Novel Publicity Blog Tour: Interview with Alyson Miers and Giveaway

I shared my review of Chalinder's Walk in the preceding post. Now, please help me welcome the author, Alyson Miers, and Charlinder to share about their experiences.

Hello Alyson! Thank you for sharing at Reviews by Martha’s Bookshelf. I have really enjoyed Charlinder’s Walk and there are so many issues covered I am not quite sure where to begin the questions! 

Questions for Alyson:

Q1  How did Charlinder’s Walk develop? Did you have the idea plotted out from beginning to end or did it grow as you wrote?

I had the idea of the post-Plague world first. I could picture the setting, and there was Eileen and company and all their struggles, but for a long time there wasn't really a plot. In 2006, in the first few months of my Peace Corps assignment of teaching English in Albania, Charlinder presented himself and the idea of a walk around the world took shape. It was a story I couldn't have written without some experience abroad.

Q2  Had you planned to cover so many social issues when you began to write or did that grow too?

Looking back, I think the social issues became inevitable once the plot began to take shape. There are just so many ideas banging on steel drums in my head. There will be more social issues covered in my later novels, though perhaps not so many per book.

Q3  What made you create Gentiola as the unique character she is?

That is a very tough question. I had just arrived at site for my assignment, I spent a week reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell because I had almost nothing whatsoever to do with my time, and that book seemed to shake something loose in my mind, so that once I was finished with it, Gentiola began talking to me. She's very quintessentially Albanian in some ways, but in other ways she's a citizen of all countries and none at all.

Q4  Please share with us one surprising thing about your experience writing Charlinder’s Walk, or about something else related to your career as a writer.

A memory that jumps out is how the comparison---which is not spoken out loud, but sort of left in plain sight in the text---between Charlinder and Marietta's son George. It didn't really occur to me until I was writing the conversation, and this parallel took shape before my eyes. I liked the comparison, so I ran with it.

Q5  Which word would you use to describe yourself and your personality?

Creative.

Q6  Did you include knitting in Charlinder’s skills because it is something you like to do too?

It's something I like to do, so I can write it accurately, and it's also a handy skill for a post-apocalyptic setting in a non-tropical climate. It's a way of making things with your hands while you're walking somewhere or waiting for something. It's an accessible field on which gender differences can play out, because everyday knitting has nearly always been classified as women's work, and in pre-industrial setting, it's work that absolutely must be done. So, when we have a man who doesn't have a mother, sister or wife to take care of him, he has to take care of himself by doing things that men aren't supposed to do.

Questions for Charlinder:

Q1  Which word would you use to describe yourself and your personality?

Pragmatic.

Q2  Briefly, can you share with the readers the most important thing you want them to learn from your story?

This life and this world are all we have, so we need to make the most of the time we get on Earth and be good to the people and creatures around us.

Q3  What is something you would never be caught dead doing/saying?

I would never, ever lie to or manipulate a woman so she'll have sex with me. If she isn't interested, I can find someone else who is.

Q4  What is the one thing your readers would be surprised to know about you?

I normally hold that the best fistfight is the one you don't get into, but when someone I care about is being insulted, abused or threatened, I'm throwing caution and good sense to the wind and flying into battle.

Q5 If you (either Alyson or Charlinder) could have readers finish a sentence what would it be?

This is from Charlinder:

The best thing you can give to someone is......?

Thank you again for sharing time with my blog followers and me.

GIVEAWAY!

Novel Publicity Blog Tour Notes: Wanna win a $50 gift card or an autographed copy of Charlinder's Walk? Well, there are two ways to enter...

1. Leave a comment on my blog answering Charlinder's Question 5 above. One random commenter during this tour will win a $50 gift card. For the full list of participating blogs, visit the official Charlinder's Walk tour page.
2. Enter the Rafflecopter contest! I've posted the contest form below, or you can enter on the official Charlinder's Walk tour page--either way works just as well.

About the author: Alyson Miers was born into a family of compulsive readers and thought it would be fun to get on the other side of the words. She attended Salisbury University, where she majored in English Creative Writing for some reason, and minored in Gender Studies. In 2006, she did the only thing a 25-year-old with a B.A. in English can do to pay the rent: joined the Peace Corps. At her assignment of teaching English in Albania, she learned the joys of culture shock, language barriers and being the only foreigner on the street, and got Charlinder off the ground. She brought home a completed first draft in 2008 and, between doing a lot of other stuff such as writing two other books, she managed to ready it for publication in 2011. She regularly shoots her mouth off at her blog, The Monster's Ink, when she isn't writing fiction or holding down her day job. She lives in Maryland with her computer and a lot of yarn. Connect with Alyson on her website, blog, Facebook, Twitter or GoodReads.

Get Charlinder's Walk on Amazon or Barnes & Noble

Book Review: Charlinder's Walk by Alyson Miers

This is a thought provoking story filled with societal issues.
 

Charlinder's Walk
by Alyson Miers

• Paperback: 492 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace (October 16, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1466443839
• ISBN-13: 978-1466443839

Available in ebook and print
Genre: Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic

My Rating: 4.25 of 5.0

Book Description
Publication Date: October 16, 2011
In 2012, the Plague ended the world as we know it. In 2130, Charlinder wants to know why. The origin of the disease remains a mystery. Their ignorance of its provenance fuels a growing schism that threatens to destroy the peace that the survivors' descendants have built. Unwilling to wait for matters to get any worse, he decides to travel to where the Plague first appeared and find out the truth—which means walking across three continents before returning home. Charlinder has never been more than ten miles from home, has never heard anyone speak a foreign language, and he's going it alone. He survives thousands of miles of everything from near-starvation to near-madness before he meets Gentiola. By then he’s so exhausted that the story she offers to tell seems like little more than a diversion...until he hears it. Nothing could have prepared him for what he learns from her, and no one ever told him: be careful what you wish for. The world is a much bigger place than Charlinder knew, and his place in it is a question he never asked before.

Review:

If you like discussions on social issues, you would like this book.
Charlinder is a 2o year old young man living in a small, 150 member, post-Plague community.   The only history that exists to try to explain what happened right after the plague, 118 years prior,  is a diary of an independent, fiery female, Eileen Woodlawn, whose feminist views pushed against the religious views of the time.

Charlinder’s small community has been built around a matrilocal society where children are raised by mothers and their brothers as the head of household with limited contact with the natural father.  Many work chores are divided along gender lines with women being responsible for spinning and weaving, men being responsible for hunting and carpentry, and the elderly and younger contributing where ever they can with chores like cooking and cleaning. 

Charlinder is a dedicated teacher and he is lucky his community has allowed him to continue with a school that teaches reading, writing and arithmetic as well as science and history. Charlinder, an only child and a bit of a misfit, spends time spinning and weaving, skills taught by his mother.  His behavior is unusual but accepted, yet the religious enthusiasts are starting to put pressure on other community members, including Charlinder, to recognize and teach that the plague was a judgment by God to punish man for his sins.

When tempers and disputes flare, Charlinder determines that he must travel to Italy to discover how the virus plague really started.  Charlinder sets out to travel across the United States, through the Bering Strait to Russia and then South to Italy. He must rely on the kindness of strangers for shelter and food as he walks across the world. Although he takes time to prepare some supplies, in a world without technology, where all activities are mostly primitive, no one thinks ahead to all that he will face, especially the language barriers. 

Through the walk the author, Ms. Miers, reveals different cultural communities with different prejudices and  religious, political, racial and gender struggles. There are recurring themes touching on the repressive roles of women in many societies and the harsh and judgmental way that people can use religion to control others' actions instead of encouraging tolerance.  The author shows that there is a never ending battle between the supporters of logic and science versus supporters of faith.

I found the travels and communities quite interesting. However Charlinder ultimately meets up with Gentiola whose life, actions and explanations of the past stretch realism.  Her answers raise more questions and Char has to wonder ‘Can she be believed?’  The best thing that comes from Charlinder’s thousand miles of walking is the influence he, even just one man, has along the way, and his own commitment to increased teaching and knowledge.
 
The writing flow is smooth and easy reading. Charlinder is a likeable character, if a bit odd. Although the community sexual system was not to my liking, I cannot say it is immoral without being judgmental on the societal choice.  This is suitable for mature YA and adults but, in addition to social issues engaging some thought effort, I caution parents that there is some open sexual discussion and activity. I’d say this story is best read with an open mind that is willing to see and ponder the dilemma of cultural oppressions. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gentiola complains to Charlinder:

Everyone learns history, but no one learns from it. Page 312.

Religion may be just a myth to you, but it is far more than a mistaken idea about the past you’ll be asking you neighbors to give up. Page 325.

Memory of another survivor explaining that Eileen has preconceived ideas just like the religious factions:

One’s religion is not the name of the church you visit, or the book you quote. It is the way you conduct yourself to others,”...  Page 343.

 Gentiola discusses tradition with Charlinder:

....there is no end to the ways that people are limited by societies hiding behind the safety of routine. It may help maintain stability, but tradition should never be used as a substitute for thinking for oneself. Page 392.

Thank you to the author and Novel Publicity for providing the book for review and hosting the Giveaways for this blog tour.  For a chance to win the book and/or an Amazon Gift Card please see the Author Interview and Giveaway Post. 

I will add this to my Post-Apocalyptic, New Author and ARC challenges.