Scroll down to Wednesday's post for a special announcement from Elaine Cantrell
Welcome to my blog. Laura DeBruce is my guest today. I asked her to tell us ten interesting things about herself, and boy did she deliver. This is one exciting lady.
10 things most people don't know about me.
By
Laura DeBruce
1. I once
thought I was from India.
My father worked for the U.S. Embassy and we moved every
couple of years. Sometimes it was confusing. In 2nd grade in
Ethiopia, there was an assembly on the first day of school where everyone had
to stand when their country of origin was named. I stood when they called out
India because we had lived there for five years, most of my life. My big sister
was next to me and she quickly pulled me down and told me I was American.
2. If I had
had a daughter, I would have named her Hannah after my mother.
Instead I named my main character after her, except Hana
Silna is Czech so her name is spelled with just one ‘n’ and no ‘h’ at the end.
My mother was named after her grandmother and is part of a long line of Hannahs
that date back to the 1500s, maybe even earlier than that. Because women have
traditionally lost their last name in marriage, I liked the idea of carrying
forward the name Hannah.
3. I made up
a game called Who Am I? that is frequently played by my family and friends.
In the early Prague
days, a group of us spent a weekend in a little town in Bohemia and thought it
would be fun to play a game where we got to know each other better. In “Who Am I?” everyone writes an obscure
fact about him or herself on a slip of paper like, for example, “I ruined his
childhood” or “My favorite place in the world is a rock in Nevada.” The papers
are collected, distributed and read out loud one by one. You have to guess who
said what. It’s an entertaining game and no matter how often we play we still
discover new facts about each other. The hardest part about the game is keeping
the grid of answers and who guessed what.
4. I spent a
summer studying at a university in Communist Poland during the Cold War.
My friend Lisa and I flew over on People’s Express airline
and took a train from London (plus the ferry to cross the English Channel)
across Western Europe and right into Warsaw.
5. I thought
about using the pen name Jane Dee for The Riddle of Prague.
I liked the fact that Jane Dee is the name of an actual
person who played a role during the days of alchemy and the reign of Rudolf II.
She was the wife of John Dee and Edward Kelley, the alchemist who wrote the riddle
in The Riddle of Prague, seems to have been in love with her. I also liked that
it’s part of my own name – Laura “Jane De”Bruce. But in the end it seemed more complicated to
write under a pen name so I went with my own.
6. I worked
as the local morning producer for the NPR radio station at the University of
Florida.
I had to wake up at 5 AM but I loved being one of the first
people on campus, making coffee, reading the newsfeed from the AP wire and
writing the news.
7. The
Riddle of Prague is based on a manuscript that featured Hana Silna as a
grown-up lawyer returning to Prague.
David Bolton and Ben Williams (Alex’s father) were the romantic
interests. Two of the most enthusiastic early readers were teenagers and so I
decided to gear the story towards young adults and those of us not so young
adults who love YA fiction.
8. I have
read all of the Harry Potter books at least twice.
My mother introduced me to the series when there were
already a few written and so I had the pleasure of devouring the first two or
three in one sitting. I was in line outside of Barnes & Noble waiting for
the doors to open the day the seventh book came out.
9. I was in
Dubrovnik, Croatia (formerly known as Ragusa) during a hailstorm in the summer time,
which inspired the Legend of Valentina.
10. I
graduated from high school at the feet of the Giza Pyramids.
I spent my last two years of high school in Egypt. We had a
great deal of freedom to roam around Cairo and could spend our weekends at the
Khan el-Khalili bazaar or riding horses in the desert.
Laura, thank you so much for sharing with us, and now let's find out more about Laura's book.
The Riddle of Prague
by Laura
DeBruce
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
When
18-year-old Hana Silna travels to Prague to reclaim her family’s home, she
discovers a riddle that may lead to a long-last flask.
The
contents of that flask could change the fate of the world. When a ruthless
enemy kidnaps her family Hana has to find the flask to rescue them. On her
quest she meets a mysterious man with a penchant for poetry, a Gypsy girl with
a haunting past, and Alex, an all-American boy who’s trying to save his sister
from a crippling disease. It’s hard to
trust anyone when the stakes are this high — especially when surrounded by
experts in deception.
There’s
only one flask, and Hana desperately needs to find it.
JFK Airport, New York, 1991
My mother says when we face our fears, we tap into a
reservoir of courage. I’m not so sure. I’m strapped to this seat like a
captured beast, and all I feel is panic. The airplane screams down the runway
and thrusts its 800,000 pounds of steel into the sky. We’re taking off in the
middle of a thunderstorm. My seatmate, immersed in a book, seems oblivious to
the danger.
He’s got curly, blond hair that’s a little on the long side
and one of those perfectly sculpted noses, and he’s wearing jeans and a
batik-patterned shirt. Early twenties, I’m guessing. Not much older than me.
The airplane gives a sickening lunge, and I tug the seatbelt tighter. My
seatmate glances over, a bit eagerly, with piercing blue eyes.
“You all right there?” he asks with a crisp, European accent
of some kind.
“I’m fine.” I’m not fine at all, but I don’t want to tell
him that.
“This is the amazing part.” He gestures out the window,
twirling his hand as if he’s conducting the storm outside. “Look!”
“I’d rather not.” The plane shakes, and I grab the armrests.
I’m only on this flight because my mother has inherited a
house in Prague. Actually she’s reclaiming a house—the one where she grew up.
The one the Communists took from her family when they seized all private
property. My mom and dad had to escape when the Soviets invaded Prague in 1968.
Now the Iron Curtain has lifted, and the people who left can finally return
without being thrown into jail. Unfortunately for my mother, now means surgery
and doctors. She’s at a hospital and can barely walk down the hallway, much
less haul herself onto a plane. This didn’t matter to the bureaucrats in charge
of the restitution of property. If the transfer of the house doesn’t happen immediately,
they say it might not happen at all. That’s why my mother is sending me, her
only child, in her place. That’s why I’m on this airplane instead of at the
hospital at her side, where I should be.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Laura DeBruce
is a documentary filmmaker and writer. She grew up traveling all over the world
thanks to her father’s work with the U.S. Embassy. She and her husband spent
twelve years living in Europe including Prague, Paris, Amsterdam and London
where she found inspiration to write The Quicksilver Legacy Series. In Prague
she worked as a lawyer for the first private nationwide television station in
the former Communist bloc. It was there
that she fell in love with the ancient city of Prague and its legends.
She lives in
the Washington, DC area with her husband and son and an unruly Golden
Retriever.
Website with
blog and trailer:
http://theriddleofprague.com/
Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Riddle-Prague-QuickSilver-Legacy-ebook/dp/B00FFBNUVA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386523998&sr=8-1&keywords=riddle+prague
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/TheRiddleofPrague
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LauraDeBruce
Laura, thank you so much for coming. Readers, Laura is giving away a $50 Amazon/B&N gift certificate to a random commenter. Enter using this rafflecopter link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e43468/
To follow Laura's schedule, go to http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/12/virtual-book-tour-riddle-of-prague-by.html
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for hosting The Riddle of Prague!
ReplyDeleteA very interesting way of getting to know about this lovely and talented writer with an interesting life
ReplyDeleteI love the 10 things. That was funny you stood up when India was called out. lol
ReplyDeleteLove the interview!
ReplyDeletevitajex(At)aol(dot)com
I'm still gushing that you graduated from high school at the feet of the Giza pyramids. That is amazing! Thanks for hosting! :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting facts
ReplyDeleteThis has been a most awesome blog tour! I enjoyed the reviews, the great exerpts, the book trailer and especially the fabulous artwork you showcased. With the staggering amount of research put into this book as well a your own personal life experiences I have no doubt this is a best seller. Thanks for sharing and best of luck.
ReplyDeleteilookfamous(at)yahoo(dot)com