Barbara Korsness

Barbara Korsness served eight years in the Navy, then married and settled down in California, later Texas, where she and her husband raised three children, and Peruvian Paso horses. She now lives in Florida and works part-time at a high school. The remainder of her time is spent writing. Her first novel was Ancient Fire and latest release is Bull Dancer now available at Publish America.com and online bookstores.

 

 

Pageonelit.com: Where did you grow up and was reading and writing a part of your life? Who were your earliest influences and why?

Barbara Korsness: For most of my childhood I lived in Moline, IL. We lived near a large cemetery that covered rolling hills and overlooked the Mississippi River. The monuments, grave stones, and various statues would spark my imagination. I would pretend that the the tall columns were that of a Roman palace, or a bronze angel was guarding a secret entrance to another world .

I grew up reading Mark Twain, Walter Farley's Black Stallion series and many of the classics. My mother had shelves of books to choose from, and what she lacked I borrowed from the public library. I have many of her books, and some date back to the 1920's.

I didn't start writing until I was in my early fifties. I was busy serving in the Navy and later raising a family and had never found time to write.

 

Pageonelit.com: Why do you write?

Barbara Korsness: I write because that is what I love to do. If I go several days without writing, I become irritable like smokers do when they need a cigarette. I started with a creative writing class. We were assigned to write a short story each week. I enjoyed putting my imagination on to paper so much that I became addicted. I joined the writers Digest book club and started my own reference library on how to write fiction.

Pageonelit.com: Tell us about your first novel ANCIENT FIRE.

Barbara Korsness: Ancient Fire is more of a historical fantasy. I used scientific theory in my plot. Divers discovered an undersea stone wall off the coast of Bimini in the Bahamas. Some scientist think that it may be a part of a sunken city. That is what gave me the Idea for the novel.

While SCUBA diving off the coast of Bimini, Laura is transported back in time. She is in the same location but thousands of years in the past. Rayland, an old mystic, has brought her to Lantos. He is an Ancient One and needs her help to preserve the belief in One True God. In the land with a tyrant ruler, where human sacrifice is practiced, Laura becomes a priestess of the moon to save the Ancient Ones. Now she faces the dilemma of sacrificing those she has come to save.

 

Pageonelit.com: Your new novel is BULL DANCER which takes place in 1938 B.C. -- How did you go about researching the setting, time and place for this story? Where did this story come from?

Barbara Korsness: I did research by reading novels and non-fiction books. Several novels in the Children of the Lion series by Peter Danielson take place in ancient Crete. They were helpful by transporting me to that era and giving me the feeling for that time and place. One of his novels mentioned the ritual of bull dancing and I wanted to learn more. I found information about the Minion culture in a non-fiction book called The Epic of Man. I read a novel Dancer of Atlantis by Poul Anderson which had a female bull dancer as one of the main characters. More information came from the Internet. I was able to print copies of ancient maps of the areas mentioned in my novel. I read a book by an archaeologist who found a city buried beneath the sands in southern Arabia. One of the space shuttles confirmed the location by taking infra-red pictures from space. The name of the city is Ubar and NOVA did a documentary for TV about the discovery.

 

Pageonelit.com: In BULL DANCER, one of your main characters is Kira a woman who is a bull dancer. What is a bull dancer and where did the character of Kira come from?

Barbara Korsness: Bull Dancing or bull leaping was a religious ritual performed by both men and women on the island of Crete around 2,000 to 1,400 B.C. The bull dancer would pull herself up by the horns of a charging bull and do a handspring on its back. Each bull dancer had partner waiting to steady her when she landed on the ground behind the bull.

Minion women were treated as equals. Therefore, I was able to create a strong woman character at a time where most woman in other countries were thought to be no better then animals.

 

Pageonelit.com: You write historical novels -- What is about the genre you appreciate and enjoy the most?

Barbara Korsness: Next to writing the novel, I enjoy the research. For one of my novels I was doing research on the Vikings. I found an interesting bit of information about sunstones in a book published by National Geographic. Vikings may have used these stones to navigate when it was cloudy or there was fog. The stone has an elliptical shape. When the Viking held the stone up and rotated it, the stone would change color when pointing north. While visiting a Viking Village at a Nordic Fest this summer I met a man who confirmed there was such a stone.

 

Pageonelit.com: What has been your feedback from readers? What do they say to you about their interpretations of your books?

Barbara Korsness: The readers who have contacted me about my novels said the enjoyed them and wanted to know when the next one will be out. Several readers thought I did a good job placing them in ancient times and that I had a great imagination. All my reviews were positive. One reviewer said she enjoyed reading my book but wanted to see more description. She did recommend the book and was looking forward to reading my next one.

 

Pageonelit.com: Who are your favorite writers and why?

Barbara Korsness: I like to read a variety of books. My favorite horror authors are Stephen King and Anne Rice. For historical fiction I enjoy novels by Peter Danielson, Wilbur Smith and Noah Gordon. I'm making my way through The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. I think these authors have a great talent for plotting and know how to tell a good story.

 

Pageonelit.com: What's next?

Barbara Korsness: I have completed two novels, yet unpublished. Crimson Dawn is about a Celtic woman who joins Queen Boudiccia to drive the Romans out of Briton. When her brother is captured and taken to Rome to be sold as a slave, Taryn journeys there to rescue him. Sunstone is a Viking adventure that will take the reader from Norway to Iceland then far south to Yucatan where the Vikings encounter the Mayans. I have finished the first draft on a novel about the Spanish Inquisition.

 

 

 

Pageonelit.com: What was the last book you read?

Barbara Korsness: If I Perish by Deborah Turner. It is the story of Queen Esther of Persia and how she saved her Jewish people from annihilation.

 

Pageonelit.com: Do you have any hobbies? What are they? How do they enhance your writing.

Barbara Korsness: I have little time for hobbies, but I enjoy riding horses, oil painting, and dancing. I took middle eastern dance for several years. We learned ancient dances from Greece, the Middle East and several ceremonial Egyptian dances. This gave me a little back ground for my books. I love animals and in each of my novels an animal theme is woven into the plot.