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WORK TITLE: Stealing the Light
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BIRTHDATE: 1975
WEBSITE: http://www.lisahofmann.net/
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RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in 1975, in Siegen, Germany; married; children: three.
EDUCATION:Educated in Germany and Ireland.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, international interpreter, translator, and teacher.
AWARDS:Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards, 2016, for Stealing the Light.
WRITINGS
Writer of short stories “Fairystory” and “Fire.”
SIDELIGHTS
Translator and teacher Lisa Hofmann is a European-based, independent fantasy author. She was educated in Germany and in Ireland, worked internationally as an interpreter, and translated specialized publications. She has written medieval fantasy short stories and novels. Her “Dies Irae” series received top rating from Writer’s Digest.
Hofmann’s short story, “Fire” fits into the “Dies Irae” series and takes place during the Inquisition. A seven-year-old boy named Lorcan has magical ability and has been on the run from the Church his whole life. Also based in the Dies Irae world, Hofmann’s story, “Fairypeople” finds elderly and lonely Mary feeling the loss of loved ones to the persecutions, hunger, and sickness of the world. Then the queen of the Ironstone, Cassandra, asks her to give sanctuary to a special boy, the last of the Fairychildren, who is in great danger. She agrees and once again has hope in her heart.
Stealing the Light and Into the Dark
The 2016, Hofmann published Stealing the Light: A Medieval Fantasy, volume 1 of the “Dies Irae” series. In the story, the age of magic has ended, and people with magical abilities are hunted by the Church and called Unnatural. That doesn’t stop three young people. Dean Greenleaf and his father, Master Sorcerer Ortus, live in a safe, secret community of magic users. They are joined by Lorcan Aurum, a boy with superior magical abilities. Unknown to Ortus is Catherine Salt, a descendent of magicians. The story follows these people as they grow, use their magical powers, and hide from the Church. Calling the opening book in the series middling, a Publishers Weekly reviewer noted: “The story is a little vague, but fans of well-drawn characters will want to see where this series leads.”
In volume 2, Into the Dark: A Medieval Fantasy takes place a year after Master Sorcerer’s murder. Lorcan returns to Ironstone, Catherine has become a prostitute to survive, and the merchants guild and the Inquisitor are determined to destroy all the Unnaturals. Lorcan promises to protect the Master Sorcerer’s legacy, while Catherine may betray the Unnaturals to the Church.
Trading Darkness
Hofmann published Trading Darkness: A Dark Fairytale in 2017. Seeped in human weakness and vengeance, and powered by war and witch trials, the fiefdom of Wildenburg over the centuries has become home to many kinds of men and monsters. A demon has stolen little Louisa and raised her as an instrument of its revenge. But she is determined to protect her twin sister, once again walk in sunlight, and return to her family. Louisa may have enough power to break the curse of Wildenburg, stop the killing, and bring back beauty and love.
In an interview with Jeanne Felfe on the Jeanne Felfe website, Hofmann explained that Trading Darkness was inspired by real historical characters who lived during the final wave of the local Witch Trials in the seventeenth century. “While researching a paper for a college class I took twenty years ago, I came across an event that was never explained, and that was when the initial idea to this book started taking shape in my head. … I’ve always been fascinated by local history, myths and legends. I think this is generally what influences and inspires my writing most,” said Hofmann.
Despite some slow pacing and a long amount of story time in development during the first half of the book to make the events plausible, a contributor online at A Rambling Reviewer observed that the pacing is steady, the magical powers of each individual are shaped by their identity and their life’s ordeals, and “There is no clear definition as to what each character is capable of, but no one is deemed unnecessarily powerful, which makes a nice change. I enjoyed Trading Darkness. The second half is particularly strong, with the stakes being raised and battles raging around the central characters.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, April 23, 2018, review of Stealing the Light: A Medieval Fantasy, p. 69.
ONLINE
A Rambling Reviewer, https://aramblingreviewer.wordpress.com/ (November 13, 2017), review of Trading Darkness: A Dark Fairytale.
Jeanne Felfe, https://jeannefelfe.com/ (March 14, 2017), Jeanne Felfe, author interview.
Lisa Hofmann is a European-based fantasy author. She was educated in Germany and in Ireland. She began writing fiction in her late thirties, and has published several novels and short stories, including the Writer's Digest top-rated first book of the Dies Irae Series, Stealing the Light.
Short Biography
Lisa Hofmann is a European-based writer, born in 1975, and educated in Germany and in Ireland. During and after her time at university, she worked internationally as an interpreter and translating specialized publications before becoming a teacher.
She began writing medieval fantasy fiction in her late thirties. Her debut novel, Stealing the Light, received a top rating and placement in the Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards 2016.
She still lives near her birthplace today with her husband, three children and a houseful of pets. She writes predominantly in English.
nterview with Lisa Hofmann
Posted on March 14, 2017 by Jeanne Felfe
Today, I’m interviewing Lisa Hofmann, who lives and writes in Germany. I got the surprise of my life this past fall when I read the first two books in her Medieval Fantasy Dies Irae series – Stealing the Light (which won an Honorable Mention in the 2016 Writer’s Digest Self-Published E-Book Awards) and Into the Dark. Surprised because I haven’t read much in this genre and I was truly blown away at Lisa’s story-telling abilities. I’m normally a slow reader and I flew right through both. I can’t wait for book three and after our interview, I’m anxiously looking forward to Trading Darkness.
Lisa, Tell us a little about yourself.
I’m 41 years old and a summer person, who loves traveling, art, music, and cats. I’m an independent writer, which means that I don’t sell my work to a publishing house, but instead market directly to my readers.
I don’t do this because my manuscripts were ever rejected by a publisher. I just never submitted anything to an agent or publisher simply because I don’t believe this would work for me at this point in my life. I’m basically a very stubborn person, and I feel a strong need to retain my independence in my creative expression. Holding all rights to my work and having full control of what I do with it is very important to me, and I love that what was unthinkable twenty years ago is actually possible nowadays with e-books and print-on-demand.
Going it alone is hard work, but luckily, I have a wonderful, supportive family who can live with the fact that I chose to handle it this way. They are the kind of people who will tiptoe around me while I’m editing, and sometimes even throw food at me when I’m sitting at my desk in front of my laptop drafting new material. I sit there a lot because I’ve always been a workaholic, and I treat both of my professions with a lot of dedication.
As an Indie Author myself, I completely understand. Thank you for sharing that with our readers.
You said both professions? So you don’t write full-time? What kind of job do you have, and does it play any role in your stories?
In all honesty, I wish I could write full-time, but I’m afraid I have to work long hours in my day job to ensure my cat can continue to lead her decadent life of luxury…
No, seriously, most independent writers can’t live on what they earn from their books. Many, many authors who write for publishing houses can’t, either, for that matter. But, since I’m my own publisher, I also have costs to cover that non-Indies don’t have, such as editing, cover art, and formatting, and unless I sell a certain number of books, I have to live with the fact that those costs may exceed the earnings from the works I produce. Until I can manage to achieve a steady income from my books, I’ll just have to work in two jobs, really. That can be tough, sometimes, but did I mention I’m a stubborn person…?
Whether or not my day job has ever played a role in my stories, I can’t really say. I don’t think it has, at least not directly. But I work in a social profession, so I’m always around people during the day, and I believe that has some influence on how I look at things and the way I write, as opposed to if I lived in seclusion or worked in an office job as an accountant or whatever with little or no customer contact. I actually worked in an office job in my early twenties for a time, and soon realized that’s not for me. I was bored to death.
Life is about achieving a balance, and although I often find myself having to meticulously organize my days around my family and those two jobs, I also think it makes me go about my writing extremely consciously. I use the time I spend on it well, I think, and I can’t say I’ve ever sat in front a blank screen for hours, wondering what to write – I sit there for just under a minute, wondering what to write first before I start typing like the devil was at my heels.
Why do you write, and how long have you been writing seriously?
I’ve been writing seriously for about three years now. I always dreamed about writing, and I was that kid in school who was always asked to read her essays aloud, but it wasn’t until a friend started encouraging me a few years ago that I considered actually publishing something of mine. It started out as a hobby to help me to cope a little better with the stress of my day job, but I soon found myself communicating with other writers. Somehow, one thing just led to another, and here I am.
I published my first two novels and several short stories in 2016, and my new book is coming out this summer.
Who are your favorite authors? Have they influenced your style?
I read a lot of different things. What and how I read has changed over the years since audio books have become more affordable, e-books are easy to take along anywhere on my phone, and works by Indie authors have become readily available. But I still try not to miss anything new by Dean Koontz, Stephen King… and… here goes: Cornelia Funke. A children’s book author, I hear you say in bewilderment. How does that fit in? Well, it does. She has evolved in the most interesting way as a writer, and I love her most recent YA series. The writing as such is superb, and the story is rich and intriguing.
I’m sure most authors are shaped in some way by the words they read. It would be strange if it were otherwise. However, I think it’s always wise to read a LOT to make sure you’re not influenced too much by the voice of any other individual author. You have to make sure you don’t surrender your own voice to someone else’s style. As a new author, it’s not just important to find your own voice – you have to be able to keep it, and develop it, and listen back to it so you never forget to take what you’re doing to the next level and keep evolving positively.
What are you currently reading?
I have this habit of reading three or four books in parallel. Right now, I’m reading an as yet unpublished work by an Indie writer friend. I’ve got Amanojaku by Damien Lutz on my phone’s Kindle. I’m also revisiting an older book I read years ago, as an audio book version this time, since I spend so many hours a week in my car: Lightening by Dean Koontz.
About your latest work that’s coming in summer, Trading Darkness: What inspired it?
A true story did. Some of the characters in Trading Darkness are loosely based on people who lived during the final wave of the local Witch Trials in the 17th century. While researching a paper for a college class I took twenty years ago, I came across an event that was never explained, and that was when the initial idea to this book started taking shape in my head. The story I spun around this event is purely fictional, of course, but it’s been stewing in me this long, which was why I finally decided to give it priority over the series I’m also working on at the moment. I’ve always been fascinated by local history, myths and legends. I think this is generally what influences and inspires my writing most.
Tell us about the characters who were inspired by real-life.
That would be Agnes Smith, for one, a secondary character inspired by the real-life Agnes Schmidt, who lived near Wildenburg around the year 1650. She was a mother of six who was “tried”, which really means she was tortured, and sentenced to death for being a witch. On the eve of her execution, she was imprisoned in a barn near Friesenhagen, which is the village I modeled Oakwood on. The “witch tower” at Wildenburg Castle was full, so there wasn’t any room for her there. A guard was posted outside that barn to make sure she couldn’t escape. She’d been tortured, so no one really would have assumed she’d actually be in any state to flee. But despite the locked door, and despite the guard, she did. I found that remarkable. She must have been a very strong woman. No one could explain how it happened, and that was what got me thinking. Maybe the guard took pity, or there was another way out of the barn, but again: she’d been tortured, willfully broken, though through it all, she never confessed, so… when they found her a few days later, she was with one of her children. She was asked why she’d fled. Silly question, really, but they did ask, and her response was noted for the record. She said she hadn’t intended to escape her sentence, but that she’d merely wanted to see her children one last time to say goodbye.
Another character who is loosely based on a real person is Hermann Heistermann. He was the bailiff at that time, an exceptionally greedy and cruel man who took great pleasure in having people tortured. He was a real villain, and that’s how I depicted him in the book as well, though something good came from his existence in my story. I won’t say what.
Can you tell us anything about the fictional characters without giving too much away?
Yes, of course! There’s a really dark demon with a deep longing for vengeance. There’s a character I modeled on Ricdin-Ricdon, better known as Rumpelstiltskin, but he doesn’t spin straw into gold. And, we have a heroine, who falls in love with a knight in shining armor. I loved writing all of them. Finishing the final chapter was awful, because I knew I’d miss them.
What are you working on right now?
I’m working on the third book of my current series. It’s titled Fair of Souls, and I’m having a lot of fun getting back into that. Lorcan will be traveling to many interesting places, trying to find his son, and later, he will be faced with having to find a way to keep The Fair safe from the dangers that have arisen with Catherine’s ascent to power. We’ll be seeing a very angry, power-hungry Catherine establishing her rule in Trondenburgh and beyond, while Dean is in deep trouble. I’m very excited about writing this.
Where can readers find out more?
My Amazon page
Readers can follow me on Facebook
My Author website
And I’m on Goodreads
Lisa, thank you for your time and for sharing with us. I’m looking forward to both Trading Darkness and Fair of Souls
Stealing the Light
Publishers Weekly. 265.17 (Apr. 23, 2018): p69.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Stealing the Light
Lisa Hofmann. Elisabeth Hofmann, $14.99
trade paper (416p) ISBN 978-3-946618-01-0
This middling series opener by Hoffman focuses on the lives of three young people with magical ability in a world where "unnaturals" are killed by the church. Catherine Salt is a descendant of the Tierney family with the blood of the magical cine in her veins. She lives a hardscrabble life in a nameless village near the ruins of the Tierney castle. Dean Greenleaf and his father, Master Sorcerer Ortus, are also descendants of the Tierneys but are unaware of Catherine's existence. Lorcan Aurum is the son of a ne'er-do-well but shows immense magical promise and is taken under Ortus's wing at the Fair, a roving carnival that hides and protects cine from unwanted scrutiny. There is no distinct antagonist here to move the story, just the nebulous threat from the church. Instead, Hoffman concentrates on her characters as they mature, Catherine with no one to rely on but herself and Dean and Lorcan thriving with guidance from Ortus. Hoffman's world bears similarities to our own--there's a pope and a Milky Way--but includes fairies and shape-shifters. The story is a little vague, but fans of well-drawn characters will want to see where this series leads. (BookLife)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Stealing the Light." Publishers Weekly, 23 Apr. 2018, p. 69. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A536532902/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=30544163. Accessed 26 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A536532902
Book Review: Trading Darkness by Lisa Hofmann
November 13, 2017 LindseyLeave a comment
Synopsis: Once upon a time, a demon from the depths of the earth decided to seek the light of love.
When human weakness destroys that love, a yearning for vengeance awakens within the
ancient soul, and the fiefdom of Wildenburg becomes home to many kinds of men and monsters. A never-ending spiral of cruelty and sacrifice is set in motion. Over the centuries, wars, hunger, and witch trials cripple the little fiefdom, until one day, the reigning lord discovers that not even his own children are safe from the fiend his ancestors helped create.
There is truth at the heart of every fairytale, but a fairytale can quickly turn into a nightmare. Only one person has the power to break the curse that has befallen the land: a young woman who has lived all her life in darkness. Can she find enough beauty within the beast to put an end to the killing?
Author: Lisa Hofmann
Title: Trading Darkness
Publisher: Lisa Hofmann
Date: 2017
Having read previous works by Lisa Hofmann, I was eager to see what magical world she had created this time.
It didn’t disappoint.
The plot centres on love and sacrifice, exploring how far someone is willing to go to keep their loved ones safe. The first half felt a little disconnected at times: a lot of time passed in order to put the events into motion for the second half to be plausible. The increased pacing, tension and character development in the latter part of the book made it worth it!
There are a lot of characters involved, both strong and weak. Louisa was definitely my favourite: stolen as a child from her family, she is raised by a demon to enact the creature’s revenge. But her desire to walk in the sunlight, to be reunited with her sister and to find love means she is no pushover and Louisa will fight with everything she has to keep her twin safe.
That, and she hadn’t considered the side effects of reading. Gifts encouraged loyalty and devotion, but books encouraged morals and dreams.
Tom came close second, though. His own childhood was corrupted by magic but he has made a place for himself in the world and will risk everything on a hunch and a budding romance. I got the sense of inherent goodness and innocence from Tom: he was a good man through and through.
There isn’t enough of Maria to make a judgement on her. The girls’ father, Gregory, however, made me want to slap him at times. He was faced with an impossible task, but is presented as weak for the majority of the book. He throws strops and lets his temper get the better of him.
Ricdon and Rambert confused me. Their part of the story eventually came together, but there was a moment that befuddled me as to who was who and what their connection to one another was. It fell into place, thankfully, because it is important to understand their relationship in order to make sense of events that take place later in the story.
The pacing is steady, perhaps on the slow side occasionally. But that’s because Louisa is taken as a seven-year-old child and the crux of the plot happens years later. There are a few time-jumps throughout the first half of the book. They work though, because without seeing how Louisa has developed and grown in the underworld, the events of the second half would lose their impact.
The magic is a little confusing at times. But the powers that each individual possess is shaped by their identity and what they have gone through in order to reach this point. The magic also appears to be driven by one of two things: revenge or love. There is no clear definition as to what each character is capable of, but no one is deemed unnecessarily powerful, which makes a nice change.
I enjoyed Trading Darkness. The second half is particularly strong, with the stakes being raised and battles raging around the central characters. Another good book from this author – I’m looking forward to more!