The Claus Box Set
Now you can purchase all three books in the Claus Series together!
More About the Series
Claus: Legend of the Fat Man
(Claus #1)
by Tony Bertauski
by Tony Bertauski
YA Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Holiday
Paperback & ebook, 326 Pages
June 19th 2012
Paperback & ebook, 326 Pages
June 19th 2012
The Christmas story you never heard.
In the early 1800s, Nicholas, Jessica and Jon Santa attempt the first human trek to the North Pole and stumble upon an ancient race of people left over from the Ice Age. They are short, fat and hairy. They slide across the ice on scaly soles and carve their homes in the ice that floats on the Arctic Ocean. The elven are adapted to life in the extreme cold. They are as wise as they are ancient.
Their scientific advancements have yielded great inventions -- time-stopping devices and gravitational spheres that build living snowmen and genetically-modified reindeer that leap great distances. They’ve even unlocked the secrets to aging. For 40,000 years, they have lived in peace.
Until now.
An elven known as The Cold One has divided his people. He’s tired of their seclusion and wants to conquer the world. Only one elven stands between The Cold
One and total chaos. He’s white-bearded and red-coated. The Santa family will help him stop The Cold One. They will come to the aid of a legendary elven
known as...Claus.
Jack: The Tale of Frost
(Claus #2)
by Tony Bertauski
by Tony Bertauski
YA Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Holiday
Paperback & ebook, 290 Pages
October 17th 2013
Paperback & ebook, 290 Pages
October 17th 2013
Sura is sixteen years old when she meets Mr. Frost. He’s very short and very fat and he likes his room very, very cold. Some might say inhumanly cold. His first name isn’t Jack, she’s told. And that’s all she needed to know.
Mr. Frost’s love for Christmas is over-the-top and slightly psychotic. And why not? He’s made billions of dollars off the holiday he invented. Or so he claims. Rumor is he’s an elven, but that’s silly. Elven aren’t real. And if they were, they wouldn’t live in South Carolina. They wouldn’t hide in a tower and go to the basement to make…things.
Nonetheless, Sura will work for this odd little recluse. Frost Plantation is where she’ll meet the love of her life. It’s where she’ll finally feel like she belongs somewhere. And it’s where she’ll meet someone fatter, balder and stranger than Mr. Frost. It’s where she’ll meet Jack.
Jack hates Christmas.
Flury: Journey of a Snowman
(Claus #3)
by Tony Bertauski
by Tony Bertauski
YA Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Holiday
Paperback & ebook, 300 Pages
November 15th 2014
Paperback & ebook, 300 Pages
November 15th 2014
Life hasn’t been kind to Oliver Toye.
As if juvenile diabetes isn’t enough, he’s forced to live with his tyrannical grandmother in a snow-bound house. He spends his days doing chores and the nights listening to the forest rumble.
But when he discovers the first leather-bound journal, the family secrets begin to surface. The mystery of his great-grandfather’s voyage to the North Pole is revealed. That’s when the snowman appears.
Magical and mysterious, the snowman will save Oliver more than once. But when the time comes for Oliver to discover the truth, will he have the courage? When Flury needs him, will he have the strength? When believing isn’t enough, will he save the snowman from melting away?
Because sometimes even magic needs a little help.
About Tony Bertauski
During the day, I'm a horticulturist. While I've spent much of my career designing landscapes or diagnosing dying plants, I've always been a storyteller. My writing career began with magazine columns, landscape design textbooks, and a gardening column at the Post and Courier (Charleston, SC). However, I've always fancied fiction.And I'm a big fan of plot twists.
Tour Giveaway
$25 Amazon gift card and the Claus Box Set ebook
Follow the Tour!
1 - Launch
5 - Mythical Books & fuonlyknew
7 - Hope To Read
12 - The Review Notes & Book Babble
14 - Grand Finale
Interview with Author Tony Bertauski
Glad you are here with us today.
First, The Review Notes readers would love to know about you and how you came to
be an author.
During the day, I’m an educator.
I’ve been teaching horticulture at the college level for over 16 years. Not the
type of educator you think of when it comes to science fiction, I know. But good
teaching involves effective storytelling, no matter what the subject, and
science fiction has always been a passion of mine.
I started as a technical writer,
penning magazine articles, newspaper columns and two textbooks. I fell into
fiction by accident. Competition and time made it difficult to publish
traditionally. And I’m happy as an educator, so I didn’t want to write full
time. That’s why indie publishing has been a very good fit for me. With 12
novels and counting, I’ve been extremely grateful for the opportunity to reach
fans.
What was your inspiration in
writing the Claus series – Claus: Legend of the Fat Man, Jack: The Tale of
Frost, and now Flury: Journey of a Snow Man? What do hope to get through to the
readers?
I was inspired by my nephew when
he spoke about the secret ninja elves that visit his school. It struck me there
are so many holiday myths and figures that tell magical stories, but none that
focus on a science fiction angle. So I’ve sought to retell them from a point of
view that feels less magical and more realistic without sacrificing the fun. I
also want to include more of the human experience in these tales, dealing with
real emotions and the struggle of daily life.
Is it important to read the
series in proper order or can anyone jump in anywhere? How related are the three
books?
They do not have to be read in
order. I’ve done that intentionally, so that a reader can jump in anywhere along
the way and enjoy. If you start with Flury, you can go back to Claus and learn
more about how the elven came to be. All three books contain related elements
and sometimes characters. Right now, I intend on writing a book each holiday.
Next up will feature one of the characters in Flury, Aunt Rhonnie, because she
just seems like too much of a mess to not have fun.
How different are the three
books from each other in terms of theme, content and characterization? Can you
share with the readers something about the three books in the series? And what
ties them together to make a series?
The theme and content are around
Christmas and delve into the mystery of some of our traditions and myths, in
addition to adding some of my own. Claus focuses on the legend to be known as
Santa, along with how he travels around the world in one night, why he laughs
like that, why he’s fat and so on. In that story, Jack becomes a central figure,
a character we closely associate with Jack Frost. I enjoyed writing Jack so much
that I devoted the second book to him. The third book is Flury the snowman. I
think everyone loves Frosty, so a story that deals with the snowmen from Claus
(known as abominables) seemed natural.
The characters in all three books
are a bit more serious than typical stories. For instance, reindeer are large
and standoff-ish. Snowmen are big and protective. Elven are fat because they
evolved from the Ice Age. I try to tie purpose with all the mythos. For
instance, elven are fat, short and hairy because they evolved in the cold; their
feet are wide like snowshoes. The snowmen aren’t made from a magical hat but a
metal ball capable of electromagnetism that draws the snow around it to form a
body. It’s those elements that are still a stretch, but a little more
believable. And fun.
How long did you research for
the series and what was the most difficult part about writing the
series?
The Internet is a beautiful
thing. I spent a lot of time learning about the Arctic, the history of
expeditions, how ice floes work, etc. Other than that, it was a matter of
keeping record of Christmas mythology and how to include it, such as how Santa
slides down a chimney, how reindeer fly, how he carries all those presents, how
does he know who is naughty or nice, why is Santa on the North Pole, why is he
human and his workers elves. You start to realize there are a lot of unexplained
Christmas myths when you write them down.
Do you have any work in
progress? Can you share something about it?
I’m currently working on three
series, one of them the Claus series. The other two series—Foreverland and
Halfskin—are currently due for book three. I’ll be merging those two series
after that. The next Claus book will likely be about a lost elven. I’ll start
working on that in summer. Somehow, it will feature Aunt
Rhonnie.
One final question: how is
life as an author? How different is it from other professions? It is too
demanding?
I suppose I’m lucky in the sense
that I’m an author part time. It’s my hobby, so I can’t wait for the weekends
and free time. I never get burned out. I think if I did it full time, I wouldn’t
enjoy it as much, but I don’t know. There’s always a story reel unfolding in my
head, so I enjoy the experience of discovering a new character or a plot twist
quite frequently. And when I can share that with others, that’s just
icing.
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