For the new year I've lowered the prices of Every Tear, A Captain's Heart, and Finding Faith by $2.00. Now you can get my Pirates & Faith series for the following prices:
The Pirate Daughter's Promise - $9.99
Every Tear - $14.99 $12.99
A Captain's Heart - $14.99 $12.99
Finding Faith - $13.99 $11.99
Haunted by memories of a violent past, Alastair Coldhollow wagers his life on the hope that a sword will appear in the stars and the foretold Halfainin, the Pathwalker, would come. Meanwhile, tensions simmer between Anglinore and the murderous Gorrack Nation, threatening war on a cataclysmic scale. The fate of all could rest on an abandoned child and the decisions of those who desperately seek to identify him. Sword in the Stars is the first release in The Dark Sea Annals series.
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Ever since reading The Door Within Trilogy, the first books I'd ever read by Wayne Thomas Batson, I am a fan for life. Through those books, Mr. Batson became my favorite author right up there with J.R.R. Tolkien. So when I first started hearing about Sword in the Stars, I was incredibly excited and anxious to read it. Now that I have, I can say it did not disappoint. Five stars, most definitely. The world he created was very interesting with all the different races and I loved the characters, especially Alastair. I am such a fan of characters who struggle with a dark past. I very much enjoyed the plot twists and turns. Many times I'd gasp or exclaim, "Oh, this is not good." Usually, if I'm that verbal while reading a book, it has me highly interested. :) And there were also several scenes that made me laugh. I love the allegorical plot and thought it very well done. I can hardly imagine what all will happen in the next books and waiting will be torture. Sword in the Stars will definitely be on my shelf of favorite books as I'm sure the rest of The Dark Sea Annals will be as well. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves a good fantasy read.
You can visit Mr. Batson's blog here: http://enterthedoorwithin.blogspot.com/
The prices are lowered on Every Tear, A Captain's Heart, and Finding Faith Kindle books. Now you can get each of the books for my Pirates & Faith series for $4.99.
A wonderful review of Every Tear and A Captain's Heart. Thank you, Angie!
http://www.myfourmonkeys.com/2010/12/great-reads-young-adult-books-from.html
From the time I first considered publishing my writing, I hated the thought of trying to write a query letter. When I came to the point recently where that was what I needed to do, I procrastinated it for days. It turned out not to be quite as horrible as I thought. What I found was things always seem worse until you actually start them. Once I started my query letter, the first draft really came together pretty quickly. But before I started, I spent days on my laptop researching how to write a query letter. There are endless sites with tips and examples. These three sites are the ones I found most helpful in my attempt to write a good query.
http://noveljourney.blogspot.com/2010/05/guest-blogger-camy-tang-on-query.html
http://suzanne-hartmann.blogspot.com/2008/03/query-letters.html
Yesterday, I finally gave my website a makeover. Instead of the boring blue layout I had, I've changed it over to much more interesting layout that fits me and my writing perfectly.
In the last couple weeks, I spent many hours searching for and reading through literary agency websites. It's not as easy as I thought finding reputable agents who represent Christian fiction. Many don't even accept queries unless you've met them personally at a writing conference or you've already been published before. In my search, I found two blogs with good lists of agencies who represent Christian fiction. A lot of the same agencies are on both lists, but there are a few different ones. Make sure to read the guidelines closely and look through the authors and books they've represented. It's a good sign when you recognize some of them. Before you choose one, I highly recommend looking them up somewhere like Absolute Write Water Cooler. It's a great site for all things writing. A lot of the writers have had experience with many of the agencies on these lists:
Literary Agents Who Represent Christian Authors by Michael Hyatt
Christian Literary Agents by Tamera Lynn Kraft
You could also check out AgentQuery. There you can do a customized search for agents who specifically handle your type of fiction.
And, since it is vitally important to watch out for scams, here are two helpful links. One is a list of the 20 Worst Agents and a page full of information on bad agents and how to spot them.
I've come to the moment of taking a new step in my writing career and ministry. A step out of independent publishing and, hopefully, into traditional publishing. I've begun my search for a literary agent. I never imagined reaching this point, and let me tell you, nothing in writing has been quite as scary as sending out that first query letter.
Writing a query letter has always been something I've adamantly avoided. I hated the thought of it because it just was not something I thought I'd ever be able to do with any degree of skill. (Turns out to be easy when compared to trying to put together a book proposal.)
Over the last several weeks, I have spent hours on my computer doing all kinds of research on queries and agents until my eyes would hardly focus. I found some great sites that were invaluable when I sat down to write my query letter. Time will tell whether or not it will be enough to interest an agent, but while I wait, I thought I would share some of the most helpful pages I discovered. So be sure to check back in the next few days.
It's something I've been thinking about and working towards for several months and now I can finally announce the release of my entire Pirates & Faith series for Kindle available on Amazon.com. Each book is priced at about half the price of the paperback edition. To read a portion of each book, you can download the sample from Amazon to Kindle for PC. Each sample has at least the first two chapters.
The Pirate Daughter's Promise - $4.99
Every Tear - $6.99
A Captain's Heart - $6.99
Finding Faith - $5.99
The Kindle editions are also available from Amazon UK for those who are unable to buy the paperback editions.
Book Description:
One Dragon Egg Holds the Key to the Future.
Once a slave, Kale is given the unexpected opportunity to become a servant to Paladin. Yet this young girl has much to learn about the difference between slavery and service.
A Desperate Search Begins…
A small band of Paladin’s servants rescue Kale from danger but turn her from her destination: The Hall, where she was to be trained. Feeling afraid and unprepared, Kale embarks on a perilous quest to find the meech dragon egg stolen by the foul Wizard Risto. First, she and her comrades must find Wizard Fenworth. But their journey is threatened when a key member of the party is captured, leaving the remaining companions to find Fenworth, attempt an impossible rescue, and recover the egg whose true value they have not begun to suspect…
Weaving together memorable characters, daring adventure, and a core of eternal truth, Dragonspell is a finely crafted and welcome addition to the corpus of fantasy fiction.
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Dragonspell by Donita K. Paul is the first book in the DragonKeeper Chronicles, a five book Christian fantasy series. Considering my love for the genre, I began the book anxious to see if I would be adding another series to the shelf of my slowly growing Christian fantasy collection. After finishing it, I have to give the book about 3 1/2 stars. It took me several days to finish, a sure sign that it didn't hold my interest like some books I devour in two or three days. Though full of action, it almost seemed to move a little slow.
I would say the book is well written. I did, however, find the description a little lacking. I hate pages and pages of description as I've seen in some fantasy novels, but I think Dragonspell needed more considering the many different races inhabiting the fantasy world. I noticed this especially because one of my favorite characters, Dar, a creature called a doneel, I could never clearly picture in my mind.
Some of the names of the characters, places, and things were also unnecessarily complicated. It's one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to fantasy fiction. Having to take time to pronounce a name syllable by syllable completely shatters your imagination as you're reading. Thankfully, the majority of the names were easily pronounced once I figured them out and I only had to skim a couple.
I enjoyed the scenes with Paladin (though the name didn't seem to fit well), a representation of Jesus, and I just loved Gymn and Metta, the two little minor dragons. The characters were all very different creating an interesting group to follow. I will certainly read on to see how the they grow and the story unfolds, and I do recommend the book to other fans of fantasy fiction as the things I mentioned may not be any bother to other readers.
After quite a long time, I have decided to change the look and layout of my blog to better suit my needs. I've added a few things to the sidebars. I am now selling jewelry on Etsy so I've added that and I will also show the books I am currently reading. As long as I'm doing that, I have decided to start writing book reviews as I go through the books. It's something I've never done before, but I look forward to it.
Right now you can get Finding Faith - Pirates & Faith, Book 4 for 10% off on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Faith-Pirates-Book/dp/1452856850/
After more proofs than I usually have to order and a lot of working with Photoshop to get the cover right, I'm very excited to announce that Finding Faith is now available. It's $13.99 and can be ordered from Amazon or CreateSpace.
To see all of my available books, visit my Amazon author page:
I always planned to release Finding Faith this month and worked very hard to do so, but I've hit a few delays. I've ordered two proofs now, but on each the cover is much too dark. I really love this cover so I want to get it as perfect as possible. That means at least another week or two before it will be available. I have to wait a week to get each proof. I'm going to order my third one tomorrow and hope it looks good, otherwise I'll have to make some adjustments and try again. But hopefully it will only take one more try. I will post as soon as I get a proof I'm happy with and approve it.
Now that I've finished Finding Faith and it will soon be available, it's amazing to look back. It has taken me six years to write and publish my Pirates & Faith series. I've learned so much and have gone through so much in that time. It has definitely shaped me as a writer. This morning I just finished writing "My Journey and Experiences Writing This Book" sections on my website for A Captain's Heart and Finding Faith. It was interesting for me to go back in some of my journals and read about planning and starting those books since they were both unexpected. I never planned to go farther in my series than The Pirate Daughter's Promise and Every Tear. But here I am at the official end of the series with four books. You can read the stories of each of the books and what it took to write them here:
After working really hard on them last week and over the weekend, I'm very excited to share the cover and the book trailer for Finding Faith. Enjoy! :)
Once in a while you discover a song that really touches you. That happened recently when I bought It Is Well: A Worship Album by Kutless. I bought it mostly for the song What Faith Can Do and then I heard I'm Still Yours, the very last song on the album. It is a wonderfully powerful and thought provoking song that is especially meaningful at this moment in my life. It also says a lot of the things I try to say in my writing. It certainly touched me and my family so I wanted to share it here for anyone who has not heard it.
I was interviewed again by inspirational romance author, Stephanie Boles, on her Regency Whispers blog, this time talking a little bit about A Captain's Heart and Finding Faith.
http://stephanieboles.blogspot.com/2010/03/featured-author_20.html
I was honored to have The Pirate Daughter's Promise reviewed by Angie on her product review blog, My Four Monkeys. You can read it here.
http://myfourmonkeysproductreviews.blogspot.com/2010/03/pirate-daughters-promise-by-molly.html
I don't want to write too much about it yet, because it's still a ways in the future, but I just recently got the inspiration for a brand new fantasy novel to write after I'm finished with my Makilien Trilogy. I may even have the title already, but I'll keep that to myself for the time being. As it is right now it will be a standalone book. No series this time, though I'm definitely open to inspiration.
In the last months I think I'm coming to realize that Christian fantasy is my favorite genre to write. It's not a surprise really since my favorite books are fantasy. The thing about fantasy is it's so easy to plot. I have no pressure at all to make sure anything is historically accurate. I can create absolutely anything. The only thing you have to worry about in writing fantasy is creating good characters, good plots, and making sure you're writing it well. I enjoy being free to be as creative as I want to be without having any restrictions and boundaries I have to work around.
Another thing I love about writing fantasy is it gives you the opportunity to portray Christian truths in very interesting and powerful ways. The most recent fantasy series I read, The Door Within Trilogy by Wayne Thomas Batson, is a perfect example. I thoroughly enjoyed his portrayal of Christianity within the interesting world he created and hope to delight readers in the same way with Makilien and any future fantasy novels I write.
I've written a couple posts for this year, but none as to what I'm working on and what I plan and hope to accomplish for 2010.
First off, an update on Makilien. I've been working really hard on book 2, Courage. I just started chapter 11 of what will be somewhere around 30 chapters. It's definitely challenging every bit of my writing ability, which is a good thing, but it takes a lot of effort. I think Makilien means so much to me personally that I'm being especially critical of my writing so I'm constantly second guessing, tweaking things, and just overall wondering how I can make things better. It gets me feeling a bit frustrated at times, but I'm also having so much fun. Makilien is probably the most fun and enjoyable story I've ever written and I think, by the time I am finished, I'll have learned a great many things.
The next project I have planned to publish is Finding Faith, the conclusion of my Pirates & Faith series. Mom and I still have editing to do, but my planned release for it is sometime this spring. I have the trailer pretty much ready so once I have a better idea of exactly when the book will be available, I'll post the trailer.
After that, I'm not really sure what will come next as far as another book release. I've tried to be optimistic about the time frame of Makilien, but the challenges it's throwing at me are telling me it's going to be a while. Probably at least a year, so I'm trying to decide what to do between the release of Finding Faith and the completion of Makilien. I do have one plan, my music book. It's a around half done and I think I could probably complete it pretty quickly if I tried hard. So that might be what you have to look forward to for a new release later this year.
Other than that, I'm waiting to see how things pan out in a new all self-published books distributor, which, if it succeeds, could fulfill my dreams of making my writing a career. I also have ideas to start planning a mini book tour around the state as well as other means of promotion. I've been getting amazing feedback from the new friends I've been making so that is really encouraging. Ultimately, it's all in God's hands and I look forward to seeing what He has planned.
I discovered an amazing blog just recently by Christian author K. M. Weiland. Her purpose for it is "helping writers become authors." It's an excellent resource for writing tips. I've already read all her entries straight through and after reading quite a few books on writing, I've never found anything as helpful as Miss Weiland's blog. Once I began reading, it was hard to stop and I can't wait to apply the abundance of information I gained to my own writing. If you're a writer, I highly recommend you take a look at the blog for yourself. It has certainly has helped me and I anxiously look forward to all her future posts.
I've been working hard lately on an updated edition of The Pirate Daughter's Promise to print with CreateSpace. I finally got to the point today where I uploaded the new files and am waiting for them to be approved so I can order a proof. I wanted to share a picture of the new cover, which I really love. I like the old one too, but this one represents the story better.
Rejoice always!
1 Thess. 5:16
