Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Olesya Salnikova Gilmore!   Writes: Speculative historical fiction inspired by Eastern European history and folklore. I love to blend the supernatural with the real to create largely true-to-life stories that reflect my Russian heritage and have a dash of the magical or the ghostly, sometimes both. THE HAUNTING OF MOSCOW HOUSE is a gothic horror tale set in post-revolutionary Moscow, in which two formerly aristocratic sisters race to uncover their family’s long-buried secrets in a house now haunted by a past dangerous—and deadly—to remember.   About: I am a mama/wife/author/ex-lawyer living in deep suburbia but dreaming about exotic locales where I like to set my books and make my characters mostly miserable. I love: last minute travel to places I had no idea I wanted to go to; taking walks along the lake while my toddler daughter speeds by on her scooter, screaming for mommy to run; all the art projects with my daughter, though I get major OCD with some of her more…

Book Title: THE WITCH AND THE TSAR Character Name: Yaga   *This interview was conducted in Yaga’s hut before the events of The Witch and the Tsar. Yaga doesn’t know it yet, but the next night, she will receive a visitor whose news will interrupt her peaceful yet lonely existence. In a matter of days, it will catapult her from the woods to a royal court, where she will meet Ivan IV—soon to be Ivan the Terrible—and begin a years-long battle not only for the land she loves, but for her heart.   How would you describe your family or your childhood? My family consisted of my mother, as I never knew my father. My childhood with her had been ideal. She was the Earth Goddess Mokosh, the protector of women and their destiny. She is also the one who taught me about charms and rituals, about herbs and incantations. Sometimes, a god or goddess would appear on our doorstep and stay with us for a while, which piqued my curiosity about Mother’s world. Old gods and goddesses walked the Earth then, and we were venerated. It was only when Mother died, and a new god came to Russia, that…

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE WITCH AND THE TSAR 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? THE WITCH AND THE TSAR is the retelling of the maligned and immortal witch of legend known as Baba Yaga as she risks all to save her country and her people from Tsar Ivan the Terrible in 16th century Russia. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I decided on medieval Russia because it was the closest to the wild and mysterious and magical land that I had read about in the Russian fairy tales as a little girl. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Absolutely! Yaga is clever and knowledgeable and incredibly fascinating—she’s a goddess who is hundreds of years old, after all! I’d love to ask her about what she’s seen, who she’s known, and the secret to life itself. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Brave, wise, feisty. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? Patience, and that I still had much to learn. I had written a few books before this one, and I thought I knew everything there was to know about…