The Vencello received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author S. Amaranthine.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
The Vencello – May 2015
What’s the book’s first line?
(Prologue) You’ve asked the question, “What is the Vencello?”
(Chapter One, Delora’s personal field journal) Akenehi’s clan suffered a horrific loss today.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
A human and orca mother both lose their sons on the same day. Those deaths are the catalyst for subsequent events that take place in the ocean and culminate in an unexpected solution to their perspective problems.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
Cetaceans (dolphins and whales) are large brained mammals that live their whole lives in the ocean. They don’t value ‘things’ as humans do. They value their families and pod mates. It is now known that they have name calls and refer to others in third ‘dolphin’. They have complex social lives. Before the oceans become uninhabitable for them, I wanted to write a trilogy that honors them.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
The Vencello tells a story from not only a human perspective, but from the cetacean as well. Readers will perceive the ocean’s demise from an orca and whale perspective. Rather than resulting from technology and man-man products, the triumphs of the Vencello are natural and come about through the intelligence and cooperation of the species.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
The main characters are cetaceans (an orca matriarch and a sperm whale) as well as humans.
If they made your book into a movie, who would you like to see play the main character(s)?
In my opinion, The Vencello could only be a CGI piece. For the vocals I would love to hear a rich voice such as Morgan Freeman for the whale and Helen Mirren for the Orca. However, music and art would play the star roles in successfully carrying the mood of the movie.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
Decades ago, I wrote a counting book for my daughter for her 2nd birthday: “Cetaceans: One to Ten”. It was only one copy, hard back that I did from a kit. I wrote the short text and did all the illustrations. It’s pretty cool. A few years before that, I completed a 75-page master’s thesis.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
One of the best parts of being ‘indie’ is that I had much control over a unique story as I wanted it told, although I did use beta readers and a professional editor. I never wanted to sign with an agent or a publisher for the trilogy (which includes Cetapiens and Orcasekai: Memoirs of a Lost Universe) so there was no angst associated with ‘waiting to hear’. I was never discouraged!
The hardest part is that I do not have the marketing power of a large publishing house. So, I am responsible for all of it.
But that difficulty has ‘best parts’ aspect embedded in it. I design and manage my own website, involve myself in social media, etc. This means full, focused attention is on the trilogy and the causes associated with it. I truly enjoy all of that, especially becoming associated with many whom I would not have otherwise known. I really would not have gone any other way (non-Indie) for The Vencello trilogy.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
Some of the characters in the trilogy do lend themselves to an offshoot ‘formula series’. To develop those quickly and cost effectively, I would agree to work with a publishing house.