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Interview with Heidi C. Vlach, author of Render

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Render, a story of Aligare, is a story of a united world. Three non-human races work together to solve their problems. But in this peaceful place, a start-up mountain village hasn’t managed to attract enough helping hands. Aloftway village, made up mostly of the pacifistic, insect-like aemets, struggles to grow enough food. And when the local wolves start hunting people, Aloftway’s aemets fear to set foot outside the village street. They turn to the luckiest young woman in town, the founder’s daughter Rue.

But despite being named after a lucky plant, Rue doesn’t believe in luck. She thinks everything happens for a reason — including the wolf attacks. With a guard dog by her side, and her family’s chemistry techniques to inform her, she starts hunting for answers in the forest. Rue manages to strike up a rapport with Felixi, a reclusive game hunter of the dragon-like korvi race. He can feed Aloftway’s vital guard dogs. And he can provide insight on the mountain’s troubles — if if Rue can convince him to talk.

What genre is it?
Fantasy.
More specifically, magical fantasy in a secondary world, with all anthropomorphic characters. Render can also be considered a mystery, or New Adult because of Rue’s struggle to define herself.

What kind of readers will it appeal to?
I meant Render for 1) readers who like non-human beings but don’t like shallow, “talking animal”-type depictions, and 2) readers who like positive themes, and characters who are genuinely good people. There’s some grim subject matter but Render is fundamentally about hope.

Complete this sentence for us: if you like _________________, you’ll love Render.
Optimistic sci-fi, where you meet weird friends in unexpected places.

There are other books in this series. Do we have to read them in order?
The Stories of Aligare are all stand-alone, so you can read them in any order you’d like! There’s also Remedy, a novel about a deaf dragon and his hearing assistant assisting plague relief efforts; and Ravel, a novelette about a romantic friendship between a new mother and a charming bard.

Tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m a Canadian chef training graduate, but I found I liked waiting tables better than cooking professionally. In my free time, I like cooking, playing video games, making paper maché sculpture, and having way too many feelings about books to read them quickly.

Do you have a website where we can keep up with your work?
www.heidicvlach.com has some background information and lore about the Stories of Aligare. I also blog twice a week about things sci-fi/fantasy readers might find interesting.

How can we follow you on Twitter and/or Facebook?
I’m on Facebook as Author Heidi C. Vlach, and Twitter as @hcvlach. The full list of my social media accounts is available on my website.

What’s next?
I think I’ll work on a short story collection. I have some scratched-down bits of short story, and I’m sure I’ll find more shiny ideas to work with.

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  1. Pingback: Interview with Indie Author Land: Render | Heidi C. Vlach

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