The Black Shard by Victoria Simcox
A little about the book; it is 255 pages long with 1-2 pictures per chapter. It's listed a middle-grade read, ages 9-13.
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The Black Shard,
Victoria Simcox’s fast-paced, intricately woven sequel to The Magic Warble,
takes Kristina Kingsly and her schoolmates back to Bernovem … and into a
thrilling, often dangerous adventure.
Kristina’s stay at summer horse camp is horrible to say
the least, and it’s all because Hester and Davina are there as well, making her
life miserable. When Hester’s cruel prank goes terribly wrong, it’s actually
what sends the three girls back to the magical land of Bernovem. In Bernovem,
Kristina is very excited to see her former friend, Prince Werrien. When he
invites her to sail with him on his ship to his homeland Tezerel, putting it
simply, Kristina can’t refuse.
Reunited with her gnome, dwarf, animal, fairy friends …
and best of all, Werrien, things seem like they couldn’t get any better for
Kristina. But when Werrien becomes fascinated with an unusual seeing stone, the
“Black Shard”, Kristina is haunted by a ghostlike old hag. Struggling against
suspicion, guilt, illness, and ultimately the one who wants to possess her
soul, Kristina will see it’s in her weakest moment that she will encounter more
strength than she has ever known.
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| Victoria Simcox Bio |
Victoria was born in
Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, to an Austrian immigrant mother, and a Dutch
immigrant father. She now lives in Western Washington with her husband, Russ
and their three children, Toby, Kristina, and William. Her other family members
are a Chihuahua, named Pipsy and two cats, named Frodo and Fritz. Besides being
an author, Victoria is a home-schooling mother of twelve years and an
elementary school art teacher of eleven years. In her spare time, Victoria
enjoys managing her two older children's Celtic band. She also loves writing,
reading, painting watercolors, hiking, good movies, and just simply hanging out
with her family and friends.
I picked Victoria's brain with a few questions, for all you readers, here are her answers:
SBB: What gave you the
idea for a fantasy book like The Magic Warble and The Black Shard?
VS: I
remember I was sitting in the movie theater watching the first Harry Potter
movie when I envisioned my main character Kristina walking down a snowy
sidewalk. At the time that was all of story I had. I went home that night and
wrote my first page not knowing where the story would go.
SBB: If/When
you have writers block what do you do?
VS: I used to get writer's block, but then I realized it came to me
when I got too stressed out and felt like I was pressured to write. I had to
remind myself why I started writing to begin with—because I enjoyed it, not
because I had to; then I relaxed. If you are an aspiring author and going
through writer's block and feeling like there's nothing you can come up with to
write about, or your imagination has run dry, then take a day off—go see a
flick, or do something you enjoy to relax. You'll be surprised how ideas come
to you when you're in a happy relaxed state of mind.
SBB: Are
some characters harder to write than others?
VS: No, I have a vivid picture of my characters in my head which
makes it not to difficult for me to form their personalities. I think I draw a
lot from people in my life. But I create a character from different character
traits of more than 1 person.
SBB: If
you could meet any person dead or alive...who would it be?
VS: C.S Lewis: His Chronicles of Narnia have been such an inspiration
to me. It would be so cool, say for instance to have lunch with him and pick
his brain on how he came up with his beloved stories.
SBB: What
do you prefer coffee, tea, soda, water...
VS: I prefer coffee to tea and I admit I'm pretty religious about
having my coffee each morning and afternoon. I try not to drink soda other than
when I go out to eat or to a movie, then I always have a diet coke. Eight
glasses of water is my daily goal though I rarely meet that goal it's more like
4 if that.
~*~*~*~Check out Victoria's Blog ~*~*~*~
Victoria is giving away the ebook copies of The Black Shard
Read the first book The Magic Warble
