Best Dauntless Deals

The release of Dauntless is still about six months away, but for those of you who like to plan ahead...I thought I'd share the best pre-order deals.

For print, try CBD at only $7.99. Click here.

For ebook, the current winner is amazon also at $7.99. Click here.

And if you haven't checked out my new Valiant Hearts website yet, be sure to do that!!! http://valiantheartsseries.blogspot.com/p/series.html

Dauntless Cover Is Here!

The Dauntless cover is here. I love it! In the original mock up cover, I loved the composition, but the model didn't quite fit the description in the book. However, after a few little tweaks by the publishing house, I couldn't be more pleased :)

Dauntless will release next March, so yes, you still have to wait for a while. In the meantime, you can get more info about the book and the series at http://valiantheartsseries.blogspot.com/  and if you'd like, you can actually pre-order it already in the paperback here. 

My Blog has a Blog

At our house we always say, "This is my dog Scruffy, and this is Scruffy's dog Bella." Well, now I kind of feel like my blog has a blog. I just launched a new blog for my young adult Valiant Hearts series. I don't plan to advertise it much at this point, since book one will not be released for close to a year, but you, my faithful readers, are welcome to visit it and give feedback. My plan is to continue improving it as I get more official graphics for the series.

 I'm still debating whether I should change the look of my current website and blog as the time draws closer. I'm also wondering if I should update my "Dance with Passion" tagline, since the new series has little to do with dance. The passion will still apply, but my new heroines are much more likely to fight with passion than merely dance around with it. LOL. Any thoughts would be appreciated. One friend suggested, "Empowering Your Passions." Does anyone like that one?

Anyway, here is the link to the new blog. Maybe it will give you some ideas. http://valiantheartsseries.blogspot.com/p/series.html

Next on the Horizon - The Awesome, the Funny, and the Bittersweet

This weekend on facebook I shared this totally awesome news.

I've been sitting on this announcement since before Christmas, but I just signed a three-book deal with Bethany House Publishers. For those of you who don't really know what that means, it's pretty much a lifetime dream come true. Bethany is one of the largest and best respected publishers of Christian fiction, and a three book deal is HUGE. Even better, the books will release one every six months, so I'll be a busy author too.

This is for my medieval adventure/romance series that I've previewed a few times on this blog. The series is Valiant Hearts and book one is Dauntless. It's geared toward teens, although I'm sure adults will enjoy it too, as is so often the case these days (Go Katniss!) The general idea of the series is that it depicts strong medieval female characters in traditionally male roles. For this first book, Lady Merry Ellison finds herself on the wrong side of the law during the reign of the evil King John and takes on a Robin Hood sort of role. These pictures are of Keira Knightley in Princess of Thieves, but they'll give you the idea of the story.

The funny part of this whole journey is that my first novel was set in the medieval period, but I was told there was no market for medieval fiction in Christian publishing. I love this time period, and I was so sad about that. Of course, I published it with a small press then took on the challenge of finding a more marketable niche, trying my hand at contemporary women's fiction and American set historical romance. But I don't find it surprising that for my first big publishing deal, I've come back to my first love. It took a few subtle shifts to find my market. As I mentioned, the series is geared toward teens and the New Adult market. Really, older teens and twenty somethings were the people I had in my mind as an audience all along, but the term "New Adult" didn't exist in 2006 when I wrote Dance of the Dandelion. The bigger shift is that this series has lots of action, adventure, and suspense.

Now for the bittersweet. Because I will be on a busy schedule of a book every six months with this new series, I am going to have to shelve my contemporary Deep Within series indefinitely. If this is terribly upsetting to anyone, please contact me personally by email. As for me, this was a hard decision to make, but now that I've adjusted to the idea, I'm relieved. It frees me to look forward to Valiant Hearts with excitement and joy, rather than feeling stressed about my writing schedule.

Dauntless will release sometime next spring. I'm sure I'll be back with plenty of news about the series along the way, but for a sneak peek, check out my Pinterest page here.

Medieval Acrobats???

Historical research is tough. Even tougher than finding the right information sometimes, is knowing the right questions to ask. For example, in my first medieval novel I assumed they would have cards and coffee. But when I actually thought to check on those issues, I found out my setting was 50 years too early for either of them to have made their way to England. On the coffee issue, I just changed the drink. On the cards issue, I had a crusader bring them back from the Holy Land.

I mentioned before that my latest medieval creation has a fun acrobatic twist. I can't tell you how many times I've read about medieval "acrobats" in historical text books. So, I never thought to ask if the word acrobat actually existed at the time. But right before sending out my final version of Dauntless Love, my daughter's skepticism about the acrobats prompted me to do a little more last minute research. And...I found out the word "acrobat" actually did not exist in English at that time. They would have been called "tumblers" or possibly "aerialists" if they worked off the ground. When used in military training, acrobatics would have been referred to as "agility skills." Mind you, since they spoke Middle English in 1217, I'm fairly lenient with myself on using words from as late as the 1600s when the language stabilized. But "acrobat" wasn't around until the 1800s. 

In my last minute research I also found this cool video of medieval "tumblers." If they claim to be "acrobats," don't you believe them!

Who's up for some Medieval Fun?

It's rare to find Christian novels with a medieval setting. For a number of reasons, medieval novels are not "trendy" in the CBA, and even when written by well-established authors, sales numbers are low. The new exception to this rule seems to be in young adult fiction, which of course is why the medieval series I'm working on is intended for a cross-over teen/adult audience. Melody Dickerson has had a lot of success with this genre, and I hope to follow in her footsteps.

Christian medieval novels can also be found through small presses (like my Dance of the Dandelion with WhiteFire) and through self-publishing venues. Recently I discovered an awesome new series that has been self-published by Tamara Leigh. Tamara is a well-established author in both CBA and ABA romantic fiction. I've previously read and enjoyed her novels written for both audiences, and her new series offers the best of these two worlds.

The back cover reads:

12th century England: Two men vie for the throne: King Stephen the usurper and young Duke Henry the rightful heir. Amid civil and private wars, alliances are forged, loyalties are betrayed, families are divided, and marriages are made.

For four years, Lady Annyn Bretanne has trained at arms with one end in mind—to avenge her brother’s murder as God has not deemed it worthy to do. Disguised as a squire, she sets off to exact revenge on a man known only by his surname, Wulfrith. But when she holds his fate in her hands, her will wavers and her heart whispers that her enemy may not be an enemy after all.Baron Wulfrith, renowned trainer of knights, allows no women within his walls for the distraction they breed. What he never expects is that the impetuous young man sent to train under him is a woman who seeks his death—nor that her unveiling will test his faith and distract the warrior from his purpose.

I loved everything about this book. As an author and editor, I have a hard time these days finding a novel that will actually hold my interest. This one kept me riveted. I read it straight through in a day. I loved tough, scrappy Annyn, and the book brimmed with excitement. I personally liked that it was a bit sexy for an inspirational novel, but that it also had a lovely thread of forgiveness and redemption woven throughout. I also found the author's historical research to be very accurate. For those who love the energy of secular romance novels but would prefer something cleaner, this one should make you as happy as it made me.

And for a quick compare/contrast between Tamara's writing and my own...

This novel is fairly different than Dance of the Dandelion. It follows a typical romance formula and includes a lot of action and suspense. My novel follows more of a coming of age format and is focused on character development more than action. In addition, my novel is set almost two centuries later. However, I think both Tamara and I have a lovely flowing writing style full of awesome description. The books are also similar in that they are both very romantic and even a bit edgy for Christian novels.

Comparing it with my still-in-process young adult novel, Dauntless Love, there are many more similarities. I truly hope that I captured the same excitement and energy that Tamara has brought to life in her action-packed novel. Dauntless Love follows the same romance structure and features a heroine in a man's role, just like The Unveiling, and the settings are only about 60 years apart. The heroines even go through similar journeys of giving up on God after tragedies in their lives and finding their way back within the pages of the book. The main difference is, I avoided any overt sensuality and kept the book more innocent for my teen audience, although there is still plenty of romantic tension. While I would not call Dauntless Love "edgy," there is an innate grittiness to the medieval culture that keeps it from being "sweet."

I highly recommend The Unveiling for older teens to adults who like an edgier, more realistic read. It's a lot of fun and will keep you turning pages late into the night.

Just for Fun - An Acrobatic Twist

Little known fact, in addition to dance, I also love gymnastics and acrobatics. Since Dauntless Love, the novel I am just finishing up, takes place in the medieval period, I thought it would be fun to add an acrobatic twist.

I pretty much hung up my personal acrobatic hat a few years back, but all three of my children are incredible acrobats. Just for fun, here is my farewell acrobatic performance. I'm guessing this was around 2008. My two kids are the ones doing the fancy tricks. Gymnastics fans, notice the lovely back flip by my son at about 2:16. :) My youngest was still too little for choreography at the time, but he is following right in their footsteps.

Everything About You from danzingfool on GodTube.

YA Fiction Finds

This spring has been all about the world of Young Adult fiction for me. It started when I had the idea for a YA historical series, and I have loved my foray into this genre. Why? Admittedly, some of the heroines seem a little immature to me, but much about these books resonates in a universal sort of way. On the secular side, they are clean, action-packed, and not afraid to ask the hard questions about life. On the Christian side, they are actually edgier and more real than many of their adult counterparts. Put bluntly, teens won't tolerate any b.s., and since I won't either, YA fiction is a great fit for me.

I'm going to quickly take you through some of the books I have read, not only this spring, but in the last year in the YA genre.

In the Christian world Melanie Dickerson, Lisa Bergren, and Anne Elisabeth Stengl are some of the big stars. I've been enjoying Melanie's great fairy tale retellings for years, so I didn't actually read any this time around. You can find them in our Inky archives, though. I read Lisa Bergren's Glamorous Illusions last year and liked it, but didn't really connect with her River of Time series, although many of my adult friends loved it. As for Anne Elizabeth Stengl, I had a hard time getting into Heartless, but her vivid imagination and beautiful voice kept me reading. And I'm so glad I did. I was completely impressed by the gorgeous allegory in this story.

Perhaps my biggest surprise was to learn that a book I stumbled on last year and looooved, Prophet by R. J. Larsen, is considered Y.A. I gobbled up this book in just a few days and enjoyed every word. I was mesmerized by her strong, courageous, spiritual heroine. I've been looking for an excuse to buy books two and three, and never even realized they were Y.A. until my agent mentioned it to me. (By the way, my agent knew this because she also represents R. J.) These books are called speculative, but I would describe them more as fantasy set in the Biblical era. Whatever they are, they're awesome, and I highly recommend them.

In secular fiction, I found I have a real penchant for YA dystopian fiction. Of course I started with The Hunger Games series. Read them straight through. I could easily do a whole post about how they inspired me to find my inner strength and stand against injustice. I have to admit, though, that I wasn't crazy about the existential ending to the whole series. It was kind of a downer. Although the ending was realistic, I'm sure I wasn't the only one who wanted something more triumphant. I'm working my way through the Matched series, which I've really enjoyed so far, and I also want to check out some other books which begin series including The Selection, Divergent, and Delirium. I've read samples of each, and they all look promising.

I also gave Twilight a try, something I probably wouldn't have done if it wasn't for research purposes. This book did have a special sort of magic. I couldn't put it down. And yes, it's romantic on an epic scale. While the vampire element seemed completely fantasy-like and didn't bother me, I cannot in good conscience recommend it, especially not for teens.

I felt the message of the book was that love conquers all, even if your boyfriend is inherently evil. Therefore, I felt girls could use this as a justification to get involved with destructive individuals like abusers and addicts. In fact, Edward's craving for Bella's blood is flat-out described as an addiction. There's a very real possibility he might kill her. The impression is given that playing with fire is somehow romantic. Here are just a few dangerous quotes I collected. But don't worry, I'm essentially a selfish creature. I crave your company too much to do what I should." ~ Edward. I refused to be convinced to fear him, no matter how real the danger might be. It doesn't matter, I repeated in my head." ~ Bella. I'm here, which roughly translated, means I would rather die than stay away from you. I'm an idiot." ~ Bella. While I don't think the author had bad intentions, I also do not think she fully thought through her responsibility to her young, impressionable readers. 

And I can't finish without mentioning that I've been reading an in-progress YA dystopian by my good friend Gina Welborn. Whoop! Whoop! It's so great, I can't wait for her to finish and find a publisher so you all can read it. I'll also keep you posted on the status of my own YA novel, the first in a series of action-packed medievals featuring strong female characters in traditional male roles.

What YA novels have you found and loved? Any you wouldn't recommend?

Writing Inspiration from the BBC

I need to be writing this week. I'm close to finishing up my new YA manuscript, Dauntless Love, with a Robin Hood type heroine. And when I'm really stuck on this project, the best inspiration comes from watching the BBC's new Robin Hood on Netflix. Not only is it an opportunity to immerse myself in the right time and place, but it includes several strong female characters. Their Marian is a thief and crusader for justice in her own right, called The Night Watchman. At first I thought much of this show was historically inaccurate, but the more I study the time, I discover it is accurate in surprising ways, including its use of these strong, battle-worthy women. So here's a peek into Marian's world, which has provided me with so much inspiration.

That Magical Moment

The writers journey is long, challenging, discouraging, and often tedious. On average it takes ten years of committed work to get published, just so you can sell (again on average) about 10,000 books and make about $10,000 bucks. Typically, it takes another decade and several books to even begin making something that looks like a living. And only a few, rare, authors (whom lightning strikes) will ever get rich. Instead most will face constant criticism and scathing reviews while they rake in their pittance.

So why do writers do it? We do it because we love to write. We love the creative process. Bringing to life worlds and characters upon the paper that will spark to life in the imagination of our readers.

And perhaps nothing is more magical and rewarding in the eyes of the author than that moment when inspiration strikes. Some authors get inspiration all the time. Every creepy barn they pass on the highway is the site for a murder. Every quirky old man the basis for a character. And inspiration builds slowly. But for me inspiration hits fast, and it hits hard. Like a tidal wave I can barely control.

Inspiration hit me last week. I had discussed the possibility of a YA medieval romance series with an editor a year and a half ago. Then last Saturday, while I took a walk, inspiration hit. NO, not hit. Inspiration smashed me upside the head and hi-jacked the next 8 days of my life. Not only with a book idea this time. That would be too easy. With an entire series that must be mapped out, plus the beginning of book one.

So this past week has been a haze of research, editing, and manic writing. Thank God for my faithful team of supporters who jumped right on the project with help strategizing and critiquing. And somehow, in the midst of it, I managed to not burn down the house or neglect any of my children. As of today, a full series proposal along with three chapters of book one is ready to be sent off to publishers.

It's been an amazing, exhilarating, roller coaster of a week. And a wonderful reminder that these magical moments are why I write.