Story Behind The Book
For me to say that the idea for my novel Twilight of Avalon came to me in a dream seems almost too fantastic a story to be believed. But it really is true, and it happened this way: It was an afternoon in the early spring of 2006, and I was four months pregnant with my little girl. I'd been writing and trying to get published for a few years, always coming close but never selling a book. I'd just weeks before been dropped by my first agent, who had decided to pursue another career--and that afternoon, I'd gotten my final-nail-in-the-coffin rejection on the book I'd been shopping around. I remember sitting at my computer and thinking that maybe my career as an author wasn't ever going to be. I had my daughter to think about, after all. My husband was in grad school, I was the one planning to stay home with the baby, and maybe this was a sign from the universe that I needed to give up on writing and just focus on being a mother. But at the same time, I did have my daughter to think about. Even though she wasn't born yet. Even though I didn't yet even really know who she was. I was going to be a mother. And I had to ask myself what I wanted my daughter to learn from me, to take from the example I set by my own life. That if your dream doesn't come true easily or right away you just give up on it? Of course not. Any dream worth having is worth fighting for. That was what I wanted my daughter to know. And I decided that afternoon that I was going to write another book--though I didn't yet know what it was going to be. Only that I was going to find a new and completely different story to tell. And that this one was going to be "the one"--the one that made it off my computer, onto the shelves of real, actual bookstores, and into real readers' hands. And a week or so later I had a dream. A very vivid dream that I was telling my mom that I was going to write a novel about the daughter of Modred, great villain of the cycle of King Arthur tales. I'd been an English major in college with a focus on Medieval literature, and had fallen in love with the Arthurian world then. So when I woke up, the idea just wouldn't let me go. And over the next nine months or so--with a brief break for my daughter's birth!--that same idea turned into the manuscript for Twilight of Avalon.
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Reviews
<span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, fantasy;font-size:16px;line-height:normal;"></span><blockquote><p style="margin:10px 20px 0px;line-height:1.4;"><em>"...Elliott explores and expands on the traditional legends and mythologies of King Arthur and Tristan and Isolde in a unique and delightful way. ... [She] has created a most promising first novel filled with passion, courage, and timeless magic."</em></p><p style="margin:10px 20px 0px;line-height:1.4;text-align:right;">-- Jane Henriksen Baird, <em>Library Journal</em></p></blockquote><blockquote><p style="margin:10px 20px 0px;line-height:1.4;"><em>"Elliott's reworking of a timeworn medieval tale reinvigorates the celebrated romance between Trystan and Isolde...Fans of the many Arthurian cycles will relish this appropriately fantastical offshoot of the Arthurian legend."</em></p><p style="margin:10px 20px 0px;line-height:1.4;text-align:right;">-- Margaret Flanagan, <em>Booklist</em></p></blockquote><blockquote><p style="margin:10px 20px 0px;line-height:1.4;"><em>"This...is a dark vision, inspired by Geoffrey of Monmouth's account of disunity and treachery among the British leaders, and it maintains powerful tension throughout as it exposes the suffering of those affected by their cruelty and shortsightedness. Strongly recommended."</em></p><p style="margin:10px 20px 0px;line-height:1.4;text-align:right;">-- Ray Thompson, <em>Historical Novels Review</em></p><p style="margin:10px 20px 0px;line-height:1.4;text-align:right;">(Editors' Choice Review)</p></blockquote><blockquote><p style="margin:10px 20px 0px;line-height:1.4;"><em>"From out of the swirling mists of legend and history of 6th century Dark Age Britain, in </em>Twilight of Avalon<em> Anna Elliott has fashioned a worthy addition to the Arthurian and Trystan and Isolde cycles, weaving their stories together with Isolde's personal one. This Isolde steps out from myth to become a living, breathing woman and one whose journey is heroic."</em></p><p style="margin:10px 20px 0px;line-height:1.4;text-align:right;">-- Margaret George, author of <em>Helen of Troy</em></p></blockquote><blockquote><p style="margin:10px 20px 0px;line-height:1.4;"><em>"Anna Elliott takes the aerie-fairy out of the fabled Arthurian tale of Trystan and Isolde, and gives us a very plausible version. Our heroine has the spunk of a woman of our era, and this Isolde is one we can all admire and aspire to."</em></p><p style="margin:10px 20px 0px;line-height:1.4;text-align:right;">-- Anne Easter Smith, author of <em>The King's Grace</em> and<em>Daughter of York</em></p></blockquote>