Kiss Of Frost And Flame by Ken Czech
Category: Historical Fiction, Romance/Action/Adventure, Romance/Historical/Medieval, War & Military
Tour Dates January 15-February 8, 20223
ISBN: 978-1611794113
Available in Print and ebook, 304 pages
Description Kiss of Frost and Flame by Ken Czech
When Defending the Homeland Means Defending Your Heart.
Siberia 1581. When Umey, a young outcast woman, stumbles on a ravaged
village, she uncovers a plot that threatens to devastate her beloved
homeland. It's furs—soft gold—the invading Cossacks crave, and the
greediest of them is Yermak, the man who saved her life and raised
her.
Armed with fearsome muskets, the Cossacks plunge deeper into the
Siberian forest, crushing the tribal folk who stand in their way.
Although prejudices are arrayed against her, Umey emerges as a tribal
leader, albeit a reluctant one. She and Alexey, a Russian soldier who
has seen too much war, are soon caught in an unfolding crucible of
destruction where their courage and incipient love will be tested in a
final collision with Yermak and his horde.
Review Kiss of Frost and Flame by Ken Czech
An absolutely one-of-a-kind read from author Ken Czech
and one that I will be thinking about for a long time to come! 'Kiss of Frost
and Flame,' has the perfect blend of action and romance to stir the heart and
get the blood pumping.
Umey wants nothing more than to be left alone. After
being shunned out of her Samoyed community, she took to the forest, surviving
the rough winters of Siberia in the 1500s. Unfortunately, trouble finds her in
the form of a Russian village that has been attacked.
Umey stumbles upon the village while she is hunting
and nearly gets killed by the men that attacked it. After narrowly managing to
escape and accepting the help of a nearby group of Vogul people, Umey agrees to
seek out more information on the attackers, and find a way to bring it back to
the Voguls, without getting killed in the process. However, things get more and
more complicated as she manages to find her way to a Russian solider camp, and
comes face to face with a man that she cannot seem to forget.
Alexey was a lieutenant in the Russian army, that is,
until he was arrested on a false treason charge and nearly hung. After being
saved at the last minute and conscripted into battle against the Tatar people,
Alexey finds himself demoted to a lowly grunt, and sent to the wilderness to
fight.
It is there that he meets Umey, and the two fall
hopelessly in love from almost their first meeting. But, with the threat of
something much more sinister than just the Tatar raiders at play, both of the
lovers must use their wits and skill to stay alive. Luckily, they have both of
those things in spades!
I really enjoyed this novel and it's characters. Umey
and Alexey were both smart, independent people who worked well both together
and apart.
Five stars to this great read!
Interview with Ken Czech
Suzie: Please tell us something about Kiss of Frost and Flame that is not in the summary. "About the book, character you particularly enjoyed writing, etc.)
Ken: Many readers know of the conquests by Cortez (the Aztecs in Mexico) and Pizarro (the Incas in Peru) in the 16th century, but few know of a similar invasion and conquest conducted by Russian Cossacks against the indigenous people of Siberia in that same period. I wanted to explore that invasion of Siberia. What I particularly enjoyed was uncovering tidbits of information on the Siberian tribal folk and including those in the development of my main characters.
Suzie: When did you first have a desire to write? How did this desire manifest itself?
Ken: Wow! I have to backtrack on this one. I think I wrote my first short story when I was a young teen (the 1960s). It was a science fiction piece and was pretty awful … but I had fun writing it. I finally sold my first story 20 years later, and turned to novel writing much, much later. It's challenging, but still fun.
Suzie: How completely do you develop you characters before beginning to write?
Ken: I tend to focus on the real historical individuals to determine their personality traits and what makes them tick. Then I try to develop my main fictional characters since they will be reacting to the actions of the historical folks. Usually, I work on one real character and two fictionals to begin with.
Suzie: Tell us about your cover. Did you design it yourself?
Ken: My publishers at Fireship Press designed the cover. While it depicts two people about to kiss, the "kiss" part of the title also comes from the name of my main character Umey. Umey, in the language of her Samoyed kin, means kiss.
Suzie: Umey seemed so young but courageous. Where did you find inspiration for her character?
Ken: When I created Umey, I was looking for a character that could bridge the gap between the indigenous tribes of Siberia and the invading Cossacks from the Volga. It reminded me in the way that Pocahontas filled the gap between her tribal people and the newcomers from England. It meant doing a lot of research on the living patterns of the indigenous Siberians to make Umey that bridge between two worlds.
Suzie: What writers have you drawn inspiration from?
Ken: When I was young, I loved reading the science fiction stories of Andre Norton and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Now I focus more on historical novelists like Bernard Cornwell, Libbie Hawker, and Conn Iggulden.
Suzie: What do you do when you are not writing?
Ken: I collect and sell antiquarian books worldwide that focus on travel, exploration, and sport. Oh, oh. My wife says my library is getting too large and we're running out of shelf space. There's also time to be spent with grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Suzie: What are you currently working on?
Ken: I am in the early stages of fleshing out a story with the killer blizzard of Armistice Day 1940 as the background. I haven't gotten to the character development yet. We'll have to see how the winter winds blow in Minnesota and how much snow removal I will have to do.
About Ken Czech
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Thanks so much for hosting Ken! I am so glad you enjoyed 'Kiss of Frost and Flame'!
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