Category: The Write Path

Olga Godim

In this series, my guests talk to me about their books. Today I welcome author Olga Godim, who will be discussing Eagle En Garde with me.

So let me hand over my mic. The next voice you’ll hear will be Olga’s.

1. What is your book about?

My recent novel Eagle En Garde is about a young mercenary officer Darin in the imaginary country of Talaria. The plot follows Darin during one tumultuous summer of his life, and all his troubles are connected to the fanatical sect of Cleaners.

For several decades, Darin’s country has been surrounded by a magic-resistant spell. The king and many others wish to break the spell and invite magic back, but the Cleaners resist.
Darin doesn’t participate in the disputes. He is a soldier, not a philosopher. Then he accidentally overhears the Cleaners’ hidden agenda to destroy all magic workers in Talaria, including witches and elves, and his orderly life turns upside down. His sweetheart is a witch, his daughter is a half-elf, and he has many elven friends. He can’t allow the Cleaners’ scheme to succeed, can’t allow innocents to suffer. But what could he do, alone against a horde of zealots? His only choice lies in trickery and deceit to outsmart his enemies. And the anti-magic spell on the border suddenly becomes his only ally.

Originally, this book was conceived as part of the series, book #2 of Darin’s adventure, but book #1 has never materialized. For a long time, I thought about #1 as more of a back story, but now I started thinking that maybe it could become a full-length novel, a prequel. I just have to write it.

I talked to Darin about it, and he agreed. In Eagle En Garde, he is already an officer, a lieutenant of the mercenary company Eagles, commanding a hundred men. He is only twenty four, the youngest lieutenant in his company’s history. I asked him when he was promoted, and he told me his fascinating and poignant story.
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I was nineteen when I made lieutenant, but I don’t talk about it often. It’s not a pretty tale. I mutinied. My mutiny saved ninety of my comrades and killed eight of them.
I was still a soldier of the Eagles at the time. Our phalange was under contract to deal with the pirates who harassed coastal villages. The pirates learned about our contract and prepared a trap. First, they ambushed us, and seven of our men, including our lieutenant, were gravely wounded. We left them with a healer in the foothills of the mountains, in a camp, and pursued the pirates into the caves, but that was a trap too. The pirates collapsed the entrance to the caves, so we couldn’t get out.

We wandered the caves for several days and almost lost hope. Ninety of us, hungry, thirsty and terrified. Our supply of oil for the torches was almost gone. Then I found a possible way out. It was blocked by another, older landslide. After we pushed all those rocks out, we could free ourselves. But there was a catch: our camp with the wounded was directly beneath that blockade. I could see it through the gaps.
I told our highest ranking officer, the sub-lieutenant, but he refused to act. He said he couldn’t give the order and condemn our wounded to a certain death. But I knew if we didn’t get out soon, all of us would die in those caves. Or start eating each other. Ninety vs. eight is a clear math, especially for a military leader, but only an officer could give that order. So I said: “If you’re afraid to face the consequences, I refuse to obey you. I’ll assume the command and give the order.” I was already on track for promotion, and our guys trusted me.
He stepped aside and let me command the mission, but it was a mutiny on my part, and it resulted in all the wounded killed…by us, by the avalanche we created when we pushed those rocks out.

We got out and destroyed the pirates, but everyone knew what happened. I felt responsible. Eight people died because of me, seven wounded and the healer. I had to pay the price. I returned home with everyone else and told the Captain. Mutiny is punished severely by any military organization, and I knew what I faced. The Captain ordered me flogged – 40 lashes. It’s the harshest punishment under the Eagles’ Code and it’s almost never used. Many of the men were unhappy about it; they considered me a hero, but I wasn’t one. A hero sacrifices his own life. I sacrificed the wounded. I deserved retribution.

After the punishment, while I still stood in front of all my friends, with my back bloody from the whip, the captain promoted me. He said I had the courage to make the right decision, the decision that should’ve been made by an officer. The only problem was: I didn’t have the rights to make it. So he assigned me those rights retroactively.

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I think his story deserves to be told.

2. What do you think attracts readers to your main character?

I don’t know what might attract the readers but I know what I like about Darin. I think of him as an all-around good guy. He is a troubleshooter, smart, courageous, and loyal, plus he is kind to all those less fortunate than he is. I would like to have him on my side if I was ever in big trouble.

Recently, there has been a fad in fiction to make the protagonists flawed. Some are recovering alcoholics or drug users. Others have trust issues or harbor secret vengeance plans. Multiple varieties of ‘noble’ flaws unfold in recent books (never greed or pettiness, have you noticed?), but I don’t side with such writers. I think that all those flaws, especially substance abuse, camouflage a weakness in a character, a metaphorical hole or cracks in the soul.

Darin’s soul doesn’t have holes. It’s beautiful and undamaged. That’s what is called integrity. Some readers might say he is too perfect, but again, I disagree. I’d want him as a leader of my defense force. I’d never want him as a husband. He wouldn’t compromise lightly nor can he be manipulated. He is not an easy man to live with. He is a hero, a champion, not a compliant family guy. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t pair him up with anyone in this novel or the next one. Farther down the road, he might find his match but not yet. I guess he is too busy saving lives to dive into a romantic entanglement.

3. What message do you hope the reader takes away from your book?

This is an interesting question. When I started writing this series of books I didn’t intend to convey any message or preach or anything. I just wanted to tell stories, to entertain the readers with my heroes’ adventures. My novels are all high fantasy, so what kind of a message could there be for modern readers, right? But my characters express my world view. They think a bit like me. I suppose it’s inevitable, if a writer is true to herself. Now, when I look at the novels I have written, some published, some not, and some only in the first draft stage, I see a message coalescing, and it has to do with my disbelief in bureaucracy and my mistrust of people with power. What I say in each novel is: “Don’t accept unconditionally what the authorities, secular or religious, tell you. Think first. Doubt. Ask questions. Make your own decisions.” I guess my skeptical nature shows in my fiction, whether I wished it or not.

4. What do you think was it about your book that made it so easy to attract your editor?

An editor should feel an affinity with the writer’s style and story. It’s a matter of personal taste. I suppose my editor Nikki Andrews from Champagne Books liked what she read. She accepted two of my novels. Almost Adept was published in January 2014, and Eagle En Garde was released in May 2014. Both novels are set in the same world but tell stories of different characters. Working on them with Nikki was educational and a pleasure.

I’ve had a different experience with an editor too, not so positive. Before I signed on with Champagne, I had a contract with another publisher for Almost Adept, but the editor assigned to the story hated my protagonist. She couldn’t even read the manuscript to its conclusion. She sent it back to me, demanding that I change the story and the protagonist. I refused, and my contract was canceled.

Of course I was upset at the time, but now, looking back, I don’t regret the choices I made then. We were not a good fit, that editor and I, which is mandatory for a successful editing job. Moreover, her passionate rejection of my protagonist was actually a good sign. She detested my heroine as if she was alive. My story inspired strong emotions – a cause for celebration for any writer.

I was much luckier with Nikki and Champagne, but the main thing is to write to the best of your abilities, to revise your story several times before sending it to any editor.

5. Comparing the ideas you had before writing the book with the finished product, would you change anything if you could travel back in time?

If I could design this book and the entire series about Darin from scratch, with the knowledge and experience I have now, I would probably try to infuse it with humor. I don’t think I was ready for humor when Darin’s adventures first came to me.
Humor is the hardest thing to achieve in fantasy. There are few examples, the most successful being Terry Pratchett, although in his case it’s more satire than humor. I wasn’t even sure I could write humor until recently.

This April, I published a collection of short stories in the urban fantasy genre, Squirrel of Magic, where every story has an element of humor. The readers seem to like this book. All the stories in the collection are united by the same protagonists, a young modern witch Darya and her familiar, squirrel Beatrice. Together they kick butts of the bad guys and help friends in trouble. Their escapades include, among others, disarming a bomb, thwarting a bank heist, and finding a stolen fashion show. Of course there is humor in those stories. How could I write about a telepathic squirrel assisting her crime-fighting witch without a giggle or two?

Media links:

Website: ​http://olgagodim.wordpress.com
GoodReads: ​https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6471587.Olga_Godim
BookLikes: ​http://olgagodim.booklikes.com/
Wattpad: ​http://www.wattpad.com/user/olga_godim

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