Avril Sabine's Blog, page 15

Tainted

Demon Hunters 3: Tainted is one of those stories that almost wrote itself. It came to me as a scene from partway through the story, a girl on the streets late at night, a demon in the area. She knew that demon was there. As I saw the scene unfold, I heard the song ‘Boulevard Of Broken Dreams’ playing in the background, like the soundtrack to a movie. The girl was all in black and I knew that wasn’t her usual choice in colours.

I had a million questions. Who was this girl? Why did she know there was a demon in the area and what was she doing on the streets late at night. The answers arrived as quickly as the questions flowed and I couldn’t wait to write Cassidy’s story.

Tainted is now available on Amazon if you’re interested in the answers to the same questions I had.

Why Do You Write Young Adult Fiction?

I often have people ask me why I write young adult fiction. I tell them it’s because I enjoy reading it, which inevitably leads to the question of why I read it.

I blame my daughter for getting me back into young adult books. From about the age of ten she’d read a book and give it to me, telling me I had to read it. That it was amazing. Since I’d done the same to her so many times, particularly with books I’ve kept from my childhood, I thought it only fair I tried her recommendations. Some of them were good, but some had far too many horses in them for my liking. As she grew older the books she gave me to read kept getting better and better. Soon I was looking for young adult books myself and telling her when there was one she needed to read. I also shared them with my boys. I enjoyed them so much I returned to writing young adult fiction.

It didn’t take me long to remember how much I had previously enjoyed writing young adult stories, back when I was a young adult. So I hunted through some of my old ideas from my teenage years. There were so many of them I wanted to write and that caused even more ideas to form.

I still read adult fiction, but I have a lot of favourites amongst books written for young adults. Both ones I read when I was a teen and ones I’ve read recently.

Mourning The End

I have lived with the characters of Dragon Blood for such a long time. I’ve been there when things were good and also when they were bad. I’ve lived in Amber’s head and fought alongside her as she’s battled to survive. As any reader knows, they aren’t just characters. They become friends who you miss when you reach the end of their tale. Being the writer of their story doesn’t make you miss them any less once you’ve reached the final book in a series. I can’t look at a picture of a dragon without thinking of the characters out of Dragon Blood. It’s both a blessing and a curse.

I’ve loved writing the series and I’m enjoying the books I’m working on now, but there is still part of me that is sad to leave them behind. I know I can always return to their world and write some stand alone stories if I wish. For now, other characters are demanding their stories be told and I must bid a reluctant farewell to Amber and her people. Maybe one day I’ll get the chance to visit some of them again.

The final books in the series, Dragon Blood 4: Knight and Dragon Blood 5: Mage, are now available to buy on Amazon.

The Idea That Started Dragon Blood

Some stories come to me almost fully formed, others are a flash of a scene. These flashes are in full colour, like watching a moment out of a movie. Dragon Blood was like that, a flash of a scene that had me asking all sorts of questions and wondering what was going on. The following is the scene that triggered the five book series Dragon Blood.

 

Leaning on the balcony rail, Amber wished she was back in her own room. It had only been six days, but it felt like so much longer. She just wanted to go home. The only benefit of being here was that when she looked at the stars, they seemed closer. If she were into astronomy she’d have been happy to move. But she wasn’t. She had a life. One she liked very much. And it wasn’t here. She’d lost count of the amount of times she’d told her mother those words. It had made no difference. Nothing had.

Amber stared up at the stars, her mouth dropping open. Silhouetted in moonlight were two large… birds. At least she guessed that’s what they were. They were a blur of rapid motion as they attacked each other. She turned to hurry inside and grab her phone to take a picture. A crash against the roof of the house made her spin back. She looked up in time to see a man slide over the edge and land in a heap at her feet.

Amber stumbled backwards into her room, opening her mouth to scream. The man lurched to his feet and lunged for her, covering her mouth with his hand. Meeting his gaze, she recognised him. It was a boy she’d caught staring at her in class today. One she hadn’t minded staring back at. Her fear eased slightly, only to increase again as she noticed the blood streaking his left arm. Four long, deep gashes ran down his flesh.

Wyvern and Surety

As I promised last month, the five books of my Dragon Blood Series will be available by March 2015. Only because I don’t like to wait forever for the end of a continuing series so I couldn’t bring myself to put anyone else through that trauma. As of today ‘Dragon Blood 2: Wyvern’ and ‘Dragon Blood 3: Surety’ are available to purchase on Amazon while ‘Dragon Blood 4: Knight’ and ‘Dragon Blood 5: Mage’ are available for pre-order, coming out 18th March 2015.

In book two and three Amber discovers other dangerous secrets and learns more about the dragons’ world. Life continues to be precarious and fast paced for Amber with barely time for her to catch her breath. She struggles to accept the dragons’ belief in survival of the fittest, especially when is seems there is an endless list of those who want her dead. Assassins, wyverns, unknown enemies and possibly even an ally. Amber and Kade have a lot to face in the coming books.

You can find Dragon Blood 2: Wyvern and Dragon Blood 3: Surety on Amazon.

Dragon Blood Series

    

My Dragon Blood series is nearly finished. Only a couple of things to check over before the final two books in the series are available on Amazon for pre-order. Here are excerpts from books two, three and four. A small taste of what’s to come.

 

Dragon Blood 2: Wyvern

It had to be a trick. Ronan had to be planning something. “Why would someone want me dead?”

“Not just you. All Dragon Mages. But you’re first on the list.”

Amber could have sworn her heart stopped for several seconds before it began racing out of control. She stumbled backwards until she could sit on the closed lid of the toilet. Her legs suddenly felt like they were made of spaghetti. And it was well-cooked spaghetti with no chance of holding her up. “All?” She didn’t even recognise her voice. Disbelief, fear and uncertainty were not her usual tone. “Crystal too? And Jay?”

 

Dragon Blood 3: Surety

Opening her eyes, Amber found that nothing had changed. There was still a dragon skeleton, wired together so it stood in front of her. With a hand pressed against her throat, she took a shaky breath as she tried to figure out what it meant. Why did these things keep happening to her?

 

Dragon Blood 4: Knight

Amber trailed behind them, her eyes darting everywhere. When she found herself looking for escape routes and vantage points, she immediately stopped. It was a dinner. Not a battle. She had to stop expecting something to jump out from the shadows all the time. Nothing was going to get her. Besides, Chait was still guarding her from the Void so it wasn’t like she was unprotected. He wouldn’t be game to let anything happen to her. Ronan would hunt him down and rip out his heart if he failed to protect her.

Dragon Blood 1: Pliethin

Dragon Blood 1: Pliethin can be pre-ordered on Amazon and is available shortly. Talking to many readers, I discovered I wasn’t the only person who liked to wait until an entire series is available before I start to read it. Or at least due out soon. Unless of course it is a stand alone series and then I don’t mind waiting or even reading them in any order. When it is a continuing series, I want to know what happens. I don’t want to wait a year, or even years, particularly if I’ve become completely immersed in the lives of the characters.

The rest of the books in Dragon Blood will be out by March 2015. Like Pliethin, the other four books are about shapeshifting dragons, ever changing alliances between dragon clans and a world where survival of the fittest is often taken to the extreme. As a human amongst powerful dragons life is extremely precarious and Amber faces many challenges as she tries to survive in the dangerous world she stumbles into.

You can find Dragon Blood 1: Pliethin on Amazon.

Bring On 2015

Another year is ending and I’m feeling sad to see it go, nostalgic as I look back over all that has happened and excited to find out what 2015 will bring. Pretty much how I feel nearly every New Year’s Eve.

It has been a very busy, full and exciting year. I can’t wait to find out what adventures are waiting for me in 2015. I hope everyone has had an amazing year and I wish you all the best for the coming year.

The Ugly Stepsister

The Ugly Stepsister is now available on Amazon. Ellie, the main character, is determined not to let anything or anyone change the way she runs her life. She knows her life isn’t perfect, but then she doesn’t believe anyone has a perfect life. Everyone has something in their life they wish they could change. And quite often something they don’t want anyone else to know about.

She thinks she’s lucky because she’s figured out ways to live with the problems in her life and not let them cause her too many dramas. Sure there’s probably people that have it better, but she bets there’s people that have it worse. A lot worse. When things occur that start to cause everything to unravel, she doggedly tries to prevent that from happening.

The Ugly Stepsister explores themes about families (the not so perfect ones), love (both romantic and familial), and loyalty. And that your life doesn’t have to be perfect. It only has to be the life you choose. We all thrive in different environments.

Christmas Time

The diamond mirror ornaments are from when I was a child.

I love this time of year. Some people say it’s stressful, commercialised and full of arguments. I guess, like anything, it’s all about how you look at it. There are so many things I enjoy about December. So many traditions that I’ve continued from my own childhood and some I’ve created when my children came along.

It all starts on the first of December. We pull out the boxes of decorations, crockery, linen and the Christmas tree. Tinsel is spread out over the lounge room, decorations are exclaimed over and the tree is erected. In amongst the decorations are ones from when I was a child. As I hang them on the tree I think back over previous Decembers. Images flick through my mind of other trees, other locations and other people. Stories are shared as we talk about the year we bought a particular ornament, discuss what happened the previous year and think about people we wish were there with us.

Each one of my children has their own box of ornaments. It contains one for each Christmas they’ve celebrated, with their name and the year written on them. They hang their own ornaments, choosing where to put them on the tree. Our tree certainly isn’t professionally decorated, but all the more beautiful despite the unevenly hung ornaments, the randomly added tinsel and the lights that are sporadically placed.

Ordinary, everyday crockery is left in the cupboard and Christmas themed ones are used instead. Handtowels and tea towels also have Christmas images on them and we make food like spice cake and rum balls. Or in our house, as they are fondly called, rumless balls. Christmas carols are played on the stereo and by the end of the first day, there are bits of tinsel scattered throughout the house from the enthusiastic decorating of every room.

The days are marked off during the month by the presents disappearing from the advent calendar. It’s a numbered board with hooks upon which we hang little bags I made from Christmas material. I love choosing small presents to fill those bags. It’s a lot of fun.

Mistletoe at one month old.

Christmas Day we start out opening presents followed by breakfast. We talk about the Christmas morning our cat, Mistletoe, was born on my daughter’s bed and how even presents were forgotten in the excitement. And of course we have to make a fuss over Mistletoe and wish her a happy birthday. The family gathers together at lunchtime for a variety of foods and we tend to eat far more than we should so that by dinnertime we graze off leftovers.

The tree comes down on the last day of the month and all the decorations return to their boxes, but the stories and memories aren’t forgotten. They linger on as we prepare for the next year, bringing out party poppers, sparklers and glow in the dark sticks as we make ready to celebrate the New Year.