K.R. Mattson's Blog, page 2

Should The Past Be The Past?

I was scrolling through Pinterest today looking for aesthetics for a New Year resolution page. I wanted to make goals and accomplish them. Feel good about myself.

Then suddenly I was hit with words and images I couldn’t believe.

No, they weren’t inappropriate or anything. However, the pages were filled with phrases like:

“forget the past year and make something new this year”

“don’t let 2023 follow you into 2024. Free yourself!”

I don’t know about you guys but gosh, I kinda liked 2023. There were really bad times and really good times. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” or something like that.

So should we really put the past behind us? Forget 2023 like it never happened?

Personally, I don’t want to ever forget 2023 or 2022 or 2021. I’ve learned SO much from those years. They were rough, yeah. Do I want to remember all the mistakes I made or the stupid stuff I did? No not really. But if you take those experiences away along with the reminders of the bad choices, good choices, bad things, and good things that happened. If you blot it out with a pen and write over it with acrylic paint, what have you gained? Nothing. And you’ve lost so much.

So don’t live in the past. Rather keep it with you and let it be a reminder of how to navigate the next year. Look to the future with hope and look to the past for wisdom.

And have a great 2024!

My Fictional Bucket List With a Christmas Twist

Hey all! I’m excited to collaborate with Lucy Peterson this Christmas season with a bookishly Christmas post! (Do you know how hard it is to think of something bookishly christmas for a BLOG POST. Kill me now and save me from the pain) Ehem.  

Well, from the title you can tell I decided to go with a fictional bucket list. A list of all the things (or half the things) I want to do with my favorite fictional characters…but this time, we’re putting a Christmas twist to it. I’m going to tell you my bucket list and you-you-have to give me ideas for accomplishing them in the Christmas season. 

(These characters are not in order and are not necessarily my favorite, but are so cool I wanna crash a party with them)

No. 1:  Go on a wild ride with Andi Carter and Cory Blake from Circle C Adventures

I know I know. Kinda a children’s book. But honestly, a crazy whacko in a sweltering state dripping with outlaws and ornery brothers? Who would want to go there? Well me. For one day. One day. Then back to blessed modern air conditioning. 

Now, any ideas for a Christmas twist? What would make our wild ride a Christmas adventure one couldn’t forget? 

No. 2:  Solve a case with Jigson and Detective Mortimer from The Baker Family Adventure Series

  Ugggghhhhh! I love these books so much! Let me fangirl for a second. The author, C.R. Hedgecock (probably spelled that wrong) hated that in other books the children couldn’t have awesome adventures without “getting rid” of their parents. The adventures were never with the parents. So she buckled down and wrote a 8 book series of awesome adventures that four kids have with their family parents, and friends they make along the way. 

Jigson and Detective Mortimer. Suppose you’re wondering who they are. No they are not part of the family. Jigson is a secret agent for the government  and Detective Mortimer is a private detective. I really admire these two. They seem to balance the impossible scale of keeping others safe while working with them in dangerous situations. They’re always there for the Bakers. Always. It is not cheesy. Its just the way they are. 

So anyway, I wanna solve a case with them some day. A good case. A dangerous case. Can’t be that hard, right?

Now your turn. What kind of case could it be that revolves around a Christmas mystery?

No. 3: Follow Chester Around With a Camera and Take Pictures and Videos of All the Wonky Things He Does 

Oh my gosh you guys. You HAVE to read this series. Personally I think the second one and the fourth one are the best ones. Chester is a twin to the other main character in the last three books of the series and absolutely hysterical. 

Favorite Excerpt that is priceless:

We were approaching the wharf when we spotted something which brought us both to a standstill. 

A man strolled towards us. He wore black trousers, a black cloak. And a slouchy leather hat. Two bandoliers criss crossed his chest. A saber hung from his right hip. A rifle was slung over his left shoulder, the butt of which dangled next to the butts of two pistols tucked into a waist sash beneath the bandoliers. Two sword -hilts rose over his shoulders, and adknife-hilt peeked from each side of his knee-height black boots. He held a wicked-looking curves stick that must be a boomerang. 

A red sash wrapped around his head, pierced with two eye-holes. 

Colonel Nobody snapped to a defensive posture. “Here already?”

I grunted. “I wish. That, Colonel, is what I grew up with.” 

The man waved at us. “There you are. I thought you would come this way.”

I tried to smile through my clenched teeth. “Chester, everyone on this entire street is staring at you.”

Chester cocked his head. “Really? I need to make these eye holes bigger. Can’t see much.” 

P.R.I.C.E.L.E.S.S. That’s only half of Chester’s wonky character. I’d take a whole day off work to follow him around with a camera and document his adorable weirdness. 

So, it’s your turn. What wonky thing do you think Chester would do on Christmas?

That’s the last one, so be sure to comment your answers!

What is your Favorite Character Bucket List? Have you read any of these books? Got any good Christmas Book Recs?

Crazy Awesome Cover Reveal!

Hey, everyone! Today I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For here, in this great planet, seven authors have collaborated to make the mostest bestest anthology EVERRR!!!

Curious?

Its got danger. Its got adventure. Its got a little romance and a deadly flower. Its The Black Rose!

Coming in February 2024, this anthology of epic novellas will be released upon the world by seven authors-Madisyn Carlin, Kaytlin Phillips, Vannessa Hall, Saraina Whitney, Kristina Hall, M.L.Milligan, and yours truly, K.R. Mattson. Thats right! I’ll be published in The Black Rose Anthology!

BLURB:

Receiving a black rose is a death sentence.

In these seven lands, receiving a black rose is a death sentence. When these perilous flowers endanger their lives, a spy must decide between freeing slaves or completing his mission, a huntress finds herself becoming the hunted, and two sets of mortal enemies are forced to work together—if they don’t first kill each other in the process

 When a couple’s daughter is born with a deadly birthmark, can they escape in time? Or will they lose their daughter to evil? False accusations and threats force an innocent man to flee and fight for his life—but his path to freedom is threatened by memory loss. And when two friends become unexpected enemies, can loyalty overcome duty?

 In this collection of seven Christian fantasy romance novellas, characters will learn the value of faith and trust as danger grows and justice is threatened.

Ahhhh! Doesn’t that sound so cooolll? I can’t wait to see the others’ stories! Mine is barely half finished. Oops.

But without further ado…..Behold…the cover!

And another cause its so awesome.

And another.

Doesn’t that just look epic?!

A little about my contribution to this anthology:

Ambry: Ambry is my female MC. She was raised by her mother in a world where all children from the age of two to eighteen are raised by the government organization known as Homeland Security. Because of this she’s been running for her life most of her life. Everything would be bleak if it weren’t for Garren, her man friend and the obvious romance in this story. Garren comes up with this brilliant plan to get Ambry picked as the next Black Rose (you’ll have to read the book to understand. XD). Will it work and will Ambry become invisible to the world? Or will the whole thing backfire and will Garren die by the teeth of hungry wild dogs while confessing his love? (Yeah, that last part is just for suspense. Don’t count on it…)

Garren: Pretty sure you know who Garren is by now. Poor guy. He’s spent the last seven or so years of his life looking out for Ambry with nothing in return but her friendship. Then when someone turns traitor he is blamed for her fate. Will he be able to uncover the mystery o this unknown traitor or will Ambry hate him forever?

GOODREADS

Web of Lies Cover Reveal!

Hey guys, back again for some great info on a new book by P.D. Atkerson coming out this March!

First off, you may notice I haven’t done any posts on this author before. Blame my laziness. P.D. Atkerson has a real gift writing stories of action, adventure, and humor. Her plots are mainly espionage and seat gripping suspense, with her faith masterfully woven inside the top secret documents. Definitely check her other books out while you’re gawking over her new cover! PS, my personal favorite read of hers is Testing of the Stars. ;b

So to kick things off, let me introduce you to the first book of the series which is FREE today!!!! Personally, I have not read Smoke Screen for some very personal reason which are major spoilers in the brother series Simon Lee. My sister refuses as well, bbbbuuuuutttttt I have multiple acquaintances who have read Smoke Screen and give it a hard five stars. Go Lever! (But I still like Lee better and I do not forgive Lever for his conniving ways.) So check out Smoke Screen!

The Graphics

STOP MAKING ME WANT TO READ THIS, PD!!!! I CAN’T!

*melts into a puddle on the floor*

*Audience waits in anticipation for all of half a second*

But, *picks herself off the floor and back into her office chair* the show must go on.

Now THAT just made me more curious as to what this book is about! Is Lever actually GOOD???? No. NO. I refuse to even think that far ahead. Onward to the cover!

AAHHHHHHHHH! *Cry face cry face* You can’t be serious! Someone is going to have to read this and tell me SOMETHING about it cause the cover is SO good! The cross-hairs just set the whole thing off!

And, as if you needed more *eyeroll* here’s the Pinterest board!

Annnddddd the Preorder….

And the Goodreads…

Blog

Author Bio

P.D. Atkerson is a homeschooled writer, living in Montana, who may or may not be a secret agent. She spends almost as much time in the worlds she creates as she does the real one.
When she’s not reporting the stories of her agents, she’s learning different languages, or traveling to different worlds through the portals of books.
She has a black belt in sarcasm and a master’s degree in useless facts.

NOW WHO’S READY FOR RELEASE DAY???!!!!!!

True Review Revolt

Read it. Review it. Re-post it.

Take five minutes out of your day to read this. It’s worth it.

Vandalism against authors due to the disagreement on a topic, belief, or other such subject is a serious and growing threat against the writers that dare speak the truth in literacy.
Many don’t think or acknowledge this until the exact problem has happened to them, a friend, or a family member. I’m not talking about the kind of vandalism where bratty teenagers run around and graffiti old brick buildings or trash someone’s yard with rolls of toilet paper. No. These terrorists of quality books are too cowardly for such a thing as that.

What I am discussing is the vandalism of untrue accusations about a book the reviewer has not even taken the time to read or gather all the facts. And for what? To give a good author a bad name?

The truth is, no one is quite sure why someone would do this.

“And why pick my book?” Is the question that appears in many of these cases.
Now let me tell you a little story. There was an author who wrote several books and was growing her selection, one book at a time. She was no William Shakespeare or Louisa May Alcott… yet. And then- out of the blue, for no rhyme or reason- an unnamed vandalist on an unnamed website slandered the author’s name with several reviews. The scoundrel gave all of the author’s books the lowest possible rating and wrote a horrid review that trashed the books. The person did not do this on just the published books, but also of those that were coming-soon. The reviewer had no way of knowing whether the coming-soon-books were good or bad. They were not yet out for public reading.

Well, freedom of speech right? Sure, but the vandalist not only lied and deceived any future readers that would read reviews to evaluate the content of this book, they also asked their friends to join them after confronted by other reviewers who saw the fallacies of the reviewer’s reviews. The scoundrel’s friends’ posts didn’t even make sense, much less have any correlation to the books- true proof that these friends had not even read the books.

The author of these books is Madisyn Carlin. A true to life, real as they come, hard-core author. What someone did to her was mean. But more than that it was wrong.
Without someone to make a stand against these wrongdoings, they will continue and grow- morph into something worse than bad and will one day crush an author’s career and ultimately- their dream. Its happened before. It will happen again.
Please join me in counteracting these unscrupulous scoundrels and taking a stand for the truth. It’s simple.

Read at least one of Madisyn’s books, or a book you know has been wrongfully accused of being vulgar or written by the hands of two year old.

Review it truthfully.

And then re-post this and get everyone you know to do the same. One review may not seem like much, an army is only made up of dozens of individuals who choose to stand for the truth. Let’s defend the people who make this nation a place we can be proud to live in. Let’s form an army, spread the truth, counteract vandalism on authors, and start a TRUE REVIEW REVOLT.
-Kearra R Mattson-

Everyone, I just want to give a shout out to my sister, Kearra, who saw the hateful reviews and ratings against Madisyn Carlin and decided to do something about it. She wrote this post by herself and I am quite sure she’d get an A in writing class if she entered this as a persuasive writing assignment.

I also want everyone to be aware that these hateful reviews happen to everyone, but more-so, Christian authors striving to share God’s light with the world. Penny Zeller is one such author. If you know someone or see hateful ratings and reviews, don’t hesitate to make a stand.

we must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately

Benjamin Franklin

Thanksgiving and Great News!

Hey all. Today’s Thanksgiving! Can you believe it? Wow. The year has passed SO quickly. I remember I couldn’t wait for it to end so I could start fire class and EMT class but now here I am wishing it had gone on a little longer.

How has God blessed you this year?

He’s blessed me by showing me that friendship is priceless. He’s teaching me how to chill out when things go wrong. That not everything bad requires a heavy huff and a groan. Sometimes a calm smile goes a long way. He’s given me GREAT people to work with and a loving family that I honestly didn’t realize loved me so much until recently.

One other thing. Kinda a big thing. I LAUNCHED MY ART WEBSITE TODAY! If you guys have checked the Graphics page out on this blog you’ll see some of the stuff that inspired building a small business out of a talent God has gifted me with. Go check it out at rogueart23.com!

What’s it like where you live this morning?

Here it is very mild. Unusually so. Two years ago we were ice fishing on Thanksgiving morning. This year the fire department is gearing up for ice water rescue cause the ice isn’t forming AND there’s no snow on the ground. It keeps melting. Which is completely fine with me.

What are your plans for the day?

Today my family will be hanging out together. One of my married brothers is sick so I don’t think his family is coming. [image error] He has a 3 year old and a two year old so they’re usually the stars of the party. My other married brother’s wife is sick as well with something else, so I don’t know a THING about them showing up. Just hope she feels better.

We will be having our traditional meal of turkey, stuffing (not my personal favorite), potatoes Romanoff (if you haven’t had it TRY IT. It’s basically really good mashed potatoes baked with cheese. There’s other ingredients but I haven’t a clue what those are. Never made it myself. Cranberry compote (lovingly called compost by every Mattson child and to the great aggravation of out mother) There will probably be pies in there somewhere, but then again what do I know anyway?

Last year there were two house fires and an accident so maybe I’ll get some excitement on top of yummy food. Already been up at 5, thankfully it wasn’t an accident OR a fire.

The End

Well, off to the races. Everyone have an awesome day and let me know your answers!

The Lunatic Author’s Cover Reveal: ARROW

Saving lives is a deadly endeavor.

Ruid MacTíré is weary of war, but when it again knocks on his clan’s doorstep, he finds himself not only fighting for his people, but for his heart as well.

I don’t know about you guys, but this blurb, short as it may be, has me hook, line, and sinker. Ruid sounds amazing! But we’re not here to talk about the characters of Madisyn Carlin’s new upcoming release. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO WAY. We’re here to ooo and ahhh over the cover that I am extremely late posting about. I missed the actual cover reveal so we can call this…a promotional cover reveal!

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I feel like we need some more background before we get further into this. xD

K k k. I’m getting there.

SO. As some of you may know and others may not, the original plan was for book number 2? I think I got that right. Book number 2 in the Redwyn Chronicles to get published on October 24th. POISON was its name. And it was going to be EPIC. Unfortunately, Miss Carlin *eyes the culprit* got a bad case of writer’s block *torches the other culprit* and thus writing POISON, a 100,000 word novel in two months became a distant memory. Now this all would have been well and fine. Carlin could have simply rescheduled POISON’s release and we’d still be getting it in a timely manner. But NOOOOO. Someone had to smack rescheduling over the head and give it a whopping concussion. Guess who.

THATS RIGHT. AMAZON.

Long story short, you can’t change a books release date after you put it on Amazon but you can change the title and cover. So, Madisyn, being the tough go-getter we all know and love, ditched POISON for the time being and began another replacement book. The one we will all get up close and comfortable with come October 24th. ARROW book #2. Now we’ll never get POISON, no thanks to that….I shall refrain….
So without further ado or anymore GIFs. ;D I give you the cover!!!!

Isn’t that awesome!!!!!????? AND A MULAN RETELLING TOOO!!! I can’t wait!!!!

BOOK INFO:

Releases: October 24, 2023

Retelling: Mulan

Genre: Nonmagical, New Adult Christian Fantasy

Series: The Redwyn Chronicles

Must the books be read in order? Yes, excepting CROWN.

INSPIRATION BOARD:

https://www.pinterest.com/madisyncarlin/arrow-trc-2/

PREORDER:

GOODREADS

THE REDWYN CHRONICLES:

Prequel: CROWN
Book One: IRON

Book 1.5: KEY

Book 2: ARROW

Book 3: WOLF (Coming 2025)

The Series

AUTHOR BIO:

Madisyn Carlin is a Christian, homeschool gradudate, blogger, voracious bookdragon, and author. When not spending time with her family or trekking through the mountains, she weaves tales of redemption, faith, and action.

Want to connect? https://linktr.ee/madisyncarlin

Cover Reveal for Heard in Silence

Here it is! Finally here! I’ve been waiting over a year for this!!!!

Some of you may know…and some of you may not, but I’ve been accepted into this anthology and will be published for the second time come September!!!

And you all know me. No dilly dallying so here’s the cover!!!!

Well…..almost. *smirks*

And the back, OF COURSE. No one posts the back anymore for cover reveals. Its sad. BUT HERE WE ARE WITH ONE!!!!!

Isn’t that just SOOOOO COOOOLLL!!!!!?????

SO many writers have come together to make this an AWESOME anthology. Definitely worth the read!

Release Date:
Sept. 8th, 2023

Authors:
Saraina Whitney, Alison Stadt, K.R. Mattson, Marisa Phillips, Kylie Beevers, Riley G. Stanch, Jaiden Phillips, Lorelei Angelino, Lillian Keith, Grace A. Johnson, Kaytlin Phillips, Autumn Nicole, and Wilder W.

Genre:
Anthology/Fantasy/Contemporary/Historical/Poetry

GoodreadsPreorder!