Seth is Live and in the Kindle Store

     I thought I'd drop a quick note on here and let everyone know that Seth, A Naiad's Son is available. It seems that I've caught a bug of some sort and Lady Chloe isn't returning my telepathic calls for assistance. Personally, I think she should since I've given her everything she has!

     I hope everyone has a Happy Holidays. Be safe and let your stars guide you.
   
     Daniel

Delays to everything ...

     There might be a delay in the release of Seth. There's been a death in the family and my family  is quite close. My Uncle Laurel Neal just died after a long battle with cancer. Something like this tends to disrupt the normal scheme of things and puts plans on hold. December is still on the table, but if it doesn't happen, that's reason.
     Take care of your loved ones, things can change quickly.

          Daniel

Davie the Mage in E-format

     I had a fan request that I get Davie the Mage formatted for Kindle. It was mostly done, mostly. I finished it up and published it in that format last night. Sometimes I think that the formatting for paperback and kindle is harder than writing the stories! At least I have the ideas that form themselves when I'm writing. It doesn't work that way when I'm having to remember PDF this and docx that! I'd almost rather be plumbing... almost.

     Anyway, there ya go folks. If you're a soft-hearted person, like I am, this book could get you emotional. It did me! Now I think I'll go wander the world of the Naiads for awhile.

     Beware the fish from the coast of Sabia!

     Daniel

To much fun!

     I've been writing the story of Seth, Della the Naiad's son. I've written it three times now and haven't been sure how it would end. The first two times I began to ramble and ended up with way to much detail for the avg. reader. I thought it was fun, but someone might get lost in it all. Now I have found where it is going and what will happen in the end. This may be my longest book yet at over 100K words, but for me it has been the most fun. I know that the day I submit it to my editor is the day my editor will beat me with a stick.

    I just thought I'd update so all my faithful followers would know that I am still in this realm. (barely).

     Until the next letter drops in your lap,

          Avoid dem grubs that wanna nip your shoots an' ruin your shiny mornin's.

Finally, A Response to Abuse

I have taken more than my fair share of attacks due to my choice of character ages in my books. The one that seems to get the most attention is when "Alba" is taken as a "Consort" at age thirteen. I'll admit that I was concerned when I added that into my book because of the taboo nature of someone that young being sexually active. I researched the time period extensively before I made my decision. I might have never even responded but the attacks became personal and directed toward the author and not just the material.

Here are some things that I found concerning young girls in the medieval times.

In medieval Europe, Gratian, the influential founder of Canon law in the twelfth century, accepted the traditional age of puberty for marriage (between 12 and 14) but he also said consent was "meaningful" if the children were older than seven. Some authorities said consent could take place earlier. It was this policy which was carried over into English common law. Similarly Gratian's ideas about age became part of European civil law.

Though Shakespeare set his Romeo and Juliet in Verona, the fact that Juliet was 13 probably reflects the reality in England. Her mother, who was 26 calls her almost an old maid.

The age of consent in one of the American States was just 7 years, just 120 years ago!

The above came from this site.

Since it seems as though a lot of the outrage comes from people that consider themselves good christian folks I thought that I'd mention this little tidbit. It does come from a bit earlier in history but would still be relevant to the point:

One very remarkable thing about Mary is that she would almost certainly have been 12-14 years old when the angel Gabriel appeared to her. We know this because the common custom at that time was for girls to marry early, at that age. The Bible never gives Mary’s age when she got pregnant or gave birth to Jesus, and that is because when something happened that was common in the culture, nothing was said about it.

I guess the writers of the bible should be attacked too!

I just had to get that off my chest since I don't respond well to negativity. It makes me dislike people and I'm usually a friendly guy!

May the Stars guide you into having a loving spirit.

Promo Week!!

Promotions for my first three books are going to be going on all week. The first one for Another Typical Day starts today, whenever Amazon gets around to starting it. Then a new book will be put on discounted sale every other day until Friday when my newest book James, The Crown Prince will go live. It's been on pre-order and I have a score of orders for it already. James is already in paperback for the old-schoolers. Just thought I'd put the word out.

Oh, and for you critics... especially ones that call me a 'maggot'... remember that you're reading a book of the fantasy genre and get over it. And may you ride a shooting star to earth if you can't.

Be well and have a greeny, sunshiny day.

New Release Date for Davie

We're all having so much fun with the editing and art we've decided to keep it up. That will, however, put the release of "Davie" closer to Dec. than the end of Sept. I doubt that anyone will really notice. I'm not King or Rowling after all.


Til next time.
Everyone should know everything but let the stars guide  you!

Release Date set for James, The Crown Prince

And also for Davie the Mage.

Both books came back from the Editor at nearly the same time. I guess that happens when you make your editor wait for the last chapter of the book for three weeks.  James, The Crown Prince will be released on the 19th with Davie the Mage following on the 26th of September. Personally I think they are much better than the first three and I may have said that before.

Book sales are headed for the basement but that's fine. I'm still having fun and that's all that really matters.

From James the Crown Prince

Coming from an enormous family like that, it was easy to blend in and disappear.  That is, unless you were my father’s oldest son.  I knew he did the things he did because he loved me and wanted me to do well.  He had worked with me on my magic on almost a daily basis since I was five years old.  Since I was the first born, I was the first of a generation of children who were born with the ability to use psionic magic.  My brothers, sisters and I did magical things, which our parents had practiced hard and used spell words to do, with just a simple thought.

From Davie the Mage

Like my big brother before me, I wasn't ready to be tied to a desk! Even if the desk was in a luxurious castle with maids and servants at my beck and call, it didn't sound fun. When the time came for my brother James to be assigned to the Lordship of a castle, he took a trip to No Man’s Land and then across the ocean. Along the way he met a beautiful young lady and married her. He now has his castle, consorts, wife and children. I didn’t know if I wanted any of those things yet. I’d decided that Davie Stephenson, the son of David and Alba, was going on a trip of his own.

Until next time, Let the stars guide your path!

Waiting on Cover Art

     I'm hoping that I can put something other than a nice friendly template from Createspace on my newest book. I personally feel that James, The Crown Prince came out much better than the first three but if I didn't think that I'd just be working backwards.  While I'm waiting on my artist I've been working on my 2nd/5th book. This one is about Davie, Princess Alba's son. I explored a new emotional realm with this book and it shook me up a little. O.K., perhaps quite a bit considering there were times that my wife was begging me not to write along the lines I was following. For those who know me personally they know that I'm not known for being very emotionally stable to start with. For those who don't know me, I'm perfectly normal and all those pills I take daily are just vitamins!

     The almighty 'they' say that in e-book sales there is a thirty day wall. After your book has been on the market for thirty days it crashes and dies. That is unless you have a following that keep your book noticed. I'm now past fifty-five days and my sales are still fairly strong. I'm not getting rich and selling like a top 10 book would but i'm still in the game and happy with it. Like I've said before, I'm not writing books to make money I'm doing it to tell a story and maybe entertain someone out there. When it comes to the critics and the negative comments I've decided to listen to Ricky Nelson and do what I want to do.

     So that is where things stand in the world of Eredwynn. I'll post more when my artwork is ready or I get bored and need something to do. Until then *May your stars guide you*

Daniel

James, The Crown Prince

     Well, I have finished writing my 1st/4th book in my Wizards of Eredwynn world. It is a continuation of the Eredwynn series featuring the children of David. I've been working on getting this one right with the editor and the formatting so I won't have the problems that cropped up with my first three. I've learned a lot over the last few months that will help me along the way. I've also gone back and fixed many errors that were in the first three books. It's almost like pulling teeth to get amazon 'Kindle' to send out an auto update for the people that have already bought the book. Perhaps when I learn the ropes then dealing with them things will be even smoother.
 
     I'll update the blog when James goes live. I'm not sure what kind of readership this little online notebook has but if there are only one or two it's worth it to me.  I never started this project to make any money. I just hope that I can entertain a few for awhile. Now I'll wander back into unreality and see what I find lurking there.

Find your own Star,

Daniel

Critics

Reviews are very interesting things and I do believe they serve a purpose. However, individuals that write reviews aren't required to be honest in the slightest as I've recently learned. I wonder if there are people out there in competing genres that actually lie in reviews to lower anothers rating. One comment I got referenced the overuse of a type of punctuation that I had supposedly overused. I was concerned enough to read thirty pages to see if there really was a problem. That punctuation was used six times on thirty pages. That isn't what I would consider overuse and is a far cry from the fifteen times per page that the reviewer had stated.

No one wins in a mud fight but I wanted to vent a bit.  Sorry 'bout that!

May the stars guide you,
Daniel

Promotional Price

I've been reading up on how things work on Amazon.com and it was suggested that I put a book on promotion.  The price has been marked down $2.00 to $.99 for the next three days and then will start drifting back to its normal price.  It will give people a chance to get to know my characters and decide if it would be something that they'd be interested in.  Making money is nice but having people happy with my work is even more important to me.  I hope by putting this on the blog that more people will have a chance to see it and a chance to meet David and Isabel! 

Home alone with my ideas

I have been getting a lot of feedback on my books lately.  Some is criticism for the sake of being annoying and some has been quite constructive!  I'm working on a continuation of the Eredwynn story and am doing my best to work the ideas that I've received from all over the world into it.  Of course the story belongs to itself and it won't let me stray to far from the parameters that it's set up for itself.  I'm going to try to color inside the lines and see if that will help.  I'm getting a lot of experience with both the writing and the dealing with people.  For me the writing is much easier because, as a gamer type at heart, I don't work well with others!  I'm closing in on my newest goal and that is to be in the top 100 in my genre on Amazon.com/fantasy.  I'm in the four hundreds now and that is up from the seven thousands only two weeks ago.  Thanks to everyone that has boosted me in the right direction!

Until Next Time,
May your stars guide you.

A new book series called The Wizards of Eredwynn

     I was sitting at home one afternoon and my mind was approached by a man named David.  He said that he had a story to tell and asked if I'd tell it for him.  I had very little experience writing stories but I said that I'd give it a shot.  He began telling me a fascinating story and continued telling it for several months.  Some of the things I was told I couldn't believe and had to verify with history.  It was all true and I wrote what I was told.  He gave me information that the publisher said was to much for one book and they had me divide it into three books.   I've had them done in paperback and Kindle format and they can be found at The Wizards of Eredwynn .  I  know that there is a picture of some scary old man on the page but ignore the man behind the curtain!

My book model is my youngest daughter, Hailey.

Another Typical Day   Was my first attempt at writing anything.  I even figured out ways to get out of term papers when I could.  I was stung by a few kick the author reviews but finally got someone that didn't read the book just to kick the writer.  My next two books got progressively better, at least in my opinion.  I feel better after reading that my writing may have promise.  I hope I got better over time.  I'm sure that someone will let me know and if they do have criticisms they are at least nice about it!

A New Generation

I have been considering writing about David's children and what they might do when they start growing up.  I'll let it run around in my head for awhile and maybe they'll show up to tell me their stories!