Author Interview - Anna del C. Dye

I'd like to welcome author Anna del C. Dye to my blog today. Her newest book, The Roilden Stones of Elf Mountain is out.

Liberty … or Monarchy? Should the wisest of races choose such a path, or return to the traditional council? Their queen has lost the Roilden Stones of Elf Mountain to a power-hungry wizard. After all, one can be deceived, but twenty?

With the stones missing, a fatal drought grips Andoriah, the new elfin home. Death to all is imminent. Who will retrieve the Stones when the Gold Elfs won’t act? Will heroes arise before Andoriah burns in eternal fire?  Can the missing elf queen and her daughter be found?

The Roilden Stones of Elf Mountain is the long awaited prequel, and final installment in Anna del C.’s elf series. Discover the Elfs, an eternal race who chose to live in a world of woes away from their motherland. Love them, feel their pain and their happiness in a land that will test the core of their beliefs and bravery. Written in the genre of The Lord of the Rings and the Shannara series, The Roilden Stones of Elf Mountain comes alive with battles, heroism, action and romance. 

GOODREADS | AMAZON

What was your favorite chapter to write to write in this book and why?

The last chapter of The Roilden Stones of Elf Mountain:

The main male character is so worried that the princess will never give up her powers that he pushes her away from his heart, breaking hers in the process. There are many tender feelings in this chapter as families and race heal their wounds in love and harmony. Also this chapter is the basis for all my elf beliefs, actions, and the core of what defines them as a race. Coupled with romance and tears…yes, it was awesome.

What book are you reading now?

Thirty pages of Nine books in the category of Young Adults for a contest I am helping judge.

If you had a superpower, what would it be? How would you use it?

It would be “to be able to read minds.”

So many problems arise by one party believing that the other meant or said something different from what they did. It would be nice to always know the truth. I would use it to be the ultimate truth, especially in criminal cases.

About the author

Anna del C. has received numerous awards like “First Page” “First Chapter” in three of her books. A bronze Medal for book three in The Silent Warrior Trilogy and honor place in other.

Anna is fluent in Spanish and English and love to travel the world.

Amazon
Webpage

Feudlings by Wendy Knight

WHAT IT'S ABOUT:
Nothing makes a new school suck worse than discovering the guy you’re in love with is your prophesied nemesis.

Ari is the most powerful flame-throwing sorceress ever, and her people’s last hope in an ancient war. But she’s also a seventeen-year-old girl, and in her free, not-hunting-nemesis times, she jumps from school to school, trying to figure out regular people her own age and pretending she’ll get the chance to graduate.

Shane lives a double life. He goes to school and masters the art of popularity, hiding the fact that he has a fate with a slim chance of his survival. He’s destined to end a 300-year-old war by killing or being killed. He knows he’s hunted by a powerful enemy who’s not afraid to die. Only problem? He has no idea who that enemy is.

When Ari shows up at Shane’s school, angry and sullen and determined to keep him at arm’s reach, neither of them realize they are supposed to be killing each other, not falling in love. Until Ari does realize it, and she almost dies – by Shane’s hand.

MY TAKE:
I thoroughly enjoyed this story. Ari's loneliness was palpable and I loved how so many of the kids at the school--including the normal, human kids--welcomed her and made her a part of their group, even as she resisted their overtures of friendship. There are so many books about horrible, mean high school kids--and real life has plenty of them--but it's nice to get a taste of teens being kind and friendly as well. Because there are plenty of decent kids, too.

I liked how Knight slowly built up the relationship between Ari and Shane while letting the reader know (and agonize) over the inevitable showdown. I felt bad for them both, but Shane especially since Ari's trained as an assassin and been working at it since she was a child (can I just say there are seriously sick problems with her people's culture?) while Shane's been sheltered, protected, and kept from gaining important skills he'll need just to keep himself alive (I should note that his culture also has issues).

I won't spoil anything, but the showdown is awesome and there is resolution at the end--but it's obviously the beginning of a series (yay!) because there's a major plot line left hanging.

ABOUT WENDY KNIGHT

Wendy Knight was born and raised in Utah by a wonderful family who spoiled her rotten because she was the baby. Now she spends her time driving her husband crazy with her many eccentricities (no water after five, terror when faced with a live phone call, etc., etc.). She also enjoys chasing her three adorable kids, playing tennis, watching football, reading, and hiking. Camping is also big: her family is slowly working toward a goal of seeing all the National Parks in the U.S. You can usually find her with at least one Pepsi nearby, wearing ridiculously high heels for whatever the occasion may be. And if everything works out just right, she will also be writing.

AMAZON

Rise of Keitus by Andrea Pearson

I know things have been really busy on my blog this month.

There are just a lot of books coming out, it seems. 

Don't forget that today is the last day to let me know if you want your name to be put in the drawing for Gaze into Heaven (see the blog post here).

Well, today I'm going to talk about the release of Rise of Keitus, the fourth book in Andrea Pearson's Kilenya series. I've gotten behind in my reading, but I read and reviewed the first two books: The Key of Kilenya and The Ember Gods. I thoroughly enjoyed both of these middle grade fantasies. The third book is August Fortress, and I have it and this new book on my to-read list.

Here's what Rise of Keitus is about:

Jacob Clark's fantasy adventure has reached its most dangerous phase yet. A swarm of blood-ridden insects overwhelms Taga Village--threatening the existence of the Makalos--and the secret regarding Akeno's strengths is about to be revealed. Not only that, but Jacob's newly honed abilities allow him to discover the origin of the evil Lorkon. But finding out may be his deadliest mission yet.

Join Jacob and his friends in this fourth installment in the Kilenya Series as they strive to prevent the Lorkon disease from destroying Eklaron and Earth.

To celebrate the release of Rise of Keitus, Andrea's got The Key of Kilenya on sale--today it's free. So, if you've been curious about this series or are just ready for a fun middle grade romp, now's your chance to give it a try.

Here's where you can get The Key of Kilenya:
Kindle
Nook
Smashwords (for other eReading formats)

Enjoy!

Book Trailer . . . and Places

Author Tamara Heiner is having
a trailer blitz for her book Altercation.

When Jaci and her friends are placed in FBI custody, they think they are safe... until a betrayal puts them back in harm's way.

You can check out the trailer here.

Places

I saw this totally awesome sign on Facebook the other day, and I just have to ask my wonderfully building-kind-of-guy hubby to make me one of my own. While I would include some these locations, there are many that I would do differently.

I would be sure to add the following:

• The Harper Hall (Dragonriders of Pern series)
• Benden Weyr (Dragonriders of Pern series)
• The Spooky Old Tree (Berenstain Bears)
• Prince Edward Island (Anne of Green Gables)
• Guernsey Island (The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society)
• Lothar (Restoree)
• Arizona--"My House. My Rules" (Uncle Jeb in The Host)
• Orthedale
• Lewistown, Montana

What are some of the wonderful literary places

that have captured your imagination over the years?

What places would you want to visit--

especially if you could see the characters
you've come to love?

The Hobbit

Um, can I say EXCITED!?!?



What about you?

Grammar Friday - Gender Specific Language

 The American Heritage Book of English Usage says :

As a general rule, it is good to remember that you should only refer to a person by category when it is relevant or necessary to the discussion at hand. That is, you should ordinarily view people as individuals and not mention their racial, ethnic, or other status, unless it is important to your larger purpose in communicating.

There are simple ways to replace gender specific language with gender neutral language (many of these are becoming widely used):

• chairman … chair
• manned … staffed
• fireman … firefighter
• policeman … police officer
• stewardess … flight attendant
• mailman … mail carrier

 Perhaps one of the biggest issues for writers is clarity. Since gender specific language might jar some readers out of the reading flow, we want to be careful.

Some ways that people try to get around it is to use words like they or their to replace he or she. Anybody see the potential grammar problem?

It's when the writer doesn't continue the change to make everything match.

For example, this is gender specific:

If a patient is late in arriving, he must pay a late fee.

Try using one of these gender neutral sentences instead:

Any patient who is late in enrolling must pay an additional fee.

Patients who are late in arriving must pay an additional fee.

If a patient is late in arriving, he or she must pay an additional fee.

NOT

If a patient is late in arriving, they must pay an additional fee.

The problem with the last one is patient is singular but they is plural. The writer didn't continue the change to make everything match. It's like adorable Dobby's disharmonized socks.

Oops!

It's easy to fix by changing patient to patients.

There are some obvious areas where writers shouldn't be guided by this modern trend. The language in historical fiction should represent the culture at the time the book is set.

SciFi and Fantasy writers can pretty much do anything they want, since they're world building anyway. Right? I love it when SciFi or Fantasy authors cleverly create words, expletives, etc. that are a reflection of their world/culture.

Can you think of any other genres that can ignore this particular grammar rule? Do you have ways that you're politically correct when you write to avoid "jarring" your readers?