The Column Racer - Book Trailer

Q&A - The Column Racer

What’s the Story?

The story is about a fourteen-year-old dragon rider named Areli Roberts who earns a spot on the Abhi Hall column racing team after having an undefeated season.  Meanwhile, the Empire is plunged into dark and horrific times as the Emperor is tearing apart each sector of Areli’s homeland for a man named Degendhard the Great.  A man who the Empire slanders as a ruthless criminal and immoral fiend, but in reality 

Degendhard is a hero of the people, and now those people are paying the price for Degendhard’s actions. 

Once in Abhi, Areli is given two options by the Emperor for the upcoming season.  She can ‘win and live’ or she can ‘lose and die.’  Areli finds support in her best friend Fides and her new boyfriend Yats, whom she deeply loves and cares for even though she struggles with unresolved feelings for a different boy back in her hometown, a boy she truly thought was her soulmate.

As the upcoming season fast approaches, Areli has a confrontation with the Emperor’s niece, who threatens to destroy Areli’s season.  This threat, along with a deadly secret Areli soon learns regarding Degendhard the Great, pits her in a race both inside and outside of the racing coliseum to protect her life and the lives of everyone she cares about.

Why I wrote the book?

I wrote the book for my soulmate.  I actually plan to write a story for all my immediate family members.  She is the one who helped me find my passion for writing, so I wanted the first book I published to be for her.

So, I don’t exactly quite remember the chronological order in which the idea was formed, but I can give you an insight into how it happened.  I know that I wanted to write a story for the love of my life, and she just happens to be a barrel racer.  So, first I thought to write a story about a barrel racer and her season in barrel racing, which involves barrels and horses (it will be explained later).  But I quickly scratched that idea.  I am such a fan of Harry Potter that I wanted the story to be fantastical.  I wanted it to big.  So, I replaced the barrels with columns and the horses with dragons.  It’s also very cool to point out that her Chinese Zodiac animal is actually a dragon.

Then I remembered a specific instance when we were out at the barn and doing the typical morning chores of cleaning the stalls (which is very nasty business mind you), and there was this big junk of excrement from this big horse, and I quickly thought of that scene from Jurassic Park, where there is that Triceratops dropping and he is like “that is one big pile of ‘you know what.’”  And I had this vision of a dragon, in a stall.  A little girl watching from distance.  She had blue eyes.  She couldn’t have been older than twelve.  There was dirt on her face, and she was clinging to an old and rotting wooden fence.  The dragon was stubbornly fighting its owners to leave the stall and blew flames out at them.  And then I could see people flying these dragons.  I could see people doing a form of barrel racing on these dragons.  And then the story just kept on building from there.

In the end, it is a story written with all the love in my heart, for the love of my life.

Who is Areli Roberts?

Areli Roberts is just a girl who has always wanted to be a Professional Column Racer ever since she laid eyes on her first dragon.  She is aggressive and bold, and extremely competitive.  She is honest, but likes to withhold her feelings from people.  And column racing comes naturally to her, as if she was born to do nothing else except race dragons.

What is column racing?

Here is a video to help you understand what barrel racing is.  And after you are done watching it, picture giant columns instead of barrels and dragons instead of horses.  And a coliseum made of limestone, marble, and gold.

Look for The Column Racer on 11/6/2012 on Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook!

The Column Racer

Release Date: 11/6/2012

Overview

For fourteen-year-old Areli Roberts, her dreamy new school isn’t really a dream come true.  There is already a blade being sharpened to promptly execute her if she doesn’t perform in the racing coliseum as she is expected, she constantly feels the bite of animosity from her new teammates, and no matter how hard she tries, she can’t seem to clean away the growing amount of blood on her hands. 

Areli is a dragon rider, and one of the newest recruits to a school with the most prestigious and talented column racing team in the Empire, which carries an impeccable winning tradition.  Outside the mountain walls of the valley where she now lives, there is a brutal manhunt for Degendhard the Great, someone who threatens the Emperor’s rule.  When Areli’s not racing or training, she is spending her time with her best friend Fides or falling deeper in love with her new boyfriend Yats.  But after an altercation with the Emperor’s niece and later acquiring a deadly secret about Degendhard the Great, Areli is plunged into a different kind of race.  One in which not only her life is at stake, but also the lives of everyone she loves.

The Column Racer, is an adventure of love, loss, pain, and sacrifices.  It is a character-driven fantasy novel for young adults, and the first in the series of two books that delve into the world of Areli Roberts and the events that change her for the better . . . and for the worse.