Arts & Entertainment
Alana Joli Abbott Looks to "Kickstart" the Final Book in Her Trilogy
Fans of "The Redemption Trilogy" can help Alana Joli Abbott wrap up the trilogy through Kickstarter.
Branford author Alana Joli Abbott began The Redemption Trilogy in 2005. The first two books in the series were published by White Silver, a role-playing game publisher, as tie-ins to its game launch in 2006, but “sadly, the publisher folded not long after Departure came out and so the trilogy has been languishing, waiting for an ending, for six years,” said Abbott.
With the loose ends still untied, she’s now looking to finish the series with the help of Kickstarter, “a funding platform for creative projects.” Abbott, who has funded and contributed to other artists’ projects on the site in the past, is excited to be on the other end of the project.
“It’s a great alternative to more traditional outlets,” said Abbott, who wrote Branford Patch's The Town with Five Main Streets. “It's perfect for me, since due to my original contract with the now-defunct publisher, I only have limited rights to the three books.”
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Abbott, who remembers writing her first story in 3rd grade, says she pulls inspiration for her stories from “just about everywhere” and never has a “shortage of ideas – just a shortage of time to get them all down and turn them into something good.”
For now, Abbott is busy with her full-time gig – being a mom to her three-year-old daughter – and bringing closure to The Redemption Trilogy. She also plans to follow up her latest interactive novel – Choice of Kung Fu, published by Choice of Games – with another interactive novel, which is set in the Old West.
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You can check out Regaining Home: The Final Book of the Redemption Trilogy on Kickstarter and if you haven’t read the first two books, they are available on DriveThru RPG.
Wondering if The Redemption Trilogy is for you? Abbott shares more on the series below:
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Branford Patch: What is this trilogy about and what type of audience does it appeal to?
Alana Joli Abbott: The Redemption Trilogy is a fantasy story about four heroes who feel like failures – whether they did something wrong or are mourning a loss or are on the run from a villain, they messed up somewhere along the line, and they flee to a region known as the Reach, a place where people go when they're trying to get away from civilization. There, they find each other, and they discover that they can't just run away from their problems.
The first two books in the trilogy, which were published in 2006 and 2007, are about them coming to terms with their pasts. Regaining Home, the title the Kickstarter will fund, ups the stakes: the villain who has been pursuing them for the first two books decides to bring war to their new homes in the Reach, and they all have to get on their A game to make sure he doesn't succeed.
Branford Patch: If your trilogy were to be made into a movie, who would you cast as the main characters?
Alana Joli Abbott: The main characters are Nara, who is a burglar and con artist; Lydia, a lady knight; Kennerly, a grounded sky knight; and Taru, and elf healer. I think Aarti Mann, who has been on several TV shows (most popularly on Big Bang Theory, I think, though I didn't see her on that) would be a fun Nara. Felicia Day or Jewel Staite would be awesome as Lydia. Whenever I think of an actor for Kennerly, I think of Heath Ledger during his A Knight's Tale years, but I think Chris Evans would be great. Taru is a little harder to imagine, because he's an elf and it's hard to imagine elves now without thinking of Peter Jackson's casting decisions – so to go in a different direction, I'd love to see Zachary Levi in the role, since I think he's done great work with serious suffering and comedy, and because Taru is both a very serious healer and an elf who is claustrophobic when it comes to trees.
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