Interview with fantasy author Gabrielle Mathieu

Author Gabrielle Mathieu is with me today. We’re kicking off a new month and a new week talking about her fantasy thriller, The Falcon Flies Alone (Falcon Trilogy) (Vol.1).

During her virtual book tour, Gabrielle will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:

Gabrielle Mathieu lived on three continents by the age of eight. She’d experienced the bustling bazaars of Pakistan, the serenity of Swiss mountain lakes, and the chaos of the immigration desk at the JFK airport. Perhaps that’s why she developed an appetite for the unusual and disorienting. Her fantasy books are grounded in her experience of different cultures and interest in altered states of consciousness (mostly white wine and yoga these days). The Falcon Flies Alone is her debut novel.

Welcome, Gabrielle. Please share a little bit about your current release.

HIS EXPERIMENT. HER LIFE

As the sun rises on a quiet Swiss mountain village in 1957, runaway Peppa Mueller wakes up naked and stranded on the roof of her employer’s manor, with no idea how she got there. As she waits for help, she struggles to piece together fragmented memories of the previous night. Did she really witness the brutal massacre of a local family? Did she kill them? Her fear of sinister house guest Dr. Unruh fuels her panic—as do electrifying flashes of a furious falcon, trapped inside her.

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Wanted for murder, Peppa flees the police, intent on finding out if there’s a scientific explanation or if she’s just going mad. Her godfather, world-renowned chemist Dr. Kaufmann, risks his career to help her. In the meantime, Peppa fights her attraction to the handsome priest from India who offers her shelter. With their help, she not only finds Dr. Unruh but places herself at his mercy. His experiments may hold the answer to Peppa’s questions, but the revenge she plans could kill them both.

What inspired you to write this book?

I had a vivid nightmare when I was in my twenties. The horror of the poisoning and the resultant madness, during which people tore each other apart, was balanced by the sweet thrill of turning into a spirit falcon and flying behind the world, into a place I couldn’t describe.

Excerpt from The Falcon Flies Alone:
I thought talking would be a relief, but it wasn’t. When I finally stopped, exhausted by the effort of reliving that dreadful night, I had a knot in the pit of my stomach.

Da and I wanted to help troubled people with Paxarbital. Now I’d become one of them, a murderer suffering under hallucinations.

I raised my face to meet Stefan’s clear blue eyes. I saw no condemnation. “I told you I killed Hans Wäspi. Isn’t confession supposed to be good for the soul? I don’t feel any better.”

“Only God can forgive your sins. I can’t.”

Three dead. At least. “What about the woman who brought us our drinks?”

“Anita Eugster? No one’s seen her. They’re looking through the ruins of the kitchen for her bones.”

Despair descended over me, and I had to fight an urge to scream. I splashed my face with cold water, biting my lip to fight the pain inside.

“They found me on the roof this morning.” My voice sounded hollow. “Did you hear?”

Stefan moved away from me a bit, rubbing his hands as if he was cold. I understood. I’d like to get away from myself too, if I only could.

I dug my nails in my palm. I would not be weak. “We really were poisoned. I could prove it.”

“I saw your wings, Patrizia.”


“My name is Peppa.”


“You turned into an angel.”


I rubbed my eyes. What I needed was a lab.

What exciting story are you working on next?

I’ve essentially finished the trilogy. The next book will be released this July, so you won’t have to wait long to see what trouble Peppa gets into next. I’m revisiting an epic fantasy series I wrote a while ago, streamlining it. It concerns a brave young woman and her enemy, the oldest living creature in her world, who is called the Water Dragon.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

True confession. When I was a young teen, I had a crush on our snazzy art teacher, who looked like a young Sean Connery and played the Rolling Stones in art class. I wrote lots of poems about this chaste, but overwhelmingly emotional experience, and my English teacher took them to the copy shop, bound them up, and put them in the library. Thank you, Mrs. Liberty. That was really her name.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I write in spurts and bursts. By the time, I’ve experienced a routine day at my paying job, (aka: mental prison) I can’t wait to get out and visit an alternate world. As I’m walking home, my mind starts considering possibilities. Then I settle in with a glass of Prosecco. I really do work in an attic garret of an old mansion, so the atmosphere fits.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I’m particular about the music. It serves as a prompt to my brain that we can now lay mundane matters aside and create. I even put up a play list. You can hear it on http://gabriellemathieu.com/inspirational-music/

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to take a galleon and sail the seven seas, discover new continents. Obviously, I was historically confused when I was five, and I didn’t know about scurvy.

Anything else you’d like to share with the readers?

I invite you to look at the first chapter at http://gabriellemathieu.com/falcon-flies-alone/.

My Twitter page is https://twitter.com/GabrielleAuthor, and you can find me on Facebook. I’ll also be running a podcast for the New Books Network, so come check out my first interview April 7^th with Aliette de Bodard on NBN’s fantasy channel.

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