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Meet V.M. Sang

Today, I am delighted to introduce fantasy and historical novel writer, V.M. Sang. V.M Sang is also a wonderful poet. You can read my review of her poetry book, from January to June, on Amazon US here: https://www.amazon.com/review/R3OZBBBMJNPAIE/

Tell us a bit about V.M. Sang and your writing journey

First, thank you for having me. I’m delighted you invited me here.

I could say that I’ve always wanted to be a writer, but that wouldn’t be true. I was certainly a reader from as soon as I learned to read for myself. (My Mum always said that it was no good speaking to me when I had my head in a book!) 

When I was about 6 or 7, my favourite book was Enid Blyton’s Shadow the Sheepdog. Influenced by that, I wrote a story about a dog. After that, I didn’t write anything else except for school. I really enjoyed it when we were given a title to write about, whether it was an essay or creative writing. 

I did write a terrible romance in my teens, which fortunately for the world, has disappeared completely. 

When I was a student, I began writing poetry, then had a long break when I was too busy to write anything. Then I started a Dungeons and Dragons Club at the school where I was teaching. When I got fed up with bought scenarios, I wrote my own.

I decided to turn this scenario into a novel, which morphed into at least 5 books! I don’t think any of my players would recognise it now.

Just a little plug: I have a short story in Catstruck. It is an anthology of cat stories in aid of Tenth Life, a cat rescue charity in the US. 

You have seven fantasy novels, two historical novels and one recipe book as well as poetry collections. Tell us a bit about your writing process. How do you approach writing fantasy as opposed to writing historical novels. What was the inspiration behind your recipe book?

To begin with the recipe book. I have a very small notebook that belonged to my grandmother. At the front are some recipes, and at the back some fascinating accounts, dated 1909. Then, when I got married, my mother gave me a hand-written book of her recipes. Shortly afterwards, I acquired the hand-written recipe book of my aunt. I thought it was interesting to see how people ate and cooked in earlier times, and thought others might be interested, too.

In answer to your question about fantasy and historical fiction  I think that in some ways, it isn’t so different.  In both cases, the writer is introducing the reader to a world they have no experience of–one that existed a long time ago, and one that never existed.

Tell us a bit about your research for Vengeance of a Slave and Jealousy of a Viking. Was information readily available?

The Internet is a tremendous resource. I did most of my research there. Of course, it’s so easy to go down many rabbit holes and end up lost in the warren! 

In Vengeance of a Slave, I watched an informative video showing people building a roundhouse. One thing I had trouble with was finding ancient Celtic names. I decided to use Welsh names. 

I found it fascinating researching the uses of various herbs for Jealousy of a Viking, and also the symptoms of some illnesses. I was grateful to a critiquer who put me right on heart attacks in women, which is not always the same as men.

What are your thoughts on AI in the writing industry? Do you see a place for AI in the writing process?

AI! That is a big question. I wouldn’t like it to become a ‘writer’, but I think its use in checking grammar and spelling is acceptable. We’ve been using it in that capacity for many years, but it’s becoming better. Formatting, too, is acceptable.

I’m a bit ambivalent about its use in cover design. As a ‘poor’ author, I can’t afford to pay a designer, and would be happy producing one from AI.  But on the other hand, if all of us do that, it’s causing the artists to lose work.

Fortunately,  it’s not something I need to worry about, as Next Chapter Publishing sees to the cover design, using their own designers.

What’s next for V.M. Sang

I’ve just had Book 4 of The Wolves of Vimar series published.  It’s called Immortal’s Death.

I’ve started the next book in this series. It’ll probably be called Wrath of an Anglo Saxon and begins with the Battle of Hastings. I’m also working on a series of short(ish) stories inspired by fairy tales. Not a retelling, but an inspiration.

Then, after that, it’s Book 5 of The Wolves  of Vimar.

Thank you very much for having me, and for your interesting questions.

My review of Jealousy of a Viking by V.M. Sang

This is the second book in the A Family Through The Ages series by V.M. Sang. I read Vengeance of a Slave and loved it, so I decided to read the next book which is set around the year 860 AD when the Danes and the Saxons were occupying Britian.

Helgha has grown up a Dane although her mother is a Saxon. She lives by the ways of the Danes and their rather blood thirsty gods. A very lovely looking young girl, Helgha mets Erik, the son of a Danish nobleman, while looking for plants in the forest. Erik’s horse is injured and he is lost. Helgha takes him to her home so that her parents can assist him. This is the beginning of an doomed infatuation between the pair as Erik and Helgha both know he cannot marry her due to the class distinction in place at the time. Erik fights and kills Helgha’s father, kidnapping her and taking her as his mistress. Initially, Helgha is happy as Erik is devoted to her, but soon he marries and Helgha is intensely jealous of his new wife. Having just given birth to a son, Helgha uses her knowledge of medical herbs to induce a miscarriage by Erik’s wife and this sets in motion a series of personal tragedies for Helgha and her family. Eventually, Helgha and her two sons and personal slave who has become a friend, have to flee their home and attempt to reach a Saxon village in the hope of finding sanctuary.

This story is very compelling and I really enjoyed the character of Helgha. She is very young when she meets Erik who is older and should have known better. She suffers much personal loss and misery due to his misguided kidnapping of her but she does grow as a person and become kinder and more able to control her jealous nature over time. This is also a story of Christian redemption which was well done and very interesting.

Erik was a selfish and spoiled man and I didn’t care for him at all. I believe his portrayal was very accurate and true to how poorly men behave towards women when they are filled with lust.

The author’s portrayals, settings, and events were well researched and I became very enthralled in the narrative as well as the details about life, death and religion during that period. This was a violent time when men were often killed during raids and wars and women frequently died during childbirth. Child mortality was also high from illness and other causes.

An excellent historical romance with plenty of action and lots of twists and turns, I highly recommend this book.

You can purchase Jealousy of a Viking from Amazon US here: https://www.amazon.com/Jealousy-Viking-Family-Through-Ages-ebook/dp/B09764478C/

About V.M. Sang

Viv Sang was born in Northwich, Cheshire in the United Kingdom. She trained as a teacher in Manchester and taught in Salford and Heywood in Lancashire before leaving to raise her children. She moved to Fair Oak, near Southampton where she taught Maths until moving to Redhill in Surrey. Here she taught Science, Maths and IT in several Croydon Schools.

She enjoys walking and cycling as well as various crafts such as knitting, crochet,card-making and tatting. She also enjoys going abroad on holiday and looking at historic buildings and stately homes.

She paints as well as writes novels and has begun to post some poetry on her blog http://aspholessaria.wordpress.com/.

Recently she has become involved in volunteer work in a local park that had become very neglected. She contacted a local councillor who found out that the park had been set up by the local council on land given by a local landowner, since deceased. After the initial work, it was handed over to the community to look after. Over the years this fact has been forgotten and so the park was looking neglected. (The council only cuts the grass.) Together with some neighbours, Viv has begun to revamp the park and remove brambles and self-seeded ash trees and done some weeding and re-planting.

She now lives in East Sussex with her husband and enjoys looking after her grandchildren.

She has 10 books to date, all published by Next Chapter. These comprise seven fantasy novels: The Wolf Pack, The Never-Dying Man, and Wolf Moon, all part of The Wolves of Vimar Series. Jovinda and Noli, and The Making of a Mage, part of a series of prequels to The Wolves of Vimar. Elemental Worlds is a 2 book series. The books are The Stones of Earth and Air and The Stones of Fire and Water. She has also written two historical novels, one set in Roman Britain, called Vengeance of a Slave, and the other in Viking Britain, called Jealousy of a Viking. She has also written a recipe book called Viv’s Family Recipes.

About Robbie Cheadle

South African author, photographer, and artist, Robbie Cheadle, has written and illustrated seventeen children’s books, illustrated a further three children’s books, written and illustrated four poetry books and written and illustrated one celebration of cake and fondant art book with recipes. Her work has also appeared in poetry and short story anthologies.

Robbie also has two novels and a collection of short stories published under the name of Roberta Eaton Cheadle and has horror, paranormal, and fantasy short stories featured in several anthologies under this name.

You can find Robbie Cheadle’s artwork, fondant and cake artwork, and all her books on her website here: https://www.robbiecheadle.co.za/

Social Media Links

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/robbiecheadle.bsky.social
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVyFo_OJLPqFa9ZhHnCfHUA
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15584446.Robbie_Cheadle
TSL Publications: https://tslbooks.uk/product-tag/robbie-cheadle/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Robbie-Cheadle/author/B01N9J62GQ
Unsplash profile: https://unsplash.com/@r_cheadle