Tag Archives: book launch

Towards the Light and The Mad Quest – Released!

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My book of two novellas, Towards the Light and The Mad Quest, are released today!

Towards the Light and The Mad Quest
Two Novellas

In what should have been a normal day, Brandon finds himself down the rabbit hole and into a new reality where he is captured by Dwarves, gets involved in “Elemental Politics” and finds himself in a race to save the worlds – yes worlds, six, perhaps seven – and the peoples of those worlds in the tongue-in-cheek Fantasy novella, “Towards the Light”.

Lorounce, a “not only is the glass half empty, but the longer we talk about it, the more that evaporates” kind of guy, is on a reconnaissance mission with his childhood friend and secret crush, Merla, to enter the stronghold of the evil Lord of Darkness.  The mission soon spins off on an adventure to try to rescue the prince, find and confront the dragon to secure the magic sword and then raise an army to defeat the evil one with said magic sword all while being chased not only by the minions of the evil one, including a pack of magical wolves, but their own people as well. Whew.  It is totally impossible, mad even, but with some unexpected help and a few twists along the way, maybe they could pull it off, this adventure called “The Mad Quest”.

“Towards the Light” and “The Mad Quest” are two fast paced, farcical Fantasy novellas.  With visible winks and nods to the great Fantasy works that came before, but with a few unexpected twists, these two stories are light-hearted valentines to those classic works of the past; love notes but with pokes in the ribs and “bunny-ears” behind the head fun.

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Posts about Towards the Light and The Mad Quest

Blurb – Two Novellas (Jan. 4, 2019)
Cover Reveal! Two Novellas (March 1, 2019)
Release Date and PreOrder (May 7, 2019)
Brandon – Toward the Light (May 10, 2019)
Guest Post on Sue Vincent’s blog (May 14, 2019)
Merla – The Mad Quest (May 17, 2019)

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The book is now Available on Amazon!

Kindle
US
UK
Canada
France
Australia

Paperback
US
UK
France

If you don’t see your country’s Amazon, search for it or ask me and I’ll get a link.

book in hand

 

Merla – The Mad Quest

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Ah, Merla.  Lorounce hadn’t seen his childhood friend in some time, and once back in her presence, all he wanted to do was watch her graceful movements.  Of course he was just a simple farmer’s son and since she had moved to the nation’s capital she had attracted attention of men all of the way up to the top.  He knew better than to set his heart at such a lofty height.

Merla, for her part, still teased Lorounce at once mercilessly, but also kindly, the way she did when they were playmates and rivals. She acted like she wanted to be friends the way they were when they were 12.

But they were no longer 12. Continue reading →

Brandon – Towards the Light

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Brandon is just a normal guy.  There is probably someone like him at your office.  He doesn’t seem to take things quite as seriously as everyone else.  You know the type, constantly making obscure references to not-quite-so-popular culture, or perhaps no-longer-popular culture.  A word or situation might remind him of the lyrics of a song forgotten 40 years ago or a Shakespeare quote that nobody else, even Shakespeare experts, remember.  He also seems to have every fantasy novel, story and movie memorized.  Yeah, you know the type, only Brandon rarely, if ever, quotes Monty Python….

If you got to know him a little better, you may discover that Brandon has two kids, the 11 year old Leo and the 9 year old Cate.  These super imaginative, playful kids are the center of his life, particularly since his wife, Lisa, died of cancer several years ago.  Even though it has been a few years, Brandon has not come to terms with her death.

Part of the problem is that Brandon has this feeling that he isn’t where he is supposed to be.  He hears Destiny calling, and Destiny isn’t something that happens doing small chores around the house, but something that happens “out there”. Continue reading →

Release Date and Preorder – Towards the Light and The Mad Quest!

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The release date for my two novellas, Towards the Light and The Mad Quest has been set!  Kindle and paperback editions will be set on Tuesday, May 21, 2019!

What are the two novellas about?  Here is the blurb:

In what should have been a normal day, Brandon finds himself down the rabbit hole and into a new reality where he is captured by Dwarves, gets involved in “Elemental Politics” and finds himself in a race to save the worlds – yes worlds, six, perhaps seven – and the peoples of those worlds in the tongue-in-cheek Fantasy novella, “Towards the Light”.

Lorounce, a “not only is the glass half empty, but the longer we talk about it, the more that evaporates” kind of guy, is on a reconnaissance mission with his childhood friend and secret crush, Merla, to enter the stronghold of the evil Lord of Darkness.  The mission soon spins off on an adventure to try to rescue the prince, find and confront the dragon to secure the magic sword and then raise an army to defeat the evil one with said magic sword all while being chased not only by the minions of the evil one, including a pack of magical wolves, but their own people as well. Whew.  It is totally impossible, mad even, but with some unexpected help and a few twists along the way, maybe they could pull it off, this adventure called “The Mad Quest”.

“Towards the Light” and “The Mad Quest” are two fast paced, farcical Fantasy novellas.  With visible winks and nods to the great Fantasy works that came before, but with a few unexpected twists, these two stories are light-hearted valentines to those classic works of the past; love notes but with pokes in the ribs and “bunny-ears” behind the head fun.

* Continue reading →

Book in Hand (or at Home, at least ;) )

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embers-on-brickI received a copy of Embers yesterday.  Of course the first thing I had to do, after a quick leaf through to ensure my formatting changes worked, was take a photo.

Later I took out a copy of all of my books and did a new coffee share photo.  Here it is:

books-n-coffee

I will start using it on occasion for New Hampshire.  I’ll have to get a photo of them on th Cape with a coffee mug for my Cape Cod coffee shares ;)

Anyway, just making an excuse to put the photos on line.  And, of course, to plug the book one more time ;)

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Meeting at that corner of time where day and night become one, where dreams and reality mix, let’s stir the coals of that fire called ‘imagination’ to discover an eclectic mix of short stories.  Each story is a bit of frozen flame, an ember, that can flare up in your mind.

These embers form a collection of “tales that cover a wide range of genres, moods, and characters, from heartbreaking and heartwarming trials of love and family to thought-provoking journeys into the future. Most importantly, the stories are peopled with richly-drawn characters gifted with unique voices, emotional depth, and the power to capture the imagination. They’re stories that will stick.” – Author D. Wallace Peach

So whether you only have time to warm yourself with a very short work of flash, or you want to get cozy and lost in a novella, there is a story, an ember, in here for you.

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Kindle
US
UK
FR
CA
AU

Paperback
US
UK
FR

If We Were Having Coffee on the 8th of December, 2018

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Coffee in NH with Moog

Hello and Welcome!  Come on in out of the cold!  Shut the door quickly!  Brrrr.  It’s cold out there.  OK, smarty, I know, I keep the house pretty cool, what with over 45 inefficient windows and such I can’t afford to heat the entire world.  But I will get you a large mug of steaming hot, ultra-strong French Roast (yeah, I’m back to that for now) or a cuppa tea of hot cocoa.  You’ll need it!  It has been cold here all week, just peaking above freezing for a few hours a day before plunging down again.  Today it will not reach freezing.  This is January weather.  At least there was no snow.  And where are are we that we are freezing so?  Some of you may recognize the photo at the top as coming from New Hampshire.

What did I do besides freeze?  I worked.  I walked and played with the dogs.  For some reason they just wanted to play and not walk this week.  I went running a few times.  I bundle up with many layers.  I got a hair cut. Continue reading →

Formatting

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I spent a lot of time working on the formatting of my first book, Seasons of Imagination.  I downloaded a template, but it did horrid things to the book.  So I wrote down all of the settings that they used for formatting, like margin and gutter and such.  Sticking those into my original document was better.  Finally I had it.

But when I received the first copy, it was awful.  So I redid it.  And it was better.  Good enough.

I tweaked the format a little for The Fireborn and a little more for The Halley Branch.  It was getting pretty good!

Or so I thought.

After I put out The Halley Branch, someone who had read all three in paperback noticed an issue.  A big issue (I won’t tell you.  Find it yourself ;) ).  So when I started working on Embers, I made sure I fixed it first thing.

So Embers was put up with my fix and using all of the stats for my pretty good formatting.  I ordered a proof, just to be sure. Continue reading →

Embers – The Blurb

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book cover for Embers

One of my least favorite parts of writing, even worse than editing, is writing a blurb ;)  Oh well, it has to be done.  Here is the blurb to my upcoming collection of short stories, Embers.  What do you think?

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Meeting at that corner of time where day and night become one, where dreams and reality mix, let’s stir the coals of that fire called ‘imagination’ to discover an eclectic mix of short stories.  Each story is a bit of frozen flame, an ember, that can flare up in your mind.

In the words of D. Wallace Peach, author of the Rose Shield series, these embers form a collection of “tales that cover a wide range of genres, moods, and characters, from heartbreaking and heartwarming trials of love and family to thought-provoking journeys into the future. Most importantly, the stories are peopled with richly-drawn characters gifted with unique voices, emotional depth, and the power to capture the imagination. They’re stories that will stick.” (Taken from the foreword of Embers.)

So whether you only have time to warm yourself with a very short work of flash, or you want to get cozy and lost in a novella, there is a story, an ember, in here for you.

*** Continue reading →

If We Were Having Coffee on the 28th of July, 2018

12 Replies

Hello and Welcome!  Come on in and I’ll get you a nice mug of super strong Sumatra Roast, a cuppa tea or other beverage.  It is warm today, not hot, but very humid.  perhaps just water will do.  And were are we?  Some of you may recognize those Beatles mugs as being on Cape Cod.

So I got up this morning and took a very long walk on Chapin Beach.  Sound familiar?  yes, I do that every day I am here and am not working.  Well, unless it is pouring rain or snowing too hard.  OK, a few times I have decided to do a very long paddle at dawn.  But I do go to Chapin all of the time.  It was low tide, so I did a very long walk on the “flats”. I also went running today, had the dogs out back playing a couple of times and walked them a few times.  I’ve taken a few small breathers at the computer, and am doing another one to put up this post. Continue reading →

The Halley Branch is Released Today!

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The-Halley-Branch-Front-600

An evil 300 years in the making.  A trap set 150 years in the past….

Yes, today is the day!  It is here!  I wrote, and posted, the first chapter of The Halley Branch just a little under 3 years ago (about 20 days short!).  And now it is here!

Order Here (or go to Amazon and search “The Halley Branch”): Continue reading →