Questions About Weaving Man (Prophecy, #1)

by Tove Foss Ford (Goodreads Author)

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Answered Questions (3)

When will the second book be out? Also, I am confused by the description of the book as "steampunk." This seems odd to me.

Tove Ford Hello! Glad to hear from you.

I am planning to have the second book of the series, Love and Sacrifice, out in April 2017 (fate willing and the creek do…moreHello! Glad to hear from you.

I am planning to have the second book of the series, Love and Sacrifice, out in April 2017 (fate willing and the creek don't rise!)

Weaving Man's "steampunk" genre identification came about when I found that it's impossible to list a book on Amazon without specifying a couple of genres that it supposedly fits into. When I started write Weaving Man, I didn't set out to have it fit into a genre. I didn't know that much about book marketing genres. I knew there were categories that books fell into - fiction, non-fiction, biography - and I knew that there were categories within those guidelines - science fiction, fantasy, romance, etc. I never suspected that there were so many niche genres tied in with the actual marketing of a book.

Long ago, during a correspondence with an author I admired as a teenager, I asked if it was really true that you had to go to a place before you could write about it, or that you had to have experienced a life event or historical happening before writing about it (this was a very popular notion at the time and teenagers were discouraged from writing fiction because they "hadn't experienced anything").

My author friend answered that so long as your characters rang true in their emotions, thoughts and reactions, you could set your story wherever and whenever you wished, be it on the planet Zyswicz or in the 11th century - that with believable and engaging character interaction, all the rest was just research or imagination. I took heed.

So The Prophecy Series is really about characters - people and how they react to, affect and create their world. The setting of the planet Eirdon was inspired by a short story sketch that my ex-husband had started. I was intrigued by one of the characters (Menders) and had a flash of inspiration, a four-book story arc that covers almost a century of Mordania's history.

One of the themes throughout the series is the effect of advancing technology on the planet Eirdon and the people who live there - and how the characters in the books interact with this technology and its effects on society/culture.

Weaving Man, as the first and foundation book of The Prophecy Series, is perched at the dawn of an Industrial Revolution on Eirdon. Technology isn't that enmeshed in the characters' lives at this point in the story.

Weaving Man is more about introducing the core family of characters and doing a lot of world building. As the technological aspect of Eirdon progresses, there will be more references to what we've come to call "steampunk" themes. They will never be paramount - the story of the people and their lives will always be first - but with time, advancing technology will affect them all and decisions will be made by some as to just how it will affect their planet.

So there you have it - while trying to list Weaving Man on Amazon (and knowing the content of the next volumes of The Prophecy Series), I felt that "steampunk" wouldn't be a bad genre to assign it to. It's also listed in the Science Fiction/Fantasy Epic genre (you have to pick two).

Again, thanks so much for your question!

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Is there romance in this novel?

Tove Ford Hi - thanks for asking a question!

Hard to answer this question, really. There are two couples who fall in love and become committed to one another in…moreHi - thanks for asking a question!

Hard to answer this question, really. There are two couples who fall in love and become committed to one another in Weaving Man, and their courtships and relationships are an important part of the novel and the three novels to come. However, I made a decision when I started the Eirdon books to focus more on the emotional aspects of the characters and their interactions rather than on erotic episodes.

So yes, there are couples, straight and gay, all through the series who find each other and become lovers/committed to each other. There are no explicit sex scenes, not that I have anything against erotic writing. There are adult situations and subjects, but not the subject matter you would expect from a romance novel.

Personally I find romance in it, with everything from a brave young man whose life has been smashed to smithereens by becoming an "instant" father to a child not his own and immediately committing himself to her protection and care, to a mentally ill young assassin who has finally found some stability and love in his life ready to sacrifice it all to keep his loved ones and country safe. There is a lot of love, all kinds of love (parent/child, marriage relationships, love of country, love of friends, love of humankind, love beyond the grave) in Weaving Man.

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Hello! Why not come and have a look at Weaving Man, my first published novel, first book in The Prophecy Series of The Eirdon Books. Would you be interested in reading this book?

Tove Ford

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