Welcome to my tour stop for One Great Year by Tamara Veitch and Rene Defazio. This is an adult book that has romance, historical fiction, literary fiction, philosophical fiction, fantasy, science fiction and adventure.
The tour runs March 9-20 with reviews, author interviews, excerpts and a few guest posts.
One Great Year by Tamara Veitch DeFazio and Rene DeFazio
An epic, thought-provoking tale of reincarnation, love, and the struggle of good against evil.
As the world descends from a Golden Age into darkness and brutality, Marcus has been reincarnated an exhausting number of times. Selected to become an Emissary, it is his duty to protect the ancient secrets. His adventure is heightened because he secretly consumes a serum that allows him to have memory from one lifetime to the next. In doing so, he sets himself up for thousands of years of torment, loneliness, and searching.
Desperate to never forget his soulmate, Theron, and never sure if he was truly meant to be an Emissary, Marcus struggles through lifetimes to overcome his cruel and powerful nemesis, Helghul.
Fusing the adventure of Indiana Jones with the introspection and wisdom of Eckhart Tolle, One Great Year takes readers on an epic journey through history, following characters who are born and reborn as they struggle to triumph over evil.
About the Authors:
What happens when two passionate writer-artists fall in love and decide to make an uncommon life together? The award-winning novel One Great Year and its forthcoming sequels are just a few of the awesome possibilities!
Born and raised in the Vancouver area, Rene DeFazio is an actor, screenwriter and producer with numerous film and television roles to his credit, as well as countless commercials and print ads. After spending many years backpacking and filming, Rene drew upon an abundance of unusual and exciting experiences to create One Great Year. His tireless research and firsthand knowledge of exotic locations, customs, sights and smells helped to bring this epic story to life.
Tamara Veitch is a writer, artist and mother. She also grew up in the Vancouver area, and attended Simon Fraser University to study English and psychology. Tamara worked as a special education assistant for the Vancouver School Board, and later opened her own mural painting business.
One Great Year took three painstaking years to complete. Within months of its independent release, One Great Year was optioned to become a Hollywood blockbuster film trilogy. Rene and Tamara have also partnered with Greenleaf Book Group for their literary debut and U.S. release, in October 2013.
The authors are currently writing the second and third books in the One Great Year series, filming a documentary, embarking on a book tour, and offering free seminars called POD Parties (Plain ol’ Discussion about monumental topics), where they discuss the ancient history, modern science, and inspirations layered throughout One Great Year.
By Tamara Veitch DeFazio and Rene DeFazio
Authors of One Great Year
How do authors pull in readers and get them connected? A novel is an escape but we must see ourselves in the story for it to become a favorite. J.K. Rowling mastered this with the gang of personalities at Hogwarts, Jane Austen’s stories live on hundreds of years later because there is something of the Bennetts in all of us. When does the alchemical transformation from words to gold happen?
We can read about someone like us, on a journey like ours, and it may feel like a comfy sweater. It might be a cherished reminder that we are not alone and that all is okay. Ideally, a novel will be an adventure that takes us to unusual places, and introduces us to new people and situations that stretch our imagination. When a book takes us outside our comfort zone, exposes us to other possibilities, yet still land us firmly back in our life and identifying completely with the plight of the characters, there is brilliance. There is the gold.
One Great Year endeavors to do all these things …but how?
Venturing through five lifetimes, from 13,000 years ago to present day, we begin the story with Marcus and Theron; lovers and soulmates in a Golden Age. The reader is transported to a beautiful, pristine world on the verge of collapse, where telepathy and quantum connections are the norm and where the main characters have a profound connection beyond most. We are often asked how we made such an outlandish world seem plausible even to non-fantasy readers, and the answer is truth.
There are two important facets of truth: emotional and intellectual. To build our ‘truth’ we began with years of research. We found that building our fictional world upon real historical and scientific research gave it roots and led to amazing storylines that begged to be written. Readers immediately identified with the story and felt at home in its pages. Throughout the lifetimes we set our characters in real world locations and use the local dress, food, customs and languages to bring the narrative to life. Ultimately, if reincarnation is real, and we stayed true to how the Ages were described, people should identify with the story and they certainly have!
“I feel like you’re telling my story!” we’ve heard constantly. Some of our characters, like Genghis Khan and Aristotle,are pulled right from the pages of our world history and the Great Year Cycle, that is the backdrop for the novel, is described in ancient Vedic texts from India and in Ancient Greece by Plato among 30 other ancient civilizations.
Beyond intellectual research, the most important golden quality In One Great Year is its heart and emotion. When the main characters reincarnated throughout the ages, Marcus has memory and Theron does not. He pursues her, tortured by his feelings of isolation, loneliness and longing. He remembers every birth, death, and loss, but the beauty, the ‘gold’ is that there is love, and hope and connection. The truth is, as terrible as this world can be, it can be equally as beautiful. It is a shared human story. The gold, is that our humanity connects us and our stories aren’t all that different from one another no matter how fantastic the drama. When an author can tap in to this shared Oneness a novel will become an oft re-read favorite and the alchemy of word-smithing is complete.
Thank you Brooke! We want to send a shout out to our readers and indie bookstores and bloggers! Thank you for taking the time to read this and if you haven’t had a chance to pick up a copy yet please do. The sequel to One Great Year will be released later this year.
Find One Great Year on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Goodreads.
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anne
One Great Year sounds fascinating and enthralling. History is important and this novel sounds amazing. What talented authors who I wish success and happiness. Best wishes.
Candace
I love this guest post! I think it’s hard to really get that balance sometimes. Thanks so much for hosting a tour stop Brooke!
Jennifer @ Donnie Darko Girl
Reincarnation has always intrigued me. I’d like to live life just once – I don’t know if I’d want to come back as someone else! But I definitely love reading about it and learning all I can about the belief. The authors sound like they’re doing some exciting things, and I’m anxious to read their book! 🙂
Robbie Bauldree
Thanks for the post. Am not sure I would like this type of story. Will have to read a sample to see.