Blurb;
Sara
Carson did not believe in life after death, Heaven, Hell or even reincarnation.
However, what she didn't know was that some of us are special. For some of us,
death is just the beginning of our next great adventure. Sara Carson was one of
those special people, and her most incredible journey did not begin, until the
day she died.
A
magical début novel that will leave you breathless.
-----
Information about the book;
Author: Karen Wrighton
Title: Ascension of the Whyte (The Afterland
Chronicles #1)
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Self-Published
Format: E-book
Pages: 326
Published: 9th June 2014
.jpg)
----
Author Information
Karen
Wrighton was born in a small town in the English county of Staffordshire and
began
writing prolifically and drawing from a young age. Karen trained as a Psychologist
and
Teacher before finally finding the time to pursue her love of writing, firstly
by
creating
a successful Psychology blog and now by writing her first novel.
Karen's début novel 'Ascension of the Whyte'
is a magical epic fantasy novel for young
adults
and is to be the first book of the 'The Afterland Chronicles' series.
Karen's
style is strongly influenced by the books she loves to read, such as Lord of
the
Rings and Harry Potter. This is evidenced by the magical quality that pervades
her
writing.
Karen
has two daughters and lives in Norfolk, England with her husband John.
To
find out more about Karen and her book, or follow her on social networks click
on the
links
below.
Author Links
Why I Write
Karen
Wrighton
I
have pretty much always written, ever since the day I learned to do curly tails
on my letters and penned my first ‘What I did in the summer holidays’ essay in
year three. Ever since then I have loved creating something out of nothing.
My
childhood was pretty awful really, and Psychologists will tell you that
miserable childhoods produce people with fantasy prone personalities. I know
this because I am also a Psychologist.
We
fantasy prone types have learned to escape our earthly lives (which pretty much
sucked), by disappearing into the world of our imagination, our very own
fantasy world where we were no longer helpless or afraid, but instead were
strong and powerful beings with superhuman magical powers and where we could
make everything beautiful and right.
Because
of that I have always found writing to be cathartic for me. It makes me feel
good. My characters are as real to me as
my faithful dog, and like my dog they stay with me loyally and unconditionally
doing my bidding. They are the friends that I constantly carry with me and
because of them I am never lonely, even when I am on my own.
My dog Jinks
I
have always told stories, sometimes making things up to entertain my children.
I was quite creative with my stories of the tooth fairy. I even used to write tiny letters to my
children and convince them that the tooth fairy had written to them personally
because they were so good!
I
have a great many half completed manuscripts, short stories and even rhyming
picture books filling up the hard drive of my computer. The problem with me
though is that I am a perfectionist and my own worst critic. I look at my work
and think it is really bad and that no one will read it, so I archive it. Then sometimes I go back to it and re-read it
months or even years later and realise that it is actually quite good,
sometimes I can’t believe that I actually wrote it at all and often think to
myself with a real sense of surprise, ‘that really is quite good!’
This
time though with Ascension of the Whyte
the writing became an obsession. The characters and story came to me as a gift
of the imagination on my drive to work one day and I just could not stop the
story evolving in my head. I have never been so excited or driven when writing
as I have been with this book, and I fell in love with the characters and their
evolving quest almost from page one.
The
book has been a pleasure to write and I am looking forward so much to writing
the next chapter in the series that, to be honest I really just want to get on
with it, but I know that I have to do some publicity work or I will be one of
only a few who will share in the story of Rose and her three magical friends,
and that would be a great shame, because it is a great story.
I
wish I’d have had the courage to pursue my writing years ago, because it brings
me great joy. I am not the first to have compared producing a novel with
producing a child and the analogy is a good one. During the gestation of the story you are not
sure how it will really turn out, whether it will even come to term, whether it
will be beautiful, witty or clever, but you know that however it turns out you
will love it, because it is part of you.
Each
time I sit down at my laptop my characters greet me, I ask them questions “What
are you going to do now?” “Where are you going to go?” “How are you feeling?”
and they answer me. My characters write
the story for me, a lot of the time I just feel rather privileged that they let
me look through the window of their world.
It’s like having your own Game of
Thrones epic playing in your head whenever you want to watch it. I love it.
Writing
is not all easy though, sometimes the window fogs up a bit and you just can’t
see what is going on. I have heard it
called writers block, but I now recognise it as my cue to take a break from all
the action and do something else for a while. Then usually when I am in the
middle of cooking, or driving to work, there they’ll be again showing me where
to go next.
Is
there anything about writing that I don’t like? Well, I suppose when I am on
about the fourth draft I can get pretty bored, and sometimes confused changing
things one way and then back again, but even then I can get flashes of
inspiration that will turn a paragraph into one that makes me smile every time
I read it. It was not until the final
seventh draft of the book that I perfected Rose’s speech to the Twocasts, I
just was not happy with it until then. The final drafting process is
exhausting, like labour and birth, and just as after labour and birth you may
vow NEVER AGAIN, you soon forget the pain and seeing the joy your new arrival
brings you rapidly decide that perhaps another one wouldn’t be such a bad
idea...
9th August
10th August
11th August
12th August
13th August
14th August
15th August
16th August
Link to tour schedule;
(will
be posted on 8th august)
----
There
is a tour wide giveaway during the tour.
The
prizes include;
-
Author signed paperback copy of Ascension
of the Whyte
- Themed metal bookmarks
- Postcards with graphics of the book cover and a colour map of the
Afterlands
(signed by author if requested)
- Original hand-made Adder stone pendant like the one described in the
book.
Here
is the link to the URL for the rafflecopter;
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/320ab7e447/
Excerpt 1
"Rose's response was swift, a perfectly executed block action
accompanied by a clear
command. The effect was instantaneous and dramatic, a blinding white
energy stream
flowed from her potens ring, transforming instantly into a rapidly
moving wall of light which knocked Ash off his feet, lifted him up and carried
him at great speed across the Arena.
Goldin's hand shook as he retrieved his staff. He had never seen a
novice perform a blocking
spell with that much power."
----
My wish list just keeps getting longer!
ReplyDelete