Book 3. Elax & the White Witch
This was fun. I never thought I would be able to go from a horror novel to a drama and then off to a fantasy land. I think in this book I truly grew attached to the characters. It was all about what they were going to do and how they would do it. I liked the small details at the beginning and how the two kids find out about their past at the same time.
It was unravelling before me as if a ball of yarn were tossed on the ground and the story came to me quite easily. I had my beginning, middle and end. This was due to the script-writing history I had. So, I always wanted those three parts to be present. I could not start without those elements. The rest of the story sort of filled in itself.
I used the map.
I was living in Jakarta Indonesia at the time and so I used real places and Google Earth to search out the places I wanted to use. I love ancient history, so I decided to check out megalithic structures and places of interest.
The White Witch lives in a place near Bandung and since there are many volcanoes in Indonesia it made sense to put the Fire People on top of one.
The amazing thing with this book for me and I believe for my editor Janet as well, was that it took us out of reality. Now of course all books are supposed to do that but this was my first fantasy novel.
Not Lord of the Rings.
It is not as epic and long as Lord of the Rings. It was never supposed to be. I was always thinking of a movie. The typical three acts and so most of my books will play out as a movie in my head. The interesting part of this book for me was, that I was in a different world.
I could picture my characters with the Water People and the Fire People as well as Elax. Elax is my first ever wizard character and I loved him. I could picture him with the kids and teaching them magic while at the same time being very powerful. Overall, I felt that this book took me to places that I never thought I could go.
The back of the book.
Budi and Putri’s life takes a wild and crazy turn on their 10th birthday. They find out that they are not just friends but in fact, twins. For their birthday they receive two identical wooden boxes filled with mysterious trinkets. While they try to figure out what’s happening, they get swept down the river to a strange new magical world. During their exploration, they meet a wise old wizard named Elax who informs them that they are not here by accident. When Budi and Putri learn that they must unite the Water People and the Fire People to defeat the White Witch they cannot believe that this is a task that they can take on. With Elax’s help, they learn magic and set out on a journey to save their world. The magical world tests Putri and Budi mentally and physically as they learn more about their past.
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