Sherrie R. Cronin's Blog, page 61

Come take a Journey to Light

Fellow indie author and kindred spirit Bob Craton has written a fascinating trilogy about four pacifists who must join forces to save their world from a brutal empire. I enjoyed the first novel in his series recently, and below I share the synopsis and Bob’s bio with you.

Journey to Light: Part I of The High Duties of Pàçia: Imagine a world populated with the entire spectrum of humanity. Good people, ordinary citizens of small cities, fear attack from brutal and powerful men called the Zafiri. Great Cities are divided between the decadence and splendor of the wealthy and the deprivation and squalor of the poor. An organization of women known as the Sistéria is widely known but little understood. Its members have the talent to use ‘effect,’ the ability the read and control the emotions of others, and sometimes to have prescient visions of the future. And people in Pàçia, a land with an ancient history set apart from the rest of the world, were once gentle, kind and peaceful. Their leaders did not have the power to rule or command; instead they had duties to fulfill – High Duties which for millennia helped make the world a better place. That is, until twelve years earlier when the Zafiri invaded Pàçia with a massive army, capturing the beautiful city Abbelôn and crushing the gentle people. Now the rest of the world is threatened by more war and destruction.

Then an extraordinary young woman named Sistére Graice crosses paths with a man unlike any she has met before. Her ‘effect,’ which has always worked on everyone else, has no power over him. Known only as Holder, the man has no memory and doesn’t know his own identity. Graice’s mentor Sybille hires him as a guide for a journey she and Graice must make, partly so they can keep him close until they discover his secret. As they travel, Graice tries to help Holder recover his memory. While he is in a drugged sleep, she ‘sees’ into his mind and discovers small fragments of past events, all involving a beautiful golden-haired woman. When he wakes, Holder still does not remember these scenes but Graice gains clues about his identity. The women now know who he is (or was) but do not tell him. He must remember on his own for the recovery to succeed.

In the backwaters of the land meanwhile, a boy age thirteen travels with his aunt (his sole surviving relative) hiding from enemy spies by moving constantly and using false names and disguises. When he complains that he knows nothing about his parents, she reveals his family name and bits of its history. It’s and old and honored lineage. Later, she gives him an amulet and implies he will wear it someday. It’s an Emblem of High Duty, she says. His grandfather and mother had held two of the three High Duties before they died.

A girl named Caelia, also thirteen, hides from the same enemy. She lives with her parents and many other refugees in a cavern where her father searches for secrets of the Anziên people, a civilization which collapsed 3,500 years earlier. Named after a legendary heroine from antiquity, Caelia is unusually bright and mature for her age and her shining red-gold hair sets her apart. Girls with that hair color are born once in a millennium, people say, and everyone in the community loves Caelia. At this point, however, even the girl herself does not know why they do. When she wants to leave the cave on an adventure, everybody objects but no one can say no to her. She gets her way and departs with a trading expedition.

Along their separate paths, Graice and Holder are attacked by a monstrous creature; outlaws kidnap Caelia and drag her into a forest wilderness; and enemy soldiers close in on the boy, causing him to flee for his life. Not only do all survive but the encounters also reveal hidden secrets. The story continues in Return of the High Protector: Part II of the High Duties of Pàçia.

Biography of the Author

When he was a child, Bob Craton’s teachers often remarked (not always favorably) about his day-dreaming. He spent much of his time lost in his own imagination, often creating elaborate elementary school tall-tales, and the habit never went away as he grew up. Coming of age in the 1960s filled his head with dreams of saving the world and having a career in academia. Then the real world closed in. With a family to support, he took a job at the corporate grindstone, just temporarily until he could get back to grad school and earn the PhD he desired. Somehow ‘temporarily’ turned into thirty-three years of stress and boredom but he kept entertaining himself by creating stories inside his head. Interestingly (well, he hopes it’s interesting anyway), his best ideas came to him while he was stuck in rush-hour traffic during his daily commute.

At age fifty-seven, he retired early (a euphemism for ‘got laid off) and had time to put his tales on ‘paper’ (an ancient product now replaced by digital electronics). The ideas in his head were all visual, like scenes from a movie, and as began writing, he learned to translate visual into verbal and improve his skills. Or at least, that’s what he says. He admits that sometimes minor characters – or some who weren’t included in the original plan at all – demand attention. Frequently, he agrees with them and expands their roles. Many people believe he is bonkers for believing that fictional characters talk to him, but he calls it creativity and remains unrepentant.

If you are interested in reading this book it can be found here at Smashwords and here at Amazon.

Music and Telepathy

Whether you are part of the one third of humanity who believes in telepathy, or part the one in four who has no belief in the paranormal at all, when you enter the world of x0 you are asked to believe in order to enjoy the story.

To that end, the book x0 tells tales of telepathic transmissions that even a skeptic will find familiar.  You’ve heard a song playing in your head all morning. You’re sure you haven’t sung it aloud.  Out of the blue, the guy at the desk next to you starts to whistle it. Was it on the radio earlier?  Did you maybe sing it under your breath after all?  Or ….

The fictitious organization x0 claims that in modern society, popular music seems to have a surprising ability to transmit directly from mind to mind, and is often a person’s most concrete encounter with telepathy.

Several reader’s have shared their own similar stories with me after reading x0. One writes ” My favorite brain/music thing is the old Beatles song, You’ve got to hide your love away.  It was in my head, going round, then I was at a bar with music playing that sublimated the rest of the song, and just Lennon singing “Hey!” kept coming around in delayed, perfect time sequence.  Then I had others doing it.”

http://cyndilauper.com/

“Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper is one of main character Lola Zeitman’s all time favorite songs and she frequently hums it while she prospects for oil and gas using the 3D visualization techniques on her computer.  She always thought that the lyrics said “If you’re lost and you look you will find it, time after time ” which made it a great song to prospect by.  It turns out that the lyrics actually say “you will find me.”  But Lola still sings the song in her head and is always surprised and delighted when someone else joins in and begins to hum it as well.   See, hear and buy the song at Cyndi Lauper’s website.  Hear the song on YouTube.  Buy the song at Amazon.com.

Dynamite and world peace

World peace  ….  that favorite topic of beauty pageant contestants and those attempting a serious drinking toast ….. was also an obsession of the inventor of dynamite, Albert Nobel.

His personal recipe for world peace was to use part of the fortune he amassed from his invention to present an annual award to the human or humans who had done the most in the past year to make peace happen.  Along the way people as diverse as Mother Teresa, Leo Tolstoy and  Henry Kissinger have been honored. The award is presented every year in Oslo Norway, and a few days ago the author of this blog got to visit the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo.

I and the character I created, Lola Zeitman, both share Albert Nobel’s obsession with the concept of world peace. Lola believes that empathy is the key to getting along, and that if we could all just walk in each others shoes (or feel each others feelings) hatred would be difficult. I like to think that she is right. However, I may be less of an idealist than Lola. Humans are remarkably clever and I fear that even if we all became telepathic tomorrow, we’d still find a way to hate, not to mention figuring out a hundred new ways to manipulate and take advantage of each of other.

I do now know, however, that Norway is a stunningly beautiful country (see waterfall at right), Oslo is a fascinating city (see statue above) and the two exhibits at the Nobel Peace Center during July 2012 were truly moving. I walked away with a few trinket souvenirs, and the belief that if even the man who invented dynamite can reach out for a solution to war, maybe there really is an answer out there somewhere.

Seeking Kindred Spirits

Face Painting for World Peace (the official blog of the novel x0) is seeking other indie authors of speculative fiction to feature on this blog.  If you know someone who has written or is writing a novel, whatever the subject matter or style, pass this link along and ask them to contact me. They may be a kindred spirit!

Consider entering the world of “The Green Stone Tower”

x0 is delighted to feature another new fantasy author this week. Would you like to enter yet another new world?  Consider that of “The Green Stone Tower”.

Long ago in the legendary time, at the very dawn of civilized days, the Old Gods sang the Green Stone Towers into being as bridges between two worlds. By means of the Towers the workers of magic, descended of the gods, escaped the wrath of the rest of mankind. Into the land of Faerie the mages fled, the gods followed, and the doors of the Towers were sealed behind them. In the ages after, the makers of magic evolved into the immortal faerie-folk. Now once in a while a faerie will brave the Green Stone Towers and visit the world they left behind, often for love’s sake, if a mortal takes their fancy.”

This is an epic fantasy, first volume in the series A Tale of Two Worlds. The story begins with Johnny Silverbell, the young son of a wealthy merchant in the city of Watercourse in the Kingdom of Grandlock. Johnny’s father means him for a fast-track to a noble title by way of a lieutenant’s commission in the Royal Army and service in the coming war. But Johnny has other ideas inspired by his secret, forbidden magical studies and the influence of a red-haired faerie girl he met and loved by the Green Stone Tower. His struggle to find the door into the Tower that will lead him to another world is only the beginning of the journey for him, little though he knows it.


Meanwhile, unknown to Johnny, his faerie girl lives under a doom of prophecy: to be the unwilling bride of the dark god Malatant, Lord of Shadow, and bring him victory in his ages-long struggle with the gods of light.


“The Green Stone Tower” is available here at Smashwords and here at Amazon.

Author Brian Rush says:  I was born in Texas but have lived on the West Coast since 1978. I’ve been writing fantasy fiction since I was 15 years old; it’s an obsession and a mental necessity — when I can’t write for any reason I become depressed. I also have a strong interest in spirituality and the occult, and am a Neopagan worshiping solo at this point but in the past involved with two different covens and a Druid grove.


Check out Brian’s blog at https://brianrushwriter.wordpress.com/

Free books at Once Upon a Time

Check out Once Upon a Time, an eclectic book blog devoted to fantasy and speculative fiction. It’s a fascinating place to get new reading ideas and today they are featuring x0 with a giveaway of two free electronic copies.

I’ve been interviewed!

Please check out the fine blog Books and Tales, and skim down below my bio on their blog to read my first real online interview.

Desires Revealed by Rebeka Harrington

Rebeka Harrington caught my attention on a writer’s website by saying she liked to cruise the internet as her alter ago Bektamun, a 3000 year old vampire with a penchant for revealing secrets. Bek (and Bektamun) have just released a second novel and she has agreed to answer a few questions about her new book right here on this website!  Read on.

Escape from the religious war leads Nicole and her family to the most unlikely rescuer, a vampire.  Nicole discovers love and a new life, but finds herself inexplicably drawn in to a private war between her protector and an extremist faction of vampires. The deeper she gets involved in the vampire world the higher the price she will have to pay to obtain her desires.

Rejoin “Vampires Revealed” narrator Bektamun, in Paris 1572, at the height of the religious war between Catholics and Huguenots, the day of the St Bartholomew’s Massacre.  Discover the story behind her rescue of the Gervais family and how Nicole became her Avetser and was made vampire.  Desires Revealed will also introduce you to Oskar, leader of the Eleiveb.

Desires Revealed purchase details:

Smashwords – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/174232

Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/Desires-Revealed-ebook/dp/B008DBGM2S

Q&A:

1. So this is  the second book in your series.  How much do I have to have read the first book to enjoy the second?

I don’t really like to think of this as a series, more a collection of similarly themed stories. And I admit, that is probably just me trying to dodge the pressure of having to write a series.With Desires Revealed I’ve tried to make it as stand-alone as possible, simply because it is a very different style of writing from the first. Most people are going to like one more than the other. If you’ve read the first one then you will likely join the dots quicker, but it’s not essential to be able to enjoy the story.
2. It has a historical setting. Do you also think of this as somewhat of a historical novel?

That’s a tough one, but ultimately I suppose I would have to say yes. One of the key concepts in the book is the role and expectations women had to face during that era.
3. Is there anything you can share here that sets your vampires apart from from the other fictional vampires out there?

Warning: this a major spoiler if you haven’t read the first book. My vampires were born and descended from humans. Now go and read the first book to find out what other vampire revelations I have in store for you

Rebeka Harrington Author Biography

Raised in country Victoria, Rebeka started her writing career working for the local newspaper as a teenager. While she decided not to pursue this as a career, she has always enjoyed writing and being creative With so many varied interests and eccletic taste in most things, Rebeka enjoys incorporating all of them in her writing. She particularly enjoys writing about vampires. Rebeka seeks to define and explain vampires in a way not done before. This was achieved with her debut title “Vampires Revealed”. Following titles revolve around exploring the world and characters created in her first release.Currently Rebeka lives in Melbourne with her “demented” but lovable cat, dividing her time between writing and managing a small boutique entertainment agency.

Rebeka Harrington aka Bektamun My Smashwords Profile – www.smashwords.com/profile/view/bektamun

My books – www.vampiresrevealed.com   My blog – www.rebekaharrington.com

Yes, you can get a paper copy of x0

If you do not have a device for reading electronic books and and you would like to read x0, you can!

Please go to the x0 site on smashwords where you can purchase the book for about half the cost of a beer out, and download it in pdf format. You get the whole book on your computer and can read it there or print it out or any combination of the two that suits you.

To find the book, it is important that you turn off the “adult” filter.  The default is for the filter be on.  x0 is not an “adult” book” by any stretch of the imagination, but it does contain some mature content and so it sits behind this fence.

If you try this process, I would love to know how well it works and of course what you think of the book.  I hope you enjoy!

Please enter the world of y1

A new blog devoted to the second novel in this collection has gone live and will be adding content over the next few months. Check it out here. I’m very excited about developing it!  As always, your comments and suggestions are most welcome.

The preliminary cover is shown on the right. If you’re already in the mood to offer an opinion, feel free to weigh on whether the cover should feature one chameleon (the book is about being unique) or two (it would be so nice to match the cover of the first book).  Other thoughts are welcome as well.