I’m happy to welcome award-winning author C.W. Allen. Today, she shares her creative journey and new release, Tales of the Forgotten Founders.

Interview

What was your inspiration for this book?

I loved puzzle mysteries like The Westing Game as a kid, so the Falinnheim Chronicles series was my attempt to give something back to the genre I love. Anime adventures like Bleach inspired Falinnheim’s shape-shifting slipsteel inventions. Tales of the Forgotten Founders is the series conclusion, so I knew I wanted to wrap up all the mysteries and explain how the world got started—Louis Sachar’s novel Holes and Kate Milford’s fictional city of Nagspeake gave me the idea to present this foundation as a story-within-a-story that the readers could dig in to right alongside the characters. I knew even before I wrote the first book that the backstory involved the ancient library of Alexandria, but as I did more research in preparation for this third book I discovered that political leaders fighting for control actually led to the famous library’s downfall, not a fire or a war as I had imagined. That conversation about book banning is incredibly relevant for today’s readers, but that wasn’t a theme I intended to explore until I was halfway through writing Tales of the Forgotten Founders —it emerged organically as I researched the history of Alexandria.

Which authors have inspired you?

There are a bunch of middle grade writers I look to for inspiration. Some favorites from my childhood are Barbara Robinson, E.L. Konigsburg, Louis Sachar, and Ellen Raskin. I was a big Agatha Christie fan as a tween, but I think today’s kids have a lot more current and relevant mystery authors to choose from. I discovered modern inspirations when I started writing: Garth Nix, Trenton Lee Stewart, Kate Milford, and R.A. Spratt.

What is your favorite quote?

I have a few! The African proverb “The ax forgets, but the tree remembers” has a lot to say about understanding differences in perspective. As a writer, I appreciate this quote attributed to Earl Nightingale: “Never give up on a dream because of the time it will take. The time will pass anyway.” And the Swedish saying “There is no bad weather, only bad clothing” reminds me to take charge of my choices and make the most of whatever situation I find myself in.

Any advice for aspiring writers?

The single best thing I ever did for my writing career was to join a professional writing organization. There are tons of these to choose from, whether they cater to a specific genre of writing or bring together writers from your local region. The League of Utah Writers was incredibly helpful in connecting me with critique partners and creating opportunities to learn the ropes from writers who were further along in their career than I was. I’m now a League board member, where I try my best to pay the favor forward and share my experience with new writers. Writing can be a very solitary endeavor, but that doesn’t mean we have to do it alone. Find your people!

What are you working on next?

Tales of the Forgotten Founders is the Falinnheim series conclusion. My next book is slated for summer 2024, featuring a whole new world and cast of characters. Mellie Morton Is Not Imaginary takes characters from international mythology and forces them to live in the same neighborhood. I had an absolute blast getting to work with an evil tooth fairy, a mischievous Japanese fox-spirit, a West African spider librarian, a legendary Chinese warrior, and fourteen Icelandic Christmas ogres all in the same story. So even though Zed and Tuesday’s adventures are coming to an end, there’s lots of great stuff to look forward to in my next series!

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 mom gets put in charge of an entire dimension. But after moving into Falinnheim’s palace, they learn that life as royalty isn’t as carefree as they’d imagined.

Mysterious hidden passages aren’t the only secrets lurking within the palace walls. When the siblings discover a stash of banned books, they realize everything they’ve been told about Falinnheim’s history might be a lie. And though contact between worlds has been cut off for centuries, returning home might not be as impossible as their parents claim.

Could the adventures of a runaway monk, a reluctant viking, a silent ambassador, and a rebel librarian hold the solutions to both problems? To find the truth, Tuesday and Zed will have to learn the stories of Falinnheim’s forgotten founders.

Excerpt

The tale of Cyril the Librarian begins with a library, a fire, and a daring plan.

This story is not about Cyril. But all stories are connected, just as all people are, so this is where we must begin. We’ll get to Selene in a minute.

Long, long before Cyril’s story began, a man named Alexander ruled the world. At least, that’s what Alexander decided to tell everyone. In reality, he didn’t even know about most of the world, let alone run it. But Alexander came from a long line of kings and was the student of a long line of philosophers and generals, each with their own roots in legendary tales of heroism and greatness. The only way young Alexander could see to take his place among their stories was to create one of his own. So when he’d finished taking over all the lands and kingdoms he knew about, he proclaimed those were all the lands that existed.

Alexander was an ambitious man, but not a terribly creative one, so the title he took to celebrate his achievements was simply Alexander the Great. (A better name than Alexander the Adequate, you must admit. But still—not the most original.) He became king of Macedon at the age of twenty, and by the age of thirty he was king of Greece, Babylon, Persia, and Egypt as well. And by the age of thirty-two, he was dead.

He was called Alexander the Great, not Alexander the Healthy and Long-lived.

This story is not about Alexander either.

Author Bio and Links

C.W. Allen is a Nebraskan by birth, a Texan by experience, a Hoosier by marriage, and a Utahn by geography. She knew she wanted to be a writer the moment she read The Westing Game at age twelve, but took a few detours along the way as a veterinary nurse, an appliance repair secretary, and a homeschool parent. She writes long stories for children and short stories for former children. When she’s not writing, she helps other writers hone their craft as a board member of the League of Utah Writers.

Her debut novel Relatively Normal Secrets is the winner of the Gold Quill Award, being named the best children’s book of the year by a Utah author. The Falinnheim Chronicles series continues with The Secret Benefits of Invisibility (Cinnabar Moth, 2022) and Tales of the Forgotten Founders (Cinnabar Moth, 2023). She also has shorter work published in numerous anthologies. Keep up with her latest projects at cwallenbooks.com.

Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Website | Newsletter Sign Up

Giveaway

C. W. Allen will be awarding a $10 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.

Follow the author on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.