New book release: "Resistance: Book 1, Rising"
So most of you who follow this blog at the moment know both me and laura_josephsen. For those of you who don't Laura is my coauthor. For any blog tour guests who are coming here for the first time because they know Laura but don't know me, Welcome! Laura is my coauthor. We are writing the YA Fantasy Series "Restoration" together. This week Laura released her third published novel, "Rising" and asked me to say a few words for the Book tour.
First, here's the cover and a little bit about "Rising".
All Alphonse wants is a quiet summer at home before his final months at university. What he gets is a half-dead stranger on his doorstep and the task of delivering a package to the leader of his home country. Not long after he boards a train toward the capital, he's attacked by knights, elite soldiers of the neighboring king.
Alphonse is temporarily rescued by Mairwyn, a mechanic with a haunted past and a deep hatred of knights. Together, they attempt to carry out Alphonse's urgent errand, only to learn that if they fail, countless people will die.
And even if they succeed, they may not be able to prevent the war that lurks on the horizon.
I decided to talk a little bit about being part of a writers group, and what that means for me and my relationship with "Rising".
Our writers group sort of happened by accident. Back in July of 2010, three fangirls descended upon Laura and her family from three distant lands: Canada (grav_ity), Michigan (emmaorgana), and Elsewhere in Ohio (me). It was the first time most of us had seen each other face to face. The weekend ended up being Epic on many levels. For whatever reason, when we all parted ways again, we started swapping our novels like recipes.
This was roughly around the time that Laura's plot bunny for "Rising" was first taking shape. I might have things out of order, but I distinctly remember her sending me the first chapter (with her main character Alphonse being bullied by a herd of cows) and me laughing a lot and telling her to definitely keep going with it. I also remember when she first realized the project was much bigger in scope than she'd imagined, and the big wall map she made full of scribbles and notes to try to sort it all out. I remember when Mairwyn was named. At some point, when Laura hit a wall, I also told her to commit to the characters, which I don't remember quite as clearly as she does, but it must have been a big deal, because she mentions it a lot. :-)
"Rising" is sort of like a nephew book to me. I was there shortly after his birth and watched and helped out through the growing pains. You know how when a baby is first born you really don't have a good idea of what they'll look like when they get older? It was the same with Rising. Based on Chapter One, I was expecting a light-hearted romp, and that was the intention, but Laura herself will tell you how he quickly became something else altogether. When he hit puberty, I watched and sympathized as Mommy struggled with this adolescent who insisted on dragging her past tried-and-true boundaries, even making her distressed and discomfited. We all got through it together, and now here we are. Graduation day.
I wasn't the only one to help out. Rising's other "aunts" were on hand too, most especially emmaorgana. For anyone who's reading this and has any kind of writery aspirations whatsoever, find yourself a support group, I urge you! There's nothing quite like it. I've heard tell that JK Rowling wrote each Harry Potter book alone, and if that's true I tip my hat because I'm well beyond the point of being able to do as much now.
At any rate, congratulations to Laura. And to Rising on its Commencement I say: Go forth, young book. Go forth into the world and bring delight!
Links for purchase: Rising Book 1: Resistance:
Kindle at Amazon
Paperback at Amazon
Nook at B&N
Smashwords
Goodreads
Laura's blog: http://laurajosephsen.blogspot.com/
First, here's the cover and a little bit about "Rising".
All Alphonse wants is a quiet summer at home before his final months at university. What he gets is a half-dead stranger on his doorstep and the task of delivering a package to the leader of his home country. Not long after he boards a train toward the capital, he's attacked by knights, elite soldiers of the neighboring king.
Alphonse is temporarily rescued by Mairwyn, a mechanic with a haunted past and a deep hatred of knights. Together, they attempt to carry out Alphonse's urgent errand, only to learn that if they fail, countless people will die.
And even if they succeed, they may not be able to prevent the war that lurks on the horizon.
I decided to talk a little bit about being part of a writers group, and what that means for me and my relationship with "Rising".
Our writers group sort of happened by accident. Back in July of 2010, three fangirls descended upon Laura and her family from three distant lands: Canada (grav_ity), Michigan (emmaorgana), and Elsewhere in Ohio (me). It was the first time most of us had seen each other face to face. The weekend ended up being Epic on many levels. For whatever reason, when we all parted ways again, we started swapping our novels like recipes.
This was roughly around the time that Laura's plot bunny for "Rising" was first taking shape. I might have things out of order, but I distinctly remember her sending me the first chapter (with her main character Alphonse being bullied by a herd of cows) and me laughing a lot and telling her to definitely keep going with it. I also remember when she first realized the project was much bigger in scope than she'd imagined, and the big wall map she made full of scribbles and notes to try to sort it all out. I remember when Mairwyn was named. At some point, when Laura hit a wall, I also told her to commit to the characters, which I don't remember quite as clearly as she does, but it must have been a big deal, because she mentions it a lot. :-)
"Rising" is sort of like a nephew book to me. I was there shortly after his birth and watched and helped out through the growing pains. You know how when a baby is first born you really don't have a good idea of what they'll look like when they get older? It was the same with Rising. Based on Chapter One, I was expecting a light-hearted romp, and that was the intention, but Laura herself will tell you how he quickly became something else altogether. When he hit puberty, I watched and sympathized as Mommy struggled with this adolescent who insisted on dragging her past tried-and-true boundaries, even making her distressed and discomfited. We all got through it together, and now here we are. Graduation day.
I wasn't the only one to help out. Rising's other "aunts" were on hand too, most especially emmaorgana. For anyone who's reading this and has any kind of writery aspirations whatsoever, find yourself a support group, I urge you! There's nothing quite like it. I've heard tell that JK Rowling wrote each Harry Potter book alone, and if that's true I tip my hat because I'm well beyond the point of being able to do as much now.
At any rate, congratulations to Laura. And to Rising on its Commencement I say: Go forth, young book. Go forth into the world and bring delight!
Links for purchase: Rising Book 1: Resistance:
Kindle at Amazon
Paperback at Amazon
Nook at B&N
Smashwords
Goodreads
Laura's blog: http://laurajosephsen.blogspot.com/