We Do Write: phoenix descending

Thursday, 31 January 2019

The I ❤️ YA Scavenger Hunt - #Win a $100 Amazon Gift Card #CursedLands

We’re so excited to present the official I ❤️ YA Scavenger Hunt, sponsored by the authors of Cursed Lands, a limited edition Young Adult Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, and Dystopian Collection!

This massive scavenger hunt is be your chance to meet some new YA authors, grab a bunch of free books, and sign up to win a whole bunch of epic prizes! In addition to a $100 grand prize, many of the authors are offering free books and other prizes!

HOW TO PLAY

All the hunt rules are on the main website: http://cursedlandsboxedset.com/scavengerhunt/. But a quick reminder: Find the secret word in BOLD in my blog post below and string it together with the words from all the other hunt stops to win the grand prize $100 Amazon Gift card!

Each author has been given a special keyword, which is bolded and in all caps like this: CURSED.

All you have to do is visit all the author’s sites in the correct order (laid out below), write down the special keywords from their blog post to discover the short story, then enter the giveaway with the completed secret story on the Cursed Lands website.

There is one main giveaway for the Grand Prize, but most of the participating authors also have smaller giveaways for free books, gift cards, or author swag, so make sure you read their post carefully to see what else they’re offering while you’re on their site for the keyword!!!

about my book

My book, which is included in the Cursed Lands boxed set it titled CRIMSON MAGE. Here's the cover and a little about the book.

For Mayhara, one thing is clear: using outlawed mage powers may be the only way to save the world—even if it means losing everything.

Mayhara Guatama’s world changed ever since the Purge. The New Asian Administration outlawed mages and forbade the use of their powers. With the absence of a newly reincarnated Lotus Empress, mages everywhere were lost. When the administration threatened to imprison Mayhara’s family, she made a deal with them: surrendering her mage status and agreeing to give her life to the New Order.

Years later, Mayhara is secure in a government job, earning a decent salary and adhering to the administration’s new laws, assured that her family will not be touched. That is, until she receives a mysterious message from her former guru—the guru who helped her develop her mage powers when she attended the mage academy.

When Mayhara realizes the message is a call for help, she is torn between her sworn-off loyalty to the Lotus empire and her new, secure life that guarantees her family’s safety.

You'll get this book plus over 20 more when you order the Cursed Lands boxed set.

Mysterious strangers. Hidden abilities. Inescapable darkness…

Join our courageous heroines and heroes as they battle demons, governments, and secret organizations in worlds where fae, vampires, angels, witches, humans, and more fight for survival.

Cursed Lands will lead you through one doomed world after another in this haunting dystopian, urban fantasy, and paranormal romance boxed set. Inside, you'll find 22 exclusive, page-turning tales from today's bestselling and award-winning authors.

Do you dare venture into Cursed Lands, where magic, danger, and romance lurk between the shadows and the light?

Pre-order for 99¢

Nook | iBooks

Now that we've got all that out of the way, it's time for me to tell you my secret word for the hunt. I actually have two words, and they are: A MONSTER. Seems quite fitting. Be sure to string these words together with the rest of the words you find on the hunt to form the secret story.

To continue the hunt, click through to the next author and find the next word in the secret story.

Click Here!

Here's the correct order of authors for you to hunt down to solve the secret story:

Cursed Lands site-enter for final prize

Bonus Content

Here is the foreword from Crimson Mage, to give you an idea of the world in which this story takes place:

The legend goes …

The ancient deity Kashmeru knew only one true love—the Lotus empress Lakshmi, who in his eyes possessed all beauty and grace the universe could hold. Their hearts called to one another, a hold so strong that neither one could deny the bond. But Lakshmi knew that Kashmeru’s spirit was not pure, for an evil dwelled within his soul, a wickedness so corrupt that it could destroy the universe.

And when she denied him her love, that was the very thing he vowed to do.

Throughout the centuries, their reincarnations were drawn to one another, but the outcome was always the same: Lakshmi would never give Kashmeru her heart.

To put an end to his constant chase, the Empire of the Lotus defeated Kashmeru and sealed him in a tomb using mage powers, where he would remain trapped …

… until the Council of the Seven could secure the blood of the Lotus empress to set him free.

I hope you're intrigued enough to check it out.

GIVEAWAY

And now for a bonus giveaway! Simply fill out the Rafflecopter for your chance to win an ebook copy of my award-winning YA fantasy, Phoenix Descending.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck, everyone!

Dorothy

Sunday, 28 January 2018

Guest Post: Writing our Reality in Books by Author M Hollis @_mhollis #KrakenFriends2018

The Kraken Collective launched February 1st, 2017, and in celebration of their one-year anniversary, they've put together an awesome promo sale of 19 books with queer characters for 99¢ each. You should really check them out (selfish plug, since one of the books is mine).

Be sure to go here to take the personality quiz and find out which queer character you are most like!

As part of the big event, I've asked author Maria Hollis to write a guest post on the blog, which she so graciously did. Writing as M. Hollis, Maria's novelette RIPPED PAGES is about a Princess named Valentina who lives a reasonably comfortable life, but after her mother's death, her father gets tired of taking care of her and locks her in a tower. She spends years on her own, talking to the birds on her windowsill, and reading books with adventures she will never experience. Her plans of running away are usually left for another day because she knows the vast forest surrounding her tower is too dangerous to cross alone. Until one day, another girl passes by on her horse and Valentina wonders if she’s finally brave enough to seize her chance of freedom.

Be sure to check out RIPPED PAGES here.

Without further ado, here's her post!

*****

Writing our Reality in Books

When I was around eleven years old I wrote my first book. It was my cheesy attempt to write a magic
world where I could see myself and my reality existing. Today, I recognize it as fanfiction more than
an original story, but at the time I didn’t have any knowledge about these things and the internet would
only reach me later that year. But something that always stays with me from this book is that I rewrote
Harry Potter with a female protagonist who lived on a small island in the south of Brazil. She was a part
of me I couldn’t find in the famous and accessible books and movies that everyone loved at that time.

Flash-forward to a decade later, and today I’m still trying to write stories where I can see myself, but
this time they are stories about women who love other women. It took me such a long time to accept
my sexuality and identity. I still struggle with this some days. It’s not something I like to talk about all
the time because as an author I always feel this need to show my younger readers that they can have
hope, but my hope is still a fragile thing that I have to try so hard to hold on to.

The media hides LGBTIQAP+ content from kids and leaves the mainstream for the most privileged.
Sometimes, you see parts of yourself but can’t find others. I’m still a white, cis, able-bodied person
and it already took me until my twenties to realize so many things about who I am. What changed
was that I was able to find TV shows, movies, books, and web series about girls falling in love thanks
to the internet and the research I’ve been doing lately.

That’s why representation matter. Because we all live in a world where being marginalized from
society is also being erased from the media we consume. There’s a slow change happening that can
be extremely frustrating in the age of fast consuming media, but it’s a change that makes me happy.
I read Young Adult books with girls loving other girls and I think: this is exactly how lost I was when
I was their age. Someone out there is reading these books now at the right time and figuring out they
are not alone.

Since I’ve published my Rapunzel retelling, Ripped Pages, I’ve received a couple of messages
from readers telling me they read the story for their kids and they adored it. Nothing makes me
happier than that. To know that kids of all ages can find some hope in the words I wrote. In this
little fairytale I wrote for younger me that is now finding other people who need it. And I guess
that’s our role as creators, to write stories where people can see themselves as the heroes who
save the day.