Showing posts with label free ebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label free ebook. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Nightmares and Daydreams

When the Dark Master rises from the mists to breach the Veil, and a Daughter of Light, denied the throne by virtue of birth, stands alone, beware.

The blood of innocents will soak Illialei's meadows, and dreamlessness will snuff all hope from the mortal world.

The Old Texts, Appendix VII — Excerpt from Idonnic Prophecy, Half Faerie

There are three significant themes in the Idonnic Prophecy. The first one is: dreams. Night dreams and daydreams, these states when we're not quite present to the visible material world, and yet our hearts keep beating and our lungs continue their rhythmic inhaling and exhaling of breath ... while our awareness is somewhere else.

Where is it?

meaning of dreams, spiritual meaning of dreams

In THE INVISIBLE realm, attuned to the imaginal, lost in our inner world.

What do I mean?

There are layers, layers of consciousness, layers of energy in the WHOLE that we live in. Things must be envisioned, imagined, thought of in THE INVISIBLE realm before they are realized in the visible material realm.

I first began to contemplate THE INVISIBLE realm decades ago when I was exposed to the I Ching.

"The beginning of all things lies still in the beyond in the form of ideas that have yet to become real ..." — Hexagram 1. The Creative, The I Ching

"The wind blows over the lake and stirs the surface of the water. Thus the visible effects of the invisible manifest themselves." — Hexagram 61. Inner Truth, The I Ching

The cosmology of Daughter of Light, the Whole,  incorporates this concept of a layered reality through the Primal Essence, the invisible point of all beginnings; the Parallel of Shadows, invisible but accessible energetically and through visions; the Enchanted World, visible to it's inhabitants and to some mortals; the mortal world, visible; the Hidden City, also visible to its inhabitants but largely invisible to the rest of the creatures of the Whole; the Unknown Beyond, largely invisible but perhaps accessible or visible during altered states of consciousness or on the threshold of death or after, and the Void, invisible but accessible through energy and sensing.

Blogging Isolt's Enchantment, the focus was on quantum musings (quanta being largely invisible to the naked eye!). Now I'm going to move on to the themes of: fairy tales, The INVISIBLE (encompassing the IMAGINAL and INNER WORLDS), and the death of mechanistic science.

Why do fairy tales persist? Might they be efforts to verbalize the power inherent in crossing the threshold between the visible and THE INVISIBLE? Acknowledging that there is, in fact, a threshold to cross? Thus the promise of transformation through gifts of insight, "knowing" beyond the scope of intellect, psychic rejuvenation, etc.

fairy tale retellings ya, fairy tale novels, fairytale fantasy books

If dreamlessness — an end of travel to THE INVISIBLE REALM — was to occur, what would that mean? Perhaps endless wars and tyranny? Maybe the destruction of the natural world in the name of technological advance?

global destruction, pollution

In other words ...

"The nightmare I built my own world to escape" —Evanescence, Imaginary



Lyrics:

Ah-ah-ah-ah, paper flowers
Ah-ah-ah-ah, paper flowers

I linger in the doorway
Of alarm clock screaming monsters calling my name
Let me stay where the wind will whisper to me
Where the raindrops, as they're falling, tell a story

In my field of paper flowers
And candy clouds of lullaby (paper flowers)
I lie inside myself for hours
And watch my purple sky fly over me (paper flowers)

Don't say I'm out of touch
With this rampant chaos - your reality
I know well what lies beyond my sleeping refuge
The nightmare I built my own world to escape

In my field of paper flowers
And candy clouds of lullaby (paper flowers)
I lie inside myself for hours
And watch my purple sky fly over me (paper flowers)

Swallowed up in the sound of my screaming
Cannot cease for the fear of silent nights
Oh, how I long for the deep sleep dreaming
The goddess of imaginary light

In my field of paper flowers
And candy clouds of lullaby (paper flowers)
I lie inside myself for hours
And watch my purple sky fly over me (paper flowers)

Ah-ah-ah-ah, paper flowers
Ah-ah-ah-ah, paper flowers


As a half-faerie, Melia is an outcast in the enchanted world where she lives with her two sisters and full-blood faerie mother. The girls' father has been exiled to the mortal world for breaking his faerie troth. When a tragic accident destroys what's left of Melia's fractured family, her mother is unforgiving. The punishment she metes out will leave her daughter torn between guilt and ecstasy, challenge the bonds between three sisters, and complicate Melia's relationship with a young priest who’s come to the Realm of Faerie on a mission of his own.

Free eBook
Amazon  |  Amazon (UK)  |  Amazon (Canada)  |  Apple  |  Barnes & Noble  |  Google play  |  kobo
Buy the Paperback

Friday, September 23, 2016

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

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Once Upon a Time Today — New Release & Freebies

I’m excited to announce the release of the 4th Once Upon a Time Today novella.  I Am Lily Dane, A Horrific Fairy Tale is a retelling of Han’s Christian Andersen’s “The Shadow”. Early readers have said it’s “twisted and awesome” and “disturbing and beautiful.”

I Am Lily Dane

Other news: The three short stories that serve as a prelude to the collection, as well as the bundling of the three stories, The Girl Who Believed in Fairy Tales are now FREE on Amazon, Apple, GooglePlay, and Kobo. AND, for at least the rest of March, the first novella in the collection, Beautiful Beautiful, will be FREE.

Beautiful Beautiful

The Girl Who Believed in Fairy Tales (Three Short Stories)

The Girl Who Watched for Elves*
GooglePlay | Kobo |Scribd

The Girl Who Dreamed of Red Shoes*

The Girl Who Couldn't Sing*

*If you'd like to help make this free on Amazon, please report a price match!

The rest of the novellas in the Once Upon a Time Today collection are now available wherever you find your reads. Each story has been enhanced, thanks to editor Vince Dickinson, and updated with an Author’s Note about how I retold the original tale.

Dreaming of the Sea

The Tree Hugger

Once Upon a Time Today is a collection of modern fairy tale retellings for those who have already left home.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

How I Retold Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid"

Since my third Once Upon a Time Today novella, The Tree Hugger, will be releasing on August 26th, I'm writing a short series on how I've retold each tale. Dreaming of the Sea is the second tale in the collection. It will be free on Amazon August 23rd through the 25th, so pick up a copy if you don't already have one!

When I read the original version of the “The Little Mermaid”, I was surprised with its spiritual emphasis. None of the movie remakes or retellings I’d read conveyed the original tale’s underlying theme: Mermaids don’t have souls and the little mermaid wanted one. Rather profound. But it left me with a dilemma. I have two goals for each Once Upon a Time Today novella. The first is to update the story with characters and setting, the second is to remain true to the original fairy tale’s essence while providing some kind of twist.

I realized if I remained true to the essence of “The Little Mermaid”, I’d be grappling with spiritual themes. I chose to go ahead and twist the original tale by having a mortal at risk of losing her immortal soul.

Although the sea witch is a critical figure in the original tale, she doesn’t get a lot of stage time. I’d read Wicked years ago and loved the spin on the Wicked Witch of the West, so I decided to focus my retelling on “the witch” as well. One fun detail: We see the “original” little mermaid come to the sea witch’s lair and have quite an impact on the sea witch’s apprentice in Dreaming of the Sea.

When it came to setting, I decided to make use of the convent that served as an important place in the original tale. Out of that decision, Miriam was born. Miriam seems to be almost everyone’s favorite character. Determined, but also dreamy, her journey in the story is quite spectacular.

Monday, June 30, 2014

The Girl Who Dreamed of Red Shoes is Free thru July 5th on Amazon!


The Girl Who Dreamed of Red Shoes is the story of an orphan, a wild child of the forest who's taken in by a rich old lady. But all that glitters is not gold. The longer the girl stays with the old woman, the more her spirit withers within the confines of the old lady, her church and her gossipy neighbors... until she finds her red shoes. But how could she ever know that living a life that crushes her spirit will only lead to her destruction?

Our contemporary girl is slowly dying inside trying to live up to society's standard of success. She's drawn to this fairy tale—it's like music to her battered soul. She realizes that she's got to be her real self or she's going drift farther and farther from her spirit to her own despair.

With a strength born of desperation, she walks away from the stockbroker and his red Porsche, praying she'll find her own red and, for the first time in her life, freedom!


Thursday, March 13, 2014

The Dragon's Egg by H. B. Bolton: Cover Reveal + Giveaway

My name is Heidi Bolton, but I use my initials for my writing name, H.B. Bolton. I’m the author of the middle-grade fantasy series, Relics of Mysticus. The Dragon’s Egg (Book Three) is in the final stages of development and is almost ready for its May release date. Today I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to share my newest book cover with you.

Cover artist, Elisabeth Alba, offered an inside peek of her work’s progression through her photographs and commentary. I’m extremely fortunate to know this Scholastic Book illustrator and have had the privilege to benefit from her talents for all three of my covers. In fact, we’ve already started talking about The Mummy’s Amulet (Book Four).

I met Elisabeth about 14 years ago through one of my drawing classes. From her high school freshman year through senior year, she was one of my students (a favorite one, at that). I taught advanced-placement art, which was before having children of my own and creating worlds with unlikely heroes for my mythical stories.

Thank you, Elisabeth, for helping to bring my characters to life!

Progression of a Book Cover Illustrator by Elisabeth Alba 


This is a progression of The Dragon’s Egg book cover from sketch to final drawing. Truth be told, I haven’t illustrated many multi-figure images before, and then add a ton of stuff happening around them, so I was in for a challenging composition — a fun challenge! You can see how I gradually worked out and tightened the image. In the beginning, I had planned to make the background darker but then realized if the glowing fog was everywhere, then it wouldn’t be so dark. It framed the floating castle better as well.
Once I figured out the drawing, which I did digitally, I worked on a color composition to figure out how I would paint it. This was an important step — especially since watercolor is really hard to fix if you make a mistake.

At this stage, I printed the line drawing onto watercolor paper and got to work. I painted with Dr. Ph. Martin’s Hydrus fine-art liquid watercolors to start. I painted the base color first, which in this case was greenish.

After painting more of the base colors, I decided to do some line work with pen and ink to solidify the shapes.

Once the base colors were done, I sealed the image with matte medium. The Hydrus watercolors can be difficult because they are not like normal watercolor. Once they’re down on paper, you can’t wipe them away, but sealing with matte medium helps them not to smear — which is nice! You can also see how my desk lamp caused some glare over the castle when I took the photo.
On top of the matte medium, I painted with acryla gouache to darken and saturate the colors, and to do any highlights like the edge lighting around the figures. Finally, once the painting was done, I sealed the entire image with Kamar varnish. It brought out the colors even more, because once the acryla gouache dried, it became matte and the colors faded some.

Once I scanned the image, I worked on any digital touch-ups (some things are hard to do in watercolor, like getting colors really dark, and also the colors sometimes don’t scan well). This was how it looked once scanned, before any touch-ups. It was a more faded and less vibrant version of the original painting. I also lost the highlights.

Finally, after all of the digital work was complete, the cover was ready for text.

For the typography, I added a dark-blue gradient around the edges to frame the image and help the text stand out. I’ve used the same font for all three books, but in this one, I replaced the “O” in “Dragon’s” with the actual Dragon’s Egg relic.

Official Blurb

The Dragon’s Egg (Book Three)

Sure, the glass castle floating over Evan’s head makes him uneasy, but that’s the least of his worries. With each step inside the Dungeon of Dreadful Dreams, he must battle against his worst nightmares. One after the other, wispy smoke-filled bull sharks come at him — he must remember they’re only illusions pulled from his imagination by those dreaded shadowlike hands. If only the vengeful dragon circling above was also an illusion and didn’t have his mind set on destroying the one person who can control him: Emrys.

Inside the castle’s glass tower, Emrys sleeps in an eternal slumber, and Evan’s uncertain whether he can save the great wizard. Especially now that Emrys’ former student, the Lady of the Lake, has joined forces with the cunning immortal Alamaz. Together they have already stolen the Dragon’s Egg, but their greed doesn’t end there. The Siren’s Pearl calls to them, and that means only one thing … Atlantis is in trouble.

Join Evan, Claire, and Dunkle — along with a few other unlikely heroes — as they travel across the realm of Medieval Legends, float through the Ancient Isle of Avalon, plunge inside the Dungeon of Dreadful Dreams, and be there when Atlantis rises once again.

You can see more artwork by Elisabeth Alba and keep up with her future creations through her sites:


Elisabeth is a Queens-based illustrator whose work focuses on fairy tales, fantasy, and historical subjects. She earned her MFA in illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Her clients include Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, and Henry Holt Books for Young Readers. Elisabeth wants to thank Heidi for being the best high school art teacher ever, and setting her on the path to becoming an illustrator!