Kingdoms of Wrath and Ice, our first anthology, will publish in November 2022. Get to know some of the authors behind these tales of icy villains!
Jan Marie Reynoldson’s story, The Winter Queen, will appear for the first time in Kingdoms of Wrath and Ice.
Welcome, Jan!
Tell us about what got you into writing
I have always made up stories, but it was only in my first year of university that I started writing. I thought of a fantastic idea for a story and just started writing it down. I have written stories for 40 years now and have no intention of stopping. Writing is my greatest satisfaction.
What’s your favorite book you’ve read this year?
I’m currently reading the series The Four Cities of Arcera by Liz Delton and I am enjoying it immensely. It is my favorite so far this year.
Who are your must-buy authors?
I love J. R. R. Tolkien’s books and cannot resist buying them when I find one I don’t have.
Give us a quick intro about your story!
My story, The Winter Queen, tells how the queen of winter and her consort the North Wind, furious for the presence of humans in their realm, try to drive the men away with their powers over snow, ice and blizzards. When their methods fail, the Winter Queen decides to use a magical curse. The curse works, but her purity is compromised and she risks losing all she values.
What was your favorite aspect of writing this story?
It was my first short story and I was surprised how quickly I was able to finish it. I typically work more than ten years on my stories. Writing one in 10 days was an amazing feeling.
What inspired you to write this story?
I had a dream of the basic story plot, and thought it would work well for the anthology. I wanted to see if I could write a short story, and it worked.
What’s winter like where you live?
I live in the mountains and we occasionally have snow storms that dump a meter of snow on the ground in less than a day. We also have strong blizzards that can last for days. Winter typically lasts 8 months, from October to May. it is much like my story.
What’s your favorite part of winter?
My favorite part of winter is when it snows huge clumps of flakes, that drift down slowly like falling leaves or feathers. My favorite season is autumn. I love the colors, the odors of dry leaves, and cooler weather.
Do you prefer writing short stories, or longer works?
I prefer writing long works, but I had fun with this story and I want to try more.
What else do you write?
I write fantasy stories, but I have a long sci-fi story and a short horror story in the works.
About the author
Jan Marie Reynoldson was born in 1962 in Nebraska and spent her childhood living on the plains of Nebraska and Kansas. She moved to Italy in 1987 to help construct a physics experiment in an underground laboratory and continued to work under the mountain on that and other experiments until 2014.
She fell in love with the area and Italian lifestyle and decided to stay. She lives in a national park in the mountains of central Italy with her Italian husband and daughter.
She has always enjoyed writing poetry and inventing stories in her mind and started writing them down in her first year of university. For the most part her stories are fantasy oriented. Her most important creation is an eight book fantasy series The Seventh Hand, of which the first book is published. She is in the process of publishing the rest of the series.
