Daron D. Fraley's Blog, page 14

Burning Books and How to Navigate Paradigms of Reality

"Burn the books! That author is evil!"

"No! Let them be read! We don't want censorship! You're trampling on freedoms of speech!"

Several times in the past few months I have come across discussions about how to decide what to let children read. The latest example I have found is a well written and thoughtful post by a fellow writer and online friend, Taffy Lovell. The discussion, which includes questions about school reading lists, is at her blog, Taffy's Candy.

I thought about...

Secret Name and $25 B&N Gift Card Contest

This is really TWO contests.Contest #1, running until Midnight on Thursday, March 11th:

The Prize: A personalized copy of "The Thorn" book one of "The Chronicles of Gan" by Daron D. Fraley, AND a $25.00 gift card to Barnes & Noble. Winner will be chosen randomly (random.org) and announced on Saturday, March 13th.

TO ENTER CONTEST ONE: Spread the word about THIS post in the following ways:

1. Blog – worth 5 entries:  Blog about this contest and link back to it. Then see #5 below.

...

Book Review – The Sapphire Flute, by Karen E. Hoover

I believe that The Sapphire Flute, Book 1 of The Wolfchild Saga by Karen E. Hoover is a story which will capture the imagination of Young Adult readers, male and female, although it may appeal to girls a little more. I am not sure where I read this, but somebody compared this story to the works of Terry Brooks. Having been a huge fan of the Shannara series as a youth, I immediately seized on that idea. And I agree!

There are a few parallels with the Shannara series, but they...

Storymakers Conference contest – I won a seat!

I am excited!

And you should be too, because I will have my wife in attendance at the conference. And I only won a single seat. Therefore . . . I have chosen to give my coveted winnings to a reader of my blog.

Here are the details of the contest prize:

http://ldstorymakerauthors.blogspot.com/2010/02/show-your-love-for-storymakers-contest.html

So…  what will you bid? Friend suggestions on facebook? A slew of tweets on twitter? Buying copies of my book for friends? Blogging about...

Reading is Power – Guest blog at Christine Bryant's site today

Do you like Harry Potter? What about The Hunger Games? The Maze Runner? The Chronicles of Narnia? Twilight? Classical authors like Dickens, Shakespeare, Bronte, Austin, Hemingway?

Perhaps non-fiction is your preference.

No matter what type of book you like, I am convinced that reading good books is healthy. Today I am over at "Day Dreamer", the blog of one of my writer friends, Christine Bryant. Come by and find out what I have to say about reading.

a

New Short Story – But You Have To Find It

I entered a short story contest over at the LDS Publisher's blog.

http://ldspublisher.blogspot.com

The deadline to enter has been extended to Sunday night, and all stories should be posted by Monday morning when the judging will begin. If you have some time for some reading, please participate! After the rules for voting are posted on Monday, vote for your favorites.

According to the contest description, winners will be included in a published anthology. I would love to be included, so make...

Best Writers Conference In The West

Cause and Effect. Occasionally in life a person is able to point to specific events which caused other things to happen. I can honestly say, that without this particular writers conference, and the fact that I attended last year, and that I met specific people who also attended, I would not be published next month.

Sure, the classes were awesome. I learned so much that I couldn't take notes fast enough. But the networking . . . meeting people I had known in the blogosphere . . . was...

I Believe in Christ

Writing. Editing. Website maintaining. Blogging. Networking. Preparing. Stressing. Worrying.

I have been so busy for the past few months in preparation for my book release that I have nearly forgotten why I feel compelled to write. As I was doing some site maintenance this evening, I came across a recent comment from one of my blog followers. I hope she doesn't mind me bringing attention to her comment, but Krista said: "Angel's Song gave me chills". That statement really grabbed me.

I had...

Prologue and Chapter One for "The Thorn"

I am excited to let you know that I finally have both the Prologue and Chapter One for "The Thorn" on the website! Hurry on over and take a peek!

You can get there by clicking on "READ" in the menu bar, or on this link:

http://www.daronfraley.com/read

Come back here and let me know what you think!

For those of you who are interested, I have a link in the sidebar with a picture of the book cover where you can pre-order the book. Or, you can go here (the order button is on the bottom of the Valor w...

Angel's Song — Short Story Companion to The Thorn

I now have permission from my publisher to post excerpts from The Thorn, but I am adding a companion short story first. You can find it here on my website under "READ". It is called Angel's Song. The short story introduces one of the minor characters who is in The Thorn, and is set in the mountains of Gideon. It gives another point of view of some events in the novel, and will greatly add to the general feeling of what the planet Gan is like when the book and story are read together.

I don't t...