Throne of Exile is having a delightful release, and to celebrate I’m making teasers because I really just love this book and these characters and I’m so pleased others are liking it too.
And the sequel, Queen of Nothing, is releasing on April 28th, and is already available for preorder! No need to wait to start this adventure in fear that the sequels won’t be out for years to come. I’m keeping this series rolling right along.
Throne of Exile is now available for preorder! Click the image to head on over to Amazon.
VIVA LA…APOCALYPTICA?
The only thing worse than being captured and exiled for treason is the apocalypse hitting right as you’re cast into the treacherous wilderness.
Scratch that – the only thing worse is surviving said apocalypse, while the empire you labored to save from tyranny gets wiped out in an instant, the precious revolution you dedicated your entire life to rendered utterly moot.
Not only do the conditions of Sunda’s exile become exponentially more brutal and impossible, but now she must reconcile the pointlessness of her existence while fighting for survival.
What morsel of purpose is there left for her in the desolate, even more cruel new world? Has it all been for nothing, or is the apocalypse really the perfect backdrop to BUILD YOUR OWN EMPIRE?
A little teaser as I’m finishing up edits on Throne of Exile! Hoping to have this baby up for preorder by October 19th.
Here come the promos! From now until its release, you can expect a tirade of fun Throne of Exile excerpts and cool promo images! This is one of my favorite parts of releasing a new book.
A vision of my future unspooled across the dreary, cracked earth before me, and it was just one endless, constant fight for survival when I had nothing left to live for. It didn’t let up, and there was nothing on the other side. The irony was a cold, brass-knuckled punch in the face; we were going to have to fight for survival every day like no one had ever fought before, and there was nothing left to survive for.
The cover is in! I’ve had a draft for months that I thought might be the finished product except for final polishing, but I went in today to do that polishing and ended up adding and tweaking some things, and now it’s officially official! Feast your eyes:
Diving into edits while I work on the sequel!
The Savage Gardens saga is coming to a close. With Eden scheduled for release at the end of the year, now is a great time to start the adventure! Get Paradise, book 1, for $0.99. For those who prefer a preview, enjoy the prologue:
*********************************************
The needle glinted in the moonlight as she slid the syringe free of the bottleneck. Her hands shook, icy tatters of tide snaking up past her legs and heightening her coiled nerves. As the waves retreated they entrenched her deeper in the sand, a symbolic taunt that she belonged to this shore, that the harder she tried to escape the more this godforsaken place would tighten its tethers.
But the key was in her grasp.
Through the opaline lenses of her gas mask and against the sallow moonlight, the syringe serum took on a putrid, radioactive color. But all she saw was the answer to a thousand prayers, her doomsday antidote.
The bottled culmination of apocalypse daydreams.
Breath echoing anxiously in the chamber of her mask, she shrugged out of her coat, trading the fist that clutched the syringe. She should wait until she was behind closed doors, not out in the open where anyone could overtake her and steal this redemption for themselves. She should at least retreat onto the beach, where a nervous slip of her fingers wouldn’t mean losing this unthinkable prize right back into the expunging dominion of the sea from whence it came.
But this was it, her liberty, her chance, and the need to claim it after seventeen destitute years possessed her.
She extended an arm, seeking a vein in the darkness. Right up to the point of plunging the needle into the crook of her elbow she approached the task with utmost confidence, a heady crest of anticipation ruling her impulses.
But then – a flicker of doubt. Her breath caught at the image of the needle hovering over her flesh. Did she really know what she was doing?
And yet – it didn’t matter. It was this or nothing.
Heart thudding against her ribs, grasp turning slippery with sweat, she sucked in a breath as if preparing to dive into the sea, and jabbed the needle into her arm, draining the neon-tinged liquid until the syringe ran dry.
***************************************
Recently I ran a promotion through Bargain Booksy for my YA dystopian title Paradise. When I got to the ‘blurb’ area on the form, I started typing in the regular blurb only to find that I was allowed no more than 65 words (if I remember correctly. If I don’t remember correctly, it wasn’t much more than that; maybe 70).
At first I was aghast that I had to rework my beautiful blurb into such a cramped shell of itself. I would be leaving so much out! But writing short blurbs really helps you get to the crux of your story and pinpoint the most important, striking elements. It’s actually a very good exercise to strip it all down and identify the heart of it like that. It makes you question: do I really even know what my story is about? Do I even really know what the point is?
I’ve heard many times that this is a valuable exercise, but unless I’m forced to do it, I absolutely will not. I just have no desire to. But I’m glad I did. And now I have a short, snappy blurb to throw at people that’s probably more likely to snag their attention than a longer, more laborious one. You only have so many words to hook readers, so why not get right to the point?
Here’s the blurb I ended up with:
For decades, the decimated ruins of Earth have driven hopefuls across the Badlands to the coast, where a lucky few receive invitations to Paradise, the legendary utopia across the sea. Shiloh’s deliverance is finally upon her. But if something seems too good to be true, it usually is. If it seems too good to be true…get out as fast as you can.
I encourage you all to try it! Leave your short blurbs in the comments for the rest of us to take a look at!
I struggled and struggled with the opening scene of Eden until I realized the narrator trying to hijack the scene was, intriguingly, the voice of the flowers. As soon as I gave in to the slightly off-beat idea of the flowers narrating this first scene, everything fell into place! I’m well into Chapter 1 at this point, but wanted to share the prologue with you all:
**********
The squawk of a peacock cuts the air, sharp as diamonds on glass. The rooster of Paradise, ringing in the morning. What apocalypse? gloats the reverie that unfurls with the sun. It paints a sensational picture, the enchantment nothing if not well orchestrated. The garish production of flora and fauna, ‘decadent’ and ‘lush’ among the chief insults used in weak attempts to describe the grandeur. The elegant and whimsical wildlife, akin to creatures of myth and legend. One has never truly seen beauty until beauty brings him to tears. It is a common occurrence, this bringing-to-tears, as one beholds the wonders that abound.
Too common, some might say.
But we digress.
We, the flowers.
Back to the glories of the morning. Oh glorious, glorious morning. It’s spring, now. The Bleeding Hearts are in bloom, neon pink and sinful crimson dripping from vines across the island. Clots of gnats create glittery torrents in the sun rays. Opaline foxes nibble clover and berries in the meadows, multi-colored pastel fur marking them chameleons to the prisms of due-amplified light. Lazy curls of mist eddy over streams of coursing silver, toying wistfully with their fading reflections. How fair we are, they whisper, just before they are gone forever. Like ghosts of fairies, whisking into the ether.
Flying squirrels scurry through feathery treetops, spreading their snow-leopard wing folds and soaring from spire to spire. Cherry blossoms shred in their wake, falling like snow throughout the springtime groves. The lacy snowfall adorns the mating dance of two lovestruck peacocks far below, the female wooed by the elegant arch of sea-green, swanlike neck and the striking fan of violet-eyed feathers.
A herd of diamond-crowned stags gallops through a nearby glade, fragrant cotton-candy hues issuing from the crush of wildflowers beneath their cloven hooves.
Turquoise cockatoos preen in the roping bows of ancient willows, shaded by curtains of feather-soft streamers.
A butterfly alights on a gold-edged rose, turning circles on velvet, metallic petals.
Then it stops.
The scene shrinks slowly away, until it is framed by a hazy outline. A hashing of dark smears that solidifies into lashes.
Eyelashes.
It has all been smoke and mirrors, you see. A frightful paradox. All the wonders of Paradise, reflected in this eye. A dead, glazed eye.
It is too common a thing, this bringing-to-tears in Paradise. Now by the breathtaking beauty that brings gray, battered souls to their knees, now by the vision of twisted, dead angels, fallen to untimely deaths from the sky.
Yesterday was Wonderland’s release day! My best friend was in town visiting, and I managed to totally forget I had a book releasing. But it did release, and is available in both ebook and paperback. Still waiting for the two to merge into one product page on Amazon, but here’s the ebook version! And now, as promised, the cover reveal for final book in the trilogy…
First up, the teaser:
Dun Dun dun………………
Drum roll…………………………………
Are you sure you’re ready for this?
Are you sitting down?
Do you have your awesome-reducing shades on?
Now that I’ve talked it up so much that it will probably be a let-down….
What am I talking about, it’s glorious.
Here we go!
THE COVER:
It’s a good month for the Savage Gardens series. Wonderland releases on the 16th (I’m finishing up the final read-through as we speak), and last night I brainstormed all the missing pieces for the Eden outline (3rd book) AND got the cover squared away. And let me tell you… I could NOT be more pleased with how the cover turned out! Ugh, it’s just as glorious as the first two, if not more so.
Of course, we’re doing the whole ‘teaser’ thing before actual cover-reveal time:
Yep, I know. It’s cruel. I was dying to just drop the actual cover on you guys, but an evil part of me enjoys the torture.
So yeah, check back at the end of the month for the BIG REVEAL. I can’t wait to dive into writing this one. I can’t stay focused on which event is more exciting at this point – releasing Wonderland and finally holding the printed copy in my hands, or diving into Eden! Too much amazingness all in one month!
Back to dancing back and forth between the two I go!
Hub of Harper 