From a young age, author Joan K. Lacy loved travel,
meeting people in other countries, and learning to speak their languages. This
interest led to leaving UCLA to live a year in Europe, where she got excellent
practice with French, Spanish, Italian, and German. Joan is intrigued with
myths and legends from all over the world, and now is happy to combine all
she's learned, researched, and experienced into exciting and entertaining
adventure stories with a magical twist.
As an artist, the wild and domestic animals she loves
became her subjects for drawing, painting, and sculpting. Science, from quantum
physics to the cosmos, piqued her interest and broadened her scope for
storytelling. In her free time, Joan enjoys playing the banjo, bossa nova
guitar, and Irish fiddle, and spinning alpaca fiber into yarn. Her other
artistic interest is creating silk floral arrangements within unique glass
vases.
Her first novel, A
Shadow Away, is the first in the Alex Cort Adventure Series, where she
combines research, imagination, and personal experience to create exciting
stories filled with metaphysics, folklore, mythology, quantum physics, and
archaeology. In a world where time and space are not always what they seem,
Joan shows readers that anything is possible if they just believe.
In A Shadow Away, archaeologist Andrew Seaton discovers a
jewel-encrusted golden statue and realizes he may have uncovered the key to the
lost city of El Dorado. The statue disappears before he can verify his
findings, and Andrew must rely on private detective Alex Cort to recover the
prized artifact. The two men find themselves caught up in a dangerous race
against a corrupt colleague and a ruthless art thief who will stop at nothing
to claim the statue for themselves.
As each new clue leads them up the Amazon River and
deeper into the jungle, they soon discover things are not quite what they
appear. When all seems lost, the mystical powers of a beautiful woman guide
them out of danger and ultimately to the ruins of an ancient city, where Andrew
must right the wrongs he committed in a past life and Alex discovers a secret
of his own.
Who are your
influences?
I love Mary Stewart’s books The Crystal Cave, The Hollow
Hills, and The Last Enchantment.
Her books started my love for Merlin and the legends of King Arthur.
All of James Herriot’s books, beginning with All Creatures Great and Small. I love
the way he tells a story, and I encourage everyone who loves animals, and a
good story, to read his books.
When did you begin
writing?
I didn’t start writing until later in life. The benefit
of that is I can combine all I’ve learned, experienced, researched, and imagined into the adventure stories I
write now.
How do you come up
with your stories, characters, character names, POV, etc?
First, I’ve always been interested in myths and legends,
archaeology, and science. My characters evolve from the story I want to tell.
My three favorite characters appear in every story of my “Alex Cort Adventures”
series, starting with
A Shadow Away.
First is Alex, he loves adventure, has a curiosity about this world, and isn’t
afraid of danger. Dr. Andrew Seaton is an eccentric British archaeologist who
gives me the chance to write about everything from science to superstition.
Angel calls herself a witch and has her own kind of magic. With her I can write
about fantasy and the supernatural. They named themselves, and each has their
own point of view to add to the story depending on the scene.
Do you work from
an outline?
I first decide on which myth or legend I want to write
about. That determines what country the story will take place in. Then I start
my research, and from there start to develop ideas for the storyline. Those
ideas become plot points which I arrange in an outline then transfer to a
storyboard for additions and shuffling—which I find very helpful.
Tell me about your
favorite scene in your novel.
I love every single scene in A Shadow Away. It is an exciting adventure that still sweeps me
away into the world of my imagination.
Can you tell us a
little about your writing philosophy?
Write about what you know, because that will add depth to
your story. Also important, is to write about a topic that interests you.
Because if what you write is interesting to you, it will likely interest others
who read your work.
Have you ever
tried writing in any other genres?
I’m writing exactly what interests me: adventure,
mystery, and magic, blended with what I know about science and archaeology. I’m
in my happy place!
Do you have any
interesting writing-related anecdotes to share?
My stories are fun to write! After I set the next scene I
want to write for the story, I let my imagination go, and the characters “take
over.” They come alive in my imagination, and they usually have something to
say if I want to take the story in a direction they don’t want to go, or if
there’s a glitch I need to work out. Their ideas are usually better than my
original thought, so I don’t try to stop my imagination—I let it go, and write
down what they say as fast as I can!
Please visit me at
www.joanklacy.com to learn more about
A Shadow Away and future books in
