So WordPress tells me today is the anniversary of this blog. I totally spaced on that this year with all that’s going on. (Just turned in final edits to the layout people for Madame Presidentess! No more changes after this. Only one more look-see to make sure they made them correctly. It’s officially done! You’ll have it in your hands July 25.)
As usual, I’m having a giveaway to celebrate! And this year I can finally use my own books as prizes. So if you go over to Goodreads by June 21, you could win a copy of Been Searching for You, my new contemporary summer beach read (US only – sorry but the international postage is a killer).
I can’t believe all that has happened in five years. When I started here, I was an unknown writer with no credentials and my first completed manuscript. Now I’m three-times published (soon to be four!) and have won multiple awards. It’s amazing how a lot of hard work and a little faith can pay off. Thank you to everyone for your support, whether you’ve been with me from the beginning or have just joined. There’s no way I could keep this up without you.
Here’s to five more wonderful years. I’ve got plenty of books in my head, so if you stick with me, I promise many more historical adventures to come!
Library Journal‘s curated SELF-e Select module Daughter of Destiny was accepted into Library Journal‘s curated SELF-e Select module, which is a nationwide module available on BiblioBoard Library at any local library subscribed to BiblioBoard and participating in the SELF-e program. This means my book will be available to libraries across the country (and possibly across the world because there are several other countries that use SELF-e) to purchase. So go tell your local library you want to see Daughter of Destiny on your shelves!
Missouri readers, we have an even better chance of seeing it because Daughter of Destiny will be a “highlighted selection” throughout the state.
Make sure to come back here Monday for the cover reveal of Camelot’s Queen, Guinevere’s Tale, Book 2!
(Newsletter subscribers will get to see it either tomorrow or Saturday, so sign up if you want to see it first!)
I’m over the moon excited to announce that Daughter of Destiny is available on Amazon for pre-order! Click the button below to place your order now.
The only version I can do pre-order for is Kindle, so if you’re looking for print, Nook, or other ebook format, you’ll have to wait until it comes out on January 1. 🙁 If I could change that, I would. I’m auditioning narrators for the audio book now, so I’m hoping it will be ready by January 1 as well. 🙂
Even if you can’t pre-order, please go mark Daughter of Destiny as “want to read” on Goodreads, if you have an account there. And while you’re there, feel free to ask me a question about the book and I’ll answer it (within reason, of course). I’m very excited to finally be a Goodreads author! Be on the lookout over the next few months for giveaways there as well.
One question for all of you: what price would you be willing to pay for a paperback from a new author? I’m looking for your input as I finalize my paperback price. I don’t want to undervalue my work, but I also don’t want to chase people away with a price that’s too high. My competition appears to price anywhere between $12-$15. What do you think? Please let me know in the comments below.
FREE SAMPLE
And…to entice you to buy the book (now or on January 1), here’s the back cover copy for the book, as well as the prologue. Chapter 1 is available for free if you sign up for my newsletter.
Before queenship and Camelot, Guinevere was a priestess of Avalon. She loved another before Arthur, a warrior who would one day betray her.
In the war-torn world of late fifth century Britain, young Guinevere faces a choice: stay with her family to defend her home at Northgallis from the Irish, or go to Avalon to seek help for the horrific visions that haunt her. The Sight calls her to Avalon, where she meets Morgan, a woman of questionable parentage who is destined to become her rival. As Guinevere matures to womanhood, she gains the powers of a priestess, and falls in love with a man who will be both her deepest love and her greatest mistake.
Just when Guinevere is able to envision a future in Avalon, tragedy forces her back home, into a world she barely recognizes, one in which her pagan faith, outspokenness, and proficiency in the magical and military arts are liabilities. When a chance reunion with her lover leads to disaster, she is cast out of Northgallis and into an uncertain future. As a new High King comes to power, Guinevere must navigate a world of political intrigue where unmarried women are valuable commodities and seemingly innocent actions can have life-altering consequences.
You may think you know the story of Guinevere, but you’ve never heard it like this: in her own words. Listen and you will hear the true story of Camelot and its queen.
Fans of Arthurian legend and the Mists of Avalon will love Daughter of Destiny, the first book in a historical fantasy trilogy that gives Guinevere back her voice and traces her life from an uncertain eleven year old girl to a wise queen in her fifth decade of life.
Sample
Prologue
I am Guinevere.
I was once a queen, a lover, a wife, a mother, a priestess, and a friend. But all those roles are lost to me now; to history, I am simply a seductress, a misbegotten woman set astray by the evils of lust.
This is the image painted of me by subsequent generations, a story retold thousands of times. Yet, not one of those stories is correct. They were not there; they did not see through my eyes or feel my pain. My laughter was lost to them in the pages of history.
I made the mistake of allowing the bards to write my song. Events become muddled as ink touches paper, and truth becomes malleable as wax under a flame. Good men are relegated to the pages of inequity, without even an honest epitaph to mark their graves.
Arthur and I were human, no more, no less, though people choose to see it differently. We loved, we argued, we struggled, all in the name of a dream, a dream never to be fulfilled. Camelot is what fed the fires that stirred us to do as we did. History calls it sin, but we simply called it life.
The complexity of living has a way of shielding one’s eyes from the implications of one’s role. That is left for others to flesh out, and they so often manipulate it to suit their own needs. To those god-awful religious, I have become a whore; Arthur the victim of a fallen Eve; Morgan, a satanic faerie sent to lead us all astray. To the royalty, we have become symbols of the dreams they failed to create and Arthur is the hero of a nation, whereas to me, he was simply a man. To the poor, we are but a legend, never flesh and blood, a haunting story to be retold in times of tribulation, if only to inspire the will to survive.
We were so much more than mute skeletons doomed to an eternity in dust and confusion. We were people with a desire for life, a life of peace that would be our downfall. Why no one can look back through the years and recognize the human frailty beneath our actions, I will never understand. Some say grace formed my path; others call it a curse. Whatever it was, I deserve to be able to bear witness before being condemned by men who never saw my face.
It ends now. I will take back my voice and speak the truth of what happened. So shall the lies be revealed and Camelot’s former glory restored. Grieve with me, grieve for me, but do not believe the lies which time would sell. All I ask is that mankind listen to my words, and then judge me on their merit.
So WordPress tells me today is the anniversary of this blog. I totally spaced on that this year with all that’s going on. (Just turned in final edits to the layout people for Madame Presidentess! No more changes after this. Only one more look-see to make sure they made them correctly. It’s officially done! You’ll have it in your hands July 25.)
Daughter of Destiny was 
