Blog Tour: TALES OF THE FORGOTTEN FOUNDERS by C.W. Allen
Tales of the Forgotten Founders
by C. W. Allen
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GENRE: Middle Grade Fantasy
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BLURB:
Zed and Tuesday ought to be living the good life.After all, it’s not every day two kids take down an evil dictator and their momgets put in charge of an entire dimension. But after moving into Falinnheim’spalace, they learn that life as royalty isn’t as carefree as they’d imagined.
Mysterious hidden passages aren’t the only secretslurking within the palace walls. When the siblings discover a stash of bannedbooks, they realize everything they’ve been told about Falinnheim’s historymight be a lie. And though contact between worlds has been cut off forcenturies, returning home might not be as impossible as their parents claim.
Could the adventures of a runaway monk, a reluctantviking, a silent ambassador, and a rebel librarian hold the solutions to bothproblems? To find the truth, Tuesday and Zed will have to learn the stories ofFalinnheim’s forgotten founders.
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Excerpt One:
For some oddreason, Bastian started laughing. “Now you’re just messing with me,” he said,wagging an accusing finger at Tuesday. “London’s imaginary!”
Tuesday staredat him, perplexed. “No?”
“Oh come on,”Bastian insisted, “London’s in a bunch of stories. Peter Pan and SherlockHolmes both talk about London, and they aren’t real either, you know.”
“Wait, now youknow Sherlock Holmes, too? He wasn’t in any of the books you showed us.”
“That’s becausehe’s not from a book,” Bastian said with a shrug. “Here, see for yourself.” Hescooted over to the jumble of papers on the crate shelves and pulled out adog-eared magazine. He flipped past several black and white illustrations untilhe found the page he wanted, then handed it to Tuesday.
“The Valley ofFear,” she read aloud, “a new Sherlock Holmes story by A. Conan Doyle.” Hereyes flicked to the page heading. “The Strand magazine. January, 1915.”
“See?” saidBastian smugly. “London’s just a place from stories. Like Oz, or Neverland.” Helaughed again. “I mean, it’s not like there’s really a land called India fullof talking animals, just because The Jungle Book says so.”
Zed tried tobreak the news to Bastian without making him feel stupid. “Look, we know thestories are made up, but those are all real places. Well, not all ofthem—Neverland and Oz are imaginary—but India and London are real.”
“Have you everbeen there?” Bastian argued.
“Well, no,” Zedwas forced to admit. “But I’ve seen them on maps.”
Bastian justrolled his eyes. “Stop trying to prank me. Next you’ll be saying there reallyare giant wind storms in a place called Kansas.”
“There are!”Tuesday protested.
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If you could sit andchat with any author (living or dead,) who would it be and what 3 questionswould you ask?
Here’s the thing: it’s hard to meet yourheroes. You run the risk of discovering they’re actually people. So rather than an author I admire immensely, and whosewriting directly influenced mine, I think it would be safer to chat withsomeone I simply find interesting. Agatha Christie is the indisputable Queen ofMystery, but her writing was also laced with classism, racism, antisemitism,and xenophobia. The colonial era British Empire worked hard to instill theseviewpoints in its citizens, probably because it’s a lot easier to justifytaking over the world if you think the rest of the world needs you to fix it. Ican’t entirely blame Agatha for being influenced by the environment she livedin—but all the same, I wouldn’t exactly call her my hero. So for this exercise,she’s the perfect interview subject.
The Queen of Mystery created one real-worldmystery of her own. In December 1926, Agatha Christie went missing for elevendays. She left her young daughter with a house maid and drove away without anexplanation. Her car was found abandoned, with the headlights still on and herluggage left behind. Her philandering husband was suspected of having murderedher. Fellow mystery writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle hired a clairvoyant to divinewhat had happened to Agatha. Things were looking grim—until she turned up in ahotel in Yorkshire, claiming to be a South African tourist named Theresa.Witnesses claimed that when her husband came to identify her, she didn’t seemto recognize the man she had been married to for the last twelve years.
Agatha Christie lived forty-nine more yearsand went on to a celebrated career, during which she gave countless interviewsand even wrote an autobiography. BUT SHE NEVER EXPLAINED WHAT HAPPENED. Did anervous breakdown bring on a bout of amnesia? Was it a publicity stunt? Was shegetting back at her unfaithful husband? Did she just need some alone time? Ihave waaaay more than three questions to ask her. Of course, I can’t be surethat her answers would be true. But knowing Agatha, it hardly matters. Whetherunvarnished truth or wild fiction, whatever she had to say on the matter wouldbe a fascinating tale.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
C.W. Allen is a Nebraskan by birth, a Texan byexperience, a Hoosier by marriage, and a Utahn by geography. She knew shewanted to be a writer the moment she read The Westing Game at age twelve, buttook a few detours along the way as a veterinary nurse, an appliance repairsecretary, and a homeschool parent. She writes long stories for children andshort stories for former children. When she’s not writing, she helps otherwriters hone their craft as a board member of the League of Utah Writers.
Her debut novel Relatively Normal Secrets is thewinner of the Gold Quill Award, being named the best children’s book of theyear by a Utah author. The Falinnheim Chronicles series continues with TheSecret Benefits of Invisibility (Cinnabar Moth, 2022) and Tales of theForgotten Founders (Cinnabar Moth, 2023). She also has shorter work publishedin numerous anthologies. Keep up with her latest projects at cwallenbooks.com.
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GIVEAWAY
C. W. Allen will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawnwinner via rafflecopter during the tour.
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