Ronlyn Domingue

Ronlyn Domingue is the author of The Chronicle of Secret Riven and The Mapmaker’s War, the first two books of the Keeper of Tales Trilogy. Her critically-acclaimed debut novel, The Mercy of Thin Air, was published in ten languages. Her writing has appeared in New England Review, Clackamas Literary Review, New Delta Review, The Independent (UK), Border Crossing, and Shambhala Sun, as well as on mindful.org, The Nervous Breakdown, and The Weeklings.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Domingue's reply:

In October 2006, I started to research my second novel, which I expected to become a sprawling, epic story. Well, it did—and not in the way I anticipated. That one novel transformed into a trilogy which is deeply rooted in themes and motifs from fairy tales, folklore, and myth.

Even now, as I’m revising the third book (the second book released this month), I’m drawn to other stories that come from the same creative well.

Wolf Skin by Mary McMyne: I got a sneak peek at this forthcoming chapbook from Dancing Girl Press. Most of the poems are fairy tale retellings, visceral and sometimes disturbing. They are told from the psychic spaces of women who don’t get to speak for themselves in the traditional stories.

Accalia and the Swamp Monster by Kelli Scott Kelley: Kelli is a painter and mixed media artist whose work tends toward the surreal and archetypal. This year, she published a fairy tale about a girl who must brave the wider world to find and return her father’s stolen arms. I read this one slowly, lingering on the haunting illustrations.

A String in the Harp by Nancy Bond: Every few years, I reread a book I loved as a child. This one is an honest novel about grief—a woman dies in a car accident and leaves behind a husband and three children—depicting how each person copes, or doesn’t, with the loss. Bond mirrors this with a desolate setting, a small town in Wales, wonderfully depicted. But what grabbed me then and now is what happens to Peter, the middle child. He finds a harp’s tuning key, and every time he holds it, he has visions of 6th century Wales and the bard Taliesin.

Learn more about the book and author at Ronlyn Domingue's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: The Mapmaker's War.

My Book, The Movie: The Mapmaker's War.

--Marshal Zeringue