Michelle L. Levigne's Blog, page 28
July 8, 2023
Storyteller Episode, Ye Olde Dragon's Library: TIM FRANKOVICH
Today's guest on the Ye Olde Dragon's Library storytelling podcast is Tim Frankovich, discussing his newest project, THE CERTAINTY OF BLOOD.
And two previous series he's been working on, dealing with magic and dragons and technology:
You can find Tim online here:
Website: https://timfrankovich.comAmazon Author site: https://www.amazon.com/Tim-Frankovich/e/B013NN6FPY
Facebook: Facebook.com/timfrankovichauthor
Twitter: @timfrankovich
Instagram: calledtimbysome
Make sure to join us on the podcast. You'll have even more books to add to your shopping list the next time you go online!!!
July 7, 2023
New Release sample: LIARS' QUEST
“The leach potionwasn’t a tonic after all?” she asked, after they had walked for several minutesand were nearly to the other side of the cow pasture. “Tonic implies somethinggood for you.”
“Exactly. The leachpotion wasn’t called the leach potion until the demand for it spread beyond thekingdom where it originated, and a small battle erupted, to force the alchemistwho created it to share the recipe, so others could make it in their countries.Several wizards joined forces and took apart the falsely labeled tonic todiscern the ingredients and process. That was when they realized it had beendesigned to kill magic before it could finish blooming into life, not help easethe process.”
“You think yourfather made your mother drink it?” Ash asked, her voice dropping nearly to awhisper.
“Oh, he wouldn’t have beenthat open. He put it in her food for maybe years. Killing her magic weakenedher body and mind.” Leena’s mouth twisted, as if she fought not to saysomething. They climbed over the stone wall of the cow pasture, and ahead ofthem was the thatched cottage where Ash had lived when she first came to CastleFairhold. “Just see the difference between Lathia and me, from prolonged dosingwith the foul stuff. Mother’s family couldn’t do anything to help her, by thetime they realized something was wrong, but they were able to do something forme. My patron had me cleansed, and I wear several defensive charms. Every oncein a while, my father tries to slip some potion into my food, but he’sessentially given up on me as a lost cause. He couldn’t interfere when mother’srelatives helped me petition to join the warrior maidens, and he’s such ahide-bound fool, he thinks he can’t marry me off to better his fortunes.Everything rests on Lathia now, which is why he’ll do everything dirty anddishonorable anyone could imagine, to punish you and exonerate her.”
July 3, 2023
New Release: PLANTWISE
Arden sensed the thrumming of what she could only describe asjoy, pulsing through the ground, spreading outward from the massive old oakwhere he sat. A new perfume filled the air, constantly changing, neverlingering long enough for her to describe it. With Glynna close beside her, shefollowed that thrumming, that perfume, through fields bursting with emeraldlife, to her favorite stream, and the oak where she liked to sit on a widebranch and daydream and let the trees and fields and flowers sing to her.
She stepped around the oak and saw the man. For two heartbeatsshe was startled, but then she knew who he was. Outwardly, he was just a thinyoung man with a thick cap of nut-brown hair, skin a shade lighter, green eyes,a thin dusting of beard, and slightly dusty traveling clothes of roughspun andleather. His smile wiped away her momentary trepidation and made her feelbreathless as she went to her knees next to him.
“Don’t leave Westerland, dearheart,” he murmured.
“I don’t want to, but if my father …” She flushed hot andcouldn’t meet his smiling eyes. “Am I being silly?”
“It’s never silly to love, to join your soul in delight andabandon to another soul.” He winked. “I’ve only recently been blessed with thatgift, and it takes my breath away whenever I think of her. I’m constantlywondering how I could be so lucky that she loves me.” He laughed, and Ardenlaughed with him.
July 1, 2023
Storyteller Episode: Ye Olde Dragon's Library: JF (Jennifer) ROGERS
This week's guest on a storyteller episode of Ye Olde Dragon's Library is JF Rogers.
J. F. Rogers lives in Southern Maine with her husband, daughter, pets…and usually an imaginary friend or two. She has a degree in Behavioral Science and teaches a 5th & 6th grade Sunday School class. When she’s not entertaining Tuki the Mega Mutt, her constant companion and greatest distraction, she’s likely tap tap tapping away at her keyboard, praying the words will miraculously align just so. Above all, she’s a believer in the One True God and can say with absolute certainty—you are loved. Connect with her at jfrogers.com.
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June 29, 2023
New Release sample: LIARS' QUEST
NEW AND AVAILABLE TODAY!In paper, ebook and audiobook.
If you'd like to taste test before buying, check out a few episodes from Season 1 of the Ye Olde Dragon's Library storytelling podcast.
Note: If you were listening during Season 1, this was a work-in-progress, and an experiment, where I asked for input from listeners, to help in the final revisions and polishing process. There are slight differences in details between the original podcast episodes of LIARS' QUEST, and the book now available online in bookstores and from audiobook apps. Not noticeable, unless you were really listening closely. If you were -- Thanks!
The sequel, BEASTLY BEAUTY, is scheduled to be released on the podcast in September, as well as in print, ebook, and audiobook. Stay tuned. Better yet, look for the Ye Olde Dragon's Library group on Patreon, join, and support the podcast -- and claim free short stories and other goodies as they become available!
***** “Leach potion,mi’lady?” Ash asked. She looked up at Leena and caught her breath at the brief expressionof hurt and anger that touched her face, gone as quickly as it appeared.“A tonic originallycreated, they say, to ease the suffering of those awakening to their inbornmagic but having a hard time of it.” She rested a hand on Ash’s shoulder,guiding her to walk a little faster as they cut a corner across the horsemeadow and came to the low, raw stone wall separating it from the cow pasture.“Magic doesn’t always arise easily for those chosen to bear the weight.Sometimes the power hurts. Sometimes it steals the mind. Sometimes it crushesthe body with a heavy burden that the bearer never recovers from. Why do youthink seers are usually blind? Why do you think so many healers are twisted andbroken in some way? The magic needs a power source, and when the channels forpower to feed that magic are blocked or are thin and twisted, the magic drawsits strength from the flesh of the possessor, who is then possessed. The masterbecomes the servant.” She inhaled slowly, deeply, with thin lines formingaround her eyes and mouth, just for a moment. “Watch your feet.”
Ash flushed andcaught herself before she tripped over a stone partially hidden in the tall grass.She had been so fascinated by the subtle play of emotions on Leena’s face, shehad ignored the land around them. A snort escaped her when she saw the browndeposits dotting the field. This was not a good place to be distracted. Best towatch where she put her feet for the time being.
June 26, 2023
New Release: PLANTWISE
They talked long into the stormy winter nights. That spring, Ardentraveled everywhere across Westerland, and when it was safe, crossed theborders to the farming and woodland communities of neighboring kingdoms,seeking the old stories and half-forgotten and only rumored bits of the mostancient magic. She visited huts and cottages where the hedgelores were kept byword of mouth and herb mistresses stored their memories in tiny living trees. Shespent days digging through ancient libraries full of dusty scrolls and newlyprinted books, looking for stories and theories. Glynna had never encounteredanother green magic-wielder during her decades traveling the continent, andArden didn’t dare cross the sea to another continent to seek out anotherplantwise with more knowledge and experience than Glynna. Until Yeshen heardtheir prayers and sent the Steward to talk with them, they could only workbased on speculations.
Spring turned to summer and Arden was busy with her usual dutiesduring the growing season. She sometimes wept in gratitude that she wasn’t sodistracted with her new quest that she shorted Westerland. The harvest wasdoubly bountiful that year, and all her travels served to spread the blessingof her magic, even into neighboring kingdoms. Glynna just chuckled when theyreceived news of that and reminded Arden that magic and Giftings needed to beshared, and grew more powerful with the sharing.
Still, despite the bounty she had brought to Westerland, Ardenwas relieved to settle down after the harvest. She talked to herb wives andlore masters and ancient grannies and gaffers sitting at the fires as winterhowled around them and tried to reach down the chimneys.
When spring came again, sodid the Steward.
June 23, 2023
Storytellers Episode: Ye Olde Dragon's Library podcast, featuring JIM DORAN
Today's storyteller episode of the Ye Olde Dragon's Library podcast is a chat with JimDoran, who has two stories in the Ye Olde Dragon Books classic monster anthologies: Frankenstein's Manor and Lonely is the Hunt.
If you haven't listened to the podcast yet, or if you're coming in some time later, it's Episode #12, and released on Saturday, June 24. How about stepping over to the podcast page and listen, then come back here? You'll be glad you did! https://yeoldedragonbooks.com/ye-olde-dragons-library-storytelling-podcast/
Below is Jim's online information, where you can find him and
learn more about his books, along with the covers of all his books. If you like fairytales that take a different angle, and you enjoyed Once Upon a Time or 10th Kingdom ... these books might just be right up your alley!
Website and blog: https://jimdorantales.com
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KingdomComeFantasyNovel
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/JDoran711
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jimdoranauthor/
On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jim-Doran/author/B082ZC8R6N
June 22, 2023
Upcoming release sample: LIARS' QUEST
Leena escorted Ashout of the castle. Lady Charlotte asked her to do it to protect her fromWinston’s few manservants who were loyal enough to try to harm her. Ashglimpsed one of them and wondered if the wrinkly, sour-faced man had some kindof magic that he would try to use against her. She couldn’t imagine any otherway he could best her.
“Hmm, they’re alllike that,” Leena said, when she caught Ash watching the man as they crossedthe main courtyard of the castle. “Only the desperate are willing to put upwith the pitiful wages my father offers, and they’re the only ones Lathiadoesn’t terrify.”
Ash didn’t feel anytingling or stinging in her two stars, but she suspected using her twobirthmarks to detect the presence of magic might be a dangerous kind ofmistake. When she asked if the manservants had any magic, Leena laughed underher breath.
“If they ever had any, theyforeswore it or stifled it, working for my father. He’s the sort who won’t allowanyone around him to be more powerful. People say my mother’s family has magicin their blood, but what fledgling magic she had faded away after she marriedhim.” She didn’t continue until they had crossed the dancing meadow that laybetween the castle’s outer walls and the first of the pastures for horses andcattle. “My patron fears that the leach potion still exists, and my father orperhaps his father obtained a large supply of it, and they erased what magic mymother had, and I might have had.”
June 19, 2023
New Release: PLANTWISE
Arden’s fifteenth birthday had been like a silent signal toother kingdoms with sons looking for brides. Two days before Maddix arrived ona surprise visit, Prince Brandon of Ambray came on a long diplomatic mission.He made it clear that he wasn’t there entirely to discuss trade agreements andproblems with brigands on the shared border with Westerland. He was a wonderfuldancer and didn’t even blink the first time he saw Arden riding astride, introusers, rather than side-saddle. Prince Tomas of Zashenbourg had choked andstumbled when he saw her riding, but he had a lovely baritone voice and couldcompose funny rhymes at a moment’s notice. Both princes made it clear theyextended their stays to inconvenience each other, and Maddix. Arden wasslightly ashamed to realize she liked how Maddix glared at the other twoprinces, and she felt a funny sense of gleeful pride when he lost his elegantmanners and snarled at them.
He managed to meet up with her for a few moments of privacy inthe gardens at dusk. Just long enough for one startling stolen kiss before herclosest companion and lady’s maid, Caitlyn, caught up with them. That was allthey had, but it was enough to dream on for months afterward.
That sudden influx of suitorsslapped Arden hard with a realization she hadn’t fully considered, except assomething far off and slightly unreal: when she married, she would have toleave Westerland. The more she thought about leaving the fields and forests,the farms and villages she loved, the little ache deepened in her soul. Howcould she be happy in her new home if she had abandoned her first duty, herfirst love? The thought of Westerland having no one to guard the grasses andwild flowers and encourage the grain to grow tall and sweet saddened her. Asthe winter snows deepened, she confided her trepidation to Glynna. If onlythere were some way she could leave part of herself in the land of her birth.
