Tia Nevitt


So you know Tia Nevitt as a brilliant reviewer? Meet Tia as author!!! The Sevenfold Spell (just released from Carina Press) is a wonderful warm fantasy and winning some intriguing reviews. Try a 5 star Top Pick from Night Owl Romance.


CONTEST ALERT: Tia has a copy of The Sevenfold Spell up for grabs. Details at the end of the post.


But first, here’s Tia, wearing pjs and talking writing. Where does the journey begin?

***

Welcome to my Pajama Party Blog Tour. Why a pajama party? Because I can only blog after-hours, due to access limitations at work. (Well, I do have an internet-capable phone, but it’s a fossil.) Here is the complete tour schedule.

I thought I’d start this tour with the story of how I got started writing. Because really—writing fiction isn’t a normal thing to do. Assuming you’re not a writer, how many people do you know who write fiction? And if you are a writer, you probably had to seek like-minded people out at various societies and critique groups.

When I was in high school, my art teacher said that artists usually follow more than one art. As soon as she said that, I knew what my other art was: writing. At that time, I wrote poetry. I didn’t write prose until my twenties.

It all started in the fifth grade, when I became the teacher’s pet. I had never been a teacher’s pet before. Quite the opposite. My fourth grade teacher often mocked me in front of the class along with all the other children. Very unprofessional. Before that, in the third grade, I was accused of playing with my fingers. What was I doing? Trying to squish away the blurriness so I could see the chalk board from my position at the back of the classroom.

Anyway. The fifth grade. Thankfully, I had glasses by then, and I could see. My teacher had us read and memorize a lot of poetry. It was tiresome, but I seemed to have a knack for it. Then, she gave us an extra credit assignment: those who memorized Hiawatha’s Childhood would get a special gift.

Check it out. It’s pages long. Only two of us attempted it. Both of us managed to memorize it and recite it in front of the class, if not perfectly. I firmly believe that every child in that class could have done it. My gift was a copy of Baum’s The Wizard of Oz.

From then on, I was addicted to poetry. But I remained fascinated by art. I enrolled in art during every year in high school And there was something I knew about myself even while I went to those courses and got A’s and was patted on the back for my pictures.

I was a mediocre artist, at best.

I looked at the artists in class around me and some of them were very talented. I knew I wasn’t up to their level. And I knew I never would be. A self-fulfilling prophesy? I don’t think so. Had I truly had the spark, I would have kept going. After all, I did with writing.

Tomorrow, we’ll stop off at D. Lynn Frazier’s Writtenwyrdd and take a brief tour of my early fiction attempts. In the meantime, here is a taste of The Sevenfold Spell, here are the opening paragraphs:

***

The booted feet stopped before me as I sat on the ground, hugging my knees. A well-worn, black military boot kicked forward, thumping against my shins. It smarted, but it could have hurt far worse. I looked up at the harried constable. He frowned down at us—a troubled frown, but not an angry one. He was portly and balding, and was a common sight in our part of town. This wasn’t an evil man, but a good man who had been sent out to do an evil task.

“Get up,” he said, his voice so dispirited I almost felt sorry for him.

“Don’t move,” Mama said. It had been her idea that we wedge ourselves hip to hip in the narrow doorway of our shop.

He sighed. “Come now, I don’t like this a bit more than you do.”

“You’ll have to move us,” Mama said.

The constable looked over his shoulder. The fairy hovered there. She was tiny—no larger than my hand— with shimmery pale green leggings and tunic. Her beauty made it difficult to look away.

“Can you move them?” he asked her.

“I am not here to do your job, Constable,” the fairy said, “only to see that you do it honestly.”

***

Have you ever wondered what happens to the other people in the fairy tale?

Things look grim for Talia and her mother. By royal proclamation, the constables and those annoying “good” fairies have taken away their livelihood by confiscating their spinning wheel. Something to do with a curse on the princess, they said.

Not every young lady has a fairy godmother rushing to her rescue.

Without the promise of an income from spinning, Talia’s prospects for marriage disappear, and she and her mother face destitution. Past caring about breaking an arbitrary and cruel law, rebellious Talia determines to build a new spinning wheel, the only one in the nation—which plays right into the evil fairy’s diabolical plan. Talia discovers that finding a happy ending requires sacrifice. But is it a sacrifice she’s willing to make?

***

I’d love to hear from you! At the end of the day (just before I shut down for the night), I’ll pick a random commenter for a free ecopy of The Sevenfold Spell.


30 responses to “Tia Nevitt”

  1. Thank you Rebecca! I have Alissa Davis (my editor) to thank for helping me polish up that line. I probably should have picked it for the CP Facebook Campaign … but I picked other lines that hopefully you will like too!Oh, English teachers! They can be especially wonderful. Because of my English teacher, I knew to go looking for the fun parts of Chaucer–the parts that aren't included in High School English texts.

  2. Good teachers are a blessing. I had a fantastic English teacher in high school who forever removed fear of Shakespeare. He read Macbeth to us. We read Macbeth to him (how he must have suffered). And we watched a movie version. Then we all trooped off to watch Mel Gibson as Hamlet — and at the evening movie showing, surprised our geography teacher on a date! How awkward for the poor man.Congrats, Taryn, and happy reading!

  3. Late to this discussion, Tia, but I love this: "This wasn’t an evil man, but a good man who had been sent out to do an evil task." So great! I also love to hear stories about teachers who see something special in their students. Good for yours for helping you find your way to your talent.

  4. Ok, I'm signing off for the evening. The winner of my drawing–random number provided by http://random.org–is Susanna Fraser! Susanna, I'll be in touch to see which format you want of The Sevenfold Spell!Thanks to everyone who stopped by. Please check by my blog tomorrow for the next stop in my trip back through time.

  5. Yay to Alice! All I can say is if you want to write, then write, and don't worry about what everyone else is writing. I used to do software development myself–C++ on a HP/UX! It definitely requires creativity of a different kind.

  6. Interesting writing, Tia. (By the way, you can blame your sister, Alice, for pointing me to your blog. 🙂 )I wanted to play keyboards when I was younger. Now I'm a software engineer, which involves creativity with a different kind of keyboard. 🙂 God has given me a passion to write, too, though I've read enough stuff on the horrors of publishing (not only from self-published and other-published authors, but from people like the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing) to be turned off of the idea of writing a book. Then again, I've never been an optimist. Someone once said that an optimist sees the proverbial glass half-full, and the pessimist sees the same glass as half-empty. The engineer sees twice as much glass as you need. 🙂

  7. All of my hobbies are anything but relaxing. Music requires lots of concentration; calligraphy calls for pen, ink, and a steady hand, and writing calls for something with which to write. My mother taught me to knit, and all I remember is, "Needle in, thread around, needle back, stitch off." Never got the hang of it, though.

  8. I wish I could sing. My most useful contribution to music is to hush ;)J — As for knitting, I don't think the wool's meant to squeak as I grind the two needles together — I have just a small problem with tension. Envy people who find it relaxing.

  9. Janni, maybe we can redefine normal among our own social circles.Susanna, I am a musician as well and I am in total awe of the whole composition thing. For that reason, I love listening to classical music.

  10. My other art is music, but I don't see it as in the same league as my writing because I can't compose. I'm just a decent choral alto who's gradually getting better at making up my own harmony parts when I don't have written music, because singing the melody gets boring in a hurry for me. 🙂 But I look at people who actually write songs with the same bafflement non-writers sometimes show to authors–I mean, they just hear whole new songs in their head and write them down?! How does that work?

  11. Taryn, I meant to say that I love it when this type of inspiration strikes. It's the basic what-if question that writers love to think of.

  12. I've always loved fairy tales, and their retellings. Several of my first stories were based on fairy tales. I write and knit and sew.

  13. Wow–a lot of writer-types here are realizing that they have more than one artistic pursuit. Looks like my art teacher was right!

  14. What an intriguing story! Enjoyed the excerpt, Tia. Now that you mention it, I dowonder what happens to the other characters!

  15. I enjoyed the post and the excerpt, Tia. I've always loved to write, my love of words coming from my school teacher mother. I can't draw to save myself, but I love photography.

  16. Lovely post and excerpt, Tia. I remember my second grade teacher the most. I was teachers pet three times that year! That was the year I wrote my purple dragon story. All four pages of it. I knew even then that I wanted to be a writer.(please don't include me in the drawing ;-))

  17. Nice Post, Tia. I didn't get my glasses until I was 17. I squinted and copied for years!! I love drawing but haven't in a while–not enough time. Must do something soon, just to see if I still can 🙂 Good luck with your release!!

  18. I dabble in poetry and photography, love experimenting with new recipes. Tried a cornbread recipe today that was awful and then consoled myself by baking a batch of monster cookies. And of course, I love to write. The Sevenfold Spell sounds great Tia, good luck with your release!

  19. Dee, I had an amazing art teacher who really made me think. She let me hang out in her classroom as a teacher's aid my last semester. Which meant I got an extra hour of art.Jenny, I added music to the mix as well as art and writing, but I'm a mediocre musician as well. I still love it. I don't draw as much as I used to, but every once in a while I have the urge to sketch, so I always have art supplies.

  20. Oooh, intriguing excerpt. Looking forward to reading it! I had a horrible fourth grade teacher too (my only one). What is it about fourth grade?!

  21. Tia's post made me think about creativity, too. Choices made, (lack of) talent recognised–that's me and drawing. I still sketch occasionally and take amateurish photos. But I now have a reason to justify my blithe disregard of recipes–I'm not cooking, I'm creating!

  22. You know…I never thought about my creativity before. I was a student pioneer of the Magnet visual arts program in Florida, and I've always had a passion for cooking. I dropped drawing and painting but now cooking and writing remain my creative outlets. My BFF of 20 years is an amazing artist as well.

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