A warm welcome to author Lisa Henry joining us here today at Love Bytes to talk about new release “Anhaga”
Hi! I’m Lisa Henry, and I’m here today to tell you a little bit about my newest release, Anhaga. When it came to writing Anhaga, I initially had ideas of it being a high fantasy, with archaic language to match. Then my main character turned out to be a snarky bastard, with very modern thought processes and speech patterns, so we sort of met in the middle, mostly. I mean, once you use the word “ass”, there’s no coming back from that, is there? So while I wouldn’t call Anhaga anachronistic exactly—it can’t be out of time if it’s not set in any real historical period—I ended up with a vaguely middle-ages world, with some definitely modern snark.
So while Min, one of my main characters, happily uses the word “ass”, he also uses the word “sweeting” as a sarcastic term of endearment.
I also stole a few older words and peppered them into Anhaga. Instead of “week” I used “sennight” which means “seven nights”. It’s odd that fortnight persists, at least in UK English, while sennight has fallen out of use. I might start a petition to bring it back.
I also spent way too long researching medieval underwear, and learning the difference between braies and breeches. You’re welcome! Let me tell you, there are way too many words for historical clothing out there, and a lot of them are interchangeable.
But if I thought underwear was complicated, it had nothing on currency! I initially decided I’d use an English system of currency, but in the end I gave up and just used a vaguely Roman system. Benefits of making up my own world—I can make up my own rules! Look, I get confused enough with anything pre-decimal when it comes to currency. I wasn’t going to fry my brain with medieval currencies for what amounted to two or three mentions of a specific denomination of coin in the entire novel.
But probably my favourite word I dug up in the editing process was “gulchcup”. I needed a synonym for a drunkard—I’d already used “drunk” a paragraph of two earlier, I think, so I couldn’t use drunkard again. And most of the words I found weren’t old enough to fit a medieval-ish world. “Boozer” dates back to the 1600s, but sounds more modern to my ear, whereas “oferdrincere”, an Anglo-Saxon word that you can sound out as “over-drinker”, was too old. “Groggy” is originally a word that related to “grog” but has now shifted to mean tired. “Souse” only dates back to around 1910. “Gulchcup”, which dates back to the 1200s, was perfect, and is descriptive enough that in context it doesn’t need an explanation.
I’ve written historical novels before, so I’m aware of the sheer amount of research that goes into choosing the correct language, let alone avoiding more obvious anachronisms. Can my cowboy use a toothbrush? Does my ancient Roman divide his day into hours and minutes? Is it okay if my flapper has a refrigerator? Writing a fantasy novel where I set the rules meant that I could be a lot more relaxed on that front. And because I was more relaxed, Min got to be more snarky. He’ll tell you he’s exactly as snarky as the situation required, but the first thing you need to know about Min—and probably the last—is that he’s a dirty, dirty liar.
Anhaga is available from Dreamspinner and other retailers!
Blurb:
Aramin Decourcey—Min to his few friends—might be the best thief in Amberwich, and he might have a secret that helps him survive the cutthroat world of aristocratic families and their powerful magic users, but he does have one weakness: his affection for his adopted nephew, Harry.
When the formidable Sabadine family curses Harry, Min must accept a suicide mission to save his life: retrieve Kazimir Stone, a low-level Sabadine hedgewitch who refuses to come home after completing his apprenticeship… and who is in Anhaga, a seaside village under the control of the terrifying Hidden Lord of the fae. If that wasn’t enough, Kaz is far from the simple hedgewitch he seems.
With the Sabadines on one side and the fae on the other, Min doesn’t have time to deal with a crisis of conscience—or the growing attraction between him and Kaz. He needs to get Kaz back to Amberwich and get Harry’s curse lifted before it kills him. Saving Harry means handing Kaz over to his ruthless family. Saving Kaz means letting Harry die. Min might pride himself on his cleverness, but he can’t see his way out of this one.
The Hidden Lord might see that he never gets the choice.
DSP: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/anhaga-by-lisa-henry-10641-b
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Anhaga-Lisa-Henry-ebook/dp/B07SX42V8
B&N : https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/anhaga-lisa-henry/1131014878?ean=9781644054642
Lisa likes to tell stories, mostly with hot guys and happily ever afters.
Lisa lives in tropical North Queensland, Australia. She doesn’t know why, because she hates the heat, but she suspects she’s too lazy to move. She spends half her time slaving away as a government minion, and the other half plotting her escape.
She attended university at sixteen, not because she was a child prodigy or anything, but because of a mix-up between international school systems early in life. She studied History and English, neither of them very thoroughly.
She shares her house with too many cats, a dog, a green tree frog that swims in the toilet, and as many possums as can break in every night. This is not how she imagined life as a grown-up.
Lisa has been published since 2012, and was a LAMBDA finalist for her quirky, awkward coming-of-age romance Adulting 101.
You can connect with Lisa here:
Website: lisahenryonline.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisa.henry.1441
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LisaHenryOnline
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/5050492.Lisa_Henry
Email: lisahenryonline@gmail.com