Isis Sousa's Blog: Tragic Books' news, page 6

Eleanor's Gift - A Gothic Short story Excerpt

I have a Gothic Short story coming this Halloween: Eleanor's Gift. It is Victorian Gothic, like The Night of Elisa - but with more elements of Classic Gothic Horror to it.

And here is an excerpt, the story's opening.

.:Eleanor’s Gift
.:The darkness

A downpour washed the dark pointed roofs, old cobblestone roads and woods surrounding Rivercrook. The strong wind shook the plants and carried away their yellow leaves. It howled at windows and doors, scaring infants and their mothers. Lightning flashed around the town’s monuments and sculptures, distorting stone faces and casting twisted shadows.

On the old cemetery road there was not a soul to be seen, yet the shadow-play of the storm made the graves seem to dance without rhythm or grace. Soon there came a wagon, pulled by two horses running for their lives and tormented by the lashes of a mad coachman; only a mad person would dare to travel in such conditions.

Inside the wagon, in complete darkness, a lady held tightly to the bench. Her breathing was shallow, her heartbeat so strong she could feel it in her throat. The wagon rocked terribly and threw her belongings in all directions.

The wagon hurried along that road and then took an exit onto an earthy countryside bridleway, narrower than the roads across Rivercrook and much darker, as the trees grew tall on each side and formed a natural roof of branches and leaves. The only light the coachman could count upon was the faint reddish-yellow glow of his lamp. He knew they needed to make their way along the bridleway to the clearing. It wouldn’t take too long, but still he lashed the exhausted horses to run even faster.

They were almost there when the dying light flickered one last time. Now there was nothing but the darkness amidst the trees. The coachman saw the clearing when it was illuminated by lightning. Once they crossed it, it wouldn’t be long until they reached their destination, just a day or two more of harsh travel.

The terrain was uneven and soaked, making it difficult for the horses to stay on course. The storm obscured the moonlight and the frightening flashes were now resting in the clouds so the travelers could not see where they were going. The coachman was forced to slow the horses against his will. He had a calling, a duty to fulfill, and it could not wait any longer.

But the powers of nature can go with you or against you, and that night, despite having come so far – already such a great victory – nature was indeed against the struggling man. All it took was a slide of the left-hand horse to drag the other horse and the entire wagon with it, down the soft, muddy cliff that gave into the river. The horses, the coachman and the lady struggled against the darkness and the waters.
.....................
>>Anyone who subscribe to the Tragic Books' newsletter will receive a Smashwords coupon to download a free copy in their fav format (KIndle or Epub). http://tragicbooks.blogspot.no/

>>> Anyone interested in reviewing it until Halloween , drop me a message :) And I will provide you a free e-book :)

Enjoy your autumn! ^.^

56% OFF! A Cold Hearted Phoenix paperback @ Amazon UK! Hurry up!!!

Looking for a super cool bargain?

If you live in UK, don’t miss the super promotion. Amazon UK now has Dark Love for sale with 56% discount!!! You can buy it for only £ 3.63!!!

Click here to buy it @ Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cold-Hearted-...

But RUUUUNNNNNN! Soon the paperback edition will return to its normal price of £ 8.20!

Good luck! :D

Interview with K J Nessly - author of The Chosen

Read some interesting Q & A with K J Nessly, author of "The Chosen" - Guardians of Rima series.

1.When did you first have the idea for Guardians of Rima and how long did it take for you to start working on it?

I first started working on The Guardians of Rima in the summer of 2008, I believe, it was the summer the first Batman movie starring Christian Bale was released. I remember that detail specifically because I watched the movie one day and in between the show ending and my summer college math class starting, I had outlined my main characters and a general story arch for the series. Initially I worked on it on and off, I had another project in the works that I then scrapped and decided to work on “The Chosen”. I didn’t truly start to put a lot of concerted effort into it until well into my second or third year in college. At the same time, I also spent a lot of time working on later books, ensuring that events that needed to be set up and/or foreshadowed in earlier books were. My biggest pet peeve are book series where the solution almost seems to pop out of nowhere at the end of the last book. I’ve been working very hard to ensure that I don’t end up with that scenario with The Guardians of Rima, hence why it has taken almost eight years to publish the first book.

2. How was the characterization process? Any particular character who demanded extra work and attention or who was more difficult to work with? And which one was the easiest?

Characters are an interesting business. I won’t lie. They all take a lot of work and attention. Especially if you want to make them believable. Small details make the character. Case in point: Kathryn is fearless on the battlefield or in combat, but put a spider anywhere near her…well, if you’ve read the book, you know how well that goes over with her. You’ll learn one of David’s quirks in the second book.

For the first book, Kathryn and David were definitely the hardest. Kathryn’s character was difficult because of how her history affected the way she viewed the world and her initial interactions with her new family. I can count my blessings that I had a happy childhood and didn’t suffer the way she did, so putting myself in her head and trying to visualize how the abuse she had suffered would have molded her (and not in a good way) was a challenge. Another challenge was making her personable to the reader, but maintaining that cold demeanor she used to protect herself. I think the part that most people have a hard time understanding is that she’s not meant to be a character that the reader can readily recognize and say, “Oh, I can totally understand her…connect with her.” There are aspects to her character and personality that may be recognizable to some people (which are expanded on later in the series) but overall she’s mean to be a character who, at first meeting, you want to make your best friend.

David was also difficult due to his position in life. He’s been made a leader in a vocation that could result in people facing life or death situations. How does someone so young, but gifted in ways to make them older in certain aspects, try to lead? How do they think? What mistakes might they have made? The scenario with Kathryn and Natalie is a perfect example of one such mistake. David focused so much on trying to be a good leader and keeping his family safe from danger while protecting his realm that he forgot that some of the dangers we face don’t always come from evil villains bent on world domination. They can come from our own “circle of friends”.

As to the easiest, that was probably Matt. My youngest sister is one of those people who always has a witty comeback and is an eternal optimist. Anytime I needed inspiration for Matt it partially came from her and our conversations. After all, who doesn’t love the optimist who can look at a horrible situation and find a reason to laugh and smile?

3. What about the world building? What inspired you when creating the settings for the story? Was there need for research?

There is always a need for research. My first job was working in a library and I quickly learned the value of research. Because I decided not to reinvent the laws of physics and biology for my world, I had to do a lot of research in all the scientific fields, including human psychology. I also had to research history topics such as jousts, clothing (the court dresses the girls wear are loosely based off of Tudor-era gowns), and martial arts. Kathryn’s particular style of fighting is based off the Filipino martial art Eskrima. A practitioner of the art myself, I was able to use my own experiences in sparring to write action scenes where the moves the characters employ in their fighting would actually work in real life (with a little artistic license thrown in as these character do possess magic). I almost spend more time researching than I do writing. You will find in later books that almost everything I put in my books has a basic foothold in something in our real life. You’ll also notice that in the books the setting is set in what we would consider a southern hemisphere; northern regions are hotter and most desert-like. At one point I considered altering the spin of the planet so that sunset was east and sunrise was west. In the end I decided that the southern hemisphere and two moons in the sky were enough to differentiate my world from our earth.

4. Which aspects of “The Chosen” are the most dear to you and why?

I think that the aspects that are the most dear to me are the world building and the main characters themselves. With world building I spend a lot of my time researching ancient cultures from our own world and using them as the cornerstone for my own work. For those who are wondering, the Wanderers are loosely based off the “Barbarian” Germanic tribes that played a large part in the fall of the Roman empire. I’ve been researching other ancient cultures so expect to see some new societies in later books. The Christian religion has made an appearance, but I also plan on bringing in Islam and Buddhism. The research has been fascinating and rewarding and I can’t wait to fit it all together.

The characters themselves, though, are my favorite. When I write the characters, I literally try to live in their heads. Jenna would react to a situation very differently than Kathryn or Amy as would Matt compared to David, or even Tyler. Keeping fourteen people (and that doesn’t count the supporting characters) individualized so that it doesn’t feel like I have two identical characters has been a challenge. When I first started, I had pages of character maps to help me keep it straight. Writing them has been the biggest challenge and the most rewarding. Every character has a story to tell, and I plan to tell them all. And don’t let the first book fool you, Kathryn’s story isn’t even close to being done—she has a lot of growing yet to do. As do almost all of them. In the same way that we as people continue to grow throughout our lives, I plan to do the same with my characters.

5. Why write YA Fantasy? What do you like most about the genre?

It’s not so much YA that I like to write as the Fantasy. Fantasy allows me to create my own world and characters that aren’t bound by real events or natural phenomenon (my world has two moons and a 26 radian (translate as “hour”) day. That’s the part I love most. I’m free to create and allow my imagination to run wild. I still try to keep it semi-realistic though. If you look closely, you’ll notice that all the magic has a scientific principle behind it. As a scientist by education, I felt it was important to make the story educational as well. The cultures and religions I research will find their way into the series, as will scientific facts. Fantasy provides a platform for small details like those to be presented in a fun manner. It has thus far been proven to be easier to research the laws of nature than invent my own.

6. How many books do you plan for the series and have you started the process of writing book #2?

Currently, there are plans for at least five, if not six, books in the series as well as a prequel series and a sequel follow-up (the latter being nothing more than a tentative idea at the moment). I also have plans for several short novellas, of a sort, to bridge the gap between events in the fifth and sixth books. One novella has already been outlined and guaranteed to make an appearance. It even has a title, although I won’t be sharing that until much later. Book two, titled “Return of the Nauro”, is currently being worked on. Unfortunately I do not have a projected publish date yet.

7. Which have been the biggest challenges on publishing your first book? And the biggest rewards?

The biggest challenge on publishing my first book was not knowing anything about the process. I self-published and it was a series of trial and error many times over to get to this point. The print version of the book was especially difficult. Formatting issues made my life miserable for about a month while I figured it out. Fortunately one of my friends turned out to be very good at formatting and took pity on me and did it for me. Editing was also the biggest challenge. No matter how many times you read your work (or have others read your work), there will almost always be a small typo or grammatical error that you missed. It makes you want to rip your hair out. When I wrote The Chosen, I was literally teaching myself how to write a novel. The rough draft went through close to thirteen or fourteen different edits. There are still small errors, and I apologize for that, but I am attempting to be a bit more of a perfectionist with this second book.

The reward is seeing how much people enjoy it. I recently got an email from a fan telling me how much they enjoyed the book and it literally made my day. Knowing that someone read the book and enjoyed it—that they didn’t feel like it wasted their time; that is the biggest reward.

8. Which message would you like to say to your readers?

Overall I would like to say thank you for your support and I truly hope that you enjoy the journey with me and my characters. I would also ask that you please be patient while I work on book #2, I have a day job and can’t devote as much time as I would like to writing, but I do promise that I am working on it!

Visit J K Nessly's website: http://www.kjnessly.com

Prints & other collectibles of Book Covers and other themes

Hey there! Hope you are still having a great summer :)

Mine has been mostly offline – and working a lot with the house and personal projects as well as community events. But summer in Norway is short… so, I am back to office routine! That means making book covers and other cover artworks.

I have finally opened my PRINT SHOP this weekend and invite YOU to check it out :D

There you find some book covers prints and other collectibles for the following titles:

The Chosen



Radiance



The Night of Elisa



Dark Love



Visit the print shop here: https://society6.com/helheimendesign

More titles coming soon!

Two Blog Tours you can’t miss: The Night of Elisa Second Edition and A Cold-Hearted Phoenix Episode 1

RBTL Blog Tours & Tragic Books bring to you two super Virtual Book Tours for this summer.

Follow the tour on each blog listed on the schedule and read interviews, discover playlists, learn cool curiosities and participate on fun giveaways!

CLICK HERE to visit the Schedule Page with the complete list of Stops for both book tours!

:D Cheers! ^.^

New videos, new book, new book covers

Hey there, how are you doing? So, it was about time to make a new blogpost :)

New Book: Dark Love
is out now, already in several stores in North America, Europe and Scandinavia (and will soon reach many more) and on the Amazon network. Available in paperback, hardcover and Kindle fixed-layout.

Watch out for the Official Blog Tour, coming very soon. Stay tuned for those news!

New Book Covers:
On the last couple of months, two new book covers/artwork I have done have been added to GoodReads! Yay! It is so much fun doing illustrations and layout for authors out there!

Both are subgenres of Fantasy. You may want to add them to your bookshelf :)

Videos:
As mentioned on the previous post, I’d start a series of quick videos, presenting some news, book releases, and answering to questions. The first two are now out:

Intro to the Quick Vid series:
Here I tell you that I hate making videos :D
https://youtu.be/o_gIDDO-8Qc

About the author Quick Vid
Here I tell you a little bit about me and my writing process :D
https://youtu.be/tIdSg3yRbGE

The video quality is cheap, though.

See you around soon again! :D

Back from the Dead and Q&A

It is no secret I have been very little social for the past 6-8 months. Two life-changing events happened last year, leaving deep scars within my family and me. We had four injured and one loss. After being down to the ground, gaining a few extra kilos of depression and living in the darker side of life, time and self-realization have helped/are helping me heal.

As the old saying goes… What doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger.

I am back, and glad to be around GoodReads again!

Speaking of which…

I’m about to record a final video talking about “The Night of ElisaThe Night of Elisa” and thought about the possibility of answering YOUR questions in the video – if you have some.

Whether you have read the book or consider reading it, shoot your questions to my author’s Q&A session here on GoodReads, or leave a comment in this post. Feel also free to send me a private message. I won’t reveal any names in the video, so all those who participate will have their identities preserved.

If I have any questions by the time to record the video, I will do my best to answer you :) And I will post a link here to let everybody know when it is online at Tragic Books' Youtube Channel.

Cheers and have a great time, folks! :)

Thank You – And let’s have a creative 2015

Hello there! :) How were your holidays? Was it all hectic or did you have some time to relax and do other things you normally don’t do along the year?

Mine were absolutely hectic, and I did almost nothing of what I planned (i.e. reading and advanced house cleaning!). But I did connect with closest family and friends, which was good for the mind and soul.

Before I head any further on this little letter, I’d like to THANK YOU.

In May 2014 I started an adventure on the self-publishing playground and have been absolutely fortunate to come across wonderful people – such as you – who have given me support in many ways. You took of your precious time in provide feedback, supporting my work with reviews and blogposts and nonetheless, purchasing it!

So, what is worth… Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! :D \m/

Now that we all said goodbye to 2014 , let’s follow through 2015 with tons of creativity, inspiration, prosperity, achievement and realization. If you’re a reader, I hope you enjoy yourself and enhance your wisdom with great books. If you’re an author, I hope you are the one providing those great books to our community – we thank you for that! :)

As for me, I am glad to announce I am publishing an illustrated miniseries in 3 episodes, called “A Cold-Hearted Phoenix” in a few months. Soon I will tell more about the project, so stay tuned for this one!

I have just published as well “No Escapes VOL. 1 – Melancholic Beauty in Norwegian Landscapes” , which is a reference art book for painters and photographers. It is not a table book, as some may think, but because of the way it is built, it can be enjoyed by pretty much anyone who likes landscapes, arts and photography in general. As the title suggests, the book is melancholic, moody and somewhat dark. The second volume is coming somewhere on the second semester.


See you soon, have a great time!

Tragic Books – New website and Flash Promo

Flash Promo – 50% OFF on Hardcover books

This is your chance to buy The Night of Elisa – Hardcover Edition with 50% discount! But hurry, it is valid only until 24th November.
Learn more here: http://tragicbooks.blogspot.no/2014/1...

New website
Tragic Books, a young and indie publishing brand of illustrated Dark books has now a new website: http://tragicbooks.blogspot.no/
There you can check out more about upcoming titles, news and promotions – and whatnot!

Upcoming title: No Escapes Vol. I – Melancholic Beauty in Norwegian Landscapes

A beautiful photography/art book packed with 76 hand-picked moody photographs taken on Mid-Norway highlands during Autumn season. Each photo is accompanied by a handmade color palette, which can be used as inspiration for your design projects, sketches and paintings whether digital or traditional.
For more information, visit: http://tragicbooks.blogspot.no/p/no-e...

Will catch up soon!

Just a quick note to let you know I will catch up now in November. If you're expecting an e-mail, message or reply from me, know that I will reply very soon! Just have a little more patience!

September and October were two months of personal struggling and the loss of someone very important for me. But now things are on the way up again :)