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

Release Day!

These arrived today! And they have been a long time coming. I'm so thrilled to announce the release of the second book in the Daughter of Light fantasy trilogy, Half Mortal.

As a young girl, I was completely unaware that several of my favorite authors were men: J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Stephen King. However, as I grew older, I came to realize: WAIT A MINUTE! Where are those female heroes? Now, we have a lot more stories with females front and center. AWESOME! I am proud to add the story told in Daughter of Light to that growing class of fantasy works.

I fell completely in love with Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings. I became obsessed with studying how the books were edited for the big screen. The screenwriters did an amazing job. (I'm not discussing The Hobbit!) So when I set out to write the story that would become Daughter of Light, almost a decade ago, I wanted to create something epic along the lines of LOTR. And I wanted to make it more contemporary. And I wanted to make it about women. Check. Check. Check.

Melia takes an amazing journey in Half Mortal. The challenges and adventures she faces in this second installment deepen and strengthen both her identity and her relationships with the people she loves and cares about. She grows far beyond the young half-faerie that she was in the opening pages of Half Faerie.

So, if you haven't begun reading, you can pick up a copy of Isolt's Enchantment. The short novel, introducing the young priest from Idonne and the historic events that lead up to Melia's story, is free!

 Amazon

Apple
Goodreads

GooglePlay

Kobo

And if you want to keep reading, or share a gift with a friend or loved one, you can pick up a copy of Half Faerie.

Amazon

Apple

B&N
Goodreads

GooglePlay

Kobo

If you've been reading all along, then you can continue with the next installment of Melia's fearless journey and epic transformation in Half Mortal now!

Amazon

Apple

B&N

Goodreads

GooglePlay

Kobo

grumpy, lovable—and wounded ... Flora's Secret by Enya

Today's excerpt from Half Faerie and playlist song highlight Flora, the grumpy, lovable, wise—and wounded—spring faerie. In my wildest dreams, Peter Jackson directs Daughter of Light and Kathy Bates stars as Flora. SIGH.

 From Half Faerie, "Chapter 45: A Dinner Party"

“One day the muannai will be as free to travel between the Mortal and Enchanted worlds as the rest of you are. That’s my dream,” Goring said.

“No, they won’t,” Flora said.

“Ah. You can foresee the future. Is that a special talent spring faeries possess?”

“Anyone can read the times, compare them to the winds of change, and draw their own conclusion.”

“Now you’re a poet.”

“Flattery doesn’t become you, Zachariah. Umbra’s incarnation will close the ancient doors. It won’t open new ones,” Flora said.

Goring twisted the cuff of his fitted white shirt. “And you know this, how?”

“The Whole is self-protecting, and Umbra is mortal ash. Everything about him is dead to the Mortal World. Incarnated or not, it will repel him.”

“Then why bother?”

“No one argues the Whole is out of balance. That something must be done,” Flora said.

Goring prodded her. “Least of all you.”

Her eyes flashed. “Least of all me.”

The muannaye leaned back in his chair. “The truth is that none of us here, at this table, or anywhere in the Whole, know what new age Umbra’s incarnation will usher in.”

Flora raised her glass of beer. “But we can all agree that it will be a new one.”

Goring picked up his glass to match Flora’s toast. “To the advent of a new age, a springtime in history,” he said.


This week's song comes from @RachmiFebrianty's Half Faerie playlist. She selected "Flora's Secret" by Enya as the perfect musical expression of the spring faerie's soul…I agree.

And yes, Flora does have a secret…

The Weekly Extract: none of that Pixie Dust & Evanescence…She's Going Under

Last week's excerpt featured Tuck, a tree elf (think Orlando Bloom's Legolas in The Lord of the Rings). Tatou was furious because he was blind to the danger surrounding everyone else. All he could see was Plantine, Melia's younger sister and his true love. But maybe he had a point, and Plantine is in more trouble than anyone realizes….

From Half Faerie ...

“Did you hear Plantine? The stronghold’s throne is not enough for her. She wants the one at the Cathedral Palace, too.” Tatou whispered, although Plantine was so engrossed with Flora’s grief, she wouldn’t have heard the pixie if she yelled. “She wants to be the Queen of the Realm of Faerie.”

“She’ll be a tyrant,” Melia said.

“Tuck may be the only one who can reach her.”

“She’ll never agree to see him.”

“We have to convince her that seeing him is the right thing for her and everyone else.”

“May I enter?” Chloe stood in the doorframe.

Plantine ignored her. She helped Flora into her enormous bed.

“She’s not feeling well,” Melia said.

Chloe nodded. “Yrrick has announced a dinner party. Lord Goring would like to welcome his bride’s sister and her friends to the stronghold.”

Dread echoed in the hollow of Melia’s chest.

Plantine rushed from Flora’s side. “You brought more friends?”

“A priest from Idonne, a m—” Melia caught herself. They’d left Sinjiin in the Welcoming Hall in his tiger form. If he wanted Chloe—or anyone else at the Calashai—to know he was a mage, he could tell them himself. “—his pet tiger, and a tree elf.”

Plantine’s eyes glinted with dark temper. “A tree elf?”

“Yes,” Melia said.

Plantine turned away from the servant. She pressed her palms together and closed her eyes. “Thank you, Chloe. You may leave us now.”

The muannaye curtseyed and departed.

“I told you not to bring him here,” Plantine said.

Tatou darted towards her.

“If you throw anymore of that pixie dust on me, I’ll have you locked up,” Plantine warned.

The pixie hovered in front of Plantine’s face with her hand in her pocket. Melia held her breath. It was the last dark moon night in the moon cycle, and it looked like it was going to be a long one.

This week when you listen to the awesome Amy Lee singing Going Under, think of Plantine going under Umbra's influence—Umbra is the mortal ash accumulating in the Void that wants to use her as a vessel of incarnation.

 

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.