The Sky Curse series follows Cecilia Miller, a coder of artificial dreams living in the year 2045. It’s a time when climate chaos has become the norm and the collective mental health of humanity has fallen to a grave state. The world’s population has grown to a horrific twenty-five billion people, maxing Earth to its limit. Most are planning to abandon Earth and leave it to its fate as they colonize a new world through Titan pioneering (those beings are called Universalists). However, there are those who still hold on to hope for Earth and a humanity untainted by AI (those beings are called Localists). As humanity struggles to survive, it seems like only technology can help, and Cecilia is determined to be the one to bring it about. When planet Earth faces apocalyptic events, she must summon her resolve and resilience if she’s to have a chance to save this world.
Hello book lovers! Today is a day where I will be writing another author spotlight for a well-accomplished author whose work I have loved. As you know book lovers I love learning about authors and the inspiration behind their work, it fascinates me and adds to the depth of the book because the reader will be able to better understand it. That is how the author spotlights were created because I soon discovered that you lovely readers ALSO love learning about author’s, so I am excited to tell you a little bit more about author Janet Kravetz whose book Sky Curse thrilled me from beginning to end. I personally would recommend this book to all of those that love fantasy and science fiction but really the book can be read by anybody as it is flawlessly written and highly enjoyable. With today’s author spotlight, a biography of the author and an interview between me and Janet Kravetz will be shared, and I hope that you book lovers enjoy reading it! To kick this off here is an author bio about the wonderful Janet Kravetz!
Who is this character, anyway? Janet Kravetz (or Topaz Ruby) is an Amazon bestselling and multi award-winning Canadian author. From practicing law to conducting research and policy analysis to now writing poetry and science-fiction, Janet’s personal story is yet to be fully written, but we know she’s the protagonist in this particular story. In a world that constantly keeps changing, her character arc keeps evolving. She has been living in different worlds, watching them prosper, struggle or even collapse (Ukraine aka former Soviet Union, Israel, Canadian province of Nova Scotia). When asked about her cultures, traditions and languages (Russian, Hebrew and English) as well as her wishes for world peace, she refers readers to her 2014 Beverly Hills Book Awards winning poetry book Reaching Beyond Ourselves: Leading A Spiritual, Peaceful and Diverse World (Amazon Books). When asked about her thoughts on Earth’s future, she refers readers to her near-future debut sci-fi and fantasy novel series Sky Curse (Literary Titan Silver Book Award, 40 Years Press, Amazon August 2022). You can follow her updates on her Facebook page @AuthorJankra or connect with her on LinkedIn.
Now, how wonderful does Janet Kravetz sound?! Janet Kravetz is a truly exceptional writer and I hope that you lovely readers have a read of the author’s work because you will not regret it! Please see below an interview between me and the author and I hope that you enjoy Janet Kravetz’s answers to my questions, they are incredible and provide some great advice too!
Thank you for joining us today at Red Headed Book Lover! Please tell us a bit about yourself
I live in Halifax Nova Scotia, but I was born in Ukraine and grew up in Israel. I’m an author and a mental health advocate. My writing ranges from poetry to sci-fi and fantasy and focuses on topics of mental health, climate change, the rise of AI and technology, peace, diversity and spirituality.
November 2022 was a great month for the Sky Curse series! It was a #1 Amazon eBook bestseller in its category, a Literary Titan Silver Book Award winner for November 2022 and a recipient of 2 silver medals at the 2022 Global Book Awards. Congratulations and thank you for joining us for this interview.
Thank you! It’s my pleasure. I’m happy to answer your questions.
Sky Curse: The Chosen Five is a sci-fi and fantasy novel that follows five young adults, who are chosen to fulfill a Mayan prophecy and must locate crystals that will hopefully save the Earth. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
Sky Curse series aims to bring hope for Earth’s future, while analyzing causes that might bring its demise, like environmental chaos. It was important for me to bring up the mighty Mayan civilization that disappeared abruptly and the recent research that suggests that human-made environmental disasters had caused their demise.
The protagonist Cecilia is just like any one of us. She’s quite ordinary with a lot of problems of her own. At the beginning of the book, she has nothing to do with climate change activism. Until she gets hold of a mysterious crystal that gives her some magical powers. With her newfound abilities, she tries to save the world from an impeding apocalypse.
Readers say Sky Curse is a page-turner that…
- reads like “news from the future,”
- which helps understand the present,
- while learning from the ancient past (the Maya, Roman Empire, etc.)
As for the inspiration for the setup – many people, especially teens and young adults, suffer from climate anxiety, but unfortunately feel helpless to do anything about it. They give up. They call the subject “depressing” and steer away from it. They get depressed about their future and the future of the next generations. That’s exactly how I felt before I started writing the Sky Curse series. Sharing my feelings on the subject with the world made me feel that I’m actually doing something about it, however small. It’s an empowering feeling to have and it’s that exact feeling that I want to share with the world. I would like to start some empowering and educational conversations around topics that cause climate and even AI anxiety. This book aims to inspire sustainability-related action without causing any feelings of guilt or inferiority to the readers.
Did you create an outline for the five chosen ones in the story before you started writing or did the character’s personalities grow organically as you were writing?
I did a little bit of both. I had had an initial outline for their characters, but later I added intricate story layers to the manuscript during the editorial process. The new and improved plot drove the characters’ personalities to grow organically and dramatically with the story, while I was reviewing the storyline over and over again.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
This is a highly entertaining, action-paced novel that touches upon topics such as the environment, mental health and resilience (happiness and self-fulfilment,) the future of ai and technology, spirituality etc.
I believe that the world has never been more fragile than it is now, but it’s definitely worth saving. We live in unprecedented times when our sustainability efforts as well as our technological advances and failures will soon define humanity. We must discuss important questions: will humans soon live, work, collaborate, compete, and integrate with machines? Will humans become an interplanetary species? Will human cloning become the norm? If so, what would that look like? What are our collective and individual roles in imagining and then shaping this future?
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
First, lets’ mention my previous book. Reaching Beyond Ourselves: Leading a Spiritual, Peaceful and Diverse World is my poetry book that tells my own personal story of enjoying different cultures and speaking different languages on my journeys from Ukraine to Israel to Canada. You can find it on Amazon Books.
As for the next book – the outline of the second book in the Sky Curse series is mostly written at this point and the novel will be called Sky Curse: Trial by Fire. It will shed light on some of the unresolved mysteries of book 1, while presenting new mysteries and adventures. Expected to be available in 2023. Please subscribe to my website to get notification about its release.
Sky Curse has been receiving great reviews on the Amazon books website. What is your favourite recent reader reviews?
Top reviews from the United States
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 24, 2022
I am incredibly amazed by the entire structure of the book and most of all, how interesting the story is as I dived into this book. Cecilia’s resolve to protect humanity, even up to the final page, is so firm that I cannot help but admire her personality. But I guess what I love even more was the whole message of the book and how important it truly is to protect our planet from destruction made by humankind itself.
Top reviews from Canada
5.0 out of 5 stars ‘Guys, the world is facing a planned apocalypse’ – food for thought, and entertainment!
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 7, 2022
Canadian author/poet/artist Janet Kravetz has served as a lawyer, researcher and policy analyst, and her publications to date included REACHING BEYOND OURSELVES (under the nom de plume Topaz Ruby) and her debut science fiction fantasy novel SKY CURSE. She was born in Ukraine, raised in Israel, and now lives in Nova Scotia, and is quietly becoming a major voice in apocalyptic thinking! In this stunning novel she creates an indomitable character in Cecelia Miller whose fascination and obsession with technology will appeal to the YA/teen set (and all readers who wish to advance their perceptions of how the world is functioning at present!). Set in 2045, reminding us how close we are in time to the possibilities herein described, Kravetz quite poetically scribes a story underscored with current challenges such as climate control and dissociative mental vagaries and places the decision of how to manage the future into the hands of Cecelia’s remarkable, energetic, and optimistic mind. ‘She yearned to protect Earth and its inhabitants without taking away their free will.’ Successful on many levels, not the least of which is Kravetz’ extraordinary gift of redaction, this book deserves wide attention, not only as entertainment, which it certainly supplies in full, but also in considering the possibilities of our future, should we leave it unattended! Fortunately, this is Book One of a proposed (and anticipated) series! Highly recommended
Its official book lovers, I am obsessed with Janet Kravetz! If you have liked what you have read about the author and are interested in learning more, then please do have a browse of the links below and be sure to have a read of the preview too! You will not regret it.
Goodbye for now book lovers,
Amazon US – Amazon UK – Goodreads
Author: Website – Facebook – LinkedIn – Twitter – Instagram
