Vicki L. Weavil's Blog, page 4
January 28, 2017
Cover Reveal for THE DWELLING OF EKHIDNA by Lauren Jankowski
Today I’m helping reveal the cover for Lauren Jankowski’s The Dwelling of Ekhidna, Book Five of the Shape Shifter Chronicles, designed by Najla Qamber Designs. This action-packed urban fantasy is releasing this Tuesday, January 31, from Snowy Wings Publishing!
Title: The Dwelling of Ekhidna: Book Five of the Shape Shifter Chronicles
Author: Lauren Jankowski
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Release Date: January 31, 2017
Publisher: Snowy Wings Publishing
Add to your Goodreads list here!
The home of the guardians, the Meadows, has always been a place of peace and safety, untouched by the ongoing war against the Grenich Corporation. But that could only last so long.
During the guardians’ autumn celebration, a bomb goes off, shattering the Meadows’ tranquility. In the aftermath of a tragedy, a deadly virus is released that afflicts only healers. The only cure to the virus is hidden in the Seelie Court, in a location that only one knows: Eris, a legendary trickster, locked away in the dungeons of the Pearl Castle for her crimes against the peoples of Earth. When the Four are forced into a temporary alliance with the unpredictable Eris, their journey becomes more perilous than anyone expected.
January 18, 2017
#COVERREVEAL X 2 — THE LIGHT FROM OTHER SUNS and THE DARK OF OTHER SKIES
I’m thrilled to formally share the covers for the first two books in my adult scifi trilogy, THE OTHERS, which I am publishing under my White Tulip Press imprint.
Please check out the Rafflecopter at the end of this post to enter my giveaway, which runs from now through March 3rd.
And now for the covers! Both were illustrated by artist Anne Drury. The covers (and books) were formatted by VBartles Designs.
Book One:
Artist Karen Foster draws while dreaming. Scientists label her a valuable commodity. Aliens call her their perfect messenger.
Seeking money for art supplies, Karen is thrilled when charming researcher Alex Wythe recruits her for a dream study called the Morpheus Project. But the Morpheus Project is not what it seems, and neither are the detailed technical illustrations Karen draws in her sleep.
Warned off by government agent Mark Hallam, Karen refuses to leave the project, even after her fellow subjects suffer breakdowns. Like the sun, her love for Alex blinds her.
Karen believes their love is forever, until a tragic accident blasts both their lives.
Aided by Mark—as well as a UFO investigator, his psychic daughter, and the dark-eyed strangers who haunt her dreams—Karen must fight to uncover the truth.
A truth that includes humans trading lives for profits—and a powerful cabal that will kill to keep such secrets from the world.
A truth that unveils the ultimate, terrifying, reality –
We have never been alone.
Click for Amazon Preorder Link
Book Two:
Older than our recorded history, and far superior in knowledge and technology, the Oneiroi are too
alien to ever step foot on Earth.
Yet, aided by powerful human collaborators, they invaded Karen’s dreams, stole her art, and shattered her life.
Now Karen must prevent them from destroying her planet.
The Oneiroi, extraterrestrials who’ve studied Earth for centuries, consider humans their lab rats. But a contingent of this ancient race—seeking to halt all experimentation—has launched a rebellion. Their mission, while just, is poised to ignite a battle that could blast Earth to a cinder.
With the planet tossed like a ball between fearsome forces, hope lies with a small band of humans and sympathetic aliens. Pursued by ruthless collaborators happy to sacrifice millions to silence the truth, Karen and her allies discover that only evidence bought with blood can expose those trading Earth’s autonomy for wealth and power.
It’s time the world knew —
We are not alone.
Click for Amazon Preorder Link
Please enter the Rafflecopter to win —
First Prize: Signed Paperback ARC of THE LIGHT FROM OTHER SUNS, a $50. Amazon Giftcard, and bookmarks!
Second Prize: eBook ARC of THE LIGHT FROM OTHER SUNS, a $25. Amazon Giftcard, and bookmarks!
Third Prize: eBook ARC of THE LIGHT FROM OTHER SUNS and bookmarks!
January 12, 2017
I Am Not Special , or, Appreciating the Ordinary
Someone once asked me why I don’t write about princesses or other “royal-types” in my fantasy books. After all, to date my fantasy novels have all been fairytale retellings, and don’t fairytales ALWAYS have princes and princesses and similar characters of royal blood (albeit sometimes with a “hidden” lineage) as major characters?
Well, no. For one thing, my retellings are based on Hans Christian Andersen fairytales and if you read a great number of them you’ll notice something interesting — Andersen’s protagonists tend to be ordinary people. Sometimes poor folk, sometimes middle-class, but almost never royalty. In fact, Andersen is more likely to make fun of royalty (The Emperor’s New Clothes and The Princess and the Pea, for example) rather than celebrate them.
This is reason number one why my retellings feature village girls and tradesmen and soldiers and others without a drop of royal blood. (Even my Snow Queen is actually just a village girl, although a rather brilliant one, who has been given powers by a sorcerer). In doing so, I am paying homage to Andersen’s original stories.
Reason number two is less based in my source material, and more based on my own life.
You see, I am not special.
Of course, when I was young, I imagined I was unique, with hidden talents or abilities that had simply not yet been revealed. I dreamed of the day when my “specialness” would become undeniably apparent to everyone.
Because isn’t that the basis for so many of our stories – the ordinary person who turns out to be extraordinary? Just think of Luke Skywalker — a simple farm boy, living on a planet of no great importance. He was the least likely person to become the “Jedi Knight” who would save the Republic. But he had hidden, special, abilities that only appeared when he had reached a certain age. (And a secret heritage that bequeathed him unique talents).
There’s certainly nothing wrong with such stories. I mean, haven’t we all thought of ourselves as that person? An ordinary human, living an unexceptional life, until one day … some event or individual or challenge unlocks our true potential and proves our “specialness.”
But then, for some of us, time passes and we grow older without unlocking this super-special side of ourselves, Eventually, we must (regrettably) accept the sobering fact that we are not, and never will be, a “Chosen One.”
I will never be such a person, I know. I am rather ordinary, when all is said and done. Which is perfectly fine, if a little less exciting than I might wish.
And that’s reason number two why I choose to write characters who are not the princess, not the possessor of hidden talents, and not the secret heir to riches and power. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with stories that use those themes — I still love many of them. But I personally feel a need to create something different, to show that ordinary people can be part of interesting stories too. Maybe someone not-so-special can show their worth in ways that don’t require supernatural abilities or unlimited access to power. Perhaps the least likely person can become the hero or heroine. (Which is one reason why some of my favorite characters are Frodo and Sam from LOTR and Meg Murray from A WRINKLE IN TIME and its sequels).
Those are the stories I have always loved the best, and so — those are the tales I like to write. Stories about people are not inherently “special,” but who can still do extraordinary things when challenged by circumstances or fate.
I am not special, and neither are most of my characters. But we are, I hope, interesting! Just like most other people in the world, if you really think about it.
Finishing this with one of my favorite quotes from LOTR:
“Yes, that’s so,” said Sam, “And we shouldn’t be here at all, if we’d known more about it before we started. But I suppose it’s often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo, adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t. And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on, and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same; like old Mr Bilbo. But those aren’t always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of a tale we’ve fallen into?”
“I wonder,” said Frodo, “But I don’t know. And that’s the way of a real tale. Take any one that you’re fond of. You may know, or guess, what kind of a tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don’t know. And you don’t want them to.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
January 9, 2017
Cover Reveal for ALL IT TAKES by Clare Dugmore
#CoverReveal today for @CDugmoreWrites for a #SnowyWingsPub book that releases on Feb. 14th!
That’s right — Valentine’s Day, which is fitting for this contemporary NA Romance
I’m thrilled to reveal the cover for Clare Dugmore’s
dual-POV contemporary romance ALL IT TAKES, scheduled for release February 14,
2017, and announce that it’s now available for pre-order for delivery to your
Kindle on release day.
Title: All It
Takes
Author: Clare
Dugmore
Genre: Romance
Release Date:
February 14, 2017
Publisher: Snowy Wings Publishing
Add to your Goodreads to be read list
Pre Order on AmazonUS | Amazon UK
Description:
All It Takes is one night to change the rest of their lives.
Graduating Uni, travelling Europe and buying her own place –
these are on Megan Green’s to-do list.
At just twenty-two, becoming a mother isn’t.
Fast cars, expensive clothes and bedding a different women
every night – this is how Kian Murphy spends his time when not in the MMA ring.
Pre-natal scans and birthing classes are not on his agenda.
After a chance meeting and passionate encounter, Megan finds
herself pregnant with Kian’s child. But with a womanizing reputation, and a
temper that often leads him into trouble, Kian is hardly boyfriend material,
let alone father material.
Now Megan and Kian must work out if they have All It Takes to
turn their one-night-stand into a relationship that will connect them for a
life-time.
All It Takes is a dual-POV new-adult, contemporary-romance
about responsibility, love and discovering who you are in life.
January 5, 2017
THE LIGHT FROM OTHER SUNS — scifi trilogy, book one — Preorder is Live
Starting off the “Year of Books” with the preorder link for eBook for THE LIGHT FROM OTHER SUNS, which officially releases March 8th!
Link to add it to your Goodreads TBR list
There will be a paperback version available later as well, for those who prefer that format.
January 1, 2017
Welcome to 2017 — The Year of BOOKS!
I am dubbing 2017 “The Year of Books” because I will be releasing at least 4 books in 2017!
THE LIGHT FROM OTHER SUNS will release in March, and its sequel, THE DARK OF OTHER SKIES in April from White Tulip Press. These are Book One and Book Two in THE OTHERS scifi trilogy.
CROWN OF ICE (2nd, revised ed.) will be published by Snowy Wings Publishing in early May, and its sequel, SCEPTER OF FIRE, in late May. These are Book One and Book Two in THE MIRROR OF IMMORTALITY fantasy trilogy.
I may also release a new version of FACSIMILE in late 2017 or early 2018, so stay tuned for more information on that.
Of course, I plan to write more books as well — including the third book in THE OTHERS trilogy, THE ECHO OF OTHER EARTHS, and the third book in THE MIRROR OF IMMORTALITY series, ORB OF LIGHT. My goal is to release both of those books in 2018.
I have a few more writing projects planned as well — including completing my YA Fantasy, THE DIAMOND THIMBLE, and perhaps another cozy mystery under my penname, Victoria Gilbert.
So, for me, 2017 will definitely be a year for the books!
Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year! Here’s to much joy and success in the next year!
December 30, 2016
Dec. 31: #SnowyWingsChallenge
New Year’s resolutions?
Never make them! (I have ongoing goals, not new ones each year). #SnowyWingsChallenge
Dec. 30: #SnowyWingsChallenge
New Year’s traditions?
Watch the only parade that’s ever really interested me — The Tournament of Roses Parade! (Love the flowers & creativity!) #SnowyWingsChallenge
December 29, 2016
Dec. 29: #SnowyWingsChallenge
Share some writing advice.
Try to enjoy writing for itself. Celebrate the joy of creating — don’t just focus on the end result. #SnowyWingsChallenge
December 28, 2016
Dec. 28: #SnowyWingsChallenge
Favorite holiday memory?
Family holiday dinners at my grandparents’ farm house. #SnowyWingsChallenge
