Fredericksburg, Va. – Warren Rochelle, associate professor of English at the University of Mary Washington, had the fantasy novel Harvest of Changelings published by Golden Gryphon Press.
He will read from and sign copies of the book at local Fredericksburg venues throughout the summer, including The Griffin Bookshop on Thursday, May 24, from 7 to 9 p.m.; Borders in Central Park on Saturday, May 26, from 1 to 3 p.m.; and Riverby’s Books on Thursday, July 26, at 7 p.m.
Reviews of the novel cite Dr. Rochelle’s ability to fuse traditional fantasy with contemporary characters and settings. According to Nancy Kress, three-time Nebula Award winner and author of the Probability series,“Harvest of Changelings is an original and fascinating blend of Faerie and Christian belief, with a final battle that will leave you tingling. Classic fantasy as it should be written.”
Publishers Weekly says, “Rochelle delivers an excellent traditional fantasy that draws on centuries-old Celtic fairy lore… The book’s strength lies in the sensitive characterizations and the texture of its contemporary reality.”
Harvest of Changelings, set in North Carolina’s Triangle area, tells the story of Ben Tyson, a librarian living in Garner, N.C., who met and loved Valeria, a Daoine Sidhe woman. Valeria’s death left Ben to raise their child, Malachi, alone, and for ten years the two of them lived a fairly ordinary life. Everything changed when Malachi turned ten and began to manifest his powers, but without the control a full-blooded fairy would have. Ben has to get his son through the nearest gate to Faerie before these powers kill him.
More than a straightforward fairy tale, this is a story of the Other: those who are different — physically, mentally and in their lifestyles. The four part-fairy children are taunted by their classmates because of these differences; two have been abused by their parents. All four are outsiders. As they find each other, they find they must learn how to survive together, and unite to overcome the apathy and prejudice of humans, as well as the evil Fomorii.
Also the author of the novel The Wild Boy, Dr. Rochelle’s creative works have appeared in various journals such as The North Carolina Literary Review, Beyond the Third Planet, Forbidden Lines, Coraddi, Aboriginal Science Fiction, Colonnades and Graffiti, as well as the Asheville Poetry Review, GW Magazine, Crucible, The Charlotte Poetry Review and Romance and Beyond. He has had his academic work published in several journals including Foundation (1999, 2002) and Extrapolation (1996, 1999), as well as in two essay collections, More Lights than one on the Fiction of Fred Chappell (2004) and Teaching Ideas for University English: What Really Works (2004). His critical work, Communities of the Heart: The Rhetoric of Myth in the Fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin, was published by Liverpool University Press in 2001.
Dr. Rochelle earned a doctorate in English and an MFA in creative writing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro after receiving a master’s degree in library service from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.