SAGA SATURDAY!! Welcome 1920s saga author, Terri Nixon...



Why Sagas?

This is something I’ve been asked quite a few times, given my writing history is actually quite firmly based in horror and mythic fantasy. Why do I now write historical sagas?

To answer this, I’d like to take a quick look at the preconceptions (and misconceptions) that occur whenever I say I write in this genre: I’ve had some nods, and encouragement, but I’ve also had more than my fill of the eye-rolling, the glazing over, and even the teensy, barely noticeable, little twitch of a smirk. The thing I find most frustrating about this, is that many of these are the same people who enjoy Downton Abbey, Poldark, and Lord of the Rings.

TV soaps are community sagas. Gavin and Stacey, a family saga if ever there was one. And don’t get me started on Star Wars – quite commonly labelled a space saga!

Too many people seem to equate the word with grey, dismal, poverty-stricken misery, without ever having picked up a book in the genre and read it. If they did they’d find humour, warmth, hope, family bonds… Struggle, yes, and bleakness, or there would be no story to tell. But they’re stories of people like you and me, fighting their way through lives they’re trying to change for the better, and using that humour and warmth to do so. There are often scenes of tense action and intense emotion, choices to make, and the consequences of those choices to be faced.

So, with my family and community sagas, I hope to change the preconceptions of the misunderstood saga, one real, honest character at a time: women who find strength in adversity; men who discover the deepest secrets of their own hearts; and the children who watch, learn, and emulate… for good or ill. There’s something about a strong family and community story that should speak to all of us.
We’re all living one, after all.

Blurb for A Cornish Inheritance:
1920, Bristol. Helen Fox is happily married to the love of her life: charming, former playboy Harry. With their three children, glamorous lifestyle and extravagant parties, they have the perfect life. But after a tragic motorcycle accident, nothing will ever be the same...
Helen is forced to leave their home and move to the Fox family's hotel on the Cornish coast - where she discovers her perfect life has been based on a lie.

Now Helen must find a way to build a new life for herself and her children with the help of a vivacious new friend, Leah Marshall.
But when the future of the hotel is threatened, Helen discovers that she hasn't left her past behind after all, and unless she takes drastic action, she's going to lose everything all over again...

Also available in Waterstones and other high street book shops.

Author Biography:
Terri was born in Plymouth in 1965. At the age of 9 she moved with her family to Cornwall, to a small village on the edge of Bodmin Moor, where she discovered a love of writing that has stayed with her ever since. She also discovered apple-scrumping, and how to jump out of a hayloft without breaking any bones, but no-one's ever offered to pay her for doing those. Terri Nixon is the author of The Oaklands Manor Trilogy, the Lynher Mill Chronicles, and The Penhaligon Saga

She now lives in Plymouth again, and works in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Plymouth University, where she is constantly baffled by the number of students who don't possess pens. 
Amazon UK Author page:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B00DI8R8K6
Contact info:
Twitter: @TerriNixon

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