeland and Auburndale.
Initally, she attended two years of college at University of Phoenix for a degree in English Literature, but she never completed her college education. For the past decade, she had been mulling away at her story that initially started as a short story before evolving into a full-fledged novel.
As her story evolved and grew, her life and outlook, in turn, transformed along with it. She initially wrote one character as the main protagonist and another as a background character, but she so identified with the minor character that their role was promoted to main character, Chronister explained.
“I identified with her [Geneve] so much, and with everything that has happened through the life,” she said. “I identified more with the villian than the good guy, so I grew her as a character, and now she is the real character, and the main character is now the secondary character. She is still a main character, but not the main character.”
Many people who have pre-read her story have compared it to Maleficent with bits and pieces of Guardians of the Galaxy. Chronister did not consider this allusion to be intentional, yet she does see the similarities. She owes her main inspiration to Game of Thrones.
“I just enjoy being able to escape into the characters and story when writing it,” she said. “I lived the story when I was writing it, and I enjoyed it…It is looking at a different point-of-view than a normal story. It is showing growth, it is showing passion, it is showing pain, it is an emotional book with a beautiful story and if you hold on and read the whole thing, you will be swept up in a whole new world, and it will be feeling that you do not normally feel when you are reading a book.”
Chronister self-published her book on Amazon last month. Finally being able to get her book out to the public felt amazing. The only feeling that felt more overwhelmingly joyous was the birth of her own children, she said.
“Aside from having my children, I never had so much pride in myself once I held that book in my hand,” she said. “I cannot even describe how happy I was.”
Marketing has proven to be the hardest part thus far. Writing the book and publishing it was one thing. Actually getting the word out about it and having people buy a copy has proven to be much more challenging, she admitted.
“When I wrote the book, I assumed you only wrote the book and you were done with it,” she said. “You have the market the book. I am an introvert to the core, there is no extrovert in me. So going out and meeting people has changed things for me and now it is something I enjoy now and I am looking forward to in the future.”
Descent From Anwyn is planned as the first book in a three-part series. Chronister is currently chugging away at writing the next installment, though the overall process proves slower than initially expected. She is currently writing at least 1,000 words per day, and hopes to have the next book out within the year.
Here is an exclusive first look at Descent From Anwyn (click)
Descent From Anwyn is available on Amazon in e-book and paperback. For more information, visit the author’s website at: https://descentfromanwyncom.wordpress.com. Or follow her on her social media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LisaWil45693444
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-williams-22aaa599/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100073666057517
