Sound of Sirens: (Tales of Skylge #1) (15 page)

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T
his whole story more or less started with an old wind-up gramophone I bought off Marktplaats (the Dutch version of Ebay). I was looking for one with a big horn like you see in twenties movies, but I soon found out they’re pretty much unaffordable, so I settled for a simple cabinet-style gramophone instead. It fascinated me that the thing would play without any kind of electricity – and that set me off thinking what it would be like to have a society running parallel to our own where people wouldn’t be allowed to use electric power.

At the same time, I was toying with the idea to write a story about mermaids, but I wanted to write something with a different angle that hadn’t been done before. So in the end, I combined the two and used my visit to the island of Terschelling (Skylge) three years ago as an inspiration for the setting. So far, all my stories have been set in foreign countries, so I thought it was about time to be proud of my heritage and write a paranormal/dystopian story set in my home country, the Netherlands – but with a twist. Fryslan is merely a province of the Netherlands nowadays, but the area still has its own cultural heritage, national anthem, flag, and the official language is Frisian (closer to English than Dutch, linguistically-speaking). Skylge is a part of the province of Fryslan.

If you’re curious to see what the island looks like in real life, be sure to check under the tab ‘Book Places’ on my blog:
http://jenminkman.blogspot.nl

The music that Royce and Enna listen to really exists – Jyoti Verhoeff is a kind of ‘Dutch Tori Amos’ and I recently discovered her music after going to a local singer-songwriter festival in The Hague. She has a website with music samples and CDs for sale. I suggest you check it out if you like mysterious, beautiful, and haunting melodies!

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I
’d like to take the time to thank all the bloggers who agreed to review this title before its official release – I sent out my request email and had over 30 responses within the hour, which was a nice way to find out that I’m being appreciated!

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L
ast but not least, thank you to all the readers who picked up this first part in the Skylge series. I hope I’ll see you back for the continuation of the story in Book 2, Light of Lorelei.

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B
est wishes,

Jen Minkman.

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