Tracy Falbe's Blog, page 51

Pictures of my garden

My 7-month-old German Shepherd dog Donna (aka the Wild Hog) patrols the garden that it is her duty to guard from raccoons, rabbits, deer, and any and all nonspecific varmints. She's in training this season because she's just a pup. She tears up land and plants but has kept a family of raccoons at bay this summer.It's fashionable these days to publish pictures of the food you're growing at home. I've been gardening for several years with many successes and many failures. This year has been especially challenging because of the drought, but with a lot of watering, I'm managing to get a crop. In the picture at the top you can see the line where the water reaches and where the drought has baked brown the land. These pictures are from July 19th so things are bigger and bushier today. We even got a 1/2 inch of rain this week that was a small but welcome mercy. 

It may not look like much is going on but this picture shows growing: corn, beans, butternut squash, pumpkins and a peach tree in the background.

Another view showing the cucumber and zucchini area. 
Another view of the corn interplanted with pumpkins and beans in a traditional Three Sisters grouping. Most of the ground cover is clover. I till my soil only in strategic spots to plant seeds, so I mostly let clover, grass, and weeds grow right along with everything. Keeping the turf intact is very important for nurturing fertility and holding moisture in the ground. Plus it's way prettier than bare dirt and I don't do much weeding. 


This patch shows from left to right: Carrots I let go to seed from last year. Lettuce going to seed, but I am still eating the leaves. I just go pick them whenever I need a salad or lettuce for my sandwiches. Growing it amid weeds and seeding carrots I think has helped protect it from the heat and kept it from getting bitter. Then there is a patch of carrots. They're hard to see. They are tucked up against the tall brown rye that grew this spring. A few potato plants are on the other side of the rye. I know this looks like a mess but I've already harvested countless salads out of this patch and will get many carrots and potatoes in the fall. 
Here comes Donna through the corn. 
Due to early hot spring weather followed by freezes fruit crops were destroyed in my area, but I shepherded a few peaches through the nastiness this spring.

I don't have a good picture right now of my many tomatoes and potatoes and peppers growing. Plus I put in 4 apple trees along the fence this spring. 

Feel free to comment and post links to pictures of your garden. It's more important than ever that people start growing as much food as possible due to the low quality food available at the supermarket and the ever rising prices.

Rys Rising gets 5 star review at Amazon UK

My sincerest thanks to the reader who gave ALL of my fantasy novels 5 star reviews in the Amazon UK Kindle store. Apparently this brilliant person is a true fan of my work. Hopefully these reviews will help more readers in the United Kingdom give my fantasy fiction a try. I've had readers in this homeland of the English language for years, back from the days when I could only sell at my website.

Kindle user Avid Reader said of Rys Rising:

"Tracy Falbe is a fabulous writer; she has a way of making the characters real to the reader."

Thank you so much and I'm so glad you've enjoyed my novels. My characters feel very real in my heart and mind too.

You can download Rys Rising: Book I for free right here.

Or get it at the UK Kindle store.

Also, UK readers can get a paperback copy.

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Signed paperback copy of Rys Rising by Tracy Falbe up for bid on ebay

Before I announced the availability of the Rys Rising paperback at Amazon and in Europe, I naturally had to order a proof copy to make sure that the paperback looked good in person. It did. This means that I have a lovely Rys Rising paperback in my possession, so I have listed it on ebay as a copy signed by the author.

Because Rys Rising is produced by print-on-demand services wherever you order it, bidding on my auction is the only way to get a signed copy.

I've been selling on ebay for years and have a good feedback rating. This signed copy of Rys Rising ships within the United States. So if you're a fan of mine and would like a signed book by me, visit ebay and buy it. The buy it now price of $15 reflects its actual retail price. If you want to start the auction, bidding starts at a discounted price of $12.



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New Release! Chapters 1 and 2 of The Goddess Queen fantasy audiobook

You can now start listening to The Goddess Queen audiobook.Episode 1 of The Goddess Queen fantasy audiobook.

Chapter 1 Fierce Loss & Chapter 2 The Proving Ground

You will receive 2 mp3 files. Each mp3 is about 30 minutes in length.

$1.50

Chapters 1 & 2 The Goddess Queen

Checkout with Paypal and download instantly at Payloadz. Multiple currencies accepted. Available worldwide.

Last night I added a new product to my portfolio. I have begun production of The Goddess Queen: The Rys Chronicles Book II as an audiobook. This epic fantasy continues the saga begun in Union of Renegades. Whether you've read the free ebook or listened to the audio version of Union of Renegades, you now have a new format choice for continuing the story as I continue to increase my audio selections.

Because audio is the most expensive to produce, I have to pay for recording in installments. Therefore I will be releasing monthly episodes of The Goddess Queen in mp3 format. Each episode will be approximately one hour of audio and cost $1.50. Eventually the entire novel will be recorded and then I can assemble the episodes into a complete audiobook and distribute it more widely into Audible and iTunes.

Purchasing the episodes as they come out will greatly assist me in financing this project. I have planned for the release of 15 episodes, which at $1.50 each will equal a typical pricepoint for a full length audiobook.

The narrator reading The Goddess Queen is Andrew Wetmore. He is working my fantasy novel into his busy schedule as a side job. Right now he's working on software tutorials and he's liking having some fiction on his plate. He's a writer, actor, and voice talent. His rich voice is very inviting and easy to listen to.

Available now:

Episode 1 of The Goddess Queen fantasy audiobook.

Chapter 1 Fierce Loss & Chapter 2 The Proving Ground

You will receive 2 mp3 files. Each mp3 is about 30 minutes in length.

$1.50

Chapters 1 & 2 The Goddess Queen

Checkout with Paypal and download instantly at Payloadz. Multiple currencies accepted. Available worldwide.

See more details about this audiobook at Brave Luck Books.[image error]

The Goddess Queen audiobook is happening!

Listeners of the Union of Renegades: The Rys Chronicles Book I audiobook will be pleased to hear that I am producing the next novel The Goddess Queen as an audiobook.

I am financing production of the recording of The Goddess Queen audiobook in installments so my budget can gradually absorb the cost. This means I will be releasing the novel in two-chapter episodes. Each episode will be $1.50 to download the mp3 files. Each episode will be about one hour of audio, more or less due to variations in chapter length.

Eventually the entire novel will be recorded and I will be able to release it as a complete audiobook at Audible and iTunes.

I will release the first two chapters on Thursday July 19th.

Please follow this blog or go to The Goddess Queen audiobook page and join my readers' list so you can be notified when the audio is available.[image error]

Excellent book: Spinning Straw into Gold by Joan Gould

[image error] Spinning Straw into Gold: What Fairy Tales Reveal About the Transformations in a Woman's LifeThis marvelous book caught my eye because of its title, Spinning Straw into Gold. I instantly recognized the reference to Rumpelstiltskin, one of my favorite fairy tales. I was exceedingly impressed with the thoughtful research and insights of the author Joan Gould that I discovered inside.

Gould illustrates and examines the themes of female transformations and burdens throughout her life as dramatized in fairy tales. I've always loved fairy tales and of course recognized some of the messages about growing up, but I now have a much more profound appreciation and understanding of my own life thanks to Gould.

Her guiding point was that women are ruled by biological transformations that have huge impacts on their lives. The girl matures into a woman. A transformation. The young woman enters a sexual time. Another transformation. The woman bears children. A startling physical transformation. The woman grows old and loses fertility, and transforms into the final stage of life.

Many fairy tales and popular stories address the girl to sexual woman stages because this is the fun and sexy part. But from Gould I learned to think more deeply about the stages of matron and crone. I especially liked her interpretation of the Seal Wife stories. In the Seal Wife, a fisherman catches a seal and brings her on shore. He takes her seal skin and makes her a woman. He hides the seal skin because without it she cannot return to the sea. She is trapped on land with him and becomes his wife and the mother of his children. But one day she finds her seal skin, puts it on, and returns to the sea. The story connects with the general longing of mothers to escape their responsibilities and return to the freedoms lost to marriage and motherhood. Or it can represent the mother who recalls her former self and resumes some of her interests beyond the rigors of diapers and soccer practices.

I also liked Gould's words on the subject of old age. She explained how in earlier days most people did not live long enough to become elderly, so an old woman was considered to have some kind of strange magic keeping her alive. Now that old age is much more common, Gould said that it was a great gift of life for her free of the daily demands of nurturing the next generation as the matron must do.

I highly recommend Spinning Straw into Gold for people who like fairy tales and who really like to explore the deeper realities of life.[image error]

Save 18 percent on Rys Rising hardcovers or paperbacks at Lulu

Use code CAUGHT to save 18 percent off purchases at Lulu this week.

Through Friday July 13th, any of my readers interested in obtaining either hardcover or paperback copies of the first three novels of my Rys Rysing series can use the code CAUGHT when checking out to save 18 percent off the cover price. Paperbacks are priced at $15 and hardcovers are $24 plus shipping.

Available titles at the print-on-demand service Lulu are:

Rys Rising: Book I
Savage Storm: Rys Rising Book II
New Religion: Rys Rising Book III

You can browse all these titles at my Lulu page. http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/tracy1


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Manuscript of Love Lost: Rys Rising Book IV is completely written

Late on July 3rd I wrote the final words of Love Lost. This completed a writing adventure that began in late 2003 when I wrote the first chapters of Rys Rising. Close to nine years later the epic is finished despite substantial interludes of life happening when I couldn't work on it at all.

Love Lost marks my completion of writing eight novels. The other seven novels total 1.2 million words of narrative that I have written and published. I don't know what kind of achievement that is, but it is an achievement that I am proud of. I wish I could say that I cured a cancer or planted a forest, but for some unknown reason writing novels is what satisfies me on a mental and spiritual level. I need to organize the words into stories and channel characters from my imagination into the imagination of other readers.

Authoring two fantasy series may be an irrational pursuit but it has provided a needed outlet for my creative energy for most of my adult life. I'm deeply grateful and amazed by the kind comments I have gotten from readers over the years. Although I'd write novels even if the whole world insisted I should not do it, I have always been significantly boosted by the fact that some people like my fiction.

I'll be working hard the next few months editing and proofreading the novel. I am tentatively planning to publish it in October.

Passages from the manuscript that I am fond of:

Dacian walked along the line of prisoners. Their hopeless fear bombarded his sensitive mind. The terror that his power inspired was both repugnant and pleasing. Repugnant because he longed for love, yet pleasing because their fear proved the totality of his power.

~

Cruce walked the rampart overlooking the square. This was the place from which estate class people watched the Grand Lumin's Poteny celebrations, and now Cruce was drawing a crowd. He waved to the people and drew a few cheers from the pilgrim sections. Most of them were likely from Kahtep or the frontier and were intimately familiar with his efforts to defend them.

"Why are we up here?" Dayd asked.

"I have nothing to hide," Cruce said. "The people won't be able to accuse me of using sneaky underhanded tactics."

Dayd grasped that he was trying to influence public opinion for whatever it was worth, but she doubted the people would understand the nuances of the situation. "Cruce, most people will have no idea how our rivals have wronged us. They may not even care," she complained.

"I know, but they'll soon know exactly what will happen when I am unhappy with someone. They'll see that the Chenomets are strong. People like strength," Cruce explained.

~

Loxane noticed how Demeda attracted more attention. Beaming a smile, Demeda waved to the poeple, carefully oblivious to Loxane's annoyance.

When the procession left the village and pulled ahead of the trailing crowd, Loxane said bluntly, "Why people say your name more?"

Demeda took a drink from her canteen. The day was warming up and she would need to keep her throat moist for her singing. She savored Loxane's disgruntled jealousy as she took her time replying.

"Perhaps if you did not slit so many throats they would love you better," Demeda said.

"I kill unbelievers," Loxane argued.

That Loxane was baffled amused Demeda, who doubted Loxane could actually understand her point. Kelsurs in general did not seem to be much bothered by killing and death. Such things were accepted like the setting sun or the moon going dark for a few days.

~

For a hard hitting and passionate fantasy epic told from many angles, start reading Rys Rising for free.

Book Review of Jak Phoenix 2 The Markazian Deception

I've made no secret of how much I enjoyed the first Jak Phoenix space opera novel by Matt D. Williams, and I eagerly bought the sequel. Jak Phoenix 2 opens with the notoriously independent Jak and his first mate Baxter on their way to accept legitimate jobs as a favor to their friend Dodge who's in charge of protecting shipping routes between the planets Markazia and Miralto. I'm sure many readers can relate to how the allure of some easy work and a steady check lead to tragedy, and it's no different for Jak.

He quickly uncovers that the people in charge of Miralto are gutting the resources of Markazia, enslaving its inhabitants, and lying to the Miralto public about all of it. Guerrilla rebels are constantly attacking the system, and Jak soon falls for their gutsy and attractive female leader Karina. Although some people might dislike how unbelievably stupid Jak is with the rebel leader, this was actually one of my favorite aspects of the novel. Stupid is Jak's specialty, and he quickly performs several dangerous favors for the rebellion and alienates his best friend Baxter. My husband also read Jak Phoenix 2 and he summed up Jak's motivation as "anything to get in the panties." I found Jak's behavior very endearing because it was so genuine. People do blockheaded things because of pesky physical attractions all the time. Someone is doing it right now.

Overall, Jak Phoenix 2 is an emotionally driven action-packed adventure. Jak is tested hard by his falling out with Baxter, and he suffers some very bad consequences for his spring break attitude with the rebel leader.

The novel was tightly plotted and the characters were vivid and believable. Compared to the first novel, I am forced to say that it was not as laugh out loud funny. It still was humorous but the story was anchored more by its serious aspects than a desire to be funny.

Jak Phoenix 2 is an exciting read that diverted me from the cares of my life. There is always something going on: explosions, fist fights, crashes, and high speed chases. Jak sorely regrets his foray into gainful employment, and I suspect that he will be gratefully pursuing freelance salvage work in his next adventure. 

Enter the Jak Phoenix Universe if you want to fly through space with Jak.

Related post: Space Opera author reflects on his hero Jak Phoenix

Rys Rising epic fantasy in paperback at Amazon U.S. and Europe

  European and American Amazon shoppers can now get Rys Rising in paperbackIf you prefer a printed book, I am happy to announce the availability of Rys Rising: Book I as a paperback at Amazon, including its European outlets. This is exciting for me because it means that if someone in the UK or Europe wants this book in print, they now have an easy option for purchasing it. In the past, I've had the occasional reader who enjoyed the ebooks and wanted paperbacks of my various novels, but shipping overseas makes it a rather expensive thing. Now readers in Europe can buy Rys Rising in paperback at a typical pricepoint with regional shipping costs.

I produced the paperback through the print-on-demand company Createspace.
I can also hope that its presence in the European Amazon stores will allow it to be discovered by overseas readers who still prefer books over ebooks.

In the United States get the paperback at:

Createspace
Amazon US

Other countries

Amazon UK
Amazon Germany
Amazon France
Amazon Spain
Amazon Italy

Excerpt from the epic fantasy Rys Rising:

When the Shamaness Loxane threw off her cape, people cried out with reverence and joy. She was naked and her wonderful body, both strong and soft, glistened in the torchlight. Tattoos of green and blue adorned her body, bright upon her exceptionally light skin. Her hair was long and curly and the most amazing color that Amar had ever seen. Red it was, like copper made soft and inviting. The enticing locks flowed over her shoulders but did not cover her full breasts that displayed her femininity unabashedly.

A sunburst tattoo encircled her navel and tattooed eagles adorned her thighs and perched on her knees. Snake tattoos coiled around her arms and their heads were drawn onto the backs of her hands with forked tongues going down her middle fingers. When she turned, Amar saw an elk tattoo on her back. Its great rack of antlers spread over her shoulder blades and its snout reached to the small of her back. The animal had starbursts in place of eyes, and when Loxane began to sway her body, the elk looked to be shaking its head.

Loxane began to move more of her body, limb by limb. Her hands rotated and then her arms lifted and her shoulders circled. Her torso circled with ever-increasing exaggeration of movement and her pelvis gyrated. Her buttocks lifted and squatted, glorious in their curvaceous smoothness.

The Shamaness Loxane danced naked in front of the gathered rogues and lawless wanderers, and she had no shame. Amar watched every move of her body, only blinking when he consciously thought to do it. Never had he seen, nor imagined, a woman making such a display of herself. And never had he imagined that a woman could be so beautiful, so powerful, but so wicked.

People were playing drums for her. First one drummer, and then three, and then dozens pounded a beat that was all life and no judgment. Their rhythms guided her and coaxed her to move faster. Her body joined with the beating of the drums, until the drummers seemed to respond to her movement as much as she responded to them.

Loxane moved to the edge of the semi-circle of torches and began to dance around the edge. People reached out to her but did not touch. She arched and swayed just beneath the fingertips of her admirers.

The crowd pressed hard against Amar and Gadoh as Loxane came closer to their position. Like all the others, Amar had no intention of giving up his spot. He turned sideways so that two more men could squeeze in next to him. Behind him, Gadoh giggled.

Closer she came to Amar, and his breath quickened and his eyes widened. The absolute scandal of her brazen nudity and erotic dancing pounded against all that his culture had ingrained in him about the modesty of women. Far back in his mind, his sensibilities railed against her outrageousness. She was the worst of the worst, criminal beyond the most wanton whore, but Amar paid less attention to the dogma of his upbringing the closer she danced to him. Indeed, as Gadoh had said, Loxane was among the greatest of wonders.

Although enthralled by her provocative display, Amar did not reach out to her when she danced before him. The fellows alongside him spread out their hands toward her, just barely missing her skin, but Amar only looked. His eyes went up and down her body, and he was truly awed by her lovely strength that went past simple maddening sexuality. His eyes traveled up her naked body, pausing at her breasts that glistened with the sweat of her dance, and then he looked at her face. Loxane’s eyes were half rolled back. The trance of her dance was deep upon her. Her lips hung open as if she would cry out with ecstasy at any moment.

Amar envied the oblivion on her face, doubting he could ever experience such inner peace.

Loxane’s eyes snapped into focus. The men reaching for her withdrew their hands, each gasping as if the snakes on her arms had come to life with venomous anger. She stopped dancing and lowered her arms. Her chest heaved with hard breathing and she stared intently at Amar.

In the United States get the paperback at:

Createspace
Amazon US

Other countries

Amazon UK
Amazon Germany
Amazon France
Amazon Spain
Amazon Italy[image error]