Today you're in for a treat as we interview Author Cryssa Bazos about her exciting new release.
Cryssa Bazos is an award-winning historical fiction author and a seventeenth century enthusiast. Her debut novel, Traitor's Knot is the Medalist winner of the 2017 New Apple Award for Historical Fiction, a finalist for the 2018 EPIC eBook Awards for Historical Romance. Her second novel, Severed Knot, is a B.R.A.G Medallion Honoree and a finalist for the 2019 Chaucer Award. Rebel's Knot is the third instalment of the standalone series, Quest for the Three Kingdoms.
Connect with Cryssa through Facebook, Twitter (@CryssaBazos) and Instagram (@cryssabazos), or visit her website cryssabazos.com.
Hi Cryssa: Welcome to my blog.
1. What genre do you write or do you write more than one?
Thank you for having me on your blog, Margaret. I write romantic historical fiction. There is a central love story in each of my novels, set against the turmoil of war. I like to think that I make my characters work for their happily ever after, one tragedy at a time.
2. Why did you choose this genre?
I’ve always loved both historical fiction and historical romance. My favourite historical fiction has involved action and adventure like the Three Musketeers. For romance, I love most romantic sub-genres, but the ones that stay with me are the stories that also address more weighty issues. When I was thinking about what I wanted to write, all I had to do was look at what was in my bookcase.
3. What is your latest book?
I’ve just released my third novel, Rebel’s Knot, which is set in Ireland during the Cromwellian invasion in the mid-seventeenth century. This is a heartbreaking time in Ireland’s history, when Irish brigades were cut off from one another with very little supplies to keep their resistance going.
4. Is it part of a series?
Rebel’s Knot is the third novel in the standalone series, Quest for the Three Kingdoms. Each book represents another aspect of the War of the Three Kingdoms (also known as the English Civil War). Main characters from one book will appear in the other books, but readers do not need to read the novels in order.
5. When did it release?
Rebel’s Knot came out on November 8th and became a bestselling new release in Amazon, both in Canada and the U.S. Thank you to everyone who made this possible!
6. What do you hope readers learn from/like about your work?
I hope I can take the reader far away to another time and keep them turning the pages. I hope that when they finish the novel, the characters will stay with them and the book will have a place on their keeper shelf. In the course of all that, I also hope that they will have learned more about this tumultuous era, which shaped our modern world.
7. Do you have any new stories on the go?
Yes! I have a character whom I promised to give his own story two books ago. He’s been waiting in the wings, and not so patiently. I started working on it some time ago, before I got sidetracked, and now I can’t wait to get back it. This will be my fourth novel featuring Nathaniel Lewis, a morally ambiguous barrister and spymaster, and an old flame, a widowed business woman who is on the opposite political fence.
Ireland 1652: In the desperate, final days of the English invasion . . .
A fey young woman, Áine Callaghan, is the sole survivor of an attack by English marauders. When Irish soldier Niall O'Coneill discovers his own kin slaughtered in the same massacre, he vows to hunt down the men responsible. He takes Áine under his protection and together they reach the safety of an encampment held by the Irish forces in Tipperary.
Hardly a safe haven, the camp is rife with danger and intrigue. Áine is a stranger with the old stories stirring on her tongue and rumours follow her everywhere. The English cut off support to the brigade, and a traitor undermines the Irish cause, turning Niall from hunter to hunted.
When someone from Áine's past arrives, her secrets boil to the surface—and she must slay her demons once and for all.
As the web of violence and treachery grows, Áine and Niall find solace in each other's arms—but can their love survive long-buried secrets and the darkness of vengeance?
Get your copy today!
Rebel’s Knot is available through Amazon, and other Online Retailers (Kobo, Apple and Barnes & Noble)