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Don Massenzio This week, I have the pleasure of featuring Author Kathleen Jowitt for this edition of A Perfect 10. Hurricane Irma stopped me from running this interview a week ago as scheduled. Please enjoy this week’s installment of A … Continue reading
Cover Art by Jason Pedersen
Hated and distrusted, Queen Trinity must leave the shadows and reach for redemption.
With their final battle on the horizon, the champions are faced with a long-lost piece of the prophecy. Unable to search for the crests that are rumored to be the key to survival, they must turn to a band of their former enemies for help. Sinister desires and hopes for redemption collide as Queen Trinity of the Chaos Elves leads the hunt and struggles to keep her companions on the path of heroism. Monsters, traps, mysteries, and their own pasts will rise up to stand in the way of these people who have spent their entire lives committing sins. Throughout it all, another old enemy is lurking in the shadows and determined to claim her own delicious prize.
By the end of their journey, those who survive will learn that being a hero is more than simply stepping into the light.
Excerpt: The Aura Syphon
A gurgling causes the two women to pause and look into the pit where the shadows are swirling among the jagged stones. Two black tentacles lance out of the ground and wrap around Yola’s waist, the ooze-dripping projections turning silver at the taste of her magic. Attracted to the stronger energy, the aura syphon yanks the immortal into its slime-covered maw and becomes a metallic beast. With its armored skin, the camouflaged predator is now visible and resembles a sea anemone with the body of a beetle. The jagged rocks are fused to the animal’s exoskeleton and there are six jointed legs that help it scurry out of the pit. Standing over Trinity, the creature opens a faint crease on its body to reveal a bulbous eye with a star-shaped pupil. It pauses to shove a few tentacles into its mouth and hit Yola with pulses of electricity to stop her from struggling. It changes from silver to gold when she attempts to break free, her efforts being quickly drained by the monster.
“Let the crazy woman go before you get killed,” Trinity whispers to the aura syphon. She creates a fireball in the hopes of getting its mouth open, but her spell is ignored. “No reason to have a snack when you have an eternal meal in your belly. Maybe we can have a trade. Can’t believe I’m trying to bargain with this thing. Well, I gave you a chance, so I’m going to blow you up before things get worse. Hope you heard that Yola and are bracing yourself.”
The beast gurgles before releasing a blast of sticky strands that lock Trinity in place. Instead of going after the trapped chaos elf, the creature turns its attention to the helpless army. Having had its fill of magic, the aura syphon is ready to gorge on fresh meat and opens a second mouth that is filled with knife-like teeth. Heading for Sir Harbiss, it is stopped when a chunk of earth erupts beneath it and flips it back into the pit. Unsure of where the attack came from, the aura syphon leaps out and reveals several eye stalks that search for an unseen enemy. A cutting wind lops off half of the projections, but Yola’s potent energy revives them and protects the crystalline armor plates. When the spell comes back around, it bounces off the new defense and bursts against a hill. Blasts of fire strike the beast from behind, so it sprouts a fan-shaped tail of water that douses the flames.
Looking around, the aura syphon stops when it sees that Trinity is nowhere to be seen and there is a hole where she once stood. Spikes grow from the predator’s belly and it slams against the ground in the hopes of impaling the chaos elf. The hiss of escaping gas is heard an instant before an explosion sends the shrieking animal into the sky. Careening towards a solitary cloud that is very low to the ground, the beast catches the scent of an aura that revives the one currently in its gut. Passing through the cloud, it finds its legs caught in a net that runs down to where Trinity is hiding behind a hill. With enhanced strength, the channeler slams the aura syphon into the ground and delivers a leaping stomp to its soft upper body. Instead of ejecting Yola, the creature opens its skin to swallow the chaos elf’s leg up the knee.
“Fine. Backup plan it is,” Trinity mutters, synching her aura to that of the imprisoned immortal.
Releasing as much magic as she can without killing herself, the channeler creates a power surge within the aura syphon. Unable to absorb or redirect so much energy at once, the predator tries to reject the grinning chaos elf. Plunging her fingers into its flesh, Trinity refuses to be thrown off and continues her assault. Blisters appear on the hard exoskeleton and the metallic color flakes off to reveal the natural black of the tentacles. Without warning, the gold returns and the animal explodes with enough force to collapse the ground. Before she can escape, the channeler falls into the pit and is buried beneath the icy dirt.
About the Author:Charles Yallowitz was born and raised on Long Island, NY, but he has spent most of his life wandering his own imagination in a blissful haze. Occasionally, he would return from this world for the necessities such as food, showers, and Saturday morning cartoons. One day he returned from his imagination and decided he would share his stories with the world. After his wife decided that she was tired of hearing the same stories repeatedly, she convinced him that it would make more sense to follow his dream of being a fantasy author. So, locked within the house under orders to shut up and get to work, Charles brings you Legends of Windemere. He looks forward to sharing all of his stories with you, and his wife is happy he finally has someone else to play with.
Blog: www.legendsofwindemere.com
Twitter: @cyallowitz
Facebook: Charles Yallowitz
Website: www.charleseyallowitz.com
First, I keep forgetting to mention this in regards to my son. We’ve been trying to get him into listening to music in a way that he pays attention. He began declaring that he loved Rock music, but only because Ash the porcupine did it in ‘Sing’ and she is his favorite. So, we took this as a jumping point to get him into rock music. The only bands that have stuck are Queen and Guns ‘N Roses, but not the ballad stuff. He’s really into Queen since he had me explain Freddie Mercury. Made a little headway into Billy Joel, Aerosmith, and The Who, but it’s still a battle. If it isn’t loud with a lot of guitar or Freddie Mercury singing then he complains a lot.
Now, off to what happened and what’s about to happen:
Legends of Windemere; Path of Traitors
The book is edited, the cover art is in, and the blurbs are ready. I will be hitting publish later today then announcing it tomorrow. Anyone who volunteered to promote will get an email tonight with notes on posting time. With this book published, it means I have nothing else to focus on except the ending and it’s becoming a doozy. All Jason has told me is that he plans on the final cover being epic and I’m racking up guest posts instead of doing a generic ‘Book is Live’. Which means:
With so much attention being put on the finale, I didn’t really think of much to do for Path of the Traitors. Partially because they’re close release dates and my promotion funds are getting low. I want to save enough to go out with a bang in December, which means I’m skipping some of the pay-for sites that didn’t make an impact with Ritual of the Lost Lamb. Fingers crossed that this opens the door at least. Hard to tell since I know a lot of people are simply waiting for the final book before touching the series. Still, I hope this book finds a Top 100 list like the previous 13 even though I’m not battling scammers along with legitimate authors.
Protecting Bedlam and Raven’s Dawn
This is a fairly minor point, but Protecting Bedlam will have its final entry on Thursday. Once that’s done, you’ll have to wait and see if I publish something next year with Cassidy and Lloyd. People seemed to like the blog story and it got some sales near the beginning, but the summer slump killed that momentum. With money being low, I’m left wondering what to do here. I could edit and publish Derailing Bedlam next February with barely any promoting or going only for free stuff. I could also push it back a year since I’ll be just coming off the exhaustion of finishing Legends of Windemere. Guess I have time to figure things out.
On the heels of this story comes the third volume of the Raven Series, which I’ve done throughout October since 2015. This is a horror story that I never had the confidence to publish, but people liked me using October to do a day-by-day chapter section until the whole thing was done. It fits the Halloween theme and people have enjoyed it so far. As usual, it will run from October 1st to October 31st and it will be raw instead of edited.
October Posts
Monster Maker has been set up, so thank you to the volunteers. Same goes for the Windemere Monster poll with Eusu, Calicos, Undead, and Chimeras winning the four Wednesday slots. This leaves me with Monday, which I considered leaving alone because of the Raven story. Then I tried to think of a way to promote Path of the Traitors with a Halloween twist and came up with nothing. After that, I realized that I had something planned for mid-November that depended on October Mondays being open. So, while it isn’t Halloween-y, I will be posting a ‘Question Request’ post for 6 Mondays in a row in order to set up the kick-off to the Legends finale hype. This will be an interview with each of the six champions, so I hope people will get involved.
War of Nytefall
Even though it’s my new project, Clyde’s first adventure is coming in low on the list. I wrote up 4 of the 18 chapters and am getting a feel for the characters. Mab is a little happier and playful than she is in The Mercenary Prince, which means something bad is going to happen. The action is bloody and violent, but not to the point of Bedlam. I would place it in the middle. Although, there are points where the gore is done in a comedic way that doesn’t even kill a character. Spoiler there if you couldn’t guess. My worry that Clyde wouldn’t come out right is dwindling. He isn’t the cold-hearted and cruel bastard I imagined. He’s friendly and loyal to his friends, which I did plan. He cracks more jokes and uses sarcasm more than I expected. Clyde and Mab also have some ‘former flame’ squabbles, which is proving that I can’t do anything without adding humor into it. I’m curious to see how it all turns out, but it’s going to be slow going.
Life
The gradual progress is primarily because things happen. My parents came back from Spain this week, so the noise levels are back up. I’m driven back into my room or I risk interruptions at the dining room table. Hopefully, the chaos is only this week and things will settle down next week. Except that my son gets Thursday and Friday off for Rosh Hashana. On the plus side, Path of the Traitors will be published and the promos will be out by then. Very good since I’ll be away tomorrow with a family gathering. Given the tradition of me either getting sick or hurt after a debut, I’m worried about what will happen. It’s apple picking, which makes me think a tree will fall on me. That or I’ll eat one with the juiciest worm I’ve ever seen.
Goals for the week?
Autobiographical Meanderings
Well, the proliferation of social media has, for several years now, caused me a few skeletal problems, including lockjaw (from gritting teeth) to aching shoulders (from trying to keep Facebook et al at arms’ length). BUT, for initially, and no longer entirely, selfish reasons, I have begun reading, and enjoying, ‘literary blogs’. It is about time I made an effort to take a step further, and contribute.
I was born and raised in Dudley, in the West Midlands. It used to be part of Worcestershire, which has a famous cricket team. My father (now dead) was mortified when we had to change our address from Dudley, Worcs. to Dudley, W. Mids. W. Mids. still doesn’t have a cricket-team.
From the age of about seven, I enjoyed reading and writing. That was fine, provided I didn’t use too many long words in public. I passed the Eleven Plus and…
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Art by Kayla Matt
Goddess of the hated ones
Protecting those
Who dwell in shadows
Ambrosine dreams
Of the day her people rise
And are welcomed by the sun
Yet the Goddess of tricksters
Knows the game herself
Her influence has stretched
To nurture links
And prepare for the day
The shadows are cast aside
Adopted into the fold
These agents wander far
Basking in the beams
While their minds stay in the dark
Achieving balance
To be the future bridges
Hello,
I’ve been running my weekly ‘Perfect 10’ interview series this year. Every Monday, I run an interview with an author and ask them a series of 10 thought-provoking questions. As I look toward the end of the year, I still have about 10 slots open.
If you’re releasing a book for the holidays or trying to get more exposure and meet other authors and bloggers, this is a great opportunity. Just email me at don@donmassenzio.com and I’ll send you the necessary instructions.
This is a great opportunity and there are only 10 slots left until the end of the year.
If you want to check out past interviews, you can find them in the following links:
A.C. Flory, Steve Boseley, Kayla Matt, Mae Clair, Jill Sammut, Deanna Kahler, Dawn Reno Langley, John Howell, Elaine Cougler, Jan Sikes, Nancy Bell
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