Nancy Wikarski - Lost Artifacts, Secret Societies & A Relevant Message For Our Times

Nancy Wikarski - Lost Artifacts, Secret Societies & A Relevant Message For Our Times
author of the day

Despite earning a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, Amazon bestselling author, Nancy Wikarski, discovered that her real passion lies with historical mystery and adventure fiction writing. Her Arkana Series in particular has enthralled fans with its treasure hunting and secret societies. As our author of the day, we chat with Nancy about how she came up with the compelling ideas for her stories, the challenge of writing about a villain with values she cannot relate to at all and how she shares a secret skill with the main character of her series.

Please give us an introduction to what The Dragon's Wing Enigma is about.

The Arkana Series as a whole is a global treasure hunt. The concept is simple. Take one lost artifact and scatter clues to its whereabouts across the entire planet. Add a secret society and a fanatical religious cult vying to claim it. The Arkana wants to preserve it for posterity. The Nephilim wants to exploit it to create a terrifying new world order. Only one faction can win. More importantly, only one can survive.

In THE DRAGON'S WING ENIGMA, agents of the Arkana and the Nephilim leave no stone unturned on the island of Malta in their search for clues. A new crisis erupts on the home front when a runaway bride seeks refuge with the Arkana. The girl is the youngest wife of the Nephilim's polygamous leader and she may have accidentally led the Nephilim straight to the Arkana's cache of matriarchal artifacts.

How did you come upon the concepts for the Arkana and the Nephilim?

I knew the story would involve a secret society and I like the name Arkana because in Latin the word means to shut something up so you can keep it safe. The noun arca means a chest or strongbox. The word arcane also has some associations with the mysterious.

Every good story also needs an interesting villain. In this case, a whole bunch of villains. The Blessed Nephilim is a pseudo-Christian fundamentalist cult. I got the name from the Nephilim, a race of giants mentioned in the Bible. However, I’ve created some new lore associated with that name for the purposes of my books.

This is Book 3 in the Arkana series. Can it be read as a standalone, or do you need to read the previous two books first to make sense of the story?

It can be read as a standalone though I suspect it’s more enjoyable to get the scoop on all the characters if a reader starts at the beginning. Every book in the series involves a standalone treasure hunt for a particular lost artifact. To provide context and backstory, there’s a list of character names in each volume for readers new to the series.

The beach in Florida where Nancy jump-started the writing process for each of the seven books in the Arkana Series.

Besides writing, what other secret skills do you have?

Much like the main character in the series, I am an empath. That means I can sense other people’s feelings as if they were my own. This is a handy skill for an author because I can slip easily into the heads of my characters and see the world through their eyes. I think it gives my books a sense of immediacy, so my readers can experience the adventures first-hand.

Which character did you find the most challenging to create?

I found my villain to be the hardest. Abraham Metcalf, the patriarch of the religious cult, represents everything I detest. Because I couldn’t relate to his values at all, there was a real danger of writing him as a caricature instead of a human being. I had to delve into his personal psychology so that, even if I didn’t like what he was doing, I could understand what motivated him to behave in such appalling ways.

Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer to just see where an idea takes you?

Since the Arkana Archaeology Adventures is a seven-book treasure hunt that takes place across the entire planet, I couldn’t afford to free-associate when I wrote it. Such a plot-driven story requires lots of planning. I already knew how the series was going to end before I wrote the first word of book one

Do you ever suffer from writer's block? What do you do to combat it?

I have a theory that writer’s block strikes authors who suffer from performance anxiety. They focus on impressing an audience instead of writing what authentically moves them as an artist. So, no, I never suffer from writer’s block. I do, however, sometimes encounter trouble untangling a plot point. When that happens I take a walk in nature and let my mind drift. By the time I return to the keyboard, the problem usually resolves itself.

What is the hardest part about being a writer?

Not having a steady income because book sales tend to fluctuate with the seasons, holidays, sporting events, elections and a number of other vague conditions over which I have absolutely no control. I felt more vulnerable to those oscillations when I was first starting out, but the problem seems to be diminishing as my backlist grows.

Does this book contain an underlying message? What do you hope your readers will take away from The Dragon's Wing Enigma?

The underlying purpose of the Arkana Series is to stand history on its head and restore the lost memory of the human race. My fictional treasure hunt allows me to delve into the real archaeological evidence for female-led cultures which have either been forgotten or suppressed. During my research, I found them among every race and on every continent.

The artifacts which the Arkana is collecting can prove that we once lived in technologically advanced, peaceful societies without gender inequality or career warfare. We aren’t as innately violent or competitive as we’ve been led to believe. I think that’s a relevant message for our times. Hopefully, it can counteract a belief in the inevitability of male dominance as a model for human behavior. We once knew a better way to live and everyone benefited from it.

What are you working on right now?

My next project is going to be a crossover mystery between my two series. A previous generation of Arkana agents will tangle with my Victorian Chicago amateur sleuths when they all stumble across a dangerous artifact at the Chicago Natural History Museum in 1895.

Where can our readers discover more of your work or interact with you?

My books are easy to find through my Amazon Author Page. Readers can email me via my website. My public Facebook page is the best place to find recent updates or post a comment.

Myth Of History Website

My Amazon Author Page

My Facebook Public Page

 

This deal has ended but you can read more about the book here.