About the Book
Book: The Unraveling of Emlyn DuLaine
Author: Lindsay A. Franklin
Genre: YA Fantasy
Release date: February 4, 2025
A shattered heart, a fate foretold.
The world undone by tales of old.
Emlyn DuLaine just wants to know what happened to her sister, Camille, seven years ago on the fateful day she vanished—literally. Emlyn witnessed Camille unravel and disappear, but no one believes her. Since they think she’s crazy, the least the cops could do is solve Camille’s case. Is a little closure too much to ask?
But Emlyn’s life is upended when she is pulled through a portal into the fantasyland of her childhood imaginings—a magical library holding the storyworlds of every story ever published. And trouble is brewing in the land of Rivenlea. Rogue characters threaten their plot lines, and broken classics are beginning to crumble, but Emlyn only wants to find Camille.
As she searches for her sister, Emlyn begins to learn the reality of Rivenlea and her own origins. A nefarious plot is afoot, and the line between fact and fiction is becoming hopelessly blurred. The truth threatens the storyworlds, Rivenlea, and Earth—the fabric of creation, itself.
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About the Author
Lindsay A. Franklin is the Carol Award–winning author of The Story Peddler, ECPA best-selling author of Adored, and Managing Editor of Enclave Publishing. She would wear pajama pants all the
time if it were socially acceptable. Lindsay lives happily among therain and evergreens of the Pacific Northwest with her scruffy- looking nerf-herder husband, their three (nearly) grown geeklings, and three demanding thunder pillows (a.k.a. cats).
More from Lindsay
“It’s always been broken.”
Those were the words God put on my heart when I cried out to him in 2020 as I tried to plot The Unraveling of Emlyn DuLaine. My cry and the fact that I was plotting a novel were not exactly connected at first–though outlining does usually result in some weeping and gnashing of teeth for me. But I released my last novel in 2020 and happened to be working on my new series, The Rivenlea Sphere, when the world was suddenly thrown into chaos.
Being creative in the midst of a global pandemic and significant social unrest is not easy. In fact, I found it impossible. I stared at my unfinished outline, asking myself and God, “Why is everything so messed up? Why is this world so broken?” I know the theological answer to that question, but sometimes, the soul aches. Sometimes, it feels like the whole world is falling apart in a way it never has before.
When God reminded me that this world has, since the fall of man, always been broken, he also reminded me that he’s always been in the business of rescuing us, giving us hope, and pointing us toward a better future–one that is complete and holy. One that is fully redeemed.
Over the next two years, an underlying brokenness that begs for solution wove itself into my storyworld. The Unraveling of Emlyn DuLaine is intentionally whimsical and fun, filled with references to beloved classics and packed with wry humor. There’s a magical library, a sassy dragon, a fish-out-of-water protagonist determined to dodge every YA trope being thrown her way. But underneath it all is the idea that this world isn’t what it was originally designed to be–and there is hope on the horizon.
Interview with the Author
- What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel?
Can I throw it back to childhood? One of my favorites growing up was The Farthest-Away Mountain by Lynne Reid Banks, but no one seemed to know about that book! Everyone knew Banks’s far more famous novel The Indian in the Cupboard, but I was obsessed with the high fantasy fabulousness of The Farthest-Away Mountain.
- How do you select the names of your characters?
This depends on the series and what I’ve chosen to be my “base language” for the storyworld. I’m not a Tolkien-style linguist, so you’ll never catch me creating a whole fantasy language like Sindarin (or scripts for said languages—he was incredible!). But I still want my fantasy words, including names, to feel internally consistent. So I pick a real-world base language to work with and name things according to the style of that language. In The Unraveling of Emlyn DuLaine, it’s Latin. In The Story Peddler, it’s Welsh. I look up words in these languages that are descriptive of the character I’m naming, tweak it to my liking, and those are my names! For those of us who are not linguists, this is a way to keep names and places sounding like they all came from the same language (or…planet) without starting from scratch.
- What is your favorite childhood book?
Those who look really closely at the cover of The Unraveling of Emlyn DuLaine may not be surprised to learn that I loved the Oz books as a child. They captivated my imagination so completely that I scoured every public library in San Diego County looking for more Oz tales. I think I was able to find eight of fourteen.
- What comes first, the plot or characters?
This actually depends on the story for me. I would say I’m more character-focused as a novelist because that is the element that comes easier to me overall. I really had to study plot and structure to get a firm grasp of those, and creating characters came naturally. But sometimes a plot idea comes to me first, then I imagine who should be living that story.
- What do you like to do when you are not writing?
I spend a lot of time on my day job as managing editor at Enclave Publishing. But when I’m not doing that, I love to garden, bake, lift weights, and spend time with my husband and our spoiled cats. I also like to pester my grown and nearly grown children (they love me).
Blog Stops
Madi’s Musings, February 25
Inspired by Fiction, February 26
Artistic Nobody, February 27 (Author Interview)
Book Butterfly in Dreamland, February 27
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, February 28
Blogging With Carol, March 1
Blossoms and Blessings, March 2 (Author Interview)
The Lofty Pages, March 3
Tell Tale Book Reviews, March 4
Texas Book-aholic, March 5
Jodie Wolfe – Stories Where Hope and Quirky Meet, March 6 (Author Interview)
cecereadsandsings, March 6
Locks, Hooks and Books, March 7
For Him and My Family, March 8
Fiction Book Lover, March 9 (Author Interview)
Holly’s Book Corner, March 10
Giveaway
To celebrate her tour, Lindsay is giving away the grand prize of a $75 Amazon Gift Card and a hardcover copy of the book!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.