Michelle L. Levigne's Blog, page 65
May 14, 2021
Goodreads Giveaway -- Starting Today
Here's your chance to enter a giveaway for 1 of 3 PRINT copies of THE KINDNESS CURSE.
Just click on the link below ....
The Kindness Curse by Michelle L. Levigne Giveaway ends May 30, 2021.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
Enter Giveaway
May 13, 2021
Upcoming release sample: THE KINDNESS CURSE, coming June 1
The world spun around her, the lights flickered and the ground slid from under her feet. Merrigan let out a most unqueenly shout.
Until you turn, you are forbidden to return, while ungrateful thoughts linger in your mind and pride in your heart,Clara whispered in her memory.
Merrigan landed on her knees in a patch of violets along the side of a tree-lined road. She heard nothing but the whisper of the wind through the leaves, and far off, the songs of sleepy birds. She turned around and settled on her bottom, drew her knees up to her chest, hid her face in her knees, and waited for the tears to come.
None came. Apparently, she was too wrinkled and dry and shriveled up to even cry in frustration.
So she wasn't allowed to go back, once she had turned her back on rustic hospitality and generosity? What common sense was there in that? Where was the justice in the world?
"Fine, then. Have it your way. I'll find someone to take pity on me and help me, no matter how much you interfere," she whispered.
Such words would have had greater effect if she had leaped to her feet and stomped out of the violets and headed down the road. Merrigan was too tired, and somewhat achy from her landing, so she made herself comfortable and sat and thought for a time. When no wagons came down the road after nearly two hours, she got to her feet and resumed walking.
May 10, 2021
New release sample: BRIDE OF THE LIVING PROOF
That Monday, I was on the phone with Athena. She was a little giddy with excitement about how quickly things were coming together for her trip out to stay with Bethany. Despite her increasing involvement in the weird and wonderful aspects of living in Neighborleee, Athena sounded like a normal college girl planning a trip to hang out with her rising star best friend. I was at my desk at the newspaper and Athena was walking from her dorm to the closest cafeteria on campus.
"Hey, jerk!" she yelped, over the sudden grumble of an engine and what sounded suspiciously like deep slush splashing.
"What happened?"
"Some creep decided to step on the gas going through that huge crater at the -- Hey!"
I heard thuds and feet splashing and a clatter-bang. Athena shrieked that particular fury sound that reminded me of the self-defense classes Gordon had insisted on for our Star Trek club members. Yes, all members, male and female. He figured some of the guys were skinny enough geeks they would get picked on even more than the girls. Along with the self-defense lessons came a course in using volume to increase fierceness.
Athena was a good student.
I sat there, unable to help, because I didn't know where she was. The heck with the rule about not using my superhero powers in daylight. The heck with my inability to really fly since the power drain that had started before Stephanie died, and my broken back and … but wait, the power was coming back, wasn't it? Maybe the tingles in my legs meant I was healing? I hadn't tried walking since I realized I was getting more feeling in my legs. Maybe …?
May 8, 2021
Off the Bookshelf: THE DIMENSIONEERS, by Doris Piserchia
I discovered this book many, many years ago, at a used bookstore, and over the years wished I never turned it in during one of my moves, in an effort to cut down on the number of boxes and bags I had to haul ...Ah, the joys of finding some classic spec fic released in ebook!
Our heroine has no name -- no one addresses her by name, and it's told in first person, so she's just "I" and "me." Reviews refer to her simply as "the orphan."
Very little explanation of her world is given, because she doesn't need explanation. This is her normal world. She's very intelligent, but pretends to be illiterate, lazy, and crude -- and she's able to link minds with a mutated lion-creature (called a gamber) named Wyala. Together they slip through the dimensions, simply referred to as D. Whenever she can get away from the orphanage. She's late for dinner an awful lot. And they adventure all over 100 worlds, all linked by dimensional tunnels. When the nasties at the orphanage don't get in the way.
Then she starts running into nasties in D. They're out to take over every world they touch. Think the aliens in Independence Day. And suddenly there's a rich woman who is showing interest, and the military is out to catch her (well, what do you expect, when she uses her dimension-skipping abilities to steal all sorts of weapons and ammunition from government warehouses, to help the resistance?). Life gets very complicated when the "good guys" out to save the multiple worlds aren't much nicer than the nasties.
This is a short, fun romp with some serious, frightening moments. Worth holding onto.
May 7, 2021
SAVE THE DATE! We're having a book launch party for THE KINDNESS CURSE
Hey, I'm having a BOOK LAUNCH PARTY and YOU are invited!
Sunday, June 6 -- from 6 to 8 pm, EST.Not all the details are in place, but the location has been reserved.It's on ZOOM, so you don't have to travel.There will be raffles for prizes, and even a COSTUME CONTEST.Come as your favorite faerie tale character!
We're going to have fun launching a new fantasy series called Magic to Spare, with Book 1: THE KINDNESS CURSE.
What's it about? Not ready to say yet, but ... there are lots of fractured faerie tales .....
Check out the information page -- and keep checking as the details are updated and finalized:
https://yeoldedragonbooks.com/its-a-book-launch-party/
May 6, 2021
New Release: Installment #4 -- COMING
Now to shake things up a little bit, here's a new fantasy novel coming June 1 from Ye Olde Dragon Books.
This is the start of a new series, "Magic to Spare."
THE KINDNESS CURSE
Merrigan wasn't really an evil queen. Her royal siblings referred to her as the brat, and she lived down to it.
However, she was married to an evil king. When he lost a fight with a magic apple tree and got himself killed, she did whatever she could to hold onto the kingdom. Including lying to a powerful seer.
Big mistake.
Merrigan was cursed: turned into an old woman, she was doomed to wander until she learned to care about others. With the aid of a magic book named Bib, she encountered a mermaid trying to regain her tail, a soldier with a magic tinderbox, a merchant obsessed with finding magical cloth, a warehouse full of orphans, and a princess allergic to peas.
Forbidden to retrace her steps, she moved from kingdom to kingdom, and totally by accident helped others find their happily-ever-after.
May 5, 2021
New Releases: Installment #3
The third book released May 1 from Ye Olde Dragon Books:
Non-Fiction, if you can believe it.
TO ETERNITY (and beyond): Writing Spec Fic Good For Your Soul
Many moons ago, when I was in grad school, I had a dream. An idea, motivated by a statement from C.S. Lewis about using speculative fiction for evangelism.
Could I actually use my love of SF, my far-roaming imagination, for the glory of my Savior … and reach people who wouldn't come within a mile of a church if it was the last building standing at the end of the world?
If Lewis thought so, why not at least try?
Then a classmate decided that my science fiction books had invited demons into my life. This was a year before Peretti published This Present Darkness. So what could a recovering Trekker do, when someone tried to impose their square hole on her star-shaped peg?
Contained in the pages of this book is my answer.
My master's portfolio thesis and defense of speculative fiction as not only an evangelistic tool, but good for your soul.
May 4, 2021
SPEC FIC GOOD FOR YOUR SOUL: Is It?
That's the question we'll be discussing here on the blog.I hope to get some input from you, some questions, some ideas. If there are disagreements, I hope you'll do so politely and with respect for each other's opinions and feelings. And if not ... well, let's be blunt, this is MY playground, and if you're not ready to play nice and operate from the possibility that you might just be wrong (yes, that goes for me, too) ... well, maybe this isn't the place for you.
Okay, now that the unpleasant task is out of the way ...
WHAT DO I MEAN BY SPEC FIC BEING GOOD FOR YOUR SOUL?
In my master's portfolio thesis in grad school (more about that later -- as in the new release being discussed in tomorrow's blog posting: To Eternity (and beyond): Writing Spec Fic Good For Your Soul), I made the statement that speculative fiction, whether science fiction or fantasy, is essentially our modern mythology.
And what is mythology? It's man's attempt to explain the inexplicable, the mystifying, to bring the "other" a little closer into view, within reach, and maybe tame it a little. Frame things in forms we can understand just a little bit better.
So mythology is basically ... spiritual. Or attempting to understand the spiritual realm.
Roughly twice a month, I'll be posting excerpts from my master's thesis (I told you there'd be more about that later) as well as discussing books I've read with distinctly spiritual aspects, what we can learn about different creative folks' spiritual views, and more aspects of the topic as I think of them.
So please, ask questions, offer ideas, bring up something cool you discovered in the general topic, and let's have some fun while we investigate some pretty deep -- and yeah, controversial -- food for thought.
What do I mean by controversial? Let's leave that for the next blog posting.
May 3, 2021
New Releases: Installment #2
Next up in New Releases from Ye Olde Dragon Books:
Neighborlee, Ohio Book 7
BRIDE OF THE LIVING PROOF
Engagements have become a contagious disease in Neighborlee!
In between helping friends plan their weddings, Lanie deals with a dog (that is much more than a dog) that has moved in with her.
Then there's an unwanted match from a dating service that might be planted by enemies of the guardians.
While the guardians slowly make contact with possible allies, they sift through warehouses full of information about their enemies, the Rivals, and discover a new problem: Daniel, Lanie's new boss, might be an enemy spy …
HAPPY STAR WARS DAY!!!!!
May 2, 2021
New Releases -- Yes, Plural: Installment #1
This week, I'm showing the cover art and back cover description from three books that released yesterday, May 1 ... AND a new release June 1. I figure, whet your appetite for what's available now and what's coming next month. The next three weeks I'll be providing excerpts, to torment you even further!
Yeah, I've been kind of busy the last few months ...
First up:
WHEN YOUR BEAUTY IS THE BEAST
Fairytale Anthology Book 1 from Ye Olde Dragon Books
A marriage counselor who has never been in love...
A missing beauty queen with an oversized ego...
A hunter crippled by his own ambition...
Settlers on their way to a new home in the Rockies in 1848...
A jeweler's obsession...
A hero-tuber and a mystery man trapped in a haunted house...
Infatuation and ego aboard a space ship bound for a new world...
Curses, plants, and shapeshifters in a South American garden...
A gamers' quest with unconventional challenges...
A castle and a beast being strangled by roses --and a curse...
A princess' problematic seventeenth birthday and the curses surrounding it...
And a castle besieged by ice and basilisks!
What do all these things have in common? They are all variations on the Beauty and the Beast retelling. Fall in love with an old fairy tale in a whole new way as you enter their worlds and find enchantment!
