Another stop on the 2016 Indie Book Blog Tour – this time Bill Hoard with a new take on a classic fairy tale. The cover is just beautiful, isn’t it? And so my to-read pile grows…
We’re into the last week of the 2016 2K Indie Book Tour (co-hosted by Kate Evans and myself). Kicking off week three is fantasy/fairy tale author Bill Hoard.
Bill Hoard is possessed of two superpowers: he can sleep almost anywhere at almost any time, and he reflexively forms an opinion on any topic within seconds of hearing a single fact. He writes, teaches, ponders, wonders, teaches a little more, and generally makes a nuisance of himself on social media. He suffers from a debilitating appreciation of pipe smoke, old books, and tweed.
Here, Bill shares a bit about his fairy tale, The Dagger and the Rose:
An adopted princess, a dark stranger, and a kingdom of masked souls. The king brought Iris into his castle when she was only days old, but on her sixteenth birthday she will be swept into an adventure which threatens to uncover or destroy…
Another last minute entry for Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge! The theme this week is Love, and so I’ve chosen a photo from my wedding day.
It may seem an obvious choice, and in some ways it is. However, this photo says love to me for reasons beyond the obvious. I had a lovely wedding day and was thrilled to be marrying my husband, yet I also found it quite stressful. Oh, not because I’m some sort of Bridezilla, all caught up in the details. Rather, because I’m not that comfortable being the centre of attention, something you tend to be on your wedding day.
If you notice above, I have my arm across my body as if to protect myself, my hand just touching my husband. He is holding onto my other hand and we are standing close together. I can feel the warmth of him, the support he gave me then and gives me now. And that, to me, is a big part of what love is. That you can rely on the other person to be there for you when you need them, that they are a safe place for you to be.
It’s Monday, and the gorgeous child is back at school. Half term is over – this year is flying by already – and I’m now back to my regular schedule.
A Thousand Rooms is now starting to go out to agents and publishers. I have a carefully crafted cover letter, a sweated-over synopsis, and have had the first three chapters professionally critiqued (thanks, Esther!). I’m also getting very strong feedback on the finished manuscript from my lovely, lovely beta readers – thank you to each and every one of you for your time and honest words.
I managed to get it out the door to three agents last week. One has already got back to me, with a rejection. Ouch. But that is the game I am in, the ring I have now entered, and so I must duck and weave and armour myself against the slings and arrows of rejection, for I doubt it will be the last. I read somewhere that if you get rejected more than ten times, it’s your manuscript that’s the problem. Honestly, I think ten is far too low a number – The Help was rejected something like sixty times, to cite just one example. I think Harry Potter was knocked back at least a dozen times, to cite another. So I have a list of agents and publishers to approach before I decide to go it alone. I believe in the story and, with the feedback I’m getting, hope that it will get somewhere.
Hills and Valleys remains in the editing stage, but I’m still hoping to publish next month. There is a cover design to finalise, then the whole formatting thing to go through again.
And finally, I’ve decided to take advantage of my free KDP Days and am offering Oak and Mistfree to download until February 25th. I’ve offered it for free once before with positive results and, while I’m not a fan of giving work away, I do believe these short promotions have their benefits. In fact, I blogged about it here and here.
Oak and Mist, the first book in my Ambeth series, is free on Amazon from now until February 25th (e-book version only).
‘The end of everything? Great, no pressure then.’
Alma Bevan didn’t mean to go on a quest. But when she disappears between two trees at her local park and reappears in Ambeth, she finds they’ve been expecting her.
So now she has to find a lost sword or the consequences for humanity will be dire. With no idea where to look, despite help from her new friend Caleb, things become even more complicated when a handsome Prince of the Dark takes an interest in her.
All this plus homework too?
Well reviewed on both Goodreads and Amazon, Oak and Mist is the first book in The Ambeth Chronicles. So go on, download a copy today! myBook.to/oakandmist
This week’s door photograph was taken in the town of Silves, Portugal. Carved wood and curved metalwork make this quite an ornate door, yet the flyers casually shoved underneath add a prosaic touch, as do the jumble of wires overhead.
Located in the south of Portugal, Silves was a Caliphate from the 8th to 13th century, and one of the most important cities in the region. Now it is still a prosperous town, with shops, cafes, and one of the best preserved Moorish castles in the country. Winding streets slope towards a curving river – you can see the slope of the street in the door photo, cobbles descending while the doorstep is set straight into the wall.
One of the cobbled streets, flaking paint and soft colours adding to the texture of this ancient town.
A view from the 8th century city wall, looking over the rooftops.
Charles Yallowitz has just released his latest book, Crossing Bedlam. He’s also written several fun posts about the story this week, including this helpful list about how to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. Take it away, Charles!
The United States of America has been crippled. Violently contained by a global military force and left without its leaders, the country has become shattered and chaotic. A decade has passed since the first strike and a new landscape has emerged where survival is more important than anything else. Who will uncover the truth behind the attack and revive this once great nation?
It certainly won’t be Cassidy and Lloyd since they couldn’t care less about that stuff. She is a young woman on a mission to honor her mother’s dying wish, which is to toss her ashes off the Golden Gate Bridge. He is an infamous serial killer she broke out of Rikers Island since hiring a bodyguard wasn’t working out. Not the perfect plan, but having an insane, oddly charming murder-junkie on your side is a plus in the Shattered States. Bullets and swear words are going to fly as Cassidy and Lloyd travel coast to coast, facing one challenge after another . . . including Nebraska.
Curious about this broken world & these two ‘not even close to being’ heroes?
The jeep hurtles through a large hole in the parkway divider, the threat of incoming traffic nothing more than a faded memory. Only three of their pursuers manage to follow with a fourth smashing into the gap and blocking the path. Not wanting to be an easy target, Cassidy keeps their vehicle swerving from one lane to another. She can hear bullets pinging off the asphalt and the abandoned cars that have been moved to the side of the road. There is another hole in the divider right before an overpass, so she drives through at the last second. Sliding into the tunnel, Cassidy watches the other vehicles pass the gap before making a tire-screeching U-turn to go in the opposite direction. Five motorcycles are heading toward them, but the heavy jeep and its driver’s refusal to get out of the way makes them an easily scattered threat. One of the bikers is unable to swerve to the side and he crashes onto the hood while his ride is sent spinning into an abandoned van.
“Get off my car!” Cassidy shouts as she reaches out the window. Grabbing the man by the ankle, she yanks him off the hood and lets him tumble into the concrete divider. “This is really going to cost me. Do you know what the penalty for your idiocy is? They kill you unless you escape to the mainland. Then you’re exiled until you find something that the Trade Barons want more than revenge. I don’t have time to go on a treasure hunt. Would you take off those sunglasses and stop humming car chase music?”
“I was only trying to complete the scene,” Lloyd argues as he calmly fires a pellet at a sedan driver. Having mixed the three types of ammo, he is happy to see a yellow orb burst on the woman’s mouth.
“There’s the scratching. Now the nausea. We have a spinning and flipping car, folks. Oh, and there goes either the guy in the passenger seat or a really big ragdoll. You know, I’m starting to like what all of you have done with the place.”
“Stop killing people!” the blonde shouts, veering away from a large truck. She narrowly avoids slamming into a small car, the jeep moving off the road to complete the turn. “The more bodies we leave, the harder it will be to regain the Trade Barons’ favor. At least Neddy will send us what we need and . . . this is not the fucking time to change clothes!”
Lloyd stops with his head peeking out of his blood-covered shirt, which is high enough to reveal his scarred stomach. Figuring that he has come too far to stop, he yanks off the garment and hurls it out the window. He pouts when it flies over a car instead of covering the driver’s side of the windshield and causing a crash. Blindly reaching back, he takes a random shirt out of his bags and examines the black top in the side view mirror. The red and black mask of an old comic book character stares back at him,the face giving the illusion of grinning beneath the fabric.
“I remember reading this guy’s series before the Internet made him so popular and he turned up everywhere. Ugh, that sounded so pretentious that I’m tempted to stab myself. Hey, can we still see movies because I want to see his?” Lloyd asks while tying the laces of the black sneakers he hastily put on before making a mess at the Coliseum. “I really like t-shirts with pictures on them. They bring attention to what I’m wearing instead of my face. You can start a conversation about them too. Nice way to meet people and find out if they’re worth leaving alive or not. For example, I have a shirt with another hero and if somebody tells me that the bastard can defeat every other character then I know they have to die. I mean, he’s nothing more than a child-endangering bill-”
“Shut the fuck up, Lloyd!”
“Don’t be angry, kid. You’re doing great.”
“I can’t even figure out if we’re going in the right direction.”
“Turn around and start shooting at their tires.”
“I can’t because I need to save bullets.”
“For what?”
“Nebraska!”
About the Author:
Charles Yallowitz was born and raised on Long Island, NY, but he has spent most of his life wandering his own imagination in a blissful haze. Occasionally, he would return from this world for the necessities such as food, showers, and Saturday morning cartoons. One day he returned from his imagination and decided he would share his stories with the world. After his wife decided that she was tired of hearing the same stories repeatedly, she convinced him that it would make more sense to follow his dream of being a fantasy author. So, locked within the house under orders to shut up and get to work, Charles brings you Legends of Windemere. He looks forward to sharing all of his stories with you, and his wife is happy he finally has someone else to play with.
Today, it is my great pleasure to welcome Kate M Colby who is co-hosting this indie blog tour with me. Since I first ‘met’ Kate on Facebook (was it? Or Twitter) last year, I have enjoyed her company, her good sense, her encouragement, and good advice on my own indie publishing journey. She is an author of science-fiction/fantasy novels and informative nonfiction. Her first series, Desertera, consists of steampunk dystopian novels with themes of socio-economic disparity, self-empowerment, romance, and revenge. She lives in the United States with her husband and furry children.
The Cogsmith’s Daughter (Desertera #1) In a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland, one king rules with absolute power and unquenchable lust, until the cogsmith’s daughter risks everything for vengeance. Two-hundred years ago, the steam-powered world experienced an apocalyptic flood. When the waters dried up, the survivors settled around their steamship in a wasteland they named Desertera. Believing the flood…
This week’s wander is to the West Midlands town of Stratford-Upon-Avon, famous as the birthplace of William Shakespeare. However, he was not the only luminary to come from this small town – do you notice the American flag decorating the front of this fine half-timbered house?
This is Harvard House and, as the sign states, it was once the home of Katherine Rogers, mother to John Harvard, who founded Harvard University.
I grew up not far from Stratford-Upon-Avon and have been there many times, yet it was only on a visit a few years ago that I noticed Harvard House. It just goes to show how much history is packed into the winding streets and ancient buildings. As you can see, Harvard House was built in 1596 and has some wonderful carved decoration on the front – the initials A.R. stand for Alice Rogers, Katherine’s mother. The house was privately owned until 1909, when it was purchased by the American millionaire, Edward Morris. He restored the house and presented it to Harvard University as a gift – it is now managed on their behalf by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and is open to the public. We didn’t end up going inside that day – something for a future visit.
Thanks for coming on another Wednesday Wander with me – see you next time 🙂
Another stop on the 2016 Indie Book Blog Tour! The Fairy Wren is on my to-read list, so it was interesting to read a little more about the story behind it…
Back for another week of our tour which I am co-hosting with the talented Kate M Colby, http://katemcolby.com, and today I am welcoming Ashley Capes, fantasy/magic realism writer, with his book, The Fairy Wren. Ashley is a poet, novelist and teacher living in Australia. He’s the author of six poetry collections and five novels and was poetry editor for Page Seventeen from issues 8-10. He also moderates online renku group Issa’s Snail. Ashley teaches English, Media and Music Production, has played in a metal band, worked in an art gallery and slaved away at music retail. Aside from reading and writing, Ashley loves volleyball and Studio Ghibli – and Magnum PI, easily one of the greatest television shows ever made.
The Fairy Wren:From the moment a fairy wren drops his lost wedding ring at his feet, Paul realises there’s more magic to the world than he thought… When Paul…
Bill Hoard is possessed of two superpowers: he can sleep almost anywhere at almost any time, and he reflexively forms an opinion on any topic within seconds of hearing a single fact. He writes, teaches, ponders, wonders, teaches a little more, and generally makes a nuisance of himself on social media. He suffers from a debilitating appreciation of pipe smoke, old books, and tweed.
Helen Glynn Jones 