Indie Weekend is my attempt to help Independent Authors with the task of marketing. Indie authors have to do it all, from cover design to editing, promoting, and more. If I can help even a little bit by sharing their wonderful books with others, I’m happy to do it.
Please share this review with your social media followers as well so we can spread the word about great Indie books as far as possible.
BOOK REVIEW
This is a well-written young adult fantasy with a medieval tone. Harper has gotten an opportunity, through a friend of his father’s, Hammond, to go to the Golden City, Mascaroth, to be a soldier. Harper will be joined by his close friend Linden, and they are also traveling with Bailey and Carrington, the coddled children of the King. Linden has different goals in mind and really just wants to find a wife. Harper, however, is soon intrigued by the Einari, the ancient soldiers of Mascaroth, as his training to be a soldier begins. Thus commences a sweeping and bloody saga, as the Southern Tribesmen are plotting a takeover, and good and evil come to an inevitable clash.
I really enjoyed this novel, which includes some very captivating “stories within a story” about the Einari. Everything is so well written and woven together. Harper encounters love, betrayal, bitterness, torture, unexpected friends, and the horrors of war as he fights for freedom in more ways than one. It is truly an epic fantasy adventure of which the author can be proud. Some well-done surprises truly reveal the fact that people do not always act as expected during times of war. I highly recommend setting off on this adventure, which will immerse you into a world of swords, castles, and ancient soldiers. There is also a touch of romance. My hat is off to A.P. Knight for creating an excellent world and a wonderful story.
I downloaded a copy of this novel via Kindle Unlimited, where subscribers can read this book for free.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A.P. Knight
Andy isn’t the stereotypical author. Not only would he prefer a Dr. Seuss book to a classic, but he’d also rather have a ball in his hands than a keyboard under his fingers. But one day a story popped into his mind that he deemed too important not to write, and upon endless hours of typing, deleting, and retyping, his writing career began. If you’re searching for a young adult clean read that is as stirring as it is inspiring, then crack open one of Andy’s books.
A Midwesterner to his core, Andy prefers the simple life: shooting hoops, chasing pop flies in the outfield, hanging out with family, and scarfing heaping bowls of chocolate ice cream.
*If you read the book, please leave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, as well as anywhere else you review books. Some people feel very daunted by writing a review. Don’t worry. You do not have to write a masterpiece. Just a couple of lines about how the book made you feel will make the author’s day and help the book succeed. The more reviews a book has, the more Amazon will promote it.
*Please click on the “share” buttons below and share these books with your Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress followers. A little bit of help from all of us will help Indie authors go a long way!
Below is a spotlight, book description, trailer, and buy links for a dark fantasy novel by an Indie Author, Khalil Barnett. While I don’t read dark fantasy, I know a lot of you do, so I hope you check it out and share it with your followers.
BOOK DESCRIPTION
A sword & sorcery fantasy novel based on Asian myths & legends.
Tulpas, otherwise known as thought-forms, spring first from the imagination, then go on to live lives independent of their creators. And sometimes, they maintain a hostile, even violent, relationship with said creators.
No one knows this quite like Coletrane Marx, the only son of an eccentric billionaire archeologist, who one night as a child unwittingly created a tulpa himself; one that visited him in demon form in the middle of the night to murder his parents with a samurai sword.
Forever changed by this trauma, Coletrane grows up to inherit his father’s obsession with archeology and to discover that his unfiltered, childhood imagination created not only this mysterious, cursed samurai named Kojiro, but also an alternate feudal history wherein the strong-willed warrior has his own prophetic story in a world full of mythic creatures, powerful humanoid animal Lords, living deities, and evil Tricksters. A world, Coletrane in addition learns, that will overlap with his own in catastrophic ways if he and Kojiro do not reconcile their dark, shared past and come together as one to stop it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
An alumni of the University of Central Florida, Khalil is a prose writer, screenwriter, English teacher, and martial artist living and working in Orlando, Florida. He published his first novel, Guerillas, in 2001, and his second novel, The Cynosure of All Eyes, in 2020. Kojiro is his third novel.
Indie Weekend is my effort to help Indie authors promote their books. Indie authors have a lot on their plate, and if I can help even a little bit with marketing, I’m happy to do it. Below is a review of an archaeological adventure/fantasy reminiscent in a way of Indiana Jones.
BOOK DESCRIPTON (FROM AMAZON)
Natalia has embraced the choice of her people. She is honored to have been chosen as their human sacrifice and will surrender her life to the Gods. She awaits the call of her people for that final moment, living a life of solitude until it’s time. But then her death is stolen from her – she is kidnapped by her own guards and forced into an eternal slumber.
Hundreds of years later – now – Natalia is woken in a world that’s completely unfamiliar. The archeological team was not looking for her. They were looking for Estancia, the lost city of gold, and Natalia agrees to guide them.
While they journey through the treacherous jungles of Argentina, Natalia stumbles upon the alarming truth of her past. Her life’s prophecy must be fulfilled to restore balance to her people, but only she can decide whether that balance is worth her death.
BOOK REVIEW
Natalia is the chosen one of her people. She has been prepared to die as a sacrifice and is very willing to do so. Then she is kidnapped and forced into an unwanted slumber by an evil dragon. Hundreds of years pass, and in the present, Natalia is awoken by Quinn. Imagine being part of an archaelogical dig and your treasure comes alive! Before long, Natalia leads her finders on a quest for the lost city of gold, but she is really only interested in saving her people.
I enjoyed the changing points of view. Natalia’s point of view is in first person, and Quinn’s is in third person. The two points of view work together well and are not confusing. The character development is excellent and the description of the dragon is so intriguing. This is a thrilling archaelogical adventure through the jungles of Argentina. It is full of action and surprises and will keep you enthralled. Highly recommended for fans of YA Fantasy and Adventure.
I received a free copy of this book from Cinnabar Moth publishing. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lauren Wagner’s love for reading started as a young adult after discovering her town’s public library. After carrying out piles of books at a time, and re-reading them over and over again, she discovered her love for writing. She writes fantasy and science fiction as well as post-it notes about her future stories. Awaken is her debut novel.
She grew up in the western suburbs of Chicago where she presently resides with her husband and two children. She currently teaches upper elementary students to love and obsess over written works of art.
*If you buy the book, please leave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, as well as anywhere else you review books. Some people feel very daunted by writing a review. Don’t worry. You do not have to write a masterpiece. Just a couple of lines about how the book made you feel will make the author’s day and help the book succeed. The more reviews a book has, the more Amazon will promote it.
*Please click on the “share” buttons below and share these books with your Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress followers. A little bit of help from all of us will help self-published authors go a long way!
In fulfillment of his childhood dreams, Harper journeys to the city that is unlike any other, the Golden City, to become an honorable soldier in its service, and to join in the storied history of the city’s legacy of warriors. But when a battle with the dreaded Southern Tribesmen turns from peculiar to disaster, armed with little more than raw hope, Harper must fight his way back, not only to the endangered city that he loves, but to the young lady to whom he gave a promise.
Crushing sorrow, vicious evil, dark mysteries, and above all else, undying hope combine like a storm within the pages of Chronicles of the Golden City to tell an inspiring story that, in the annals of the Golden City, must never be forgotten.
A clean fantasy for young adult and new adult audiences.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andy isn’t the stereotypical author. Not only would he prefer a Dr. Seuss book to a classic, but he’d also rather have a ball in his hands than a keyboard under his fingers. But one day a story popped into his mind that he deemed too important not to write, and upon endless hours of typing, deleting, and retyping, his writing career began. If you’re searching for a young adult clean read that is as stirring as it is inspiring, then crack open one of Andy’s books.
A Midwesterner to his core, Andy prefers the simple life: shooting hoops, chasing pop flies in the outfield, hanging out with family, and scarfing heaping bowls of chocolate ice cream.
Here are my top ten Indie books of 2022 in no particular order. These books are either published by the author(s) or by smaller, independent presses. I reviewed all of these books on Indie Weekend or its previous incarnation, Self-Published Saturday, so I’ve included a link to my review, which provides buy links at the bottom. Please check them out by clicking on the covers.
Christmas in ’45
Cathedral of Silver
Amanda in France
Framed
Deuce
The Girl Who Feared Trains
Your Words, Your Heart
The Necromancer’s Daughter
The Secret Benefits of Invisibility
Distant Flickers
In the comments below, tell me about some Indie books you loved this year that I should check out!
This wonderful audiobook is Book Two in the Falinnheim Chronicles series by C.W. Allen. Book two begins with Zed and Tuesday adjusting to a new world, but everything changes again when the Resistance base is attacked. Zed and Tuesday are suddenly in hiding, and they take on an even bigger part in the fight for freedom. From secret missions to kidnapping, the action doesn’t stop, and the fight against evil continues.
It took me just a tiny bit longer to get hooked by this book as opposed to the first one, but then it grabbed me and I went on an even greater adventure than before. The author’s depiction of the varying reactions to those under the thumb of an evil dictator is well done and is similar to reactions in real life. The power of manipulation and the effect it can have is shown through the actions of the dictator and his minions. The roles of Zed, Tuesday, and their parents in this fight grow throughout the book until they reach a dramatic conclusion. The fight for freedom can take many forms, and this series does a good job of explaining that.
The narrator Ivy Tara Blair does a great job of portraying the multitude of characters and displaying all their unique personalities.
Middle-grade readers, their parents, and their grandparents will all find characters to identify with in this book. This is a great family read.
My rating is four and a half stars, rounded up to five on sites with no half-star option.
I received a free copy of this audiobook from Cinnabar Moth Publishing via Netgalley. My review is voluntary and my opinions are my own.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
C.W. Allen is a Nebraskan by birth, a Texan by experience, a Hoosier by marriage, and a Utahn by geography. She knew she wanted to be a writer the moment she read The Westing Game at age twelve, but took a few detours along the way as a veterinary nurse, an appliance repair secretary, and a homeschool parent.
C.W. serves on the board of the League of Utah Writers. She is also a frequent guest presenter at writing conferences and club meetings, which helps her procrastinate knuckling down to any actual writing. Her debut novel Relatively Normal Secrets, a middle-grade speculative mystery, was published by Cinnabar Moth Publishing in 2021. Relatively Normal Secrets is the winner of the Gold Quill award, being named the best 2021 children’s book by a Utah author. The Falinnheim Chronicles series continues with The Secret Benefits of Invisibility (2022) and Tales of the Forgotten Founders (2023). Keep up with her latest projects at cwallenbooks.com.
Indie Weekend is my effort to help Indie/Self-Published authors with the daunting task of marketing. Indie authors have so much on their plate. If I can help even a little bit, I’m happy to do so. I would ask for your help as well. Please share this book review with your followers so we can introduce it to as many people as possible. Be sure and check out my Q&A with the author below!
BOOK DESCRIPTION
A healer and dabbler in the dark arts of life and death, Barus is as gnarled as an ancient tree. Forgotten in the chaos of the dying queen’s chamber, he spirits away her stillborn infant and in a hovel at the meadow’s edge, breathes life into the wisp of a child. He names her Aster for the lea’s white flowers. Raised as his daughter, she, too, learns to heal death.
Denied a living heir, the widowed king spies from a distance. But he heeds the claims of the fiery Vicar of the Red Order—in the eyes of the Blessed One, Aster is an abomination, and to embrace the evil of resurrection will doom his rule.
As the king’s life nears its end, he defies the vicar’s warning and summons the necromancer’s daughter. For his boldness, he falls to an assassin’s blade. Armed with righteousness and iron-clad conviction, the Order’s brothers ride into the leas to cleanse the land of evil.
To save her father’s life, Aster leads them beyond Verdane’s wall into the Forest of Silvern Cats, a wilderness of dragons and barbarian tribes. Unprepared for a world rife with danger and unchecked power, a world divided by those who practice magic and those who hunt them, she must choose whether to trust the one man offering her aid, the one man most likely to betray her—her enemy’s son.
From best-selling fantasy author D. Wallace Peach comes a retelling of the legend of Kwan-yin, the Chinese Goddess of Mercy. Set in a winter world of dragons, intrigue, and magic, The Necromancer’s Daughter is a story about duty, defiance, cruelty, and sacrifice— an epic tale of compassion and deep abiding love where good and evil aren’t what they seem.
BOOK REVIEW
What an amazing saga of a young girl who is brought back from death and learns to do the same for others. Raised by her Necromancer father, Aster learns to bring others back to life, but her own life is constantly threatened by men who seek power and control. As she flees assassins, her journey through her icy world has only one ultimate goal–peace and safety for her father and herself.
The descriptive ability of this author is impressive. I don’t recall an author ever doing such an amazing job of bringing their characters’ surroundings to life in such an immersive way. I could almost feel the icy wind in my face as I slid down frozen cliffs with Aster. Each character was so fully developed I could see and hear them as I read. I felt more like a part of the story than I ever have. I was captivated by every facet of Aster’s journey. The inclusion of dragons was a joyful addition for me, and I love the way they were portrayed and the way Aster connected to them. This is a remarkable, immersive journey through a frozen and warring land full of fascinating creatures and sometimes treacherous peoples. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy, magical stories, and legends.
About The Author
A long-time reader, best-selling author D. Wallace Peach started writing later in life after the kids were grown and a move left her with hours to fill. Years of working in business surrendered to a full-time indulgence in the imaginative world of books, and when she started writing, she was instantly hooked.
In addition to fantasy books, Peach’s publishing career includes participation in various anthologies featuring short stories, flash fiction, and poetry. She’s an avid supporter of the arts in her local community, organizing and publishing annual anthologies of Oregon prose, poetry, and photography.
Peach lives in a log cabin amongst the tall evergreens and emerald moss of Oregon’s rainforest with her husband, two owls, a horde of bats, and the occasional family of coyotes.
Q&A with D. Wallace Peach
Question: Let’s go beyond the bio. Tell us something about yourself that we might not know after reading your bio.
Thanks so much for inviting me over to your place for a Q&A, Bonnie. I never get tired of talking about books and it’s an honor to join you today. Probably most people don’t know that when I was a kid, I wanted to be a Shakesperean actor. I’d read more than half of his plays by the time I was twelve and got to live out my dream for a few years in college.
Question: Is The Necromancer’s Daughter a stand-alone or the beginning of a series?
It’s a stand-alone. For about seven years, I binged on writing series. But they take a long time to craft, and they’re a commitment for readers. I decided to give everyone a breather and write some stand-alone novels. Eventually another series will wheedle its way into my imagination.
Question: This is a re-telling of the legend of Kwan-yin, the Chinese Goddess of Mercy. At the end of the book, you included a short version of the legend. What is the most important concern you have when you are writing a retelling?
Most of all, I wanted the retelling to be completely fresh to readers. The original story provided the inspiration and theme, and I pulled some characters, plot elements, and story details (like dragons) from the narrative. But the rest was up to me, and I was happy to add my own twists to the tale.
Question: The description of the icy world Aster lives in is so realistic that I felt immersed in it immediately. What did you use as inspiration?
I grew up in northern Vermont. The winters were so cold that when the thermostat rose to freezing it felt downright balmy. My family did a lot of snow-shoeing and winter camping, so sleeping on pine boughs in the snowy woods is familiar to me.
**Comment from Bonnie: That makes sense! You lived in a beautiful, icy world yourself.
Question: Although this is the first book of yours that I’ve read, I noticed that some of your other books also include dragons. What is it about the dragon legend that inspires you to write about them?
In addition to The Necromancer’s Daughter, I have one series that includes dragons, The Dragon Soul Quartet. In that 4-book story, dragons represent spirit, and merging with a dragon is the equivalent to connecting with one’s soul. In The Necromancer’s Daughter they’re simply semi-psychic, wild beasts. If I were looking for a common thread, in both cases, they represent immense power, something within our control if we dare to connect.
Question: If we were to take away only one message from this book, what would you like it to be?
Ah, that’s an easy one, Bonnie. That what is good and evil isn’t defined by political power or doctrine or wealth, or by the rules we’re taught or the biases we all navigate on a daily basis. All people are individuals, and “goodness” is a matter of heart, kind intentions, and a desire to do no harm.
**Comment from Bonnie: I love that!
Question: The cover and other artwork for this book are absolutely beautiful. I was looking for the artist’s name, and it appears you created these yourself. They are gorgeous! Do you always do your own artwork for your book covers?
Thank you! About half of my covers are professionally done. The other half, I created myself, along with my extraneous artwork for trailers and promotions. You’re not going to believe it, but I do it all on plain old MS Word, using free and purchased images that I blend and modify. When my brain is tired from writing and needs a break, I play with visuals.
**Comment from Bonnie: MS Word! I’m obviously not using MS Word correctly because that cover is gorgeous and I’d never guess it was made on Word.
Question: You have been an indie author for a long time and have written several series. Tell us a little about your journey as an indie author: Is marketing the hardest part? Do you feel you can be more creative as an indie author? Is there anything about indie publishing that you didn’t expect? Is there something you have learned about indie publishing along the way that you can pass on to new authors?
I started out as a traditionally published author and found the lack of control over my work frustrating. I had plenty of creative freedom, but everything took forever, and my naïve hope that my publisher would handle the hard task of marketing was a pipedream. Eight years ago, I canceled my contracts and republished as an indie. I’ve been an indie author ever since and never regretted the switch. My advice to new indie authors? Follow your creative dream, never stop studying your craft, and seek honest critiques of your work because that’s the fastest way to improve. Love what you do, because it’s not for the weak of heart.
**Comment from Bonnie: One of the things I love about the Indie community is the willingness of authors to help one another.
Bonnie: Thanks so much for answering my questions today, Diana! I appreciate it.
Diana: That was great fun, Bonnie. Thanks again for the feature and review and for the fun discussion. Happy Reading!
*If you buy the book(s), please leave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, as well as anywhere else you review books. Some people feel very daunted by writing a review. Don’t worry. You do not have to write a masterpiece. Just a couple of lines about how the book made you feel will make the author’s day and help the book succeed. The more reviews a book has, the more Amazon will promote it.
*Please click on the “share” buttons below and share these books with your Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress followers. A little bit of help from all of us will help self-published authors go a long way
Indie Weekend is my effort to help highlight and promote Indie and self-published books. Indie authors have to do some or all of their own marketing, and if I can help even a little bit with that, I’m happy to do so. Below is my review of a wonderful middle-grade audiobook, Relatively Normal Secrets. I’m also excited to share a Q&A with the author, C.W. Allen.
Tuesday’s last name is Furst, and her middle name is June, making her full name Tuesday, June Furst. She and her brother Zed are starting to realize that their father never talks about his job and their Mother is the only one they know with a guard dog. Then Tuesday and Zed are attacked and whisked off to another world, accompanied by their dog, Nyx. They begin an epic journey, helped with clues along the way. The clues are based on well-known nursery rhymes.
This is such a delightful middle-grade adventure, expertly narrated by Ivy Tara Blair. The main characters are so endearing and the narrator captures their personalities perfectly. The plot is fun and creative, and the reader/listener gets to go along on a fantastic journey. I was highly entertained from start to finish and recommend this book to anyone who wants to go on an exciting and creative adventure in a different land.
Fans of middle-grade fantasy novels should definitely check out this five-star read.
I received a free copy of this audiobook from Cinnabar Moth Publishing via Netgalley. My review is voluntary and my opinions are my own.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
C.W. Allen is a Nebraskan by birth, a Texan by experience, a Hoosier by marriage, and a Utahn by geography. She knew she wanted to be a writer the moment she read The Westing Game at age twelve, but took a few detours along the way as a veterinary nurse, an appliance repair secretary, and a homeschool parent.
C.W. serves on the board of the League of Utah Writers. She is also a frequent guest presenter at writing conferences and club meetings, which helps her procrastinate knuckling down to any actual writing. Her debut novel Relatively Normal Secrets, a middle-grade speculative mystery, was published by Cinnabar Moth Publishing in 2021. Relatively Normal Secrets is the winner of the Gold Quill award, being named the best 2021 children’s book by a Utah author. The Falinnheim Chronicles series continues with The Secret Benefits of Invisibility (2022) and Tales of the Forgotten Founders (2023). Keep up with her latest projects at cwallenbooks.com.
Bonnie: Let’s go beyond the bio. Tell us something about yourself that we might not know from reading your bio.
CW: When I need a creative outlet aside from writing, I’m a fairly experimental baker. I love taking an existing recipe and tweaking it to work in unusual flavor combinations or streamline the process. My experiments don’t always come out pretty, but they’re nearly always tasty!
Bonnie: When I read that the main protagonist’s name was Tuesday June Furst, I was hooked! Such a clever idea. How did you come up with the name?
CW: Thank you! Years ago, my husband and I were trying to decide what to name our first child. We discovered we didn’t have very similar tastes in names, so as we took turns vetoing each other’s picks we ended up suggesting more and more unusual options in search of one we could both agree on. I thought Tuesday was a delightfully quirky name, but sadly (or perhaps my daughter might say thankfully) he didn’t agree. So I decided to use the name on a book character instead. This led to wondering why Tuesday’s parents would choose that name, so I figured—why not make it a pun? Having an unusual name is just one of the many reasons Tuesday suspects her parents are not quite normal. As the story progresses, Tuesday’s life gets even stranger than she could have imagined.
Bonnie: What was the inspiration for the Falinnheim series?
CW: I find that with all my stories, they’re not really sparked by one big idea—they’re more like a fruit salad of many small unconnected ideas. I had a large and comically misbehaved dog, so I knew I wanted to incorporate the humor of that experience into the story. As a child, I had a similar experience to Tuesday where I realized I had no idea what my father did for work (although in my case, the answer turned out to be fairly mundane). I loved the idea of visiting a fantasy land like Narnia or Oz, but wished it could blend the historical aesthetic with a few modern (or even futuristic) conveniences. When I was my readers’ age, I was fascinated with mysteries and codebreaking, so I wanted to incorporate clues and puzzles the readers could solve along with the characters as they read. Whenever I start weaving ideas together into a story, I have to really understand the characters first—their personality traits, quirks, flaws, and goals. Once I really get to know them, sometimes they take the story in a new direction I didn’t expect.
Bonnie: I love the problem-solving aspect of this book as the kids follow clues based on nursery rhymes. What’s your opinion on the importance of problem-solving and other lessons in middle-grade fiction?
CW: First and foremost, middle-grade stories should be fun to read. I try to steer away from overly didactic themes, morals, or lessons—kids can smell a lecture a mile away, and there’s nothing fun about lectures. I try to tap into kids’ deepest convictions, reinforcing things they already value, rather than telling my readers what they ought to think or do. For example, Tuesday and Zed are co-protagonists in this story, and any reader who has siblings knows that while brothers and sisters love each other, having to live together isn’t always smooth sailing. Putting up with your sibling’s smelly socks or irritating jokes is an experience a lot of readers can relate to—the idea of raising the stakes, having to work together to solve actual important problems instead of just getting along enough so your parents won’t ground you creates additional challenges that make the story more interesting. So it’s not that I, as an adult, want to lecture kids about the importance of getting along with their siblings; it’s that readers will see themselves in that experience and recognize something they already know to be true: they don’t have to get along all the time in order to care about each other and have each other’s backs.
I don’t want my stories to teach lessons, but rather create fictional experiences that feel familiar, resonant, and true. As for the literal sense of problem-solving, as in working out the answers to clues, that’s just pure fun. It makes the book more interactive to see if you can solve the puzzle before the characters figure it out. I don’t think that all middle-grade books need this interactivity in order to succeed, but I certainly enjoy it.
Bonnie’s Comment: I enjoy the interactivity as well, and I do think Zed and Tuesday are great and honest examples for kids to follow.
Bonnie: Tuesday and her brother Zed use teamwork and brains to make their way forward through a strange land. The superhero aspect comes in the form of their dog with special powers, Nyx. With all the books out there about kids with special powers, did you make a conscious effort to stress the importance of working together and using critical thinking?
CW: Zed and Tuesday are very different. Zed likes to organize his thoughts on paper and let them percolate for a while before he comes to a conclusion. Tuesday is very action-oriented and tends to leap to conclusions, but that also means she thinks on her feet and is able to talk her way out of trouble while Zed would take too long puzzling over the perfect thing to say. Tuesday is easily frustrated, while Zed is patient, but sometimes a little too complacent.
Going through their adventures together means sometimes butting heads, but they also have two different sets of strengths and perspectives to help them solve their problems. Each of them gets opportunities to surprise the other by coming up with a solution no one else would have thought of. Having these everyday “superpowers”, rather than being able to fly or turn invisible or something, makes the characters more relatable to the reader than someone who is ludicrously rich, or super strong, or uses a magic wand. Nyx’s powers are fun to read about, but no one’s really going to relate to her as a character. So I definitely wanted my human protagonists to have skills readers could appreciate and identify with.
Bonnie’s comment: I agree completely. Magic powers are fun to read about, but bravery, motivation, and problem-solving are something kids can identify with.
Bonnie: Thank you so much, CW, for answering my questions.
*If you buy the book(s), please leave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, as well as anywhere else you review books. Some people feel very daunted by writing a review. Don’t worry. You do not have to write a masterpiece. Just a couple of lines about how the book made you feel will make the author’s day and help the book succeed. The more reviews a book has, the more Amazon will promote it.
*Please click on the “share” buttons below and share these books with your Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress followers. A little bit of help from all of us will help self-published authors go a long way!
Self-Published Spotlight is my attempt to help self-published/indie authors promote their books. It is not a book review, but a closer look at the book and the author. Here is a collection of poetry and flash fiction by MJ Mallon that will be released August 16th.
BOOK DESCRIPTION
The Hedge Witch & The Musical Poet is a collection of poetry and flash fiction celebrating the beautiful vulnerability of the forest kingdom. It begins with the poetic tale of the kind-hearted Hedge Witch, Fern, who discovers an injured stranger in desperate need of her woodland spells and magic.
The sweet pair learn from each other, and through Fern’s guidance, Devin embraces the power of magic to leave behind his troubled past and become The Musical Poet.
Poetry/flash fiction titles in section one of the collection include:
The Hedge Witch & The Musical Poet, Rain Forest Love, A Forest Baby Boy, A Forest Baby Girl, A Modern Witch, Rock of Mine, Chester Don & I, The Network of Trees, More Trees Not Less, Two Boys Watching War, Mum Climbing Trees, Let’s Play, The Scorched Tree, Owl’s Holiday Home, A Man’s Holiday Home, A Child’s Excitement, The Teddy In The Woods, Run! The Organutans, All Hallow’s Eve Candy Girl, The Forest Bash, Dreaming At Halloween, A Face on Bark, Golden Willow Tree, Rainbow – Parasol of Light, Lollipop Sunshine Tree,
In Section two the author pays tribute to the following poets:
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, Ruby Archer, King Forest, Bliss Carman, Woodland Rain, Emily Dickinson, Who Robbed the Woods, Rupert Blake, Stopping by The Woods on A Winter Evening,Oscar Wilde, In the Forest.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MJ’s motto is to always do what you love, stay true to your heart’s desires, and inspire others to do so too, even it if appears that the odds are stacked against you like black-hearted shadows.
MJ’s favourite genres to write are Fantasy/Magical Realism and Poetry because life should be sprinkled with a liberal dash of extraordinarily imaginative magic!
Her writing credits also include a multi-genre approach: Paranormal, best-selling Horror, Supernatural short stories, Flash Fiction, and Poetry. She has worked with some amazing authors and bloggers compiling an anthology/compilation set during the early stages of COVID-19 entitled This Is Lockdown and has also written a spin-off poetry collection entitled Lockdown Innit.
She’s been blogging for many moons at her blog home Kyrosmagica, (which means Crystal Magic). Her eclectic blog shares details and information about her new releases, author interviews, character profiles, and her love of reading, reviewing, writing, and photography.
The Book Blogger Hop was originally created by Jennifer @ Crazy-For-Books in March 2010 and ended on December 31, 2012. With Jennifer’s permission, Billy @ Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer relaunched the hop on February 15, 2013. Each week the hop will start on a Friday and end the following Thursday. There will be a weekly prompt featuring a book-related question. The hop’s purpose is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to their own blog. See the latest question below.
Of all the Harry Potter films, Prisoner of Azkaban was my favorite. It wasn’t at first, because it’s the least like the actual book, but it really grew to become my favorite. It was the only one directed by Alphonso Caurón, and his imagination and creativity resulted in a movie that brought the magical world to us in a colorful way. He bought the Knight Bus to life, as well as Buckbeak, and his take on the Leaky Cauldron is amazing. It is the one I want to watch over and over. And it’s the first time Sirius Black showed up on the screen. I’ve been a fan of the Harry Potter books for a long time, especially the Prisoner of Azkaban, and this movie is the one I like the most as well.
Bonnie Reads and Writes 
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