Blog Hop: Born in a Treacherous Time by Jacqui Murray

Published on by J. Kelland Perry

FYI: Sunday Snap will be back as usual next week.

Today, I’m delighted to welcome author and tech teacher Jacqui Murray from over at WordDreams. She has a brand new release out now in an unusual and fascinating genre.

Book Info:

Title: Born in a Treacherous Time
Series: Book 1 in the Man vs. Nature series
Genre: Prehistoric fiction
Cover by: Damonza 
Available at: Kindle

Jennifer: Good morning, Jacqui. Born in a Treacherous Time sounds intriguing! Can you tell me a bit about it?

Jacqui: Thank you for having me, Jennifer. Here’s a short summary:

Lucy and her band of early humans struggle to survive in the harsh reality of a world where nature rules, survival is a daily challenge, and a violent band threatens to destroy everything Lucy thinks she understands.

If you like Man vs. Wild, you’ll love this book. If you ever wondered how earliest man survived but couldn’t get through the academic discussions, this book is for you. It will bring that world – East Africa 1.8 million years ago – to life in a way never seen before.

Jennifer: I can’t wait to read it. I’ve never read prehistoric fiction before, but it has been of interest to me ever since I saw the movie Quest For Fire. What prompted you to write the book, and your switch to this niche genre?

Jacqui: Born in a Treacherous Time is a spin-off of my previous book, To Hunt a Sub.
More specifically, it is a spin-off of Lucy, the ancient female who mentored Kali Delamagente, the female protagonist of that series.

Jennifer: Lucy was such an interesting part of that story. But why did you write a book in such a tiny niche?

Jacqui: Born in a Treacherous Time is written in the sub-genre of historic fiction called prehistoric fiction, a time before recorded history. There aren’t a lot of readers in this genre but they are devoted!
Because the only records are rocks, world building has proven difficult but Lucy (the heroine) really didn’t give me a choice. She nagged me to tell her story from my first page twenty years ago to my final draft. Now maybe Lucy will leave me alone!

Jennifer: You have a couple of noteworthy reviews you’d like to share with our readers, including a Kirkus review. Here they are:

Kirkus review: “Murray’s lean prose is steeped in the characters’ brutal worldview, which lends a delightful otherness to the narration …The book’s plot is similar in key ways to other works in the genre, particularly Jean M. Auel’s The Clan of the Cave Bear. However, Murray weaves a taut, compelling narrative, building her story on timeless human concerns of survival, acceptance, and fear of the unknown. Even if readers have a general sense of where the plot is going, they’ll still find the specific twists and revelations to be highly entertaining throughout.
A well-executed tale of early man.”  (Click here for the entire review)

 An early reader’s review: “Born in a Treacherous Time sheds light on a period of time that gave birth to the human race, and allow us to bear witness to the harshness and tenacious spirit that is uniquely human—to survive and endure. Readers with a thirst for knowledge and who enjoy historical fiction, this is a must read. I am looking forward to reading book 2 when it is published. I devoured the book in 2 sittings.”– Luciana Cavallaro, author of Servant of the Gods series and webmaster of Eternal Atlantis

Jennifer: Those are wonderful reviews. I love that this book has a strong and unique female lead. Thank you so much for this, Jacqui!

To learn more about my guest today, check out the following:

Author Bio: Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy, the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers, and the Man vs. Nature series. She is also the author of over a hundred books on integrating technology into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice,  a columnist for TeachHUB, monthly contributor to Today’s Author, and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. You can find her books at her publisher’s website, Structured Learning.

Social media links:
http://twitter.com/worddreams
http://linkedin.com/in/jacquimurray
https://worddreams.wordpress.com
https://jacquimurray.net

43 thoughts on “Blog Hop: Born in a Treacherous Time by Jacqui Murray”

  1. Pingback: My Eighth Year in the Blogosphere

  3. Jennifer, lovely to see Jacqui on your blog and the third one I read this morning whilst catching up!! Jacqui, you’re one busy lady! The book sounds superb and the hype is terrific. Good luck with the launch blog hop and thereafter! Xx

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  4. It’s great to see Jacqui and her book over here, Jennifer. I’m about 2/3 of the way through the read and I’m loving it (I seem to be sharing my progress at each of her stops along the tour. Lol). A talented writer and riveting read. 🙂

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        1. Absolutely! I’ve had any number of agents and readers tell me prehistoric fiction is fantasy because it takes place in a world constructed by the author (because we know so little about that primordial time). I think you have my email?

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            1. That was my first (and second and third) reaction too. But, they persisted and finally convinced me that for this particular piece of historical fiction, it could be seen as a crossover. If you look at the writing of the Gear’s about early North American inhabitants, they incorporate pieces that sound more fantastical than plausible.

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  7. This sounds very intriguing indeed – prehistory is my favourite part of history, possibly because it is so mysterious – interesting what Jacqui says about the difficulties of world building, I’d imagine that there would be more freedom with no recorded history, but I guess it wouldn’t be easy to put yourself in the mind frame of someone who has so little compared to what we have today.

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    1. The world must make sense–that’s about the only requirement. I had early readers challenge the animals I had in Lucy’s world–were they mammoth or mastodons? Thankfully, it is well researched so I could answer confidently!

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