Danielle L. Jensen's Blog, page 14
September 15, 2014
Rerun Monday: The Chicken or the Egg: Story or Setting?
The question of why Stolen Songbird takes place in a cave is probably best answered by my explanation of what inspired me to write the novel. Like so many authors before me (sparkly vampires!), and so many who will come after, the idea for my story came to me in a dream. “What a cliche!” you say, but it’s the honest truth. I had a dream about a beautiful city that had been buried, but not entirely destroyed, by rock. Even now, all these years later, I can still close my eyes and remember walking through collapsed corridors, with only the faintest bits of light coming through to illuminate fabulous paintings, sculptures, and fountains. In my dream, the only way to reach this city was by swimming under water, which might jog the memory of those of you who have already read Stolen Songbird.
My vision of this place stuck in my head for days afterward, and I began to daydream a story to fit the place. I thought about how a city could be buried, I thought about what sort of magic would keep it from being destroyed completely, and I thought about why a race of people would choose to stay in such a place. They, in my mind, would only stay if they had no choice, and that was how the curse was born. I then thought about what would happen to a people who are not naturally denizens of the dark if they were isolated from the world and kept from the sun. How would they change? What would they be like? How would they become little more than a myth to most of the outside world, and what would that myth be? And most importantly: what would these creatures want more than anything else? The answer to that is obvious – to be free. And that was how the plot for my buried city was born.
There is, of course, a world outside of Trollus. You see a bit of it with Cécile, and there are certainly references to it throughout Stolen Songbird. A few readers have asked me why I provided so little information about the outside world. I have many, many reasons for that, but I’ll share the important ones. The first reason is that I thought limiting the information about the outside would compound the sense that Trollus is quite isolated, almost an entirely different world. The second was that it would raise a lot of questions with readers – questions that I’ve every intention of answering in the subsequent two books. Hopefully reading Stolen Songbird will leave readers hungering to find out more about the world I’ve created for Cécile and Tristan.
*Rerun Monday’s are when I post guest posts that I wrote for bloggers during Stolen Songbird’s launch
September 9, 2014
The First Page of Hidden Huntress
Chapter 1
Cécile
My voice faded into silence, though the memory of it seemed to haunt the theatre as I slumped gracefully, trusting that Julian would catch me, however much he might not want to. The stage was smooth and cool against my cheek, a blessed relief against the heat of hundreds of bodies packed into one place. I tried to breathe shallowly, ignoring the stench of too much perfume and far too few baths as I feigned death. Julian's voice replaced mine, and his lament echoed across my ears and through the theatre, but I only half-listened, my attention drifting away to fix on the all too real sorrow of another. One far out of reach.
The audience erupted into cheers. "Bravo!" someone shouted, and I almost smiled when a falling flower brushed against my cheek. The curtain hit the stage floor, and I reluctantly opened my eyes, the red velvet of the curtains pulling me back into an unwelcome reality.
"You seem distracted tonight," Julian said, hauling me unceremoniously to my feet. "And about as emotive as my left boot. She won't be best pleased, you know."
"I know," I muttered, smoothing my costume into place. "I had a late night."
"Shocking.” Julian rolled his eyes. "It’s tiring work ingratiating yourself with every rich man in the city." He took my hand again, nodded at the crew, and we both plastered smiles on our faces as the curtain rose again. "Cécile! Cécile!" the audience shouted. Waving blindly, I blew a kiss to the sea of uniform faces before dropping into a deep curtsey. We stepped back to let the rest of the cast take their bows before coming forward again. Julian dropped to one knee and kissed my gloved fingers to the roaring approval of the crowd, and then the curtain dropped for the final time.
August 12, 2014
Regarding the fate of HIDDEN HUNTRESS
Hi Lovely Readers!
Many you know that the fate of my novels was a bit up in the air due to the closing of my publishing imprint, Strange Chemistry, in June. I am very happy to be able to announce that Strange Chemistry’s parent, Angry Robot, will be keeping my contract for The Malediction Trilogy. This means that HIDDEN HUNTRESS is back on track for publication in the spring of 2015, although I still don’t have an exact date yet.
Danielle
August 1, 2014
STOLEN SONGBIRD is an Amazon Kindle Deal for $1.99
http://www.amazon.com/Stolen-Songbird...
July 15, 2014
RT to win a signed copy of STOLEN SONGBIRD & Signed Swag
Who likes contests that require little effort to enter? Who likes winning book stuff?
So here we go. I’m going to give away a signed and personalized copy of STOLEN SONGBIRD plus some signed swag. This is what you have to do:
1. Be on Twitter
2. RT the tweet (including the image) This is the link to the tweet you must retweet in order to qualify: https://twitter.com/dljensen_/status/...
3. That’s it
Rules:
1. Contest is open internationally
2. Winner will be selected with a random number generator
3. Contest closes July 16, 2014 at 11:00pm MST
4. If you win, I will contact you via twitter to get your mailing address. If I don’t hear back within 48 hours, I will choose a new winner.
July 4, 2014
Goodreads Giveaway of 2 Signed Copies of STOLEN SONGBIRD
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Stolen Songbird
by Danielle L. Jensen
Giveaway ends August 3, 2014.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
June 26, 2014
RT to win a signed copy of STOLEN SONGBIRD & signed swag
Who likes contests that require little effort to enter? Who likes winning book stuff?
So here we go. I’m going to give away a signed and personalized copy of STOLEN SONGBIRD plus some signed swag. This is what you have to do:
1. Be on Twitter
2. RT the tweet (including the image) This is the link to the tweet you must retweet in order to qualify: https://twitter.com/dljensen_/status/482299361271898112
3. That’s it
Rules:
1. Contest is open internationally
2. Winner will be selected with a random number generator
3. Contest closes July 1, 2014 at 11:00pm MST
4. If you win, I will contact you via twitter to get your mailing address. If I don’t hear back within 48 hours, I will choose a new winner.
June 20, 2014
Regarding “The Situation”
As many of you have heard, my publisher, Strange Chemistry, will be closing their doors. They have publicly confirmed they are cancelling all their yet to be released titles, which as you might guess, is pretty upsetting news for all their authors. Me included.
First off, I want to thank everyone who has sent me a kind message about the situation. You guys are the best, and I love you.
Secondly, the biggest question everyone is asking is whether this means Hidden Huntress won’t be released, and I want everyone to know that is NOT the case. What it means is that my books will no longer be published by Strange Chemistry.
Right now there are many many unknowns as to exactly how this situation will revolve itself, and it will take time for the details to be ironed out. Until I have more facts and more decisions have been made, I can’t talk publicly about what is going on behind the scenes. But I want everyone to know that there are many possible publication options open to my books, and it’s just a matter of waiting to see how circumstances resolve themselves before I can determine which path is right for me.
So stay tuned for more information, although it will probably be quite a few weeks before I can say much. But have no fear, beloved readers: there is no way I’m leaving you with that cliff-hanger ending!
Danielle
PS. THIS is why authors need agents. I get to work away on editing Hidden Huntress while my amazing team deals with “The Situation”
June 16, 2014
So you want signed Stolen Songbird Swag…
I receive lots of emails from people who have enjoyed STOLEN SONGBIRD asking me to send them signed bookplates and bookmarks to put in their books. I LOVE these emails. It makes me really happy to hear that people are enjoying my book, and it makes me work even harder on the never-ending HIDDEN HUNTRESS edits. So I’ve decided to run a swag giveaway that will hopefully make all of us happy.
What YOU need to do:
1. Take a photo of your hand holding your copy of STOLEN SONGBIRD. Doesn’t matter if it is a paperback, ARC, or Ebook open on an eReader.
2. Post the photo on your choice of social media. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, your blog, etc. Feel free to tag me in your posts.
3. Caption the picture with “I love Stolen Songbird” or “I want signed Stolen Songbird swag”
4. Email me a link to your tweet/post along with your mailing address. danielleljensen @ outlook .com (no spaces)
Rules
1. The giveaway is open internationally. You happy readers don’t even want to know how much I spend on postage…
2. Don’t try to pass other people’s photos off as your own. That is why your hand needs to be in the photo.
3. Giveaway ends when I run out of money to buy stamps
June 14, 2014
Live Spreecast Q&A Session, Today at 4pm EST
http://www.spreecast.com/events/reado...
