Rise of the King -- now available!

Yes! It's never easy getting through the editing process, but once you have it finished there is no other thrill quite like it. Rise of the King, the second book in The Chronicles of Vlandamyuir fantasy series, is now available on Amazon. It's so exciting to see the story continue and see where these characters will go next.

Description:

With the second orb missing and his father dead, Kallum Syer Theras must continue on with the quest outlined in the ancient prophecy. He is forced to return to Livingston to claim the crown and locate the third orb.

Before he can reach the capital, Kallum is pulled in two directions and is forced to split the group again in order to rescue those he left behind in search of the second orb.

In Livingston, Kallum will have to face off against the Vlandamyuirian nobles to avoid a civil war to keep the Dark One sealed in his void prison while dealing with a jilted betrothed and a plot to keep him from the throne.

In celebration of the release of Rise of the King, the first book in the series, The Path of Light, is now available at the low price of just $1.99 for those of you that haven't yet been able to begin the adventure. Be sure to grab your copy today!

April -- What a month!

There is nothing like April. There are so many great reasons this month happens to be one of my favorites of the whole year. Forget for a moment that this is the month when spring starts to seem like spring. We get more sunshine. Birds sing. Flowers bloom. It is all great -- but not why April is so great.

It isn't even the fact that this particular April will see the release of the second book in The Chronicles of Vlandamyuir fantasy series. Yes, Rise of the King is in the final editing phases and will be out first as an ebook within the next week. Very exciting, but not why April is so awesome. I say that only because it's not every April -- so far in my life -- that one of my books has been released. I might have to revise that in the future. We'll see what happens next April.

We're getting closer to why April is so great when I say -- Baseball! Yes, that's right. April and Opening Day for baseball go hand-in-hand. Nothing gets me more excited than realizing from now until October I'll have a baseball game to yell, cheer, scream, and cry over. Since my team -- the 2010 World Champion San Francisco Giants -- will be taking the field this very day, I'm on the edge of my seat. Kicking off a summer full of pitching, hitting, running, sliding, and scoring makes April awesome. I'm going to savor every day of it.

However, the reason April is the best -- well, one of the best months -- is that April also happens to hold my birthday! Ah ha, yes, that is what makes April so very special -- it's got a day dedicated just to me. How can you go wrong there? My birthday and baseball -- April is hard to top!

Do you have a favorite month?

Lucky 7 Meme

Opps, It's happened again. I've gotta watch my back around that Summer girl. She's always tagging me! But seriously, I want to thank Summer from Writing Belle blog for tossing me another tag -- this time in the Lucky 7 meme. In this meme, you need to go to page 77 of your current manuscript and go to line 7 and copy 7 lines, sentences or paragraphs. Then you pass the tag along to 7 more bloggers.

I'll share a snippet from the upcoming Rise of the King: The Chronicles of Vlandaymuir Book Two, which will be coming out in April. So, if this wets anyone's appetite you can dive into the rest of the story very soon.

“Mayhap Sera is just with me this night. It has been a long stretch since I had time to test the fates.” Chance shrugged and tossed more coins into the pot.

Another few rounds and again the dice tipped and toppled into new formations after Chance tossed them. He grit his teeth and clenched a fist as it cost him another win. He hid his discomfort behind his mug, drinking deep as Jayde giggled in his mind.

“Enjoying yer game, Jayde?”

Laughing louder now, he could just picture the gleam in her eye, “Aye, I am. You should have taught me the game. I would be better at fixing things for you.”
 
I hope this little tease has caught your attention. Now, it's time to announce the recipients of my tagging! Here they are, in no particular order:

 Georgina Taylor
Ann Cory
Liv Rancourt
Wodke-Hawkison
Angela Scott
James Garcia
Morgan Shamy

To pen name or not to pen name -- That is the question.

While I love my fantasy series, and as I'm anticipating the final touches on Rise of the King, book two in The Chronicles of Vlandamyuir series, I've had some other story ideas bouncing around in my head. I'm excited about them, and have already jotted down some basic story points as I continue to let these new ideas develop.

The thing is, my new stories are in different genre than the fantasy I've been writing in so far. One is a horror short story. Well, short story right now. We'll see where it goes as it develops. My stories tend to start small and want to grow as I write. The other story is a murder mystery/romantic suspense.

I know. I'm all over the map. So, what I've been wondering is do I release these different genre under my name, which is already established as a fantasy writer, or do I release them under pen names? I know that some of my favorite authors have released different genres under different names, but eventually, it seems that they all end up feeding back to whatever name is the most popular.

I guess what it comes down to, especially in these days of social media, do we just write what we want to write and use one big brand name to cover it all? Do we establish different brands for each genre especially if they are vastly different? Is there no crossover? I know that I read many different genre so I believe that I would read something out of what I would consider the author's main genre just because I enjoy their writing and story telling.

There are so many questions, and I'm sure a ton of different ways to look at this situation. It's not something I have to decide right this moment as the other stories are still early on in the planning, plotting and writing stages. However, if I'm going to use a pen name -- the sooner you get that name out there the better, right?

My biggest fear is that I barely have enough time to attempt marketing with one name, what would I do with multiple pen names? I think I'm overwhelming myself. I definitely don't want to get swamped in social media overload -- at least not more so than I already am. Decisions, decisions -- I can see this debate lasting a while. Let me know what you think. Do you write in multiple genre? Do you write under multiple names?

Perfect timing for March Madness

I'm not saying I planned it. Sometimes you just get lucky. I am so lucky, at least in the timing, not so much with everything else. This timing worked out exactly in my favor. I finished my first round of editing and passed the book off to beta readers just in time for March Madness. Yes!

For those of you that don't know, March Madness is all about basketball. I love college basketball, and having 68 teams battling head-to-head until the championship game in April is just the best. Only thing better is of course baseball, but we have a few weeks before that gets started.

With all the focus on my editing on Rise of the King: The Chronicles of Vlandamyuir Book Two, I wasn't sure I'd be able to enjoy the games. I'd hate to be writing -- Kallum swung his sword up and the shot was good! Three pointer! -- It just wouldn't work. I have to watch out at times that I don't write what goes on around me and stay focused in one world at a time.

Now, I don't need to worry. I can sit back enjoy the games and wait for the readers to get through with the book. My basketball reward for getting the book finished. Don't you just love how things work out sometimes? The next great thing -- The book should be ready for release before opening day of baseball. Wonder how that worked out so well? Guess it's just the luck of the Irish working for me.

Cover reveal for Rise of the King

I'm happy to reveal the cover for the second book in The Chronicles of Vlandamyuir series. Rise of the King is nearly ready to hit the market and I hope that all of you will be able to take the time to give it a look.

If you haven't had the chance yet, be sure to grab your copy of the first book of the series, The Path of Light, so that you can be ready to continue the journey with Kallum Syer Theras and his friends as he battles the forces of the Dark One and the nobles at Ahzyr Palace to fulfill the ancient prophecy and free Vlandamyuir from the evil that stalks it.