C.D. Hersh's Blog, page 113
August 23, 2018
Friday Feature a Delicious Dinner
Guest talks about
Salmon, caramelized onions, and sweet potatoes
by
Lizzie T. Leaf
I’ve used sesame chicken sauce often on poultry and one day I decided to give it a try on fresh salmon. End result was yummy. I hope you think so, too.
Photo Courtesy of Robson Melo Pixabay
SALMON
1 lb. salmon filet with bottom skin
1 small onion, sliced thin
½ to ¾ cup of sesame chicken sauce
Be sure to check for pin bones on the fish. If you find some use tweezers for best results.
Place salmon in a plastic bag with sliced onions. Pour sauce over and massage to work sauce over the salmon and onions.
Marinade in refrigerator at least 2-3 hours (or night before if you work). Occasionally turn so sauce contacts all of the fish. If you refrigerated the night before then turn the bag in the morning before you leave.
Preheat oven to 400° F.
Place salmon skin side down in an oiled skillet. Lay onions on top.
Bake 20 minutes or until fish flakes.
ROASTED SWEET POTATOES
1 sweet potato per person
Olive oil
Salt, optional
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Peel and cut potatoes into chunks. Place potatoes in an ovenproof dish.
Add oil and salt. Toss to coat well.
Roast approximately 30 minutes or until fork tender.
STIR-FRY GREEN BEANS
½ bag frozen shoestring green beans
1 tbsp. olive oil
Pinch cayenne pepper
Pinch salt, optional
Heat frying pan on medium-high. Carefully add oil.
Scatter beans into hot pan. Stir for 4 minutes.
Add cayenne pepper, according to your spice preference, and salt. Stir 1 minute and serve.
Here is a little from my latest spicy romantic release for your reading pleasure.
Following the Powers directive to unite soul mates, a Scottish Cailleach’s magic will have repercussions in several realms.
Mixed-blood author Ian McCabe, grandson of Fae and gods, tries to deny his powers while hiding his true origins from the human world. When he discovers mortal, Emma Grant unconscious at his front door, his world starts to change.
Tour director Emma Grant leads a group of senior ladies through Scotland. The breakdown of their bus on a rural Scottish backroad has her sloshing through the rain and mud on foot. Her efforts to seek help results in a fall that knocks her unconscious. She awakens to find the man of her dreams staring into her eyes.
Both feel an instant attraction, but will his secrets and her distrust of men keep them apart.
A few lines that tweak a grin.
Yep, at this rate, a long three weeks lay ahead. No one had told Emma that the dozen school teachers ranged in ages from sixty-nine to eighty-eight. Good grief, what happened to women at this age sitting on the front porch and enjoying their rocking chairs?
Mildred waved away the correction “Of course, dear. Whatever you say. I just want to know, will we see any men in kilts soon? I want to see what they wear under them.”
Dirty old woman. She asked that question at least half a dozen times before we got on the bus and stated the reason just as often.
Read the first chapter on Amazon.
To read excerpts from other books by Lizzie T. Leaf please click onto Amazon.
Lizzie T. Leaf has loved books since she opened her first one. Her dream was to write them herself. Lost in the hectic day to day world of family, job, laundry and housework, writing became a distant memory. When the twinkling ember did spark, it was usually doused by someone demanding their share of her time.
Lizzie’s life went full circle. The desire to put the stories that continued to play in her head on paper emerged stronger than ever, and at a time when there was someone who encouraged. Now she lives her dream.
Learn more about Lizzie T. Leaf on her website and blog. Connect with Lizzie on Facebook and follow her on Twitter.
August 21, 2018
Wednesday Special Spotlight Are Your Characters’ Names Easy to Pronounce?
Shines On
A writer’s advice from Carol Browne about character name elocution.
Here is a bit of good advice for fiction authors I wish someone had given to me when I first started writing: make it obvious how your characters’ names are pronounced.
There’s nothing more frustrating to a reader than having to follow a character throughout a book without knowing how to pronounce their name. These days, the popularity of audio books makes this an even more contentious issue—as I recently discovered.
Yes, I’m one of those writers guilty as charged. When I chose the name ‘Elgiva’ for the protagonist of my book The Exile of Elindel, I didn’t foresee the problems I would encounter down the line. I was an inexperienced young wordsmith who thought the meaning of the name—elf gift—sufficient justification for using it. I pronounced it in my mind precisely as it was written. Such a simple name, I thought. What could go wrong?
Many years later, I realise there are more ways to pronounce ‘Elgiva’ than I could have imagined; at least six! Which syllable should be stressed? Is it a hard ‘g’? It’s an Anglo-Saxon name and so it should be a soft ‘g’, although even that is open to question by some Anglo-Saxon scholars.
The issue of pronunciation might never have been addressed had it not been for the fact that I recently had to audition voice-over actors for the audio version of the book. The actors spoke the name in a completely different way from my own version so that it rhymed with ‘Godiva’. I consulted my fan base and ended up with two more ways to say the name, neither of which resembled mine or that of the voice-over actors.
It was decision time! I was forced to settle on the pronunciation I thought was the most accurate. Although it wasn’t the one I originally intended, it was closer to the Anglo-Saxon pronunciation with a soft ‘g’ and the stress on the first syllable.
Oddly enough, this makes the name sound even more elvish. But I have to keep reminding myself how to say it, after four decades of saying it my own way. The way I remember it is that the first syllable is the only stressed one and the ‘gi’ is pronounced as it is in ‘magical’. So Elgiva is magical. And, of course, she is!
How about curling up with my epic fantasy while you contemplate the possibility of elves and all the ways to say their names?
Elgiva, a young elf banished from Elvendom, must seek shelter among the Saxons as her only hope of surviving the coming winter.
Godwin, a Briton enslaved by the Saxons, is a man ignorant of his own inheritance and the secret of power he possesses.
A mysterious enemy, who will stop at nothing to wield absolute power over Elvendom, is about to make his move.
When destiny throws Elgiva and Godwin together, they embark upon the quest for the legendary Lorestone, the only thing that can save Elvendom from the evil that threatens to destroy it.
There is help to be found along the way from a petulant pony and a timid elf boy but, as the strength of their adversary grows, can Elgiva’s friends help her to find the Lorestone before it falls into the wrong hands?
EXCERPT
The night was waning when Elgiva woke, wondering where she was. The dark ceiling of Joskin’s cave hung above her, and everything had a reddish glow, cast by the embers of the fire. She slid from under the fur coverlet, her skin tightening at the loss of its warmth, and searched for her leather sandals.
Something had woken her, something that waited outside the cave. A runnel of dread ran down her spine.
She had an inexplicable sense of impending danger, but it was too insistent to ignore. An unnamed instinct stopped her from alerting her companions. She must face this menace alone.
She left the cave as quietly as she could. Her heart pounded in her throat as she peered between the rowan trees and searched the night. Whatever had awakened her, it beckoned. She held her breath and listened, but her ears detected nothing, save for a silence as dark and empty as an abandoned crypt.
It would soon be daybreak, but the sun had yet to rise, and the dark beyond the cave swarmed with potential horrors. She stepped out from among the rowans, relying on her acute senses to make out her surroundings. An unnatural calm gripped the night and as her sandals whispered against the cold grass, they sounded abnormally loud. She feared they would betray her presence.
After a while, she came to a stop and searched the trees. Thin strands of mist curled along the ground, cold and clammy, like an exhalation of sickness.
She hugged her shoulders, knotted her fingers in the cascade of her hair, and shivered in her ragged robe. All around her, the silence seemed to be drawing into focus.
“Who is it?” Her throat was too dry for her purpose. She swallowed and licked her lips. “Who’s there? I know you’re there. I can . . . I can feel you!”
Feel you.
A flash of silver sliced through the dark, and Elgiva gasped in fear. Her arms came up to shield her face as the beam struck a rock several yards ahead. It exploded with a whoosh and sent up thousands of splinters of light, which fell to the ground and sizzled in the mist.
A shape now stood upon the rock, its form concealed in a black, hooded cloak.
Elgiva clutched the amulet to her breast. Her hands were white with terror. “In the name of Faine, who are you? What sort of trick is this?”
A soft, sly voice spoke back to her. “Why should you fear magic?”
“What do you want?” she pleaded, her voice a croak of fear.
“To see for myself.”
“To see what?”
The dark shape sniggered, but made no answer. Instead, it swept its cloak aside, and a cloud of sparks flew out and covered the ground with beads of light.
Elgiva stepped back unsteadily, resolved to flee.
“Stay!” commanded the creature.
It raised a skeletal hand, and the forefinger swung towards Elgiva and pinned her against the darkness, holding her like a rivet of bone. No elf, no wilthkin, ever owned such a hand. Her legs threatened to buckle beneath her. This had to be a nightmare; she was still asleep in the cave. But no, it was all too real.
“Who are you? What do you want?” she cried. “I have . . . I have an amulet!”
The creature laughed derisively. “I am Death, and I have come for you.”
It began to radiate a sickly green light, enveloping itself in a caul of brilliance that pulsated with force. The light grew in size until the trees behind it were bathed in its angry glare. It reached for Elgiva, like a foul stench creeping along a breeze, and she was helpless. The creature’s power throbbed in the darkness.
Within the taut coils of her fear, her instincts screamed at her to run, but her limbs had turned to stone.
Siriol, Siriol, help me . . . help . . .
With a shriek of glee, the creature increased the throb of its power. Elgiva’s mind was suddenly invaded by an inexplicable force. She became divorced from herself and watched from a great distance, waiting for the horror to unfold.
Born in Stafford in the UK, Carol Browne was raised in Crewe, Cheshire, which she thinks of as her home town. Interested in reading and writing at an early age, Carol pursued her passions at Nottingham University and was awarded an honours degree in English Language and Literature. Now living and working in the Cambridgeshire countryside, Carol usually writes fiction and is a contracted author at Burning Willow Press. Her non-fiction book is available at Dilliebooks.
Stay connected with Carol on her website and blog, Facebook, and Twitter.
August 20, 2018
Tell Again Tuesday Writing Action
A blog series where we shamelessly share posts from others that we have enjoyed.
How to Write a Potent Action Scene
By Jessica Page Morrell
Action is eloquence. William Shakespeare, Coriolanus
There are a few techniques it seems like I’m always passing on to my clients: amp up your verbs; use language and details to create more tension, and force scenes to rise. By ‘rise’ I mean writers need to thrust the drama level to a crisis, a confrontation, an explosion. Because in most scenes you’re aiming for. . .
For the rest of the blog go to:
August 19, 2018
Special Feature–Recipe Review Date Night Dinners by Sloane Taylor
Date Night Dinners—Meals to Make Together for a Romantic Evening: Cookbook for Two
by Sloane Taylor
[image error]
Left to right: Mock Chicken Legs, Parsley Potatoes, Truly Yummy Brussel Sprouts
Sloane Taylor asked us to try some of the recipes in her new Date Night Dinners—Meals to Make Together for a Romantic Evening: Cookbook for Two, and Catherine decided to do an entire meal—over achiever that she is. For the salad she chose WARM ENDIVE AND PINE NUTS. The remainder of the meal (pictured above) was MOCK CHICKEN LEGS, PARSLEY POTATOES, and TRULY YUMMY BRUSSEL SPROUTS. We made some modifications to a couple of the recipes based on what we could find in our grocery, and the finished meal still tasted great.
We have to admit that Catherine wasn’t very adventurous in her choices as we love chicken, beef and pork, potatoes, and Brussel sprouts, but we have never had them cooked quite like this.
Endive, however, isn’t common on our dinner plates. Iceberg, romaine and mixed greens are our usual salad choices. So, Catherine did get adventurous in her choice of salad, WARM ENDIVE AND PINE NUTS. Unfortunately, she made the salad on a different day than the rest of the meal, and forgot to take a picture of it. But, rest assured, the salad was good.
We couldn’t find Belgian endive in our grocery, so Catherine used a regular endive. The greener version made the salad reminiscent of a wilted lettuce salad her mother used to serve. We weren’t sure about the mustard in the dressing, as Catherine isn’t fond of mustard, except in deviled eggs. But the Dijon mustard had a mild enough taste that it enhanced, not overpowered, the dressing. We’ll make the dressing exactly like the recipe when we do this salad again. It was a nice change from the iceberg, Romaine and mixed greens we usually use.
We love a dish very similar to the MOCK CHICKEN LEGS in the cookbook. Here where we live it’s call City Chicken. Catherine’s mother used to serve a fried pork version, dipped in cornmeal, when Catherine was younger. Sloane’s version is a bit more elegant than our childhood version as it’s browned then baked. It smelled wonderful when we brought it out of the oven. We used beef and chicken from the local meat market. They didn’t have veal. We also used a breading that had Pecorino Romano cheese in it. When we want Mock Chicken legs again, we will choose chicken and pork tenderloin, eliminating the beef completely, as we try to eat less beef nowadays.
This recipe has now become our go-to for an improved, updated version of our childhood “City Chicken.” No more “chicken-on-stick” from the meat counter. We’re making it from scratch from now on. Definitely a winner in our kitchen!
MOCK CHICKEN LEGS
INGREDIENTS:
Use equal amounts of the three meats. If you are anti-veal, the beef and pork alone are still great. Increase their amounts to 1½ lbs. (750g) each.
1 lb. (450g) eye of round or other high quality beef roast, cut into 2 inch (5cm) cubes 1 lb. (450g) pork tenderloin, cut into 2 inch (5cm) cubes 1 lb. (450g) veal shoulder, cut into 2 inch (5cm) cubes
3 eggs
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1½ (160g) cups seasoned bread crumbs, possibly more
Olive oil
Skewers 6 – 8 inches (15 – 20cm) long
Alternate the meat cubes as you skewer them. Set aside on waxed paper.
**Stop here if you plan to cook the legs another day. If you made extras, this is the time to freeze them. Lay the skewers on a cookie sheet. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate.
On the day of serving, combine eggs and pepper in a shallow bowl. Dip the skewers, one at a time, into the mixture. Roll in the bread crumbs then set them back onto the waxed paper. Refrigerate for at least ½ hour to set the coating.
Preheat oven to 350° F (180°C).
Heat ½ inch (1.25cm) olive oil in a frying pan. When the oil shimmers, carefully put in a few skewers and brown well on all sides. As they are cooked set them into a baking dish, stacking the skewers is fine.
Cover the dish and bake for 1 – 1 ½ hours or until fork tender.
Do NOT add any liquid to the meat. This dish produces its own fantastic sauce.
For our potato dish we chose PARSLEY POTATOES (POMMES DE TERRE SILLEES).
These parsley potatoes are a form of scalloped potatoes. The bay leaves added an interesting flavor to the dish. The only change we’d make is using a bit more milk. Our dish turned out a bit dry, but we’ll blame the cook, not the recipe.
TRULY YUMMY BRUSSELS SPROUTS was our vegetable choice. We love roasted Brussel sprouts tossed in olive oil and garlic powder. So, we were anxious to see how these stacked up. We weren’t disappointed. The bacon and onion are stellar additions to the sprouts. The flavor inspired us. This winter, when we don’t mind heating the kitchen with the oven, we’ll toss some onions and bacon onto our roasting sheet. Be sure to cook the sprouts until they are fork-tender. Catherine rushed them and they were a bit chewy, but still delicious enough that we ate the whole skillet.
Well, that’s our take on the four delicious recipes we tried from Date Night Dinners—Meals to Make Together for a Romantic Evening: Cookbook for Two. You can find Sloane Taylor’s cookbook on Amazon. Available in paperback or Kindle.
August 16, 2018
Friday Feature Breakfast Goodies for the weekend
Guest shares her recipe for
Quick & Easy Blueberry Muffins
by
Chris Pavesic
[image error]When writing it is nice to have some quick & easy recipes to make for my family. Because of the fresh, local fruit and yogurt these muffins are healthier than most and go terrific with a cup of hot coffee.
These muffins are naturally sweetened with seasonal, local fruit (blueberries.) A touch of sugar is added to help cream the butter and is also sprinkled on top. You can eat them warm or prepare them the day before for a breakfast treat.
Chris Pavesic’s Quick & Easy Blueberry Muffins
½ cup butter, softened
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup vanilla yogurt
2½ cups fresh blueberries
1 tbsp. granulated sugar for topping
extra butter for greasing the muffin pan
Preheat oven to 350° F.
Grease muffin pan with butter.
Mix butter until creamy in a medium-size bowl. Add sugar and beat until pale and fluffy.
Add eggs, beating well.
Stir in vanilla, baking powder, and salt.
With spoon, fold in half of flour then half of yogurt into batter; repeat. Fold in blueberries. There is no need to over-mix it.
Spoon into muffin cups and sprinkle sugar topping onto each muffin.
Bake 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown and springy to touch.
Enjoy a brief glimpse into my novel, Starter Zone.
When hydrologists inscribe the consciousness of a human mind onto a single drop of water, a Revelation sweeps the land. The wealthy race to upload their minds into self-contained virtual realities nicknamed Aquariums. In these containers people achieve every hope, dream, and desire. But governments wage war for control of the technology. Terrorist attacks cause massive destruction. The Aquariums fail. Inscribed human minds leech into the water cycle, wreaking havoc.
Street gangs rule the cities in the three years since the fall of civilization. Sixteen-year-old Cami and her younger sister Alby struggle to survive. Every drop of untreated water puts their lives in peril. Caught and imprisoned by soldiers who plan to sell them into slavery, Cami will do anything to escape and rescue her sister. Even if it means leaving the real word for a life in the realms, a new game-like reality created by the hydrologists for the chosen few.
But life in the realms isn’t as simple as it seems. Magic, combat, gear scores, quests, and dungeons are all puzzles to be solved as the sisters navigate their new surroundings. And they encounter more dangerous enemies than any they faced in the real world.
Time to play the game.
Available Now At:
Chris Pavesic is a fantasy author who lives in the Midwestern United States and loves Kona coffee, steampunk, fairy tales, and all types of speculative fiction. Between writing projects, Chris can most often be found reading, gaming, gardening, working on an endless list of DIY household projects, or hanging out with friends.
Learn more about Chris on her website and blog.
Stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, and her Amazon Author Page.
August 14, 2018
Wednesday Special Spotlight When Passions Collide
Shines On
The avid Janis Lane gardener or author. She’s here today sharing her dual passions.
Some of you know my day job deals with plants in all sorts of ways from wedding flowers to church bouquets to perennials and annuals. I call it playing in the greenhouses. It is one of my passions. The other is writing. Mostly I have not given any of my characters, either historical or contemporary, permission to dialog about gardening.
With Whispers of Danger and Love, I am exposing my love of plants through the personality of Cheryl Esterbrook, a landscape designer. She has other things to think besides the hunky detective who lives next door. Cheryl is stuck with a mobster who hired her to design a complete landscape in two weeks and a creepy former boyfriend who will not stop annoying her.
This book is a romance, an adventure, a mystery, and a glimpse into the world of plants. Did I love writing it? You bet I did! Hope you enjoy reading. My favorite plant? Crocosmia. For more info on this lovely plant, please click here. If you like humming birds crocosmia, also known as falling stars and coppertips, is a plus for your perennial garden.
Here’s a little more from my cozy mystery. I hope you enjoy it.
When Cheryl realizes her new next-door neighbor is someone she loved as a young girl, she immediately puts the brakes on her emotions. Never again would she allow the gorgeous hunk of a man to break her heart.
Ruggedly handsome Detective David Larkin isn’t used to pretty ladies giving him a firm no. He persists, even as Cheryl fights her own temptations. The two struggle to appreciate each other as adults, even as they admit to deep feelings from their childhood.
Read more of the cozy mysteries by Janis Lane on Amazon
Janis Lane is the pen-name for gifted author Emma Lane who writes cozy mysteries as Janis, Regency as Emma, and spice as Sunny Lane.
She lives in Western New York where winter is snowy, spring arrives with rave reviews, summer days are long and velvet, and fall leaves are riotous in color. At long last she enjoys the perfect bow window for her desk where she is treated to a year-round panoramic view of nature. Her computer opens up a fourth fascinating window to the world. Her patient husband is always available to help with a plot twist and encourage Emma to never quit. Her day job is working with flowers at Herbtique and Plant Nursery, the nursery she and her son own.
Look for information about writing and plants on Emma’s new website. Leave a comment or a gardening question and put a smile on Emma’s face.
Stay connected to Emma on Facebook and Twitter. Be sure to check out the things that make Emma smile on Pinterest.
August 13, 2018
Tell Again Tuesday What do you get from your story?
A blog series where we shamelessly share posts from others that we have enjoyed.
How To Handle The Story That Keeps On Giving
By Lucy Mitchell
Have you ever experienced writing a story that gives you more than just an interesting tale and a collection of fictional people?
Let me explain.
Last week, in my blog post titled, The Story Which Wants To Show You Other Things, I spoke about how, whilst working on a draft of a story, I had stumbled across a strange hole in a fictional wall. In my story a hole had appeared and in the initial drafts I had completely ignored it.
For the first time in my writing career I decided to . . .
For the rest of the blog go to:
August 9, 2018
Friday Feature Guest Author says GO GREEK THIS SUMMER
Guest talks about
A Greek salad for two.
by
Sloane Taylor
This fun recipe serves two for a terrific lunch. Add a loaf of crusty bread and a bottle of crisp white wine and let the afternoon take you where it will.
GREEK SALAD
3 tbsp. olive oil
½ tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. garlic, chopped fine
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 Roma tomatoes
½ green pepper, seeded
1 small cucumber, peeled
¼ red onion, sliced thin
1 tbsp. sliced black olives
Feta cheese to taste
Whisk first 6 ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside. Do not refrigerate.
Chop tomatoes, green pepper, and cucumber into medium-sized chunks. Toss into a large mixing bowl.
Add the black olives. Mix by hand to blend the flavors. At this point you can cover the bowl and set in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
When it’s time to serve, add just enough dressing to moisten the salad. Don’t drown it. Toss by hand or with two large spoons.
Transfer to a serving bowl or individual plates. Sprinkle feta cheese across the top and enjoy!
This salad also works great with dinner and will serve four.
May you enjoy all the days of your life around a well laden table!
Sloane
Sloane Taylor is an Award-Winning author with a second passion in her life. She is an avid cook and posts new recipes on her blog every Wednesday. The recipes are user friendly, meaning easy.
Taylor currently has seven romance novellas released by Toque & Dagger Publishing. Her first solo venture into non-fiction is a Couples Cookbook with eighty of her favorite recipes, DATE NIGHT DINNERS – Meals to Make Together for a Romantic Evening.
Excerpts from her books and free reads can be found on her website, blog, and her Amazon Author Page.
Connect with Taylor on Facebook and Twitter.
August 7, 2018
Wednesday Special Spotlight More Crunch in Each Munch
Shines On
A crunch cookie recipe from Carol Browne that is simple to make.
The measurements for this recipe are not based on imperial or metric. All you need is a tea cup and a teaspoon!
Crunchy Cinnamon Cookies
2 cups plain flour
2 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. cinnamon
1 cup sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla essence (vanilla extract)
¼ cup water
Preheat oven to gas mark 4/ 350°F/180C
Pour oil in a bowl and stir in sugar. Add water and vanilla. Mix well. Add this to the dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly and divide the mixture into cookie sheets or the individual sections of a bun tray or muffin pan. The mixture will be runny and will spread to accommodate whatever vehicle you use. The resulting cookies have a very homemade appearance that is quite satisfying!
Bake about five minutes. Rotate the tin and bake for another five minutes. Ovens vary and I found I needed to leave them in longer. What you are aiming for is to take the cookies out when they are still a little soft. They will harden as they cool.
This is a recipe you get better at the more you make it. The number of cookies per batch will also depend on what you cook the mixture in. I usually get about a dozen but I gave the recipe to a friend and she only got nine. I didn’t see what they looked like, however, as she ate the whole lot as soon as they came out of the oven!
You can alter the recipe to suit yourself; perhaps adding chocolate chips. My personal favourite is to use almond essence instead of cinnamon or vanilla.
How about curling up with an epic fantasy while your cookies cool?
Elgiva, a young elf banished from Elvendom, must seek shelter among the Saxons as her only hope of surviving the coming winter.
Godwin, a Briton enslaved by the Saxons, is a man ignorant of his own inheritance and the secret of power he possesses.
A mysterious enemy, who will stop at nothing to wield absolute power over Elvendom, is about to make his move.
When destiny throws Elgiva and Godwin together, they embark upon the quest for the legendary Lorestone, the only thing that can save Elvendom from the evil that threatens to destroy it.
There is help to be found along the way from a petulant pony and a timid elf boy but, as the strength of their adversary grows, can Elgiva’s friends help her to find the Lorestone before it falls into the wrong hands?
EXCERPT
The night was waning when Elgiva woke, wondering where she was. The dark ceiling of Joskin’s cave hung above her, and everything had a reddish glow, cast by the embers of the fire. She slid from under the fur coverlet, her skin tightening at the loss of its warmth, and searched for her leather sandals.
Something had woken her, something that waited outside the cave. A runnel of dread ran down her spine.
She had an inexplicable sense of impending danger, but it was too insistent to ignore. An unnamed instinct stopped her from alerting her companions. She must face this menace alone.
She left the cave as quietly as she could. Her heart pounded in her throat as she peered between the rowan trees and searched the night. Whatever had awakened her, it beckoned. She held her breath and listened, but her ears detected nothing, save for a silence as dark and empty as an abandoned crypt.
It would soon be daybreak, but the sun had yet to rise, and the dark beyond the cave swarmed with potential horrors. She stepped out from among the rowans, relying on her acute senses to make out her surroundings. An unnatural calm gripped the night and as her sandals whispered against the cold grass, they sounded abnormally loud. She feared they would betray her presence.
After a while, she came to a stop and searched the trees. Thin strands of mist curled along the ground, cold and clammy, like an exhalation of sickness.
She hugged her shoulders, knotted her fingers in the cascade of her hair, and shivered in her ragged robe. All around her, the silence seemed to be drawing into focus.
“Who is it?” Her throat was too dry for her purpose. She swallowed and licked her lips. “Who’s there? I know you’re there. I can . . . I can feel you!”
Feel you.
A flash of silver sliced through the dark, and Elgiva gasped in fear. Her arms came up to shield her face as the beam struck a rock several yards ahead. It exploded with a whoosh and sent up thousands of splinters of light, which fell to the ground and sizzled in the mist.
A shape now stood upon the rock, its form concealed in a black, hooded cloak.
Elgiva clutched the amulet to her breast. Her hands were white with terror. “In the name of Faine, who are you? What sort of trick is this?”
A soft, sly voice spoke back to her. “Why should you fear magic?”
“What do you want?” she pleaded, her voice a croak of fear.
“To see for myself.”
“To see what?”
The dark shape sniggered, but made no answer. Instead, it swept its cloak aside, and a cloud of sparks flew out and covered the ground with beads of light.
Elgiva stepped back unsteadily, resolved to flee.
“Stay!” commanded the creature.
It raised a skeletal hand, and the forefinger swung towards Elgiva and pinned her against the darkness, holding her like a rivet of bone. No elf, no wilthkin, ever owned such a hand. Her legs threatened to buckle beneath her. This had to be a nightmare; she was still asleep in the cave. But no, it was all too real.
“Who are you? What do you want?” she cried. “I have . . . I have an amulet!”
The creature laughed derisively. “I am Death, and I have come for you.”
It began to radiate a sickly green light, enveloping itself in a caul of brilliance that pulsated with force. The light grew in size until the trees behind it were bathed in its angry glare. It reached for Elgiva, like a foul stench creeping along a breeze, and she was helpless. The creature’s power throbbed in the darkness.
Within the taut coils of her fear, her instincts screamed at her to run, but her limbs had turned to stone.
Siriol, Siriol, help me . . . help . . .
With a shriek of glee, the creature increased the throb of its power. Elgiva’s mind was suddenly invaded by an inexplicable force. She became divorced from herself and watched from a great distance, waiting for the horror to unfold.
Amazon Buy Link
Born in Stafford in the UK, Carol Browne was raised in Crewe, Cheshire, which she thinks of as her home town. Interested in reading and writing at an early age, Carol pursued her passions at Nottingham University and was awarded an honours degree in English Language and Literature. Now living and working in the Cambridgeshire countryside, Carol usually writes fiction and is a contracted author at Burning Willow Press. Her non-fiction book is available at Dilliebooks.
Stay connected with Carol on her website and blog, Facebook, and Twitter.
August 6, 2018
Tell Again Tuesday Self-publish print book
A blog series where we shamelessly share posts from others that we have enjoyed.
How To Self-publish A Print Book
By Joanna Penn
In this article, I’ll go through why you should self-publish in print, the use of print-on-demand vs doing a print run, which print-on-demand companies are recommended, the files and information that you’ll need to print, how to use Createspace and Ingram Spark and where to get more help if you want a company to do the work for you.
Why self-publish in print?
Authors are often emotional about print, as many of us grew up reading books and finding a haven in libraries. We gravitate to bookstores and check out covers and new titles. The physical book still holds a powerful sway and some people still read only print books!
And all of that is completely fine, because I think you should absolutely have a print book.
You should be able to hold your book in your hand and say, . . .
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