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Girls Are Most Empowered When We Lift Each Other Up
Rose M. Channing Author Interview
The Mansion’s Twins follows Ellie and Savannah Senka, fourteen year old twins who run away from home and journey to a magical world. What was the inspiration behind Ellie and Savannah being twins and the bond they have?
It felt right for the story for a couple of reasons. First, it was important to me to have well-rounded female characters girls could relate and look up to. Sometimes in fantasy books, when there’s a “strong female character,” she stands alone, and ends up bashing other girls in order to set herself apart. In reality, girls are most empowered when we lift each other up. Having two female protagonists gave me the opportunity to show this. Ellie and Savannah learn to work together, support each other, and bring out the best in each other. I also had twins in mind because I always wanted a twin sister. I actually built them around my idea of an ideal sibling relationship–of course, I wanted them to be real, so they couldn’t be perfect. But I always wanted to share that kind of connection and understanding with another person, especially because I did not have it with my own sister.
The new world is full of magic, but it’s filled with danger after being destroyed by a terrible storm. I found this new world to be intriguing. What were you hoping to accomplish when developing this world and do you feel you’ve told the whole story?
I wanted a world readers could immerse themselves in, that was similar to our own enough to be familiar, but with magic integrated deeply enough to be captivating. I also wanted to show how the people reacted to this disaster, mainly the way they came together in the mansion. I certainly haven’t told the whole story yet, but there are many sequels to come!
I think the twins go through some very challenging obstacles throughout the story and grow because of it. Was there anything from your own life that you put into these characters?
I think there are at least pieces from my own life that I put into every character I have, and some are more obvious than others. For example, Savannah stands out to me. I’m naturally a shy person, and have often found myself in situations where I’ve needed to step outside my comfort zone to accomplish something. This gave me strong connection with Savannah, who has to do the same in the story. She is quiet and careful by nature, and learns throughout the book how to find her voice and confidence.
What is the next book that you are writing and when will it be published?
My current work in progress is called “Acapella Angels.” It tells the story of Ellie and Savannah’s parents, Cassandra and Travis, in the days leading up to the storm. It will reveal their first meeting, how they fell in love, Cassandra’s time in Summer’s Angels, and the mysteries behind the storm itself! I plan to release it later this month.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
Ellie and Savannah Senka, fourteen year old twins, ran away from their unhappy homes, thinking they’d return after a brief adventure. Together, they journey to another world. The new world is full of magic, but though it was once beautiful, it is damaged, unbalanced, and dangerous after a terrible storm. Ellie and Savannah may be the only ones with the power to restore the world to its original state, for the magic of twins is rare and powerful. The girls are welcomed into a grand mansion, the safest place in the aftermath of the storm. There, they learn who they are, and what they have to do. To restore the world, they must travel through the mansion to the center of magic and reset the balance. They discover their own magical abilities, find joy and friendship in the mansion’s family, and face the dangers of the storm’s left-behind magic. The journey to the center of magic is full of twists and turns, magic and excitement. Ellie and Savannah support each other to overcome obstacles along the way, knowing the whole world is depending on them.
Beasts and Savages
“Ally : Thank you for awakening the imagination I thought I had lost”, a noble expression of gratitude from Emma Woods about her book Beasts and Savages, which is a narrative far from lost imagination. The intriguing science fiction novel retells the story of aging into womanhood from a wild perspective and the choices and struggles that come with it. The book juxtaposes girls having periods as their initiation into a life of childbearing, to the animalistic female being ushered into breeding. In the idealistic feminist world however, praises were limited to those who bore girl babies. Men were savages who were just used for procreation but otherwise left to their own devices. Girls were trained to embrace the social structure or face the consequences of rejecting it.
Lea Corre was only 16 years old when she started her change, her first period. Although to her mother, grandmother and nana, she was a ‘late bloomer’; having had theirs at 14 and as early as 12. This moment was a great lead in to Lea’s story, it instantly grabbed my attention and was the pivotal/symbolic point of the remainder of the story . Seemingly somewhat shrouded in secrecy, the facts known about ‘changing’ to Lea, were few and far between, having only being partially enlightened by her friend Lucille; who took the rest of her truths and secrets about ‘changings’ to an early self induced grave. Lea learned much more than she ever had in just a matter of days about changing, breeding class and a revealing sleepover with classmates, saw to it.
Ms. Dawning, gave Lea her official welcome to breeding class, but it was Rally who made a lasting impression on Lea. Classmates like Rally, Beth, May, Susie and the twins added to the population of girls that faced the changes like Lea would, but each represented their own circumstance with a great individuality in the situations that faced them all. Ms. Dawning represented the authority of the status quo, ideology that dared not be questioned; a constant in all the girl’s lives. Lea was driven however, and had her own ideas of what her life should be and a chilling revelation from her mother would confirm her convictions, as she struggled with the questions of nature versus nurture.
A civilization surrounded by wilderness mirrored the themes of resistance and authority and represented an identity clash of sorts. The idea of running from it surfaced as a road to freedom for Lea. Her choices took her on a journey of revelation, and ironically the wilderness and ‘savages’ like Tanner, Flynn and Miller taught her greater lessons than places she once considered civilization. She learned that she could not escape authority as she learned about karma, Locke and love. She even had to teach a few savages about things she had expected they already knew, but it was a savage that taught her something very profound; that her society used her body changings, as signs of readiness, for things she was not mentally prepared for. Lea’s resistance of a dictated lifestyle was greater than a feeling, for her it happened to be genes deep, and in the end, the overwhelming message was one of survival, against nature and odds, as beasts and savages came to learn about each other and themselves.
Pages: 260 | ISBN: 1517123844
LITERARY TITAN 