To Darkness Fled is out!

I should have blogged about The Blood of Kings Trilogy a long time ago. I first read By Darkness Hid, by Jill Williamson, on the train ride back from the summer writers' conference. Jill was the person who originally encouraged me to attend a conference, and I ended up going to one that she attended as well!

She's definitely one of the coolest people I know, and I'm proud to say that By Darkness Hid is the first signed book I ever owned. And recently, she even endorsed Kestrel's Midnight Song. But more on that another day. This post is about Jill and her books.

The story is terrific. It drew praise from VOYA and Library Journal, and is Marcher Lord Press's bestseller by a wide margin.

"In this medieval fantasy debut, idealistic servant Achan Cham dreams of becoming a Kingsguard Knight, while Vrell Sparrow disguises herself as a boy to escape an arranged marriage. She has a supernatural gift of being able to communicate to Achan without words. This thoroughly entertaining and smart tale will appeal to fans of Donita K. Paul and J.R.R. Tolkien. Highly recommended for CF and fantasy collections." —Library Journal

And now the sequel, To Darkness Fled, is out. This time, she got the attention of another major review publication, Publisher's Weekly.

"Williamson pens an action-packed, imaginative second installment in the Blood of Kings trilogy. Achan Cham... [spoiler eliminated] rides with a party in Darkness, the unlit half of the Kingdom of Er’Rets, to free two unjustly imprisoned knights. His party includes Vrell Sparrow, who is Lady Averella Amal disguised as a young boy to flee an unwanted marriage to Esek, who has usurped the identity of Prince Gidon Hadar. All the familiar epic elements and emotions are freshly rendered, with Vrell and Achan especially memorable as they grow during their journey... the pace gallops along, leaving readers hungry for the concluding book.” —Publisher's Weekly

If you haven't already, go buy By Darkness Hid! And if you've already read that, go buy To Darkness Fled! I've already ordered my copy. Can't wait to get my hands on it and fall into the Kingdom of Er'Rets again. You don't want to miss out.

Note: The To Darkness Fled image was shamelessly ripped from Christopher Kolmorgen of my-ink-spot.blogspot.com, where it was, in all likelihood, shamelessly ripped from elsewhere. As such, please direct any paperwork-totin' lawyers in that direction. Thank you.

Our Pet Moose, Lucy

This is pretty indescribable... Good thing I have pictures! :)

A moose has quite literally taken residence in our backyard. Over the past few weeks, we've spotted her from time to time in the driveway, or in the woods. But now she lives in our backyard. She moved in earlier this week. I'm not exaggerating.

Last night she slept directly next to the house outside my bedroom window, a little under eight feet from my bed. She drinks from the water that collects in the tarp covering our firewood (which is stacked up against the house beneath our family room window). She lumbers by, literally inches away from the windows. She even walks up to the windows and peers inside, her head taking up the whole window frame, her nose almost touching the glass (she actually did touch the glass with her nose this morning).

As she peered in at me yesterday, I stood so close that if the windowpane hadn't separated us, I could have reached out and touched her. Easily. (Not that I wasn't prepared to scream and run at her slightest movement)

Here are the pictures, and although they don't do her size or the experience of being so close to such an awesome creature justice, they are definitely worth clicking on to view full size.

View from My Room

Lucy Gazing into the Distance

Lucy Drinking from the Tarp

She's Very Thirsty

And now for some other notes on the matter... We DO NOT feed, pet or approach her in any way. She doesn't seem to fear people, but we haven't tested that theory by actually going outside to her. She's a wild animal, so if she doesn't fear people that's dangerous both to her and any humans she might encounter... Our dog lives mostly outside, but we've had to keep him cooped up inside lately. Last year, when she was younger, Lucy stopped by from time to time (we believe it's the same moose) and during one encounter she seemed to get along with the dog just fine, but we don't want to risk it.

Oh, and so far she doesn't seem to be amused by any of my Rocky & Bullwinkle jokes.

In other news, I'm editing.

And finishing up the tribe-building contest.

Curse of the Spider King Book Trailer

As some of you know, I'm participating in a contest being put on by Wayne Thomas Batson and Christopher Hopper in which tribes of people compete against each other by completing promotional tasks to earn points for lots of cool prizes, like a real sword! (If you'd like to join my tribe, shoot me an email). The point being to promote their new Christian fantasy book, Curse of the Spider King.

Three teen members of the Nightwing Tribe, Christian Miles, Leighton, and Jon M (and many others), have completed a totally awesome book trailer, where everything from the acting to the editing to the special effects to the music was done from scratch! The following is the product of literally hundreds of hours of labor, so turn your speakers up and enjoy. And if you'd rate the movie (5 stars ;)) and leave a comment on the youtube site, that would be much appreciated, since that would draw in more viewers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6h-RfnSRbE

Jon M: Music

Leighton: Special effects

Christian Miles: Filming/editing

Presenting... THE FINAL COVER!

That was quick, huh? The cover was actually finished minutes after I posted the cover art. But I decided to wait a bit for dramatic effect ;). As such, I'm a bit late to the party. The cover has already been posted in several places over the internet. But for those of you who haven't seen it yet, here it is: (Click to see full view)


I actually ended up doing the cover design myself with GIMP, a free program I downloaded online. I had sent in a preliminary cover with some ideas. The consensus ended up being that my preliminary cover was a better option to go with than the professional cover designer's in this case. So after a few changes to the preliminary, this is what we came up with.

Also, I'm not sure I mentioned this before, but the release date has been moved to September, much sooner than originally anticipated.

FINAL COVER ART!

It's here! The final, color version of the artwork for Kestrel's Midnight Song has arrived and now I get to share it with everyone: (Click for full view)

Work on the cover design has already begun. In fact, the final cover should be finished shortly. So stay tuned!

I have other news to share, unrelated to KMS...

First, my friend Robert Treskillard has made the first 11,000 words or so of his book, Merlin's Blade, available to read at Authonomy.com. Authonomy is kind of a cool site where a wide variety of books are available to read online. Readers put books they like on their bookshelves, and the books on the most bookshelves rise to the top of the rankings where publishers see them and review them for publication. Are you interested in diving into a story that asks, "What if Merlin was the blind son of a blacksmith, and the stone that held King Arthur's sword... was his greatest enemy?" CLICK HERE. And if you like what you read, consider signing up for a free account and adding his book to your "Bookshelf." His goal is the top five in the Christian genre.

EDIT: As Mr. Treskillard reminded me in the comments, some of the content on Authonomy is very questionable. So be careful, (especially if you're going to explore some of the other books) and involve your parents if you're still at home.

Second, AMG has agreed to a three book publishing deal with Scott Appleton. Swords of the Six will be republished with this large publishing company after nearly a year of promotion and over 2,500 (probably closer to 3,000) copies sold. Very exciting stuff, and hopefully the start of a trend for Flaming Pen Press authors, hehe. For those of you unfamiliar with AMG, it's the publishing house that published Bryan Davis' Dragons in Our Midst and Oracles of Fire series. You can read more about how Scott's deal came about and what comes next HERE.

P.S. Thanks everyone for all the comments on the cover sketch post earlier. Seeing all of your enthusiasm is more thrilling than seeing the cover itself. :)

Cover Sketch Revealed!

A thousand apologies for the gap between posts. My time has been devoured by editing and other things. But what better way to make it up than to reveal the preliminary cover sketch for Kestrel's Midnight Song? Woohoo! (Click to view full size)


Let me get this out of the way: DO NOT COPY, TRANSFER, OR REDISTRIBUTE IN ANY WAY.

For those interested, that's Micah, the main character, on the back of the Aegre Bird, which is a half bird, half dragon.


The cover art is being done by Halil Ural, under the direction of Kerem Beyit. (Halil Ural is Kerem Beyit's apprentice). If you love fantasy art, you must go check out Kerem Beyit's site at http://theartofkerembeyit.com/ The gallery is good for hours of browsing wonder.


Anyhow, what do you guys think? Personally, I'm holding my jaw up with duct tape. I can only imagine what it will look like when it's completed.

Giveaway- The Victor

Just a quick post to let you know that a copy of The Victor is being given away over at Whispered Roars. I'm trying out some outlining software called Snowflake Pro, and I'll be sure to post my thoughts later.

Curse of the Spider King Winners!

Hello everyone. My apologies for taking so long to post, especially with such a crucial post as the winners announcement for a 3 book giveaway! You've all been waiting long enough, so I'll get right to it. The winners are...

Cson!

RPH!

Madison!

Congratulations, you three! And thanks to everyone for entering. I hope to give you plenty more chances at some cool prizes! If I start to slack on the posting again, just yell at me in the comments section. As it is, I have many ideas for some cool posts ahead. (They've been piling up)