Sunday, August 19, 2012

Book Review: Urchin King


Paul, the quintessential street urchin, has spent the last nine years of his life barely eking out an existence in the back alleys and public squares of the town of Wynburgh -- completely unaware of his secret heritage. All of this changes when he's roped into an elaborate scheme that has him taking the place of the sweet, yet mentally challenged heir to the throne. Placed squarely in the path of a conniving wizard and an evil necromancer, Paul has to use all of his street smarts to outwit them and save the members of the royal family he has come to love.

Author Katharina Gerlach successfully combines an easy to read writing style with some first-rate storytelling in this appealing fantasy novel for young adults. Even though the set up, at first, seems to be similar to Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper, the similarity ends once you get past the “pair of princes who ‘coincidentally’ resemble each other.” Urchin King is a completely original story that stands on its own and is a lot of fun. Recommended.

Monday, August 6, 2012

Giveaway Winner! (and other news)


A hearty congratulations to Angie Forney, winner of my Goodreads book giveaway. A signed copy of Dragonfriend will be heading Angie's way later this week!

In the meantime, work continues on Giantkiller, sequel to Dragonfriend. Even though I had to take a break to finish up a draft of a 'Littlest Pet Shop' script (animated half-hour to air on The Hub -- psst! It's going to be really funny) and generate some premises for two other shows (prayers and/or positive vibes welcome!) I'm almost at the end of the second to last chapter. Yes, I'd say I've officially entered the "light at the end of the tunnel" phase of the program. Updates to come!

Monday, July 23, 2012

Independent Authors International

I recently joined iAi, an independent author's group with the very lofty goal of making sure its member's books are suitable for publication.The group's recent press release explains it all:

Authors’ cooperative venture changes the publishing world — again

iAi to be a symbol of quality and professionalism in publishing

A group of writers, marketers and designers unaffiliated with publishers have banded together to create their own publishing model, “Independent Authors International (iAi).”

The new organization, whose members hail from across the U.S. and around the world, aims to support and legitimize the independent author movement, and bring new voices to readers throughout the world.

“Recently developed technologies like e-readers and print-on-demand make it now possible for individual writers to publish books without the resources of a large commercial publishing enterprise,” says iAi spokesperson, Scott Bury.

“The iAi co-operative will help professional authors by bringing together the skills and services that a commercial publisher offers, while leaving the authors in control of their work, at a fraction of the cost, and with a much more responsive and personal touch.”

The iAi's goal is to help its members produce quality, professional works recognized by literary agents, publishers, booksellers, and readers. The group is a democratic, cooperative organization controlled by its members.

Membership is granted by invitation of existing members. The group vets prospective members to ensure they meet the professional writing, editing, and marketing standards of the iAi.

To receive the services of the organization, members must contribute their editing, production, or marketing skills to other members.

The iAi currently has 12 authors and publishing professionals from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Israel and the Philippines. The iAi website at http://iauthorsi.org/ has information on the organization's goals and principles, a list of members, books that meet iAi criteria and links to sites where these books can be purchased.

For more information about Independent Authors International or to schedule an interview with one of its members, please contact Scott Bury by email at scott.bury@iAuthorsi.org.


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I hope this group succeeds because if there's one thing the world of independent publishing can use, it's more quality checks. Check out the iAi featured publication in the sidebar. 'Anabar's Run' is this month's book and author Will Granger wanted to be sure you knew he's donating one half of the 2012 profits to a charity called "The Relief Bus."

Friday, July 13, 2012

7 Questions: Voice Pro Mark Moseley

Most of you probably don't know this, but I have a really cool "day job" writing TV animation. As part of an effort to bring a little more of that world to this blog I asked my neighbor, talented voice professional Mark Moseley, if he wouldn't mind answering seven questions about his craft. Thankfully, he agreed (otherwise I'd find it hard not to throw the stink-eye at his house every time I drove by). Seriously though, he's a great guy and I think you'll find him as interesting as I do.

Mark Moseley
Here now, seven questions for Mark Moseley:

1) Tell us a little bit about yourself. What brought you out to Los Angeles and how did you end up doing voices for animation?

The whole thing, even though it was something I’d always wanted, was sort of a fluke. I’d become a radio DJ when I was still in high school, and after graduation, continued that as a main career path for a while. I used to dream of being a comedian when I was a kid; growing up in a small town in Mississippi, being on the local AM radio station was as close as I could get to being in ‘show biz’. Bouncing around from city to city-as one does in radio-for a few years, I eventually made my way to Miami, where I was doing mornings as a comedic partner (using my vocal skills and penchant for writing short-form sketch comedy), while I explored lots of other interests.

I did a lot of on-camera pitch-man stuff, lots and lots of radio and TV voice-over, as well as being a (part-time) working stand-up comic (in all my years of dabbling in stand-up, I’ve never been a serious ‘road comic’, as I always had that full-time day job, not to mention a family to feed).

But it all collectively served me very well, when, in 1997, I got a call from someone at Disney in Orlando. Someone at exactly the right place at the right time had heard me on the radio in Miami doing my impression of Eddie Murphy, and they were looking for someone to be a sound-alike for Eddie in “Mulan”. So many things had to come together for this to happen: Disney had to have been making “Mulan” at their Florida studio-not in California where most feature films are made, someone had to hear me on the radio, and Eddie Murphy had to be on vacation at the time the Disney studio heads had demanded to see a ‘rough cut’ of “Mulan”. It was fate for me. That opened all the doors since. From doing sound-alike for all the TV commercials and products for Mushu, I started doing Eddie Murphy’s TV looping (over-dubbing clean words for dirty words) for his movies such as “The Nutty Professor” and “Life”…and every one since. It also led me to work for DreamWorks, as Eddie signed on for “Shrek”. By now, he was sending studios to me for stuff he was too busy for. I began flying back and forth from Miami to L.A. once a month to fill in for Eddie on the animated TV series “The PJ’s”. By 2002, when DreamWorks told me I’d have acting work in “Shrek 2”, and “Father of the Pride”, I was able to justify moving the family to Los Angeles.

2) Are you a natural at picking up/creating voices and dialects or is that a skill you have to work at? 

Mushu
It’s a natural ability that quite a few people do have; most just never really try to see how serious they can get with it. What a lot of impressionists will do is, they’ll try to get the voice close enough to deliver a trademark line or two: “I’ll be back.” or “You can’t handle the truth!”. If they have a few lines where they can maintain the voice, then they figure they’ve got themselves an impression. I go for being fully conversational. Give me any dialogue in the world, and I can say it in Eddie Murphy’s voice and with the proper emotion. I mentioned doing TV looping for “The Nutty Professor”? In that movie, I had to imitate Eddie Murphy doing characters; same thing with “Norbit”. It’s me imitating Eddie Murphy as the grandmother, and the brother, and so on. It’s a craft that you never stop working on. I always tell kids—if you can do one impression, I’ll bet you can do five. And if you get to five—guess what?—it means you can do 50. Some voices or dialects are harder than others; I’ve had a heck of a time getting President Obama down. It depends on the voice, or the dialect. I’ve discovered over the years that the key is to immerse yourself in a voice if you want to master it.

I once overdubbed a German movie into English, and after four straight days of listening to actors speak German in a dubbing studio—I had myself as awesome authentic German accent. I go for mastery too. I’m quite proud of a lot of my voices, and know that I do certain ones better than anyone else. Schwarzenegger, for example. My Arnold is very realistic-sounding, which led to me getting cast in the “Terminator 3-Redemption” game. They auditioned every guy out there that did Arnold, and they put me in that game-and, here’s the part I’m proud of-in some parts of the game, my impression is blended into dialogue recordings they had from Arnold himself. It’s a really good match. When Fox made the “Simpsons” movie, they brought me in to read the lines for “President Schwarzenegger” (spoiler alert!), because they were toying with the idea of not using Harry Shearer’s caricature of Arnold, but maybe making people think it really WAS Arnold.

3) You also do voices for video games. Talk a little about the differences between working in that world and doing voices on a cartoon. 

Donkey
I’ve done all the “Shrek” video games, and quite a few for Disney, so those are fun and light. But more and more, video games are calling on actors do some pretty heavy acting; they’ve come a long way from the days when characters had such complex dialogue as “Die, alien scum!”, and “Urgh!’ Now, they’re bringing in Hollywood screenwriters to construct these intricate and complex characters and storylines. It’s a lot of fun, and a challenge too.

You always go in when you get cast knowing that you’re going to be doing at least 3 characters, usually more; I did nine for “Star Wars-the Old Republic”. You do still get to say “Urgh!” a lot—it’s funny, because you do all these sounds of pain, and death screams, and the voice director is coaching you: “Now sound like you’ve been thrown off a cliff. Now you’re being crushed by a boulder. Now give me one where a dragon is eating you.” The only major difference between video games and cartoons is—and it IS major—in video games, you pretty much stick to the script. In animation, they want as much improvisation as possible. That’s what makes cartoon animation so much fun.

4) What’s a typical workday like for you?

What’s exciting is that there is no typical. I never know from one day to the next if I’m EVER going to work again—isn’t that exciting!? It’s called being a ‘journeyman actor’, kids. What you want to go for is being an “A-List” actor, you see. Seriously though, I never know. Like everyone else, I audition for a ton of stuff every week, and then sit back and don’t hold my breath. The work varies; I perform a sketch comedy bit or two for radio stations first thing in the morning. Just about every day I do some radio voice-overs. Some days I’m reading a corporate narrative voice-over; other days I’m driving to an audition where I’ve got to perform in an ensemble radio commercial. Then some days I get to do something really exciting like perform in a video game or an animated TV series. It’s never boring.

5) You have a very impressive home recording studio and it seems like a lot of voice actors have them these days (as opposed to driving in for an audition at a casting director or agent’s office). Any thoughts on being your own “sound engineer” and on what seems to be a trend toward home studios? 

I’ve been in this business so long, I remember recording on reel-to-reel tape. Technology now allows us, for a few hundred bucks, to do at home what you used to need a $100,000 studio full of equipment to do. All a young person really needs in a computer, and a decent cardioid microphone-which they can, believe or not, get for $199 dollars-and they’re equipped. Get to Wal-Mart and get some of those ‘egg-carton’ foam mattress pads, put them on the wall, and you’ve got yourself a studio. Almost every voice actor I know has got a set-up at home. Sure, we all still drive to Disney or Nickelodeon for TV pilot auditions, but for the radio and TV commercials, for video games—for some animation work, I’m auditioning at home. I’ve done all my voice-over jobs for “Jimmy Kimmel Live” from my house, directing myself, and sent them an mp3 attached to an email. It’s amazing how convenient it all has become.

6) Any advice for youngsters thinking about pursuing a career in doing voices for animation or video gaming?

Mark and Friends
Most kids will ask me, “But I’m not in New York or L.A., don’t I need to be there?” If that’s what you’re working towards, that’s a great goal, but don’t sweat it for now. You want to be a working voice-over actor? Take your current situation and use it to train yourself for success. The hardest lesson I ever learned when I got to L.A. was—this is where a LOT of people who can ‘do voices’ mess up—thinking that being able to do voices was going to get me work. Boy, did I learn fast how many 100s of talented people there are here who can also do voices—AND were trained-up actors. It’s voice-ACTING.

So, while you’re dreaming, as we all did, of moving to Hollywood and being in cartoons, always be working towards it. No matter how big or small your town is—I guarantee they’ve got local theater. Get it there and do as much of it as you can. Then start an improv troupe within your local theater; hone your comedic improv skills. Get books on how to learn dialects and work on making them AUTHENTIC through hours of practice. “Sort-of” being able to do a Scottish accent won’t cut it, because in L.A., you’re in the audition waiting room for a video game, and half the actors around you are FROM Scotland. Do it all. Take some vocal lessons—for breath control, and because eventually someone is going to require you to sing in a role. And doing all this will minimize the frustration that comes along with that ache you have inside to do this-because you’ll be feeding you passion for performing, and being the center of attention (which is why we all get into this business-don’t ever let anybody kid you).

7) What are you working on these days? Any cool gigs coming up? 

I dabble in so many areas; it’s hard to say. I’ve been loving narrating audio-books over the last couple of years; just finished my 4th one this year. And I also just finished a series of parody videos for Yahoo, called “Hackerazzi”, where I got to imitate lots of different people. I’ve got some interesting prospects in the works. I may get to be the ‘promo voice’ person for a new cable channel. I’m also about to start working as part of a morning radio show that airs in Los Angeles and Miami. And I’m working right now on a screenplay that would be a dancing/singing/acting vehicle for my daughter-she’s a dancer/singer/actress. But I never know when the phone is going to ring and it’s a completely new situation, doing something I’ve never done before.

I once got a call from Disney director/producer Don Hahn (Lion King, Beauty and the Beast) asking me to drop what I was doing, and come to a ‘table read’-a first read-through of a finished movie script, because one of their actors couldn’t be there, and he knew I could ‘sound like the guy’. That was a pretty cool day.

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 Thanks, Mark! If you'd like to learn more about what Mark's been up to, check out his IMDb page.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Dragonfriend Author's Birthday Book Giveaway

It's my birthday this month and, super nice guy that I am, I thought I should offer you guys a gift (hey, it's as good an excuse as any to run a giveaway). Click on over to Goodreads for a chance to win a signed copy of Dragonfriend...


Goodreads Book Giveaway

Dragonfriend by Roger Eschbacher

Dragonfriend

by Roger Eschbacher

Giveaway ends July 31, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
Enter to win

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Guest Post: Ask an Author

Heather Sutherlin has a great blog where she encourages "students to read and write more of what they love" with writing exercises and story starters, writing tips and tricks, and a bunch of other fun stuff.

She also reviews books from and runs guest posts by independent authors like me!

Heather graciously asked me for a guest post and I decided to go with the three most common questions kids ask me at readings.

You can check out my post here.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Dragonfriend Horn Tootage

 Writer/reviewer Heather Sutherlin gives Dragonfriend a hearty thumbs up on her eponymous blog and states: 
"I know boys and girls alike will find this story fascinating and fun.  My daughter might complain that it gets a bit “yucky” during the battle scenes, but not more than would cause any normal fifth grade boy to yell out “cool!” as he reads through it.  In turn, the boy in my house might not appreciate the innocent crush Leonard has on Maiden Glennys, but my daughter will eat it up."
Yup, she gets it. You can read the rest of the review here.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Book Review: Vaetra Unveiled


Despite their mutual distrust, Jaylan Forester, a disgraced former member of the Imperial Guard turned mercenary, and Sulana Delano, a hard-edged Sword Sorceress from the enigmatic Archives, team up to fight a lurking evil and recover a mysterious artifact.

Along the way Jaylan learns his destiny is somehow tied to "vaetra," the power sorcerers use to alter nature, and that he’s going to have to seriously adjust his prejudice against those who practice this ancient art.

Author Daniel Marvello has successfully crafted a truly exciting story, transporting the reader to a gritty and fascinating world that feels about as real as it gets. There were no “road bumps” (typos, weak world building, uninteresting characters) to derail me as this satisfying adventure story played out like a movie in my head. 

Every aspect of this book is fully developed and loving care has been taken to get everything just right. It’s not a short book and yet I easily finished it within two days – a testament to the fact that Vaetra Unveiled is a flat out page turner. Highly Recommended

Friday, March 30, 2012

To Scrivener or Not to Scrivener?

Currently using MS Word for the bulk of my manuscript work and Dramatica Pro for outlining. On occasion, I'll also use the novel template in my screenwriting software, Screenwriter 2000. All of these are perfectly good programs (and I'm definitely not looking to "replace" my screenwriting software), but on the other hand I'm always willing to add worthwhile software to my writer's toolkit.

Lately, I've been hearing about Scrivener. The appeal seems to be that it unites a lot of the varied applications an author might use to create content. What do you, my writer friends, have to say about it? If you're using Scrivener, what do you like? What are its strengths and limitations?  Is it worth buying? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Book Review: Brigitta of the White Forest

Brigitta is a young Water Fairie on the cusp of learning what her destiny will be in the White Forest, the protected realm of her people. Will she be a Feast Master like her mother? An Inventor like her father? There's no way to tell until the proper markings show up on the tips of her wings. In the meantime, she has to deal with the types of problems facing any maturing young lady including her precocious (and often annoying) little sister who always seems to be hanging around.

One day, while flying an errand, Brigitta and her sister are horrified to discover that all of their family and friends have been turned to stone. In fact, every living being in the White Forest is now this way. Why were they spared from the curse and why did it have to happen now -- only days before the Hourglass of Protection's last grain of sand falls?

With the help of an ancient inhabitant of the dark forest, Brigitta and her sister set out to find the answers to these questions before time runs out and the outside world, with all of it's dangers, comes pouring in.

Smoothly written, Brigitta of the White Forest is a fun and engaging read with an interesting story and unique characters (my favorites were Gola and her familiar, Minq). Author Danika Dinsmore does a fine job in keeping the story moving and avoiding the tiresome over-description that often plagues this genre.

Recommended

Correction: I removed a part of the above review where I erroneously noted that Brigitta was labeled as a YA novel.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

7 Questions: Author Mark Tierno

As part of the Magic Appreciation Tour, I was given the opportunity to interview Mark Tierno, author of two epic fantasy works, Maldene (Volumes One and Two).  A blend of science and sorcery, these books are set in "a world of magic and ancient secrets" where a band of mercenaries find themselves at odds with a dark wizard who may just be "the most evil being ever known."

Volume One
Mark lives in Monrovia California and has earned a Masters in Physics and a second degree in Math. He's a lifelong reader of fantasy and SciFi and started writing his books with the help of his "trusty old Amiga computer." Talk about old school!

I found him to be a very interesting fellow and I'm quite sure you will, too.

Here now, my 7 Questions for Mark Tierno:

Your Maldene novels are a mix of science and fantasy. What inspired you to blend the two genres?

Mark Tierno
I've always loved reading both SF and Fantasy.  Couple that with a mind that's always asking "What if?" and it wasn't long before I began asking myself "Why can't you combine the two?"   After all, a high enough level of technology begins to look like magic anyway.  Magic plus Science, Fantasy plus SF; such a combination could yield some very interesting environments.  The trick is avoid the sledge hammer approach in combining the two; something more subtle than just "He's got the blaster and the other guy has the magic wand."  A more subtle blend is required.

Maldene starts off as looking like pure high fantasy; the SF elements begin to peek through as the series develops until by the last books you would be hard put to tell where one ends and the other begins.  And yet, even in this first book there are clues, subtle hints that something beyond the norm of mere Fantasy may be at work.

There's enough people that write either straight SF or straight Fantasy.  I'll leave that to them and handle the mixed genre stuff.


Does your background in science and math affect how magic works in your stories?

My background gives me a logical and informed mind.  So when it comes to magic, I treat it as just another force in the universe, though one that allows quite the range of fantastic capabilities.  Nevertheless, like any force it would have its rules, as well as its own logic.  For instance, a wizard uses his mind to channel the forces behind magic, which means he can get tired after a while and would need to rest.  And if a magic spell conjures forth something physical then the normal physical laws would still apply.  A conjured lightning bolt is still electricity and could be conducted away by something like a lightning rod.  If there is a cave in which the conjuring of magic is prevented, one could still conjure forth a ball of fire from outside the cave then hurl it inside; it's simple fire at that point and not magic and would still burn even with the magic-nullifying field present.

It is this insistence on logic and the remembering that there are other physical laws present that the laws of magic must interact with that can make even a world of magic believable within its own context; provide that suspension of belief required for a reader to believe in the circumstances, feel as the characters would, and enjoy the story.


Are you still using your trusty old Amiga? If not, what hardware and software do you use to write your novels?

Volume Two
My Amiga still lives, though two years ago I had an offer from a friend to buy off his G5 MAC tower.  Having a need to interact with the real world a bit more- in such things as being able to read the PDFs my publisher gave me as the galleys for my book, and having web browsers that can actually fully load up thew social media sights that I need to promote Maldene with- I took him up on the offer.  Currently my trusty old Amiga lies silent but simply because I need to re-seat the graphics board and don't want to do it when I'm in a hurry lest I let something slip the wrong way and find myself in need of a very expensive repair.

For the record, it's an Amiga 4000/060.  During the course of writing the Maldene series I went through three keyboards and two motherboards.  Just wore them out from the pace of my typing.


What are your thoughts on the overall trend toward digital publishing?

Digital publishing will make it possible for the unknown author to at least get a start and have a chance at becoming known.  However, like in any field, there are both the good and bad.  One has to beware of a poor quality product in something as new as digital publishing with its dozen different formats and lack of any real industry standards.  Likewise for the digital publishers themselves, most of them with a track record of no more than 3-5 years instead of being spawned off an older traditional publisher with more publishing experience in general.

I also do not think that the traditional published novel is dead (at least not yet).  There are still some of us that like walking into a bookstore, taking one glance at a wall full of 50 or 60 books, and spotting that one that stands out enough for us to pull it down.  You still can't do that with even the best broadband (not to mention you'd need a screen the size of a wall to get the same view).  Tablets are getting pretty good, but they aren't flexible enough to stuff in a back pocket like an old paperback, not to mention if you ever lost it on the buss you'd be out a bit more than 2 dollars.


What's a typical writing day like for you?

I have a three day cycle for each chapter.  Day One begins the new chapter; I start at 7:30 in the morning and finish someplace around 5PM, give or take.  I will have written between 12,000-13,000 words in that time.  Then it's off to the length club for a bit (must maintain the body supporting the brain) then back for dinner, at which point I edit what I wrote that day.  Usually finish up around midnight.  on Day Two, I finish up whatever's left of that chapter; usually around 3000-5000 words.  Done by Noon (leaving me enough time to run those mundane daily errands), edit what I wrote later on.  Day Three is what I call a Chapter Edit.  I go through the entire chapter one more time, checking for plot and character stuff, then run the spell checker.  Once done with that chapter I then outline the next one that I'll be starting, so the day after that it's back to Day One on the next chapter.

My books are typically divided up into three sections, so at the end of a given section I also give the whole thing the once over to make sure that the plot elements from one chapter to the next are consistent and flow properly.  Likewise at the end of the book, I give the entire novel one last once over.


Who are the authors on your "inspired by" list and what about their lives or works inspired you?

Growing up I read quite a few; from Robert Heinlein and Issac Asimov, to Andre Norton and A.E. Van Voght, from Frank Herbert to Greg Bear.  From each one's works I took a little something; it could have been some element of style of writing or the way the story was constructed, or something about their world as written or one of the characters.  I have been inspired by many authors, and taken something from all of them.  To get a full view of how I developed my own style, from whence come all my ideas of story and character, you would have to read through about a hundred different books, twenty different authors (some rather obscure), and have seen a selection of as many movies.


Any "wish I would've known that when I started" advice you'd like to share with beginning authors?

I know writers are a solitary lot, but learn to socialize, to "network".  Agents are lazy by nature and will usually reject a new author because it's too much work and risk to promote them.  Publishers too are usually rather conservative and need a better reason than "but it's a really good book".  Now in this day and age of online networking, a writer can start forming useful contacts from the comfort of his own home and maybe drum up enough interest amongst the right parties to have a potential publisher by the time he's finished his book.

You will also need one of two things.  Either a supportive family or patron that knows you'll be a starving artist for a while before succeeding, or a day job that works with your writing schedule.

###

Thanks, Mark!

Monday, March 12, 2012

Dragonfriend Book Giveaway 3: Electric Boogaloo

The book giveaways have been coming fast and furious here on The Novel Project, but the way I look at it there's nothing wrong with another chance to win a free book, eh?

As part of the Magic Appreciation Tour, author Daniel Marvello is hosting a Dragonfriend giveaway. Yes, in a daring twist on prior giveaways, this time another author has generously offered to help out.

Head on over to his blog before 3/24 and enter for a chance to win either a paperback copy or a Kindle gift code for Dragonfriend. Then, as long as you're there, stick around for a bit as he's got some great content. Good luck!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

I Get Interviewed by Cat

As part of the Magic Appreciation Tour, I was recently interviewed by Katharina "Cat" Gerlach who thought I might have something interesting to say about writing and books in general. Check out the interview and decide for yourself whether or not I'm worthy of her kind confidence. (Thanks, Cat!)

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Win a Copy of Urchin King

As part of the Magic Appreciation Tour, I'm very pleased to be hosting a book giveaway for author Katharina Gerlach's historical fantasy novel , Urchin King. The giveaway will run for two weeks, starting on Wednesday 3/7 and ending on Wednesday 3/21. Katharina is providing three Smashwords coupons as prizes and asks me to let you know that Smashwords is offering her book at a substantial discount until 3/10. 

UPDATE: I included a link to Katharina's blog in her bio.

UPDATE TWO: GIVEAWAY OFFICIALLY CLOSED. Katharina has generously decided to award four Smashwords coupons for her book. Congratulations to our winners:  Brian Clopper, Aldrea Alien, Ami Hendrickson, and Daniel Marvello. 


Win me!

About the Book

For fourteen years, street-urchin Paul's miserable existence has kept him safe from an ancient law that sentences all second-born twins to death. When he learns he is the younger twin of the mentally handicapped Crown Prince who's in danger of being killed for his disability, he agrees to play the role of the miraculously healed royal heir. Paul struggles to learn how to act like a born ruler, but finds that his greatest skill, getting by unnoticed, is now his greatest liability. He knows if he is discovered, he will be executed like all second-born twins. 




Katharina Gerlach
About the Author
Katharina Gerlach grew up in the middle of a forest in the heart of the Luneburgian Heather. She enjoys writing Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Historical Novels for all age groups. At present, she is writing her next project in a small house near Hildesheim, Germany, where she lives with her husband, three children, and a dog. 






Giveaway Rules
Leave one (1) comment with your e-mail address and the title of your favorite fantasy book on this post by Wednesday 3/21 at 11:59 p.m. PST. This will enter you in a drawing to win one of three Smashwords coupons for Urchin King.

The day after the giveaway ends, the comments will be numbered and three winners will be chosen using a random number generator. Katharina will be sent the winners' contact information and will be responsible for sending out the coupon codes. 

Good luck, aspiring giveaway winners!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

We Have a Winner!

Congrats to Eric Schwartz of Kentucky for winning a signed copy of Dragonfriend in my Goodreads giveaway. I'll be mailing out his copy later this week along with some bookmarks and postcards.

(Side note to authors: I highly recommend trying out this gratis Goodreads feature. It's an inexpensive way to generate some interest in your book (basically, your cost on a hardcopy and the necessary postage). I had 790 people sign up for the giveaway, many of whom also put the book on their "to read" list. Nice!)

Savor this sweet victory, Eric, for the gods of logarithmic randomness are not always so kind.

Eater of the Dead: A Dragon Friend Excerpt

Just in time for Halloween! Check out a featured Dragon Friend excerpt on the BestSelling Reads blog: "The spooky season is upon us! H...