Featured Novel: 'The Stone of the Tenth Realm' by Eva Gordon

Many years ago, Eva Gordon read a book titled Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust, which contained stories about miraculous escapes by supernatural means. This inspired her to write her dark fantasy/alternate history novel, The Stone of the Tenth Realm.  The first volume of The Realm Trilogy begins in a Nazi concentration camp, where the Jewish chemistry student Sophie Katz harrowingly escapes from. Thanks to the way of Prague and the help of a golem and magic stone, she is transported into the Tenth Realm, a magical dimension that parallels the world she left behind. She teams up with Logan Mac Leod, a Scottish warrior hunted for a crime he did not commit. Together they must join forces against the dark evil of the Third Reich that threatens the Tenth Realm, led by Gustaf Hissler, Adolf Hitler's doppelgänger.  Gordon writes genre-bending paranormal fantasy, Steampunk, and historical novels with a strong romantic element, andsShe loves to create stories that combine her passion for mythology, steamy romance, and action/suspense. Her imagination takes her from one universe to the next. When not in her den writing, she can be found teaching animal lore at writing conventions, at work at the raptor rehabilitation center, wolf sanctuaries, or to satisfy her inner Hemingway on some global eco adventure.Interview with Eva Gordon

What makes the Tenth Realm different from our world?The Tenth Realm is a parallel earth where magic is real and used for practical tasks as well as for war. Sword and Sorcery replaces Industrial period. The Tenth Realm’s historical timeline is also different. For example, the Roman Empire continued for a longer period. The United States became a penalty colony like Australia. The characters dress in Renaissance style attire as seen in many sword and sorcery storylines.How do the characters in your novel interact and cross between realms? How do you extrapolate how dimensions work? A magical stone is used to travel to the next realm, but once you travel to the other realm, you cannot return. However wizards can communicate with our dimension when the veil (between the universes) is thin.  My view is that my dimensions combine the physics of the quantum theory and the metaphysics of Kabbalah. In my novel, there are many parallel universes, but each has a different timeline, and guided by different laws of physics. Kabbalah metaphysics predicts multi-universes exist; what is happening now is happening in another earth, but different. Of all the historical periods, why did you choose to set your story in this time period? The (Shoah) Holocaust was one of the darkest period in history and I always wondered if something as horrific could happen in an alternative world. And what would World War II be like in a world of sword and sorcery. Would we still have Nazis? Or would they be Necromancers?What kind of magic do we expect to find in The Tenth Realm?Alchemy, Shape shifting, Necromancy, Sorcery and aspects of Druidic and Kabalistic magic.Did you have to do a lot of historical research for this project?Yes. I did research on the Terezin Concentration camp where the story begins. I have also visited Yad Vashem, museum of the Holocaust in Israel and Prague in the Czech Republic. I have actually visited the majority of the countries mentioned in my novel. The Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust sounds interesting. You mentioned that many have escaped through supernatural means. Did you include the supernatural elements you've read from that book in your novel?Yes, but as inspiration rather than using similar details. I like how there were examples of how the supernatural helped people survive concentration camps, ghettos and or escape from certain death.