A Dream Within A Dream Spotlight (& review!)

It’s been a long wait but Kristina Mahr has finally given us the second book in her duology. I loved All That We See or Seem (here’s a link to an interview I had with Kristina last year)–and I was very er, cross, when I got to the end of the book. A cliffhanger? How rude! (Not that I’ve ever done anything like that…cough, cough.) Here’s a quick blurb in case you missed this awesome story.

Every night, seventeen-year-old Reeve Lennox finds herself under a noose. By day she is a lady of Acarsaid’s royal house, daydreaming of adventure and love. But every night in sleep she wanders through a nightmarish city, an invisible witness to the screeches of monsters and the screams of their victims. Her only consolation is Bran, a battle-torn young man with a selfless heart and eyes that reflect the stars. Yet while Reeve falls deeper into her dreams, in truth she is engaged to Arden, a mercurial nobleman who has long been cured of his belief in love and breathes fire and flattery like other people breathe air. Torn between two lives, Reeve struggles to remember what’s real. Until night and day collide, with a revelation that threatens all of Acarsaid.

Amazing! Anyway, book 2, A Dream Within A Dream, is out! And this cover is just as gorgeous as (if not more than) the first book. Here it is, in all it’s gorgeousness.  This story sounds so good!

Invisible to the man she loves, Reeve Lennox fights to reclaim him from a dark world.
As her wedding day nears in Acarsaid, her betrothed Arden offers only his wayward soul and saucy tongue. At night she desperately tries to reach Bran, the young soldier of nightmarish Tenebris who holds her heart. However, her king insists that the realms of Tenebris and Acarsaid must remain separate, lest the evil wizard Rancore brutally conquer all.
But the dark magic of Tenebris defies mere distance. A war is coming, one only Reeve may be able to prevent, if she can reunite her family on opposing sides.
With two kingdoms at stake, Reeve must discover her strength and her family’s legacy before all is lost. Yet righting the wrongs of the past may require the sacrifice of her truest love.

I was fortunate enough to receive an Advanced Reader’s Copy (ARC) of this lovely book. Want to know what I thought?

MY REVIEW

Firstly, I must say nobody should endure a many-month wait when it comes to a cliffhanger like the one in All That We See Or Seem.  Nobody.
Ahem. Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I can gush about A Dream Within A Dream. I finished it in one day (and I only had to stay up until 1:30 AM to do it. Because I wasn’t going to bed with it unfinished. Just. Wasn’t. ) ADWAD was just as lyrical, romantic, and evocative as its predecessor. My heart broke all through the book until I got to the end. I wanted more of the ending, more happily-ever-after-and-then-this-happened–to make up for the heart-wringing story. The characters were lovely and multi-layered, making it difficult to label them as “the good guy” or “the bad girl.”  One warning, though — there was some language, that wasn’t present in ATWSOS. Mild swearing doesn’t bother me, but this time it pulled me out of the story because it seemed unneccessary.  But I closed the cover with a happy sigh, so I can easily give this four and half stars. (Since the whole story is now available, buy the duology–and a box of tissues. You’ll need them.)

 

Kristina Mahr devotes her days to numbers and her nights to words. She works full-time as an accountant in the suburbs of Chicago, where she lives with her two dogs and two cats, but her true passion is writing. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends, reading, and waking up at the crack of dawn every weekend to watch the Premier League.

You can follow her here:
Website: https://kristinamahr.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kristina_Mahr
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristinamahr/

 

 

What’s the Story Behind Brenna’s ADHD?

9 Comments

The second book of The Firebrand Chronicles, Flare, releases today! Yay! I’m so excited to share the crazy (mis?)adventures of the heroine Brenna James. She’s loyal, snarky, and has ADHD. But she wasn’t originally written that way.

When I first began writing Spark (which was initially called The Sacred Veil), my youngest daughter entered kindergarten. She was diagnosed with ADHD inattentive in second grade. I was thrilled to have answers to why she did the things she did, and our family began learning about the world of neurodiversity. (Neurodiversity includes autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD, as well as other neurological conditions.) I became an expert, if not in ADHD, then at least in my child and her needs. But where were the fantasy books with an ADHD main character? (I don’t count Percy Jackson—his ADHD and dyslexia is explained away when he discovers he’s a demi-god. A missed opportunity, in my opinion!) There were too few neurodiverse characters, and the idea of a main character with ADHD was born.

As Spark and then Flare were written, Brenna and I addressed some of the markers of ADHD—impulsivity, time blindness, distractibility. Although she can hyperfocus and solve puzzles creatively, the reader sees her challenges and her struggle to be “good enough” in a world that labels her as different.

Readers have asked me, Will Brenna ever stop making impulsive choices? Will she stop and think before acting? Will she stay focused? Probably not, because that’s not who she is. ADHD governs that part of her brain. But she’ll never give up, she’ll keep trying, and she’ll believe in second chances. Because that’s something offered to absolutely everyone.

Exciting News: I’ve got a cover!

4 Comments

It’s been awhile since I’ve had any news to share about Book Two (aka Flare) of the Firebrand Chronicles. It was submitted to the publisher, then I had to wait because other books were in the pipeline for release, then we had the holidays. Absolutely everything stops at that point, which is just as well, because it gets crazy-busy at the Hackman household in December.

Anyway, when a book is prepared for print, my publisher is thorough — I have to do three rounds of editing. I received  and completed the first round of edits, then I (recently) finished the second round. And that’s when I received the approval to share the cover with you. From the beginning, I was in love! I’ve always been impressed with Sara Helwe’s work (check her out at https://sara-helwe.com/), and she outdid herself — again! (And although Sara doesn’t know, purple is my favorite color, so I was very excited about this beautiful cover. 🙂 )

So I won’t torture you. Find a comfy chair and feast your eyes. I’ll even share the blurb with you.

 

Heartbreak. Kidnapping. Political rebellion. Best summer vacation ever.

Brenna travels to Linneah via portal to visit her boyfriend Baldwin, only to find heartbreak. Betrayal. A serious case of never, ever wanting to see him again.
Worst summer vacation ever.
So when her best friend Tiny invites her on a road trip to meet Tiny’s fiancé, Brenna jumps at the chance. Even if her mother disapproves. Even if it’s through a dangerous travel portal. Even if Tiny has never met this fiancé handpicked by her dad. Anything’s better than staying in Linneah.
But the trip disintegrates into disaster. The two friends are separated, Brenna is kidnapped, and not only are Brenna’s Firebrand skills tested to the limit, she must participate in the dangerous event, Starfall . . . or go home. Broke. Alone. With a shattered heart. So not fun.
And then as if that’s not bad enough? Brenna discovers a plot that could spell disaster for everyone she holds dear. And no one believes her.
Can she prevent a bloody government takeover? And what will become of Brenna’s broken heart?
There you go! I’m so excited (*cartwheels and confetti*) This is scheduled for a February 26 release so you have to wait a bit longer. Thanks for reading this post — enjoy your weekend!

Days of Fantasy Tour and a Giveaway!

Hi! I had plans to have this post ready first thing this morning, but I woke up feeling like I’d been flattened by a truck (a semi, not a pick-up.) My headache from yesterday followed me into today.  Then, my dreams from last night involved me running around New York City in my bathrobe with friend Sarah Delana White. (???) That must be why I’m so tired! 🙂

But despite the less-than-stellar beginning to my morning, it’s still a day to celebrate. I’m participating in the Days of Fantasy Tour with a group of exciting authors and bloggers. It kicks off today! All the juicy information on the tour can be found here.  And in case that doesn’t excite you (although I can’t imagine why not), there’s a giveaway, too, with two winners!  The winner will either win a Kindle Fire HD 8 loaded with some great e-books or a stack of print books. Go here to sign up!

Spark will be featured on December 6th. Keep your eyes peeled on social media for #FantasyforChristmas, and I’ll be sure to share the links, too.

Merry Christmas!

 

 

 

 

The Theme of Rothana: Sarah Delana White

7 Comments

I’m so excited to introduce Sarah Delana White to my blog today. Her new book Rothana is the sequel to Halayda (which I read and enjoyed!) I can’t wait to get my hands on my own copy of Rothana! *grabby hands*

Did you ever wonder how authors manage to weave such fantastic themes into their stories? I’ll let Sarah address that question.

____________________________________________________________________

I never plan the themes of my books in advance. They emerge as I write, as the characters grow and make hard choices. One of the unexpected themes in Rothana was regret. I didn’t expect this to emerge so strongly, but as I delved into each character’s backstory and hidden issues, I realized most of the major characters were dealing with past failures they wished they could undo.

Sylvie feels like a failure of a queen. When events spiral out of control and she loses her throne, she feels she has let everyone down. She regrets she couldn’t help Faerie in all the ways she wanted to, but instead left the realm vulnerable to new threats. She also still carries hurts from her past in Sabellyn. She wishes she could have saved more of the changelings she adopted, and she still partly blames herself for not confronting Casimir years ago when she first realized he was scheming against Faerie.

Taylan regrets many, many things. He killed countless people and used harsh means to rule Faerie for centuries, and he is constantly haunted by this. When he is forced to deal with the darker side of his shadow-magic—the power that connects him with the fae underworld—it is all too easy for him to believe he is destined to be a monster. Taylan’s scenes in Rothana were some of the most painful I’ve ever written because he is so deeply entrenched in his terrible past and in the lies he tells himself. (All I can say is… thank goodness he has Sylvie and Diza around to keep him from wallowing TOO much!)

The one that really surprised me was Casimir. Before I wrote Rothana, I thought he was just a cold-hearted madman who delighted in trying to bend the world to his will. Guess what: he was holding out on me. A lot. In this book, we see the true motivations that lurk beneath his pompous speeches, as well as the pain that drove him to make some desperate decisions. Does he regret the choices he made in Halayda? Well, maybe… in a very Casimir way. In other words, he’s still a special bundle of special. But even villains can have regrets.

Each of these characters deals with regret in different ways, but it seeps into each of their motivations and reflects in the choices they make. The events of Rothana force them to confront their past choices and failures and choose whether to be defined by them.

So, why does Rothana deal so much with regret? Again, I don’t consciously choose the themes of my books, but I’m not really surprised this one emerged. It has always been a struggle for me to let go of past mistakes. The Star-Fae Trilogy was born during a time in my life when I felt like I’d failed in major ways, including destroying the career I’d intended to pursue lifelong (long story). It was cathartic to watch my characters wrestle with those same emotions, and I rejoiced as they began to shake off the lies that weighed them down. I hope their journeys connect with readers in the same way.

____________________________________________________________________

Thanks, Sarah! I loved hearing about this theme in Rothana.

Would you like to know more about this fantastic book? Read on….

A new queen falls. A death lord rises. An ancient foe looms in the shadows.

Sylvie Imanthiya is desperate to lead Faerie well and deepen the bond with her  husband, former king Taylan Ashkalabek. But all hope of that vanishes when the winter solstice ceremony ends in disaster, stranding her and Taylan in the Deathrealm, and stripping the kingdom from her.

With Faerie in chaos, Zad and Diza are separated once again: Zad to reconcile with an old mentor to stabilize the kingdom, and Diza to confront the nefarious Casimir in the mortal realm. But Casimir claims that a greater evil seeks to destroy both realms, an evil that Diza’s unique death magic can hold at bay—if she could only remember how.

In the Deathrealm, Taylan is succumbing to the lure of specters from his past, and pushing away Sylvie’s love. Overwhelmed by decay and darkness, Sylvie must  summon unexpected magic from the soul of Kyure to fight for her convictions and her husband’s heart.

Shadows divide them. Their friends are in peril. If Sylvie fails, her marriage and her world will fall.

Purchase Links
Amazon – Barnes & Noble – Signed Paperback
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42637351-rothana

And don’t forget to join us for the Rothana Facebook party! There’ll be prizes, guest authors, and fun bookish information! Don’t miss it! *throws confetti*

 

 

Sarah Delena White was raised by wolves in an alternate dimension. She writes eclectic speculative fiction that reworks mythology with a fine balance of poetry and snark. She’s an experienced world traveler who loves to weave world folklore and ancient concepts into vibrant, original story worlds. She is the administrative manager for Uncommon Universes
Press. When she’s not writing, she can be found making elegant designer bead jewelry, traveling to festivals as a professional ballad singer, drinking tea, and seeking to create the perfect latte. She can be bribed with dark chocolate.

Fairyeater Blog Tour

12 Comments

Today on Jilligan’s Island, I have special guest Pam Halter, author of the new release Fairyeater. (I say “special” because she’s a personal friend of mine — and after reading Fairyeater, I’d say she’s a darn good author, too! 🙂 )

Anyway, to celebrate her new book, she agreed to write a guest blog post about the creation of one of her key characters.  I’ll get out of the way and let her continue. Welcome, Pam!

____________________________________________________________________

The Creation of Tzmet, the Fairyeater

Where did the idea for a fairy-eating witch come from? I get that question a lot.

In 2006, the Scholastic Book Club paper came home with Anna. Not sure why the school thought our developmentally delayed kids needed books appropriate to their age and not their developmental level, but nonetheless the paper came. None of the books were appropriate for Anna, but as a book lover, I looked through the paper anyway.

I saw the book Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book. It was expensive, so I looked on Amazon. Found it and bought it. Ended up sending it back because it was actually pornographic! Always read the reviews. Just sayin’.

But here’s what happened. I got to thinking about the concept of pressed fairies. Does anyone remember pressing flowers? We’d take flowers that were special (I still have the flowers from the first high school prom I attended) and place them between waxed paper and put them in the pages of a really heavy book. It preserved them, even keeping some of the color.

So, I thought, why would someone catch and press a fairy? Or would they catch and pin a fairy in a shadow box, like a butterfly collection? Or maybe hang and dry them like herbs?

What would happen to the fairies? They are living things, right?

I imagined they would become leather-like. Dried out and kind of supple. Why would someone do that? And what would they do with the dried-out fairies?

Then I thought, well, when you dry fruit, it becomes fruit leather. What do you do with fruit leather? You eat it. So, why would someone dry and eat fairies? What would happen if they did? And, most importantly, WHO would do such a heinous thing?

And boom, Fairyeater was born.

That led me into figuring out what would happen if lots of fairies started dying. I had to decide what kind of magic they might have and how it would affect the world around them. That led me to the dark lord, who clearly needed the power to do something evil, but the fairies prevented it.

How did the fairies prevent the rising of the dark lord? And how could the hero/heroine stop it?

Those are questions for another blog post. Heh, heh, heh …

____________________________________________________________________

Fairyeater: Book One of the Fairy Guardian Chronicles
All fifteen-year-old Akeela has ever wanted is an ordinary family who will love her. But theonly mother she has ever known is the old hag, Krezma, who berates her night and day. Why did the old woman even take her in?
But Krezma knows her charge is no ordinary child. She can see the auras surrounding living things and can communicate  with fairies. And the birthmark on her palm reveals a secret Krezma must hold close for the child’s safety.
A secret that the witch, Tzmet, hunts for night and day, drying and eating fairies for the
power they contain. When Akeela discovers her fate lies in being the next Fairy  Guardian, all hope for an ordinary life dissipates like the dreams they were. She must protect the fairies from the witch—and an even darker power that threatens them all.
Akeela is unwillingly thrust into an adventure that will not end until she decides to accept her fate and give up on her dream.
Maybe even her life.
____________________________________________________________________
Don’t forget to check out the last two blog stops on her tour:
  • Thursday, Nov. 1st, Review, Michele Israel Harper, www.MicheleIsraelHarper.com
  • Friday, Nov. 2nd, Review, Laura A. Grace, www.unicornquester.com
Pam Halter has been a children’s book author since 1995. The first book in her Willoughby and Friends series,  Willoughby and the Terribly Itchy Itch, won the 2018 Realm Award in the children’s category, and she also received a Reader’s Choice Award in 2015 for her short story, “Tick Tock,” in Realmscapes. Fairyeater is her first fantasy novel. She lives in South Jersey, deep in farmland, and enjoys long walks
on country roads where she discovers fairy homes, emerging dragons, and trees
eating wood gnomes. Visit Pam at www.PamHalter.com.
Social Media Links

Narnia Giveaway!

2 Comments

“I don’t care how much money you have, free stuff is always a good thing.”

~Queen Latifah

 

I’ve always thought this quote was humorous. And it’s true when it comes to free Narnia stuff! This prize pack is amazing — a handy mug, a cool map (’cause I LOVE maps), a “dear heart” pendant, the entire series in a beautiful boxed set, and best of all, a replica of Peter’s sword! Gah! It might be enough to enter just for the sword alone (yes, I’m absolutely jealous of whoever wins this giveaway — can’t help it. #sorrynotsorry)

So go to this link and enter. Good luck!

The French Inspiration Behind Kill The Beast

9 Comments

Today, I’m excited to be participating in Michele Harper’s blog tour for her new book, Kill The Beast. It’s a Beauty and the Beast retelling, full of fascinating characters (Ro, the main character, is no shrinking violet!), magic, and action.  Did you know there’s a French connection to Kill The Beast? I can’t wait to hear more. Welcome, Michele!

————————————————-

Thank you so much for having me on your blog today, Jill!

Mark’s Twain’s book, Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, opens with this chapter title: “When Wolves Ran Free in Paris” and continues with the following heartbreaking description.

“In Paris, mobs roared through the streets nightly, sacking, burning, killing, unmolested, uninterrupted. The sun rose upon wrecked and smoking buildings, and upon mutilated corpses lying here, there, and yonder about the streets, just as they fell, and stripped naked by thieves, the unholy gleaners after the mob. None had the courage to gather these dead for burial; they were left there to rot and create plagues.

“And plagues they did create. Epidemics swept away the people like flies, and the burials were conducted secretly and by night, for public funerals were not allowed, lest the revelation of the magnitude of the plague’s work unman the people and plunge them into despair. Then came, finally, the bitterest winter which had visited France in five hundred years. Famine, pestilence, slaughter, ice, snow—Paris had all these at once. The dead lay in heaps about the streets, and wolves entered the city in daylight and devoured them.”

And it simultaneously broke my heart and captured my imagination. I had to write about it.

(This, of course, was a description of France in the 1400s, well before the original La Belle et la Bête was written by Madame Villeneuve in 1740.)

What if the beast’s curse affected more than him and his château? What if the curse held all of France in its grip and filled its people with despair? What would it look like? What would it take to make wolves so bold they no longer feared man and came into the cities and villages in the middle of the day? What if the curse turned the land to rot and created a never-ending winter?

But I also deviated from Mark Twain’s description in that instead of plagues and numerous deaths, I made my Kill the Beast story world one in which the curse did not allow the people of France to die from starvation. And in a way, starving without death, without an end to the pain, may be the more horrific.

Kill the Beast is set fifteen years after the curse fell, when the people of France have gone through the cycles of riot, of trying to fix what happened, and have fallen into despair and hopelessness, trudging through an existence they cannot escape.

Yet there are plenty of wolves hunting the weakened and starving people, and Gautier, the king’s steward, hires huntsmen to protect the people and to provide a way for the people to barter for food from the Mesdemoiselles of the Mountain, three women who somehow grow the only food in all of France. (I have written about them in my prequel novella, Beast Hunter.)

So my huntress, Ro, who is hired to hunt and kill the beast who is said to have brought the curse down on France, is determined to end the starvation, to protect her family, and to return France to the way it should be.

To the beautiful country I fell in love with when I traveled there in February of 2018.

If you want to see how she does it, well then, I recommend that you visit the other blog stops on my blog tour, or read both Beast Hunter and Kill the Beast, and let me know what you think. I love to hear from my readers!

And thank you again, Jill, for having me on your blog today. You are so sweet!

In Him,

Michele

——————————————–

Thanks so much, Michele! Don’t forget to stop by the Facebook party on Thursday, September 27th from 8-10PM EST.

Kill The Beast is a fantastic read! Here’s the blurb:

Ro remembers the castle before. Before the gates closed. Before silence overtook the kingdom. Before the castle disappeared. Now it shimmers to life one night a year, seen by her alone.
Once a lady, now a huntress, Ro does what it takes to survive—just like the rest of the kingdom plunged into despair never before known. But a beast has overtaken the castle. A beast that killed the prince and holds the castle and kingdom captive in his cruel power. A beast Ro has been hired to kill. Thankful the mystery of the prince ’s disappearance has been solved, furious the magical creature has killed her hero, Ro eagerly accepts the job to end him. But things are not as they seem.
Trapped in the castle, a prisoner alongside the beast, Ro wonders what she should fear most: the beast, the magic that holds them both captive, or the one who hired her to kill the beast.
A Beauty and the Beast retelling.
You can contact Michele at the following social media sites:

Guest post: How I Lost My Writing

4 Comments
Hi,
Today on Jilligan’s Island, we welcome Julia Skinner from the Lit Aflame blog. She’s got a great writer’s testimony, so without further ado…..
Welcome!
—————————————————-

Today, I am here to tell you the tale of how I lost my writing. Yes, yes, I know, surprising, right?  But tis true, I lost control of my writing quite a few years ago. Though the losing has glitched in and out through the time (which means my rebellious side tried to takeover from time to time).

See, I didn’t always write.

I know, unspeakable!  Incomprehensible! But nonetheless true.

It was some years ago when brilliance struck me (it does happen sometimes y’know), I had a brand-new tablet PLUS an awesome story in my head = why not write it down?!  (I’m a genius).

So I did or I began to, and PEOPLE!  Do you know how incredibly slow and hard and horribly uncomfortable it is to write a story on a handheld tablet?

Dreadful, I tell you. (Fine, it wasn’t that bad).

Happy me started writing the beautiful story in my head when a huge catastrophic portal opened up, sucking everything into it and plunging us into utter darkness, despair, and a world with no ice cream.

Which goes to say, something wasn’t right.  Sure, I loved my story, I enjoyed seeing it down on the screen, I couldn’t wait to get further into the story, and was already dreaming of people reading it.

The problem?

I wasn’t fulfilling my purpose in life.

What is my life’s purpose?

To bring glory to God.

So when God pointed out to me that my current story did absolutely ZERO to bring glory to Him, I tried to ignore at first, but there’s only so much ignoring you can do before you gotta pull out the big guns.-

– Aka excuses.  (who here knows that excuses don’t work on God?)

“This isn’t a big deal, I’m just writing a little story, it’s not some life changing thing”

*******excuses. . . more excuses. . . excuses upon excuses******

All the while God patiently told me, “Give Me your writing”

At last I broke,  tossed my excuses out the window, and said, “FINE.  If you want my writing here it is. I give it to you, Lord.”

HUZZAH!

In that very moment, I lost control of my writing. Actually, I gave control over to God – and am I ever so thankful I did.  Because you know, I don’t think I would be writing the WIP (work in progress) I am if I hadn’t, not to mention life would be a great bit more unhappy — a great wad of my writing would be stuck between me and my Savior, and my flesh’s control issues would only be growing worse.

Of course it didn’t end there.

God wanted my writing, He got it, so since He owns my writing…..then shouldn’t I write FOR HIM? (see the verse, 1 Cor. 10:31 above)

Well, yeah.

So I’m sure you can already guess, I lost the story, too.  More like I gave it up, that thing didn’t bring glory to Jesus at all.  Sure, I considered trying to find a way to push and shove some of the plot around to fit in some sort of something that could point to Christ. But that’s not how it should be, God shouldn’t just be stuffed into the story like that, rather He should come first and the story come next — because remember, my first purpose as a Christian is to bring Him glory — so always in everything, God comes first!

So that story was scrapped, thrown off in some corner. Yes, it hurt to let it go, but you know what?  Dear writer, you haven’t the faintest idea of the joy of writing until you write something that revolves around Jesus and brings glory to God.

I will admit, one of my objections was no one would want to read something like that, if I wrote it in a way that would bring glory to God, but that just showed where my priorities were: they were focused on writing a story the world would like reading.  It was then I decided I was going to get my priorities off of writing for the world and onto writing for God.

My current WIP is Fantasy, but in whatever genre you write, Fantasy, Dystopian, etc, you can still point to Jesus — even without outright screaming it.  There is a way to write purely with a message that brings glory to God.

So that’s why I write the sort of stories I write, ones I hope point to Jesus, because I am a Christian, and God has called me to write for Him.


Who do you write for?

 

Meet the Writer:

Julia is a 15-year-old born again Christian who believes if the Bible says it it’s true, and a Bookworm who knows words have the power to change the world.   She juggles her small business, writing, and college while living on a farm in Texas with her parents, seven siblings and a ton of animals
Her goal in all she does is to bring glory to God and to live a life lit aflame for Christ.  She hopes to encourage others to do the same.

 

 

Inspiration for “The Greatest Adventure” (and a GIVEAWAY!)

The Fellowship of Fantasy has released their fourth anthology, Tales of Ever After! I was thrilled to discover my short story, “The Greatest Adventure,” was accepted for this book, especially since it takes place in the same world as my debut novel Spark, just at a much, much earlier time.

“The Greatest Adventure” features the famous Firebrand Aideen Siriol. If you’ve read Spark, maybe the name sounds familiar. Two-thirds of the way through Spark, Brenna James receives Aideen’s sword when she needs it the most. Its hilt is set with beautiful Fire Diamonds, gathered during Aideen’s greatest adventure. After writing that little piece of information, I nodded in satisfaction and forgot about it.

But as time went on, I realized the reader might want to know more. So what happened during Aideen’s greatest adventure? Good question. I had no idea, but I began writing anyway. I assumed this would be a short filler piece. Surprisingly, it grew longer and longer. Hmm, this wasn’t a simple flash fiction story.

While I wrote, I also grappled with another question: what would the greatest adventure look like for Aideen? While others like to jump out of perfectly good airplanes or swim with sharks, I’m a homebody. I’m content to go on hikes in the mountains and watch sunsets. Not exactly high-octane adventure. But the most exciting adventures of my life have been emotional ones—falling in love.

Adventures of the heart are exciting no matter the gender, and I wanted Aideen and the slave Rivka to experience it. I added some enchanted stones, as well as a few dragons, and came up with a new fairy tale that was a lot of fun to write. I enjoyed spending more time in my created world of The Jasper Territory — and I hope the reader enjoys it, as well.

More about Tales of Ever After:

Rescue a princess, meet a mermaid, win your reward.

The authors of the Fellowship of Fantasy tackle fairy tales from once upon a time to happily ever after. Explore twists on old tales and brand new magical stories. Meet feisty mermaids, friendly lampposts, and heroes who just might be monsters themselves.

This fourth anthology from the Fellowship of Fantasy will lead you on a quest for entertainment and storm the castle of your imagination. So make a wish and enter the deep dark woods to find stories that will make you laugh, shiver, and maybe even fall in love.

Amazon Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Ever-After-Fellowship-Anthology-ebook/dp/B07FFMHM8M/

Books2Read Universal Link: https://www.books2read.com/u/bwYKry

Goodreads Listing: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40788623-tales-of-ever-after

Would you like to learn more about these fantastic stories? Follow this link to find the blog tour schedule.

And finally would you like the chance to win a prize or two?

For our US readers, follow this link to win a paperback book (possibly signed by the author!)

and for our International fans, follow this link to win an ebook in your format choice.

The person who leaves the most comments across the blog tour will receive the chance to read special sneak peaks from several of the authors’ upcoming works!