Monday, June 10, 2013

Spotlight and Character Bios: The Island by Jen Minkman

The Island

By:  Jen Minkman
Expected Publication Date:  June 1, 2013
*Novella* (80 pages)
Genre:  YA Dystopian
 
 Blurb-
 
‘I walk toward the sea. The endless surface of the water extends to the horizon, whichever way I look.

Our world is small. We are on our own, and we only have ourselves to depend on. We rely on the Force deep within us, as taught to us by our forefathers.

If I were to walk westward from here, I would come across a barrier – the Wall.

Behind it, there are Fools. At least, that’s what everyone says.
 
I have never seen one.’

Leia lives on the Island, a world in which children leave their parents to take care of themselves when they are ten years old. Across this Island runs a wall that no one has ever crossed. The Fools living behind it are not amenable to reason – they believe in illusions. That’s what The Book says, the only thing left to the Eastern Islanders by their ancestors.

But when a strange man washes ashore and Leia meets a Fool face to face, her life will never be the same. Is what she and her friends believe about the Island really true?

Or is everyone in their world, in fact, a Fool?
 
 About the Author
 
Jen Minkman (1978) was born in Holland, in the town of Alphen aan den Rijn. When she was 19, she moved between The Hague, Salzburg (Austria), Brussels (Belgium) and Cambridge (UK) to complete her studies in intercultural communication. She is currently a teacher of English, career counselor and teenage coach at a secondary school in Voorburg, Holland. She tries to read at least 100 books a year (and write a few, too!). She is a published author in her own country, and translates her own books from Dutch into English for self-publication.

In her spare time, she plays the piano, the guitar and the violin. For every novel she writes, she creates a soundtrack.

'I have always been drawn to writing. My first book was a sci-fi novel at the age of eight, which I painstakingly typed out on my dad's typewriter and illustrated myself. Nowadays, I stick to poetry, paranormal romance, chick-lit and/or fantasy. In my home country, I am the first-ever published writer of paranormal romance, and I will gradually make my books also available in English (seeing I have to re-write and translate the books myself, this will take some time!).
 
 Links
 
 
 
Character Bios

Leia is the main character. She lives in a society where children are deemed adults at age ten, and although she misses her parents, she doesn’t dare to question the way things are in her society on the island... until she meets someone from across the Wall (the barrier that divides the island in two).

Luc is Leia’s twin brother. He is a doubter; he’s not so sure leaving your parents on your tenth birthday is a very good idea.

Sol is the leader of the group of youngsters on the island, and he terrorizes Leia, Luc and their friends because he’s power-hungry and never wants to lose the power he has.

Walt is the boy Leia meets one night when she’s running away from Sol. He lives on the other side of the Wall and is called a ‘Fool’ by the eastern islanders because he comes from a different kind of society.

1 comment: