Today I have a cover reveal for an author friend, E.E. Rawls!
Book Blurb:
Teenage Madnes Hatter wants more to life than what his island hometown has to offer—and he definitely doesn’t want a boring future in hat-making, like his parents. But he sure doesn’t expect a well-dressed cat named Cheshire to suddenly pop into his life and make everything worse—giving him the power of the Madness Solver and making him the guardian and peacekeeper between Wonderland and Earth.
What the heck? When he said he wanted more to life, this wasn’t what he meant! Now, he’s the only one who can see Wonderland creatures as they walk the streets, and when there’s trouble, it’s his job to solve it. His friends, Alice and Harrey, think he’s going crazy.
But when a problem arises with the portals linking Wonderland to Earth, an old mystery is brought to light—the case of the death of the previous Madness Solver. Will Madnes meet the same fate, with the guardian power sapping away at his life? Wonderland’s ruler, the Red King, has cast a dangerous spell, and an ancient evil is rising. Madnes may not have long to save his friends and both worlds before it’s too late…
The Book Release Tour begins June 1st! If you would like to help promote this book on your social media or blog, please sign up HERE.
Author Bio:
The product of a traveling family, who even lived in Italy for 6 years, Rawls loves to explore the unknown, whether it be in a forest, inside a forgotten castle, or within the pages of a book. She runs on coffee, cuddly cats and the beauty of nature to keep the story wheels of her mind turning as she crafts tales that will both entertain and inspire, creating worlds one can explore and quickly become lost within. Beware, you might not find your way back out again. Visit her online at:
I’m late on posting this, but Angela R. Watts has revealed the cover for her upcoming Christian fantasy Golgotha!
Four unlikely companions must band together to escape the Realm of Bones and save their kingdom from a reign of darkness.
Prince Moray will lead his empire to glory, even if it means dabbling with forbidden black magic. But when their parents are murdered, Moray and his brother, Finnigan, are cast into Golgotha—a realm where hope is dead. Finnigan fiercely believes his god, Elohai, will rescue them, but Moray will never trust again.
Princess Ama, promised in marriage to Moray to ensure her clan’s safety from rival tribes, arrives just before a coup and becomes trapped in Golgotha with the smart-mouthed mercenary, Gunnar. Surrounded by strange monsters and ravenous demons, Ama must fight to hold on to her faith—or lose everything.
Despite Ama’s Gift of prophetic dreams, Finnigan’s Gift of energy, Moray’s magic, and Gunnar’s blades, nothing can rescue them from themselves. If they fail to escape, darkness will devour the entire kingdom.
Shadow and Bone meets Mark of the Raven in this epic for fans of faith-based young adult fantasy.
Today is the last day in the Tattered Slippers group release! Today’s release is A Time of Mourning and Dancing by Abigail Falanga. It was supposed to be released on August 27, but technical difficulties caused it to be delayed to August 31.
The Floramancy Archives #1 Once, Toph knew his place in the world. As a respected captain in a victorious army, he had triumph and promotion to look forward to. But crippling injury stole his future and war stole his friend. Belonging nowhere and with nothing left to lose, Toph accepts a challenge that could end his life: discover a secret the princesses will do anything to hide.
Vicia is a princess, but powerless and in mourning. Her beloved brothers were killed in a war she’s beginning to question. Ever since, she and her eleven sisters have become mere treasure for her stepfather the king to use to barter. A chance meeting with a frightened faery gave a wild hope that they may recover what they’ve lost. But it will cost a dance—and a dangerous secret.
Soldier and princess must learn to rely on each other if they are to survive curses, slighted fae, and an enchanted lost land. Something dark and powerful lurks in the mists beyond the dance floor, conducting the steps… and time is running out.
Abigail Falanga may be found in New Mexico creating magic in many ways – with fabric, food, paper, music, and especially with words! She’s loved fantasy ever since playing out epic adventures of swords, fairies, and monsters with her siblings, and loved sci-fi since her dad’s stories around the dinner table. Abigail has published nearly two dozen flash fiction stories across a variety of genres, having discovered that extra-short stories are a wonderful way to explore ideas without getting distracted by – Squirrel! But fantasy and fairytales are her first and truest loves. She’s launching “The Floramancy Archives” – dark and epic fantasy reimaginings of classic tales, filled with plant-magic and portals, curses and fae. Find her online at: Website || Goodreads || Facebook || Twitter || Instagram || Amazon
This year, our normal Good Friday traditions are going to look a little different. Good Friday service tonight is live streamed. Normal family gatherings will happen virtually or not at all. My church always holds an Easter morning song service where we gather and sing Good Friday and Easter hymns. This year, the pianist will be live streamed while the rest of us sing in the small groups of our families. For a non-musical family like mine, it’s a struggle.
Maybe the extra time will give us the ability to sit down and truly ponder what this day means for us as Christians. Or maybe we’ll go about our day and forget it is Good Friday. If you’re still working (like I am) the day can feel like a normal Friday.
But I have one odd Good Friday tradition that I thought I would share with you today. I was an English Minor in college, and while not an Old English geek by any means (I have yet to teach myself to write or read the actual Old English), I love many of the poems written in that time.
“The Dream of the Rood” is a Good Friday poem written around the same time as Beowulf. It starts out with an unknown poet having a dream. In that dream, he sees the cross of Calvary, and the personified cross then tells the dreamer the Good Friday story from its perspective.
I find it a very fascinating poem in that it is such a strange mix of early medieval Christianity and Anglo-Saxon warrior mythology. It portrays Christ’s death in a way the people of that day could understand, as a warrior king striding into battle, but a battle won not by fighting but by willingly enduring a torturous death. And the poem shows the cross as Christ’s loyal thane (a warrior fighting under his leader). The tree agonizes over the fact that it cannot fight off Christ’s enemies, but instead is ordered to stand firm and let this tragedy happen.
I love the poem because it makes me think. From a human perspective, Jesus looked weak and helpless as He was nailed to the cross. He was mocked and ridiculed by those who taunted him to come down, though they did not believe He could.
Yet, He was God Almighty. He could have come down from that cross. He could have unleashed a host of angels to fight off His enemies. He did not have to stay, suffer, and die.
But He did, willingly, to save His people.
So, here is my favorite section from the poem (from the part where the cross is talking so the “I” here is the tree). I’ll provide a link to the rest of it at the end.
“It happened long ago—I remember it still—
I was hewn down at the holt’s end
stirred from my stock. Strong foes seized me there,
worked in me an awful spectacle, ordered me to heave up their criminals.
Those warriors bore me on their shoulders
until they set me down upon a mountain.
Enemies enough fastened me there.
I saw then the Lord of Mankind
hasten with much courage, willing to mount up upon me. (28-34)
“There I dared not go beyond the Lord’s word
to bow or burst apart—then I saw the corners of the earth
tremor—I could have felled all those foemen,
nevertheless I stood fast. (35-38)
“The young warrior stripped himself then—that was God Almighty—
strong and firm of purpose—he climbed up onto the high gallows,
magnificent in the sight of many. Then he wished to redeem mankind.
I quaked when the warrior embraced me—
yet I dared not bow to the ground, collapse
to earthly regions, but I had to stand there firm.
The rood was reared. I heaved the mighty king,
the Lord of Heaven—I dared not topple or reel. (39-45)
“They skewered me with dark nails, wounds easily seen upon me,
treacherous strokes yawning open. I dared injure none of them.
They shamed us both together. I was besplattered with blood,
sluicing out from the man’s side, after launching forth his soul. (46-49)
“Many vicious deeds have I endured on that hill—
I saw the God of Hosts racked in agony.
Darkness had covered over with clouds
the corpse of the Sovereign, shadows oppressed
the brightest splendor, black under breakers.
All of creation wept, mourning the king’s fall—
Christ was upon the cross. (50-56)
A New Year is always a good time to reassess and evaluate. Look behind with 20/20 hindsight. Look ahead to try to wisely plan (as much as we humans can plan anyways).
2019 was an interesting year. I didn’t publish what I thought I would, though the launch of Midnight’s Curse went better than expected. Thanks to Midnight’s Curse (and the new cover on Dagger’s Sleep), it and Dagger’s Sleep are now outselling Dare, which was previously my best selling book. I made a lot of new author friends. Spent time deepening friendships with my current writer friends. It was over all an another amazing year to thank God for.
Update on Deceive
*wince* Um, yeah. *wince again*
Thank you to everyone who has been emailing me and messaging me asking about a release date for Deceive. It is still delayed, and I don’t know when it will release. After all the bugging the characters did about writing more books, when I actually sit down to write it, they aren’t playing nice. I think they are grumpy at me or something, lol.
My current plan is that Deceive and Poison’s Dance (the next Beyond the Tales book) will probably release in the summer or fall of this year. I will probably spend the beginning of this year writing both books, then editing and releasing them within a few months of each other. It all depends on how much trouble the books give me (and Deceive is already proving to be a problem child).
The Blades of Acktar 5th Anniversary!
On a happier note, this year will mark 5 years since Dare released! (June 2 to be exact!). I’m thinking we need to do something fun to celebrate, and I’ve been bouncing around a few ideas.
I’ve put together a survey of a few of the ideas I’ve been considering. If you would take the time to go through it, I would appreciate it!
Thanks once again for your patience for Deceive! I hope it will be such an awesome book that it will make up for the long wait! 🙂 And, hopefully, the release for Poison’s Dance won’t be far behind it!
A whole bunch of indie authors have come together to give you a massive Black Friday sale on their books! Follow this link to find deals of my books and many other good books!
This sale has now ended.
I have deals on all my ebooks, and some aren’t included in the above sale.
This sale has now ended.
Finally, I have a sale for free shipping on all signed paperbacks from my website. This sale has now ended.
I’m horrible at doing this recaps, and this is coming about a week late. I don’t know what it is, but time has been flying at double speed in the past week and a half. I’ll be back to the Dagger’s Sleep Read-Along later this week.
A week and a half ago, I went to the Realm Makers writers conference. It was my third year going, and it is always such an amazingly fun conference to attend.
This year, I arrived a night earlier than usual, so I visited the Gateway Arch with fellow indie authors Jaye L. Knight and Morgan Huneke (my roommates for Realm Makers this year) along with Morgan’s family (who are absolutely amazing. So much fun to hang out with them!).
Then on Thursday evening, the conference started off with a stellar opening keynote by Brent Weeks. He writes dark, general market fantasy, and I have yet to read any of his books. But I have a friend who loves them, so maybe someday I’ll pick them up.
Friday morning I had not one but two readers come up to me to ask for me to sign their books while I was eating breakfast. It was kind of surreal, and so nice to finally meet them in person!
Friday was a packed day of sessions and mentor appointments and finally the costume banquet. I got to meet Jill Williamson!!!!!!!!!!!! *fangirl squeal* Her Blood of Kings trilogy was the first Christian fantasy series that I read apart from The Chronicles of Narnia and showed me that there was a place for books that were both Christian and fantasy. I sat down to write The Blades of Acktar within a few weeks of reading her series.
Jill Wiliiamson dressed at the White Witch and me as Maddie from Ranger’s Apprentice at the costume banquet Friday night.
Me and my Roomies: Jaye L. Knight (author of the Ilyon Chronicles) dressed as Darrel from The Walking Dead, me as Maddie from Ranger’s Apprentice (not a hobbit as everyone kept asking), and Morgan Huneke (author of the Time Captives series) dressed as Anna from Frozen.
My roommates and I had a lot of fun with our costumes for the banquet. Jaye even had fake zombie blood drooling down her arm. We still had dried drops of zombie blood on our sink in our hotel room’s bathroom the next day. #onlyatRealmMakers
While Dagger’s Sleep was a finalist for the Realm Award in Fantasy, it didn’t win. That honor went to the stellar Ronie Kendig. It was cool simply having Dagger’s Sleep listed alongside hers.
Even though Dagger’s Sleep didn’t win, I ended up with an official name plate and table at the Book Festival on the last night of Realm Makers, and that was fun pretending I was a big name author for a night, lol. It worked out well that I wasn’t a big name author since they were placed at the rear of the ballroom so that their lines could snake around the edges while I had the very first table right by the ballroom doors so I was easy to find.
Here I’m signing all the currently released books in The Blades of Acktar series. It’s become quite a stack!
Realm Makers was such a blast and I already miss all the wonderful people I met again or met for the first time. I can’t even begin to describe how amazing an experience the conference is, whether you are published or not-yet published or traditional or indie. It’s one big family reunion.
Today I have a slightly delayed spotlight for my friend Claire Banschbach’s latest release Oath of the Outcast, a Scottish-flavored fantasy. I bought a signed copy of the book at Realm Makers last weekend, and I’m so excited to dive into it when I have a moment to read!
About the Book
A lost brother.
An unwilling outlaw.
A rising enemy.
An unusual alliance.
Years ago, Rhys MacDuffy was brutally cut off from his clan, stripped of his name and inheritance, and banished to the remote Dragon Keep. Perched high above the Shang Pass in the land of Alsaya, he assumed the mantle of the Mountain Baron, serving out his sentence as the overseer of the worst outlaws and outcasts.
But one day he receives a desperate message from the clan who disowned him: MacDuffy’s Seer—his beloved brother—has been taken by their enemies.
With his band of Mountain Brigands and an unwelcome sidekick, Rhys leaves his mountain stronghold to find and rescue his brother. The tide of war is rising amongst the Clans of Alsaya, fueled by the magic-wielding sect of Druids who seek to unleash a dark force the world has long forgotten.
C.M. Banschbach is a native Texan and would make an excellent Hobbit if she weren’t so tall. She’s a pizza addict, a multi-faceted fangirl, and a firm believer in being authentic—even if it means acting like a dork sometimes! When not writing fantasy stories packed full of adventure and snark, she works as a pediatric physical therapist where she happily embraces the fact that she never actually has to grow up.
She also writesYA/MG fantasy-adventure as Claire M. Banschbach.
I am so excited to reveal the release date and cover reveal for my upcoming book Midnight’s Curse today!
For those of you who have been asking:
This is a sequel to last May’s release Dagger’s Sleep
It continues with the same characters as Dagger’s Sleep. So if you wanted to read more about Alex, Daemyn, Rosanna, and the rest, then you’ll want to get your hands on Midnight’s Curse
Yes, it is my first book whose title doesn’t start with D
Midnight’s Curse releases August 6, 2019!
I have already begun some of the brainstorming for the release, and it’s going to be epic with a blog tour, Instagram challenge, and, of course, lots of giveaways of Cinderella retellings.
High King Alexander rules the Seven Kingdoms of Tallahatchia—a divided nation on the brink of yet another war. When an invitation arrives from the king of Pohatomie, Alex knows it must be a trap, but could it also be his opportunity to unite the kingdoms?
Daemyn Rand has lived a hundred years, served an arrogant prince, fallen in love with a princess, and lost himself somewhere along the way. He has already died for his loyalty. Will he have to sacrifice his last chance to truly live?
Elara Ashen is a lowly, miserable servant. All she wants is to spend one night in a fancy dress, dancing with the high king. When she is offered a pair of glass slippers, it seems all her dreams have come true.
But dreams have a price, and gifts can be curses in disguise. What will it cost to stop this curse from tearing Tallahatchia apart yet again?
Fairy tales meet the Appalachian Mountains in this adventurous fantasy retelling of the classic Cinderella story.
I actually stumbled across this cover on a premade cover site when I was in the very early stages of brainstorming Midnight’s Curse. If you happen to frequent the same sites I do, you may have seen this cover before. Yep, I’m the person who snapped it up, lol.
As soon as I saw this cover, it was love at first sight. The girl on the cover was exactly as I had been picturing Elara, the Cinderella character. The castle in the background was the EXACT same castle I had decided to use as my base for my fictional castle in this book. The cover is a nighttime scene. Even the black and red dress was perfect. The designer was someone I’d had recommended to me from a fellow indie author, and I liked this designer’s work. The premade cover couldn’t have been more perfect for Midnight’s Curse if I had sat down with the cover designer and had it made specifically for the book.
Original cover
The only problem was that it didn’t fit what was then the current cover for Dagger’s Sleep, the first book in the series. If I bought this cover, then I would need to change the cover for Dagger’s Sleep as well, and it would involve a bit of re-branding for this series.
Current cover
After a few hours of agonizing over the decision, my gut was still telling me this cover was the right direction to go for Midnight’s Curse. I bought it and contacted Savannah about a cover for Dagger’s Sleep as well. She worked her magic, and created the new cover for Dagger’s Sleep that I adore!
So, yes. Not only did I have this cover for Midnight’s Curse before I’d even started writing the book, I also had it before the current cover for Dagger’s Sleep. Funny how things sometimes work like that when you’re an indie author, lol.
About the author:
Tricia Mingerink is the author of the bestselling The Blades of Acktar series and the Beyond the Tales series. She lives in Michigan with her family and their pack of pets. When she isn’t writing, she can be found pursuing backwoods adventures across the country.
To celebrate the cover reveal, Dagger’s Sleep, a Sleeping Beauty retelling and book one in the series, is on sale in Kindle for $.99 this weekend! Click here to purchase on Amazon.
Giveaway!
To celebrate even more, I’m holding a giveaway for a paperback copy of Dagger’s Sleep and a 2oz Plot Twist candle by Novelly Yours Candles.
To enter, share the above sale graphic for Dagger’s Sleep, the cover for Midnight’s Curse, or the below Midnight’s Curse promo graphic and make sure you use hashtag #MidnightsCurse and tag @triciamingerink on any social media site to enter.
The giveaway will end May 22 at midnight. Please note this giveaway is only open in the United States. It is not sponsored by Novelly Yours Candles.
What do you think? Are you excited for Midnight’s Curse?
About the Book
Tricia Mingerink is the author of the bestselling The Blades of Acktar series and the Beyond the Tales series. She lives in Michigan with her family and their pack of pets. When she isn’t writing, she can be found pursuing backwoods adventures across the country.
Tricia Mingerink 