The First Day of Spring 2018: War & Grace Release

Over the next few months, I'll be continuing my posts on the Daughter of Light trilogy and its prequel Isolt's Enchantment, but this week I want to post some content about the 10-year (plus) journey I took in arriving at this date of the release of the final installment.

Today, I'll keep things very simple and simply post the Acknowledgments for War & Grace:

The Daughter of Light trilogy is inspired by my beloved grandmother and the transformative effect she had on my life. It is equally inspired by my husband. He has been with me every step of the way since its inception. My grandmother was a gardener, connected to the earth. I didn’t realize until she passed the door she’d opened for me to the natural world. My husband is my heart. These works are from him as much as they are from me because they wouldn’t have existed without his contributions, whether it was finessing a plot point, the technicalities of publishing software, or creating the gorgeous covers.

Rachmi Febrianty, Sheila of Frostbite Publishing, and Brenda Ayala were early readers who stuck with the series through its various incarnations through the end. THANK YOU! Each of your contributions were SIGNIFICANT. In particular, Rachmi insisted on the maps early on and always pressed on details, Sheila pushed for the Black Magic Island dragons to not disappear from the story (as they did in early drafts), and Brenda demanded in the most gracious way that Melia be and grow into a worthy heroine.

Like many (most?) (all?) contemporary fantasy authors, I read Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia as a child and the major Tolkien works (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings) as a young teen. It’s common knowledge that Tolkien and Lewis were friends, professional colleagues and that they both professed a personal faith in Christianity which influenced their respective works.

The Lord of the Rings was a huge and direct inspiration for Daughter of Light, but—of course!—changes had to be made. Who wants to retell The Lord of the Rings when it’s already been told so well?

What were the designed changes (made over a decade ago) in Daughter of Light?

1. The protagonist along with a multitude of other major characters are female.
2. While Tolkien’s cosmology pre-dates contemporary history, the Realm of Faerie and the rest of the enchanted world in Daughter of Light exist parallel to the mortal world. There's a (quantum) exchange of energy between the two.
3. The Primal Essence, the Parallel of Shadows, and the Void in Daughter of Light are quantum realms.
4. Language, style of dress, the attitudes and experiences of the characters in Daughter of Light travel much closer to modernity.

Thus, Daughter of Light explores and relies on the newer ideas of quantum mechanics and how reality forms. QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT is at the heart of the story … “quantum entanglement … predicts that changing one particle instantaneously changes the other — even if they are on opposite sides of the galaxy, 100,000 light-years apart.”

While developing the arc of Melia's journey I documented my research on spirituality in the Sunburned blog series on my website. The three most DIRECT contributions came from: Julian of Norwich (I'd never even heard of her before I began this project!) and her theology of love; Kiran Trace and her shared of experience for her own personal spiritual awakening; and John Mark Stroud's vision of a regenerated Planet Earth.

Finally, thank you to the readers. May we all seek and find expressions of mundane, mystical and transformational love in our everyday lives.

Sincerely,
Heidi Garrett

Amazon E-book | Amazon Paperback | Barnes & Noble (coming soon!) | Apple | Google Play | kobo

In a time when the Realm of Faerie and Planet Earth exist in symbiotic union, the epic journey of a young half-faerie woman will transform the future of both worlds ...

My name is Melia Albiana and I stand on the edge of the abyss.

Before I leap, I exhale a breath out of time.

The beauty of the Whole unfurls before me—its intricacy, its complexity, its endurance, its mystery, its majesty.

I am filled with awe.

The universal awareness passes and I am left with the poverty of my personal legacy.

I will die young.

I will die broken.

I will die grief-stricken.

I will die lonely.

And I will die a monster.

I will also die consumed by love.

Whimsical and edgy, Daughter of Light is an epic fantasy with an intriguing cosmology and well-developed characters for readers of all ages.

Daughter of Light and Quantum Engtanglement

War & Grace, the final installment in the Daughter of Light trilogy will FINALLY be available on March 20 (the first day of Spring)! Beginning tomorrow, and for the following 90 days, we’ll be traveling through the series with excerpts from the different books, quantum musings and inspirational songs.

Like many (most?) (all?) contemporary fantasy authors, I read Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia as a child and the major Tolkien works (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings) as a young teen. It’s common knowledge that Tolkien and Lewis were friends, professional colleagues and that they both professed a personal faith in Christianity which inluenced their respective works.

The Lord of the Rings was a huge and direct inspiration for Daughter of Light, but—of course!— changes had to be made. Who wants to retell The Lord of the Rings when it’s already been told so well?

What were the designed changes (made over a decade ago) in Daughter of Light?


1. The protagonist along with a multitude of other major characters are female. 
   
2. While Tolkien’s cosmology pre-dates contemporary history, the Realm of Faerie and the rest of the enchanted world in Daughter of Light exist parallel to the mortal world. There's a (quantum) exchange of energy between the two. 
   
3. The Primal Essence, the Parallel of Shadows, and the Void in Daughter of Light are quantum realms. 
   
4. Language, style of dress, the attitudes and experiences of the characters in Daughter of Light travel much closer to modernity. 
   

Thus, Daughter of Light explores and relies on the newer ideas of quantum mechanics and how reality forms. QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT is at the heart of the story … “quantum entanglement … predicts that changing one particle instantaneously changes the other — even if they are on opposite sides of the galaxy, 100,000 light-years apart.”

In Daughter of Light, Isolt’s enchantment is the seed of that quantum entanglement, crossing the boundaries of time and space, planes and multiple hearts and lives …

Isolt of the Waters is an ancient water elemental whose betrayal and enchantment has forever changed the Whole. When a young scholar in Idonne discovers her story, along with tales of dwarf magic and the birth of Umbra—a malevolent entity dwelling in the Void—he dreams of a life filled with adventure and heroism.

Ebook

Amazon | Amazon (Australia) | Amazon (Canada) | Amazon (UK)

Apple | Barnes & Noble | Google Play | kobo

Paperback

Amazon | Amazon UK 

Join Us in Reading the Hobbit!

Me and my good friend Rachmi created the J.R.R. Tolkien Epic Reads Goodreads group in January 2016. Since then, we've read The Silmarillion and The Children of Hurin getting all the scoop on Middle Earth. Now, finally, we're ready to begin reading The Hobbit! We read a couple of chapters a month, so if you're a Tolkien fan—or not, if you've read these beloved books many times—or not, please join us in this epic reading of The Hobbit beginning on September 1, 2017.

Our group also has an epic and awesome art thread for The Silmarillion. Truly inspiring!

J.R.R. Tolkien Epic Reads
51 members We're reading it all: The Silmarillion, The Children of Hurin, The Hobbit, and the Lord of the Rings ... slowly, deeply, thoughtfully, two chapters each month for most books. All Tolkien fans are welcome!!! Yes, it will take years, but we intend to enjoy the journey!!!

Books we've read

The Silmarillion
by J.R.R. Tolkien
Start date: January 1, 2016

The Children of Húrin
by J.R.R. Tolkien
Start date: June 1, 2017

View this group on Goodreads »

On Writing War & Grace: Video Update #2

Enjoy this video update on War & Grace, the final release in my epic fantasy trilogy Daughter of Light. Notice the slip at 0:41 when I suggested my husband was an objective beta reader; I meant to say he might be subjective!

Half Faerie is on sale for $0.99 until May 31st!

Amazon Amazon (UK) Amazon (Canada) Apple Barnes & Noble Google play kobo

Great News!

Finally!

Isolt's Enchantment, The Girl Who Believed in Fairy Tales, and Beautiful Beautiful are available at barnesandnobles.com! YAY! For years, we've been unable to offer Nook Readers free books—without going through a convoluted process which ... well ... I won't bore you with the details.

But this week, Barnes & Nobles has updated their policy and now Nook Readers can grab these amazing reads for free. (Android Readers they're available at GooglePlay, iPad & iPhone Readers they're available at Apple's iBooks store, Kindle Readers they're available at Amazon, Kobo Readers they're available in the Kobo store!)

Isolt's Enchantment is a prequel to Daughter of Light, although many readers enjoy reading it after they have read the first book in the trilogy, Half Faerie.

The slim novel is a collection of tales chronicling the historical events which have seeded the looming battle between Dark and Light in the enchanted world—the battle being the apocalyptic threat the eighteen-year-old Melia must face in her epic quest.

The tales are interwoven with the moving and inspiring story of Ryder's early years. An orphan adopted by the priests of Idonne, Ryder is determined to overcome his rootless past and safeguard the Whole from Umbra, a sinister consciousness dwelling in the Void.

Half Faerie and Half Mortal are currently available at all online book sellers.

War & Grace Update: I'm still cranking out the first draft of War & Grace. When I began writing this final book in the trilogy, I guesstimated it would be approximately 120,000 to 150,000 words. Well ... I've just passed 150,000 and have approximately seventeen more chapters to write! This book has been a huge challenge for me, and when I realized it was going to be bigger than either Half Faerie or Half Mortal, I freaked out! Should it have been published as a series rather than a trilogy? Bites nails. I turned to my trusted inspiration, The Lord of the Rings. How many total words were in that trilogy? Since you can find everything on the internet these days, I was able to find the exact word count of each LOtR installment at the LOTR Project:

Fellowship of the Ring: 188,000
The Two Towers: 157,000
The Return of the King: 137,000
Total: 482,000

I compared those word counts to the word counts in Daughter of Light:

Half Faerie: 120,000
Half Mortal: 150,000
War & Grace: 190,000 (yep!) (current estimate)
Total: 460,000

As far as word count, when compared to LOtR, DOL works as a trilogy! YAY! With that concern out of the way, revising my time schedule has been the remaining hurdle. As the story has taken some surprising turns, I've had to hunker down and accept: The first draft will be complete ... when the first draft is complete! I'll continue to post updates ... but please rest assured, I'm thrilled with the story up to this point and am committed to writing an enchanting, action-packed, and original end to Melia's story.

So ... Nook Readers, pick up a copy of Isolt's Enchantment for free!

The Girl Who Believed in Fairy Tales is a prelude to my Once Upon a Time Today collection. Throughout my life, many friends have said, "You should write a story about your life." Ugh, is pretty much how I feel whenever I hear that. However, I have loved fairy tales since I heard my first one as a child and have found them to be instructive, inspiring, and ... just plain great escapes. In TGWBFT, I share three specific times when fairy tales helped me navigate the dark woods of my own  psyche and helped me to: survive a wicked witch, transform overwhelming desire, and recognize that a duck trying to be a swan ... probably really isn't a bird at all!

Beautiful Beautiful is the first novella in the the Once Upon a Time Today collection.  OUTT are fairy tales retold as contemporary stories for "those who have already left home." In BB, a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale, Beautiful, a mother analyzes her own past experience and perspective on beauty as she spins extemporaneous bed time stories for her young daughter.

So why offer these books for free?

To allow readers a risk-free glimpse into my writing world!

Enjoy!
Heidi

The Next Big Thing

Thank you, Jessica Fortunato for tagging me for The Next Big Thing. Jessica is the author of The Sin Collector books and her latest release is Steam, a 5-star original short story/science fiction/romance just in time for Valentine's Day.

So what is The Next Big Thing? Answering the following questions and tagging five more writers!

1. Diantha Jones
2. Bella Harte
3. Vanessa Wu
4. T.L. Rese
5. Michelle Muto

1) What is the [working] title of your next book?
The Dragon Carnivale.

2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
The idea for this installment grew out of one of my favorite characters in the series, Sevondi, a muannai and a powerful dragonwitch.

3) What genre does your book fall under?
It’s a fantasy fairy tale series and a spin off of the14th century French fairy tale, Melusine. There are faeries and half-faeries, and the enchanted world bleeds into the mortal world.

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
I'm pretty sure I am going to date myself here. I would love a young-someone-like Wynona Ryder for the main character Melia. Wynona Ryder is a beautiful, intelligent, irreverent actress.

Amanda Seyfried for the beautiful bad Plantine. She would be AWESEOME. Yes, all caps.

A young-someone-like the statuesque, auburn-haired, Aussie Nicole Kidman for Melusine. I can just see her looking down her perfect nose at her middle sister.

No one but Kathy Bates for Flora.

Waffling between Sir Anthony Hopkins and Sir Michael Caine for Uncle Raffles.

But if Peter Jackson would just direct the movie, he could do for Kathy and Anthony or Michael, what he did for Elijah Wood, Sam Astin, and all the other hobbits. He could make Ms. Bates the perfect Spring Faerie and either of the fellows the perfect head librarian/wood elf.

And what about a young-someone-like Javier Bardem for Ryder?

And no one, but no one, but Jada Pinkett Smith for Sevondi!!!

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
After the death of Elenda and the fall of the Stronghold of Calashai, energies in the enchanted world are shifting and new alliances are forming; the battle between Dark and Light has begun. Before Melia can deal with her feelings for Ryder, she must warn the halfbloods in the mortal world that Umbra is coming for them; and face the powerful Dragonwitch and her bacchanalian Dragon Carnivale.

Oops! Two sentences. Sirens. Here come the blog-meme police.

6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
My series is totally indie.

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
I will tell you when I am done.

8)What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I am so heavily influenced by Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. The first manuscript for the first book in Queen of the Realm of Faerie was a totally Tolkienesque, cast of characters, omniscient POV, quest fantasy, but it needed a lot of work. It was my first completed novel and was rejected by five agents. The next attempt was a Charlaine Harris-Sookie Stackhouse-like-first person POV-attempt with Melusine as the main character. That didn’t even make it past my husband and beta reader, although I had a lot of fun writing it. Finally, after reading The Greyfriar (Vampire Empire, Book 1), I settled on the multi-but-predominantly-Melia POV epic fantasy. Even though multi-POVs are out of fashion, it felt like the best way to tell the story. So ... can you compare Queen of the Realm of Faerie to The Lord of the Rings? The Sookie Stackhouse series? Or the Greyfriar books? I don’t know, but they directly fed my muse.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
The entire series was inspired by my maternal grandmother. Whenever I went to visit her, I felt like I was entering another world full of enchantment and rife with black magic.

10) What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?
In the end, I think of it as a contemporary The Lord of the Rings with faeries, half-faeries and female leads. The Lord of the Rings is a love story enfolded in an epic quest fantasy, and that is ultimately how I view Queen of the Realm of Faerie. Contemporary, but traditional. Faerie Tale, but epic. And I hope that when it is all said and done that the love story between Melia and Ryder will hold a candle to the inspiring love between Aragorn and Arwen.

I am Determined to see The Hobbit

It snowed last night. But today I am determined to see The Hobbit. I am not sure my determination is necessary. It's just another movie, right. And now it's just another movie adaptation of one of those books by Tolkien. Who? Right? But it's smashing box office records. Well, we are going to the first show and that means the snow's not going to melt by itself so we are going to need to do some shoveling.

We get downtown and the streets are clear. The parking is easy. We've beat the rush of last minute shoppers. We know the movie has at least 15 minutes of previews that I could care less about, so we don't bother getting there on time. All we want is to get some popcorn and be in our seats before the movie starts. Check. Check.

OMG! It has me from the first moment. Jackson is doing for The Hobbit what he did for The Lord of the Rings, except for maybe he's doing it even better. He starts with the dwarves and their history. It's awesome. I know that's not a very specific description but the cinematography, sets, and costumes are breathtaking. Get a load of the dwarf king's beard get-up.

Then he shuffles us back and forth in time between Bilbo's parties--the last one he has in The Shire for his birthday and the one that he didn't plan. The dwarfs start piling in and messing up his tidy hobbit hole and it just gets better from there.

English actor, Martin Freeman is hitting all the right notes. He's meek and assertive, outraged and clever, thoughtful and sensitive. He doesn't like the dwarves showing up and eating his food, and they aren't so sure they like him for their burglar, but by the end of The Hobbit's first installment, the group of fourteen is cohesive and almost everyone has had a chance to be a hero.

When The Ring and Gollum appear on screen for the first time, I want to stand up and clap. But no one else is jumping out of their seats so I restrain myself and manage with tapping my finger pads together. I have a big huge grin on my face. Gollum's first appearance in The Hobbit surpasses his debut in The Lord of the Rings and The Ring, well, it's The Ring.

When the credits start rolling I am frozen in my seat. I think it's better than The Lord of the Rings. I am so glad that my determination got me here, to the theater, on Christmas Eve Day. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Just like I'm supposed to. I can't resist chatting up other movie goers in the lobby.

Wasn't it great? Yeah. Everyone agrees, it is awesome.