I’m pleased to host trilogy author, Janie Franz, to my blog today. Janie Franz is a successful freelance journalist with a degree in anthropology, and has recently turned to novel writing. Her debut book, The Bowdancer, launched the Bowdancer Saga, published by Breathless Press. The third book, Warrior Women, will be released November 5. The rest of the series will be published by Muse It Up Publishing, along with another series and three other books, next year as ebooks and print.

Katie: I see that Warrior Women is the third in your Bowdancer trilogy. Can you briefly synopsize the two previous books?

Janie: The Bowdancer launched The Bowdancer Saga, a series of books about the life of Jan-nell a village healer and spiritual leader. The Bowdancer begins the story in her village on the horse plains where she despairs of every finding the child who she will train to take her place. A handsome rogue enters her village seeking healing for one of his men and fate intervenes. The Wayfarer’s Road finds Jan-nell traveling with her precocious young daughter, plying her skills as healer and midwife. Here she meets dashing bard Khrin who offers her and her child belonging.

Katie: And share a brief synopsis of Warrior Women?

Janie: Sure. Jan-nell the bowdancer, now pregnant with her second child, and her daughter, Mira-nell, trek up a mountain where bards’ tales have said a village of warrior women exists. Jan-nell makes this trip in winter—and in her condition—in order to find a place for Mira-nell where the child’s precocious abilities will be accepted. The women on the mountain, though, are not fighters or even man-haters. They have chosen to live apart from the world in a village of only women, led by a sisterhood of hunters. Chandro, a beautiful trackfinder, rescues Jan-nell and her daughter, offering them a home and the promise of love.

Katie: When you started out, did you intend to write a trilogy, or is it “what happened?”

Janie: It just happened, Katie. I had an idea of writing another book and sketched out the first scene of The Wayfarer’s Road but I wasn’t exactly where it would lead me. Then a chance line of dialogue in that book sparked Warrior Women. I have since written another companion trilogy called The Lost Song Trilogy that continues Jan-nell’s story. It will be published by Muse It Up Publishing, and I’m working on another three books that will start at the same scene but will present not only more of Jan-nell’s story but that of her two children.

Katie: What kind of research did you do for Warrior Women?