Lillian Bishop's Blog
August 13, 2015
The Protectors: released
We're very proud to announce the release of the second book in The Witch Lake Chronicles - The Protectors.
The Protectors continues the story of Sam Gardener to it's exciting conclusion. We find out what happened to Rhiannon and Colleen McCarthy, as well as secrets and plots that weave their way through the sleepy town of Witch Lake. This is one that you're not going to want to miss!
Furthermore, to celebrate the release of The Protectors, for a limited time you can get a copy of the first Witch Lake novel - The Dreamwalker for only 99c on Amazon Kindle.
Tags: the protectors
June 15, 2015
The Protectors: now on preorder
We're really pleased to announce that we have a release date for The Protectors! The second book in The Witch Lake Chronicles will be released on 13 August 2015!
You can preorder your copy from Amazon now at getBook.at/prt (sorry, no preorder for non-Kindle formats at the moment).
We also have a limited number of pre-release review copies to GIVE AWAY. If you are interested in receiving a FREE copy of THE PROTECTORS, please comment on our facebook post. You'll have a better chance of being selected to receive a free copy if you also SHARE the post and LIKE our page.
(Please note, in order to receive a review copy of The Protectors, you must be willing to commit to posting a review of the book by 1 August 2015 on Amazon.)
June 1, 2015
Hooray!
We're getting closer! I feel like the sun just burst through the clouds. This winter has been rough. I live in an area that the winter is pretty harsh and so far the summer hasn't been much better.
But making good progress on The Protectors has really lifted my spirits! I can't wait to get more done, I feel re-energized!
I've also been doing a lot of reading this winter, which has been nice. For a while I didn't have time to do it, but I've found the time again and it's been so nice!
Feeling good today!
September 29, 2014
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July 30, 2014
Meet My Main Character Blog Tour
We were thrilled to find that we had been tagged by the lovely Shonda Brock on the Meet My Main Character Blog Tour. It sounds like great fun, and a fabulous excuse to let you all know a little more about our man Sam.
Here are the rules
The taggee must write a post answering the same seven questions about their MC. Then the taggee becomes the tagger and chooses five other authors. It’s sort of like a chain letter with all the potential to become a global virus.
So sorry, dear characters...
We’ll be hanging out all your dirty laundry for everyone to see. You better put on your dark sunglasses and prepare to fend off the paparazzi.
Now meet my main character.
He’s a social recluse of epic proportions. Home schooled for the past few years, he’s now seventeen and trying to find his way back into some semblance of a normal life. High school is tough at the best of times - when you’re heading in for the first time as a senior and the source of all the small town gossip? It’s hell.
1. What is the name of your main character? Is he fictional or a historic person?
Our main character is Sam Gardener, who is a fictional character.
2. When and where is the story set?
The Witch Lake Chronicles is a series of books set in present day New England in the town of Witch Lake (see what we did there?). Witch Lake is one of those little towns that is kind of quaint and picturesque, but also on the dull and boring side. The kind of place that people come from, rather than move to.
3. What should we know about him?
The first few years of Sam’s life were non-eventful. Then, when he was just coming into adolescence, everything went sideways in a pretty major way. Sam started having weird, terrifying dreams, which quickly took over his life. He was pulled from school, stopped seeing any of his friends. As Sam himself would put it:-
“Mom kept taking me to the doctors, and they were prescribing just about everything. Anxiety meds, anti-depressants. At one point there was even an anti-psychotic. Want to know how to make someone feel really crazy? Put them on an antipsychotic at twelve for having overzealous dreams. They weren’t even the worst, though. The worst were the sleeping pills. I was terrified that if I took them, no matter what, I would be trapped in the dreams. So I hid them. Which, of course, made things worse. Then all those doctors added ‘uncooperative’ to my list of ‘issues’. Naturally, nothing helped. I just kept getting worse. My dad started calling me crazy to my face. My mom hated that. They started to fight all the time. Eventually he left. Because of me.”
4. What is the main conflict? What messes up his life?
The series beginnings when Sam is seventeen. Things have become slightly better for him. He has managed to get a handle on some of his issues, and his difficulties with dreams is more under control. He’s back in school to take his senior year and his focus is on just trying to be ‘normal’. Only, then he meets Rhionnan - a pretty, redheaded girl with a soft Irish accent, who just happens to have been dead for nigh on a century. His friendship with Rhi pulls him deep into a hidden world of murder, magic and intrigue, where nothing is quite what it seems and everyone is hiding something.
5. What is his personal goal?
Finding a social life while scrambling to get school work done is one thing, dealing with the world of the supernatural is another. His immediate goal would be to survive high school and maybe figure out along the way what he wants to do with the rest of his life. If things could work out for the normal, he loves writing and thinks that maybe he could do something with that.
6. Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?
You can find out more about the series at our website.
7. When can we expect the books to be published?
The first novel in The Witch Lake Chronicles, The Dreamwalker, is on sale now. The second instalment, The Protectors, is scheduled to be released later this year.
We are now tagging:-
Amber Averay
Tianna Holley
James DiBenedetto
Lyn Croft
Maria Savva
Tags: blog toursam gardenercharacter
July 21, 2014
The Protectors: Chapter 2 released!
We're excited to be able to give you an exclusive preview of the first two chapters of the second novel in The Witch Lake Chronicles. You can read exclusively chapters 1 and 2 of The Protectors here!
Let us know what you think at our facebook page - we love feedback!
Tags: the protectors
March 17, 2014
Taking Part
It's interesting to see how things can get from A to B. It's great to see a fan base get so enthusiastically behind a project that it gets this kind of treatment. The end result I couldn't be happier about, either.
Long live Veronica Mars, and everyone who brought her back.
December 13, 2013
Fiction Five Friday
The Dreamwalker features on Tara Ford's Fiction Five Friday - see original entry
Page 55
“What about dreams?” she asked. She couldn’t understand how dreams could do that to a person. They were supposed to be insubstantial. They were meant to be something that happened, and then you woke up, went about your day and forgot them.
Almost laughing, Sam let out a breath. What about them? “As you can see, they tend to be a little too real for me. The arc shaped one? That's from a shark. A shark that had legs, and chased me down. The long one, that one was caused by some demon thing that had a whip for a tongue,” he told her.
Tags: articlefeaturethe dreamwalkerfiction five friday
November 28, 2013
And Today, I Am Inspired!
But today I am inspired! I drove home from work, turned the music up loud, got too much caffeine in my system, and I'm good to go!
Moods like these are my favorite. When I get like this, I tend to do a lot in little bursts, and come up with ideas for other angles or stories, characters or concepts.
I sing like no one's listening and bee-bop in my chair while I type.
And today's magic awesome song is 'Love Me Again' by John Newman. Cuz that song rocks my face.
November 27, 2013
Read our feature on Shonda Brock's Paranormal Wednesday!
Read the full feature here!
1. What inspired you to write a paranormal story?
Constance - I have always had an attraction to the unusual and a fascination with the paranormal. When we started writing together, it was one genre that we were both really passionate about. There was never any question what kind of a story ours would be!
Lillian - I love the possibilities! I grew up watching horror movies, and always loved the paranormal elements involved. I also love exploring reactions to crazy events or abilities, something I know Constance and I both get fascinated with.
2. Has anything paranormal ever happened to you?
Constance - I worked in hospitals for many years and, trust me, everyone there has a tale or two to tell about paranormal experiences! For me, personally, I have had a few. Unfortunately, they tend to revolve around having uncanny feelings just before something bad happens to someone I care about. Freaky coincidences or not, people do tend to listen to me if I randomly ask them not to do something!
Lillian - Yes, and a few as well! My mom grew up in a haunted house, interestingly enough. It wasn't in that house, but I had my own ghostly experiences in another. One of them is: I was in the bathroom, doing my hair and waiting for my sister to come home so we could head out somewhere. I saw someone walking past the door into her bedroom, and was chatting away. I realized after a few minutes that I wasn't getting responses, and went to check on her...only she wasn't home. I was completely alone in the house!
3. If you could be any character in fiction, who would you be?
Constance - Oh, wow, what a question! I often feel that I wouldn't want to be a fictional character at all - we authors are so cruel to them! Putting them in danger and breaking their hearts and lives here there and everywhere. They lives such interesting lives, but that can be as much of a curse as an adventure…
Lillian - It’s a very fascinating question! I also have to agree with Constance on this, but okay, if I absolutely had to choose… Today I shall pick: Veronica Mars. I assume every day I would come up with something different.
4. How was your publication experience?
Constance - We decided to publish our début novel, The Dreamwalker, ourselves. Our publication experience has been a steep learning curve, most definitely. Yet it is very rewarding, because you are right there on the front line seeing the results of all of your efforts. I would say that it’s been hard work, but enjoyable for the most part and really inspiring. I have also met some really wonderful people - both readers and other writers.
Lillian - It’s definitely been interesting! There’s been a lot to learn and you have to roll with things easily. It’s tons of work, but I feel it was absolutely the way to go. I look forward to doing it again!
5. Can you give me one of your ‘aha moments’? An Aha moment is when it, meaning a life lesson, becomes clear to you (got it from Oprah).
Constance - The moment that I realised that life is just too short to not live it to the full. Never stay doing something that you’re not happy with. Never put things off. Never say never. I’ve tried to live my that philosophy ever since and it has seen me travel to the other side of the world, go through university twice, have a career as a nurse, and another as a lawyer, and publish my first novel with the sequel on the way next year. Not bad for a woman still in her thirties!
Lillian - In my early 20s I had a fight with a friend, and afterwards realized that I dealt with problems in a wholly unproductive, poisonous way. I learned I needed to deal with things head on, not try to bury them. It took a lot of work but I’m better for it!
6. James Bond ordered a martini, shaken, not stirred. What’s your poison?
Constance - Gin and tonic - preferably Bombay Sapphire, with a slice of lime.
Lillian - Vodka Cranberry!
7. How do you stay inspired to write?
Constance - Having a co-author is wonderful for that, because we bounce ideas off each other so well. If one of us is having a problem with where to go, or has an idea they just can’t make work, then we sit down and brainstorm until we get it out. The technique has never failed us yet!
Lillian - What she said! Not having to lay it all on my own brain is amazing. It’s so helpful to brainstorm, or simply start writing and get to be there in the moment you’re your characters as they deal with others is amazing.
8. How do you find the time to write?
Constance - That’s a much harder question, given that both my co-author and I work full time. Writing is fitted into all those little segments of time. I try and devote time to writing each evening after I get home from work, and I carry a notebook around with me to jot down ideas and bits of chapters on the run. Often one or other of us will leave a partial chapter, or a few ideas for the other to review, so it’s an ongoing process. We both try and clear Friday nights for either writing, or working on things with our editor.
Lillian - I carry my laptop with me, and try to find time, and sometimes that’s far more difficult than one would think. We do tend to get a lot done on weekends, though. I love when we get to knock things around for hours at a time, I always feel really accomplished.
9. The clincher--describe yourself in six words!
Constance – “Nobody said I couldn't do that!”
Lillian - Creative, Writer, Geek, Gamer, Auntie, Sister
Tags: interviewdreamwalker
