WAR TORN: A Free Anthology in 7 Realms of Fantasy

Did you like my fantasy/romance serial, The Arranged Marriage? If you haven’t read it, it’s available in seven parts on this blog. Here’s a link to Part 1. For fans of The Arranged Marriage, or of my novels Unintended or Uncharted, which are set in the same world, there’s good news! I’ve written another short story called Unmoored and it’s set to appear in the free anthology, War Torn, along with 6 other fantasy stories by six other fantastic fantasy writers!

War Torn is FREE and available for pre-order now (everywhere you order ebooks, including google, amazon, pronoun and our store), though it launches August 1st. But if you’d like to get your hands on it before then all you have to do is subscribe to Mirror World’s mailing list. I’ll be sending out early release e-books to all of our subscribers as a thank you for being a part of the family and sticking with us this long.

So click here and enter your email to subscribe for your FREE ADVANCE COPY!!

Without further ado, here’s the cover and a bit about what you’ll find in War Torn:

Seven international authors, reflecting diverse styles from across the fantasy genre, bring you seven short stories that explore the theme, War Torn.

Ambushed by Angela Stevens
(Contemporary Fantasy/ Dark Fantasy) 
When the Black Walker Warriors are ambushed by the Clizyati, a vicious battle ensues. Caught up in its midst is Kanga, the Warrior’s latest recruit. Fighting for his life, Kanga knows whatever the outcome, this may well be the last battle in a war that has raged since the dawn of time.
But when the dust settles, victory and defeat pay the same price.

The Praetorian byD.P Joynes
(Dark Fantasy, Magical Realism, Medical Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Time Travel) 
“Flies. Flies everywhere. In blood…” Artorius, the commanding officer of a Roman army, loves the taste of battle, but he hates the stench of blood. Blood gives rise to flies, which he cannot control. And neither can the Time Witch. Despite all her magical powers, the Witch has no control over the actions of living creatures, so she’ll try every time-tested tactic to tempt the Commander, to get Artorius to do her bidding. But his future self has other plans.

Unmoored by Justine Alley Dowsett
(Fantasy Adventure)
Renaud Laurent is a gambler and a sailor taking life as it comes and living only for his next drink. Then, on one fateful night in his favorite port town, civil war threatens and he finds himself having to choose between saving his own hide or risking himself for the sake of a stranger.

The City That Fell by K.L Dimago
(Fantasy Romance)
Keturah has always excelled in magic skills and dreams of becoming a member of court in the city of Lucenskath beneath the leader of Nefeiah, Elias, who has led an era of peace and prosperity. But when she is befriended and wooed by Lucas, a fellow student, she learns of a plot to overthrow Elias and his magic council. Keturah must choose between her love of Lucas and her trust in Elias and decide whether or not to make the ultimate sacrifice.

A Touch Of Magic by Lisa White
(Magical Realism, Paranormal Romance)
Plastic surgeon Jessie Inglewood is staunchly anti-natural medicine. Sure, the owner of the local health food store is sexy, but there’s no way she’s going to the “dark side” and dating a natural health hippy! No, she’s seen a lot of ridiculous things in her clinic over the years, and as far as she’s concerned, holistic nutritionists, naturopaths, chiropractors, and crystal waving energy healers are all the same: unethical quacks and charlatans peddling false hope to the vulnerable. Jessie’s very comfortable with her judgement… until a woman in white appears at her clinic one night and gives her an extraordinary gift – the ability to heal people. Jessie has a choice to make: keep giving hands-on miracles to people or give up her gift so she can have her old life back – the one where her colleagues don’t view her as one of the quacks she used to criticize.

The Fortress by Lorel Clayton 
(Fantasy/ Steampunk)
No one is infallible, but some people cannot afford to be wrong, not when lives are at stake. In this story from the world of Eva Thorne, visit The Fortress, where a line in the sand has been drawn to keep the living safe from the god of death. Meet the man who guards that line.

Paid In Blood by Tiger Hebert
(Dark Epic Fantasy)
Harlyx, a wealthy and quite possibly mad old man is wanted for treason after stealing a powerful artifact. His hired hand, Alduran, now finds himself on the run with the crazy old man as a king’s army hunts them down. Alduran isn’t so sure that their flight across the desert sands won’t get them killed, but if he’s learned one thing about old Harlyx, it’s that his mysterious knack for avoiding calamity is at its greatest as the noose draws tightest. It’s a mystery Alduran is ready to explore. Besides, the pay is right.

 

 

Cover Reveal: Spellhaven by Sandra Unerman

The Unseen Spirits must be entertained, so that the city may prosper……

In the summer of 1914, Jane Fairchild, a young English musician, is kidnapped by magic and sent to Spellhaven, an island city ruled by magicians. Here, peace and prosperity are maintained with the assistance of Unseen Spirits bound to the service of the Lords Magician. The Spirits must be kept in good humour by the performance of all kinds of shows, dance, drama and music. Jane is one of many people kidnapped from the outside world and forced to contribute to these entertainments for a set period of service.

Only Jane is having none of it. She will not perform for her kidnapper, Lucian Palafox, but agrees to undertake an apprenticeship with another magician impresario, provided she is taught magic in return. Jane’s forays into magic lead her deeper within the mysteries of Spellhaven, her rivalry with Lucian escalates and the quarrels between them grow strong enough to shake the city to its foundations.

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Magical Realism
Release Date:  August 17, 2017
Publisher:  Mirror World Publishing
Mirror World Publishing eBook Pre-Order Link:  https://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/collections/poetry/products/spellhaven-ebook
Mirror World Publishing Paperback Pre-Order Link:https://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/collections/poetry/products/spellhaven-paperback
Amazon Pre-Order Link:  http://amzn.to/2tpdL2x

 Visit the Tour Hosts:http://saphsbookpromotions.blogspot.com/2017/07/cover-reveal-spellhaven-by-sandra.html

Sandra Unerman lives in London in the UK. When she retired from a career as a Government lawyer, she undertook an MA in Creative Writing at Middlesex University, specialising in SF and fantasy, and graduated in 2013. Since then, she has had a number of short stories published. In 2016, these included stories in Three Drops from a Cauldron, the Midwinter issue and Aurora Wolf, the September issue, both available online. She writes reviews and articles for the British Science Fiction Association and the British Fantasy Society. She is a member of London Clockhouse writers and other writing groups. Her interests include history, folklore and medieval literature.

Connect with the Author:
Sandra’s Website:https://sandraunermanwriter.com/
Sandra’s Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Sandra-Unerman/e/B0034NS9VM
Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6566116.Sandra_Unerman

This book is available for pre-order and will officially launch on August 17th, 2017!!!

 

Lost and Found: Mysterious Tales from Fairy Falls #1 by Sharon Ledwith

Fairy Falls was bores-ville from the get-go. Then the animals started talking… 

The Fairy Falls Animal Shelter is in trouble. Money trouble. It’s up to an old calico cat named Whiskey—a shelter cat who has mastered the skill of observation—to find a new human pack leader so that their home will be saved. With the help of Nobel, the leader of the shelter dogs, the animals set out to use the ancient skill of telepathy to contact any human who bothers to listen to them. Unfortunately for fifteen-year-old Meagan Walsh, she hears them, loud and clear.

 

Forced to live with her Aunt Izzy in the safe and quiet town of Fairy Falls, Meagan is caught stealing and is sentenced to do community hours at the animal shelter where her aunt works. Realizing Meagan can hear her, Whiskey realizes that Meagan just might have the pack leader qualities necessary to save the animals. Avoiding Whiskey and the rest of shelter animals becomes impossible for Meagan, so she finally gives in and promises to help them. Meagan, along with her newfound friends, Reid Robertson and Natalie Knight, discover that someone in Fairy Falls is not only out to destroy the shelter, but the animals as well. Can Meagan convince her aunt and co-workers that the animals are in danger? If she fails, then all the animals’ voices will be silenced forever.

 

Book Details:

Kindle File Size: 667 KB

Print Length: 203 pages

Publication Date: June 17, 2017

ASIN: B0713S1DCR

 

Publisher: Mirror World Publishing

http://www.mirrorworldpublishing.com

Goodreads Link:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35017082-lost-and-found

Follow the tour to read reviews, excerpts, and guest posts!

http://saphsbookpromotions.blogspot.com/2017/06/book-tour-schedule-lost-and-found.html

 

Purchase Your Copy:

Mirror World Publishing:

Paperback: https://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/collections/poetry/products/lost-and-found-paperback

Ebook:https://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/collections/poetry/products/lost-and-found-ebook

Other Retailers:

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2q2Alfv

Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/Found-Mysterious-Tales-Fairy-Falls-ebook/dp/B0713S1DCR/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493565088&sr=1-1&keywords=Lost+and+Found+Sharon+Ledwith

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/lost-and-found-175

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lost-and-found-sharon-ledwith/1126287196?ean=9781987976281

 

 

Sharon Ledwith is the author of the middle-grade/young adult time travel adventure series, THE LAST TIMEKEEPERS, and the teen psychic mystery series, MYSTERIOUS TALES FROM FAIRY FALLS. When not writing, researching, or revising, she enjoys reading, exercising, anything arcane, and an occasional dram of scotch. Sharon lives a serene, yet busy life in a southern tourist region of Ontario, Canada, with her hubby, one spoiled yellow Labrador and a moody calico cat.

 

Learn more about Sharon Ledwith on her WEBSITE and BLOG. Look up her AMAZON AUTHOR page for a list of current books. Stay connected on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, GOOGLE+, and GOODREADS.

 

Join us Monday, June 19th from 7pm EST for a FACEBOOK LIVE Launch Party! RSVP here. 

Planning for Pantsers

I’m a pantser. What does that mean? It means that I’d rather ‘write by the seat of my pants’ than plan anything beforehand. However, with my latest book Uncharted, written with my co-writer Murandy Damodred, we did more planning than I’m used to and I think it helped us.

Making Notes:

Since Murandy and I co-write, we use Google Drive to keep everything straight. If you’re not familiar with Google Drive or Google Docs, it’s an open platform where you can share your documents and multiple accounts can work on the same document at the same time. It also serves as a cloud drive, so your work is saved and backed up automatically and anyone you give access to the files can open them up and work on them. This helped us with planning because while writing we always had access to our notes file, which became a living document, changing as the story expanded.

Setting and Worldbuilding:

Usually I do a lot of the world building in my own head, but since Uncharted is an adventure story that takes place in a variety of settings and cultures, I made a point of writing down a handful of things to keep in mind about the settings, so I would make sure to include them.

Characters:

This is where the planning really came in handy. Before we started writing, Murandy and I wrote out detailed backstories for each of our main characters and at least a sentence or two about our minor characters as we invented them. This helped to flesh everyone out and make sure we knew where they had come from and what was important to them because of that.

Plot:

This is where our best of intentions sort of fell apart, but in a good way. Before we started writing, we formed a point form list of plot points then we proceeded to ignore them. As we wrote, we went back and added new plot points to our list and kept adding to that list to stay a few steps ahead of the story, but ultimately this was a form of pantsing more than planning.  

Editing:

Where the notes really came in handy was when I went to write the second draft. All throughout the first draft, instead of going back and fixing things that needed changing, I took notes instead. Then, when I went over the finished first draft, I applied the changes or checked for the problems I’d indicated. It saved me a ton of time and it also meant that Murandy and I could write quickly, without feeling like we were making a mess of things.

All in all, if you’re a pantser, like me, I suggest trying to apply some planning to your process just to see what you can learn. And if you’re a planner, take a risk and try a little pantsing! Thanks for reading!

Read an excerpt of Uncharted!

Uncharted by Justine Alley Dowsett and Murandy Damodred launches April 17th, 2017. We’re celebrating the release by hosting an online launch party, live Q and A, live reading, and giveaway on Facebook. You can RSVP here:https://www.facebook.com/events/345964425805281/

While you wait, here’s an excerpt from this upcoming fantasy/ romantic comedy:

Noiseless on slippered feet, Meredith darted swiftly to the oversized double doors of the Celestial Chamber. She glanced once quickly over each shoulder to make sure she was still alone in the Great Hall before she gave the wide gilded handle a tug and felt the latch give way. With a grimace of effort, she pulled the heavy door open just enough to allow herself to squeeze into the chamber beyond.

Expecting darkness, moonlight dazzled her senses. The silvery light pooled in the middle of a wide and perfectly round central platform, serving to bring focus to the reason for this room’s existence: an ethereal-looking blue bowl lined with silver and filled with glittering water.

The Celestial Bowl beckoned to Meredith from its place on the solitary stone pedestal in the centre of the chamber. The sound of rushing water from the underground river that surfaced briefly in this room filled her ears as she let the heavy door fall quietly shut behind her.

I shouldn’t be in here, a small voice in the back of her mind reminded her, even as she took a step toward the glittering artifact. It’s only that I just can’t help but question if this life is for me. I want a family, a home…and a husband. I owe the Order for what they’ve done for me, but if I stay here and become a Priestess, I can’t have any of those things.

If I can just have a look at my destiny tonight, then maybe the path I should take will become clear. Besides, she countered the nagging sound of her conscience, if I wait until tomorrow’s ceremony to see my future, it will be too late to change it.

Her decision made, Meredith closed the distance between herself and the bowl with purpose, crossing the small, railless stone bridge spanning a gap over the rushing water beneath. As she neared the bowl, she kept her eyes fixated on the calm, reflective surface of the water within, not wanting to chance missing even the slightest bit of whatever vision it might grant her. Moonlight glinted off the silver interior of the bowl, making the room seem brighter than it actually was. As if in a trance, she lost herself in the beauty of the dancing light and that was when she saw it.

A man, no…only his torso, wearing a dark grey suit coat buttoned over his left breast. He stood with pride in his bearing, but beyond the grey coat and a single purple flower in his lapel the image cut off at the neck and didn’t show his face. Meredith leaned forward, trying to get a better angle.

The vision, if that’s what it was, continued and she saw herself from behind, unmistakeable with her lengthy waves of chocolate brown hair cascading over the hood of her light grey Priestess cloak. The vision of herself flung herself at this man and his arms reached up to hold her. Engrossed now, Meredith leaned directly over the bowl, determined to get a glimpse at the face of her mystery man when the image in the silver-lined water abruptly disappeared.

What? No! I wasn’t finished. I didn’t see his face!

Meredith stared into the reflective water without blinking, willing the vision to return or resume. The reflection of her own face stared back at her, but beyond it she thought she saw something else. Focusing on the anomaly, she realized it was a reflection of the bowl itself, seated as it was in real life atop its stone pedestal in the centre of the Celestial Chamber.

What does that mean?! she exclaimed in the silence of her own mind. How can the bowl show an image of itself? It doesn’t make any sense.

She looked back down at the bowl and its stubborn reflection of itself, then turned her head upwards to the moonlight as if to make sure it was still there when it dawned on her. Ugh, I put my head in the way! I interrupted the vision!

She tried several times to recreate the circumstances which brought her the cryptic glimpse of the future, but nothing she did seem to bring the bowl’s power back to life. I guess that’s it! Meredith threw her hands up in defeat. I should get out of here before I get caught.

Turning from where she stood on the small bridge that led from the pedestal’s platform to the double doors she’d come in by, Meredith made to sprint for the exit, only to smack bodily into a dark shadowy figure she hadn’t known was there until it was too late.

She let out an ‘oomph’ as the wind was knocked out of her and she was flung backwards a few steps.

Over the by now familiar sound of rushing water, Meredith noted a somewhat metallic clatter moments before her ankle rolled over something round at her feet. Set off balance, she stumbled and spent a few steps trying to right herself. She might have succeeded, too, if it wasn’t for the fact that she’d gotten too near to the edge of the narrow bridge. She cartwheeled her arms a few times, trying to right herself, screamed in hopes that whomever she’d run into would see her plight in time to catch her, and then unceremoniously went off the side of the stone bridge into the cold rushing water below.

(For the rest of the prologue, tune into our facebook launch party April 17th, 6pm EST: https://www.facebook.com/events/345964425805281/)

Interview with Owen Swain, Creator of the #tourdesketch Windsor Colouring Book

Owen Swain, a Windsor-based artist, is the creator and artist behind #tourdesketch Windsor, an adult colouring book featuring the sights of Windsor, Ontario. I’ve invited Owen to answer some questions for us, so we can get to know him and his seeing/drawing process.

M|W: Other than drawing, what do you do in your spare time?

Time is flow. I enjoy: bicycling (really, really dislike driving a car), reading (fiction, nonfiction), listening to music, volunteering in my community and parish, meditation, hanging out with the Love of my life and our dogs. And when I am not drawing I am often to be found drawing or painting or, well, you get the idea.

M|W: What was your biggest obstacle in getting where you are today with your art?

Not fully believing in myself or say, not listening to my own narrative for my life. Everything belongs though and it all is a part of “now”.

M|W: What made you choose to feature Windsor in particular?

I’ve lived in Windsor since 1999 but only more recently have come alive to being alive “here” and discovered our city by bicycling and drawing on-location.

M|W: How long does a typical drawing, like the ones in the book, take you?

Roughly 57 years and 8 or 10 hours. It’s a largely different process from my usual on-location sketching in that I took my own photos, make sketch notes on site and then returned to the studio to work. They are less immediate than my usual methods for on-location drawing and more particular in trying to make them suitable for colouring in.

M|W: What’s your favorite part about drawing?

Seeing. I feel the most alive to myself and my environment when I am drawing. Getting to know a person, place, animal, tree, thing, etcetera by trying to truly observe the essence of the subject not merely rendering what I think I know about them/it.

Owen Swain is a Windsor, Ontario illustrator and painter who works in a variety of media and styles and is interested in all manner of subjects while specializing in on location, observational drawing, sketching, mentoring and portraiture. He is never without a sketchbook.

Owen’s creative impetus is daily observational drawing that moves beyond looking to seeing, from thinking to being, and from mere drawing to discovering and developing one’s own mark. Owen believes that the Zen of what Frederick Franck coined as ‘seeing/drawing’ has transferable life skills for all.

He is the creator of #tourdesketch, an art-for-all monthly event that includes in-season slow-bicycling Sketchouts with a focus on local culture and heritage and during autumn and winter months, sketch meet-ups with instruction on ‘seeing/drawing’ as meditation as well as good fun drawing, tips, and sketchbook skills for the artist within each of us.

Owen moved to Windsor with his family in 1999 for what seemed a clear path and purpose. Things changed, life morphed, the path clouded and it wasn’t long before he felt discouraged, as though he was living someone else’s narrative for his life. He persisted in trying to make the detour make sense. However, at a critical point, Owen determined the best thing was to simply be more fully who he’d always been, to rediscover his first love and vocation as a person who makes art. To re-learn how to be, rather than to do. He got back on his bike and rode and rode and drew and drew and gradually he came to love Windsor, its people and his ‘new’ way of being.

Introducing Regan W. H. Macaulay and Mixter Twizzle!

Over the past few weeks, we’ve announced our upcoming 2017 titles one at a time. This week, we’re giving you a little sneak peak into 2018 by introducing our newest author, Regan W. H. Macaulay and her upcoming children’s picture book: Mixter Twizzle’s Breakfast!

Regan, a Toronto-based writer, met us while we were at the Word on the Street Festival. She saw Nate Friedman’s The Coffee Monster, and thought (rightly so) that Mixter Twizzle’s Breakfast would be a good fit for us. Here’s what Regan had to say about the star of her children’s book:

Mixter Twizzle is an odd, red, round-shaped, mischievous creature.  He lives in a hovel, beneath a rustic barn, underneath the chicken coop.  He’s a snoozing sneezer and a snoring barker; a peculiar sort that both annoys and pleases. 

The illustrations for Mixter Twizzle’s Breakfast will be done by Regan’s husband, Kevin Risk. Here’s a sample of what you have to look forward to:

We’re super-excited to watch this project come together and we hope you are as well. If you want to be kept informed of Regan and Kevin’s progress, and be the first to know when Mixter Twizzle’s Breakfast will be available, please subscribe to this blog, or to our mailing list. Thanks for reading!

 

Regan writes novels, short stories, children’s literature and scripts.  Writing is her passion, but she’s also a producer and director of theatre, film and television.  She is an animal enthusiast as well, which led her to become a certified canine (and feline) massage therapist.  Other books by Regan include picture storybooks Beverlee Beaz the Brown Burmese, Sloth the Lazy Dragon and the novella adaptations of her feature film (available on iTunes and on DVD), Space Zombies! and her screenplay They Suck (both co-written with her husband, Kevin Risk).  Coming soon, two other picture storybooks:  Tamara Turtle’s Life So Far and Merry Myrrh: The Christmas Bat.

Also in 2017: A Brand New Series!

So far, for our 2017 releases, we’ve announced the upcoming romantic comedy, Uncharted by Justine Alley Dowsett and Murandy Damodred, which you can read all about here. We’ve also announced the third and final installment of Joshua Pantalleresco’s The Watcher series, The Wandering God. Which you can find here.

And now, we’re excited to let you know that Sharon Ledwith, author of The Last Timekeeper Time Travel Series, has a new series in the works for us!

Her teen psychic mystery series, The Mysterious Tales of Fairy Falls, is a planned five book series with each book focusing on a different psychic-powered character drawn to the mysterious northern Canadian town of Fairy Falls. The first in the series, Lost and Found, will be coming to Mirror World this summer!

The Blurb:

Imagine a teenager possessing a psychic ability and struggling to cope with this freakish power, all the while trying to lead a normal life. Now, imagine being uprooted and forced to live in a small tourist town where nothing much ever happens. It’s bores-ville from the get-go. Welcome to Fairy Falls. Expect the unexpected…

The Fairy Falls Animal Shelter is in trouble. Money trouble. It’s up to an old calico cat named Whiskey – a shelter cat who has mastered the skill of observation – to find a new pack leader so that their home will be saved. With the help of Nobel, the leader of the shelter dogs, the animals set out to use the ancient skill of telepathy to contact any human who bothers to listen to them. Unfortunately for fifteen-year-old Meagan Walsh, she hears them, loud and clear…

 

Sharon Ledwith is the author of the young adult time travel series, THE LAST TIMEKEEPERS, among others. When not writing, researching, or revising, she enjoys reading, exercising, anything arcane, and an occasional dram of scotch. Sharon lives a serene, yet busy life in a southern tourist region of Ontario with her hubby, one spoiled yellow Labrador and a moody calico cat.

Coming soon: The end of an epic.

Next up in our new releases for 2017 is the long awaited finale to The Watcher Trilogy, called The Wandering God.  If you haven’t read The Watcher, or its sequel, Stormdancer, I urge you to give them a try. Joshua Pantalleresco has created a truly unique post-apocalyptic world where dragons rule over what remains of the human race, and one young boy dreams of discovering the world beyond the slave compound he was born into. This young boy, The Watcher, sets out to discover what else is out there and in the sequel, Stormdancer, shows his friends the value of doing the same. What awaits us in this final installment? Well, I’m just as eager as you to find out.

What is most unique about Joshua Pantalleresco’s epic is its style. The complex and deeply intuitive story is told through simple accessible poetry and beautiful graphic art by the extremely talented Florence Chan. Through the eyes of The Watcher, and later, each of his friends, we learn to see the world as a multitude of opportunities just waiting to be explored. If you’re looking for a unique experience and an even more unique view of our possible future, then I suggest you get started on The Watcher and Stormdancer before The Wandering God becomes available in June 2017.

The Watcher: http://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/collections/young-adult-fiction/products/the-watcher

There is more… 

On the top of a tower, guarded by dragons, the Watcher gazes out into the horizon. While the rest of his tribe work and toil, The Watcher questions what is beyond the walls. Determined to find out, he escapes his captors trying to find out just what is out there.

An imaginative and engaging story, The Watcher will help you see poetry in a whole new way. Escape into the world of a slave boy who dreams of something more and journey with him as he discovers what mysteries the world holds.

There is more. The Watcher proves it. Discover it for yourself.

Stormdancer: http://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/collections/young-adult-fiction/products/stormdancer-e-book

The Storm is Here…

Days after the events featured in The Watcher, The Watcher is taken hostage by a dragon,

leaving Kristen, Will and Nicki alone in a strange new world. With no choice but to try and rescue their friend, Kristen and the others must travel through ancient cities, forgotten burial grounds, and eventually into the heart of the great storm. Faced with the unknown, will they be able to traverse the storms that stand before them as well as ones within their own hearts?

Joshua Pantalleresco writes fiction, poetry and comics. He also loves to do interviews. He has written columns for comicbloc and allpulp and currently does so for comicmix. The Watcher is his second book of poetry. He resides in Calgary. https://joshuapantalleresco.com/author/jpantalleresco/

To keep up with updates regarding The Wandering God, please subscribe to this blog, our mailing list, or check back often. We expect The Wandering God to launch June 17, 2017.

Join us!

It was last year around this time that Murandy Damodred and I heard about the #85k challenge. The goal: write 85,000 from January 1st to March 31st. We didn’t decide to participate right away, but it just so happened that we were about ready to start writing Uncharted near the end of December, so we held off the few days and started the challenge with everyone else. We hit 85,000 words with two weeks to spare and spent the next month finishing off our novel. Now, a year later, we’re pleased to announce that Uncharted will be released in the spring of 2017!

This year the challenge is happening again. Murandy and I will be participating (less intensely due to the birth of Murandy’s son) but we would like to invite any writers that read this blog to consider joining in. We found the challenge to be just difficult enough that you have to work for it, but not as overwhelming as other writing challenges, like Nanowrimo, for example. 85,000 breaks down to a little under 1000 words a day, which is completely reasonable, but requires dedication and consistency. Sign up here!

In other news, we have a local launch party for Owen Swain’s adult colouring book #tourdesketch Windsor on December 15th at Sho Art Spirit and Performance, 628 Monmouth Rd, Windsor. It’s open house-style, so we encourage you to stop by and colour with us if you’re in the area between 1 and 9 pm. The official launch of the book is at 7pm and Owen Swain will be on hand throughout the day to sign copies. RSVP here.

Also, on December 10th, I will be at Bizarre Bazaar at Villains Beastro Pub from 8pm to 1am with the entire Mirror World collection available for sale. This is a unique venue to buy books and local crafts, so I encourage you to check it out if you happen to be within driving distance to downtown Windsor. RSVP here.

Bringing it back full circle, here’s the blurb about Uncharted by myself and Murandy Damodred:

There are no coincidences…

Fated to be a Priestess of Saegard, Meredith dreams of leading a normal life with a family and a home of her own, something she’ll never have if she swears her life to the Order.  A chance encounter with a stranger in the sacred Celestial Chamber sends her previously well-ordered life into a tailspin of adventure and mayhem as she is blamed for the theft of a legendary artifact. Now a fugitive, Meredith must join forces with Captain Reginald Lawrence, the son of the man who initially brought her to the Temple, and his enigmatic business partner,  the charming yet at times infuriating, Grey Rhodes, to find the Celestial Bowl and clear her name. From the cosmopolitan capital of Saegard to the coast of Ismera and back again, Meredith’s journey will reveal the true nature of her past, present, and ultimately, her future.