Kyra Halland's Blog, page 41

Author Spotlight: H.M. Jones

Introducing H.M. Jones and her new book, Monochrome:

H.M. Jones lives in the Pacific Northwest with her two preschoolers, cat and husband. When she is not writing, and ignoring the meows of un-constructive criticism that Pepper flings her way, she is bookstore shopping with her family, raising her wonderful kids, teaching community college, drinking tea, watching period pieces and blogging about reading and writing. She finished Monochrome as an ebook October 2013 and just released it in print December 2013. The masses (twenty is a mass, right?) could not be ignored.
Monochrome:

A young mother battles postpartum depression, marital troubles and addiction. Her weary mind plagued with horrible thoughts not her own, she decides to end it all. Suddenly, her mind and heart begin to race, her vision blurs and goes black. She awakes in a strange, dull, monochromatic blue world. Here, she comes face-to-face with the most beautiful and ugliest moments of her life, choosing those that she will lose forever, and those that are too precious to let go. In a world where many choose a living death, and no one is above suspicion, will her handsome Guide help her fight her way back to the beautiful life she left behind, or will she succumb to her ugliest urges and let her sweetest memories disappear into the blue?

Available at:
Amazon (Kindle and paperback) | Barnes & Noble (Nook) | Smashwords (ebook)

Where to find H.M. Jones:
Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Google+

Haveshi Yellowcrow and Latan the Clerk

You may or may not have noticed, a few days ago I posted "The Path of Haveshi Yellowcrow" and "The Path of Latan the Clerk," two connected short (well, kind of long, actually) stories loosely related to Chosen of Azara . They'll be free to read here on the site until Dec. 12, and then they'll go up for sale on Amazon.

In Chosen of Azara, as Lucie is researching the history of the Madrinan Empire to try to decide if Sevry's story is true, she comes across a passing reference to a discredited Kriethi historian and his female Krunabashai bodyguard. These two stories tell the tale of the historian and the bodyguard. I'd been calling Latan "the Scholar," but he's really just a lowly clerk who dabbles in historical research in his spare time, and since he's such a modest fellow he insisted I change it to "clerk." But he still made it into at least one of the history books of his world. I don't know if he'd be more pleased or embarrassed about that.

In the titles, I also replaced "tale" with "path." "Path" is a little more different and interesting, plus a major theme in both stories is the paths life takes us on, both expected and unexpected. Both Haveshi and Latan think they know what they want out of life and exactly how their lives are going to go - they're happy, or at least content, with the paths their lives are following. Then unexpected events force them from those paths and require them to find new ways to live.

These two stories are a great example of how old ideas evolve into new ones. Haveshi's story originally started out as a novel set in Estelend (the same world as Chosen of Azara, with magical Sources playing an important role), with the events the same as in the story and then dragging on and on as Haveshi and her companion Daivashan went from one place to another without actually accomplishing much of anything. Back in those days (early 90s), you either wrote novels or you wrote for the short story market, and I was a novel writer. If I ever decided to dabble my toes again in publishing, I would need novel-length offerings to present to agents and editors. And so I took a story that didn't really have enough story in it to be a novel and tried to stretch it out into one.

Then, in the last year or so, when I was looking through my old story files and thinking about the new, expanded possibilities offered by self-publishing - no arbitrary word count or length guidelines set by publishers based on the economics of publishing paper books or magazines; stories could be as long or short as they needed to be - I realized that Haveshi's story would be perfect as a longish short story. She finds her answer without all that pointless wandering around, and sets off for her new life, the end.

The other seed of this pair of stories came from this fragment. (And I'm going to be really really brave and post it here exactly as I wrote it umpteen years ago.)

"You're the guard Bodric sent?" Sevry stared at the short, sturdy woman in front of him. He hoped there was a mistake.

Perar looked up from studying her fingernails. Lords above, she hated wizards. "This is the Seventeenth Tower of Wizardry, isn't it? Your Headmaster sent a message to Bodric requesting the services of his best guard?"

"Well, yes, but...."

"Here I am."

Sevry tugged at the hair on the top of his head. He knew Headmaster Radolf had a low opinion of his competence, but this was worse than he had expected. A woman to nursemaid him to the First Tower! Then something occurred to him. "Does Headmaster Radolf know you're a woman?"

Perar shrugged, barely trying to hide her irritation. Bodric was going to pay for this.

Ok, first of all (besides the head-hopping), you may notice a few familiar names. Sevry, the name of the wizard in this fragment, became the name of the last King of Savaru and the hero of Chosen of Azara . That Sevry is many things, but most definitely not a wizard; I decided that name worked well for him, so I re-purposed it. Also, Perar became Perarre, the heroine of The Lost Book of Anggird , who is also most definitely not a bodyguard. So with the characters' names being used for other stories, I had pretty much decided this fragment was dead. But I still liked the idea: a lowly member of some sort of order about to set out on a journey finding out, to his dismay, that a woman has been assigned to be his guard.

Eventually, Sevry the wizard morphed into Latan the Scholar (and then the Clerk), And then I made the connection - the female bodyguard is Haveshi, from that other abandoned project. This set Latan's story firmly in the world of Chosen of Azara. When I tried to figure out the point of the journey he was going on, I realized that he had made a momentous discovery related to the conspiracy that destroyed Savaru, and he's going to present this discovery to the High Priest of the Madrinan Empire. And, ta daa, I had my stories; it was just a matter of writing them.

Haveshi's story comes first in the duology. It tells how she got derailed from the path her life was on and came to be a mercenary in a conquered land that is now part of the Madrinan Empire. Then her story continues with Latan's story, when she's assigned to guard him on a journey that proves as disruptive to his life's path as the events in her story were to hers. I suggest reading Haveshi first, then Latan, but it could work the other way around, too.

"The Path of Latan the Scholar" contains a spoiler for an event early on in Chosen of Azara, but the way it's presented, and the fact that the event happens so early in Chosen, it won't spoil the whole novel - I like to think of it as a teaser. Chosen of Azara also contains a spoiler for "The Path of Latan the Scholar," but that spoiler doesn't take in nearly the whole of the story. So either way, there's information given. If you're wondering what to read first, I'd say it could go either way - consider "The Path of Latan the Scholar" a teaser for Chosen of Azara, or a supplement to it.

I've also posted an updated map of Estelend, showing Source Tiati, where Latan lives, in Krieth in the south part of the Madrinan Empire.

If you haven't read Chosen of Azara yet, you can get an introduction to that world in "The Path of Haveshi Yellowcrow" and "The Path of Latan the Clerk," and if you've read it, you can get the scoop on that discredited historian and his female bodyguard.  I hope you'll take a look, and enjoy the stories!

***Shameless self-promotion (but hey, it's my blog, it's all about self-promotion!): if you haven't read Chosen of Azara yet and want to, it's available at:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple | Sony | Diesel
Smashwords | CreateSpace | All Romance eBooks

How Many Words?

In addition to Thanksgiving and my birthday, for me November means National Novel Writing Month. And since no one can procrastinate like a writer on a deadline, November also often means finding new and creative ways to put off having to commit words to paper (or the screen). This year, the way I came up with to procrastinate was counting my lifetime output of words.

Many writers have a strange obsession with word count. In the days of using typewriters, you gauged how much you accomplished by how many pages you had written. Now that most writers use computers, pages are irrelevant and productivity is measured by the number of words you wrote. National Novel Writing Month requires 50,000 words to complete the challenge. Agents and publishers specify the number of words manuscripts need to have to be considered for publication. Writers set goals of 1000 or 2000 or 5000 words per day.

And there's a bit of common writerly wisdom that it takes a million words to get good at writing (or, alternatively, "the first million words are crap"). Like most common wisdom, there's some truth to this, but it isn't entirely true. It is true that writing is something you get better at the more you do it. But the measure of a million words seems kind of arbitrary. Someone who is an avid reader and/or got good grades in English (or whatever language they're writing in) is probably going to start out ahead, quality-wise, of someone who's never read a book or who doesn't know how to put understandable sentences together. Granted, some people have a natural instinct for storytelling that transcends proper writing mechanics, so they're ahead as far as that goes, but writing is communication and it doesn't matter how good your story is if you can't communicate it in a way that your readers will understand.

On the other hand, other people might have a gift for writing beautiful prose but no sense of how to put together an exciting, entertaining story. So they have a lot of work to do, too. (I, for one, would rather read an entertaining, engaging story that is written in inexpert prose than something that's beautifully written but boring.)

So, not every writer starts out at the same level of crappiness. Then there's the factor of how hard they work at improving their craft. If you write a lot, you're almost bound to get better at it without even trying. But if you read good books to learn how prose and storytelling work, and seek out good writing advice and really work on applying it, you're going to get better even faster.

But even with all these qualifiers, some writers (or me, at least) are curious about how far along they are on that fabled million words or how long ago they passed it by. So, in the spirit of NaNo-ly procrastination, I totaled up my lifetime word count (as an adult; I didn't count the stories and plays I wrote in elementary school :-D).

First, for non-writers, numbers of words might not really mean anything. How much is 50,000 words? How much is 1000 words, a million words? Here are some examples to give some idea of scale, of word counts of famous novels (from this site):

Harry Potter and the Philospher's/Sorcerer's Stone: 77,325
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: 198,227
The Hobbit: 95,022
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: 30,644
Nineteen Eighty-Four: 88,942
To Kill a Mockingbird: 99,121
Fahrenheit 451: 46,118
Lord of the Rings Trilogy: 455,125
A Game of Thrones: 284,000 (from here)
Brave New World: 63,766

Methodology: first I looked up how to add columns in a spreadsheet. (More procrastination; plus I'm pretty clueless about spreadsheets.) I only counted the latest version of each work, instead of earlier drafts, so there are a lot of cut scenes that didn't get counted. In cases where I re-wrote something from scratch, I did count both the earlier, abandoned version and the new version. I counted novels, novellas, short stories, and story fragments, but not my handful of poems because writing poetry is a completely different discipline from writing prose fiction. Also, it isn't that many words. And I am most definitely not a poet. :-P

So, counting that way, my lifetime word count between 1990 and 2013 is 1,614,156 (counting the novel I wrote in November; I added it in when it was done). Well past the million-word mark, you'll notice.

Broken down further:
1990-2000: 444,095 words
2000-2008 (when I began writing fanfiction through the last year before I seriously did NaNoWriMo for the first time): 405,878
2009-2013 (when I got a big creative kick from completing NaNo for the first time through the present): 632,176.

If you're adding along with me, you'll notice I passed 1,000,000 words sometime in 2010. As for when my writing graduated from "crap" to "not crap," I like to think it happened (if I say so myself, if it doesn't seem like I'm being arrogant to assume that my writing has made that shift) sometime in the early 2000s, when I was turning out large quantities of fanfiction on a regular basis. Lots of writing in a short period of time with close attention to quality will elevate the level of your writing, no matter where it starts out.

This year, 2013, has been my best writing year ever, with 271,303 words. 195,927 of those words are books 2-6 of the Daughter of the Wildings series. I expect to add quite a few words when I revise (I generally tend to "write short" and then fill out details in revision), so my lifetime word count will go up by the time that series is ready for publication.

Fanfiction got me back into writing at a time when I had lost heart for writing for a few years, and from 2000-2003 I wrote a great deal of fanfic. 405,878 words of it. I also wrote the original version of Chosen of Azara during this time, about 70,000 words, but I counted that in my 2009-2013 output because I re-wrote it pretty extensively this year and last year and extended it to 81,000 words. My lifetime fanfiction total is 632,176 words and original fiction total is 981,980. All those words of fanfiction were a significant factor in reaching the first million words, and I think I improved a lot as a writer while writing them. My experience with fanfiction is another post for another time, but I will say that, even though I keep my fanfic writer identity separate from my identity here, writing all that fic helped make me the writer I am today. (For whatever that's worth!)

Among the pre-2000 output are my first two complete novels; the second one is actually a sequel to the first and I had totally forgotten that I had finished it. So that was an interesting surprise to come across! I plan on evaluating them to see if they're worth revising and publishing; I think they probably are. There are also some fragments of novels set in the same world as Chosen of Azara , that I'm looking forward to developing and completing. Once Daughter of the Wildings is into the final revision stages and being released, sometime next year, I'll start on those.

On to two million!

(Image credit: Zsuzsanna Kilian, stock.xchng)

Sneak Peek: The Lost Book of Anggird

Here's another peek inside The Lost Book of Anggird : Perarre catches a cold:
Perarre nodded and dropped into her chair at the work table. What had she been expecting, that he would see how sick she was, feel sorry for her, and give her the day off? She shuffled her book and papers and pens around, not quite able to focus her foggy, feverish mind on her work. When she opened the book and tried to read its archaic script, her eyes watered and ached. She dropped her head to the table and covered it with her arms to block out the light.

“Miss Tabrano!” The Professor sounded genuinely alarmed. Perarre heard him come around from behind his desk, then she felt a light touch on her face. “You have a fever! Why didn’t you tell me you were ill?”

“Can I have the day off so I can die in peace, sir?” she mumbled. “And please don’t fire me.”

To her astonishment, instead of firing her, he started gently massaging her temples. Gradually, the pain in her head ebbed away, along with the feverish feeling.  The comfort spread to her watery eyes, stuffed-up nose, and burning throat. The Professor’s hands moved to her shoulders, still keeping the same light, slow, rhythmic touch. Then the touch faltered and he stopped. “I apologize for not realizing sooner that you were in distress, and for being unable to provide more relief,” he said. His voice had gone quiet and slightly husky.

Perarre raised her head and looked at him. “You can Heal.”

“I only achieved an Adequate ranking in Healing. I have some… difficulty with the Balance.” His face was covered with a light sheen of sweat, like it had been the day she stepped on his foot.

Of course. Healing was Balanced by pain for the Healer; the Healer had to filter the discomfort and distress taken from the patient out of the magica he had used before allowing the magica to return to its place. Even the small amount of pain that would be brought on by giving mild relief to cold symptoms was probably almost unbearable for the Professor. “Will you be all right, Professor?”

He nodded. “It usually passes before very long. I think I’ll go lie down for a bit. You are excused from work until you are well again. Only, Miss Tabrano —”

“Yes, sir?”

“You do not have my permission to die.”
The Lost Book of Anggird is available from:
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Smashwords | CreateSpace
All Romance eBooks

Author Spotlight: Lindsey R. Loucks

1. Tell us a little about yourself.
Well, I work as a school librarian in a very rural part of the US. When I’m not flinging books, I’m reading them or writing them. I also occasionally sleep and watch funny cat videos on YouTube.

 2. When did you start writing, and why?
When I was around eight-ish, my parents bought me my own desk for a present. Best gift ever! I was so excited, I immediately sat down at it and wrote my first story. It was an angst-filled tale about a girl who was having an epically crappy day. I’ve been writing ever since.

 3. What do you write, and why? What do you enjoy about what you write?
Most of what I write leans toward the paranormal/horror side of things, probably because that’s what I like to read. Most of my stories have a dash of romance since I’m a sucker for a good love story. I’ve also been known to dabble in dark comedy, science fiction, and contemporary. I guess I write all over the place!

I love testing the limits of my imagination, and writing lets me do that!

 4. What is your latest book or series? Any forthcoming books?
My paranormal romance novella, Haunted Chemistry, released in October from Entangled Publishing. The sequel to The Grave Winner has an expected release date of May 2014. I also have a collection of short stories in the works, and I’m nearly finished with a sexy/scary ghost story in space, which I’m very excited about!

 5. "Welcome To My Worlds": Tell us a little about the world of your latest book or series.
The Grave Winner takes place in Krapper, Kansas, which is based on a real small town. Without giving too much away, something is majorly wrong with the cemetery in Krapper. A huge chunk of the story takes place there. At night, of course.

 6. Introduce us to some of your characters. What do you like about them?
Leigh Baxton is a spunky fifteen year old girl who has just lost her mother. As you might imagine, she’s devastated. The thing I love about Leigh is that she can find the humor in things even during the darkest of times.

Jo Monroe is Leigh’s best friend. She’s loyal, funny, and is wicked good with nun chucks.

Callum Monroe is Jo’s brother and has always had a soft spot for Leigh. I like him because he’s a sweet bad boy.

Tram (no last name) is a mystery boy who hangs out at the cemetery and knows an awful lot about the strange happenings in Krapper.

 7. A fun fact you would like your readers to know about you or your book.
The idea for The Grave Winner started with the title. It just popped into my head one day when I was about to finish my very first full length novel. It made me wonder why anyone would win a grave. Is it a good thing to win a grave? My main character Leigh shouted into my ear a definitive “No!”
The Grave Winner

Leigh Baxton is terrified her mom will come back from the dead -- just like the prom queen did. 

While the town goes beehive over the news, Leigh bikes to the local cemetery and buries some of her mom’s things in her grave to keep her there. When the hot and mysterious caretaker warns her not to give gifts to the dead, Leigh cranks up her punk music and keeps digging. 

She should have listened. 

Two dead sorceresses evicted the prom queen from her grave to bury someone who offered certain gifts. Bury them alive, that is, then resurrect them to create a trio of undead powerful enough to free the darkest sorceress ever from her prison inside the earth. 

With help from the caretaker and the dead prom queen, Leigh must find out what’s so special about the gifts she gave, and why the sorceresses are stalking her and her little sister. If she doesn’t, she’ll either lose another loved one or have to give the ultimate gift to the dead – herself.

Available at:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble
 
Add The Grave Winner to Goodreads

Watch the book trailer on Youtube

Lindsey R. Loucks works as a school librarian in rural Kansas. When she's not discussing books with anyone who will listen, she's dreaming up her own stories. Eventually her brain gives out, and she'll play hide and seek with her cat, put herself in a chocolate induced coma, or watch scary movies alone in the dark to reenergize.

She's been with her significant other for almost two decades.

http://www.lindseyrloucks.com

Author Spotlight: T.F. Walsh

Introducing paranormal romance/urban fantasy author T.F. Walsh:

Hi Kyra, thanks for having me on your blog today :)

Q: Tell us a little about yourself.
A: I emigrated from Romania to Australia at the age of eight and now live in a regional city south of Sydney with my husband. Growing up hearing dark fairytales, I’ve always had a passion for reading and writing horror, paranormal romance, urban fantasy and young adult stories. I balance all the dark with light fluffy stuff like baking and traveling. I write young adult and adult fantasy fiction.

Q: When did you start writing, and why?
A: As a child, I enjoyed scribbling stories on pieces of papers and on the inside of book covers. I even signed the books as if they were my own. Let’s just say, my sister wasn’t impressed when she found her books all written on. It was years later when I fell ill with a horrible flu that I pulled out my laptop out and decided to type up some of my ideas. And ever since, I haven’t been able to stop :)

Q: What do you write, and why? What do you enjoy about what you write?
A: I love to write stories filled with paranormal lore, steampunk monsters, or set in extraordinary worlds, but the one common thread is love. Each character is searching or fighting to hold onto love.

Horror is my favorite genre to read, so it’s no surprise an element of the something scary always trickles into my writing.
Q: What is your latest book or series? Any forthcoming books?
A: Cloaked in Fur is book 1 in a series. Book 2 is in the works with plans for many more :)

I’m also half way through a new young adult fantasy novel, which is made up of three parts about six characters. It is set a world filled with witches, steampunk monsters and magic, and at the heart of the story, there’s the struggle to find love.

Q: "Welcome To My Worlds": Tell us a little about the world of your latest book or series.
A:  'Cloaked in Fur' is set in Romania, more specifically Braşov. Braşov is located within what is the region traditionally known as Transylvania. I was born in Romania so I have a special place in my heart for stories based there, particularly those stories set in Transylvania. The region is steeped in lore and history and is about 30km from the Bran Castle, one of the historic homes associated with Vlad Tepes. Vlad Tepes is also known as Vlad the Impaler and is often cited as the historical basis for Bram Stoker's Dracula. Whilst many people consider him a villain, the local populace generally consider him a hero. Interesting fact is that is it said Vlad the Impaler never lived in the Bran Castle, despite the Dracula stories. The region of Transylvania also contains stretches of the Carpathian Mountains. The Carpathians spread through a number of European countries. Large tracts of forest, deep gorges, steep cliffs and cave systems make it a dangerous and beautiful area. With a large population of animals including wolves and bears it makes a wonderful setting for any story. And that’s exactly why I set Cloaked in Fur in Braşov.
Q: Introduce us to some of your characters. What do you like about them?
A: Daciana looks like Kate Beckinsale in my mind. She’s a strong character who won’t let anyone push her around, but she has a soft spot for Connell. Sonsidering the secrets she’s keeping from him, this creates a lot of tension between the two lovers.

Quote from Daciana: “I can only imagine how difficult this is for you. It’s tearing me apart to have you push me away. The fact of the matter is wulfkin—or werewolves as you call them—do exist. For your own good sense, you need to accept this or it will eat away your mind.”

(Image from: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/underworld/images/19181035/title/selene-wallpaper )
Connell looks like Chris Hemsworth. He’s a human and has no idea werewolves exist, that is until his life gets all kinds of complicated with Daciana involved.

Quote from Connell: “Shit, Daci. This guy comes here, shoving you around and you expect me to just sit back and do nothing? Forget it.”

(Image from: http://pinterest.com/pin/483362972477014375/ )


Enre looks like Jensen Ackles. He’s the strong alpha type who loves Daciana but also knows he has not chance with her. But it doesn’t stop him from trying.
Quote from Enre: “The years we dated. How do you remember me? As the wulfkin who loved you unconditionally, a mistake, a fling, or the hottest lover you’ve had?”

(image from:
Q: A fun fact you would like your readers to know about you or your book.
A: Enre is an extremely popular character with my readers, and I’m happy to announce that book 2 will be his story.

[Kyra sez: T.F. also has the best hat of any author I've featured so far!]
Cloaked in Fur is Available Now

As a moonwulf, Daciana never expected to fall in love with a human. Hell, she never imagined that she’d abandon her pack, endanger everyone around her, and break the worst rule possible. But she did.

A rogue werewolf is killing Daciana’s friends, and she sets on capturing the creature. She’ll do whatever it takes to stop the beast. The police and her boyfriend, Inspector Connell Lonescu, are starting to question her involvement in the murders, which is endangering the pack’s secret existence. But when the pack alpha kidnaps Connell, revealing the awful truth about the creature and its connection to the pack, Daciana must choose between saving the man she loves and saving her pack family from certain death.

Paranormal Suspense With Strong Romance

Buy Cloaked in Fur Here:

Amazon | Amazon UK | Barnes and Noble | iTunes
All Romance | Kobo Books | Crimson Romance Books

Publisher: Crimson Romance www.crimsonromance.com

Author Links:

Website | Twitter | Facebook
Pinterest | Goodreads | Amazon

Sneak Peek: Urdaisunia

Here's another peek inside Urdaisunia . Earlier, Rashali and Eruz parted under difficult circumstances, thinking they'd never see each other again, but now their paths unexpectedly cross again:
The noise of shouting, laughing, and gambling assaulted Eruz’s ears as he entered the tavern. The smell of wine, burning aksa-weed, fish, and bodies that had been working in the heat all day was almost overwhelming. Smoke from the lamps and torches fogged the room. He made his way across the crowded room to a spot on a bench along one of the walls. No one took any notice of him in his plain tradesman’s clothes and white salik; he also wasn’t the only person in the room who wasn’t Urdai. A small group of Xaxan men sat in one corner, drinking and gambling. Three Kai-Kalle youths in brightly-striped robes laughed and bragged and harassed the Urdai serving girl. An extremely drunk Sazar man stumbled into the tavern and began arguing with the barman, then slumped to the floor in a stupor.

Eruz ordered beer from a serving boy; though he usually preferred wine, the wine served in a place like this was likely to be sour and watery, while, it was said, it was impossible to make bad beer from Urdaisunian barley. He slowly nursed his drink while he observed the activity around him.

A small group of Urdai came in and went to a low table in a corner that was quieter than the rest of the tavern. A tall, lean Urdai man sat there with a number of other people. He had a quiet, authoritative air, and seemed to listen more than he spoke. Most likely he was the leader of the Nest, or at least high up in the leadership. Seated next to him was--

Eruz blinked to clear his smoke-hazed eyes and looked again. Rashali.

Relief and joy surged through him, along with an odd, sudden twist of dislike for the man sitting next to her. Eruz watched as the group that had come into the tavern spoke to him. They seemed to include Rashali in what they said, and the man frequently turned to her, as though asking her advice or opinion before replying. It was almost as though they were partners in running the Nest.

Fear quickly overshadowed Eruz’s relief. The Nest was in danger, which meant that Rashali was in danger. He hadn’t known how to deliver his warning—it was unlikely that any Scorpion would listen to a Sazar—but she would listen. He hoped. If she didn’t hate him for what he had done at Three Leaping Fish.
Urdaisunia is available in ebook and paperback from:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple | Sony | Diesel
Smashwords | CreateSpace | All Romance Ebooks

Author Spotlight: Catherine L. Vickers

Introducing Catherine L. Vickers, here on her blog tour with Saskia Book Tours. Don't forget to enter the giveaway down at the bottom!

New author and Indie author of Fantasy by night. Sell vintage and antique items via e-commerce by day. Four grown up children and 2 wee grand children. Three dogs (now two as I lost my oldest companion to cancer) and and a very curios cat who follows us on dog walks. 

*Guardian Dragons, Book 1 on Amazon in kindle version and paperback.
*Flight of a Changeling, Book 2 on Amazon as Paperback.

Love to write but if I'm honest I don't much enjoy the computer work I have to do as an Indie author, it is very time consuming. So many other things I'd much rather be doing. But, there you go, it has to be done so I'd better get working on it.

Q: Tell us a little about yourself.
A: I was born and continue to live in West Yorkshire in the UK. Most of my working life has been spent with the Local Authority in an administrative position. I also work full time for myself which means you have to put in double the hours of a regular paid job. I have 4 grown up children placed all around the world. Plus I am a grandmother and love every minute of it. My favourite time of the year is Christmas when my family do their very best to get together.

Q. When did you start writing, and why?
Started reading seriously as an adult in my 30s when I was studying. Went on to do a Creative Writing course which led to my creation of the fantasy world of Aarabassa series. I gave birth to this story in France on a very wet camping holiday. Without any electricity I needed to occupy my mind with something other than constant reading. Hence the Aarabassa world was created.

Q: What is your latest book or series? Any forthcoming books?
Book 3, Blood Bride, of the Aarbassa World fantasy series, has just been released as a paperback. I will release the e-version on 1st December. Whilst I am in the middle of writing Book 4 of this series I am also going to publish an omnibus edition of the first three books, very shortly.

So it will consist of:
Book 1 Guardian Dragons; available at Amazon
Book 2 Flight of a Changeling; available at Amazon
plus the latest released Book 3, Blood Bride; available at Amazon

Q: "Welcome To My Worlds": Tell us a little about the world of your latest book or series.
Aarabassa is a planet that has one half in constant darkness (Darklands), and one half in constant sunlight (Lightlands). Around the middle is a Magic Wall which stops either side from entering the other side. The series is about the Darkland creatures wanting to destroy the magic barrier and take over the whole world. Within this world the reader is introduced to many creatures, cultures and cities, including underwater cities. Because their is no night and day, I have created two moons and time is ruled by whichever moon is high in the sky.
Q: Introduce us to some of your characters. What do you like about them?
A: The protagonist is a young mage girl named Heather, who is also a Changeling. Around her are three princes who have grown up with her. They are our main heroes of the tale and live within the Lightlands. Emperor Morte-Bielz is the antagonist who rules within the Darklands and wants out. He is attempting to build up an army of vamplins (vampires). However they are not the traditional vampires that we know. They are quite a gentle race. Along the adventure the reader will also meet fairies, dwarves, centaurs, mer-people, lizard people and ant people, plus a few others thrown in here and there. It sounds chaotic but there is a civilised order to the lands and its creatures.

I cannot pick out a favourite character as I love them all. Whilst I am writing about a particular character in the setting, I feel I am that character so therefore I am them all, good and bad.

Q: A fun fact you would like your readers to know about you or your book.
I have created a website around the world of Aarabassa whereby I am indexing all the details for any reader of the series to look up. The world is complex and needs referencing. On this website I am also attempting to put pictures of characters to give the reader an idea of what was in my head when I created them.

Q: Blog/site link:
WEBSITE | BLOG | Goodreads | FACEBOOK
Guardian Dragons (Aarabassa World: Divided Realms, #1):

Based on the world of Aarabassa where one half is dark the other is in constant sunlight. A magic barrier divides the darker characters out of the Lightlands.

Only the Guardian Dragons and the Changeling can pass through the Magic Wall. When the dragons over hear vamplins plotting to attack the Darklands, the dragon Queen seeks the Ancient Mage for help. 

Three young Princes have grown up alongside the Changeling a female mage. Their world will soon change as they are destined for different adventures.

available at Amazon

Flight of a Changeling (Aarabassa World: Divided Realms, #2):

Based on the world of Aarabassa where one half is dark and the other is in constant sunlight. A magic barrier divides the darker characters out of the Lightlands.

Prince Raphael is taken on a pilgrimage to heal his illness, by Rikka the herbal nurse, but all is not as it seems.

Prince Amos and Prince Leon depart on separate quests to invite various races, including dwarves, centaurs and merpeople, to the Lightlands Council to ready for battle with the creatures of the Darklands

Heather, the Changeling is journeying to the Guardian Dragons lair, meeting with the Forest Keepers on her way. Her final destination, to meet with the monshaad Emperor on the other side.

available at Amazon
a Rafflecopter giveaway Giveaway not run or sponsored by Kyra Halland/Welcome To My Worlds

Cover Art Reveal: Daughter of the Wildings Book 4

Here's the cover art for To The Gap, Book 4 of Daughter of the Wildings! First, the full wrap-around version for the paperback edition:
And the ebook version:
There's an old song called "Who'll Stop the Rain?" Silas and Lainie are doing their best, but it isn't easy, and this is no ordinary rainstorm. And if the other cattle drive hands find out they can use magic, there'll be trouble! But with thousands of head of cattle at risk, along with the success of the big cattle drive, they'll do their best to save the day! Thanks again to Mominur Rahman for this awesome art. Check out more of his work at me-illuminated.deviantart.com!

Announcements and stuff

Just a few miscellaneous things to talk about. First of all, I have the preview files for the cover of Book 4 of Daughter of the Wildings on my computer now. Cover art reveal coming up tomorrow!

Also watch for The Tales of Haveshi Yellowcrow and Latan the Scholar to be posted here soon. They'll be available free on the site for a limited time before I publish them with the Kindle Select program on Amazon.

The Lost Book of Anggird is now available in the iTunes store. Still waiting on Barnes & Noble and Sony. I've also added buy links to the Diesel ebook store, which is kind of a neat setup. If you aren't wedded to one of the device-specific ebook stores, you might want to give it a look. Of course, my ebooks are all non-DRM, so they can easily be moved between as many devices as you want, and also converted from mobi into epub format and vice versa.

The paperback of The Lost Book of Anggird is now available from Amazon and CreateSpace. The paperback editions of my novels are also available online from Barnes & Noble, but, in all honesty, I get paid a lot more if you buy them from Amazon or CreateSpace. Still, if Barnes & Noble is your favorite online bookstore, you can get my paperbacks there.

Speaking of paperbacks, Amazon has a cool new program, Matchbook, where if you buy the paper version of a book that's enrolled in the program, you can get the Kindle version at a discountee price. I've enrolled all my novels in the program, which means that if you buy the paperback version of Urdaisunia , Chosen of Azara , or The Lost Book of Anggird , you can get the Kindle version for only 99 cents! Buy the paperback for a gift and the ebook for yourself, or just buy both for yourself :D

If you're wondering where the Kobo links went, I've taken my books down from Kobo for now, as a protest against an event that came to be known in the self-publishing community as "Kobogeddon." It's a long story, but, basically, Kobo equated self-published books with pornography and pulled all self-published books from their UK outlets while leaving house-published porn on the shelves. My boycott isn't because I have the least bit of sympathy for the purveyors of really sickening varieties of porn whose scummy gaming of the system triggered this event; quite the opposite - I resent Kobo smearing me and the hugely vastly vast majority of independent authors who don't write porn with that brush. Kobo is slowly making the books that aren't actually pornographic available for sale again, so I'll eventually go back with them, once I've decided they've suffered enough for lack of my books.

Finally, don't forget to sign up for my email updates to stay informed of new releases and special offers!