“There are more than just ghosts in Bannock.” – Sharon K. Angelici
I read the first book in the Maker series, Mark of the Maker last year when I was abundant in time (thank you COVID).
I basically read through it in one sitting and loved it the whole way through. This was an incredibly unique story with so many pieces to it that will be explained no too in-depth later on here.
About Sharon K. Angelici
Sharon is an artist, writer, and author and love to create using just about every medium. She also happens to be my beloved aunt.
She has been a blacksmith for almost ten years, which she and her son do as a hobby. They show off some of their skills on her website where she keeps a page for Red Lyon Smithing.
For the last few years, she has been writing and publishing nationally and internationally on life, motherhood, and bisexuality.
My Experience Reading Mark of the Maker
Not only was I reading the lovely adventurous lesbian romance / fantasy, I was taking in the many parts of her beautiful self she has put in this book: her love of witchcraft, the supernatural, law enforcement, black-smithing, and bisexuality.
Now maybe I’m not supposed to be saying any of that, but as I reader, I loved seeing her piece so many things she loved into this book to create a one-of-a-kind story. And it truly is one-of-a-kind in the realm of fantasy novels.
Mark of the Maker is the first book in the series and Sharon is currently working on the next book in the series. Before It came out, I decided to ask her a series of questions about the first book and what we might expect from the second book in the series.
Here’s what she had to say.
What inspired you to create the Mark of the Maker?
I was on a retreat in 2017. I had just published Dear Kane; what I wish we would have said, which is a powerful short story about depression, queerness, and suicide.
I had a story idea during this retreat. I wrote a few pages of dialogue between two teenage girls who have an innocent experience with energy work and the earth’s power. I tucked that notebook away, and I didn’t think much about it.
Fast forward to November 2019 and NaNoWriMo. I used the month of November to flush out a romance between those two characters, having aged into adults and Mark of the Maker was born.
Can you give a quick synopsis of the Mark of the Maker?
Mark of the Maker is the story of life in the small ghost town of Bannock as told by Wildwood Blackstone. Wildwood is a welder by trade but a blacksmith at heart.
The opportunity to restore a 19th-century Carriage House falls in her lap, and suddenly she is living her dreams. But it turns out that Bannock isn’t what it seems, and neither is the carriage house.
What genre(s) would Mark of the Maker fit under?
I think Mark of the Maker fits into Lesbian romance, but the main character identifies as bisexual. There’s a bit of fantasy in the book as well.
What kind of research did you do to start creating this series?
This is a great question.
Since my main character is a blacksmith, I use much of my own experience as a blacksmith to tell her story. There is an element of witchcraft and pagan life, which I also live as a practicing solitary.
The more I write about Wildwood Blackstone and her life, the more I learn about being a better pagan. I read a lot and attend online classes and seek advice from other practitioners.
There are moments of magic in Mark of the Maker, and I wanted the reader to feel like they are right there in it.
How long did it take you to write the first Mark of the Maker?
I wrote the first draft of the book in November of 2019 and published it in September of 2020.
What do you love most about the first book?
I love the main character.
Wildwood is practical and hardworking and has an adventurous spirit, but she also doesn’t take any crap. She’s a bit of me, that’s for sure. I wanted to highlight a female blacksmith and welder with an independent spirit. I love writing the elements of magick, which I introduced in the second chapter.
Your cover art is amazing. Who is your cover artist, and how did you come about finding her?
Can we just clap our hands for my talented cover artist Taylor Rose?
I’ve never met Taylor in person. A few years ago, I challenged myself to try 365 new things in 365 days. It was a year of adventures, happiness, and quite a bit of sorrow. When I finished the year, I wanted to write a book about it. She Believed She Could is a journal-style accounting of that year.
When it came time to do the cover art, I didn’t know how I would summarize the year I’d just experienced visually. That’s when I found Taylor through an online fansite. Taylor worked on her projects and created tarot card art based on characters from a popular television program. The collage-style was precisely what I wanted, so I reached out through her website.
She was interested from the start, and we sent emails and ideas back and forth. She is incredibly talented, but what makes her a superstar is that she’s a brilliant collaborator.
If you visit the book page of my website, you’ll notice that Taylor has done all of them. I am such a fan of her work.
What can we expect from Book 2 in the Maker Series?
First, you can expect that Taylor is making the cover, and it is stunning. Perhaps our best collaboration so far.
The story picks up a month after the end of Book One, and we find Wildwood in a bit of a dilemma when it comes to her new life and her new life partner.
There will be magick, deception, and the mystery of what is happening in the town of Bannock. There is love and loss and the romance of a lifetime.
What other books have you written so far, and can you give a brief description of each?
I mentioned Dear Kane, which was my first book. She believed She could is my journal of 365 days of personal firsts. I also published a book of poetry, Immortal Human Truth.
See all of Sharon’s published books here.
Anything else you want people to know about the Maker series?
The plan is to write four books in the series. Book three is in the works right now as I’ve challenged myself to write it in April during the IndieApril WriMo experiment.
Purchase Mark of Maker!
Get started on the series before the second book arrives.
